MY LAST POST: thank you for being part of my experience

Hello everyone,

What an Olympic evening we had today with the brave 5000m race of Bekele and an unexpected female high jump Olympic gold medalist.

In any case, with the closing ceremony lurking from behind the corner of tomorrow and with a little bit of sourness left inside me following the misunderstood posting on signs, I have decided to conclude my blogging from the Olympic Games of 2008. I wanted to thank you all for your generous support and the inspiration you allowed me to draw from before my big race. I've been thinking hard to pick my most special moment of the Games and it is impossible though getting up from the ground, believing I was, indeed, going to be able to finish the marathon seems to shine through the blurred fragments of my Olympic experience. One other memory that has had a profound impact on me was a posting by a woman called Amanda whom I have never met. She said my story inspired her to start running and living healthier. Reading Amanda’s words lifted me from the very bottom of self-pity and disappointment the day after the race. It is my hope that I will continue living my life in a healthy and productive way and will inspire others to do the same.

After a short visit in Dalian and Xi-an, Aleksandar and I will head back to the good city of Salt Lake on Sunday, August 31st. I will be looking forward to a more personal sharing of the rest of our trip when I see you then.

Zuzana

Helping out my fellow sufferers

Feeling a little guilty about sighseeing during the Olympics, I was eager to help with the aid station for the 50k walk competition this morning. It ended up being a long day, frying on the sun from 6:00am till noon, but it was very exciting at the same time. We had three guys in the race. One (Peter Korcok) got top 16 in the World Championships and was hoping to get top 12 here... He ended up pulling out with a strained a muscle at mile 10. I felt so bad for him-his whole family was here to support him-his parents and two siblings. They were all so sad, it was heartbreaking. Another guy (Milos Batovsky) walked well, I thought, only finishing over ten minutes behind his personal best, which, given the conditions, is at least at the level of his best performance. The third guy (Kazo Verkin) got last, also struggling with some health issues.

I certainly gained a lot of respect for this event. They may not get the impact that marathon runners do, but clearly they struggle with overcoming plenty other limitations.

Here is a few pictures and some brief commentary.

Early in the race, it wasn't clear if the sky would clear completely, but unfortunatelly it did... It got VERY blue and very hot. The temperature climbed to 110 degrees Farenheit (about 43 Celsius) and these strong tough men struggled.... Some pulled out, others DQed, many went down with injuries. Yet, the Italian was able to walk the Olympic Record. AMAZING.

I like the story of this guy. He is called Roman and is from the Czech Republic. His dad represented Czechoslovakia in the Olympics in 1968 in 50k walk. At the age of 40, Roman got a chance to walk his own Olympics for the first time. He only had one person behind him and though he looked awfully uncomfortable at times, he was smiling big on his last lap.

Kazo Verkin walking into the stadium... He had his moment and enjoyed every second of it, blowing kisses into the camera.

"The small world" saying came true again as the guy at the station next to ours knew my father-in-law (he was there helping/coaching a Serbian guy).

A FEW FUNNY SIGNS: A REVISED POSTING

Explanation: My original posting which included pictures of somewhat uniquely translated signs, accompanied with somehwat humorous pictures of Aleksandar has been misunderstood. I wanted to set things straight with the upset blogger so here is my response/apology.

Thank you for your posting! I don’t think I have ever been “accused of” being demeaning toward other cultures (nor of being an American :)). Afterall, my mission as a teacher of English as a Second Language and as a teacher educator in training has been to promote appreciation of all languages and cultures. I want to thank you for your posting because it was a good reminder how humor does not often translate across cultures and how one linguist’s fascination with translations may have led me to an act that could be viewed as inappropriate. What was meant as a joke was, clearly, taken very seriously by you and perhaps by many other people from your culture. It was also a realization that this blog has reached an audience that it had never meant to reach and as such I need to be more careful about not insulting people from other cultures. I have decided to take the pictures off in order to show my respect for the Chinese culture. My experience here has been very positive and the last thing I wanted to do is to insult a Chinese person.

PS: I would disagree with your evaluation of Americans as being bad tourists. Cultural generalizations can be perceived as similarly innapropriate.

Forbidden City (+before and after)

Here is a quick update and a few pics taken yesterday and today. It was the first day after the marathon that my legs were not really sore so we did some walking around...

Yet another group of athletes left the Olympic Village yesterday morning. It's kind of sad watching people leave...

Alex being Alex on the Tiannamen Square...

Alex being Alex in the Forbidden City...

Zuzka in the Forbidden City: a stark contrast to her less than less elegant husband....

OK, I did get one decent picture out of him.

The end of the Forbidden City visit. It was interesting and cool to see despite the rain, but the guards made us walk a lot more than we wanted to... I guess you are not supposed to be in charge of your sightseeing experience in China.

The lunch in the Slovak House was nowhere ready so we went to do a bit more shopping. This is Alex's look that roughly translates to "Much as I love you, if you make me give you an opinion on one more tea box or silk scarf I will divorce you!".

I feel super important in the Slovak Representative House. The food is INCREADIBLE- I had three portions of halusky and all kinds of meants and of course, a really, really good traditional Slovak drink with foam on top :)))

I wish I could cook like this. OK, let me rephrase - I wish Aleksandar could cook like this.

Moving on....

Hello everyone! Thank you for all your emails and posts over the last few days - they provided a well-needed balance to a few considerably less positive evaluations of my race. Don't get me wrong, there is little negativity surrounding my race, but you all know how the human brain tends to focus on the negative rather than the positive regardless of a favorable distribution... For a while, I was wrecking my brain over what could possibly have gone that wrong and alex and I will, eventually, think about this again. However, I got to a point yesterday when I just felt too physically exhausted and emotionally drained to continue worrying about it. One of the possible conclusions is, for now anyway, that it may have been a mistake to have taken ibuprofen when the muscles started pulling initially (at about 20 miles) as this may have masked the pain that could have been manageable (with a few brief stretches), resulting in pain that almost wasn’t. I tried this in Houston and it worked (as it has worked for many other runners in other marathons), but perhaps given the different conditions here it backfired…

In any case, having bought a ticket for Aleksandar to watch some track and field yesterday, I found myself enjoying things again and letting go. Here is a few pictures and a brief commentary.

Aleksandar and his big track and field meet in a while. He was quite excited though both of us kept wishing we could share the experience (yes Albert, Malaika and co.- we should totally make it to London if not as athletes at least as spectators!)

At first we were not sure about Aleksandar’ seat, which was at about 150m before the finish line, right next to the pole vault competition. Little did we know it was to be the hottest seat in town that night. It was unbelievable to watch Elena Isinbaeva to compete against herself and overcome not only the Olympic, but also the World Record! The pictures show her getting one last piece of advice from her coach, and then the celebrations following the event. The movie clip does little to capture the atmosphere on the stadium.

The moment was quite magic. There were no other events-it was just her and her pole. The stadium just erupted at the end-it’s like everyone was just holding back the whole night though- both Alex and I were quite disappointed with the atmosphere in general (compared to your classic European meets, there seemed a lot less clapping and overall excitement). Perhaps cameras should be banned… then we as spectators would let ourselves to enjoy the moment and engrave it in memory rather than trying to capture it and keep it as evidence of our being there… I am guilty as charged though I at least have this blog as an excuse :)).

It was increadible to see just how much better Isinbaeva is compared to everyone else.

That must have been one good piece of advice from her coach as it led to the Olympic Record.

Does one ever get tired of seeing the excitement of a fresh Olympic champion? It's like getting an instant happiness shot. Seriously, next time I'm down, I am going to watch some reruns of the finish of some Olympic finals....

Sadly, we missed the actual event, but it was still fun to see the medal ceremony for 10000meters. I was curious to see Haile all happy in the dinning room (I knew he did not get top three). Once I realized two of his countryment took first and second, I knew what the reason for his infamous big smile was.

Jelimo was DOMINANT in 800m.

We also saw the 400m hurdles final where the three Americans took 1, 2, 3 and the long jump final (though only from a distance). The only really magical and special moment was during the 3000m Steeple Chase final. The race was exciting with a Frenchman getting second in a fabulous finish and an injured runner running his own race, almost getting lapped. He was blowing kisses and waving to the crowd- I thought it was quite refreshing to see someone do something like that. He got huge applaud on every lap.

PS: Those of you who worry about Aleksandar-he did get his visa today and will be able to come back to the US with me. Though he is becoming quite a Beijinger as far as moving around town goes, he said he'd rather avoid living in China :))).

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great".

These were the words from the League of Their Own that Aleksandar had for me as I poured my heart over the phone to him about all the misfortunes that had happened to me during my Olympic marathon. Here is a quick re-cap.

Last night my stomach was upset, but I figured it's just nerves. I took some Peptobismol and went to sleep, hoping it will sort itself out. In the morning I woke up at 4:30 and went over my pre-race routine. I caught a shuttle and got to the start at 6:30. There were all the great runners there-Dena Kastor, Paula Radcliff, Catherine Ndereba, and I had a chance to say hello to Maria Portilla who has run the Salt Lake City maathon and Liza Hunter-Gullivan from New Zealand whom I had met in Minnesotta earlier this year. The start was magic though there were no spectators. The first kilometer I stayed with the group because, suprisingly, they ran slower than the pace I wanted to run (about 3:50). Then I ended up holding back as the group started moving forward. I ran side by side with a woman from Costa Rica-we agreed to take turns running into the wind so the other could hide behind.

At 10k I saw Aleksandar and his dad, which was great. With the security as was in place I did not think I was going to be able to hear or see them. The pace started feeling too slow (I was only running about 3:52s with the girl from Costa Rica) so I just tried to push harder and she dissapeared. My stomach started feeling all upset and I had to stop in the bushes (thanks Sasha for the great "pit stop" tips) at 18k and then in a road side porto potty at 22k. I lost time and had to make up the distance on all the runners I had passed before I had to stop (between the two stops it was about two minutes . However, I was feeling strong and found myself picking the pace up with each kilometer. At kilometer 29 (about 18-19 miles) my calves started cramping up. I was suprised because I drank at every station and had two gels. I remembered I had two ADVILS taped to my bottle at the 30k mark so I took them with water and gel. I was able to go stronger or at least not slow down to the 35k mark. The walking coach, Juraj Bencik gave me my last bottle, yelling out I was in the 59t place. I focused on the runner ahead of me and told myself I had to get to her by 36k and then to the runner ahead of her by kilometer 37. I did.

At kilometer 38 I started feeling my legs, especially my hamstrings getting really tense. I was suprised because I did not feel like I ran out of glycogen or anything like that (I was really really good about my drinks-like my friend Carre in the trials, I hang on to my bottle longer than anyone else....). Suddenly, at kilometer 39, my hamstrig just seized up in the worst cramp I had in my whole life. I screamed and stopped and kept on screaming and holding the huge lump in the middle of my muscle-I thought it tore - it was excruciating pain. I thought my Olympics were over for sure, but at that time I almost did not care- I was just freaking out because I had no idea what was happening with my body. Within a few seconds the medics were there (I was so lucky they were not far from me). One of them was holding me, the other was massaging me, and the third was stretching my foot. After about two minutes I was able to start walking and shortly after that I started running. The crowds cheered and I remember telling myself-"OK, the worst is over, you have three kilometers to go, you can do this, you can finish, you don't have to fail".

I was able to get back into an ok pace (no more running 3:45 pace-I think I was just too scared it would seize up again), but I was running at least a 4 minute pace. My breathing was easy and I wanted to go faster, but I just kept telling myself that the goal was only to finish at this point. Now, at 40.5 kilometers, with not even a mile to go to the finish line, the cramp came back. I went down immediately. I grabbed the big knot, seizing up and cramping with both of my hands. Tears of pain came to my eyes, but I knew what I had to do. I just needed to massage it out. Just do what the medics did a mile ago.

So there I was, completely pathetic, massaging my hamstring, looking jealously at the runners I had worked so hard to pass who were now zooming by me. They were paying back the words of encouragement I had for them whenI had passed them, but it did not make me feel any better. I looked to the stadium. It was right there. I was next to it, I saw the Olympic flame, only I did not know if I was going to make it inside of it. I pushed back the tears and thought to myself-if I have to sit here for half an hour until I massage this knot out, I will. After about tree minutes, I tried to get up and... SUCCESS! I was able to run again. I even tried to catch up with the last of the girls that passed me, but within half a mile, my muscles, especially the left hamstring was acting out again so I just let go of everything and everyone and just let the crowd in the stadium carry me to the finish line. At least that's how it felt.

I challenge anyone to provide a less flattering picture of themselves. Not exactly your typical finish line photo that media love. But I guess that's what them cramps do to you.... (I do hope I will have at least one other, less painfully looking photo from the race to keep).

In the finish, I went down again with pain, they massaged it out one last time and I walked off the race of my life. The day was perfect. The course was perfect. My race strategy was perfect. My body gave up on me, but, upset as I am right now, I think I will, with time, look back at this experience as perfect, too. I never had to overcome myself like this before. The time may not reflect my fitness and ability, but it is an official Olympic time and my name will not be mentioned in the Olympic statistics with a DQ next to it.

Thank you all for sitting by your TV screens, watching me, praying for me, wishing me success. I thought of you at different times throughout the race (ok, not between 11-22k when all I thought about was finding the porto potty :))). I cannot believe how lucky I am to have had so many good people behind me. Thank you!
Now, it's off to have some rest and I will write after our night at the track and field events tomorrow night (with Aleksandar).

Note 1:

Official results: http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/AT/C73K/ATW099101.shtml

P.S.: Novinari zo sportu spravu celkom dobre zhrnuli v Slovencine:

http://sport.aktuality.sk/oh-peking-2008/slovaci-v-pekingu/olympijsky-maraton-vyhrala-tomescuova-tomasova-bojovala-az-do-konca

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone, I printed all your comments and went to my room and was just going to read then and not respond, but I found myself so overwhlemed by gratefulness that I thought I would write a quick note back to let you know that with having a little time to reflect, having Aleskandar with me for a few hours, and with all your heart-felt support I have been able to get to a point when I am truly looking forward to the race. It will be hard to stay cool and collected to get enough sleep, but with sleep or without it I will enjoy every step of the marathon, regardless of how painful it is. So many of you (some who I did not even think were following the blog) said things that meant so much and/or were right on point so again, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

A rychlo v Slovencine-vdaka za vsetky krasne slova na ktore ste si nasli cas-dostala som sa do bodu, ze sa na ten maraton uz neviem dockat. Drzte palce. Este raz vdaka!

Zuzana