On Thursday, I woke up around 6:45am. The jet lag wasn't as bad as I expected and I got around 8 hours of sleep. I showered and headed down to the lobby to get breakfast with some of the other jet lagged athletes from the east early in the morning. After breakfast, I moved into a hotel room with Sully and flew the (pre 1879) Georgia flag on the wall by the TV.
Afterwards, the Southeast boys got on a charter bus to go to the Nike World Headquarters. Upon arrival, we were given our gear for the weekend which consisted of sweats, a pullover, split shorts, our singlet, and some other accessories like socks and arm sleeves. Also included were the shoes and spikes for the the meet which I personally found a little too "loud" for my style. I hope to find a mantle somewhere in my house to sit them.
Shortly after getting our gear, the Southeast individuals (including me) went to do our shakeout runs. I did a short two miles on the track in the woods where I shared it with 800m American record holder and world champion, Donovan Brazier, who was doing a workout.
After running, we headed back to the hotel where Sully had a questionable lunch consisting of a dozen pickles, a slice of cheese, some cold cuts, and a bagel. I'm no nutritionist but Sully ran a 4:10 mile as a Sophomore, so who am I to question his diet?
We went back to Nike HQ after lunch and attempted a basketball trick shot with a team from Virginia for about an hour at the LeBron James Center until a runner from their team got nailed in the face with a basketball, which at that point we decided to call it a day. After eating dinner, we headed to opening ceremonies where were introduced to all the teams and given a quick run down of the meet itself. The atmosphere was amazing. When the ceremony was over, we headed back to the hotel where we walked around the halls getting to know other runners. Then, Sully and I went back to the hotel room where we watched a few NXN race footages of past meets and got to know the course a little better before the preview tomorrow.
