by Katie Wolpert
With its new facelift, Hayward Field can set thousands more spectators than ever before, and the stands are full. Extra sets of bleachers (no stadium seating here) have been build around the first curve. The media tent, which used to occupy that space when there were no structures present, has been moved back, behind and below the main grandstand of Hayward.
All of the diligent reporters from the country are packed into two large festival tents with tables, water, coke, a wireless network and some surge protectors. But no view of the track whatsoever. TV screens provide noiseless (that’s alright, the noise travels from the track) video streaming of what is happening on the track.
After each race, the athletes have to funnel through the media tent to get out of the stadium. Barriers are set up along one side of the tent to keep the athletes on one side and all of us blood-sucking, question-throwing journalists, news casters and flocasters on the other. This area is known as The Mixed Zone.
Some athletes surge through the mixed zone as quickly as they can, keeping towards the wall, head down, quick steps. Others, exhausted from their race, stumble carefully toward the exit. The ones who are used to it, or have learned to expect questioning turn towards the waiting media and field questions.
Molly Huddle, dejected after a race where she “just had nothing,” was close to tears as she described how she wasn’t even tired because, “I couldn’t dig, I couldn’t even run hard enough to tire my legs out.” She shuffled on into the post dusk darkness, while the rest of the world around her celebrated the incredible show put on by the three front runners.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Lopez Lomong. Lomong has a great story of overcoming incredible hardship before he wound up in the US seven years ago and becoming a US citizen less than a year ago. After the 800m finals though, you might have thought he was a 10 year old kid, who just learned he was allowed to have cake AND ice cream for dessert. He was jumping around and smiling ear to ear, so excited to “run all five races.” He is entered in the 800m (three rounds) and the 1500m (two rounds). He won his heat of the 800 and has the second fastest 1500m time in the country this year. Lomong is obviously thrilled just to be competing and is not bashful about sharing his enthusiasm with strangers or friends.
It took the diminutive Laura Roesler quite a while to make it through the mixed zone. She first started in, before she had to retreat to a water cooler to sit down. Roesler, a 16 year-old who just finished her sophmore year of high school was dizzy. She tried again after resting for a few minutes, answered three questions and had to excuse herself to go back to her cooler. She is already a 4 time state champion in the 400m and a three time champ in the 100, 200 and 800m. She also has 2 state cross country titles to her name. Now she is an automatic qualifier to the semi-finals of the 800m at the Olympic Trials.
I was certainly jealous of those who were able to sit in the stands all day, watching the races in person. But as the meet got rolling, I came to understand how much you can tell about a race just from watching the athletes. Interviews are not always necessary.
Much to my relief, I found that there was enough time during the 5000 and 10000m races to finish my duties in the media tent and then get out into the stands to watch the rest of the race. The setup though was more like a hop, skip AND a jump … or two. I would wrap up my reporting from the previous heat, check the status of my entries and hop up. I’d skip (ok, it was probably more like running, maybe jogging, for safety’s sake) out of the tent to the rickety green staircase and jump up those stairs 3 at a time to the mid-level of the grandstands where I could find an open spot on the bleachers to squeeze into for the duration of the event.
As soon as the winners finished I would hop up and excuse myself from the folks sitting around me (a grandmotherly looking woman with a marvelous hairdo and a shiny green polyester shirt) and skim down the steps, back to the mixed zone and my duties down there.