Obama & NIRCA

Word. After I wrote my last entry I took to the streets because there was actually a big gathering this time. Actually, Brittany F. was on her way to my apartment and she called to tell me thousands of people were storming up Bascom and they were going to Abe Lincoln! I got so excited that I ran out of my apartment and down the 12 flights of stairs to get there to see what was happening. Bascom was full, completely full all the way across, at least halfway down to almost all the way down the hill.

We joined the crowd and soon after we started surging downwards again and back onto State St. where we walked towards the Capitol. Busses could do nothing and we streamed down the street. Towards the middle of State St. we made a tunnel going pretty far down the road and I ran through it.. it was the craziest thing ever.

We marched to the Capitol. There's nothing that can capture the awesome spectacle I was embroiled in. It was a positive gathering, a gathering I'd never heard of occurring before, just because one man was elected president. I think we all felt that we had truly saved this country. And, really, we did. There is nothing that can come close to capturing the awesome feeling that was within us all as we marched down that street singing songs and chanting various things, my favorite "Show me what Democracy looks like?! THIS is what Democracy looks like." The feeling you got from thousands of voices joined to express the same excitement and unreal feelings you were feeling at that moment... there's nothing like that, and I am so very glad I was part of that history. That was one of the most definining moments in U.S. History. I can't make broad sweeping statements about arious historical facts but just think about how impossible it was to even DARE to think of an African American man being elected president 40 or 30 years ago. Could that happen? It couldn't then. But the majority of America has caught on to the American dream (the South is, not surprisingly, still very backward and behind in the times).

This is the world we live in.

Second exciting even of last week was that on Thursday I left with almost 30 of my teammates for the NIRCA Cross Country National meet at Penn State (State College, Pennsylvania). We had been looking forward to this forever and I was so excited to get on the road. I didn't end up in the most exciting van, I was hoping things would shuffle a little better but its ok I guess because I got SOME homework done.. though not even close to what I needed to get done. Oi.

But anyways we drove from about 5 till 11 at night.. With a time change, so really 10pm. I don't remember ever going on the Chicago Skyway drive but it was pretty at night with all of the lights of the city. We stopped approximately every two hours which was great because it got us all moving around and we got to see everyone from the other vans so we didn't go completely insane.

We drove through to Elkhart, IN, to what I expected to be a sleazy hotel but it wasn't too bad. It had a few other people staying there but not too many. When we arrived we all dumped our stuff in the lobby and started watching Jon Stewart on a bigscreen in the continental breakfast room.. Not sure why. haha. but we were all in there joking around.

My room, that I shared with Brittany, Karin and Taylor was interesting in the respect that our toilet sang... or rather, made really wretched, high-pitched noises. It scared us at first.. then when a group of boys knocked on our door to ask if we wanted to go to Wal-Mart, and we tried to show them.. it would not do it and they thought we were crazy. hahaha. Friday morning it repeated and I made a video to prove we weren't crazy.

Anyway we drove from 8 or something in the morning till almost 5 when we reached State College, PA. It was a nice drive.. it got very pretty in Pennsylvania, first in the foothills of the Appalachians and then the mountains themselves. THe sun was setting about this time, too, allowing for some very nice pictures of the scenery. They also had Beer Distribution DRIVE-THRUS, which we could absolutely not believe at all. Mostly because we are from Wisconsin and also because we figure drinking and driving is illegal... At these places, though, you drive up, tell them what you want, they bring you it and you drive off.

Anyways, we arrived at the course then and I was verrrrrry pleased with it. Admittedly, we ran it in the dark and thus it was quite difficult to see but it was flat except for a couple inclines and I really believed it was easier looking than LaCrosse's course (which I don't mind at all, since I always PR there). Anyway, after that we were supposed to go to a dinner at a nice italian restaurant, hosted by NIRCA, so we went to our hotel and showered (5 minutes each! hustle!) and cleaned up relatively nicely then headed out... Only to find the restaurant packed. We drove around for a while before finding the restaurant and the town seemed really crowded together right around campus, all of the streets narrow and crammed with lots of things, which is interesting because of how spaced out this campus is getting.

So anyway, we headed back the other direction on Atherton (apparently the main thoroughfare in the town) and found an Olive Garden. We found, of course, that at 8pm they were pretty busy, and a wait of at least 45 minutes was in order. Some people didn't want to wait so they went to Outback Steakhouse next door while I stayed with a larger group at Olive Garden waiting to get in. The boys were flirting/messing with this group of idiotic girls who were there waiting for a table, too, and were confused about the fact that we were from Wisconsin.. this baffled them and we were forced to endure endless stupidity, until finally Audrey and I went in and asked the bartender for water. He gave us water in fancy glasses! It was pretty funny. The stupid girls came inside and then the rest of my team came inside as well and one of the whores was like "get it TOGETHER, wisconsin!! gosh!!" at Jeremy for some reason because we got to go in before them? I don't know.. it didn't make any sense, really.

Our server took forever and gave us a choice of wines or something but the other tables got water right away and also got to order sooner. We were pretty much starving, so I really didn't care much for the wine lol.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and hung out for a little bit before deciding to go to bed. We had trouble sleeping at first because people from University of Cincinnati kept running up and down the hall haha..

Woke up early... 6 something (5 something central time) and went out to the course. It was a little chilly but not bad, sunny not too windy and you could see mountains on most sides of the course. It was a really pretty day.

The boys raced first, 5.2 miles, or something near an 8k (not quite the right distance) and my team won. I had made sure all the girls knew we needed to keep track for them the positioning of them in relation to the other teams but it wasn't even close: our top 4 guys were ahead of Oregon's first runner and in front of any other team's second runner. Our fifth runner, Dallas, sealed the deal and the boys won the championship with 35 POINTS! Oregon was runner up (and had been the favorite going into the meet) with 89 points. It was insane and it actually got me pretty excited to race..

It was so exciting, really, to see a legit club race. Because most of our races are against D3 legit SCHOOLS, not club teams, so we always seem out of place running "open" and like we don't quite belong and it was really nice because at NIRCA, these people were US, they were our people, they face the same things at other races and we had come together to make OUR race.

SO the girls raced next and we were at a significant disadvantage in that we were missing two of our top runners who couldn't make the trip. If we had had them we had the chance of placing in the top 5, but no luck. The gun went off and I started at what I thought was moderate. Half miles were marked which was very useful and I enjoyed that. My first 800 was approx. 3:03 and I was relatively pleased but thought I should slow down a bit or I would die. I did slow to a 6:30 first mile and by the 2 and 1/2 I was feeling very dead. This was on the first significant incline of the race and just before this point I had passed one of our other top runners who I later learned dropped out of the race due to her anemia/ iron level deficiency.

This was terrible because it was a significant blow to our chances in high finishing. I was going all out at this point try to do the best I could because I knew my place mattered in getting us up in the rankings. Sometime before the 3 mile I heard some guy yell at some girl ahead of me that she was 54th so I started passing people as well as I could and was just waiting for that final curve that would take us back to the finish line. It came and I started booking it.. I passed several girls as I usually do and then I beat an Oregon girl at the last minute which made me really happy. I beat all but two of their runners even though they got Third as a team. We got ninth, tied with Cincinnati-- I said that was because they kept us awake the night before.. haha..

Anyway, it was time to celebrate. First we took showers at the rec hall and then we went to the gymnasium where awards were getting ready to take place. The boys got their trophy and it was awesome. I was so happy for them to have won. Four of our guys got individual plaques, also, for finishing in the top 15, they were All-Americans.

After awards we took some team pictures on the podiums then took off to find some liquor for the celebration at the hotel that night. We spent almost an hour then headed back out of Pennsylvania to Toledo, Ohio, where we would stay at a terribly sleazy hotel. I had to pay for the rooms because Joe's credit card would have maxed out, and we sat there trying to check in forever, dealing with a really slow-moving and grumpy clerk, as well as the weird creepers who kept popping out all over the hotel and ending up around the lobby. Our crowd grew louder as all of the vans started arriving and finally we got our room keys.

Somehow it ended up that the party was in my room. Had to save our danish.. ahha, Brittany and I had bought a danish for breakfast the next morning so we put it on high ground and everyone iced their liquor. It started out innocently as games of spoons rotating between two beds, then we busted out stuff and people started hanging out and talking and then night ended in repeated rounds of Obo-she-nanefldgknrdkfc I don't know what it is.. but to the tune of Crocodile Moree. That was... Interesting .. to say the least. And very hilarious. I don't think any of us could believe what was going on. Haha. Other people on our team kept running in and telling us that they could hear us down the hall.. haha.

Eventually we went to bed and woke up at 7 something to drive back to Madison. I actually woke up at 6:30 and couldn't fall back asleep so that kind of sucked. But oh well I guess. The rest of the car ride was kind of sad because we knew the weekend was basically over... and we didn't want it to end. We had one or two more stops and then we were back in Madison and back to reality.

So the past day or two now I have been trying to get back to schoolwork and it has not been working. The weekend was so fun and it was so nice to be away from the world here, to be in a new place and all that. I hadn't spent much time in the Appalachians prior to this weekend (and probably back in July driving through the Blue Ridge down by Tennessee/North Carolina). It was so fantastic and I had a great race to top it off.

--I'll finish later, I need to go to bed.