Monaco

I arrived in Monaco on Wednesday and realized that I miss San Diego a lot! The palm trees, gorgeous scenery, nice cars, ocean views, and beautiful weather made me think of home. Monaco was just a lot more expensive!

When the meet lady greeted me in baggage claim in Nice, France, she had me leave my javelins with the pole vault poles that had already arrived, assuring me that she would take care of their transportation to the track later that day. I asked a bunch of questions about that, as I’m not really comfortable letting my implements out of my sight. I decided to trust her.

The drive to the hotel was awesome! We meandered along a super windy road that made its way down the side of a mountain, and overlooked the French Riviera the whole time. I checked in with no problems, and asked a few questions about my javelins to make sure they would be taken to the track like I was told. Then I had lunch with Jill and Dustin, and Jarred, followed by a pre-meet workout later that afternoon. I didn’t do a lot of exploring Wednesday, as I was simply ecstatic to be spending some time in an air-conditioned space with a comfortable bed and someone who spoke English (Erin Donohue was my roommate at the meet)!

After breakfast the next day and asking a few more questions about my javelins

(Will they be checked in at the track, or do I need to find them and do that myself? Have you seen them? Are you sure they’ll be there?)

and being assured again that they would show up, Jill, Dustin and I took a walk! We went up to the pool deck and took in the amazing views. Then we checked out the area up by the Monte Carlo Casino, where all the super fancy cars park at night. We wandered back to our hotel (the Fairmont Monte Carlo) on the other side to see the apparently famous hairpin turn in front of the entrance. An afternoon of relaxation followed our short adventure, and I left for the competition around 6:45pm, as women’s javelin started at 8:40pm.

My general warm-up felt awesome on Thursday! It was hot and humid, which is pretty conducive to warm muscles. I felt explosive and rested, and did a good job of getting my shoulder warm, as I’m now prepared to not getting time to throw in the grass at big meets. There was an awesome crowd, I warmed up on the runway well, and was really looking forward to throwing far. Once again, I didn’t throw over 61m in my first three, but my fourth one went 62m to move me into second place, and my fifth was 64.21m to keep second to Barbora. There's video this time, too!

I really, really tried to win on my sixth throw,

but as good as it felt on the runway, I missed the tip a little bit and it fell short at 58-59m. I felt better about the positions that I hit at this meet than I have lately, and I was happy that I had two throws over 62m, but I still want better distances in my initial three attempts. I was kind of surprised to feel disappointment after my last throw, too!

I am beginning to expect more of myself than I ever have. Cool.

When we were escorted out to the runway before competition, the first thing I looked for was my javelins, which I hadn’t seen in one whole day. They weren’t there, despite all of my careful questioning! When you check javelins (or any other throwing implement) in for competition, they become fair game. I am always happy to let other athletes use my stuff, and the same kinds of javelins that I like throwing were already checked in, so I used them! I figured that I would solve the mystery of where they were afterwards. As soon as the competition was over (and I was notified that I had been selected to be drug tested…again), I tried to figure out where they’d got to. I was told that they would meet me back at the hotel that evening, but the offices where they might be were closed. The assistant meet director (Remy), of all people, found me that night to tell me he would do his best to find them in the morning and let me know.

The meet has a pretty fancy Gala after the competition concludes, and it was really nice to visit with friends and eat some good food. Just when I thought I was headed to sleep after the Gala, my married friends Jill and Dustin, Casey and Lindsey had the awesome idea to go jump in the ocean! We walked to the beach, and spent like an hour floating around, laughing, avoiding “Snea Snakes” in the words of Jill, and marveling at the fact that we were actually in the French Riviera! I missed Russ like crazy on the romantic walk back to the hotel with the two married couples :).

I woke up earlier than necessary the next day to find my javelins before catching the shuttle to the airport. I looked in all of the meet offices in the hotel to no avail! I had no choice but to board my bus and hope that Remy found my javelins and could ship them to me in Germany. About an hour later while standing in line to check in at the airport, Remy called me to say he had found them and they would be arriving on the next bus! I waited outside for them, then checked in and got through security in just enough time to board the plane. It will always be a mystery where my javelin case was for two days, but the results and the experience I had in Monaco couldn’t have been much better for my first time. Yay!

Here is my upcoming meet schedule as I hope it goes!

August 3rd: Tallin, Estonia
August 13th: London, England
August 19th: Zurich, Switzerland
August 22nd: Berlin, Germany
August 31st: Rovereto, Italy
September 4th: Split, Croatia

Then, home!