Well ladies and gentlemen, the day finally came. My first European race. Hell yeah that sounds awesome. I think I might have explained it a bit
before, but now is probably a good time to explain the meet more in depth. I’ll first start off by saying that the
US really has nothing like this, though we totally should. I think I might make
it my goal to infiltrate the USATF and set it up myself. Anyways, Sweden has a professional 3
meet series called the Folksam GP.
Each meet has different events and is set up with a preprogram, main
program and then after program.
The main program has prize money for all the events which usually end up
being pretty good. Something
around a grand for first and then decreasing by place. The preprogram usually has “overflow”
heats of the main program events and then also some other events. The after program is usually long
distance stuff(though not always). The meets are set up with a bunch of sponsors. Televised. VIP landing etc. Mostly
Swedish runners but also including invited international runners. Or runners who can find a way to
infiltrate the entry system and enter themselves. This guy. It’s
a big thing here. They really put what looks like a lot of work into these
meets and the way they are run really shows that. Today I ran in the Sollentuna GP. The 2nd meeting in this series. I ran the 400 which unfortunately was a
preprogram event and didn’t have money up for grabs. I say unfortunately because it would be cool to compete for
money. But there was nothing
unfortunate about running a meet in Sweden.
Starting out in the morning, Martin and I had our usual
breakfast. Eggs, yogurt,
cereal. Side note. I think I’m
starting to like eggs. What is happening to me?! End side note. After that we
set me up with a Swedish phone number.
Martin was super awesome and got me a prepaid card before I came. We couldn’t get it to work in my phone,
but his father had an extra one I could use. Which absolutely rules. Thanks Mr. Kallur slash Martin! Dear Swedish bus system. Feel free to drop me off in the middle of nowhere now. I can just call Martin. Actually, keep dropping me off in
Vikarbyn. I still don’t think I’m ready to get lost in Sweden yet.
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| Commence texting all the chicks I meet. |
After
breakfast the two of us started to pack our bags. Leave it up to me to be last minute with my packing. What can I say. I live life on the wild
side. Once packed, we made our way
to Falun to pick up two runners from Martin’s club who would be traveling with
us this weekend. Dennis and
Elias. Road trip city!
The drive to Sollentuna was about 2.5 hours long and aside
from everyone except me speaking in Swedish, not too much happened. Actually, we stopped at this rest area
thing for lunch and I tried ordering grilled chicken. But the guy working there didn’t know what that was so Elias
ordered for me. Yet again could
have ordered me herring, but it tasted like chicken so it must have been
right. Oh and I’ll use this time
to mention the bathrooms in Sweden.
They’re super tiny. Like
there’s the toilet and the door.
Pretty much no room between the two. I’d take a picture, but I’m pretty sure most Swedes think
I’m really weird and that would probably just bring it to a whole new
level. I’ll probably still take a
picture before the trip is over. I
don’t know how they can go to the bathroom in those things. Weird. We also passed this like Chinese castle fortress thing on
the highway that Martin said was a restaurant and a hotel and like supposed to
be built into this big thing but nothing really ever happened with it. It looked pretty funny. I guess more
happened on the trip than I thought.
The night before the meet I checked up on the meet entry list
like any good stalker does. I
mentioned it in the previous entry, but the Ethiopians were having their 10k
World Championship trials at the meet.
That meant that Dejen Gebremeskel, and Hagos Gebrhiwet were running for
the men and Meseret Defar was running for the women. Epic! Also. Hassan Mead
from the Oregon Track Club was running in their 10k. And Garret Heath was
running the 1500. Solid. 98.97467% of people reading this will
have no idea who any of these people are, but just understand that it rules and
we’ll be all good.
We arrived at the meet real early, because all of us were
running in the preprogram and the 110HH were first. Holy. Crap. That’s all I can say because no matter what I
say I won’t be able to describe to you all what my reaction was when we entered
the track area. Just know that for
the rest of the night everyone made fun of me as I would get giddy about all of
the smallest things. Like people who carry your stuff for you. And signs lining
the track. And super nice blocks. And monitors listing the heights/distances of
the field events. And a big grandstand on both sides. And numbers that aren’t
made of paper! Seriously. It was fabric! Not Paper! What is this mystical place
and please make it so I never leave! It was super impressive to me. This is normal for them. Damn. USATF as
much as I want you to get on their level. I don’t think you can.
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| Heaven is a place on Earth. |
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| Orange and Blue blocks. Orange and Blue gosh dang blocks! |
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| Fabric. FABRIC! LEGIT! |
After I got over my initial state of shock, we went to the
check in tent to pick up our numbers and get race information(the fabric number
excitement actually came after this.) Upon check in we were informed that
Martin got bumped up from the B heat to the A heat which was in the Main Program. Rad! I’m about to disclose a secret
here. Don’t tell Martin. But first a background. We were originally going to leave after
the preprogram because we have a 5 hour drive to Gothenburg and I am slated to
run on Friday. When we were told
that he got bumped up I was at first pumped because this meant he’d get some
really awesome competition(which with how good he is would be super helpful),
but then I realized that we’d get to stay and watch the Main Program as well!
Hell to the yeah! Sorry Martin. Actually no. I’m not sorry. Thanks for being
awesome. Everyone checked in as running for Falu IK(the club they run for) but
when I went to check in I got to say “Mitchell Switzer running the 400 for
USA”. I felt like such a badass. Even if I’m not actually on the USA team. I
ended up being placed in the B heat with the fastest seed. Cool with me! Also. Funny story that
may not end up being funny down the road.
Actually it will still be funny.
So there are entry fees for these meets except if you were an invited
runner(which this is one of the only meets that I didn’t end up being invited
for). I came fully prepared with
Swedish Crowns to pay for my entry.
After checking in I realized I never ended up paying. I asked everyone about this and they
said that the meet charges the club not the person. Which means that the USA is getting charged. Not sure who,
could be Obama, could be the USATF, could be no one, but I hope its USATF. That’ll
teach em. Watch I don’t get allowed back in the US because I have like 10
dollars of outstanding debt from this meet. Sorry for partying!
We went and set our stuff down in seats near the finish line
so we had perfect views of races.
Early on in the meet, most of the fans aren’t there yet so there was a
lot to choose from. I spent the
next couple hours doing my usual premeet habits. Going to the bathroom too many
times. Putting my number on my
uniform. Changing. Walking around aimlessly. I probably picked my nose
somewhere in there. Yanno. The usual.
When walking back to our seats I was attacked out of nowhere by Yolanda!
Sollentuna is her home track, and while she wasn’t running she still came to
watch. Hell yeah. When I finally
got my bearings I looked right next to her. In the flesh was another one of my teammates from UVM. Ed
Simon! Ed just decided he was going to hop on a plane and come to Sweden for a
few days. Even more hell yeah! I finally had another person who could feel just
as lost and confused as I have been and someone else to speak English to that
only speaks English! The most hell yeah! After taking a few pictures and
talking about various topics(in English I might add) it was time for Dennis to
run. He was in the B heat of the
110HH and it only had 2 runners in it which kind of stinks. But he PR’d! So
that ruled.
Soon after it was time for me to start warming up for my
race. Guys. Guys. Guys. This is
actually happening! I warmed up on the turf field right behind the track. The meet was super official so we had
to be at the call tent 20 minutes before the start to check in and then they’d
escort us onto the track for our race.
I spent my usual hour doing drills and running and all that jazz. But before heading to the tent I put my
uniform on. A month and a half ago
I was taking my UVM uniform off for what I thought would be the final time. It was a very strange feeling at the
time and being completely honest, I left it on until I got into bed that
night. I was and still am very
proud to have been given the opportunity to run for UVM. Everybody may say they’re proud of
their alma mater, but for me, for 4 years I gave every ounce of sweat and
sometimes blood I had to represent it(What’s up Armory). Something that I don’t think most
people can grasp fully. Maybe they can and I’m just being overly sentimental,
but running for UVM really meant a lot to me. Before leaving on this trip I was given the OK to continue
wearing the UVM uniform while I race in Europe. Something I was and still am beyond pumped to do. So I threw that sucker on, did a few striders
and checked in at the call tent.
Its funny, because they said everything in Swedish. Except if they were talking directly to
me. In the call tent they had
powerade that we were free to take.
Works for me! By the end of the meet I think I took somewhere around
12. Just charge Obama for me.
After being informed of our lane assignments, we were escorted out onto the
track.
The 400 was the last preprogram event, so the stands were
actually pretty packed for my race.
We walked up to the start line and each lane had an individual person
with a basket to take all of your warm ups and bags away for you. Mine talked to me in Swedish. I just
nodded at him and smiled. He was
probably asking for my autograph.
Guess I’ll never know. From
there they took what felt like forever to announce everyone’s names and get the
race started. Hearing my name
announced was just a really awesome feeling. And because I had the fastest seed in the heat they
mentioned my name again to inform the crowd. Dope. The starter
blew the whistle and everyone took their sweats off. Me in my excitement already had them off. Whatever. The starter then began the commands. In English. It blew my mind. I had been mentally prepping for random
sounds and watching what the other runners do. Guess that’s not the case! So I proceeded to get down into
the blocks. As I was waiting for
set one of the officials came over and told me to take my fingers off the
line. They weren’t on the
line. But I wiggled my fingers a
bit and that made her happy so whatever works I guess. The starter then called set. And we
waited. For what felt like forever.
I probably could have written one of these blog posts in the time it
took to start the race. Then
finally the gun went off. Ladies and Gentleman. Let me introduce you to what it
looks like to hit a wall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzSy-ZA1Z3E
I went out super hard. Gotta make a name for yourself somehow
right? I heard Europeans like runners with balls. Well. Today I
had them. And I paid real hard for it.
While I was running I could hear the announcer, but I had no clue what
he was saying, though I did recognize my name. Score. I had Martin translate the video for me and turns out they
made mention of how hard I was going out. Sorry for partying! The last 100 was
pretty tough, but I still ended up running 50.87 and winning my heat. They even made mention of that at the
end! Technically because I’ve never run an outdoor 400 before it was a PR. But I’ve run much faster 400s. As an opener for my European Season.
I’ll take it. Also. This was the first heat/race I’ve won
since my Junior year. It took me a
bit to come to that conclusion but once I did it actually felt really
cool. Even if it was the B
heat. After the race I was dead. The lactic acid in my body was massive
and all I wanted to do was crawl up in a ball and call for my mommy. During my exhausted haze I tried
looking for my stuff. It was no
where to be found next to the track.
I started to panic inside and immediately asked/yelled where my stuff
was. I was told it was in the
mixed zone. Turns out no one stole
it and this meet was just awesome enough to bring it out for me. Oops. Gotta keep the party going
somehow.
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| Sponsor back drop? Free Powerade? Baskets containing stuff? RAD! |
After the race I did a little cool down jog around the lake
next to the track with a runner from Martin’s club, Alias(he ran a huge PR in
the 400 A heat. Hell yeah!). We
just talked about training philosophies.
Mainly how he trains for the 400.
It was real cool to see how different our training was and to compare
mine to his. That’s one thing I
really want to try to do during this adventure. I want to learn more ideas and thoughts on training. That and fan boy at all the really good
runners!
Which brings me to my next topic. All the really awesome runners. As I mentioned before(this is like the 3rd time
now) Ethiopia had their 10k World Championship qualifier. Well aside from the runners I
previously mentioned, there was also a super good runner who was not running at
the meet. Abubaker Kaki. A Sudanese 800 meter runner. He’s a 2x
World Indoor Champion. Runner up in the 2011 Outdoor World Championships. And
holds the 800 record for Sudan in a time of 1:42.23. Just take that in.
1:42.23. Hella fast. Anyways. He lives and trains at Yolanda’s high
school for the summer and was at the meet to hand out some awards and kill some
time like any super awesome professional runner would. So. With my trusty
autograph baton in hand(it was the only thing I could think to bring for
autographs) I walked up to him and asked for his autograph. I was probably a little too forward,
but whatever.
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| Look at it closely. Pretty recognizable signature. Randy Jackson from American Idol. |
After that I really just hung out, watched the meet, and then
grabbed my free meal. Yeah that’s right. Free. Meal. I think technically if I had paid the entry, then it
wouldn’t actually have been free. Oh well. Thanks USATF! It was chicken stew,
salad, and rice. Either way. Free
meal at a meet in Sweden. A MEET IN SWEDEN! This shit rules and I’ve only run
once so far. I still have like 7 races left!
Once I finished my meal I went back to our seats to get ready
for Martin’s race. Like I said
before. Martin was in the A heat.
Everyone in this race was real good. Like 14 mid to 13 mid range. He got lane 8 since he was a last
minute bump up. This made it
difficult to get a video so I just opted to cheer and watch. Sorry Martin. Martins race ruled.
He ran a PR of 14.42. Yeah you read that right. 14.42. Hell yeah. I never actually got to run with Martin
while I was in college, so I’m super pumped to be able to do it with him this
summer.
After the race we all immediately went back to the warm up
area to congratulate him on an awesome race. While he cooled down I noticed
Hassan Mead doing some light stretching near where we were standing. Hassan
runs for the Oregon Track Club Elite and was like billion time All-American for
Minnesota. I figured. Well. Not everyday he’s just standing there. Might as
well go talk to him! So I went up
and wished him good luck. He
actually seemed pretty pumped that someone knew who he was(I didn’t have the
heart to tell him I pay way to much attention to professional track runners). We talked for quite a while about
various topics such as how awesome European meets are and how the US doesn’t
have anything like it(glad I’m not the only one who feels that way). Turns out he was only rabbiting the 10k
and that he flew in a few hours earlier. I couldn’t imagine having to rabbit a
10k with jetlag. Brutal. He asked me all about my European plans and was pretty
impressed with what I was going to do.
We talked about how more people should get to do this. I’m pretty lucky. Eventually he had to go continuing
warming up, so I wished him good luck one last time and watched him run
off. I didn’t feel like I could
ask him for his autograph. After that conversation we’re pretty much on the
same level. Well not really. He’s real good, but we had a connection. During my
talk with him I realized how refreshing it was to talk to someone from America
and to not be surrounded by a bunch of sounds I don’t understand for a bit.
Sure Ed was there, but I knew Ed. This was someone I’d never met. Thousands of miles from home. As cool as not understanding anything
is. It can get a bit overwhelming.
Martin finished up and we rushed out to the car. We had a 5 hour drive to look forward
to and I have to run tomorrow.
Oof. Because of this we had to miss the 10k. I was cool with it. Sure
there were a few world leads run, but I really needed a pillow. Seeing as I
can’t sleep in cars, I spent most of that ride writing this entry. We took a
few stops along the way. One at a fast food place called Max. Its like McDonald’s,
but Swedish! I got a MaxBox. The equivalent of a kids meal. I really just
wanted the toy.
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| Super Charlie Jump Rope! I always wanted one of those! |
None of the gas station buildings in Sweden(as far as I have
seen) are open all night or even super late. So we just stopped and used the woods. Take that Sweden! Just kidding I love
you Sweden. We did a few handstands
in one of the parking lots. And by
we I mean everyone else did. I just flailed my feet a bit.
Before we got to Gothenburg we passed a couple Police
cars(which I might add I have seen very few police officers this entire trip.
Commence more mischief!) parked in the middle of the road. Turns out one had hit a baby moose. I say baby because I guess that’s what
this was. But this thing was
massive. He would seriously mess
up your day. Martin says hitting
moose is like the largest cause of accident death in Sweden. Remember how I wanted to drive in
Sweden. I’m having second thoughts now.
We got to Gothenburg around 3 AM. 3 gosh dang AM.
I think the city looks cool at night. Not sure because I was probably
hallucinating. Though I did see these posts that had what looked like people in
the fetal position on top changing colors. I probably made that up. We’re here for 3 days so I’m going
to prove that one to myself. We
dropped the other two off somewhere, (even if I wasn’t tired I wouldn’t be able
to tell you where we were) and Martin and I headed to the hotel. We hit every
read light along the way. So at
330 we check in and went to our room. Home sweet Gothenburg hotel. Finally. Or so we thought. Martin opens the door and immediately
lets it slam shut. There was a bag
on the floor of our room. Wtf? Whos in our room?!? After debating if what we
just saw was real I opened the door to double check. Yup. Stuff everywhere.
Definitely someone here. After the
door shut again we heard them move around a bit. We immediately ran away like any person would do after
waking people in a hotel up at 330 AM would do. I’m actually sorry. And not for
partying. There was no party going on there. After that really strange encounter we got a different room
and fell onto our beds. The sun
was starting to come up. This
country man I tell ya. Anyways. I run tomorrow. Well actually today. I run
today. And by the time you read
this I’ll have probably already ran.
Either way. The bus keeps
rolling with my first hurdle race of the summer. So until then. In the words of
the great Willard Christopher Smith, Jr.”Get jiggy wit it.”
Party on!!!!
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