June 7, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Senior Marc Kellman, a communications major at George Mason, will participate in the triple jump Friday at the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Sacramento State University. He has graciously volunteered to offer his insight and opinions each day in preparation for his event and about his overall experience at the Championships.
From Marc Kellman: In his own words
Today was officially my first day in beautiful Sacramento, California. After an extremely long day of traveling yesterday, I did not reach the hotel until about 2 am. We were supposed to reach the hotel at 2 pm, but delays and layovers at two different airports kept us from catching our original flight. After arriving in California, I was very tired and fell asleep as soon as I entered my hotel room.
I woke up around 10 am today. Still feeling tired from the trip, I resorted to laying in bed, watching TV, and setting up my laptop. Since yesterday (Monday) was my birthday, I checked my voice mail and it was good to hear from all my friends and family that left me messages while I was on the airplane.
The question that a lot of people have been asking me is, "Is it hard being the only person from my team at the NCAA championship?" To me, that is going to be my most difficult task. I'm going to have a lot of down time on my hands and I want to make sure I try and keep busy. I'm sure my teammates know that, and Richard Phillips was the first person to call me today just to talk and see how I was feeling. He knows how it is to be alone since he was the only person representing Mason at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championship. Also my best friend got me season 2 of the Dave Chappelle show for my birthday, which should also help me to occupy some of my time.
After trying to study for my summer Math class, I got a call from Coach Skeeter [Jackson] asking me what time I would like to go over to the track. We went over to the track around 12 pm and I was able to warm up and get a good feel for the track. I did some short bounding on the grass, and tried to avoid getting hit from the flying discus thrown by other competitors. After that, I did about 4 "run throughs," I made sure my marks were ready for Friday and Saturday's competition. I also did short approach jumps, getting a feel for the track and finding out if it is soft or hard. The surface is a mondo track which is usually hard and fast, but since the track has been around for a few years, the surface has softened up which is a good thing for me. I want to protect my shins as much as possible.
Today was a very productive day and Coach Skeeter and my self know I'm ready to jump far.
After practice was over, we headed over to the mall for some lunch. It was one of the nicer malls I have been to on a road trip. On the way back from the mall I got a few phone calls from Ricardo Melbourne and Sammy Sesay. They were both just checking in on me asking me how California was. To my surprise, they informed me that Virginia was blazing hot the past two days. With just a chance of rain showers tomorrow evening, and the rest of the week being in the upper 80's, the weather in Sacramento, also known as Sac town, should be perfect this week.
My plans for the rest of the night include working on summer school projects, watching TV and eating dinner around 8 pm. Getting rest the next few days is going to be important to get my body use to the time difference. The last thing I want is to be feeling tired on Friday when I'm on the runway trying to compete.
