Track and Field Blogs - Jenny Barringer

It's the day before my prelim and I don't know what the next few days will bring. I will update you up until now but I make no promises about getting a blog up between now and after my final. It's time to be totally selfish about my time.

Yesterday was a pretty big day. I ran early and later, did a walk-through of the transportation to the official warm-up track and did actually get to go onto and see the warm-up track and the call rooms. No big surprises. The track is nice and located just meters outside of the Bird's Nest. The tunnels connecting everything are a little ominous, and the call rooms are tiny. Tomorrow I'll leave for the track about two hours before my race time. We have to enter our first of a series of call rooms about a half-hour before our gun. I really can't exaggerate the small size of the first call room. There are a dozen or so chairs facing each other on either side of a cubical. You're literally knocking knees and staring straight into the face of your competitors just moments before your race haha! There are several steps of procedure and about a half-hour before we actually step out into the stadium for the first time. If you're interested in the call room stuff I think I blogged about it while I was in Osaka and it's probably very very similar.

So, after the walkthrough (with just a small group) we all went to a big meeting with the entire team. This is one of the only times we're all in one big room together and it was kind of fun to see almost the entire team there all at once. We went over every detail of the next few days.

After the meeting I had a Skype-date set up with my roommates and my boyfriend (I've very recently become un-single). It was so amazing to see their faces and have all of their encouragement all at once. I thought I would call them and we would talk for a while and then I would go to bed. We ended up finally reluctantly pulling ourselves away from our computers over an hour later. It was a long walk back to my room because I miss them all a ton but my steps were light because it was so so wonderful to see them all.

We're now to today. I woke up and went to meet my Coach like every morning. I woke up ready to take on the day (after a cup of coffee) and was excited to get to my shakeout. We went over my heat (I'm in the second heat of three and my gun goes off at 8:37pm here which is 8:37am EST). I'm happy about where I sit and how the heats divided up. Heather did a TON of research on the women in the steeple and so I think I have a very good perspective of the race going into it all. After some race-tactic talk and discussion about last-day prep I parted from my coach and went back to the Village. By the way, I should mention, the advancement is top 4 from each heat and then 3 on time. Mom, Dad, and family, if you don't understand all of that just call Rachel... she knows everything :).

I've spent most of the day reading and relaxing with my computer and music. It has been raining most of the day and so I don't feel guilty about having stayed indoors. The hardest part about the day before a big race is that it's a whole lot of sitting around and waiting. It feels like the sun will never set and the next day is dragging it's feet on coming. Then, when darkness begins to blanket the sky the end of a chapter always begins. A race is always a huge learning experience for me. Success and failure are equal gifts in that you learn from both. So, as the sun sets the day before a big race it also sets in a way on who I am. There's no going back... No matter what happens (within reason of course) in a certain amount of hours I get to race. I am blessed to be able to push my talent to the edge and learn a little bit more about myself. I love that feeling. So, let the sun set and let it set slowly despite my eagerness for the dawn.