The Pacer Invitational in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The reason why Daniel’s mother and coach Stephanie Ann Tulloch sent Daniel to Pittsburgh over 200 miles from home was to get experience running his races. We had no idea how Daniel will do in competitive situations and what his problems will be. We had no idea what our problems with Daniel would be. The Pacer Invitational Meet in Bethel Park, a southern suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa. had people as far west as Youngtown Ohio and as far east as Greensburg, Pa.

The reason why we picked Pittsburgh is because this area is part of the Three Rivers Association. That is a sister association to our USATF Med-Atlantic Association. Daniel can qualify for either Associations or just one of the Associations for the Region 2 (North East United States) Track and Field meet. Pittsburgh is the “City of Champions.” Knowing from experience, children living in the Pittsburgh area are born running up and down the mountains. Daniel’s Great Uncle William Jackson Williams III walked and ran these mountains until he was 18 years old. He went to the Pennsylvania state championships.

Pittsburgh is the place where we can find out the problems before he runs in the Delaware Invitational next weekend.

Daniel’s mother, Stephanie Tulloch ran the 200 Meter, 400 Meter, and 800 Meter before I figured out that she was too slow to run these events in National Competition. So I switched her to the 80 Meter Hurdles, the 100 Meter Hurdles, and the 400 Meter Hurdles. Stephanie went to nationals twice and was ranked 11^th in the country at age 12 years old.

Daniel's Grandmother, Amanda Ann Williams III, applying cream to his legs before the 800 Meter Run.

Going to the bathroom.

Daniel’s grandmother took Daniel to the bathroom within one hour of the 800 Meter Run but because of his excitement, he had to go to the restroom on the starting line in the 800 Meter run. That caused the meet to change the running order of the divisions in the 800 meter run. After that, I took Daniel to the bathroom when they announced “first call” before every event that he participated in. I will do that from now on until he reaches 30 years old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-DA9dZrN4w

Running the 800 Meters

Daniel continued to look around while running the races. That has to stop. This may be because of his age. He is more concerned with just running this race and playing with the opponents behind him instead of trying to keep pace with the opponent in front of him. He ran this race in 4 Minutes 1.1 Seconds, receiving second place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJlqZwuZlgk

Running the 400 Meters.

Here, it is obvious that Daniel does not have the concept of winning. All he wants to do is run. He ran with his best time ever with a time of 1 minute and 54 seconds. But in Pittsburgh, 6 and 7 year old run with a time of 1 minute 29 seconds. In other areas of the world they run in times less than that. One of the sub-bantams that beat him here had to face Daniel again in the 1500 Meter Run later in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITV-bawAH2s

Running the 1500 Meters (Camera ran out of memory)

It was said that God created sprinters and individuals created distance runners. In Pittsburgh, the mountains created the sprinters but sprinters cannot turn into distance runners without a great deal of work. In this race, Daniel played with his opponent from the 400 Meter Run. His opponent tried to pass him several times. Several times, Daniel did not let him pass but ran just fast enough to stop him. In the last 200 meters, his opponent tried to pass him one last time. Daniel responded by looking at him then waving “good-bye.”

At that point, Daniel sprinted to the finish line. His opponent was too tired to respond and came in 4 second later. Daniel can get away with “show boating” in Sub-bantam but as he gets older, Track officials will not put up with this type of behavior. Again, this may be because of age but he still needs counseling about this.

We have two practices before the Delaware meet. At this point we will go over some of the problems that I seen on Saturday in Pittsburgh and have him run distance with at least one 6 mile run, sprinting most of the way.

My Complaints

My job as coach is to find the problems and try to correct them before it causes Daniel to lose races. Yes, I am proud of him.

As I told two of the Pacer Couches, I am very proud but I am also impressed. Daniel is the 2^nd indoor Seed in Region 2 in the 1500 meter. He came in third in the indoor 800 Meter. Daniel won this 1500 Meter Race and came in 2^nd in the 800 Meter here. He qualified for Indoor Nationals in the 1500, 800, and 400 Meters. He can run 6 miles without getting tired.

He is known by the Athletics department in the Central Dauphin School District and High School athletes know him. People come to the track and run with him. And he has done all this before he graduated from Kindergarten.