By MichaelGargiulo
When I got my first glimpse of the hurdles set up in the Armory Track and Field Center in Ft. Washington, my first thought was “I’m never going to get over those things and I’m going to fall face first onto the track.”
I was lucky though. My coach was Derrick Adkins, who won the gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles in the 1996 Olympics in Athens. So let’s just say he knows what he’s talking about. He had me warm up with a half mile run, paced by 3 college track and field athletes, followed by some serious stretching.
Then we started hurdling….but on the full size hurdles, but smaller ones, called “baby hurdles”. Derrick literally walked me over each one showing me the technique: the jumping leg extending straight up and over the middle of the hurdle and trailing leg coming up from the side as you pass over it. ..trying to take about 5 steps between each jump.
We did it several times at a slow, jog-like pace. He tried to allay my fear of crashing by demonstrating that even if I hit the hurdle, it would just fall down without taking me with it.
Then it was time to try the real hurdles. We did the same thing: walking through the course once …then doing it at a slow jog. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to jump the 36 inch height of the hurdles, but amazingly I made over each one as we did it in slow motion ,and Derrick assured me it would be easier once I was running full speed.
Finally we set up a course that matches a real event: the 60 meter hurdles. I took off and cleared the first hurdle…feeling instant relief when I knew I was over it, then came up on the second and third ones. It’s thrilling to get up over the hurdle but exhausting too since the last time I did this flat out for time was…..let’s see, NEVER.
There’s also more to it then just clearing the hurdle. Derrick tried to help me time my approach so that I was taking my last step before the hurdle with my left leg, the leg I wanted to jump with. That was hard because I kept finding myself shuffling my feet as I got close to the hurdle trying to get on my left leg.
I finished the 60 meter hurdle race without knocking down anything or myself…my time: a little less than Olympic, I but I survived to move on to the next event: the high jump!
