Blogging With Brooke: More Competition And A Zoo Trip
August 04, 2014 | Women's Track and Field
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BGSU senior hammer thrower Brooke Pleger will represent the Falcons when she competes for Team USA at the U-23 North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) International Athletics Championship in Kamloops, British Columbia Aug. 8-10. Pleger will compete in the hammer throw on Aug. 8 at 7:20 pm. But prior to that, she has the unique opportunity to train at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. During that time, Pleger will be checking in with BGSUFalcons.com and blogging about her trip. This is her second entry.-- Photo gallery of Brooke's Trip -- Part One of Blogging With Brooke -- Part Two of Blogging With Brooke Saturday, Aug. 2 Saturday was another meet day, except today, we all got six throws instead of just three. The hammer part of the competition started around 1:50pm when we all reported to the "call room". We were brought down to warm up at 2:30pm, and started the competition at 3pm. I had 5 legal throws and 1 foul. All 5 of my legal throws were over 60 meters with my best throw being 61.90m. I felt good having a meet this late in the year with all of my legal marks being over 60m. I am really hoping that next Friday in Kamloops I can move that mark a little farther.
Outside of the competition, Saturday was a very laid back day. Brittany (Funk) and I spent most of the day relaxing. We decided to do some laundry before we packed up our bags since we would be leaving the training center on Sunday morning. Â Brooke Pleger making friends at the San Diego Zoo." alt="33161" src="/common/controls/image_handler.aspx?thumb_id=14&image_path=/images/2014/8/4/Pleger_InsideToday.jpg" />Brooke Pleger making friends at the San Diego Zoo.
Sunday, Aug. 3 Sunday morning started off with an early departure from the training center. We will be staying in a hotel about fifteen minutes from the training center until we leave for Kamloops, BC on Wednesday. After we checked out of our rooms and had some breakfast, Matt (Conly), Brittany and I took off for the San Diego Zoo. I was really excited for this experience since I had heard nothing but awesome things about this zoo. I was anxious to see how it compared to the Toledo Zoo, and let me say, it's not comparable. This zoo was massive and it took all day to get through. We got to the zoo around 10:30am and we didn't walk out to the car until 6:50pm. I am pretty sure we easily walked 3 miles around the entire zoo. It was quite an experience.
We started the day looking at the apes, monkeys, and gorillas. We got to see all different types of birds throughout the day as well. We got to see a bunch of different types of elephants, as well as tigers and lions. There were camels, polar bears, tortoises, and snakes. I'm telling you, the number of different types of animals was astounding. Every time I thought we had seen it all, there was another type of animal just around the corner. We finished the day with riding a skylift across the entire zoo. It was pretty cool to see an ariel shot of the entire zoo that we just spent all day walking around.
We ended the day with checking into the hotel and ordering some pizza. I think we can all agree that we need a good foot massage after today.
