Blogs : Eric Simmons

And... That's a wrap.

I've been meaning to do this update for a while, but I got a tooth pulled, my gums got infected, and I spent 85% of the day high off of pain pills (prescription, mind you).

2 weeks ago I ran a the NCAA Division II Championships in Walnut, California. Without sugarcoating anything and getting overly sentimental about everything, I did not advance to the finals. I won't blame it on the 3 hour delay or the crappy weather either. I felt good going into the race, got a great warmup, and attempted to run the race in similar fashion to when I PR'd at Morehouse 3 weeks prior. I got to the 200 in about 21.6, which was what I hit at Morehouse. I was running with the leader for about 340, and the last 60 I did not have it, plain and simple. I ended my career with 47.9.

I could  sit here and say my 5 years at Clayton State were all disappointing, but they were not. Yes, there were several disappointments, most notably the middle 3 years where I missed considerable amounts of time due to hamstring injuries, but who goes through a career in anything without their fair share of highs and lows? I qualified for every national meet that I was eligible for and earned an All-American award in 2004. It might have only been one, but there are people who never even make it to the national meet.

Other than that, I hold 11 school records. Admittedly, some of our records were a bit soft when I came to Clayton, but the school had only been contesting track at the NCAA level for 6 years. When we (myself, Carlos, Brian, and Rother) earned All-American honors that first year, people started looking at our program. More kids filled out questionnaires and inquired about our training and such. Our program is not huge, but if one were to look at it in 2004 they would see a huge margin of improvement. I'm very happy and proud that I played a part in the growth of a program. Being that I had a little bit of respect or "pull" as you may call it, a lot of younger people came to me for advice and help as I had been around for a while. I always tried to help my teammates and others to the best of my ability and I hope that my advice helped or will help them as they pursue their goals. In a nutshell, I left Clayton State a better place than when I found it.

Track gave me a lot more than awards and such. I met a lot of friends through competing and writing my journal and they all helped grown as an athlete, person, and hopefully as a coach one day. I was able to share experiences about being a student, an athlete, and just general life lessons from people who lived in other places, therefore giving them each a different set of circumstances and allowing me to broaden my perspective on a lot of things. I was also able to travel to many different places to compete such as the Armory and Penn Relays, tracks I had often saw or heard about and always wanted to run on. The fact that I had been to all these places hit me the other day when Chris Webber made the comment on t.v. the other day that "Some kids don't even get to see half of their own city" when talking about athletes and benefits. Needless to say, I feel very privileged about the things I done.

In closing, I had a lot of successes, failures, made some damn good decisions and calls as well as my fair share of dumb decisions and horrible mistakes. In the end, I can look back and say I honestly feel I worked as hard as I could to be the best that I could. I hope everyone that took the time to read my journal these past few years found it enlightening, interesting, entertaining, or found some quality in it that made them enjoy it and look forward to reading it. I'll end it right here before I get too sentimental and start crying (jk) and just say thanks for all the comments and support that I received from the trackshark world.

Untitled Comment

10:08 PM, June 8, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Unfortunately the weather situation was not so great indeed. Great way to stay upbeat in spite of the lows you experienced. Your blog provided a lot of insight as to what an athlete can expect when competing at the collegiate level.

Best wishes on your future.