Totally Terrible Travels

Next time I’m flying out of DC, someone trick me, tell me my flight is leaving an hour…maybe even two hours earlier than it actually is …and possibly I will actually get to the airport on time and without any hiccups. Doubtful, but the odds will be better.

I THOUGHT I was giving myself plenty of time this morning. I woke up super early to finish overpacking, because clearly I didn’t actually do that last night, went to the gym for a quick spinning and lifting workout, ran some errands on the way back home to pick up food for my (three) flights (since my greatest fear in life is being trapped and starving on a plane), and arrived home with what I thought was plenty of time to shower, eat breakfast, finish packing and make a punctual arrival at the airport.

Enter: rush hour traffic.

I don’t know exactly how long it took me to find an empty cab, as I was way too panicked to actually look at my phone, but I know that by the time I was finally in one (after taking a bloody spill on the sidewalk chasing one down), it was less than 45 minutes before take off and I still had quite a few miles to ride and traffic to navigate.

Several cuts in security lines, a mad dash through the airport, and what I imagine was more than one airport page later, and I successfully seized the never-coveted spot of the last person to board the plane, and definitely the most recently scraped up to be seated.

But other than a bloody knee (and lord knows I’m used to that), this morning’s travel catastrophe is behind me, and after touring three more airports, I will be making a mad dash to Hayward Field to try and be there for the start of the track action.

I am crossing my black toes and hoping to scrape my knees again, that my flight to Eugene will be early, our cab driver will be timely and lead-footed, and we will get to the track in time to see the 1,500m prelims.

The reason for my eagerness to make this event?

Vermont’s own Andrew Wheating will be

While Vermont may be known for its fine array of winter athletes, it’s rare for us to have a sweaty star performer in the summer games. Andrew’s story is crazy cool and very serendipitous, he was a soccer player, decent, likely bound for DIII college play, but certainly not olympic calibur. Discovered by a local coach, he became Pre-obsessed after watching “Without Limits” and didn’t want to go anywhere but Oregon. After a fateful chain of events led to Oregon checking him out, he became a duck, nailed the first sub 4 mile of any Vermonter ever, and made the Beijing team. I can’t wait to cheer my lungs out for this Green Mountain boy tonight as he tries to make his second olympic team.

Of additional excitement this evening:

 

Lauren Fleshman in the finals of the 5,000. After an injury and long recovery of running 11 miles a week, this fly girl made the finals in the event after one of the gutsiest runs I’ve ever witnessed on Monday night.

Next time we chat, I’ll be on the other side of watching some London-bound athletes kill it on the track. Happy #TotallyTrials!