Nina Sarmiento will be a senior at Harrison in the fall. She won the Westchester County championship last spring in the 400 hurdles. Nina joined a group with the USA Track Elite club, competing in Sweden and Iceland. She was gracious enough to keep a journal for ArmoryTrack.com.
Day 2:
Today was a busy day. Breakfast was at 8:30 which was amazing. Best hotel breakfast ever. Me and Annie woke up late but still ate and gathered with everyone to go to the Vasa museum Featuring a 1600 ginormous Swedish war ship that sank twenty minutes after leaving the harbor . What a story. It was pretty cool and after me an some of the girls explored the shopping around our hotel. It was ridiculously expensive and we kept trying to figure out the conversion rate (which is 5.9 Krona for 1 dollar). After, Julia, Jackie and I ate at pizza hut which is like a 4 star restaurant here. Then we went back to the hotel to change for our practice at the Taby athletic center. It was a beautiful track and there were only about 5 Swedish athletes training but they looked so good. There was a discus thrower that could be a national champion in the USA. The hurdler I was practicing alongside was so intense she didn't even say hi (or hejhej pronounced "hey hey" in Sweden). I was glad to work on my hurdle technique with coach Harrison and watch Fiona (Paladino) hurdle (the NJ state champ) With one more practice, I think I'll be ready for Saturday. YAY! I am the person competing in the most events and I think we are all starting to get a little nervous. Especially Cherraine (Davis) and AJ (Wolf), who are throwing shot put tomorrow. I'm really excited to watch them, they're really amazing, and were gonna make posters woohoo! I can wait to practice on Friday with the Italian team too! Big meet is Saturday!
Day 1:
We were on our way for the trip of a lifetime. Goodbyes to our families were short, we were so excited. I couldn't wait to get on the plane. From meetings and meets before I knew almost everyone's name. We were16 athletes, competing in a variety of track and field events, (although here they call it athletics) 2 assistant coaches, one athletic trainer, coach (Frank) Harrison and his wife, coach (Augie) Wolf, and other family members. Basically the dream team, looking awesome in our new matching dark green US Athletic Trust gear.
We had a smooth flight to our layover in Iceland, getting a sneak peak at where we would return to compete in a week. Out the plane window was a flat but rocky treeless island. Some Icelandic facts I learned: population was 300,000, The capital was Reykjavik, (where we were going) and it is famous for it's whales, hot spring pools, (blue lagoon) volcanos and the northern lights in the winter. Also you will be surprised to know that the temperature is not that icy, fluctuating between 30's in the winter and 50's in the summer. Being here just sounds awesome and competing will be insane. I'm so pumped I can't sleep.
It is now the next day (Tuesday) but it feels like a continuation of an endless yesterday and the 6 hour time difference has left everyone exhausted I only got about one hour of sleep as did most everyone else and our excitement had pretty much disappeared. Sweden did not seem so foreign to us except for the unpronouncable alien language. The city was beautiful, made up of stucco houses in pastel colors with elaborate detailed roofs. My roommate Annie and I rested and changed and our large group set out to recharge over an early dinner. We were still tired and reluctant about what food to eat but slowly but surely we began to enjoy the city. The trip to the amusement park along the river was really fun and we separated into groups splitting up but coming together again and getting to know each other more over scary roller coaster rides. By the time we got back to the hotel we weren't even tired. The boys wanted to go to the pool and I wanted to play cards but everyone just ended up crashing. Were in for an even more exciting day tomorrow, the big meet is only 3 days away!!