NXN- Austin Sprague's Excellent Adventure, Day 3
Day 3:
Finally adjusted to the time difference and I was ready to go. Weather was worse than the day before because that night it had snowed. Other than the frigid temperatures outside my morning was made much better when I saw what was for breakfast! We had waffles in the shape of Nike shoes! The beautiful waffle design Nike makes was now on my plate in edible form. After breakfast we had some down time to relax or hangout in the game room before we headed out to the course for the first time.
We all were packed into the busses and headed to the course. When we got there the course was covered in snow and we had to wait a little while for them to clear the course of ice and snow. I chose probably the worst time to go for a run because I was wearing at least 6 layers of clothing including a large jacket and was still freezing my butt off during my preview. The wind was at 40mph and the wind chill was bringing the temperatures down to around 15. My initial thoughts of the course were good. I knew that the infamous whoop-de-doos were going to be a challenge because I had never raced on them before and I thought that the hay bales were abnormally large. The footing was not the best because of all the frozen footprints in the ground but I knew that everyone had to run in so I was not worried. I ran an easy three miles and was feeling good about the course. I hurried back into the grand stands to get warm and get lunch.
The rest of the day was relaxing because we were able to hangout at Nike campus in the athlete hospitality room. Many people were able to hangout with the elite Nike athletes. I watched Andrew Wheating lose in ping pong while, Evan Jager play Mario cart, and Kara Goucher play with her son. Many other athletes were in the room as well hanging out. We had a pasta dinner with the Nike athletes as well! We got back to the hotel and received our numbers and chips. Once getting everything set up for the next day I headed off to bed because I knew I had a big day the next day.