coach heacock's first meet!

this is LONG overdue, but at the beginning of december, alex had his first track meet as a college coach! the meet was at illinois state university, which is located in Normal, IL...that's right, Normal is the name of the town...not totally sure what makes it any more normal than the rest of illinois, but there you have it, haha.

anyways, because it is december in illinois, the meet was indoors at the field house. i had never been to an indoor meet before, and i was totally impressed by how much they pack into this place! the running track obviously goes around the outside, and that includes sprints, distance, hurdles, relays, etc. inside of the track, there is a long jump pit, a high jump area, a pole vault area, and the throwing area.

at indoor meets, only the shot put and a modified hammer (called a weight) is thrown, so no javelin, discus, or real hammer. they throw from within a cage and there is sector with lines showing the distances, just like an outdoor meet (except no grass of course). it was really neat to see alex coaching something outside of his comfort zone, and i even got to meet some of his athletes (who were hilarious). it was a lot of fun to see alex doing something he clearly cares a lot about, and he looked totally official in all of his coaching gear :)

here's a view of the whole meet.


here is alex hard at work, demonstrating something to one of his athletes for his next throw.


this is the throwing area, with the cage and everything!