By Maggie Hannon |
The Olympic Games that just ended always seem to bring a sense of national pride. Last weekend, while most of us were watching the games, one member of the University of Portland community felt this sense of national pride by participating in a different event abroad.
On Feb. 22, freshman Jeff Thies raced with the junior United States team in the North American Central American Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Championships 6K run and helped the team secure first place. The race was held in Tobago, the smaller island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Thies applied for the race in early December and found out in the end of January from his cross country coach here that he would be racing for the United States abroad. He was very interested in representing the U.S. while also experiencing a new country.
“I was super excited. It’s always been kind of a dream of mine to represent my country in athletics,” Thies said. “It’s kind of a cool thing because it shows that you’re one of the top in the nation for the age level and it’s kind of a fun trip and exciting to be accepted.”
For his first race out of the country,Thies was excited to beat Canada after their hockey win over the United States during the Olympics.
“The U.S., our team, won and then I placed sixth so it was a great thing being able to be beat Canada in a cross country race even though we lost to them in hockey in the Olympics,” Thies said. “(The Canadian team) was bragging about it because there was only one spot that had WiFi, so we were all sitting there kind of looking at the Olympics and stuff and they were like ‘aaah we won hockey,’ and stuff. So it’s cool that we beat them.”
During the day of the race, Thies and his teammates spent their time staying cool and hydrated before running.
“It was at 3 in the afternoon. So all of the day was just sitting in the air conditioning, hydrating and getting ready to race,” Thies said.
After racing in extreme weather conditions of over 80 degrees and over 80 percent humidity, a standard for February Trinidad and Tobago weather, two runners passed out at the end of the race. One of the runners from Jamaica was rushed to the hospital and then pronounced dead, however the details of the medical report have not yet been released.
“It was much more difficult. Luckily they had water stations on the course. I didn’t drink anything, but I was pouring cold water on myself to keep me cool,” Thies said. “I definitely felt very dehydrated afterwards and I had been drinking bottles on bottles of water all day. It was a hilly course, plus with the heat it just drains you. It makes it a little bit slower but much more challenging.”
While he was in Trinidad and Tobago training for his race,Thies experienced a different running experience than what he is used to.
“(The run) was kind of adventurous because there’s no sidewalks or bike lanes. So we were running on the side of the road and there they drive on different sides of the road, so that was weird too,” Thies said. “We ended up turning down some street and we got chased by stray dogs and that was really interesting, kind of scary.”
During his five-day trip,Thies also enjoyed some of the culture in Trinidad and Tobago.“We got to go on a bass bottom boat and go snorkeling kind of see this huge coral reef. Then we went and played on this sandbar out on the ocean,” Thies said. “Local folklore is that you’ll become 10 years younger if you bathe there.”
Thies is not the only one on the cross country team to race in another country. A few runners on the team have also competed abroad, including teammate and sophomore Danny Martinez who competed in the World Mountain Running Championship in Poland last Sept. Although they had very different conditions for each of their races, he too understood the prestige of running for the U.S.
“It was exciting, I mean when you get your gear, you open the box and you’re like, wow this is the actual U.S.A. gear. I can only imagine how he felt,” Martinez said. “I just told (Thies) to have fun with it. I mean, how many kids get to go out and represent their own country.”
This is Thies’ last year to compete at the junior level, which requires runners to be under the age of 20 years old on Dec. 31 of this year. At a senior level, Thies would have to compete against stiffer competition like Olympic silver medalist, Galen Rupp, to get on the U.S. team. Once he is a senior runner, he will plan to focus on his career here at UP.
“There’s two more chances for me to do it again as a junior, but as a senior I’ll mainly go and focus on competing here for UP,” Thies said. “Then if post collegiately I have the opportunity to be sponsored or run professionally then I’d definitely love to try and do it again.”
