The last 2 months has not only brought back our competitive spirits and our love of sports, but has also given us a clear understanding that our bodies just don’t recover like they used to.

At the end of February, I (Danny) played in a huge basketball tournament here in our city with the winning team taking home 10,000 yuan – roughly $1,666 USD!!! With that kind of money on the line, there were a ton of teams whose skills ranged from absolutely terrible to really good. My team consisted of all foreigners – the only foreigners in the tourney – and we were all waaaay past our prime. In 48 hours, we played 5 games. We ended up winning 3 games and losing 2. However, if we had won 1 more game, we would have had to play 5 additional games. Knowing that, as much as I hate losing, I don’t think my body could have made it through another 5 without an injury of some sort. It took me about a week to get over the aches and pains.

After each game, I took pictures with the locals and of course my wife 🙂 I was voted (self designated) MPP…most popular player. I think it’s the hair. One of my buddies was in a taxi on the other side of town (about a 45 min drive) and the driver asked him if he knew the long-haired blonde guy! True story…I guess I can’t cut my hair now!!! Besides, Kristen thinks it gives me edge, whatever that means.

The second big event of the semester occurred a couple of weeks ago. Every school in China, from elementary through college, holds their own track & field competition. All students are “highly” encouraged to sign up for an event…or 3! So I ran the 100m dash, 4x100m relay, and threw the shot-put. That’s right…shot put. Kristen ran the 100m dash. We thought that the shorter races would be a better fit for us! The embarrassment of not training would be over soon.

Anything China does, they do it big! Naturally, we had an Olympic-style opening ceremony with each department parading around the track in matching uniforms. Some even performed dance routines. Our foreign language department, however, was a big blob of mismatched old people. I think our director was embarrassed so he gave us all umbrellas that morning, so we “matched”.

Now for the good stuff. The opening event was the men’s 100m dash and I just happened to be in the 1st heat. No joke, I had roughly 2 minutes from the closing of the ceremony to the start of the race to change and warm-up. Not looking good so far!

Here’s a video of the results…

As you can see, I got obliterated, but I didn’t get last 😉 In my defense, the winning time I was an 11.07. That’s fast, and it would not have mattered had I been 10 years younger.

Next up – the women’s 100m dash.

I’m so glad I married an athlete 🙂 Kristen dominated her heat. But now was not the time for gloating, she needed to focus. The championship was in 2 hours and the competition would be a lot tougher.

BOOM…Silver Medal Winner. Considering she has not done a single sprint since college, she did amazing. So proud of her and glad someone brought honor to the Franklin name!!!

The following day, I had to rebound from a disappointing race and throw shot-put, as well as run in the 4x100meter relay.

Because I had never thrown shot-put, or even held the shot, I watched a few how-to videos that morning in order to keep from injuring myself. I wouldn’t call it flawless form, but I did my best!

After putting on a show, I succeeded in not destroying my shoulder and ended up 9th out of 55 competitors, with a best throw of 7.94 meters. Before you think that is good, the world record is 23.12 meters.

The last event – men’s 4x100meter relay. The video you are about to see shows my team in lane 1. There were only 3 teams in our heat (heat #6) but after the embarrassment of my 100 meter dash showing, it was time for redemption. I’m the 4th leg.

It was a bummer seeing our third leg go down with a torn quad and I tried my best to catch the second place guy, but I had nothing left. The lack of warm-up and the red bull we downed 10 minutes before the race didn’t help!

Overall, I’m still proud of our Kristen’s ability to compete! In hindsight, I should have signed up for this event…