September 27, 2000
Sydney, Olympic Village
Today's Olympic Village Headline:
Let the Games Begin!
The Olympics have been in full swing for 12 days and
today for the first time I really really feel like
they have started. The reason for that, I think, is
that all of my friends and family have arrived. My
parents and high school track/cross country coach got
in two days ago. My brother arrived yesterday. And
my girlfriend, her mom and two sisters, and my cousin
arrived today. Now we can start this party!
The past three days have spun by pretty quickly. I've
gotten into a nice routine of training, eating,
sleeping, visiting with my family, more eating, more
sleeping.
My typical day in the Olympic Village begins around 8
am when I wake up. My two roommates, Jason Pyrah
(1500 meter runner) and Pascal Dobert (3000
steeplechase), are usually still asleep. I get
dressed, walk up the hill to the main road that runs
through the center of the Village. Within 30 seconds,
a bus comes by, stops to pick up me and other athletes
and takes us two stops down to the main cafeteria
(open 24 hours a day). I walk into the HUGE white,
circus-like tent where hundreds of other athletes have
been eating breakfast since dawn. This morning, it
was raining, so I hurried in, found some hot cereal, a
banana, yogurt and some orange juice. Normally I just
have cold cereal, maybe some toast with peanut butter
and jelly.
By 9 am, I am back at my house ready to go to
practice. Curt, Andrew, and Coach arrive and we walk
back to the bus stop, take the bus to the
International Zone at the other end of the Village.
We walk outside the Village fencing, down the hill,
and to our two kilometer loop along a flat, paved bike
path. Today, Andrew and I were met by Matt Zaffino,
the reporter from KGW TV back in Portland, OR, who did
a short interview and then left his cameraman to film
us stretching and training for 45 minutes.
After the workout, two young girls rode up on little
scooters and asked all three of us and the Hungarian
walking team for autographs. They were excited
because the new development that they moved into a
year ago is adjacent to the Olympic Village, which
will be turned into a lovely suburb once the Games are
over.
Once back inside the Village, having survived the
accreditation badge scan, the airport security bag
x-rays and metal detector, I jump on another bus that
takes me back to the U.S.A. area. After nearly every
workout, hard or easy, I try to get in to the Sport
Medicine clinic to get some help stretching out and
loosening up my muscles. I spend from 15 to 45
minutes there before going back to my room, showering,
and by then it is usually lunch time.
After eating a high-carbohydrate meal, I waddle back
to my room and lie down. I met one of the mountain
bike riders from Colorado earlier in the week, and she
summed up the three rules for endurance athletes prior
to a major competition: 1) If you are standing up, sit
down. 2) If you are sitting down, lie down. 3) If you
are lying down, put your feet up. To that I usually
add, eat lots of carbohydrates and drink plenty of
fluids.
In the afternoons I sleep about an hour, read my book
for another hour, and then sit up to watch some of the
Olympics on TV. The great thing about being in the
Village is that we can watch any of the events, live,
at any time. There are 25 different Olympic channels
piped in from all the different venues around Sydney.
The past couple days, I have been over to the Olympic
Park to meet up with my family and friends in the late
afternoon. Yesterday, I went into downtown Sydney to
meet Mom, Dad, Malcolm (my twin brother) and Coach
Bailey (Lincoln H.S. Go Cards!). Today I met up with
the same group and my girlfriend and her family who
arrived today. It's nice to spend a couple hours
outside the Village relaxing and talking with the
people who came all this way to see me.
Dinner at 8pm, relax and read for another hour, and
then to bed around 10pm (now!).
My race is less than 36 hours away and I am starting
to get a bit nervous. I've received lots of emails
from school kids (THANK YOU!) who have asked me if I
get nervous before a big race or not. Of course I get
a little nervous, but I have also been in many big
races before. I know that if I get too nervous, I
will begin to worry and not be able to relax and race
as well as possible. The key to racing well is being
excited and confidence, and maybe a bit nervous, but
not anxious and worried. In order to have a great
race, you have to care about how well you do. If I
went into this race thinking, "Oh, it's just any old
race, whatever," I wouldn't do very well. I need to
think, "This is a great opportunity for me to really
get out there, have fun, stay relaxed, and walk super
fast!"
It's time for me to get some sleep now. Let's hope
that the U.S. baseball team doesn't wake me up when
they get back to the Village carrying Tommy Lasorda on
their shoulders.
Cheers from Sydney,
Philip
Cheers, mates!
Philip
BACK