Journal Entry
August 30, 2000
Greetings from the lap of luxury here in Brisbane, Australia.
I think the Marriott Hotel earns most of its five stars in the restaurant downstairs where we have been eating meals since we arrived yesterday. At our first meal, yesterday's lunch, they served five different types of pasta with seafood sauces, cream, marinara, everything you can imagine. It felt more like Italy than Australia, and that included the dessert tray. I thought the training center in Chula Vista had a nice spread, and they do, but it doesn't quite measure up to the mouth-watering desserts, fancy cheese and crackers at every meal, and incredible meats and pasta dishes.
The drawback to training here in Brisbane, though, is the city itself. Too many cars. Too many roads. Too many shops and stores. Too many people. The city is divided north-south by the Brisbane River and there is a nice riverfront bikeway that runs for several kilometers along both sides of the river. We were able to measure out a 2.5k out-and-back circuit for this morning's workout, but the path changes from asphalt (excellent) to concrete (not so good) to wood (bad) and back again every 400 meters or so. It also has many rolling hills and the surface has potholes and cracks from tree roots encroaching into the path. It's not horrible, and we will make do, but it puts an extra stress on the legs when the legs are getting enough of a stress from the workout as it is.
We will be doing our speedwork at a nice college facility nearby. The Australian Olympic Team is also training at the same facility, though I don't know if any of their racewalkers are going to be here in Brisbane or elsewhere. I imagine they will stick to their usual training locations and schedules until right before the Games begin.
After spending the first week at Couran Cove on the tranquil, secluded resort island, Brisbane is a big change. We took a ferry over to the mainland yesterday morning after completing a 15K tempo walk on the island. A chartered bus met us at the ferry dock and took us the rest of the way to downtown Brisbane, about an hour north through mostly farm country and suburbs.
Here at the Marriott we each share a room with another athlete from the same event group. My roommate is Andrew Hermann, who I have known for years. We went to high school together back at Lincoln in Portland, OR and I actually was the one who introduced him to racewalking our senior year. My room is on the 23rd floor overlooking the northside of the river. I can't see much of the river at all unless I really lean out the window... oh, wait, they don't have windows that open when you are 23 floors up. I can look out over Chinatown and lots of office buildings and shops.
Brisbane has a large Asian population, lots of Korean, Japanese and Chinese, as well as people from all over the South Pacific Islands and other Southeast Asian countries. I wandered through Chinatown today and was amazed--it felt just like Chinatown in San Fran or NYC with roast ducks hanging behind restaurant windows, Mandarin (or Cantonese... Liz, help me out here) characters on all the shop fronts, and lots of cool cafes and stores.
I also wandered through the Queen Street Mall, a bustling pedestrian street that is jammed with shops and stores. It was packed with people going everywhere--culture shock after wandering around Couran Cove and stumbling over wallabies and listening to kookaburras up in the eucalyptus trees.
It's dinner time and the line behind me at the internet station here in the athlete lounge. Time for me to go fuel up for tomorrow's workout.
Cheers,
Philip
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