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Europe 2007

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:: July 30, 2007 :: End of the Season

After getting back to Gent and talking to my coach, we decided to call it a season and not race my last scheduled race in Heusden on Saturday. After a long season my body is worn down and I wanted to end it on a high note with my two recent wins. So Friday and Saturday I got to just sit around and relax. It was the first time since last August that I've not worked out for 2 consecutive days. I'm writing this right now on my way down to southern France to stay with my aunt and uncle for 2 weeks. After France I head back to Illinois for two weeks to stay with my parents and then off to fall training in Eugene.

This will be my last addition to this Europe 2007 journal. Thanks to everyone that read it and kept up with me through the summer. And I hope you like the new look of my site. ~Matt

:: July 30, 2007 :: Lithuania

On the 25th I got back to running the 800m in Kaunas, Lithuania after a two week break of running 400's. I left on Monday and flew into Lithuania's biggest city, Vilnius, after a brief 'run' through the airport in Prague, Czech Republic. I arrived at the airport and just as planned, someone from the meet was waiting holding a sign for the meet. That happiness was short-lived when he told me we had to wait 2 and a half hours for more people to arrive. So I sat down and waited... 2 and a half hours later as the plane is landing, he gets a phone call where we learn that we need to wait longer to pick another guy up that had not arrived the day before. But I would never have guessed who just got off the first plane we were waiting on. My old teammate at Oregon, Eric Mitchum. So the rest of the 6 hours I was at the airport Eric and I got to catch up and trade traveling stories. After an hour and 30 min drive to Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas, we checked into our hotel. Eric and I had them switch some rooms around so we could room with each other. It almost seemed like we were at a meet back in college in the US.

Lithuania only gained its independece from Russia in 1990. And it looked pretty much like I thought a place like Lithuania would. It was definately not in the sort of shape that most western European cities were. There were alot of shabby looking..everything. But the hotel was great, the food was great, and the track was only 300m away. The day before the meet and the first half of meet day was stormy and rainy. Luckily it cleared up for the main part of the meet. There was supposedly a pacer for my race but no one I asked knew who he was or how fast he was going. So at the gun I decided I was going to take it out like I did at the Pre Classic and see what happened. I had the 4th fastest PR and fastest season best of everyone in the field. And seeing that most Europeans like to run more even splits for their two laps I knew no one would follow me out if I got out in 24 for the first 200m. Well, no body tried to go with me. After the first turn everyone was behind me so I still don't know if there was a pacer.

I came through the bell in around 49.5 which is by far the fastest I've ever ran my first lap before. I heard the bell sound again about 20 meters past the starting line so I knew I had a big lead. I worked on maintaining my pace through the next 200m and with 150m to go I too a glance over my left shoulder to see the entire pack 40m behind me. It startled me so much I did a double-take. I knew my body wasn't going to hold this 1:45 pace and with 80 to go I hit a huge brick wall. By that time my lead had been cut in half. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on the finish line. 2 or 3 times I took glances back to see how fast they were gaining on me. With 20m to go I put everything I had into getting to the finish line and hit the finish a stride ahead of second place. My time was 1:48.96, which means I ran about 59 for my second lap.

The last 100m was the ugliest I've ever had in a race but I held on for the win, my second in as many weeks. After coming to a stop after the finish line (which was only about 3 steps past it) I got a big bear hug from the meet mascot, a big gray bull, and a rose. I was led to the awards preparation room and then back onto the track for my ceremony. They gave me another rose and a gift that will be a nice paper weight. I then got to watch a few other Americans compete, including Eric run his second best time ever while finishing second to Ohio State grad Joel Brown.

Back at the hotel after the meet they had a small party. All of the important people from the meet were there in suits and ties. I'm assuming most were promoters, managers, etc. But not too far into the party we learned that the mayor of the city as well as the president of Lithuania were there. That explained the couple guys with CIA-looking earpeaces wondering around. I got to introduce myself to the president and shake his hand and thank him for all of the hospitality. And I got my picture taken with him. They traveling day back to Gent was very smooth. I had a couple hours layover in Prague and got to do a little shopping.

:: July 15, 2007 :: Gent Meet

Today I had a meet here in Gent where I ran the 400m. Mitch Potter, formerly of the University of Minnesota, was also scheduled to race. But unfortunately his knee had been bothering him so he pulled out about 15 min before the race started. I had a great warm up and felt great getting into the blocks. The gun went off and I had a mediocre start at best. I got out around the first turn and got my first feel for the competition. There were 3 of us that looked like we would run in the 46's. I stayed relaxed and focused down the back stretch, waited on the turn and gave it everything the last 120m. It was a battle down the homestretch with a guy from Panama to my inside. I out leaned him and beat him by .01 sec to take first place. And for winning, besides money, they gave me a nice bottle of beer in a box with a beer glass and a t-shirt.

This was my first win here in Europe this year (I won twice last year), and I'm hoping that the positive energy will carry over into my last two races of the year. I have a week and a half to train before heading to Kaunas, Lithuania for an 800m. There were several other Americans at the meet as well as several of my Oregon Track Club teammates. Several of them had some good performances. So now back to training and back to the 800m.

:: July 11, 2007 :: Le Tour de France & Amsterdam

On Monday the Tour de France had a sprtint stage ending in Gent. There were thousands of people lining the last several miles of the path. The finish line was right in the middle of the city but I decided to walk down a little further to about the 600 meter mark to watch. It was amazing watching all the riders fly by. About an hour and a half before the cyclists showed up, the caravan came through. The caravan is pretty much an hour long parade. They were tossing out everything from laundry detergent to key chains ;) to packaged meat. There were alot of cool looking floats and cars. It only took about 5 min for all the cyclists to ride by but I have to say it was one of those things that you are glad you stood for 5 hours to see.

As soon as the last biker passed, we headed for the train station to catch a train to Amsterdam. With the tour going on, we did not have a place to stay in Gent so Kevin and I decided it would be a good opportunity to take a short trip to Amsterdam. We arrived there about 11pm and finally found our hostel. We dropped our bags and took off for the Red Light District, one of the most famous parts of Europe. It was pretty crazy there, girls were just standing in front of glass doors on display. It is basically one long strip so we just walked the strip a few times. It was all very entertaining and was definately something unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

We left and went back to our shady-looking hostel to go to sleep. Of course we chose the cheapest hostel so it was no Marriott but it worked. We stayed in a room with 4 Brazilian-Asian guys who were really nice. The next morning we grabbed a couple pieces of bread from the mess room (juice and basically anything else cost money) for breakfast and left. We made our way over the house of Anne Frank. There was a really long line to get in so we decide not to go in but got some pictures of the outside. We were back on a train toward Gent at noon. All in all, it was a good little trip. And in a span of 20 hours I saw the Tour de France, Anne Frank's house, and the Red Light District of Amsterdam.

:: July 7, 2007 :: A Week in Gent

This week has been pretty uneventful in Gent but there were some highlights...

On Wednesday we all went to eat at this local Italian place that we had gone to almost every night for dinner. The pizza, baked lasagna, and calzones are all so good. Our waiter came and took our order. While the food was baking, the waiter and owner started to get into an argument about something. I think it was along the lines of the owner wanted the waiter to do something that the waiter I guess didn't think was his responsibility. They spoke in Flemish for almost every word except for the curse words. As the argument progressed, there was increasingly more and more English. Finally the owner kicked him out, fired him, and told him never to come back. All the while we just watched and kept eating. It was all pretty humorous for us. We were certain that they were going to start throwing down but it didn't happen. But I guess we did get a free show with our dinners.

On Thursday, Ryan and I took an afternoon trip to Antwerpen, Belgium. It is considered the Diamond capital of the world, where over 80% of the world's diamonds pass through. There were streets upon streets of nothing but jewelers. Ryan was there to buy some diamonds so we found the store he was looking for and walked in. There was only a lobby. A woman came and asked Ryan a few questions and had hime fill out a card. She then directed us to go upstairs where we had to walk through two security doors and another woman met us coming through the last door. She then helped Ryan get what he was after. Meanwhile I walked around a little in an area where you could observe through windows men cutting, shaping, and polishing uncut diamonds. After that we walked around the city for a while, snapping pictures here and there. I also had my official Belgian waffle. It was very, very good; it had an apple filling and it was all I could do not to buy 3 more.

Today (Saturday), we went downstairs to the hotel restuarant for breakfast and were sitting there eating when I looked outside and saw two men fighting in the street. One was a skinny guy and the other was a little shorter and fat. The fat guy kept trying to get ahold of the skinny guy so he could connect on his hay maker. The skinny guy was using the kick-to-the-shin and swing at the head technique. He never really connected because he had to stay just far enough away so the fat man could not grab him. Eventually, the plice arrived and bum rushed the skinny guy. Of course he kept restraining so the police got pretty physical with him. While this was going on, the fat guy was trying to casually walk off like he wasn't involved. About 3 min after they tackled the skinny guy they jogged off to try to find the fat guy. All the while we are sitting inside the restuarant drinking our juice and eating our croissants. It was very entertaining!

:: July 2, 2007 :: Entering Belgium

I arrived at the Brussels airport in the morning from Copenhagen. A train station was at the airport so I got a ticket to Ghent (or Gent) and hopped on the next train for an hour ride to Ghent. I'll be staying here for 1-2 weeks, or maybe until the 17th when I may go to Leuven and meet up with some other OTC teammates. Last night we actually stayed at a hostel in a 4-person room. My agent and another of his athletes, Ryan, came later that night. It was one of the nicer hostels I've stayed in.

There are several things to see around the city that are close so I'll try to get out and see some of that. One thing was a castle that I really want to go see and tour. In the morning the 4 of us had to relocate to a hotel, the oldest hotel in Ghent they told us. It was only a 5 min taxi ride away. We will be here as long as there are rooms; we may have to go back to the hostel for one or two nights because of existing reservations at the hotel. We all went to the Ghent track for a workout today. It is the track where my third meet will be.

:: July 1, 2007 :: First Meet - Aarhus Games

The weather at the meet was less than desireable. The temperature was ok but it was rainy. I guess it could have been worse if it was windy too. But I was excited because I had gotten into the 400m. So the 800m did not go very well at all. We had a pace setter that went out in 52.0 for the 400. He was right on and I jumped in the middle of the pack. The entire second lap I don't think anyone changed positions and we all finished in the order we were in. No one had any sort of kick, whether it be the bad weather or some of us were still jet-lagged. My teammate Kevin placed third.

After the 800m, I did a short cool down and went right back into drills to get ready for the 400m. It ended up being about an hour and 10 min after the 800 ended, the gun went off for the 400m. For not coming out of blocks for the last 12 months, I actually had a pretty good start. I was in lane 7 and quickly made up the stagger on lane 8. I came through the 200 in the low 22 sec, came off the turn in 4th place and slowly moved into 3rd and then 2nd and finished in 46.76. I was really happy with the race, expecially for the 400 euros I made (about $525). I was alot more excited and focused for the 400 than I was for the 800 so I had my agent change my meet schedule so that now my next two races are 400's. I also got confirmed for a race in Lithuania, where I will have a layover in the Czech Republic. So I can add two countries to my list of visited countries.

After the meet, Kevin and I drove with his Danish girlfriend up to Aalborg and went to a graduation party of hers. We crashed at her house and then she drove us to the Billund airport the next day. On the way to the airport, we stopped at her grandparents house for an hour where there was a family get-together. They all wanted to see Kevin again so I got to meet all of them too. And it turned out that several of the extended family were European handball players, one of which has won two Olympic gold medals with the Danish national team, which has been the world's dominant team for most of the last decade or longer. So that was interesting.

I flew from Billund to Copenhagen where i had to spend the night in a cheap hotel. Luckliy I was only there long enough to sleep and get some breakfast before going back to the airport. It was a pretty hot night there though. I would have loved to open my window but I was on the first floor and outside was a shady-looking alley and did not want somebody crawling into my room in the middle of the night. But everything turned out well, with the exception of the 100 euro fee I incurred at the Copenhagen airport for too much weight in my luggage.

:: June 27, 2007 :: Lost Luggage

I left from Indianapolis on the 25th of June. My original plans were a flight to Brussels, Belgium with a layover in Philadelphia. I then had a separate ticket to leave Brussels that same day to fly to Billund, Denmark with a layover in Copenhagen. Simple, right? Not really... My agent suggested that since I only had an hour or so in Brussels to check my bags all the way to Billund. That could save alot of time with customs. So of course the computers at the ticket counter in Indy would not do that so the guy hand wrote the bag tags. And since there was 4 flights he had to staple two together on each bag and attach it with a string to the bag handle. Of course I just look at it and say, "Great!"

So I fly to Philly, no problem. Have to hurry to a different terminal to get to the gate in time to find out there is a mechanical problem, delayed 45 min. then another 45 min. and another... I was supposed to depart at 8:05pm and don't actually leave until close to 2:00am. So of course I will now miss my other flight in Brussels. Normally airlines won't do anything for you if the flight is a separate ticket, but since the problem was mechanical they bought me another ticket. So I was now flying direct from Brussels to Billund, only about 6 hours later than I was originally supposed to get in.

I was lucky enough to get an exit row seat on the overseas flight only to board the plane and see it was not exactly as I had hoped for. About half of my leg room (all of where my right leg should go) was blocked by the exit door. Go figure.. But it was late enough that I was tired and slept all but about 30 in of the 7 and a half hour flight.

I get to Brussels and find out that the ticket I was issued from US Airways was not valid so I had to take care of that before I could check back in for my next flight. As compensation for everthing up to this point, they let me in the VIP lounge of the airport. I immediately found that after checking in for the Billund flight. I relaxed there for a couple hours. They had lots of snacks, open self-serve bar, tv's, and internet. Quite nice!

Get on the flight to Billund on British Airways, quite possibly the best airline ever. It was only a 90 min flight and it seemed like I got a 4 course meal. First there was the traditional snack and drink followed by coffee and tea. Next came the turkey and beef meal. As I was eating that there came the basket of giant rolls. They followed that with ice cream and more coffee and tea. I think I was eating the entire flight.

Arrived in Billund, and to no surprise the luggage is not there. I had to wait until I found the guy that was picking up people for the meet to get the address of our hotel to give to the baggage claim desk. The guy that picked us up was a javelin thrower for the Danish national team. It was about a 90 min drive to Aarhus, where the meet is. I don't know how many miles it was but it only took us 90 min at about 175km/hr. I didn't even want to do the conversion on how fast we were driving...I will say that no other car passed us the whole way.

The hotel in Aarhus is great. I have my own room, free internet, and all the meals are covered. They even had some sandwiches waiting for us becaused we arrived about 11:30pm. The next day we went to the track, I met the meet director. One of my teammates, Kevin, is also here and ran at this meet last year. We did a shake out in our uniforms because our luggage was still lost. After that we went back up to the meet director's office and I asked to get into the 400m as well. I don't know if I'm in for sure but it sounded like there was a good chance. So I may get to double in the 800 and 400 at this meet. Top 3 places pay and the payouts are 600, 400, 200 Euros.

Here is the website for the meet: http://www.aarhusgames.dk/web467.asp?toppkt=108