July 26, 2007

Allendale, Mich. - Former Laker All-American Mandi Zemba is participating in the 2007 Pan American Games for the United States. Zemba is sending back daily accounts of her experience in Brazil.

Wednesday, July 25

Today a few of us actually went out of the system for the second time. Yesterday we went to the huge mall, and today we took a taxi down to the Ipenema Beach area to do our run around the trail that goes around the lake where the rowing teams were competing. The taxi ride was a little scary, most people don't pay attention to the painted lane lines and make their own lane. We then walked around the downtown area for a little bit and got some food that was finally different than the village cafeteria. Rio is a beautiful place with great views.

Last night, it was cool to see the 100M women get 1st and 2nd. Going to the track stadium Monday night and watching the women's 10k was very exciting because it got us all excited to put on the U.S.A. uniform and compete. The stadium is amazing and will be a great experience to race in it. The Brazilian fans are very enthusiastic about their country and like to get pumped up for their athletes so the crowd is going to be crazy. Today it was cool to see fellow Division 2 athlete Kibwe Johnson recieve the silver medal for the U.S. in the hammer throw. The atmosphere is great because all the U.S. athletes in every sport is pulling for each other to make our country proud.

Tuesday, July 24

The stadium is amazing, pretty much no wind can get through so it should be a great place to race. When we were going to watch the 10k tonight, a bunch of brazilians swarmed us for autographs and pictures, very crazy. The village is very nice. Security is everywhere, they have buses for to take us from place to place in the system and those are very guarded. We have a ton of medical staff, I have gotten a massage every day. Sara Slattery won the 10k today, the mexico runner gave her a scare. It was a pack until 6k, then Sara took off, her last 4k was: 3:09, 3:08, 3:12, 3:04. Total time of 32:54, the pan am record.