Craziness in Berlin...

It's been a crazy first few days here in Berlin to say the least!

As many of you who read this blog know, this is an extension of what I do for Northwest Runner magazine, as I try to give folks a feel of what it's really like at a big meet like the IAAF World Championships.

In addition to covering the Washington affiliated athletes competing here in Berlin, I am working for USA Track & Field as a media assistant in the mixed zone, helping the federation obtain quotes from the athletes upon the conclusion of their competition.

The mixed zone is a crazy area as I wrote two years ago in this blog from Osaka, with journalists from many countries trying to get stuff from athletes, some of whom are happy, while others run the full range of emotions.

Upon the conclusion of the women's pole vault, the reporters in the mixed zone all converged on Yelena Isinbayeva (above/photo by Paul Merca) after her shocking no-height performance in the pole vault. Meanwhile, winner Monika Pyrek of Poland (edit--actually second place finisher; my bad) somehow slinked through the mixed zone with very few print journalists wanting to talk to her, probably because they figured that they could catch her at the mandatory medalist's press conference.

We get things under way in less than an hour with men's discus qualifying featuring Ian Waltz, Jarred Rome, and Mart Israel.

Have not yet had an opportunity to play tourist here yet...I'm sure I will at some point, though I'm staying at an apartment two blocks from Checkpoint Charlie, which we found out very quickly yesterday is a tourist trap as we waded our way through the masses to get to the grocery store.

Heading to the track right now!