JOHNSON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS JOURNAL: Taking you through my journey of competing at my first Worlds

Sept. 26

Today, was the big day for me. The day I've been waiting for ever since winning my spot on the World Team back at the end of May. It's been a long summer of training day in and day out. All in an attempt to be the best in the world. Before I get directly to the happenings of today I want to backup to yesterday.

As is typical for me, the morning of weigh ins I had less than a kilo (kilo = 2.2 lbs) left to go. My morning workout was short and sweet; just three sits in the sauna for about 5 minutes each. I apparently didn't even need to do all three as I was almost a full kilo under weight when I was done. It was nice, however, to be able to eat and drink a little bit before weigh ins.

We took a shuttle over to weigh-ins and arrived about an hour early (which is good because you never know what can happen on the way to make you late). After going through medical checks and hanging around a while we finally finished weigh-ins. The timing worked out perfectly because lunch was being served right as weigh-ins were finishing up. Even though food was being served, it was a tough decision on where to eat because the food had been so hit or miss since we arrived (serious extremes here), but I ended up eating at the venue anyway.

After I finished eating, I finally met up with my parents. They had just arrived and were heading into the main arena. We ended up deciding to head back to my hotel and walk around the area a little bit. It worked out well because I needed to walk off all the food I just ate and my parents wanted to look around a bit at the different stores in the area. It's a good thing for me that the area is small and I didn't have to spend any real energy, but it was bad for my parents because there's really not much to see here. In the end, it was nice to be able to spend a little bit of time with my parents during their first trip overseas. I got my parents back to the venue in time to see the finals for the day. I didn't stay to watch because I wanted to make sure I got as much rest as possible for my big day.

In the morning I got up and had a medium-sized breakfast (I never have a big meal before I wrestle, it makes me feel sluggish) then came back my room and prepared my things for the tournament. This is the first time we've had a 1 p.m. start time for a tournament and so it was slightly awkward for me during the time after breakfast and before I left for the tournament. I didn't know weather to take a nap, get work done, or just sit there. I ended up packing and getting caught up on the news (thanks to Google News and CNNs podcasts). All in all, I think I really like the later start time; it allows for breakfast to get settled and for some extra mental prep time (a nice chat with T.C. Dantzler to help calm the nerves a bit).

We arrived at the venue around 11:40 and started warming up. Because of where I was situated in the bracket I was the second match of the day and therefor I got right to work on getting ready. Apparently today was my turn to show B Rupp how good my right cross is (he later informed me) during the warm up.

As the rules currently stand, the wrestlers who make it into the wrestle-backs (repechage) are the ones who have lost to the finalists. For example, if person A makes it to the finals, whomever he beat the first round will wrestle who he beat in the second round. The winner of that match will wrestle who person A beat in the 3rd round, and so on. The last of these matches, that occurs when the person that person A beat in the semifinals is wrestling, is the bronze-medal match. Therefor there are two bronze medal matches (one for the top half, one for the bottom half).

Today wasn't my day, and I ended up losing a tough match in the first round. The guy that I lost to ended up winning two more matches before losing in the quarterfinals to the reigning Olympic champion. Because of the way my match played out there are many things that I could point out that shouldn't have happened, but this is what happens in wrestling and I don't like to complain about what I can't change. I'll just say that it is hard to win when you have to wrestle the referee as well as your opponent (especially when your opponent has obviously attended many acting classes). I went out there and wrestled, and for that I am at peace with myself. I didn't hold back and I did what I could. I wrestled to win and came up a little short this time. I'm not at all happy with my results today but I'm also not going to beat myself up (too badly at least) about it because I know I left it out there on the mat. Now it's time to go back to the drawing board, change a few things around, and get ready to take another shot at it next year.

Of everything that happened today, there was at least one small ray of sunshine on this cloudy day. That was watching the rest of my bracket play out as the day drew on. Seeing that I've beaten and had very close matches with guys on the podium let me know just how close I am to the gold, even if it was out of my reach this time around. Frustrating indeed.

On another note, I'm looking forward to seeing the remainder of my teammates compete tomorrow. So far we are 0 for 4, but I'm thinking that we can go 3 for 7 with the guys we have wrestling tomorrow. They are all great competitors and friends and I look forward to seeing them in action.

Sept. 24

Today is the last day of being up and about before I get ready to wrestle. I want to make sure my body feels fresh and ready to go when I step out on the mat on Saturday. I had a good workout with B Rupp at the venue this morning. While we were drilling I found out that he has a pretty decent left hook. Our workout was short and sweet; enough to blow open the lungs a bit and correct any last minute issues.

After my mat workout I went into what has now been dubbed by me as the "cold box" (a not-very-hot plywood sauna set up for the tournament) to cool down and get a bit of extra sweat out. While in the warm-up area (which is where the cold boxes are located) I saw the girls getting ready to wrestle; they looked focused and excited. They really seemed ready to get out there and get the job done. I was able to catch one of Elena's matches and she really looked great out there. I also saw one of Deanna's matches today; I thought she did great. Unfortunately I did not get to see Tatiana wrestle because I had to step out and get something to eat. By the time I got back she had already come up, wrestled, and won. A quick win is not bad at all.

As I started to type this we had two girls in the bronze medal matches, Deanna and Tatiana. I've just been informed that neither of them were victorious in their respective matches. I'm at the hotel cutting weight so I didn't go to the finals tonight, but seeing how they wrestled earlier, I'm sure they did great tonight. Also, my parents got in today. I'm excited to see them tomorrow. All the hotels in this city are sold out so they are staying in the next town (a 30 minute drive). They enjoyed their trip over and are excited to see me wrestle on Saturday.

I'm working on making weight so this will be a short post. I'll be placing some more photos online tonight or tomorrow. I haven't been as camera happy and touristy the last couple days(which is normal the closer I get to competition) so there are fewer new photos.

I hope everyone is enjoying keeping tabs on the wrestling that's going on this week. I thank all of you for your kind words and the support that I've been getting since I've been here. It sure does make the time here easier. Also, I think everyone here (from the fans and the media to the team leaders) is doing a great job keeping tabs on all the wrestling and supporting our teams. I'm thankful for them.

Sept. 22

The last couple of days have been rather slow as far as wrestling is concerned. We had the day off on Sunday (which I used to sit around and watch almost the entire season 4 of The Wire) and one match on Monday. We found a kebab place that was near our hotel and ended up eating dinner there the last 3 nights. They weren't the greatest kebabs, but they were worth the repeat visits.

Today we traveled to Herning, where the tournament is taking place. We arrived in time to watch some of the freestyle that's going on. It was nice to get a sneak peek at the competition site and figure out how everything will be set up. It's good to see many of my friends from other countries that I've met through the years and rarely have the chance to visit with. Sometimes these tournaments are like extended family reunions with all the people I get to see and get caught up with. Just another perk that comes with the job I suppose.

When we arrived here in Herning the rumors were confirmed that the training partners will not be staying in the same location as the World Team members. So, instead of rooming with B Rupp I'm rooming with my former coach, Faruk Sahin. It's a long story, but the simple version is that back in 2000 when I first went to Northern Michigan, Faruk was a coach there along with Gordy Morgan. He's the one who initially taught me the reverse lift and told me that one day I will be number one. It's cool to be on the same team as him almost a full decade later; I'm honored.

As I mentioned earlier, the training partners are not staying in the same location as the rest of us. It turns out that…. Well, I'd like to preface this by saying that while I'm not going to pass judgment at this time, I feel it is necessary to state a couple facts. It turns out that the training partners, along with some of the other members of our delegation (and others as well), are staying in a makeshift RV park behind the arena. The RVs have electricity but no running water. There are about 150 RVs parked out back behind the main arena where the wrestling is taking place. The showers are located in the building where the practice mats are located. I've tried to capture the full scale of this in the images I've placed in my gallery. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

I took a few pics of everything today in an attempt to capture the feel of the place. It's actually been put together quite well, all things considered. So far, I've eaten two meals, lunch and dinner, in the "restaurant" that has been set up for us. As it currently stands the count is at 1 and 1 (good meals to bad meals). For lunch we had smoked salmon along with some tomato soup and other things. For dinner we had some sort of beef chili that I heard more complaints about than I've heard at a single meal in a long time. All in all, things went smoothly for our first day on site. I even had an impromptu tour of the highways of Herning (long story).

For being a die-hard Greco fan, I think I rather enjoyed myself today as I was watching my fellow Americans compete. There was some really great competition going on. Today, we won a silver medal at 84 kg and a bronze medal at 120 kg. I know that it's never fun to lose, but I must say, I really saw some great wrestling from the American freestyle wrestlers today. I'm looking forward to having my turn on the mat. But for now, I'm taking things one day at a time. I have two full days until weigh ins and I plan to use them to get lots of rest and recovery and get ready to go.

As usual, I've added a few pics to the gallery from the last couple of days.

Sept. 19

I'm back again with another update. I didn't end up getting a chance to blog yesterday because I was hooked on The Wire, season 3. By the time I stopped, it was well past my bedtime. It's one of those shows that sucks you in and keeps your attention (but what won't keep my attention when I don't have anything else to do but work on my laptop, watch movies on my laptop, or sit here).

Also, I'm happy that my T-shirt fundraiser has been going well even with me out of the country and preparing for Worlds. I'm glad to see how many people are willing to contribute! Thanks again for that. On another note, not too much has been going on these last couple days. We had a game day yesterday where we played basketball (at which I am horrible) and a little game that sort of resembles ultimate frisbee. It was a good change of pace and helped to get a different kind of sweat going. Playing games where you run around beats doing sprints or jogging on a track any day!

Today we had matches; I was feeling pretty good during practice too, I'm quite happy about that. I'm glad that B Rupp is pretty tough and much bigger than me (a little more than 20 kgs, or 44 lbs., bigger), yet still agile enough to move well, because even on the days where I'm feeling extra strong I still can't just push him around and still have to work hard for it. I'm feeling good behind the training we've done over the past couple months to prepare for next week and I'm once again feeling a bit anxious for it to come.

I'll now simply start sharing a few interesting things/tidbits of information from out trip so far. The first is about B Rupp. I was dead asleep a couple nights ago and I heard some muffled crunching sounds. Normally, I sleep like a rock, but in a strange place the slightest of noises can wake me from my slumber. The crunching sound just so happened to be loud enough to barely wake me. With extremely sleepy eyes I searched the room (from my bed of course, I was way too tired to move around) to determine the source of the noise. I finally figured out that it was coming from B Rupp's bed. At first, I thought that it couldn't be him because I also heard intermittent snoring. Well, if you haven't figured it out by now I'll just come out and say it; B Rupp was sleep-eating. This phenomenon is typically found only in heavyweights. It happens when they get hungry and tired at the same time. In this case, he was dead asleep laying in his bead while simultaneously eating some chips he got during our earlier walk that day. Okay, to be honest, I made part of that up. He was actually only half asleep and eating chips, and he wasn't snoring, he was just breathing heavy (the way some heavyweights do). But being witness to B Rupp's quasi sleep-eating made me have to tell the tale my way. Another fascinating heavyweight tale is the epic hibernation of Byers (this is a true story). It happens quite a bit but I'm still awestruck every time I bear witness to it. He can sleep for 30 hours straight, be awake for 2 hours to eat, sleep for another 30 hours, eat again, then repeat. It's downright amazing!

While downtown getting dinner tonight, we happened upon a place called Sharks. It's an America themed diner that, among other things, serves really good burgers. B Rupp and I got there, sat down, saw some kid eating this huge burger and we both had to get one. We ate it, and while it wasn't quite as good as it looked, it was pretty good indeed. The interesting part of the story comes when we got our checks. Both of us ordered the same thing; burger, fries, and a drink. Our total was 157 kr (I previously called them dk, but their money is actually abbreviated kr for kroner). That's a little over $31 for a burger, fries and a drink. I said that to reiterate an earlier statement about the difference in prices.

I had a few more things to mention, but seeing as how I'm, once again, up well past my bedtime I'll try to remember them for a later post. Since its late I'll try to get my latest pictures posted in the morning (evening for you). Oh yeah, I took a picture at Sharks with our burgers; at first it was because they looked so good, but the decision was reaffirmed when we got the bill!

Sept. 17

On this our eighth day in New Zealand we've been having quite the fun time. Our captors here have been treating us quite well, it's probably because…. Oh wait, we're in Denmark for the World Championships!

This day wasn't so bad. B Rupp and I got up at 8 a.m. and went to breakfast. After breakfast, we ended up getting talked into going for a quick trip downtown with Coach Chandler that would take "no longer than an hour… max!" Said walk started around 9 a.m.

When downtown we ended having a pretty good time. I'm glad I remembered to bring my camera (pictures already in the gallery) because there are some interesting things to look at downtown. I previously mentioned the prices in this country being extremely high, for proof I took a few shots of "sale prices" on a few items that I saw while we were walking around. We walked along the creek/stream/canal that flows through downtown and after walking through a mall (no, the canal did not run through the mall) we headed down towards the harbor.

We stumbled upon a bike rack and Coach Chandler happened to be inquisitive enough to read the sign on the bikes that said they were FREE! It was pretty cool, if you put a 20dk (I hope that's actually the abbreviation for the money here) piece in this box it will unlock the bike and when you return it you will get your money back. While on the bikes (is anyone paying attention to the list of activities and the probable elapsed time?) we rode down to the harbor and toward a beach. We never made it to the beach (time constraints) but we did take a peak at some jelly fish that were swimming next to the docks where some yachts were. We stopped in a couple of fish shops that were pretty cool as well.

Long story short, we made it back from our "hour long walk" by 12:25 or so. We had just enough time to go to the bathroom, pack a bag, check one or two e-mails and hit the bus for practice. For practice, we had a few short goes on the feet and a couple of minutes of work in par tarre. Nothing too crazy but enough to get the heart rate up and get a good sweat going. During practice, Coach Momir Petkovic asked me how I was feeling, so I told him that my legs were a bit tired from the "hour long walk" I had earlier (exaggerating the point by saying Coach Chandler made us ride sprints up hill). He didn't like that too much at first, but laughed about it later.

After practice, Brandon and I went back downtown for a little bit just to check the place out during the evening. There were a few more people mulling around but we gathered that with our two trips today we were probably there outside of the prime daytime hours for the town (somewhere between noon and 5 p.m.). We did have kebabs, but they were disappointing and don't deserve much more mention than that.

When the day finally wound down, I made a few skype calls and grabbed some photos that Chas has been taking (already posted in the gallery with appropriate credits) to get a slightly different perspective in my gallery. Now it's time for me to watch my latest addiction, The Wire, that I convinced a buddy to loan to me for this trip. It's no 24, but it's extremely engaging.

As I've mentioned a few times above, I've added a few more photos to the gallery.

I hope you enjoyed this installment.

Sept. 16

With our first full day in Denmark complete, we've got our rhythm down and our schedule established.

It turns out that even though the exchange rate here is 5dk to $1, I would have to say that this is one of the most expensive countries I've been to yet. When in a new country I like to use the "basket of goods" approach to see how everything compares to home. My typical measuring stick/basket includes a bottle of water, a snickers bar (probably the best candy bar on the planet), a McDonald's combo meal, and a bottle of peach flavored Nestea. As it stands so far I've paid (using the 5dk to $1 rough conversion) both $3 and $5.5 for a 1L bottle of Nestea. I couldn't bring myself (we'll see how long that lasts) to pay $2.50 for a Snickers bar in a grocery store, and I haven't had to buy water (the drinking water seems drinkable) or go to McDonald's (which is about 5 kilometers from our hotel). I was going to buy a Coke instead of the Nestea, but it was just as expensive so I stuck with the Nestea.

I'm glad to have a training partner like B Rupp (Brandon Rupp) because he was nice enough to bring me a huge bag of pistachio nuts; especially because he went and picked it up while he had to wait a day to get here with the flight cancellations. Also, lucky for me, I had two Snickers packed away in my bag that are helping me to satisfy my hunger and avoid paying $2.50 a piece to do so.

Even though things are rather expensive here, things are going smoothly. Everyone is here and almost everyone has their luggage (I finally received mine about an hour before our workout today). We took a walk to the store just before practice to stretch the legs a bit and get some stuff for sandwiches. The town is really clean and everyone I've spoken with speaks pretty plain English. Apart from seeing the signs that aren't in English, I could easily forget that I'm in a foreign country.

For practice today, we just warmed up and rolled around a bit to get all the traveling out of our systems. It was just what I needed to help me adjust. After practice, we came back to the hotel and some of us had a quick sauna before we had a team dinner. I think a few of us were in sync at dinner because we brought our cameras and snapped a couple of pictures (some of which I have posted in the gallery). After dinner, some went into town to look around a bit. I went to see A Rod (our trainer for the trip) to make sure I'm in good working order for next weekend. Now most of us are back in our rooms and winding down for the night. Our first full day is complete and we're one day closer to the dance.

Sept. 15

After almost a full 24 hours (I think the clock might sit at 22 and change) of travel, we've made it to the first of our hotels. We should remain here for a week as we get acclimated to the area.

As of yet, nothing too exciting has happened - unless you want to count cancelled flights, lost luggage, and the team splitting up into three separate groups! So not to bore with lengthy anecdotes I'll keep it quick.

When those of us traveling from Colorado Springs got to the airport, we were met with the news of a cancelled flight. From there, some of us, me included, took a flight to Denver and then another to Chicago to meet with our original itinerary. Others remained in Colorado Springs and made it onto a later flight to Chicago. The last group ended up not being able to slip onto either flight and had to try and give it a go the next day. From there things seemed to go smoothly until we arrived here in Denmark. Of the ones that physically made it in with our group, four of us came up empty handed at the luggage carousel! To me, this trip is a prime example why its good to have an acclimation camp (a couple days on site) before a major event. Even though some of us, me included, might not have our luggage, at least we don't need it immediately.

Even though it was a bit chilly outside, the sun was brightly shining when we arrived. Our hotel accommodations are as expected (small European beds and everything). The rest of the team (ones not traveling from Colorado) got in earlier than us and were already hanging out in the hotel when we arrived. Since it was late and the sun was already going down there was no time to go explore the city. I guess I'll have to save that for tomorrow.

Sept. 13

We take off for Denmark tomorrow. I've been spending most of my time today getting prepared to be out of my office for two weeks while I'm at the World Championships. It's hard to believe all the little things that must be done to prepare for such a trip. I'm used to taking a few days here and a few days there, but the two-week trips always seem to take a bit more effort.

The last couple of weeks leading up to now have been rather interesting. We've been training hard and making sacrifices in our attempt to be the best in the world. It's a funny thing actually, when I speak with most people about the World Championships they sometimes ask me about the next Olympics. Even though I never say it, I almost always think about the old U.S. team slogan "It's not every four years, it's every day". The interesting thing is that it really is just about every day. In a normal week, we train six days out of seven. In a normal year, we probably train 42 weeks out of 52.

Even though these last couple of weeks have been especially intense, they pale in comparison to the day in and day out that we push to be better versions of ourselves both on and off the mat. As I prepare to go to these World Championships, I'm not thinking about how hard the past couple of weeks have been. I'm thinking about how much fun I've had as I've been struggling and straining to be a better version of myself and how proud I'm going to be when I step out on the mat to represent my country on this stage for the first time. Should be a fun time.