Great Day 1 at Texas!

Joe has completed Day 1 of the Texas decathlon. I just spoke to him on the phone and he is really happy. Another decathlete's wife, Lauri Marsh, was sweet enough to text me results throughout the day, so I was able to stay up to the minute on results! It's hard to not be at the meet...and to be thinking all day about how things are going...so it was a real gift that Lauri diligently sent me updates!

Here they are:

100 meters: 11.35 seconds for 784 points
Long Jump: 6.82 meters, or 22'4.5" for 771 points
Shot Put: 13.82 meters, or 45'4" for 717 points
High Jump: 2.03 meters, or almost 6'8" for 831 points
400 meters: 49.3 seconds for 847 points
TOTAL DAY 1: 3950

I know that for many of you, these numbers don't mean much. This is a very good day 1 score...the 100 was okay (not lightening quick, but acceptable), the long jump was very good (he would have liked to jump 7 meters, but he was close..fouled 2 of the 3 jumps and said they both went farther than 6.82), the shot was acceptable, high jump was right where he should be (plus he said he felt great and like he could have jumped higher), and then the 400 was the score of the day. He has consistently run the 400 in around 50.0 seconds (fastest this season was 50.15)...and is really happy when he goes under 50 seconds. So to go 49.3 was huge....probably the fastest he's run it since college. While he said it took him awhile to recover from the effort in the 400, it was a great way to end Day 1!

One of the quirks of the scoring table in the decathlon is that Day 1 seems to be weighted heavier than Day 2....so even though Joe is a really strong Day 2 decathlete, it is harder to accumulate as many points on Day 2. So some people will look at 3950, double it in their head, and think he's in the clear to reach 7800 points...but it doesn't really work that way. Joe will have to put up solid scores in each event tomorrow to reach 3850 for a Day 2 total. I just know he can do it!

The competition starts at 9:00 am central time tomorrow (that's earlier than he would prefer!)...but with the pole vault in there, Day 2 usually takes longer. I'll post the results when it's all done! Pray for something big tomorrow!