Welcome to Dalian, China - US Track & Field Training Camp

Terrence Mahon

 

I set foot in China for my first time on July 31, 2008. Despite all the hype, speculation and media slants that preceded this trip along with my expectations of the usual confusion of getting from Point A to Point B in a foreign country - I found it all to be quite pleasant. The international terminal at the airport had plenty of Western amenities (Starbucks, Subway, even a BMW store). I skated right through customs so easily that I was sure that I missed it. After all the tension about getting a visa just to enter the country and having to give a full detailed travel itinerary, I expected a bit more. I thought that my bags would be thoroughly searched, questions asked and cross checked for slip ups, maybe a request to see my hotel confirmation - but nothing. Welcome to Beijing! Wow!

 

So, I grabbed my bags and caught a cab to the hotel. I would spend one night in Beijing before meeting the team in Dalian, China, for our 2-week training camp. Since I got into China after dark it was too hard for me to figure out whether there was any smog lingering. It definitely was not hot and didn’t even seem that humid. So upon waking the next day the first thing I did was peek out the window to see what would be awaiting me for my morning run with Andrew Kastor (Deena’s husband). With clear skies as far as we could see we ventured out. We found a trail and hit headed out for an easy 50min run. We were a bit shocked. Not too hot, not too humid, and no pollution that we could see. It had been raining a bit the day before I landed - whether from natural causes or seeded rain clouds I can’t tell, but it does really seem to help the air. I reckoned that if the marathons were held that first day then the men could easily run sub 2:10 and the women would run 2:24 or better. I quickly sent an email back to Ryan Hall in the US to fill him in on our first run results.

 

After gathering up our things Andrew and I headed off to the airport to catch our short flight to Dalian. Once again, no snags at the airport, no visa issues, just a little time to kill before the flight. The one thing that we did notice right away in our meandering through the airport is the abundance of work staff. Convenience stores would have up to 12 people on the floor to help with your selections. Souvenir stores and clothing shops had so many people on hand that even if you were window shopping they would have someone come outside to help you. I am not sure if this is a state mandated thing, an Olympic thing or that it’s just how they handle such a huge population of people, but it is very different than the US. I guess they don’t worry too much about overhead expenses.

 

The volume of people and their job assignments have become the theme of the training camp. Even in Dalian, there are people waiting to help you. It is rumored that we have over 2,000 police and security officers on hand for our team. At each training venue there is a full SWAT team in place with snipers on the roofs, and with every bus we have at least 2 other police vehicles in procession. I must not forget the police staff that lines the streets - some hiding behind bushes, some out in the open, multiples at intersections - all the way from our hotel to wherever we are headed next. At the hotel we have a wait staff so ready to work that there is at least one server per table. You will not have chewed your last bite before the plate that it was sitting on is whisked away right before your eyes. I would say that Japan is probably the only place I have been to rival this hospitality and attention to service.

 

For training we have 3 main options. There is facility for all the throwers (which also has an indoor and an outdoor track), there is the regular practice track facility at Dalian University, and then there is the horse track. We use the horse track for easy distance runs since they have options of loops on the road, grass or dirt. It is the best place for the distance runners to get on soft surfaces other than running on a track. We also will go out on the local roads and boardwalks surrounding our hotel - although when we do this we tend to make the local authorities nervous about security. They often send an unmarked car to follow us on our runs just to make sure that we are safe. When we do our long tempo runs, marathon simulations or general long runs we will alert our USATF staff of our plans and then from there we will have a completely blocked off road to train on. It is a quite unique experience in training as it feels like you are running in a real race with police escorts front & rear to keep the path clear. We do these runs at 7am so as to get used to the race time for the marathoners, beat the heat and not cause too much of a ruckus for the local population. Along the roads we will get spectators waiting to catch a glance as we zip buy. The timid ones will just stare, but the enthusiasts really get into it and will cheer you as you pass just like in a real competition. The pace always seems to get a little faster during those sections of the course.

 

Training has gone really well for our crew while in Dalian - even better than expected. The first few days are always about loosening up after travel, getting your bearings and adjusting to the time zone change as well as the weather. For the coaches and medical staff (Andrew and myself) we scout out courses for training, measure loops with our Garmin GPS watches (don’t know what we would do without these), check the heat and humidity at various times of the day, and make sure that we have a plan for getting the athletes fluids, proper nutrition, rest, and an area for sports therapy. We also try to find fun things to do to help the time pass by. Andrew has been the best at that one as he is now the King of Ping Pong in our training camp hotel!

 

After the logistics are all taken care of then we get right to work to get our game plan in place for their respective races. For Deena and Ryan that means workouts at 7am on the roads and 8:30am on the horse track, while for Jen and Ian it means catching the 4pm bus to the track. It has been nice to be able to maintain our Running USA team atmosphere while we are here in Dalian as it makes the transitions to new places that much smoother. The more a place feels like home the easier it is to train hard and relax. For us, home means hanging out with your teammates at breakfast, lunch and dinner - and while at the workouts it means you have a brother-in-arms out there who is pushing just as hard as you are to get the job done. It is a great thing to see this in action as we all feed on the collective energy from one another.

 

The other essential element of being in Dalian for the training camp is that it allows all the athletes to bond together and begin to act as a national team. There are very few times when the Americans are working together as opposed to against one another. Once they have made the team then everyone can let down their guards a bit and start to share in the plan to finish as high as possible at the Games. It is a time to put on a common uniform and support one another. We started to see that at the first marathon summit meeting in Colorado Springs this spring, and now it is good to see it help out the rest of the track & field team. With the help of Randy Wilber, USOC resident exercise physiologist and climate adapting guru, and the always astute Dr. Dave Martin, our group of athlete, personal coaches and national coaches worked together as a marathon team to begin preparations for what now is right in front of us. I think that our plan of attack for the conditions is solid and we are already seeing it play out well in how the workouts have gone in Dalian. Our runners will be ready for anything on game day whether it be on the track or out on the roads of Beijing.

 

Back soon,

 

Terrence Mahon

Coach, Team Running USA

 

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(posted on nyrr.org since Feb 2008)