Road to NBNI Blogs: Lena Giger, Week 3
Only two days until NBNI!! New York City, here we come!
I am absolutely thrilled to be going to New York! I’ve never been to NYC, so being there will just add another level of excitement to the meet. As for the meet itself, the women’s shot put looks like it could be an 
incredible competition. Having the top four throwers in the nation (Stamatia Scarvelis, Raven Saunders, Ashlie Blake and myself) all at one meet is a great opportunity for us all to perform well!
As for practice, this last week has went by very quickly. Since I fly out in the afternoon on Friday, today is my final practice before Saturday’s meet. The last two weeks have focused on fine tuning some technical issues within my throws. I was finally able to get some training in outside with a real ring and toeboard, due to the St. Louis area getting some nice spring weather earlier this week (yay!).
Since I’m still relatively new to the rotation, some minor changes in my technique affect the rest of my throw. Last week, I was working on my form off of the back of the ring, which caused some over-rotation in the center and caused me to miss some key positions at the end of the throw. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fix this over rotation before my meet last Friday at the Jacksonville Invite, where I hit 47’5”, but this week’s progress seems to be in the forward direction.
While last week’s performance was plagued with a few technical issues, it was a completely different atmosphere for me. One of the biggest changes was that I actually competed around 9pm. Our team arrived at the meet around 3pm that afternoon, making it a very long day, and let me tell you, I was ready to sleep! Although I tried to catch a nap a few different times, I spent most of my time cheering on my team and helping our only boy thrower. In retrospect, I didn’t do all that bad and I figured out some new ideas to help me progress.
After my throw over 49 feet the other week, the 50-foot mark seems like a much more doable throw. Being close to the next “barrier” reminds me of breaking through the 40 foot barrier. I first broke 40 feet at my freshman year high school conference meet, and I cannot fully express how excited I was. I had thrown 39’11.5” a few weeks prior, and never had a half inch seemed so far. Now almost 3 years and 10 feet later, I stand before another and more significant barrier. Hopefully NBNI will bring some good fortune my way and 50 feet will soon be in the rearview mirror.
While throwing far is my main goal at this meet, simply being there, watching this level of skill and competition, is icing on the cake. It’ll be great to reunite with some of my World Youth teammates and watch them do what they do best! Although I am a thrower, I have always had an interest in track and field as a whole, and I am looking forward to watching the amazing talent that’ll be there!
