Day to Day

We really don’t have a “typical day" here in Dubai at the world games, but they do kind of run a similar pattern, which I thought I’d share.

(I wish I had time to “church it up” as Caleb says, in other words, make it fancy, ie: with photos in this case, but I just can get words down and inserting pictures is a pain.)

So a day here in Dubai at the world games looks something like this for the most part.

The alarm sounds around 5:00 for Caleb ( my coach roommate).....okay, doesn’t sound bad, but usually we’re up til 1:00 or 2:00 am the previous night for one thing or another- wrapping up a meeting, packing or unpacking or getting back from late travel. My usually sleeping habits back home are quite the opposite.  I light up the little espresso maker in the room which is a pod type machine that can make espresso or Americano (which has hot water sprayed on top).  It’s actually quite good and perks my day up! Shower and dress for the day and get my backpack in order- that is the coaches lifeline, carrying everything we can possibly need for the day.

Meet the athletes who are going to the track early for breakfast.  We have such a great team that at this point, we don’t even have to call their rooms and they are ready and waiting (mostly bushy tailed) in the lobby. We try to get breakfast in the hotel restaurant but sometimes, if the bus is early, we grab and go with a boxed breakfast.  The track is across the highway so it’s a short bus hop there.  We check in thru security and gather in our camp in the bleachers. I love being some of the first people there and just soaking up the mild weather and the low sun in the sky.

Early events need to be readied for, so it involves warm ups, then delivery to staging (where they wait for their event to be called up), race, then pick up at the athlete awards area.  So it takes a lot of planning the day before and coaches to pull it all off. We have this part dialed in and need to with 37 athletes.  The day continues like this from around 8:00am til 7:00 pm or later depending on awards. Long days.  They take a two hour break in the middle of the day, which I dislike- I’d rather be competing all the way thru and get back early.  The folks that make these decisions don’t have athletes to ready and get to bed everyday. So anyway, more of our athletes come to the track during the day until we usually have everyone there by mid day.  Full steam ahead at that point.  By dark, we’re in line to catch a shuttle back to the hotel. Rarely is it a short wait and making it more frustrating is the fact we can see it about 1/4 mi away! Walking is not an option. 

Once back to the hotel, we usually go straight to dinner ( which is great here), then either to their rooms to clean up or directly to a team meeting depending on how late it is.  Dinner for us is usually 8:00 or 9:00 pm.  At the team meeting we give the athletes a quick lowdown on the following day, talk about the current day and now, have show and tell with their awards. I get a kick out of having each athlete stand and tell the team what they won and show their hardware to the rest of us. Proud moments for them as they share that pride with the team.

Off to bed- set out clothes for the following day, laundry, hand wash uniforms and lights out fairly soon after we break up.  Coaches always have a late night coaches meeting after our sports managers come back with details we need to know from the bigger picture. The coaches are plugged in their roles of staying back and bringing late athletes and readying the early ones and the time schedule is put into place.  It takes awhile and later talk then shifts a bit to what happened during the day. It seems this world games has gotten later at night, because, well it does and eyes start drooping before the last coach is out of the door. By then it’s about 4 hrs later than my usual bed time back home and (hopefully) I crash.  Doesn’t always happen though.

Alright, on my second cup and athletes will be waiting, so off to day three of the medal round!