July 26, 2007

Allendale, Mich. - Former Laker All-American Mandi Zemba is participating in the 2007 Pan American Games for the United States. Zemba is sending back daily accounts of her experience in Brazil.

Friday, July 28, 2007

Even though I didn't race nearly as good as I wanted or expected, it was an amazing experience that I'm glad I got to have. As we were escorted out to the track to do our final strides before the start of the race, it was incredible to see how many people were there to watch the track meet. The 85,000 stadium was nearly full of crazy Brazilian fans cheering for their country's athletes. It felt great to be wearing the USA uniform and I was excited about my first international competition. The crowd was amazing, whenever a Brazilian would go to the front, they went crazy and the stadium was loud and energetic. I was in third postition for most of the race and feeling good until about 3 laps to go I hit a wall and started to fade. The race favortie Megan Metcalfe from Canada won with a very fast last lap and my fellow USA teammate, Catherine Ferrell, was second after leading the entire race. Eigth place was very dissappointing, but it is a good experience to learn and build from for the future.

Overall, it was a rewarding trip. I met lots of very nice people and got to experience a new culture while representing my country. Looking back I next time I will have to try to modify my training better around travel and try harder to keep a good diet. If something doesn't work, something else must be tried next time. Being my first international trip, it was a challenging one and it didn't go exactly as planned. Our first try to complete the 9.5 hr trip to Rio was turned around halfway through bringing us back to the states at 4 a.m. after leaving at 10 p.m. We then tried the overnight trip again the next night and finally made it to Rio. The cafeteria food was not very good and we found ourselves eating the same thing every day and trying to find something that tasted good enough to eat the whole thing. There was no doubt I was tired from the trip down there and the food wasn't what I was used to, but the USOC did a great job making sure we had everything we needed to perform out best. The medical staff was amazing and extremely helpful. Hopefully I will get another chance to represent the USA and I will take what I learned in Rio with me.

Thursday, July 27, 2007

I took it easy most of the day to rest of for my race tomorrow. We went back to the "monkey park" to do an easy pre-meet run. We did see some monkeys there today. They are very little, they look like squirrels with a monkey face and they are friendly. We then went over and watched some rhythmic gymnastics for about an hour and were amazed at how limber those girls were. We ended up sitting right next to a girl from California who is studying abroad here in Rio so it was nice. It is amazing how much energy the Brazilians have. They get very excited over every sport. You would have thought it was the NBA finals the way they were getting excited over the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. Also, the girls US soccer team played Brazil in the final today and lost, but it was the craziest crowd ever seen. All of the Pan Am staff have been very nice and helpful. They love being part of the Pan American Games and a lot have said they wish it would go on forever.

Wednesday, July 25

Today a few of us actually went out of the system for the second time. Yesterday we went to the huge mall, and today we took a taxi down to the Ipenema Beach area to do our run around the trail that goes around the lake where the rowing teams were competing. The taxi ride was a little scary, most people don't pay attention to the painted lane lines and make their own lane. We then walked around the downtown area for a little bit and got some food that was finally different than the village cafeteria. Rio is a beautiful place with great views.

Last night, it was cool to see the 100M women get 1st and 2nd. Going to the track stadium Monday night and watching the women's 10k was very exciting because it got us all excited to put on the U.S.A. uniform and compete. The stadium is amazing and will be a great experience to race in it. The Brazilian fans are very enthusiastic about their country and like to get pumped up for their athletes so the crowd is going to be crazy. Today it was cool to see fellow Division 2 athlete Kibwe Johnson recieve the silver medal for the U.S. in the hammer throw. The atmosphere is great because all the U.S. athletes in every sport is pulling for each other to make our country proud.

Tuesday, July 24

The stadium is amazing, pretty much no wind can get through so it should be a great place to race. When we were going to watch the 10k tonight, a bunch of brazilians swarmed us for autographs and pictures, very crazy. The village is very nice. Security is everywhere, they have buses for to take us from place to place in the system and those are very guarded. We have a ton of medical staff, I have gotten a massage every day. Sara Slattery won the 10k today, the mexico runner gave her a scare. It was a pack until 6k, then Sara took off, her last 4k was: 3:09, 3:08, 3:12, 3:04. Total time of 32:54, the pan am record.