Fourth Day on the Ground- A Dad's Diary - August 25th, 2021
This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.
Wednesday I did some power-writing, cranking out two blogs – one on the history of the Paralympic movement and one on Tuesday’s escapades in Tokyo. I got into the village around Noon and met Ezra and a few of the guys for lunch. We ended up going to “casual dining” where they serve more traditional Japanese food (i.e. healthier). I have realized that I am constantly hungry here… It’s very strange…. And I have started to slip down the slope of grabbing pizza and pasta from the first food station in the dining hall… and there’s an amazing strawberry ice cream bar that I seem to need before I depart… So despite long days on my feet, I am worried I am going to gain weight!
We then met with the IPC marketing guy Ryan, who continues to teach us cool British slang words. He uses “brill” and “ace” for good/cool. And “blimey” for not so good. Love this! Ezra went live on Tik Tok at 6pm PST today on @Paralympics! Check it out!
After lunch I had a little bit of time to relax in the Team USA area and then ran a couple quick errands like dropping off a test tube of saliva for my daily covid test! Before we knew it we were boarding the bus for the training venue. The bus was full when we arrived and the wait for the next bus was pretty long. We didn’t end up getting to the facility until 5pm or so. LaTi had a crazy drive with a driver who insisted he knew where he was going, yet he took her the wrong way! We all made it eventually and the great thing about today was that Sam Grewe made it into town! Sam did a shakeout, being his first day on the ground… Ezra did the shakeout with him and then did some long and high jump approaches. Just to stay fresh. Tomorrow (Thursday) Ezra will do a full high jump session at the Team USA training center, which is less crowded and nicer. Given the schedule, this will be his one and only high jump session before he competes. Friday will be a full rest day, Saturday he’ll do long jump, then two rest days Sunday and Monday, with long jump on Tuesday.
We finished up pretty late, maybe 7pm or so. We had another long wait for the bus. I think this is something that is complex to understand – transportation! Think about coordinating 4,000 athletes plus coaches and staff, moving around the city to dozens and dozens of venues…. And they mostly want to go at the same time – morning session and afternoon session. Once the competition starts for track, it might get more complex with the additional venue.
We got back to the village about 815 or so, maybe later. We went straight to dinner. We keep running into Lex Gillette and Wesley his guide at meals. We love these guys so it’s awesome to eat with them.
BTW Ezra has a great room. Hunter Woodall, Trenten Merrill, Sam Grewe, and Tanner Wright. The guys all get along and there are already a few pranks going on…
After dinner, it was pretty late. I tried to find my security guy Toyoda, who calls my taxi, but it was a day off for him. So I hiked back to the plaza where the main entrance is. Unfortunatley, the entrance was closed and I had to walk really far around a bunch of buildings to get back to the parking lot where I was able to order my special “TCT” taxi cab.
I got home and pretty much passed out. My feet have been killing me walking and standing all day!
Clayton
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