Post Olympics

Today Catherine arrived from Beijing after a long day of traveling, however, her journey was not even close to being over. I picked her up at the airport just after 7am and she left for Kenya just after 8pm. She will arrive in Nairobi Thursday evening and leave Friday morning for Mombasa. She made a comment earlier that was very cute: "I'll be in the air so much I'm like a bird!"

When she arrived she look well rested and she told me of the wonderful time she had in China both at the Olympics and sightseeing in and around Beijing. When we got back to the athletes house I asked to see her silver medal. It was absolutely beautiful! It is in an oriental looking silver box with a pattern on it similar to small paisleys and it is fastened by a small toggle. Inside is a red lining with a gorgeous shiny red box. On top of the box it says Beijing 2008 with the Olympic rings. When you open that box you see the silver medal fitted into a little recessed circular area and the neck ribbon gets tucked underneath in a separate little compartment. I wanted to take some photos of Catherine with her medal but her phone kept ringing! Everyone knew she was back! While I waited for her to get off of the phone, each of the other athletes tried on the silver medal while I took their photographs. They were all so inspired and each of them mentioned how much they would like an Olympic medal!

When Catherine was off the phone I took several photos of her with her medal. She was wearing a red shirt and blended right in with the beautifully packaged medal!


After a short visit that included some Kenyan tea, I left because Catherine had a very hectic day running around taking care of various errands as well as fitting in a visit to the Chiropractor! She gave me the camcorder that she and Anthony used to take videos while in China and I have watched several; they had great fun with it!

SILVER IS GOLD!!! August 17, 2008

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATHERINE on her SILVER MEDAL in the WOMEN'S MARATHON at the BEIJING OLYMPICS today!!! She ran well and looked great and brought Kenya her first medal of these Olympics! We are all SO proud of her!

There was definitely excitement and nerves in the air tonight as 5 of the Kenyan athletes arrived with Lisa at 5:15 for a BBQ and to prepare to watch the marathon. We had burgers and hotdogs and chicken and corn and "crisps" (potato chips). At 7:10 the camera man arrived and got set to film the athletes and Lisa as they watched the race. Among the Kenyan athletes was Catherine's brother, Samuel Ndereba who is also a runner. I wanted to capture the expressions and reactions to each person as they watched Catherine race. It was interesting to see the difference in the reactions between the different people. Lisa was very nervous and tense at times and Samuel did not seem as nervous on the outside, but he also did not eat dinner stating he was not hungry yet but I wondered if that had more to do with nerves.

Catherine ran her usual strategy of staying to the rear of the lead pack and she looked very strong and good. Lisa followed all her split times on the laptop and was on the phone from time to time with Anthony and/or Mostafa. It was very exciting as the top runners entered the "Birdsnest" to run the final lap around the the track. Everyone was yelling and cheering "Go Catherine" as if she could hear us! Catherine turned and saw one of the Chinese runners at her side and then she sprinted forward and edged her out! We were ALL very excited, relieved and drained! It was such an awesome experience watching the race with all of these excellent athletes! It was very funny though because I had Lisa warn the athletes that I keep my house on the cool side so they may want to bring a sweater. I'm not sure how cold Lisa said it was but Jane was so cute! She arrived with a winter coat on and did not take it off until almost 11:30pm! She wanted ice cream but said she was too cold as well! lol She sat bundled up in a blanket with her jacket on and it was just adorable.

After Catherine won the Silver medal there was a definite change in the air; relaxation! Everyone started moving about again, some checking their email, some getting more food and Irene polished my toenails and painted flowers on each! Catherine finally called and each of us got a chance to talk to her and congratulate her. She sounded great and was relieved that it was over and very happy with the result! She will now have a week to relax with her husband and be a tourist in China which I'm sure will be fun. I think I got some very nice footage tonight so I am pleased with that as well as the result of the race. Hopefully this will help in my quest to raise the funds needed to complete this film!

Training at the Track-August 7, 2008

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the athletes train at a beautiful track at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. It is here that they do their speed work. It's a perfect location as there are bathrooms if needed, water fountain and everyone can warm up along the Perkiomen trail. Once warmed up, they to repetitive laps for speed as opposed to the days that are run for endurance. Mostafa calls out split times and the girls take turns leading/pacing. We filmed the training session today and it was perfect weather. We were also extremely lucky in that we met a young girl (Ali) who runs cross country. She heard from her father that Catherine trained at this track and she came to watch. It was awesome watching her! She was SO excited to see Catherine and she was completely star-struck. After training was over Catherine came over to Ali and gave her tips and they exchanged stories and Catherine even gave Ali her daughter's address so she could write to her! Also at the track today was a woman doing her own jogging. I stopped her and learned that she had come to run there last week and saw what she said "were the most beautiful runners". She approached Mostafa and learned who they were and she said she went home and Googled Catherine. She was so excited and so motivated to get back out and train again that she showed up today. She said at first she was disappointed because she didn't see the Kenyans but that was because they were doing their warm up along the trail. When they got back to the track Elizabeth said she was very excited to see them again. I asked if she would let me interview her. She was so nice and also excited and I told her I would take a photo of her with Catherine and send it to her! It turns out she is a teacher (she also has a son in college who used to run track.) Catherine always wanted to be a teacher and she was in her element talking to both a teacher and a student this morning! It was perfect!
(Elizabeth with Jane Murage while waiting for Catherine)
After Catherine left we interviewed Mostafa because he would be heading to Beijing on Monday with Catherine. We then stopped for lunch (have to have a crew with full bellies!) and headed back to Advanced Health and Performance to get the interview with Johnny King-Marino that we weren't able to get last week!

It was a good day and I think we got some great footage!