ACTION|| Track and Field ISSAAA

Kasarani was our last big meet. Right now we are all training very hard for the Addis Ababa ISSEA next week. Although I do not feel like I am ready, I still think we will do well. We have a very small team but a very efficient team also. The older Varsity girl along with me, have a great chance of bringing a trophy back home. In order to be ready for this meet we have had a very tight schedule

We must now come 5 times a week to practice and each day has a specific focus. On Mondays I work on my endurance. The usual works out are 6 times 300meters and a 15min in the end to cool off and get use for the long runs. Tuesday afterschool I do some triple jump. Since Kasarani I have really started to enjoy this discipline. I find it a lot more fun than long jump. It requires more technique and muscles. The work that is needed behind every jump really fascinates me. I felt like I had come to my best distance in long jump and would only improve by a few centimeters at every meet. In triple jump however I am just learning how to do it and for this reason I improve by at least 20cm every practice. My coach says that she feels confident to but my goal at 11m for next week. I do not know if I will be able to get such a distance but I will do everything I can for it. On Wednesday I do some shorter distance work. We do intervals of 200m or 150m. These are for me to be able to sprint off my events even if the fatigue is kicking in. And after the work I usually do some relay work to get familiar with my team and put all our chances on our side to win. Thursdays resemble my Tuesday practice, except that I spend the second half of practice in the gym doing strength work. I really do no like working out in the gym, however the exercises we do really do help on my sprints. This taught me that sometimes you must do what you do like to get better results and enjoy your races a lot more. On Fridays I do shot put and relay work. Shot put is a very complete discipline. After having done it for over 4 years I still learn new tricks every practice. Last practice I worked on my releasing angle and on timing my throw with my slide. This is for me the hardest part of it all. Staying low requires a lot of leg muscles especially in my thighs. After the glide comes the hardest part. I need to time my releasing time with the right angle to my standing up to maximize the amount of force I transfer in my shot. I really enjoy learning about all the different technics of shot put as it proves that sports is not all about strength but has a very important mental aspect.

ACTION|| Swimming

This semester I started swimming again. I had stopped because I felt like I could not manage, tennis, track and swimming at the same time and give it my best. Although I do not regret that decision I realized that swimming really was a key part of my health. It gave me endurance for track and field, but also helped me used up my energy and have a balanced body

When I started the team again it was really hard. The training was not easy, as we had to get ready for the NASA meets. I worked as hard as I could and was not disappointed by the results I achieved in the meets a month after. I broke a few swimming records and even got an article in the newspaper Daily Nation. I met the new people of the team and especially the team captain, Caela. I think she played a very important role psychologically for me and I feel for the rest of the team as well. She takes swimming very seriously and is always ready to cheer up anyone in the pool. She brought sportsmanship to our team and made us come closer.

The most important meet of the season was the Kasarani meet. We competed against all the best swimmers in Kenya. It really was an amazing experience. I was not expecting such a high level of sport. In my first race I came 12^th, which was a big shock for me. I was not used being out of the top 6 in a meet. Coach Murithii came to me and said, Louise you came 12^th in the whole of Kenya. Although it was not exactly true this taught me how to balance my emotions. It means nothing to come 1^st in a meet where you have no competition and if you do not achieve a personal best time. However coming 12^th in a national meet is some kind of achievement. After having understood that I went back to swim my next race thinking of does my best and not necessary beat my opponents. I got a personal best and placed 5^th. The race where I was hoping to get a medal was the 100m butterflies. I was really nervous when I came on the blocks. All the girls I was against were a lot taller and bigger than me. I however focused and gave the race everything I had. This was a real success, I improved my time by 4 seconds and placed 3^rd overall!! Considering it was the last race of the meet, I can fairly say that the meet was a well-spent weekend!

SERVICE|| End of the Year

After the concert we had to find a new aim for the club until the end of the year. During one meeting we decided to focus on getting the original number of surgeries we had thought of getting. In order to do that we did a few bake sales with a ‘chocolate’ theme and without surprise they allowed us to raise one surgery each time. The most important change in our club was that we created a Middle School part. This came about as most of our siblings were always very interested in what was happening in the club and showed a lot of interest in the Operation Smile Mission. For this reason we now have meetings on Thursday lunch with the middle school. We are the first club in school to be in both high school and middle school. So far their club has conducted one bake sale and took charge of our booth during International Day. It is interesting to see how dedicated they are and how much effort they put into making their club a success.

SERVICE|| Operation Smile

We are now planning our annual concert. I am not exactly sure why but this year’s organization seems to be a lot more complicated than last year, especially with the Composers Club. I think this year’s concert would have taught me a lot. We had an issue of communication with the dates we booked down for the auditorium and what we told the Composers Club. For this reason they are refusing to perform with us, making the planning quite challenging. However Josh, the club’s president, was able to get a local comedian to come and perform for us. I feel like using a local comedian has two very strong assets. Firstly we are using the local community, and making it known to the school. And secondly the aim of a comedian is to making people laugh, and therefore SMILE J.  The last details are to be determined sometimes this week, but I am confident, and hope this concert will once again be a success.

ACTION|| Kasarani Nationals

On the 22nd of November we went to perform at the Kasarani Stadium Nationals. I really did my best and was able to get 1st place in Tripple Jump, 3rd place in 200m, 1st place in 4x400m and 2nd place in 4x100m. I had a lot of fun and was able to develop my technic a lot. The stress that I had before every race pushed me to perform such times.  I also broke two school records and one meet record. I think this meet was a great way to end the season. After this meet I feel ready for the next season and I now know what I need to improve in all my events in order to get even greater results in the Seychelles international meet.

ACTION|| Peponi Warm-up Meet

We again had a friendly invitational meet on the Kasarani warm-up track, organized by the Peponi school. For this meet only two athlete per event were allowed to be registered from the same school. There was also only two age categories, U15 and U19. I ran the 200m, 4x400m and 4x100m. It really was a great experience. Compared to the ISK meet  three weeks before, I ran those races a lot better and that showed in my times. For the 200m I ran a 28.75s, which is my personal best so far and which is also only 0.72s away from the school record. For the relays, the 4x100m was interesting as two of the runners had never ran a proper 4x100m and did not know about the hand-offs. We were able to run a 58.52s which is not so bad compared to my time  the last season 54.67s . The 4x400m was not really a challenged as all four athletes were 400m runners and had been doing track for at least 2 years. After this meet I feel more confident and think I will be able to perform well for the Nationals at Kasarani (again) on the 22^nd of November.