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Zack and Olin go to Poland

UW duo to compete at 2016 IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland

By Wisconsin Badgers

July 18^th, 2016

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ENTRY 3 - Checking out the stadium (JULY 18, 2016)

An unexpected early wake-up call came at 6:45 a.m. as Zack was selected for random drug testing. Eventually, after the testing was done, we made our way to the practice track for a 60 minute run through a forested park and dinosaur zoo with some other team USA members and six 200-meter reps.

Later on that day, we returned to the stadium and we were able to enter it to see the competition venue for the first time. The stadium looks capable of holding about 20,000 people, and I’m sure our 5K will have a great crowd.

After our stadium tour, a large group of us went back to the hotel and ended up battling each other through multiple rounds of Spoons, BS, and Egyptian Rat Screw. We believe that Alex Rogers is a dirty Spoons player as she faked out poor Katie Rainsberger to trick her into grabbing a spoon early and getting eliminated. After another team meeting where we took a disorganized team picture, we headed to dinner. There were an assortment of sausages of polish heritage which were nicely smoked with mahogany wood.

Following dinner everyone was pretty wiped so we just retired to our rooms, where we watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark with Kai Benedict before going night-night.

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Entry 2 - We explore Bydgoszcz (July 17, 2016)

We arose to bright sunlight flowing through the windows, as the sun rises at 4:40 a.m. here. We then went back to sleep for another four hours, then emerged from our den and ambled to sniadanie (breakfast in Polish).

After our meal we changed into our running apparel and boarded the bus to the practice track. An ample group of distance runners found a nice bike path to run on, and we did our 45 minutes at a cozy pace. Once we returned to the track, we ran a nice mile at 4:54 as an upbeat shakeout to get the rubbish out of our legs.

We came back to the hotel to eat lunch and shower, before heading out to explore the older portion of Bydgoszcz with a group of Team USA distance runners and throwers. In the old part of town, we enjoyed a spirted puppet show, met a rowdy group of pigeons who had taken over the plaza and mastered the concepts and use of soap at the soap museum. In Polish culture it is common for people to use soap multiple times daily, this was a foreign concept to us. It also turns out there’s a lot of gelato and kielbasa options around town, so we’ll be hitting those up for sure after our race.

After a few hours out in Bydgoszcz, we circled back to the hotel for a team meeting with vital information for the meet. Following dinner, we enjoyed a nice game of Cards Against Humanity before retiring to our bedchambers for the noc.

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Entry 1 - The adventure begins

Hey all, Zack and Olin here - We made friends in the Chicago airport with some of the other members of Team USA during a five-hour layover. We flew from Madison to Chicago, then to Warsaw, Poland. That flight was about eight and a half hours, which was little rough. We arrived in Warsaw at around 1:45 p.m. local time, grabbed our checked bags and boarded the bus to Bydgoszcz.

The scenic route we took, although a little long at around five hours, was reminiscent of Northern Wisconsin. We stopped at a gas station and ate some exquisite Polish sausages. After catching a few Pokemon along the way, we finally arrived at the hotel and went for a brief shakeout trot along the river that flows through town with Team USA teammates Alexa Efraimson, Anna Rohrer, Katie Rainsberger, and Christina Aragon. After a buffet dinner of not quite plain noodles, bread, and chicken in the hotel, and a shower, we watched Shrek as we drifted off to a peaceful slumber.

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