Blogs : Deserea Brown

I think I may be a "HURDLER"

I know its been a while since my last post but, I promise you it was time well spent...

Two weeks ago our team traveled to the University of Vanderbilt for the invitational, ok so sec conference is banging basically, I looked around like a freshman in amazement as i noticed the flags that flew above us with the different schools in the conference the lsu, auburn, south carolina, vanderbilt, georgia, florida, arkansas etc basically conference is like a national meet for them...the average athlete would be overwhelmed, but i looked down at my sweatshirt that read SIUE as I do whenever we go to big places and thought what can I do to make people look at my school the way I looked at those flags... 

The schedule was a little different because no distance events were run between my races like usual for me to catch a breather, and honestly I think every one was worried except for my coach ben beyers....so basically i would run the 100hur then the 4x100 and rest then it was time for the 400 and the 400 hur which i usually do but, here's the catch the only thing between them was the 200m dash and directly after that was the 4x400...to be honest there was a part of me that was nervous the night before but I kept trying to read my coach on saturday and once i saw he was calm i went with it and thank God I did!!!

In the 100hur I ran a lifetime pr of 14.24 which set a new school record, placed me number one in the glvc and number 10 in the nation....funny thing was my coach told me directly after the race what my time was and i laughed and said "oh coach thats just your hand time" right before he pointed at the F.A.T board that yes indeed read 14.24 and all I could do was look exactly like this  especially since two weeks before i was happy with my pr of 15.03 lol...

Then it was on to the 4x100 which ran 46.72...new school record for us but coach still wanted more and so did we so we took it for what it was 8th in the nation, 1st in the glvc and a new school record. we understood we still had work to do in that event though...

So now that the short stuff was done it was time to mentally prepare for the lactic acid in the 400..I was in a pretty fast heat so I knew i would have to get out or get left. I felt great, my legs havent lifted so well since last yr...my body did everything I told it too, I was soo excited that I almost lost my composure but I stuck with it and ran another lifetime best of 55.12

At this point my day had been great and I could have packed it up and went home, but coach Beyers had a better plan I would be doing the 400m hur, I didnt complain because he looked so confident in me and I had no reason to doubt him...before we got our numbers I listened to the names of my competitors and heard some girls from alabama, miami,vanderbilt, western kentucky, and arkansas to name a few...thats when it dawned on me that this was my chance to put our name out there...i was determined to shut everyone one up who had called us "southern indiana evansville" at the meet when we are clearly "southern illinois edwardsville"...I got out and once again like the 400 I felt great, and carried that feeling all the way to the finish in a time of 58.78..and I was estatic, that was a goal I had set for myself in the summer and it came in april! I also broke the school record and meet record with that time andqualified automatically for the ncaa's, which was another goal!!!

finally its time for the 4x400 which is ran back to back with the 400hur...at this point im thinking im going to be taken off the relay and my record breaking day was over..but boy did coach have a different idea, not only was I running but I was anchoring whew talk about pressure...So I went over to my teammates who were telling me that they were tired but they would put everything out that they had left so i wouldnt have to run too hard...but when they said that i new i had to step up, if they were going to go hard then i was determined not to let there hard work go to waste and i promised that wherever i got the baton we would stay in that position or we would move up, but i wasnt going to fold up and dissapoint them...

they did there thing from jump my classman popped off with a great leg and our fresh ran a great race too bad i was to delerious to actually remember what place we were in when they were handing off lol but tai got the baton and somewhere within 400m she came around in second place and she just had this drive and determination to get me the baton that i knew i had to produce we finished second and i walked to the grass where my team was and all I can remember is too things coach beyers on my right saying "Des we ran 3:39, thats automatic!!!" and if that wasnt enough my boyfriend aaron was on my left saying "D you ran a 54, congrats!!!!" at that moment I closed my eyes and soaked everything in right there in the field...thats how we do at SIUE!

oooh

12:02 AM, May 2, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Inspiring.

Rome

3:06 PM, May 2, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Your school has established itself as a DII power on both the mens and woemns side. I really hope you guys can take home a national title, I'll be praying for you.

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8:45 PM, May 2, 2007 .. Posted by ecu_trk_str

readin your blog is entertaining and always inspires me, keep doin what you do, i think you have unlimited potential, who knows where you can go with the work ethic you have

good job

12:39 AM, May 5, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

You're kind of fickle. What were you before the successful hurdling escapade? You focal point can't be wavering like that and u still cont 2 impruv. The hurds wil prolly mak yu better at -------- is a stronger position. Kerron Clement didn't decide he was a flat 4 runner wen hr brok the world indoor did he?

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1:06 PM, May 6, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

fickle.....hey i guess everyone can't be a fan, but if i was in it for approval i would have quit a long time ago....for those who iv'e insprired through my blog thank you for taking the time to read my words and for those who beleive im "FICKLE" like my mom says "it's awful lonely at the top, and if you keep doing what your'e doing you better learn to enjoy your own company" so thanks for letting me no im getting there! signed DESI FRESH