The Beginning.

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So I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out how I wanted to start this first blog entry.  <- I guess that was all I could come up with. Real creative Mitch. Real creative.  Anyways, I’ve never really been a great writer so as a public service announcement for the next few months expect a lot of these entries to be real confusing and grammatically incorrect. And now that I’m six sentences in I realize I should probably tell you all the point of my ramblings.  In about 0.71428571 weeks (look at me use my math skills. Didn’t get that engineering degree for nothing!) I will be embarking on a 2 month adventure to the wonderful continent of Europe to continue my running career.  Now, I’ve always been a little against keeping a blog about these sorts of things.  It’s just a pet peeve of mine, but I figured with an experience as large as this I should probably keep some sort of written memory about it.  Someday when I’m old, can barely walk, and have memory loss, my children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, pets, mirror etc. will ask me if I ever did anything other than sit in a chair watching ESPN. I can then pull out these handy dandy entries and say “I never had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow, but I did throw up a few times after running 600s!” And then we can all relive these moments together.  Or I can just bury this in a time capsule and someday 5739 years from now someone can read about it and have no idea what I am talking about.  Either way! I wanted to keep some sort of written memory and a few people asked to read as I travel along. 

Now you’re probably wondering what exactly is happening during this trip or how it all came about. Well, one day back in January I got this awesome idea after remembering my coach, Brett Willmott CSCS, mention one of his former athletes dabble with the idea of going to Europe after his collegiate running was over.  It never ended up happening.  So, one day while training I said “Coach! I want to go to Europe!.” And that was pretty much it.  We decided it would be awesome and I got to work with the planning.  During winter break I would spend hours researching meets across Europe using rough Google translations and searching, sometimes as far back as 7 pages in, for results from 3 years ago.  I created a mega calendar with what meets had different events and what the times were for the last few years.  After doing all this research, I realized that one of the best resources I should have used had been practicing next to me for an entire semester.  Insert Martin Kallur. Martin was a freshman on our team this year, but due to NCAA restrictions, that I don’t feel like getting into, was unable to compete for us this year.  So he practiced and competed unattached at a few meets.  Martin is from Sweden. Martin rules.  After realizing that he might be a huge help, Coach Willmott made mention of my grand idea.  Martin approached me at our home meet and immediately wanted to help. So! Over the next few months we would get together periodically and plan out my summer.  Martin dealt with my American ignorance and pointless constant questioning super well. Together we outlined the summer including rough travel plans and a meet schedule.  In March I purchased my plane tickets and there was no turning back.  No matter what happened from then on I was going to Sweden for the summer.  Weird.  

So, fast forward through classes and finals and graduation to where I sit today. Writing this entry.  As of now this is what my summer looks like:

• I will be living with Martin at his home in Sweden and training at his home track.  I am beyond grateful that Martin is letting me stay with him and that he wants to travel and compete with me.  Without him, there’s no way I would have been able to make this trip a reality. From there I plan to travel and compete at the following meets.

• June 27^th-400 at the Sollentuna GP in Sollentuna, Sweden.
• June 28^th-400ih at the Gothenburg Youth Games in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• July 6^th-400ih at the Memorial Leon Buyle Flanders Cup Meeting in Oordegem, Belgium.
• July 7^th-400 at the Klaverblad Arena Games in Hilversum, Netherlands.
• July 17^th-400ih at the Morton Games in Dublin, Ireland.
• July 23^rd-400ih at the Karlstad GP in Karlstad, Sweden.

After Karlstad, I have a few things I am still working on and will finalize once I cross the pond.  But I plan to run a few more meets and then go to Moscow, Russia to watch the World Championships of Track and Field before returning to my homeland.  In between all of this I plan to take Europe by storm, officially claim Switzerland as my own, and try not to get arrested.  To say I am excited for this opportunity is an understatement.  

Like I said before, I plan to write this blog to have for my own memory, but some people had asked about following along as well.  So here it is! I’m going to try to keep it updated fairly often so check back whenever or never. Your choice! Until next time. Party on Wayne.