Go!

Lisa reported to work at the NIKE center at 9:15. Because of her mastery of the stapling skill, she has been promoted to Xeroxing! That’s our girl! Sometimes, she even gets to staple what she has copied. The worst part of her job: wardrobe. It is well-known that Lisa is a fashion queen, but NIKE would like her to wear NIKE T-shirts, shorts, and shoes! Well… they did completely out-fit Lisa with a new wardrobe, including watches, sunglasses, etc. Sweetest deal? The parking spot in front of the track.

This morning a Bounder motor home rolled in carrying Captain Smith, Spir and Babcock. Barger arrives tomorrow. We helped Captain Smith set up his satellite dish, DT drove them to the supermarket and then they all went for a run. (Surprise!) DT is very happy to have running buddies around.

We left for the track at 3:45 p.m. There is a shuttle bus around the corner which drops us off between the track and the NIKE center. We found Lisa and went up to our seats. Luckily, our 200-section seats are in the shade after 5:30p.

But, let me inject my comments on the facility. Oh, it is really bad. A local developer, Mr. Spanos, has resurfaced the track and the athletes seem to really like the track. But the rest of the facilities seem to be lacking a certain ‘ambience’. All toilets are portable – this is a permanent football and track stadium, yet it has no plumbing. A genius decided to locate the port-a-potties under the grandstands. It was 95 degrees. You will have to use you imagination about the lovely scents wafting up to the 23,000 fans above the portable toilets… But the worst aspect of this stadium is that you can only see the first 4 lanes from the West Grandstands. They ran out of drinks, concession lines were hours-long. All walk-ways behind the grandstands are unpaved – you must walk around in dirt and dust. They have huge, beautiful screens at either end of the field – so we can see all 8 lanes during a race, but during breaks in the action they show COMMERCIALS! Sacramento wants to host the trials permanently… I don’t think so. (But what do I know – I said Athens would never get the 2004 Olympics.)

To the stadium’s credit: they sell beer (Bud and Fosters… an American-Australia link?). Traffic was a breeze, parking and shuttles were well-organized and patrolled. Sacramento fans are quite good – the stands were still full when the Women’s 10,000 meter final started at 9:30p.

We sat in pretty good seats (only a view of the first 4 lanes) in the shade. We sat with Gina and Steve. It was a great first day – especially the 10,000 meter finals and 400 meter heats. Sadly, Jeff Hartwig (American Record holder) did not qualify in the pole vault. Whoops.

After the meet, Lisa drove us back to Goldie and she went back to Steve and Gina’s to get some sleep. We met Dave’s college roommate, Bruce Todd, and his brother and Father, along with Tom Messina for dinner. We didn’t get home until well after midnight.