On Friday, I travelled to Abu Dhabi just (seemingly) a few hours having left it after opening ceremonies. In tow were the three half marathoners ( Andrew, Josh and Karen). According to the schedule I received, we were to be picked up at our hotel and taken directly to the hotel in AD. That was the plan. Instead, the bus dropped us off at the spots center, and left. I thought someone would be there to greet us and send us to the hotel, but nope. Additionally, I didn’t even know the name of the hotel we were supposed to stay at! So some phone calls and a bit of waiting at least got us that information.
At that point the trip becomes more complicated. We’d have to take a city bus to the main AD bus terminal, then change to another bus to the hotel. As it turns out the drive is long, but we did get to the terminal and the correct bus. The next drive is longer but we finally reached the hotel alongside the Persian gulf. It’s the Ethiad Towers, a monster of a hotel complex made up of about 6 tall buildings. They kinda look like chrome bananas. Quite cool. It takes a while to haul our overnight luggage thru to try and find a front desk. No special Olympics folks around at all, but then it was 7:00 pm and we were supposed to be there at 1:00.
The next hurdle, one we found a check in lady, was to, well, get checked in. Problem is, they wanted our passports in order to do so. Our passports were in Dubai, 3 hrs
Away. How about a paper copy? I had one, but it was black and white. Nope, had to be color. We have credentials on, so this whole thing makes no sense. More calls back and forth to our HOD and we finally get cleared and are taken to our rooms. Fancy pancy for sure. It’s complicated to turn on lights, open the curtains and even turn off the TV ( which has our names on it as a greeting). Alrighty then, unload bags, head to dinner at 8. The meal was five star help yourself buffet type of thing, so we ate, then back to the room. 3:30 am wake up. Oh, we’re all on different floors.
I sleep poorly worrying about all kinds of details about the athletes and the race. I think I stared at the clock afraid I’d miss the alarm. Fast forward a bit to finally ready to go, heading down to the athletes rooms. My key only gets me to my floor (50th) ! Back to my room, call them and give detailed instructions to meet me on P2 level. Karen shows up, the guys don’t, I panic. Finally I located them on a different level and whewwwww my stress level drops. They have a box breakfast for us and we just chill waiting for a bus. There are 20 half marathoners and then coaches and SO staff.
Off to the island where the race will be held. Except...the driver doesn’t know where it is! A coach from Morocco has a GPS on his cell and guides the driver and second bus to the venue. Thank goodness.
Once there we can focus on the race. Parents and one of the local coaches show up to watch, but soon one of my athletes is gone, the local coach takes him to warm up....that’s my job. Then ESPN, takes another, and I’m left with one athlete and not really sure of the other two, but they can’t get too far I figure. This part of the experience I didn’t really enjoy, I’m used to training distance runners and here I felt like it was out of my control. Quickly it was race time and all is well, they are in the start chute and off.
Now we wait, two laps of a 10km loop.
Josh has a super race, 4th best half marathon time in the world on this day and at these games. But he’s in the top division, so he’s 4 place there as well. Great time and performance. Andrew is silver and Karen is the gold medal winner in her race. We have cool down, change and get thru awards....back on a bus to the hotel, then shower, change, and try to find lunch (unsuccessful) and our bus back to Dubai. Bus was late, then change the bus and then a rather cramped ride back, in which the driver again, needed our help in getting us to the track. I was so happy to be back there, at the track, with my team, with my family.
The team congratulated our runners, so it was a nice welcome home. For me, it was back to catch up with the rest of the events which would be finals, in the afternoon. The other coaches had things way under control, so I just helped out with warm up, staging or where ever needed. I have a great staff of key coaches. All goes well, except awards, which run painfully slow and late. Our 200 meter girls were the last to be presented around 8:00 that night. Team meeting, dinner, to bed, then coaches meeting where my eye lids kept slamming shut. The day was over and I was out within a minute of the meeting being done.
Today, off to a big day on the track, 26 athletes compete for medals. I’m on my second cup of Americano coffee...I’ll need it.
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