July2016-Final-UR-IT

Logan was actually at his flag football
game at the time of the call.
I asked him if he could just come
home so we could just scream and
jump around.
I had this feeling that life was about
to get crazy.
I was right.
In just two short weeks from
that day, Logan needed to be in
Philadelphia to compete.
But first, let me tell you a little bit
about him.
Growing up with quite a bit of
adversity, Logan threw himself into
sports as sort of an escape from the
real world.
What was quickly discovered in
the process was that he was an
incredible natural athlete.
In fact, it was rather challenging
to find any athletic feat where
he didn’t excel.
Logan had speed, stamina,
strength and picked up new
endeavors at a rapid pace.
In school, he was an All-
American diver, an undefeated
wrestler, a track and cross
country star … and as he grew
older, he began competing in
triathlons.He has now qualified for
the U.S. Triathlon Nationals twice,
qualified for the most recent
Boston Marathon by nearly 20
minutes and, as a member of
the United States Boomerang
Team, is currently ranked the
number one thrower in the
country.
As a couple, it
doesn’t matter
whether we’re
hiking, shopping
or hanging out
at home, I quickly
learned that Logan
is forever looking for a way to make
day-to-day activities a little more
challenging.
He will carry groceries into the
house with his arms straight out to
his sides. He hates hiking on given
paths, but rather hops up on the
fence ledge to travel. Even simple
acts like entering Target have to
include him hopping up on top of
one of those giant red balls outside
the store before making his way
through the door.
Logan sees the world as one big
jungle gym and he likes to get as
much use out of it as he can!
But for a course like Ninja Warrior,
natural talent isn’t enough.
There are ninjas and ninjas-intraining
who literally quit their
jobs to train year-round.
Logan has a full-time job as the
global strategic deal manager for
GE Lighting that keeps him very
busy, but he’s always spent every
other spare minute running and
working out.
However, when we found out he
would be on the show, “working
out” was suddenly kicked into high
gear.
While Logan started mad-paced
training, I did everything I could
to help.
I researched and scheduled
special sessions at ninja gyms in
Columbus, OH and Buffalo, NY. I
made arrangements with his family
and friends to attend the show,
designed tee-shirts and signs,
bought special food, took care
of the house, gathered all
the photos and footage the
producers requested, shopped
for the proper course clothes
– pretty much anything I
could to allow Logan as much
time as possible to train.
Even though I couldn’t do
much to help the physical part
of his training, I felt like we
were a team and I wanted him
to succeed more than anything.
We spent as much time as we could
at the special ninja gyms.
There is so much
technique that
goes into each
obstacle, and
it was headspinning
how fast
Logan was picking them all up.
Before we knew it, we were boarding
a flight to Philadelphia.
He would be competing as the
“Boomerang Ninja.”
We got in late on a Tuesday night
and Logan immediately went into
interviews on Wednesday morning
on a rooftop in downtown Philly. It
was kind of crazy to walk out of the
stairwell and see all these ninjas
stretching, flipping, balancing on
railings…
I wondered if Logan had ever been
in an area with that many people
like himself before.
I found the wife of the
man donned “Rabi Ninja”
and spent much of the
morning chatting with
her. There weren’t too
many other significant
others there and I wanted
to give Logan space to get
to know everyone without
me hanging on his arm.
The rest of the day was
so fun! I watched Logan
shoot lots of what they
call “Hero” shots, where
he would start by looking
down and slowly look up into the
camera. I could tell they were those
fun shots you see when someone is
getting introduced on the show.
They asked Logan to give a real
serious look, which isn’t really
Logan. He asked if he could smile
instead. It made me laugh.
The crew shot a lot of B-roll of
Logan tumbling, throwing and
hanging from these uneven bars.
We were then shuttled to a hotel
about 15 minutes away where he
had to undergo an interview.
Afterward, we decided to check out
a local ninja gym on the New Jersey
border. We discovered they had built
a paddle-board obstacle similar
to the one we all heard would be
utilized the next day on the course.
I was impressed watching Logan
try it out. He mastered it right off
the bat.
We went to sleep as early as we
could and slept in as late as we
possibly could.
The show doesn’t start taping
until it’s completely dark outside –
around 10 p.m. – so we knew it was
going to be a late one.
We tried going to the course early
to watch all the testers, but they
wouldn’t allow us in because Logan
was a competitor.
Instead we went downtown to grab
a healthy lunch, then went back to
the course to get Logan checked in.
I had to leave him and get in line
with other guests.
Everyone looked so happy and
excited.
I was nervous out of my mind.
It wasn’t that I lacked confidence in
Logan’s abilities, but if something
happened beyond his control (like a
slip on a mat because it had gotten
wet) he only had one shot.
I just didn’t want him to leave sad
or disappointed.
Logan’s family arrived soon and it
was a nice distraction for a while.
Finally around midnight, a producer
called for us and pulled me and
Logan’s sister and brother-inlaw
aside as we were his sideline
walkers.
Logan was number 42 out of 100.
When it was his turn, we made our
way down to the side of the course
to watch. I was clutching onto one
of Logan’s little red boomerangs
like some crazy lady as we waited
for him to come out.
Later my friends, who could
watch us from the big screen, told
me I looked like I was
hyperventilating down
below.
Lovely...
Despite the fact that I’d
told myself I was not going
to act a fool on national
TV, I was so nervous I was
hardly aware of anything I
was doing.
Suddenly, Logan walked
out from under this huge
arch and I could see him in
the bright lights smiling
from ear to ear and spinning a
boomerang on his finger. He looked
so cute and happy.
My heart was beating like crazy,
and then he was off!
He tackled the first three obstacles
like a pro, then came to the fourth
where he would have to climb up
these hanging nunchucks to get
up to this vertical mat, then jump
down, take one bounce on a mini
tramp and launch himself back up
to grab onto what appeared to be
these two fat punching bags.
Well, prior to Logan, we’d watched
as barely anyone was able to make
it this obstacle. I was already so
proud he’d gone so far.
30 THE JAMI KINTON DIARIES
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