How did I find myself sitting here with my legs up in the Hotel Pegaz in Krynica-Zdroj, Poland?
It must have been early June when I sent in my resume to the US Mt. Running team admin, upon a friends recommendation from University of Portland, a frequent feeder school into the “obscure” international team. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Juniors (19 and under) need not run a qualifying race, and being signed to run for UCLA in the Fall I wanted my summer training to be interrupted before my premier collegiate season. So I jotted PRs on the track and cross marks off to the Junior race officiator Paul Kirsch, hoping for the best. One race couldn’t hurt right? Especially because if I made the team I’d be able to look like a complete douchbag running unattached with a US kit and jersey.
Late July I heard back from the selection board while working for Runners Workshop HS XC camp in Tahoe, getting in some free altitude training. Paul tells me I’m on the team, sweats are coming in the mail and I have a mostly paid ticket to the mountain-realm of Poland.
Two weeks later my world is flipped upside down when I decide that for some key family and academic dilemmas that UCLA is not the best place for me to start my NCAA career. After I tell the coach my decision I find myself in piles of paperwork, sanctions, and burned bridges.
While training at altitude weeks after camp and back in Tahoe with friends, I woke up every morning checking my email first thing, looking for any indication of resolve by the NCAA or updates regarding my situation.
In the meantime I had been bumming on the couches and floors of friends in nearby Berkeley, training in Marin trying to get in all the hills I could to prepare for which was now a much bigger deal in Poland. Finally come September 4th, I had my bags packed in my USATF issued Nike suitcase and with some paper, pens and Pokemon Silver version set off for SFO.
At the terminal for our connection flight to Frankfurt, Germany, I met up with University of Portland Soph Danny Martinez (former Saint John Bosco State Champ), and La Costa Canyon HS Senior Emma Abrahamson. Despite being in close quarters with some screaming German babies that I wanted to punch, we made it to Frankfurt 11 hours later intact. In the airport I was contained by German Polizei for having a concealed weapon on my body: A rolling stick. After walking through security a second time I went to my gate without any trouble (if you ever try to sneak WMDs into Germany just go through customs twice).
Landing in Krakow we drive from Krakow to a small mountain town Krynica, which apparently gained notoriety during WWII as a Nazi spa escape. Here we have been posted at the Hotel Pegaz, talking to international friends like the Ugandan team, where we are provided with 3 delicious meals a day and a room which I share with University of Richmond’s Jordan Chavez, a returner from last years team. I don’t know exactly what to expect tomorrow.
The course was nothing short of intimidating when we ran it yesterday with two 4.5K loops with about 5K in downhill and several 20% grades. It is treacherously rocky in parts and single track divides the course in the final kilo and a half. I am trying to soak up whatever I can from team USA seniors like Max King, Magdalana Lewy-Boulet (Polish native), and Joseph Gray.
In a few hours we go into town for the opening ceremony where we will be together with all the teams for the first time. I hear that the Africans and Middle and Eastern Europeans go out especially fast and the start is essentially a facade of elbows. We race tomorrow at 10am Poland time which is about 1am in the US, probably explaining the lack of coverage and popularity of the sport in America. They have told us that this may be the best Junior team yet, and I think we have a chance at the podium, especially with the additions of Danny and I from California, as it is atypical to have sub-9 guys on this team. The speed in the “shorter” track distances is not very characteristic of this kind of running where some of the most successful runners are national class Nordic Skiers that can climb with unprecedented strength.
Tomorrow morning we take a gondola to the peak of the ski mountain to find out the outcome. It takes 15 minutes to get there from the hotel which tells you a little bit about the sharp grade up.
Let’s see how this goes.
naturesalute 