OK, so the first of the X-Marks, Bay Area contingent, Heavy Events Training Shebang went off today, and was a solidsuccess.

MANY thanks to Bill from driving in from the Central Valley to get us started right. Bill brought the weights for distance/height and a hammer. I brought a couple of 16 lb stones and my sort-of caber.

TimC and CaptainJak came out to throw, and a couple of TimC's friends from his Shinty group showed up as well. I showed up and didn't make too much of a fool of myself, and WalkerK and the Amazing Madalyn came and shot pictures.

The field was soft from the recent rains, but we didn't tear it up too badly, and the rain held off all afternoon. In fact, it was a really nice afternoon.

OK, from a personal perspective, here's how it went.

Putting the 16 lb stone: I did shot put in high school, though I specialized in discus, and even competed in some Masters events, throwing discus about 10 years ago. However, gripping a stone is a WHOLE different game from holding a shot, and I wound up flinging the thing a lot more UP than OUT. A bit more practice will cure that. Maybe in a month or two I can think about sliding across the trig again. I figure I'm happy with my mid-20-feet throws for a first outing, and standingon one place.

Weight for Distance: we just did the 22 pound weight, as we all agreed that 22 pounds flung us around enough as it is, Lord knows what the 42 was gonna do. I've never done this before, but Bill did a couple of demos, and what the heck. The first time 'round I let the weight yank me pretty badly off-center and gave my back a bit of a jerk, but the second and third throws were much better. Now, if I can just keep my mass centered, guide the weight instead of trying to muscle it around, I'm good to go. We didn't step these off but I'm thinking I was shoving the 22'er out there in the mid-30's?

Weight for Height: Bill pointed out the difference in linkage between the handle/weight for the weight for distance and weight for height. OK, so we changed the linkages over and watched him do it twice. Then I stepped up. I've actually done this one before, so it felt pretty natural. After we all had a go, I walked over to a bunch of (beefy) chin-up bars that were on the field, just to have the feel of having a bar over me. The consensus was that I put it a foot or two above the top of the chin-up posts, so that's somewhere around 13 - 13.5 feet. Sounds good to me, and the thing didn't even land on me head on the way down!

Caber: My "caber" is..the term Bill used was a "dead stick"...meaning a balanced piece of wood. It's just a pressure-treated 6 x 6, 12 feet long. I cut off the sharp corners and surformed it to round 'em off a bit. It weighs about 70-75 pounds. Apparently a dead stick is a lot harder to end-for-end than a real caber. Who knew? Well, sheesh, I couldn't even pick the thing, even with four tries at it. I got closer each time, but no go. TimC got one good pick and a good looking throw which Bill said would have end-for-ended a real caber. I dunno....this is gonna take some work. I might make a 50-pounder just to try the whole thing with something a little less heavy so I can get the feel for it.

Hammer: Bill brought a 16 lb hammer...three 5 lb weights on a 4 foot piece of ABS pipe and a LOT of duct tape. Watching him flail that thing around while he showed us what to do was a bit intimidating.... but then I'm known to be just plain stupid, so what the heck! After one throw, just a single spin and hurl that went OK, I tried two more with two-spins before the launch. The last one felt really natural and I got good extension through the last radius and ALMOST kept my balance. It flew out there pretty good, though I foot-faulted. I paced it off and I'm thinking it was about 48 feet....not bad for a first go.

All in all it was a huge success. My back is a bit sore tonight, but not bad...gotta keep at those weights and do about eighteen million ab crunches!