Beijing Olympic National Stadium Video

Three days to the departure

I am feeling a little under the gun with the final preparations. It is also quite hard to gauge training at this point- still doing enough, but not over training. But, I know once I am on that plane I will be able to leave the worries behind and focus on preparing the best I can.

Biggest concern: My respiratory mask. It's been hard getting the company to ship it and both Aleksandar and I feel it would be extremely beneficial to have it. Apparently, all the endurance athlete on the US track team have gotten one and the British team is using them (click here to read a story about the British endurance athletes). There was a good segment on NPR talking about just how bad the air really can get and another story on what the US athletes are doing to prepare that some of you may like to listen to. Click here to listen to the story.

Running Away: my journey to the Olympic qualifier

My running journey began almost two decades ago, when, as an eleven year old, I found myself glued to the TV, watching Rosa Motta from Portugal win the Olympic marathon in Seoul. I remember thinking to myself - “I think I could be good at that”. They closed the swimming pool and I immediately registered in a local athletic club. Within a year I broke 5 minutes in 1500m (thank you coach Gigac for all your effort and time to get me there!) and a close by Sports High School coach noticed me and encouraged me to continue running at their High School. I never really did anything too special, only getting to 4:35 in 1500m and 10:15 in 3000m. But, unlike many of my fellow athletes in other disciplines, I never got injured and I never lost my love for running (thank you coach Okal) though I took long gaps in training during my early college years. What led me to rediscover my passion for running again was a chat with Alena Mocariova, a former elite Slovakian runner, following a small local race. She talked me into training with her and equipped me with running clothes, shoes, and an abundance of enthusiasm. I managed to get to low 10 minutes in 3000m, which got me a spot on the European Team Cup competition in Pula, Croatia where I further improved to 9:50. In turn, this result helped get me a running scholarship at the Western State College in Colorado, where I first realized what it was going to take to be a good runner. (For one thing I learned that running 30-40 miles a week was too little to expect any major improvements.) My running career at Western State, though short, was fruitful and utterly enjoyable (thank you coach Vandenbusche and all the teammates in Colorado!).
After almost two years in Colorado I was ready to move on and start graduate school. With the Olympics (ok, and a boyfriend at the time) being in Salt Lake City, it was a no-brainer. I applied to the applied linguistics program and moved to Utah in 2002. I only had one semester of eligibility left and started the year with an injury, but I got to work with yet another fantastic coach-Brian Apell who supported my training in 2003 when I won my first marathon (the Top of Utah marathon in 2:47:31) and in 2004 when I first qualified for the Olympic Games. Sadly, with my time only being a B standard (2:41:40) and with me being a relatively unknown athlete in Slovakia, I did not make the Olympic team. Even worse, I struggled with a stubborn iliotibial band injury following the 2004 marathon and was not physically or emotionally to run another marathon until 2007 when I was a runner-up in the Salt Lake City marathon. Though I only ran 2:53, I started believing again that it was possible to get back in shape and try for the next Olympics. With coach Apell being gone, Aleksandar (whom I married in 2006), was there to help with setting up my training schedule, even run most of the workouts with me. He adapted coach Apell’s training and I thrived on the adaptations and the support. Then Houston marathon came and, on January 13th, I qualified for the Olympic Games (thank you Aleksandar for running the race with me, it would not have happened without you!). Though I showed a considerable improvement (I ran 2;39;26), I was not quite able to get the A standard, which would have guaranteed me a spot on the Olympic team. Instead, I found myself on an emotional roller-coaster sorting my chances from a series of optimistic and pessimistic emails from Slovakian coaches, journalists, and friends. Finally, on July 19th the news came-this time, the B standard was going to be enough to make the Olympic team!