EUGENE, Ore. -- More from the track trials:
-- One of the odder things about this meet is that -- apparently to reflect the point at which television coverage begins -- the national anthem singer of the day doesn't make an appearance until midway through the schedule. Today, for example, events started at 10 a.m., but the anthem was sung at 2:20 p.m. It feels a little like singing it at halftime of a football game.
This also creates something of an odd etiquette question for those of us working in the media tent behind the grandstands. Do you stand for the anthem? Since you're not actually in where it's being sung, do you keep working? Most people are opting to stand, but a few keep typing away.
-- There are a variety of China-related protests going on around Eugene during the trials, but that's not what I found myself caught in, however briefly, as I came into Hayward Field today.
Pulling into the little media parking "lot" -- it's actually just parking on blocked off University Street, which runs in front of the University of Oregon's aging McArthur Court -- I found myself briefly surrounded by a group of policemen on bicycles, leading and trailing a small group of protesters marching down the street.
Were they up in arms about Darfur? Tibet? Some other Chinese issue?
No. Carrying signs like "Keep Eugene Weird," they were chanting "We want our streets back." Apparently, they were protesting the street closures on the university campus to accommodate the trials and the "festival" around them.
-- Had lunch today with Deena Kastor, the marathoner from Agoura High who is here but not competing, to do an interview for a story you'll read closer to the start of the Olympics.
Kastor is here in part because she wanted to support her fellow athletes, and in part because during the two off-days of the meet, the U.S. Olympic Committee will be doing some of the pre-Olympic processing for athletes, as well as an "ambassador" program in which athletes will be taught some etiquette for China. Being here instead of at home in Mammoth Lakes does not mean time off, however. We met after she'd gone on a hilly 21-mile training run mapped out by her coach, Terrence Mahon, who knows the area well since he attended the University of Oregon.