September 23, 2000
Sidney, Olympic Village
It's getting down to crunch time here at the Olympic
Village. Today was the last of the intense speed
workouts before the race and it went really well.
As I prepared for this morning's workout, the drama of
yesterday's 20k race was still fresh in my mind. The
tension and fatigue of watching yesterday's grueling
race made it tough to focus on the intervals that I
had to do today. What made it easier was seeing that
20K gold medalist, Robert Korsenovksi, and my training
partner, Jefferson Perez, were out on the course for a
workout the day after such a hard effort. If they
could do an easy workout after a hard race, the least
I could do was my tough workout.
Now that the men's 20k is over, the focus at the
practice loop definitely shifted to the men's 50k.
All of the heavies were out in force: Korsenovski
(Poland) will be a strong contender in the 50K (he'll
have seven days of rest between the 20K he just won);
Jesus Garcia (Spain), 1997 World Cup Champion;
Valentin Massana (Spain), 1996 Olympic bronze; Tomaz
Lipzig (Poland), 1999 World Cup silver; and the guy
from Kazakstan who won the World Cup last year. Not
to mention a couple Russians who walked really really
fast earlier this year.
I did some of my workout with Curt Clausen, my U.S.
teammate who finished 4th at the World Championships
last year in the 50K. Usually no one pays much
attention to the American walkers, but all the
athletes were keeping a close eye on us. They were
looking at our technique, our shoes, how relaxed we
looked, how fast we were going. Several coaches would
check their watches when Curt went by to see what kind
of splits he was walking for his 2Ks. It's nice to
see the U.S. walkers being taken seriously.
On the way back to the Village, we were stopped by a
pair of journalists who wanted to do a quick
interview. It turns out they work for NBC and were at
our 50K Olympic Trials in Sacramento back in February
of this year. They promised to send some coverage
back to the NBC affiliates in Portland, OR, and
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. It may be brief-lived, but
being somewhat famous is fun.
It would be easy to get carried away here at the
Village, too. There are always media people roaming
around outside asking for interviews and trying to
meet with the athletes. It would be so hard to be
someone like Marion Jones or Michael Johnson who is
always being asked for an interview. I'll take my
fame and fortune in small doses, thank you very much.
Well, it's time for me to get a shower and dinner.
I'll try to stay away from the free McDonalds, but
those apple pies are just so tempting.
Cheers, mates!
Philip
BACK