Hi all who venture this way !!
I received a request to tell a Track & Field story from a friend....So I will share with ya'll a story about my Track and Field past !!
It was 1983 and I was a young Marine -- Proudly serving my country and just married to a handsome stud of a Marine. He made my heart go pitter patter then. Life was good.
Track season rolls around and I am sent to Camp Pendelton, California to train and compete on the US Marine Corps All Marine Track & Field Team and the United States All Interservice Track & Field Team. It was an outstanding track season, I met and competed with Jackie Joyner (before she added the Kersee) and Florence Griffith (before she added the Joyner). I was jumping high and running fast and enjoying life !!
The US Marine Corps published an article about my track and field exploits in the HQMC Hotline (the newsletter for Marines) and the article title was WONDER WOMAN MARINE ! (now you all know the real secret of where my ID really came from). The title came from a track meet we had between the USMC and the USN (Navy)...I won 5 individual events (High Jump, 100m Hurdles, 100m, 200m, 400m ) and ran anchor leg on 3 winning relay teams ( 4 x 100 , 4 x 200 and 4 x 400 relay).
Here is a picture I dug out of a memory box.
During that season I jumped high enough to make the Olympic 'A' qualifing standard. Which all but guarantees me a spot on the 1984 Olympic team. The season is great and then my newly wed handsome husband was sent on a deployment to Japan for 6 months. Track season ended and I was sent back to my Permanent duty station to be a regular Marine again! The year marches on and training continues.
Then Wooo Hooo it is 1984.. the Olympic year !! My handsome Marine comes home from Japan in late January and the Marine Corps sports unit at HQMC, Washington DC notifies me that they have contacted the USOC and if I should win a medal at the Olympics they are going to possibly allow me to wear my uniform for the medal ceremony and the Marine Corps will use it for future recruiting tape. It is all exciting.
The Marine Corps is going to send me to Camp Pendleton to train and prepare for the 1984 season and hopefully the Olympics which will be held in Los Angeles. I get permission to travel home, for a 4 day weekend, to visit my Mom and Dad before leaving. I get sick on the road trip home....I am a very health conscious person and rarely get sick...so, off to the Doctor I go.
After some tests, my Doctor, who has taken care of my since I stop seeing my Pediatrician walks into the room with this big smile on his face !! I sit there with my Mom and my Husband, thinking why is he smiling when something is wrong with me and track season is just on the horizon. He says, well Kimberley, good news...your not sick your pregnant !! I think Oh My Gosh -- I look at my husband, I look at my Mom and I am so happy inside. Then it occurs to me....OMG....The Olympics....I'll be 6.5 months pregnant when they happen...OMG....OMG...what will I do !!
So, I missed the 1984 Olympics that year and gave birth to a beautiful Baby Boy in October 1984...That handsome young man who many of you know as "Jarrod" and whose picture is posted on an earlier blog post of mine. He is my Gold Medal !!
Someday, I'll tell you the story of his friends in middle school finding out this story ...but that will wait for another day !!
Kimberley (aka Wonder Woman Kim)
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