USATF Championships

Apparently they had a storm this afternoon that put the meet an hour behind schedule, and another one has blown up and forced another delay. Wimps.

If you're not from the midwest, this kind of stuff might alarm you. But I tell you they've got nothing. Nothing! In Toledo last night, it stormed for 2 1/2 hours straight, dumping up to 9 inches of rain plus golf-ball sized hail, 60+ mph winds, and a tornado. And that was just one of the three storms we've had between yesterday and today.

Three years ago a storm came through Bowling Green with a gust over 100 mph. It blew a hole in the side of the Perry Fieldhouse and took the roof off the airport's hangar. And Whitaker Track?

Blew the pressbox clean off.

Now it's not like the Great Plains around here; losses of life or significant property damages are rare, once in a generation or less in any given county. But slightly violent storms are a common summertime occurrence. And if you've done high school track in northern Ohio you get toughened up, because the weather here always sucks in April. Elyria's Tianna Madison shrugged off the weather when she the World Championships long jump last year in a driving rainstorm, saying "My mental capacity goes beyond it, I'm from Ohio where it's cold".