Beijing and Mammoth

Numbers...

Monday, August 4: 4:30 PM - 8 Miles, 53 min @ Spring Road
Tuesday, August 5: 7:00 PM - 8 Miles, 53 min in Chino Hills
Wednesday, August 6: 8:00 AM - 10 Miles, 65 min
Thursday, August 7: 7:00 AM - 10 Miles, 65 min @ Mt. SAC
Friday, August 8: 7:30 AM - 10 Miles, 64 min
Saturday, August 9: 7:00 PM - 10 Miles, 60 min (Fast)
Sunday, August 10: 7:00 AM - 10 Miles, 63 min... Drove to Mammoth Lakes

Week Total = 66 Miles

Monday, August 11: 6:30 AM - 10 Miles, 70 min @ Twin Lakes
6:00 PM - 5 Miles, 35 min @ Crater Canyon
Tuesday, August 12: 7:00 AM - 10 Miles, 67 min @ Hot Springs
Wednesday, August 13: 7:00 AM - 10.5 Miles, 70 min @ Hot Springs

My last post ended with my visit to New England and included a recap of events with family, friends, and the running of the Beach to Beacon 10K. Since then, a lot more traveling has occurred and a lot more excitement has entered this guys experiences.

I flew back to the west coast last Tuesday and settled back into my training routines in Chino Hills. At this time, a very exciting event began on the opposite side of the globe and has occupied most of my time outside of running, eating, and sleeping over the last week. That event of course is the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. First of all, I have to say that the opening ceremonies were by far the coolest I have ever seen. Right away, Beijing showed the world that despite any criticisms they've received, they were prepared to host one of the greatest Olympic Games in history. So much detail and artistic attention was put into these ceremonies and the host structures and it definitely started things off with a bang.

It has been so cool to see all the extensive coverage of these games through various media resources such as NBC, NBColympics.com, Flotrack, and several other internet sites. If you've spent much time on this blog, you already know that I am a huge fan of track and field, and of sport in general. My main attention is generally on distance running, as expected; but I also enjoy all the aspects of other individual sports like Swimming and Gymnastics. In general, sports channels and sports fans around the world, focus on Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, etc. and there is little attention on these individual sports that I mentioned above. This is generally the opposite when it comes to the Olympics. Once every four years, these sports get the spotlight and the other team sports are generally put on the back burner. I believe this is the case because the Olympics tend to focus on individual stories of greatness and these individual sports, in my mind, are the best at showing those achievements and showing the true Olympic spirit.

As I've alluded to in previous posts, I enjoy not only the competitions themselves, but the stories behind them. I find inspiration in seeing an athlete overcome struggles or disappointments, and find something within themselves to achieve greatness, something that didn't come easy, something that wasn't just given to them, but something they had to fight for, and devote their lives to. When I watch these Olympics, I see countless stories that exhibit just that, instances where you can see it all in their performances... the heartache, the struggle, the fight within themselves, and the joy in doing something they've never done before. In the past week, I have been soaking this up every chance I get, and I have really enjoyed following the amazing stories of these athletes. Athletes such as Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, Venus and Serena Williams, Misty Mae Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and so many others.

The Track and Field events start in just a couple days and I can't wait to continue following these amazing stories in a sport that I am so involved in. There will be many more amazing accomplishments in these games and many more stories that will be written into the history books for future athletes to look back on. It's these things that allow us to dream bigger and hopefully inspire us to achieve bigger as well.

While all this has been going on in Beijing, I've been trying to put all this inspiration to good use as I've been spending my days in Mammoth Lakes, California, one of the most beautiful areas in the country and one of the coolest places I've ever been to. On Sunday, my teammates Steve, Carlos, and Humberto all drove up to this small town located in the Sierra Mountains. There are about 7,000 people that reside here, the base elevation is about 8,000 ft above sea level, and every time you step outside, you see breathtaking backdrops that many only see on post cards. For many of these reasons, it is also home to some of the country's (and the world's) greatest athletes such as: Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezighi, Ryan hall, Jen Rhines, Dan Browne, Ian Dobson, and many others. The runs have been awesome and the adjustment to altitude has been pretty smooth thus far. We will be spending about 10 days (maybe longer) up here to focus on our base training before we get into the cross country season so I'm trying to get in as much quality as I can up here, while also experiences as much of this natural beauty as I can. I've taken about 200 pictures already as I've tried to capture every new view that I come across, but the pictures never seem to show what we see in person. I'll try to get these photos uploaded soon so you can see some of the views yourself, but for now, I'll just post a few here.

I'll try to get another post up before I leave and share with you all these great experiences, but since our only resource for internet is the Mammoth Public Library, it's hard to get frequent access. On that note, I realize that I am very behind on email responses, so if you are one of those waiting for a reply, please be patient. I haven't forgotten about you.

Until next time, enjoy the pictures below, enjoy the Beijing Olympics, keep in touch, and as always, stay tuned...