The 2007 Santa Barbara decathlon joins the annals of Dimitry lore, the last chapter of which was assumed to be finished in the days of UC Davis.   After helping to prod alum Matt Chisam to come out on 6 days rest after the Texas decathlon, Matt flew out from Boston and after tremendous, comical delays, (read his version of the story here), he arrived in time to get a bite at Denney's (always the preferred choice of elite athletes) and join us on our trip to the Santa Barbara CC track.  Add Leo Garcia's trip down after an all-nighter paper-writing binge, Tiffany Fields's conversion from the vault to the decathlon and her first multi, put us all together in my grossly undersized, underpowered Kia Rio and you have yourself a real road trip.  To avoid a long recap that could go pages, let's look at the highlights:

• Starting Field: 15 total, including 2 youngsters and a masters.  Twelve finished.  Paul Terek (8312 PR) was scheduled to go, but opted to hang out and volunteer some help at the PV pit (and helped me to a 3.5m PR.)

• The meet: Awesome setting, beautiful weather, and Dave Kuderka (who competed) and Keith Kephart always run the greatest low-key dec in the US.  Thanks so much, guys, and see you all next year! 

• The Women's Decathlon: Although it is an event recognized by the IAAF, this meet appears to be the only women's dec worldwide in 2007.  It was not without great athletes, however, as Tiffany Fields, the SF State school record holder in the vault (and a long-time multi athlete at heart turned multi athlete) as well as All-American Elle Cruikshank, the 2007 #3 DII heptathlete and multi-turned vaulter Katrina Rodriguez competed in the decathlon.  Tiffany had a 7 cm PR in the vault to 3.65 m... on her FIFTEENTH jump.  This is what happens when you don't listen to your coach (okay, so he's insane) and follow a game-plan.  Leading after 7 events, Tiffany finally succumbed to Elle's strong shot and high, and the rest is history.  A great overall performance by all five women, and any time a decathlete is born, it's a good day.  5689 is not too shabby for a first meet and three throwing events averaging to 417 points, either.  The all-time world list is now kept here, and Elle, Tiffany and Katrina now own the #24, 29 and 38 marks and are the 20, 24, and 33 women all-time.  Congrats to all!

The Events:

• 100m:  Slipped blocks for two of us, no recall, slowest 100m for the entire field by 0.2-0.4 seconds off of season bests.

• Long Jump: Nearly pulled out of the comp, as both hamstrings and calves were cramping severely.  Matt gave me the "magic lacrosse ball" -  and I massaged my legs for the 20 minutes I should have been warming up.  First jump - felt cramps coming on, did an 80% effort on my approach, behind the board... to a season best.  Second jump , less cramps, better jump, and my third, still not at 100%, tied a 13 year old lifetime best (!!) at 6.17m.  The fourth best jump of the day.  MATT, THANK YOU for saving my meet -- a second thank you for making my month will come later...

• Shot Put: Lifetime best of 11.50m with bad form and the shot rolling out of my hand early.  Starting to feel that I've "arrived" in this sport.  A great sense of belonging came from this meet.

• High Jump: 1.72m on a third of the jumps I took at Chico, 2cm off my lifetime best.  Next year my blazing jog of an approach from a whopping 26 feet out will move to a full, fast approach and 1.83 will not be unrealistic.  To date, since October of 2005, there's been an 11cm, then 14 cm improvement from season to season.

• 400m: Slowest timed 400 ever, even slower than my icosathlon 400 which was my 8th event in the pouring rain.  Zero conditioning (due to the long recovery before and after my surgery) took it's toll.  But even with a horrible 100 and 400, I was 20 points off my day 1 PR.

• 110HH: A disaster.  Couldn't find the first hurdle in warmups, race was no better - should have pulled out and ended the race.

• Disc: A season best 31.09, and very close to a meet PR.  Had a good sequence of throws, and remembered to wash my hands just before my last throw, which ended up being my best.

• Vault: I brought the 15' 180 on a whim.  I decided the day of the meet that if I could press it from 6 lefts (never having done any vault work from more than 4) I'd try a swing-up.  If I could swing-up, I'd vault.  I held at 14'6" and crushed the pole.  It felt wonderful.  Holding at 14', I vaulted to a 40 cm PR at 3.50m.  Why I started passing heights after a 40 cm PR is beyond me - but I had great attempts at 3.70m - once I overcome that silly little self-preservation fear of being upside down, a breakthrough is on it's way!

• Jav, 1500 and the Ankles Issues:

  • Chris Richardson (7871 PR) pulled out early with an ankle problem.

  • Loacal Noondog Robert Nooney also pulled out early with a nasty twisted bruised monstrosity below the shin that he tried to jump and throw the shot on.  Turns out he would not be the last moron with an ankle injury and no "off" button:

  • Yes, that's a foot.  Above the foot is a cankle.  Two weeks later it's still swollen.  Shortest measured jav in any sequence ever, and I roll my ankle.  It instantly swelled up, and I got it taped as fast as I could... so that I could finish the 1500.  I pulled Matt through 4:35 pace for 700 meters, but then the pain got to be too much.  The 5:19 I finished with was the slowest and easily the hardest race I've ever run in my life, but I finished.  That time has to be equivalent to a 3:58 using an injury-adjusted grading table.  For those that know me well, this is a simple eye-roll and a "that's Dimitry alright".

• Quote of the Weekend: "That has got to be the most ghetto thing I've ever seen."  Said by Matt as I brought in a bunch of peanuts from the bar to our table cradled in my shirt.  Someone has obviously not spent much time in my presence, as all of my friends got tired of repeating that phrase after a few weeks.

Day 2 left me exhausted, but with a new sense of being a decathlete.    Matt made my month on the car ride home by telling me the story of "the legend of Dimitry."  Turns out our old sprints coach, Coach Rob, was filling the incoming freshmen's minds with the crazy, fictional story that I had something to do with recruiting female 400 meter talent to UCD.  Coach Rob and Matt know the real truth - I'm just a simple, married man with no need to relive college glory and perpetuate myths.  Had I done something like they believe, I suppose god-like status would not be totally unwarranted. 

Next year will be busy, as after my ankle heals it will be conditioning, conditioning, conditioning, then vault and hurdles until I puke. 

The 2006 Santa Barbara decathlon, a relaxed meet in which I was the sole remaining competitor in the men's open, is taking a much, much different look.  On the men's side - Paul Terek (8312 PR) and Chris Richardson (7871 PR), ranked #2 and #5 in the US, have entered, as well as a slew of Chico athletes led by Robert Nooney.  The co-meet director Dave Kuderka will also be making a comeback at the still-got-gas-in-the-tank age of 33. 

After watching the results of fellow UCD alum Matt Chisam's decathlon at the Texas' Greatest Athlete meet and his disappointing 7200 score, I sent him the following e-mail a few days later: (three days before the Santa Barbara meet, and proudly BEFORE the decathlon2000.ee forum posts on Barras's insanity.)

"Come to Santa Barb...

"Don't think about the amount of recovery -- Romain Barras, the French
Decathlete, just got 8064 at Gotis and then 8147 at Arles on 5 days
rest!! The Russian Heptathlete [Chernova Tatyana] also did the meets back to back and got
a world leading PR on the Arles meet. Take an Advil, ice bath it up for
a few days, and come on down."

His response:

"fuck it, why not?"

And thus we have one more entry.  Matt is flying down from Boston (!!!) with three huge poles, and should just barely make it in for a few hours of sleep before competition the next day.  That is what dedication to your sport is about.  Vince Carter, take note - there's athletes out there willing to pay their own money to push themselves to the very limit each time they perform - in empty stadiums.

The Santa Barbara women's decathlon, while an event recognized by the IAAF, will sadly be one of the few (if not the only in 2007) women's decathlons in the world.  It is not without great athletes, however, as Tiffany Fields, the SF State school record holder in the vault (and a long-time multi athlete at heart turned multi athlete) as well as All-American Elle Cruikshank, the 2007 #3 DII heptathlete are entered into the decathlon.

(As mentioned before, the "Disturbing Trend" article is permanently posted here.  Also, the 2008 USA Icosathlon Championships are still in the works for a California meet in late August/early September.)