Road to NBNI Blogs, 2015: Kate Hall, Week 1
We welcome Kate Hall, a senior at Lake Region HS in Maine, to our Road to NBNI blogging quartet for 2015. Kate has been dominating the short sprints and long jump in Maine for nearly her whole career and, this past Monday, added three Maine indoor Class B state titles to her resume. An Iowa State signee, she now has a dozen indoor state titles, sweeping the 55m dash, 200m dash and long jump all four years. She also has 10 outdoor state titles, having swept the 100, 200 and long jump her first three years, as well as the 2014 triple jump.
Kate has also had an outstanding career in New Balance National meets, with the biggest highlights being a runner-up finish in the 2014 NBNI long jump – with the 2nd best jump of her career at 19-11.5 – and a 3rd in the 2014 NBNO 100m dash with an all-conditions PR 11.45w (+2.7). She also had her first career sub-24 in the 200 in the NBNO prelims last spring (23.98) and a 7.53 PR for 60 meters at last winter's NBNI.
Hello, everyone! My name is Kate Hall and I am a senior from Lake Region High School in Maine. My track career began when my dad coaxed me into attending a track practice for younger kids when I was ten years old. At the time, my favorite sports were soccer and basketball, and I was extremely hesitant and shy about trying a new sport. But the first practice I attended, I immediately fell in love with track and haven’t stopped loving it ever since.
A year after I began running and jumping, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes and celiac disease. I wasn’t scared at the time about how having diabetes was going to affect my future with sports; all I knew was that I was going to find a way to cope with it and do what I do.
Throughout my eight years of participating in track and field, I have always stuck with long jump, the 100m, 55m, and the 200m as my primary events. Here and there, I did triple jump, high jump, and 400m, but it has always come back to the short sprints and long jump. So far, this season has gone fairly well! I have set PRs in the long jump (20-1.5) and in the 55m (6.99). I can feel that my body is stronger and more powerful than ever, and I know if I can put all the pieces together, I can jump farther and run faster than ever.
The big meets have just begun for me. A couple weeks ago, I had my conference meet here in Maine. My goal that meet was to set a PR in long jump, but my blood sugar unexpectedly dropped too low (I feel shaky, dizzy, and need to eat something when it goes low). Usually when it goes low, I can eat something and I’ll be fine in about ten minutes or so. But this time, for some reason, it wouldn’t go up – no matter what I did. When my blood sugar won’t go up, my PH level changes drastically and this can cause muscle cramps.
I had just started finals for long jump and I was preparing to have a good jump (I had jumped 19-7 in the prelims), but as I was starting my approach, my calf cramped a tiny bit which forced me to scratch the rest of my jumps and also the 200m. That day went very unexpectedly for me, but I definitely learned that I need to do my best to make sure my blood sugars stay at a nice level so I don’t get muscle cramps.
On Monday, I had my last indoor state meet of my high school career (Maine Class B)! Even though I wanted to set a PR at that meet, my main goal was to break my state records that I had previously set.
The funny thing with long jump for me is that even though 90 percent of the time I have GREAT long jump practices and I’m always on the board, things completely change at meets. When I think I have got it all figured out, and that all my jumps in the meet are going to be on the board, my mind plays tricks with me and I never hit the board. I could seriously guess that I’m about a foot short of the board 75 percent of the time in meets. The thing is, I know if I get one jump that’s right in the middle of that board, I could go further than I ever have before.
I’ve definitely been over thinking that lately, which I think is exactly what happened at states when I was behind the board on all six jumps. I ended up jumping 19-6 and breaking the state record by three inches, so I’m not complaining. I also tied my state record in the 55m, and broke my 200m state record. It was an overall good last indoor state meet, and I honestly cannot wait until the New England meet and New Balance Nationals!
I hope everyone reading this who does track is having a wonderful season and I hope to see you guys at NBNI!
Kate Hall photo from NBNationals.com (2014 NBNI long jump).
