Ahern’s Analysis

March 29, 2000

Tuesday, March 21 Today the women’s track and field team left for the Florida Relays. It was our spring break, but we left early to enjoy some Florida sunshine and to do some team bonding. Both, I think, were inevitably successful.

This would not be the most fun of all of the days, however-it was mostly traveling which is never really exciting, only very long. And after the trip, when the bus finally pulled into Gainesville, the day still wasn’t over. The team got in a short practice and a quick dinner before finally getting some rest.

Wednesday, March 22 We got up this morning and ran an easy 40 minutes in the heat. A majority of the team left for Disney World, but the distance team had 2 workouts, so we had to stay behind. After the run, my day consisted of lunch at an Italian restaurant down the street, shopping at the Sports Authority, and a nap.

Then, at 5:30 p.m., we left again for the track. I did my workout, which consisted of 15 x 400 and then we left for dinner. We didn’t have time to shower, so I was a bit sweaty! We ended up at Ruby Tuesdays and I had the soup and salad bar.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and finally cleaned up. After showering, we watched some television, did massages, and worked on some homework.

Thursday, March 23 We all went to the track this morning for a short workout and then back to the hotel. We raced the next day, so we made ice tubs in our bathtubs and iced our legs. Afterwards, I went with a group to subway and then to shop.

We finally made the long walk back to the hotel from the mall disappointed and tired-none of us had found anything that we wanted. I took a nap and then we left for dinner at 6 p.m. We went to that same Italian restaurant down the street-I think it was called Napolitano’s. Dinner was great, I had chicken parmesan, salad, and garlic bread. The garlic bread was good, but really garlicky, if that’s a word!

That night, we basically did the same thing: massages and homework.

Friday, March 24 Everyone got up again for a light run in the morning. Our 4 x 1500 relay team practiced handoffs and then we all went to breakfast at Perkins-I had a waffle. After breakfast, everyone went her own way, because this was the first day of competition.

I came back to the hotel and took a nap, after watching a little bit of television. Then I read some and thought about race strategy for my race that night. I got ready and then left on the last bus at 3 p.m. Once at the track, I tried to stay in the shade and cheer my teammates on.

That’s all I really did until our relay at 8:05 p.m. One of our legs in the relay had gotten hurt in a race a couple of hours earlier, so a teammate that had never run over an 800 in a race ran a leg of the 4 x 1500. We ended up placing third and winning t-shirts. I was pretty happy with my race, too.

That night, we didn’t get back to the hotel until around 11:30 p.m., after a dinner at Perkins. We sat in ice baths again and then went to bed.

Saturday, March 25 I woke up on Saturday morning very sore and tired. I went for a short run to loosen up and then went to the bagel shop to get breakfast and my pre race lunch. Then I went back to my room to rest until the bus left at 1 p.m. Just like the day before, I sat in the shade until it was time to warm up for the invitational 3000.

Throughout most of the day, I was either cheering for my teammates, or thinking about the race. I ended up not doing nearly as well as I had hoped, but at least we did well on Friday, so I’ll just have to look forward to the next meet.

The trip back seemed to last forever, but we finally got in around 3 a.m.