Track and Field Blogs - Ryan From Flotrack

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I apologize for the time in between blogs here. There is only so much a video can show and I need to do better on letting you know the day-to-day happenings out here. At this point I've been to Oslo, Lausanne, Rome, and Liege. Its been a lot of fun traveling and getting to know certain athletes better. There are definitely some characters out there on the scene and I hope you'll get to know some of them better. People like Dexter Faulk (hurdler) and Bianca Knight (sprints) are pretty hilarious, as you may have got a taste of in the police escort video in Rome. Rome was just cool all around though. I crashed on the floor in a room with Dorian Ulrey and Aries Merritt. Aries and Dorian were like friends that had known each other for years because they would just give each other a hard time (joking around obviously). I'd like to think my presence had something to do with Dorian's 3:35, but I am sure Coach Buck at Arkansas deserves more of the credit. I haven't gotten to know Christin Wurth-Thomas pretty well over the past year through my travels as her and her husband have housed me in the past while at Arkansas. Knowing how hard she works, seeing another American woman run under 3:59 was really something special. And the coolest thing about being there with those guys is that we call got to have a glass of wine together to celebrate our birthdays (I was the 10th while Christin and Dorian were the 11th.....and Susan Kuijken was on the 8th!).

Although the travels had been fun, it was time to have some semi-downtime. So off to Leuven I went. I was excited to get there as it will be my "home" till August 10th until I go to Berlin. And having set up my room after Oslo, I knew I had nice spot to go to. It was also time to see the 2009 Leuven Crew! New faces and friends along with old ones. The dorm/apartment setting is pretty cool because we're all very close to one another. One of my favorite people out here, Nikeya Green is about two doors down on one side and the opposite way is Alysia Johnson. Alysia has started to get my man opinion on some Cosmo questionnaires to see how accurate my opinions are with the rest of the population. We're only through 18 of the 125 so we got a ways to go. Also on my floor is DWill, Amy Hastings, Shawn Forest, Delilah DeCrecenzo, Steve Magnus, Moise Joseph, my neighbor Brenda Martinez and also Maggie Vessey. We've now had some stuff up on the site with Maggie Vessey for the first time and hopefully you can tell she is a character. A ton of positive energy and we have fun cracking jokes throughout the day, reciting movie lines, and catching up on the last season of Entourage occasionally.

Its interesting how relationships form with each of the athletes the longer you are over here. For me its great because I am not just the Flotrack guy behind the camera and the athletes aren't just "the person I saw run a great 1500 at Mt SAC" or where ever. And as this happens you ride the sometimes emotional roller coaster that is track and field, more specifically racing. Its awesome experiencing the highs with them, but it is tough to see the lows. Just as any of you out there, races don't always go your way. I always wish I had the right thing to say or a way to make someone smile, but its hard because you're not there with them throughout the year like their coach has been. This past meet at Liege I stopped trying to think of what to say and just offered a hug to one of the athletes that was bumming. They took it, so hopefully that helped a little. On the topic of Liege, I saw some great stuff there. Its safe to say that a majority of my year is following the collegiate scene so seeing Brenda Martinez win the 8 in a PR and Michael Coe mix it up for a bit with the Kenyans in the 3k was really cool for me. But seeing Renee Metevier-Baille getting back into form after a tough year or two finishing only 5 seconds off a PR and Julie Culley right behind her with an 11 second PR and securing a spot on the World team to Berlin.....it was awesome. I see this at almost every meet but with Maggie in Rome, Brenda and Renee at Liege, there are so many athletes that are running times that would have had them in the top 3 at USAs only a couple weeks ago. It makes you really respect our athletes that made the team because it is so competitive and there are so many athletes that could qualify on any given day.

I got to France today, my first time in Paris. I finally have a room and its pretty funny cause the beds are SUPER small.....my feet almost hang of the end!! I road the train with Maggie and Brad Yewer (one of Maggie's agent....former Leuven 800 participant). Maggie's bag was stolen by this sketchy dude while we were in the Brussels train station, but luckily Brad spotted this guy in the act and chased him down! It was pretty crazy and was actually a good eye opener to keep a closer eye on your stuff. We got to Paris in one piece though so its all good. I went on a run and as I finished 45 minutes, I saw Jon Pierce on the practice track doing 400s with 30 seconds rest. He was about to do his last set of 8 in about 65 so I said I'd help out. I haven't done anything that quick on the track in a loooong time. I am paying for it now as my body getting more achy with each minute that passes. I only did three but they were 55, 55, 53!!!!! Crazy right! Well don't get too excited....the track was short. Jon's coach Terrance Mahon estimated a 53 may have been about 62. I'll take it, but I probably injured myself in the process....I'll see how it feels manana.

After all this, I'd say the highlight of the day and even one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was lunch and dinner today. I got to sit with great people, great conversation, and eat free food. At lunch I sat with Hazel Clark and her husband Wenston Riley. Hazel was telling stories about growing up in their household with her dad Joe Clark (hopefully you saw his interview from USAs) and also about her older brother JJ Clark recruiting her and coaching her in college (he is still her coach today). There has been so much success in that family that its pretty unbelievable. I got to see the Mammouth crew with Anna, Alistar, Jon, and Terrance. You can always count on them for a good laugh and today they seemed to enjoy discussing Anna's driving skills at their training base in Italy....I guess she likes to keep the RPMs revved up pretty high. At dinner, I probably sat around for over two hours so a bunch of people came and went throughout the evening at my table (yeah I'll claim it as mine since I was there the longest ;) I caught up with Shannon Rowbury and Maggie V (they are rooming here in Paris), Lolo Jones joined us for a little bit too. Tiffany Ross-Williams and her husband Steven, who are some of my favorites on these trips, were telling me how expensive Steve's haircut was and the bargain Tiff got on her nails....the usual pre-race stuff. After they took off Chris Solinsky, Bernard Lagat, Khadevis Robinson, and Matt Taylor (works for Puma, formerly Chasing Kimbia) all sat down. Usain Bolt was also sitting at the table next to us. I sometimes have to remind myself how lucky we (Mark and I) are as I'm sitting next to one of the greatest 1500 meter runners every. Bernard is awesome by the way. Always willing to share stories of racing and travels. He and Matt Taylor were talking about the late 90s, early 2000s when the Kenyans such as Bernard and Komen didn't even used to know what splits were in races. Everything was ran off of feel. Matt was saying that even Komen's workouts were never timed, it was just hard, medium, or easy efforts. As runners, a lot of times we can been super anal with our training/splits so its hard to think about that style of training and racing those guys did. After Bernard took off I caught up with Chris. He's a guy thats great to just kick it with, really down to earth. I've got to know him and his girlfriend on trips over the past year. He told me they got engaged and shared the story of how it happened which is alway cool to hear. Chris seems to be in a great place right now all around and I am excited to see how the season ends up for him.

Well thats it for now. It's about 12:45AM and I am going to try to upload this if I can get some internet. Paris is tomorrow and should be a great race. I will look at heat sheets more in depth in the morning but if you haven't seen there will be some great stuff to watch as the meet will be streamed LIVE on Universal Sports. Lagat and Solinsky will be in the 3k with Bekele....the pace will be going out at 7:24 pace at least thru 2k! Usain Bolt will be in the 100 meters and you know anything can happen when he's on the track. I've grown a fan of the hurdles since my trip because the athletes in those races are simply just cool people. Their races should be fast. Sanya Richards will also be on the track for possibly her last time until Berlin so the 400 should be rolling. And watch out for the women's 800.....we could see four American women under 2 with Vessey, Rowbury, Willlard, and Clark. I'll check out more in the morning, but until then hope all is well and thanks for following our journeys overseas!

Ryan

P.S. I attached some pics from our Rome excursion and the vid for Paris travels, but I did not proof read this for spelling errors....its bedtime here.