Lunch with an Olympian

97

When we arrived at On headquarters, Harrison went inside willingly with his teammates. However, at one point, I saw him making a pained face, and Ayslynn once again squeezed his hand for a while. Then he seemed OK. Our host, Andrew Wheating, gave a brief talk. He was a tall man with an athletic build. I quickly — and incorrectly — sized him up as a former college or NFL football tight-end who had trimmed down. There was a training room with several professional athletes working out. Andrew asked for a representative from the team to try out a high-tech treadmill, and Harrison jumped on it. After the short tour and talk, Andrew invited the team to lunch at a nearby sandwich shop.

While eating, Zoe remarked that she’d never had an Olympian buy her lunch before. I replied, “Olympian?” She said casually, “Yeah, Andrew was in the Olympics.” I looked Andrew up online and found that at 6’5” and 175 pounds, he did not play football but had been a standout track star at the University of Oregon, winning NCAA national championships in the 800 meters in 2009 and 2010. Indeed, he had run the 800 meters for the U.S. in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and the 1500 meters in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He also brought home medals in other national and international competitions. He never mentioned his athletic accomplishments during our visit, but spoke excitedly about becoming a father in the next few weeks.

All along, I’d hoped there would be time after the team activities to show Harrison around the University of Colorado campus, where I studied for four years and also met Mary. We said goodbye to Andrew and teammates and loaded into my truck. I found my way through the traffic to CU’s east entrance at Colorado Avenue, and we entered what amounted to a traffic jam through the university. I searched for a parking space as we crawled along. Harrison looked out the window at the red flagstone buildings as we passed the major landmarks of Folsom Field on the right and the tall Physics Building on the left. It felt to me like a strange dream. Some of the buildings were familiar, but everything seemed different. Harrison commented on the large number of students walking to and from classes. I asked him if he would have rather gone to college at a big campus like this, and he said no. We rounded the left-hand turn at 18th Street in slow motion and finally reached the stoplight at Broadway. I still wanted to find a place to park so we could walk around, so I turned into a neighborhood called “The Hill” and drove through the streets lined with older homes, and looked for a parking spot. Everything required a parking sticker. Finally, a few blocks from campus, I parked illegally. I decided we’d try to beat the parking patrol and do a quick run-through tour of the campus.

We jogged past the commercial area of The Hill, crossed Broadway through an underpass, and passed the Geology and Geography buildings where I had spent so much time studying Environmental Conservation. Then we crossed over a commons area to Mackey Hall where the School of Journalism was housed when I studied at CU. I graduated with a B.S. in News-Editorial Journalism in 1982.

With its distinctive architecture, Mackey houses a large auditorium, as well as a number of small and large classrooms and administrative offices. Back in the day, there were reporting labs (with electric typewriters!), video-editing labs and lecture halls. The J-school Dean, Russell Shane, had his office upstairs, where I was a regular “guest” for a variety of sticky reasons — including when I sued the Colorado Daily over an editorial dispute in which I was fired, and that time I tried to get Jimmy Buffett as our J-School commencement speaker. Sadly, the J-school, formed in 1922, was disbanded in 2011, then was reorganized as a department under the College of Media, Communication and Information. I snapped a photo of Harrison on the steps of Mackey, then we were on our way.

Along one of the pathways through the campus, a couple of young women had set up a table to collect signatures for education funding. They stopped us and offered doughnuts if we would sign their petition. I had not eaten a doughnut in 26 years, but recognized the brand, Voodoo, which has a cult following. Realizing I was engaging in emotional eating, I signed the petition along with Harrison, and we continued jogging while eating the doughnuts, at last arriving at the University Memorial Center and the Alferd Packer Grill. Here — where in my memory once flowed 3.2 percent beer at Friday Afternoon Club, and students danced to music by the likes of The New Starlite Ramblers and Dusty Drapes and The Dusters — we found, of all things, a Starbucks. We ordered Americanos and walked while drinking them, then resumed jogging back to the truck. I was relieved to find it had not been towed, and there was no parking ticket on the windshield.

It was nostalgic to show Harrison around the CU campus, though I don’t think he fully grasped just then what it meant to me to revisit this place with him, especially on a day that had been so particularly challenging. Perhaps it was important to somehow reaffirm my commitment to Harrison getting some sort of college education and experience. He seemed overwhelmed by the enormity of the CU campus and the multitude of students, how different, and perhaps impersonal, it was in contrast to his experience at Colorado Mountain College. We headed for home. Not once had anyone asked about the cut on my cheek.

Notes from The Blur

The early alarm that morning somehow triggered my anxiety over the trip and as a result I was noisy. My dad confronted me about this, but it got worse from there, and escalated to the point it became physical. When I finally got on the team van, I was still upset, and just put my head down and listened to music on my phone. There were numerous times Darren asked me to turn down the volume because he was worried it would disrupt my teammates, who may have been sleeping.

I was starting to feel better, but things took a turn for the worse once again when Darren stopped for a restroom break. There were just two restrooms. Darren was in a rush to get to the track and told us to go in pairs. This was confusing to me as I thought we were both supposed to use the toilet at the same time. I freaked out, refused to go inside the restroom, and tried to leave multiple times, despite Darren telling me to stay in the store. I went back to the van.

Shortly after that, Darren told me to get out of the van and go with my dad. I got out and ran away in the parking lot. This was especially frightening for my dad and Darren because they were worried about my safety. I got into the truck only to find my dad frustrated with me again. He talked to me sternly and threatened to take me straight home. I calmed down and helped him with directions to the track.

When we arrived, I once again freaked out because my teammates had already gone for their warm-up. I walked to the track very slowly. I was still feeling anxious. When the team showed up, I went onto the track and decided to finish the warm-up with them. Then it was time for the workout.

I was not focused on the workout with Nate because I was still rattled by the incidents earlier that morning. I felt remorseful for starting these problems and for how I had behaved. After the workout, my mood seemed to lift to some degree. Nate told me to forget about this morning and move on. Brooklyn pretended to grab all my bad energy from my head and threw it away from the track.

I rode with the team in the van to the On headquarters. Darren told us we would meet Andrew Wheating, a former Olympic track star. Darren also explained to everyone that he wanted the team to make a good impression because On provided us with really great shoes and clothing. We met in a gym with fancy fitness equipment. My mood was still not perfect. I was nervous and struggled to hold it together while Andrew was talking. Ayslynn held my hand during Andrew’s talk to help keep me calm. I got to try out a treadmill that would start turning whenever I began running and adapted to my speed, slowing down or speeding up when necessary.

After the visit, Andrew bought the team lunch at a sandwich shop. It was extremely nice of him to do this for us, especially since our team was on a tight budget. My mood seemed to be back to normal as I ordered my sandwich and waited for it. After we ate, I said goodbye to my teammates, and we were on our way.

Before leaving Boulder, my dad stopped to give me a tour around the CU campus. He showed me Mackey Hall, where he went to Journalism School, and we got coffee at the Alferd Packer Grill, which was named after the most famous cannibal in Colorado history. I was a little overwhelmed by how huge CU is, and it made me appreciate the small campus and familiar faces of other students at CMC.

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