Saturday, March 18, 2017

A wet day on the track

Sunday saw the annual Central and Hume fire brigade competition here in Bendigo.  In contrast to typical weather conditions, it was cloudy and humid, with periods of rain all day, but not enough to cause any cancellations.

With our small numbers, I had a lot of runs, starting with the hydrant race, an event I don’t normally contest.  Did OK, getting through the heat, but time wasn’t good in the final due to a funble.  With my track speed, the hydrant race is an event I should train more for.

Next up was the ladder race.  Again, I got through my heat easily, and ran a solid final, though a bit slower than normal, due to the weather conditions.

In the hose and ladder 5s, I had a bit of a slip on the ladder after a fast sprint down the track.  I put that down to being slightly out of position in my final approach.  Coming down from top speed in a short space can be tricky, but when done right saves a bit of time.  Even with the slip, we still managed 26 seconds - 2 years ago, that was only possible when all went well.  Anyway, the time was good enough to easily win the event.

After the 5s were the marshalls.  These are supposedly dry events, but it didn’t look so in the rain!  Had a couple of minor fumbles in the 4 man Y and 2 man marshall that spoilt otherwise good runs.  The good news is from next week, I’ll have time to fine tune these events for the state demo in 4 weeks, as I focus 100% on the fire brigade competitions in the lead up to the state.

Had a slow start in the pumper and ladder event, but made up time with a good ladder climb.  We finished in a time that would have at least got a place at the state championships, and slightly better than our 2014 winning time.

All that remained for me now were the reel events, starting with the C section 4s.  I was back in pole for this run.  Got down the track fine with the cart, but a hiccup at the hydrant cost us a lot of time.  Because everyone else is behind me, I didn’t see what happened until 2 days later when a video was shown.

I was then asked to fill in for the A side in the hose and reel 8s.  Had a good run there, and we scored second place.

This week, we had enough to run the hose and reel 6s.  This was to be run in the traditional heat and final format.  Drew a faster side in the heat, but got first water.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the second length attached as quickly and didn’t win the heat.

Following the 6s was the champion 4s.  For this event, we swapped the team around a bit from the C4s.  I ran hydrant this time around.  Got down the track well, but a minor delay in setting the hydrant.  I haven’t had the opportunity to practice this position.  Another one to fine tune before the state championships. :)

Final event was the Y8.  Ran my usual hydrant and ladder.  The challenge here was climbing the ladder, which was very greasy by the end of the day.  Somehow made it up and we did place in the event.

So, I have a few technical skills to focus on over the next 4 weeks or so.  :)

This Sunday is the Athletics Victoria Shield final, my last athletics event before the fire brigade state championships.  After Sunday, my training routine will change for those 4 weeks.


- Tony via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2mT3GVp

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