Track and Field Blogs - Jenny Barringer

12:00pm
So, I haven't written in a few days and I'm sure that makes me look like I'm pouting. I promise that's not the case. Yes, I'm disappointed that I didn't make the final... very disappointed. Not just because I didn't make it rather because I know I could have and maybe should have. I really didn't intend on coming to Osaka and walking away saying "Oh well, it was a good experience." I really wanted to contribute to the team and do as well as possible.

Now, the best way to do that is get back to training, so that's exactly what I've been doing. No time for tears. I hit the roads early yesterday morning for an easy hour run. We went out to Osaka Castle to run because I've heard from several people such as Deena and Jen that it was a good place to run. Each loop around the castle is about 2 miles, maybe a little more. So it's not the most exciting running venue ever but it's so much nicer than anything else I've found. It also has some patches of trail and grass so I was able to stay off the pavement some. This morning I headed out again to the castle and put in a steady long run. I ran for an hour and a half so I'm going to call it 13 miles. I felt pretty good except that I looked like I just jumped into a swimming pool because of all the sweat.

I'm really excited about Paris now. I'm leaving very early tomorrow morning for another lengthy plane ride to get to France where I'm going to train for a week and a half and then race at the DecaNation. This meet left me really hungry for more and I'm hoping to end my steeple year on a good (and very fast) race.

Last night just to get my mind off of some of the disappointments of the last two days Dax and I went out to a sort of sushi fast-food kind of place. It was really good and really fresh but you go up to this bar and sit on a stool and take what you want off of a conveyor belt! When they first seat you they lift the top of your chair up so you can put your bags/purse inside your chair (to save room). When you sit there is no ordering involved you just break apart your chopsticks (hashi) and start grabbing plates of food off of the belt. The inside of the bar is the team of chefs putting together all of the dishes that are up on the belt. Kind of wild. When you're finished with one plate you just start stacking them. At the end a waitress comes by with a scanner and they scan your stack of plates and that's how they charge you. It was so much fun and a nice reprieve from the intensity of a racing environment.

Too bad about the men's steeple huh? At the end of my race I was really optimistic (watch flocast interview...) I really didn't realize I was as slow as I was. I really expected my time to be a bit faster and I thought I had a decent chance at the final. No such chance. BUT... at least I was finishing strong and I didn't have any really unfortunate accidents. Steeplers have to be kind of scrappy because you're taking quite a risk 35 times during each race. Those barriers are no joke and I'm glad, during my career, we haven't had much contact. :)

Thanks everyone for reading and keeping up with me. Sorry I didn't write for a few days. Back to work and busy packing for the next event!