Road to NBNI Blogs: Obafemi Animashaun, Week 3
Dear Track Nation,
This week is the week of indoor nationals. I am very excited. I am also pretty sad about it. This will be my last New Balance Nationals Indoor meet, ever! Throughout the years, I have always looked forward to 
the big show at the end of the season. This year will be the last one, so it would make sense to make it the best one. Yea, I know there is still outdoor ... and the rest of my collegiate career ... but indoor nationals is like no other meet I have been to. It’s always loud and live!
Over the past two weeks you have gotten a lot of information regarding me and my fabulous personality, but there is a lot about UC Track that I would like to share.
Track is basically an individual sport, but here at UC it becomes more of a team pursuit. The team has a consistent flow of talented individuals who either start out at a varsity level or work their way up. My class of individuals has a great bond. Consisting of Steven Franco, Andrew Ghizzone, Taylor McLaughlin, Kenny Evely, Jordan Jimerson, and myself ... these are the guys that I have constructed my goals around. Others that are part of our exclusive crew contribute to our team quest. Every single one of us has our own jobs on the track. From the 55 dash to the 2 mile, we go all out, and once we need to band together to battle the best (which is rather often), we don’t let anything faze us. Throughout the years we have had our share of showdowns, from Union County 4x4 battles with Rahway, the “holy crusades” against CBA, and going for titles at the New Balance Nationals.
Last year’s challenge was like no other that we have accomplished. It was a unique one that we had only dreamt of. Winning three national championships, including a national record and a meet record, sounded like a crazy idea – but I guess with every step we took chasing our goals, we got a little bit crazier. Once we started breaking barriers, the things that we did started to seem like we were imagining it – like things were too good to be true. Starting with the shuttle hurdles getting the national record, things for that weekend just went really well. It took a while to realize that it was all reality.
This year that crazy idea is a little saner because we are going in more confident in our overall ability. Others still haven’t fathomed the idea yet. I remember earlier this season, our coach had seeded us 3:18 for a 4x4 and was confident in it, but as he handed in the card the official looked at it and handed it back to him. Apparently he thought that we lied about our seed. As we got ready to run, Coach McCabe came up to us and told us what had just happened. He seemed pretty upset about it while the rest of us treated it like any other race at any other meet. At that meet we ran 3:17.8 and our coach just laughed and said, “I guess I wasn’t lying”
Since we are in the transition between indoor and outdoor season, we can now start practicing outside. Now that the snow has melted, there are no more crowded hallways or dusty floors. The best things about outdoor are the big meets like Arcadia, Penn Relays, States, and Nationals ... but first, indoor nationals needs to wrap up and my team is hoping to leave there with some hardware. Hope to see you all at the Armory. If you see me, make sure to say Hi.
