Last Day

We made it! That was a long trip, but so much fun. I’m so glad we have Skype to see each other. That makes it bearable to be away. I’m on the plane now and am so excited to see everyone.

Last night was a great finish to the meet for the USA. We won both relays, got a silver in the 5k, had our first finalist in the 800m in 12 years (he nearly medaled, but couldn’t quite hold on in the last 30m), the gold medalist in the women’s long jump, a finalist in the javelin, three runners in the 5k final, and three runners in the women’s 1500m. That’s the best showing for the US in distance running in decades. I met lots of great people and had a good time in Berlin. After the meet, there was a closing ceremony on the track that we all got to be in. I got two photos by the finish clock.

I tried going to church on Sunday morning, but got the notice in the picture here. The marathon course went right by the Tiergarten church and they had to cancel services. So, I wandered around the park until the marathon began. Kara Goucher got 10^th. That’s the best finish for an American in a really long time. She did that even with throwing up at mile 9.

At the airport, a lot of people asked for autographs. One of them asked me to sign the photo he had of me. It turns out it was a photo of Jeremy Wariner (silver medalist in the 400m). Other than the hair, I don’t really look like him. I also smile a lot more than he does. Yesterday, someone near the hotel ran after me as I was heading to the train station. He was calling out, “Mr Hardee!” I had to disappoint him when I told him I was not him (gold medalist in the decathlon). He’s up in first class on this flight and if you saw us together, you would realize could look a little similar if I was 5 inches taller and had 70 pounds more of muscle.

Berlin was a great place to see. There is so much history there. It’s strange to walk around seeing damage from the war in the churches, remnants of the wall, the concentration camp and then to see how different the country is today. The German’s have done a good job memorializing with respect. The confusion and lack of love for people because of religion or race is not evident anymore. I really enjoyed being with the Berliners and seeing how much they enjoy life now.

Men's Marathon

I just got back from the men's marathon. I took the long way home to see another church that was damaged in the war. The church is in Sudstern. I found an English shop in Sudstern. Finally, I was able to find some Jelly Babies, but they were $5 for a small bag, so I passed them by. I did get a nice pastry from the backerie.

Here are a couple of photos from the marathon. I was trying to be artistic with Matt Gabrielson from the US in one. Guess who is in the lead? Kenya and Ethiopia were right up front as expected.

Sachsenhausen

Josh and I went to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp this morning. I'm glad we went there, but it's mostly a depressing experience. There were some highlights though. The last part we went into had exhibits of some of the little pieces of hope that showed up every now and then through all the misery. The text next to this shoe at the concentration camp says, "Ludwig Peters was given this decoration as a present by a young, Russian, fellow prisoner. the 16 year-old, who died shortly afterwards from tuberculosis, had put aside part of his meager bread ration and had molded these flowers from it. This gesture came from the heart. It was the most beautiful present of my life."

In the evening, we had some good performances, like a gold and silver in the men's 400m. However, after the 4x100m, GBR put in a protest saying we passed the baton too soon on the last exchange. My video showed that we probably did, but it was really close. After the protest and our appeal, the US men's team is out of the relay for the second year in a row. Hopefully, the women will do better.

A lot happened today

We had a very long day at the track planned, but decided to take it in shifts and maybe miss filming some things. So, I had the morning off until 12:00pm, then I was at the track until 10:00pm. After a run, I ate breakfast and went to the Zoologischer Garten trainstop. I didn’t go into the garden, but looked around an old church. These are some photos from it. I will find out its history when I get back to the hotel. I’m at the track now filming the hammer throw and decathlon pole vault. I have a little break to write this since our only thrower in flight 1 was Jessica Cosby and she threw her personal best to qualify for the finals in one throw. I’ve attached the video of it here. She spins really fast. The church was really interesting since you could see the marks from where it was burned and there are a lot of pieces missing. I’m guessing it was partly destroyed in WWII. I’m curious to find out.

Before getting back on the train to get to the stadium, I finally got an ice cream cone. I’ve been waiting on that for a long time since I’ve been here. The ice cream shop in the hotel is closed all week, because they could not handle the demand of all the people that need ice cream this week. It was really good especially when it was a little bit melted.

Tonight is the men’s 200m final. Everyone is putting their predictions of the winning time. My guess was 19.29. We’ll see later on if I’m right. Usain looked really good in the 100m final and didn’t let up to celebrate. The question is if he’s tired and won’t do well. In the preliminary rounds, people are saying he doesn’t seem as relaxed and isn’t playing around as much as usual. I still don’t see anyone beating him. It’s too bad that Tyson Gay (the best US 200 runner) is not running due to a hamstring problem.

Okay. So, he was 0.10 quicker than I predicted. That was fun to watch. The 110mH final was good too. It took them a long time to figure out who got second and third.

The traffic light pictures are Ampelmaennchen. It's kind of fun to read about Ampelmaennchen. Click here for Wikipedia's description.

The church was badly damaged in an air raid during WWII.

The last picture is at the stadium tonight. It was totally sold out. That's a lot of seats and money. The cheapest seats are 35 Euro for one session. There are two sessions a day.

Tomasz Majewski

I was just on the elevator with this guy.

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_athletics/MAJEWSKI_T_20080815_GH_T.jpg

He is 6'8.5" and 290lb. I wasn't sure if I felt really safe or should be really scared. Anyway, nothing much happened. I got off on my floor and he continued on. It's kind of fun to see someone that big. He throws the shot for Poland.

17 August 2009

Aaron and Mary Jane will be so jealous now. We made it to Zum Haxnivert. Others of you might not be so jealous, since you may not enjoy black pudding and liver dumplings. I had Wiesn' Teller. We all had the drink that begins with an "S". I can't remember what it is called, but it is Fanta and Coke mixed. Everything was really good, except I still don't really like sauerkraut.

We attempted to rent scooters for the morning and cruise around, but ran in to troubles. The first place had closed down. The second place stopped renting scooters and only sells them now. We couldn't find the last place, but we had fun riding trains and walking around. We stopped by Alexandarplatz (famous for its TV tower). Giraffitti tagged along for the trip. She was sad we didn't get a scooter ride.

The meet went great last night for the women's steeple and men's 10k. Everyone performed well. Chelsea Johnson got a silver in the pole vault. That wasn't expected, but she did well and others including the world record holder did poorly.

I'm off to the track now. I'll write more later.

I miss my family. It would be fun to have them here.

16 August 2009

I'm back at the hotel for lunch. All of our steeplechasers struggled and Jill had a bad day throwing. It's still a fun trip though.

On the way back from the track I met Augustine Yawo (the head coach for Ghana). We had a good talk about sport science and filming at these meets. He knows Leonard (our BYU sprint coach), so I got this picture with him. Pieces of the Berlin Wall are in the background. I'll hopefully add to this later if I get back from the track in time. The men's 100m is the last event tonight. It will probably take a very long time to get back.

Wow!! I just finished filming the men's 100m final. I'm posting it on youtube as I write this. Jessica Ennis from GBR won the heptathlon in style too, but not the same style as Bolt. Tyson Gay ran an American record 9.71, but that was not fast enough to win tonight. The best part about tonight was having Giraffitti with me. She loved seeing the races and especially enjoyed the heptathlon. She said it was fun to see the same people doing all kinds of different events. Giraffitti and I love the granola bars I get from the hotel. We have eaten so many of them. We shared this one at the meet. It says, "Warning! Corny!" on it. The taste like the chewy Quaker granola bars.