Spiral Bound Journal

Prelude to One Heartbeat

Dana swigged from her water bottle and peered over the ledge of the photographer's pit. The rows of seats behind her provided just enough shade at this hour to make the temperatures bearable. She knew that climate change was bringing the literal heat to Paris. The degree of heat, though, caught her by surprise. Turning to check what her fellow photographers were up to, she spotted half of them fanning themselves despite it being around eight AM. Then again, they were wearing jeans.

Why do you do that to yourselves? The IOC dress code allows for shorts.

Shifting her focus away from the press photographers in this pit, she fished in her vest pockets for her phone. The gates would be open for spectators in a couple hours. Some time before that the athletes and all of their staff and volunteers would be joining the press in the stadium. Dana figured she would not have too much time to familiarize herself with the venue even though she was there rather early. Since she didn't have to tether any equipment, she was allowed to skip the seven AM call. Her stomach rumbled a bit under the vest. While she did manage to scarf down an apple and croissant at the Village, she knew this would not be sufficient. There had been notices of snacks for the press team at the venue, so she figured she ought to get on that.

Instead, she decided to survey this pit for a moment longer. The pit was on a curve, which resulted in the cameras that had already been set up to have their telephoto lenses on an angle to capture the runners approaching the bend. Looking straight ahead, Dana spotted the water pit that was part of the steeplechase event. A quick glance at the schedule copy on her phone showed Dana that there would in fact be a steeplechase event today, which made her consider this area as a possible option.

"Alright, I better go eat," she muttered before gathering her bag and walking out of the pit.

After walking what felt like halfway are the Stade, Dana located the lower level press room. This place was saved for the photographers, and indeed several of the people already crowded in their had on their holsters and lens belts. Craning her neck, Dana was able to find the snack table, whic to her surprise still had a decent stock of options. While she avoided the drinks (as she found it too early for anything sugary or loaded with electrolytes), she did load up on berries, apples, and a couple slices of raisin bread. Part of her wished for more savory items, but alas, she would have to make do with the French offerings she could eat. At least she didn't get too many weird looks when spread a thin layer of honey on the raisin bread. She stepped away and took a bit of this bread.

Not bad. Still not as good as Dutch raisin bread, though.

Dana managed to find a chair in the room so she could eat her second breakfast without having to engage in a ridiculous balancing act that might trigger a migraine. She wasted no time devouring the raisin bread before moving onto the fruits. When half of the fruits were gone, she reached for her water bottle. She flipped up the little drinking spout only for some water to splash onto her Bermuda shorts.

"Thank goodness for glorified nylon," she muttered before taking a sip. She figured the water wouldn't stain and would dry soon enough.

After she finished eating, Dana headed back out into the stadium for a self guided tour. She visited a couple other pits and headed into the stands themselves to get different views of the track. She would be carrying all her gear, which gave her the opportunity to move around a little bit more compared to the press photographers. In this case, being a test competitor had its advantages. She had been able to use this freedom of movement to her advantage, whether lying on her stomach right next to the whitewater course or standing near the French volleyball coach and aiming her camera into the stands. Today would be the first of four days photographing athletics (track and field forever), and she bounced on the balls of her feet as stood near the ledge closest to the lanes for the long and triple jumps. Below her she could start to her more rumblings, a sign of the arrival of some of the athletes and staff. She realized that her time for scouting the place was starting to wind down. Once the athletes were more or less in place, the photographers had to go into their meeting before taking their places. Everyone needed to be in their initial spot within 20 minutes of the gates opening.

"Alrighty, Dana. It's almost showtime."

With that, she turned and headed for the stairs to make her way back into the bowels of the stadium.