Why Summer Down Under Made Me Scream (Internally)
What is Summer Down Under?
Summer Down Under (SDU) is an international racing series hosted in January every year in Canberra and Sydney. The first section in Canberra is a two-day event that hosts qualifying opportunities for Men’s and Women’s 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 5000 meters events. These opportunities are special because the popular events: 100 and 1500 are run twice (once on each day) providing two different qualifying opportunities for the same event. It’s very popular for new racers to try it out and test their skills, but in a Paralympic year especially international racers come to get their qualifying times. This year, quite a few international athletes dropped out because of all of the uncertainty that came with the unfortunate bushfires; please donate if you can, much of the country is still suffering. Therefore, almost all the athletes were from either Australia or Japan, but eight different countries were represented.
SDU Day 1
I was excited but also nervous for Evee and my debut on the first day of SDU. Since it was also Rheedy’s 23rd birthday, he and I went to grab breakfast and fangirl over our parks in Disney Magic Kingdoms. DMK is a mobile game that’s a mix of storyline and build-your-own Disney theme park. If you’re at all nostalgic for Disney characters and movies, I recommend giving it a go. After I started playing, I introduced it to Rheed, who’s a total fanatic and he’s totally obsessed!
After getting back to the AIS, I wound down for a nap to be sure I was feeling 100% for my first race at 5:36pm AEDT. I was woken up rather unceremoniously by a large pounding, which turned out to be golf ball sized hail! While that’s not crazy uncharacteristic, it was a 30+ degree day, and considering it was race day not the ideal start. Additionally, some people were saying that the hail was damaging cars! The heavy rain that followed was bittersweet while the country sorely needs the rain considering all the bushfires, it’s definitely not ideal for quick speeds. Luckily, by the time I had to head to the track, everything had dried out and the car was in perfect shape.
My first race with Evee went smooth! I felt good off the line hitting over 28 kph and felt comfortable the whole time and crossed the line feeling quite good. I looked up at the times and saw 17.04 seconds next to my name. A new personal best by a LONG SHOT! My current PB is 17.3 and was achieved quite a few years back. I wanted to explode with joy. But then I looked next to it at the wind speed where it said 2.2 m/s. To be an eligible qualifier, the wind speed is not allowed to be more than 2.0 m/s. I began internally screaming. My best racing performance of my career thus far and I was smited by 0.2 m/s of wind! *pause to scream internally* My heat was not the only one that ended with this unfortunate scenario. The T34 100m heat had a wind speed of 2.5 m/s, and one of the T54 100m heats had a wind speed of 4.4 m/s! While conditions were now in the 30s and dry, the wind decided to mess with us mercilessly. After calming down and getting over this unfortunate blip, I went to bed feeling pretty good about the performance and hopeful for better conditions and quick zoomy zooms for Day 2.
SDU Day 2
I woke up feeling pretty good, but mildly nervous. I couldn’t help but get into my own head and wonder if yesterday’s performance was a fluke assisted by a massive tailwind. Regardless, I was thankful to get another shot at a qualifier so soon afterward. A chance at redemption.
In the early afternoon, the Men’s 100m heats were posted. They were organized into 4 races regrouped by the times from the day before. I was excited to discover that I was put in the 2nd fastest heat. None of the other T52 racers were in this heat with me. The other racers consisted of: one T53, two T54s, and two T34s. By all accounts, everyone else in my heat was in a more-able classification than I and had gotten a time between 15.73 and 17.31 seconds. I saw this situation as a great opportunity. Having quick competitors beside me in a race gives me someone to chase and great motivation to push that little bit harder.
The women’s heats went first and all was well until the last heat when the wind got gusty with a 4.6 m/s. Therefore, everyone in the men’s heats got mildly uneasy as we prepared for our turn. The gusts were intermittent, so everyone had to anxiously await the wind speed announcement after each heat. My heat ran and my top speed was 0.3 kph slower than yesterday, but I was still feeling pretty good. As I pulled off the track, Freddy told me the time was 17.07. Awesome! At least I’m pretty consistent. But of course, I anxiously demanded to know the wind speed and we had to wait for it to come over the loudspeaker. 1.9. One point nine. That’s right. Just under the cut off.
That means FOUR amazing things:
1. New personal best for the first time in 5 years (-0.23 seconds)
2. A new season best (-0.62 seconds)
3. An “A” qualifying time for Tokyo 2020 ( <17.2 seconds)
4. New Australian Record for the T52 100m (previously 17.3 seconds)
Commence happy internal screaming this time!... and maybe a little external, too.