I am headed to the 1st IAAF Grand Prix of the season in Dakar Senegal on April 18 and then headed back to Doha, Qatar for the IAAF Super Grand Prix on May 8. If you didn't have a chance to hear what happened the last time I was in Doha....here is a quick recap.
Flight from San Diego was cut short due to medical emergency in board, as a result, missed my connection in DC (and also lost my luggage). I was re-routed through London and eventually to Doha and 36 hours later arrived in Doha, with nothing with me but what I had on. After 3 days of hassles with Qatar authorities I still had no luggage and competed in borrowed spikes and a Qatar uniform. After all that, I ended up setting a lifetime best.
http://in-the-arena-mike.blogspot.com/2008/05/doha-disaster.html
Although I am hoping for a similar result this year, I am planning to bring as much necessities with me on my carry on as possible. Even if my luggage gets lost this time, at least I will have a few weeks in Doha to rest up and wait for it. I am flying from Dakar to Casablanca then to Doha and will meet up again with my buddy (04 ad 08 Olympic Champion) Andreas from Norway. We will have 2 weeks of training to prepare for the Super Grand Prix. After Doha, I will return back to the states for my 1st meet in the USA (other than USA Championships) since 2006. The Tuscon Elite Throwers Meeting. This meeting is the site of numerous personal bests from other athletes last year and promises to have near perfect conditions. It is there that I am hoping to chase a big throw and take advantage of the conditions that other athletes get to do every year.
My shoulder has healed up nicely and I am now going on 1 week with no pain and am thanking my luck stars (a.k.a God) for helping me through these trying times. No matter how you try to talk your self through an injury, nothing feels quite as good as being able to train pain free. All is well here at the Training Center and the invasion by some of the best foreign athletes in the world has started. Some of my friends from Norway are already here with other long time training partners from the UK. Some of my closest friends...of whom I lived with in Finland will be here by the end of the week.
Overall, it seems as the hard training period is starting to wind down and many athletes are using the spring to tighten their screws, so to speak. For now, I am going to sit here and watch my roomate Karl type his blog and then Im going to go look for Jessica Simpson, rumor has it she is here at the Training Center! Look here for more details: http://in-the-arena-sarah.blogspot.com/
Here are a few pics from my visit in Atlanta, had a chance to speak to the Duluth High School Varsity Soccer Team....till next time,
M++
