“Tri-ing Around the World”

This is my second report for USAT...I'm doing a daily journal for the website...read on to see what has been going on for the past couple of days!

August 30th, 2007 – Reporting from Hamburg, Germany
Lots of good things come in groups of three...triathlon for example, is a perfect paring of three sports. Peace, love, and happiness…planes, trains, and automobiles…peanut butter, jelly, and bread. And then there is the saying that bad things also come in groups of three. Yesterday, three members of the Elite team were victim to a blood clot, a seizure, and food poisoning. I took the latter upon myself and had one of the most miserable 24 hours of my life!
Fortunately, everyone has made it through the night and is recovering with plenty of time before the races. This is the first time that I have felt well enough to type a journal entry and I am happy to be reporting from the Team USA bike room where we have free internet set up.
Our hotel, the Grand Elysee, is beautiful and just down the road from the race course. All the American Elite, U23, and Junior competitors, coaches, and staff are staying here. We have a room for storing and working on our bikes. We have rental vans for transportation to the pools. We have a great network of people in place to ensure that each American athlete has the best race of their lives.
The first races of this World Championships are tomorrow…Under-23 men and women and Junior boys and girls. In the early morning and in-between the races, the bike course is going to be open for ‘training’. During these ‘training’ times, you will see the 5k bike loop filled with men and women from the elite race stretching their legs and familiarizing themselves with the 10+ turns on each loop.
The entire American Elite team is in town…Sarah Haskins, Margie Shapiro, and Julie Swail were the last women to arrive. Today, the final American men will be arriving for their race on Sunday afternoon. Matty Reed has been racing and training in Europe for over a month so he just took a train into the station down the street. Everyone else was privilege to one of the 10 hour red-eye flights from the States to Munich or Frankfurt.
The Hamburg Airport, our final destination, is also right down the road. I want to send a big Thank You to Katie Baker who can now do the drive from hotel to airport with her eyes closed after taking care of all the athlete and staff pick-ups. There were some extra trips to the airport thrown in because a few of the U23 athletes arrived sans bike boxes and luggage…the airline’s response was “We have NO clue where your bags are…but, we will keep you posted!”
With the opening ceremonies for these World Championships only a few hours away, we have our fingers crossed that we have seen the worst. This leaves us open for some amazing racing and results from all categories this weekend. We are counting on the American triathlon fans sending positive energy and good luck vibes across the pond. Thanks again for following our journey!