Track and Field Blogs - Jenny Barringer

Bonjour!

I know I've been missing in action the past few days with action being the key word. Things haven't slowed down but internet has been a little more challenging here and therefore, no blogs :(. So, I apologize to those of you that keep e-mailing me wanting me to write again I assure you, je pense de vous tous le temps!

I took French for four years in high school and continued for a few semesters in college. That has made this experience in France much easier at times than my travels in other areas of the world. I don't always know what's going on around me but at least the conversations sound familiar and I can pick out key words and phrases. So much more comforting than my experience in Japan. Japanese monkeys were easier to read than Japanese characters haha!

So, I'm in Paris enjoying the sights but have shut down a lot of the tourism the past day or two with high hopes of a good racing effort here. I've been running in parks and on random tracks until I finally visited the stadium track yesterday and today. Paris is a very difficult place to train I've found. Two main points I want to stress: First and foremost, NEVER run in the Bois de Boulogne and if you have to, don't go alone. Next, if you're a steepler never assume there will be a water jump to practice on more than 10 minutes before your actual race.

Finding a water barrier in Europe has not been difficult, plenty of tracks have them. I was kind of impressed to find that, so far, all of them have been adjustable too. I was worried I might come across a beautiful opportunity to practice and then the jump would be fixed at the men's height. This hasn't been the problem. Getting the water jump filled is the problem. We found so many empty jumps :(. Now, this shouldn't really surprise me while it does inconvenience me. Once I got here though, three days out, I've been trying to get the steeple pit filled. Finally, this morning (day before the races) I go out to the track and it's halfway full! (so, we're making progress). I find "the man with the keys" and ask him if he can get it filling while I warm-up. Wow, I had no idea what I was asking for. The "man with the keys" was wonderful and got right on it and then he never came back. The steeple pit filled for 10 minutes and then the whole tarmac filled for another 10 minutes and then lane one began to fill. I tried in vain to get someone to shut off the water and I couldn't figure out how to do it myself. Dozens of busy bees are swarming the stadium setting up for tomorrows events and nobody cares that we appear to be setting up for a swimming event on turn two. Oh well, I did a few jumps in the flooded area and called it a day. Maybe they'll tell the competitors tomorrow that a concentrated rain cloud did some damage on one end of the track and I won't be held responsible.