Berlin, Non-Stop Action!

Your boy is in Berlin, I got in a couple days ago. Of course the airlines has lost my luggage! I talked to Joice on Blackberry Messenger on my layover in London and she told me that on her blog she wrote a post about me and how efficient I pack my carry-on, and behold, I have to rely on that efficiency now.

D.O.'s Mandatory Items In The Carry-On:

- 4 pair of socks and draws
- Competition Gear
- One day of practice gear
- Flip Flops
- Gym shorts
- Two tee shirts
- Travel toiletries
- Supplements
- I wear a pair of trainers on the plane

Thankfully Marisa lined up a visit to Niketown Berlin, where I replaced virtually everything in my bag, but I still want my stuff! That trip to Niketown was off the hook, I got everything on the house, they took my picture, had me autograph it and they are in the process of blowing it up and putting me on the wall of fame. Micheal Jordan is on there, as well as a whole lot of soccer players and track athletes such as Wallace Spearmon, Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and James Carter. I got a hell of a sponsor.

I'm just now finding time today to just chill out, I have been super busy out here! I had a press conference this morning after breakfast which was cool, then I did a thing with some local kids right after that, more press engagements, training, physio, now I'm finally chillin'.

The race is going to be HOT! The preliminary start list consists of Dayron Robles, the Cuban who almost broke the indoor world record this season and has been 12.92 already in his young career, the German Champ, Thomas Blaschek, World Outdoor finalist Serghiy Demiduyk, Andy Turner (GBR), my training parter Joel Brown, Ryan Wilson (USA) who's been 13.02, Gregory Sedoc (NED) and myself. I'm feeling good, I'm looking to go out and compete to the best of my ability and see what happens, should be fun.

Rocky Mountain News Article

My mom informed me that there was an article in my hometown newspaper featuring us. I think its a pretty cool article. Check it out HERE

Dr. Phillips Elementary School Visit

Yesterday, Jackie and I were invited by Brooks' wife Betsy to come in and talk to her third grade class as well as about four other classes. We genuinely had a great time! They did a project about track and field in the Olympics, from their start as war games in ancient Greece to the evolution it is today. We watched videos they had prepared and I talked to them about the hurdles.

We had kids doing block starts, they had a blast with that!

I demonstrated the first use of the javelin as a spear in a war

Then at the end of the day, I was hungry and ate lunch in the cafeteria with them. That was the first time I had eaten in a cafeteria since I was in 8th grade. It was good too!

Life 'N Times Of D. Oliver

With my boys Aub-Rida and Joel catching dysentery down in Brazil, I have been in an utter state of boredom. Aside from the occasional 15-20 minute interviews and practice, I haven't done much. I bought a new sheet set for my bed, bought seven books and have done massive amounts of lounging around. With the fellas gone, my diet suffers too. They are the chefs of the house, I just grill occasionally. I've been doing my best with the chargrilled chicken breast sandwiches from Chick-Fil-A, trying to do my best. They need to hurry up and come back! It does feel good to just relax for a minute, but I'm too hyperactive and I need something to do, I mean at least watch Aub knock out a couple of missions on Grand Theft Auto 4

One of the interviews I did a couple of days ago was with the local news station Local 6, and affiliate of CBS. The Sports Anchor that conducted the interview was Todd Romero. When he walked up to the track, I instantly remembered him from my younger days in Denver, where he use to be a sports anchor at the local news station. He, his camera man, Tee Taylor and I had a great time out at the track that day, talking about old stories and things from Denver. Thanks once again to our PR woman Amber Godfrey for setting things in motion.

I recorded it rigt off the television with my Flipcam. Here it is:

Great Weekend To Be Lee Oliver!

This weekend, my brother Lee celebrated his 24th birthday and graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with degrees in Political Science and History! I'm very proud of the man you are becoming, you have come a long way! Congratulations again.

Oscar Pistorius Update

Those of you who follow my blog, you may remember a January post where I was talking about the situation regarding Oscar Pistorius aka "The Blade Runner" and his participation in the 2008 Olympics. I was in favor of him at least having the opportunity to compete and well it seems that he will have his chance! I was on the internet and ESPN has a story where the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the IAAF initial ruling. He can still compete in the Olympics even if he doesn't qualify for the open 400 if South Africa selects him to be a part of their 4x400 relay pool. South Africa already has five 400 hurdlers who ran sub 49.2 last season, so it may be difficult for him to gain a spot on the relay. If he can run 45.55 for the "A" standard, he could gain a spot on the Olympic team automatically, given that three others don't run faster than he. If he is the fastest 400 meter runner South Africa has to offer and is able to run sub 45.95 for the "B" standard, he also would go. His personal best is 46.34, so he still has some ground to make up on those standards, but I'm pulling for him to do what he has to do to make it.

Track Pathos

My manager, Marisa Reich, has gotten her website up. You can locate it at www.trackpathos.com. It's a very nice site, even though I think we need to work on getting some more pictures of me on it! LOL. Check it out.

WCSN Interview

I did a phone interview with Dave Ungrady of WCSN.com the other day, you can read it on their site HERE. Thank you Dave for taking time out for an interview.

Lenovo Olympic Blogger Program

The good people from Lenovo, the world's fourth largest computer manufacturer in the world, has put together an Olympic Blogging Program and they thought enough of the efforts that I put forth with my blog to include me in their program. Lenovo is the official electronics sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Games.

I had to admit that I had never heard of Lenovo before, but me being me, I went and found all the information I could about the company through various sites. With this being the internet age, it was very easy to find, nothing that a simple Google search couldn't turn up. With the information I found, I was very impressed with the company. Lenovo employs approximately 19,000 people world-wide, they produce revenue in the upwards of $13 billion, that's about $685,000 produced per employee, I like those figures!

They hooked me up with a laptop computer and a flip-cam for me to record stuff on. Brooks saw me at practice with the camera and he said "They done messed around and gave the wrong person a video camera, he's gonna have his face in everything!" We all started laughing.

I shot a couple of videos just messing around with it, documenting my daily journey to practice. My new video segment will be called LIVE FROM 4700. Hope you enjoy.

Hurdles First Interview

Steve McGill once again thought highly of a performance of mine to include me on his prestigious website. He emailed me some questions and I responded back, you can check the transcript of the interview HERE. Thanks again Steve!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day out there to all you mother's and mother's to be out there! I have three of them in my family that are celebrating today and I am very blessed and thankful for all of them!

A special thanks goes out to Bren for birthing and raising up such a G in myself. But then I guess without Joyce, there's no Bren so.....LOL, I kill myself.

Touched Down Back In The O

After nearly 24 hours of travel time from point A to point B, I'm finally back in my favorite position, laying in my own bed!

I found the video for the race from Doha this past weekend on YouTube. I don't have anything planned for the rest of the day aside from sleep, plus I'm feeling like I might be coming down with something so I'm just going to do some serious resting before practice tomorrow.

click here: DOHA 110 HURDLE RACE

12.95....DAMN!!!

12.95......Damn. Only eight people have ever done it better than your boy did tonight in Doha! Ever! The wind was just legal, at the limit of 2.0 m/s.

Last night before I went to sleep, I wrote down 12.96 on the paper on the nightstand, I felt that I was capable of running that time. I felt capable because I saw quite a few pictures from the race last season when I ran 13.14 and I feel that I was doing a whole lot of things wrong, I feel that I am a far better hurdler this year as opposed to last. On the bus going to the track, Paul "P. Diddy" Doyle said he had me in 12.97 with an illegal wind of 2.1, I had to give him a shout out even though I wasn't feeling the wind reading he had! LOL.

I was super nervous when I was warming up, I had no idea as to why either. It was like that feeling when you know you are ready and just hoping that it shows in the meet, plus I really, REALLY didn't want to get beaten. When we got to the line, I had two BAD run starts to the first hurdle, but I wasn't tripping, I knew I would be ready. Joel hit us with a false start on the first response to the gun, but on the second, I don't know what I was thinking, I reverted to doing what I normally do in the blocks, fall asleep. My reaction time was .226, clearly and by far the slowest out of the field. I didn't pull even with Joel and Andy Turner until right at three, but I believe I was clear of the field by the time we took number four. I'm not sure because I haven't seen any footage of the race. I stayed tight and concentrated on the rest of my hurdles and came across the finish line, when I looked back the clock read 12.94, my heart almost came out of my throat!! Then I heard them announce the wind readings and I was more than satisfied. The thing with the sprint events is, you never get too happy with your time until you get that all important wind reading.

Joel finished up second in a season best time of 13.38, he then hopped in the 200 and finished 2nd in 20.84! We were just sitting in the stands and Maury asked Joel if he still wanted to run and he hopped in and beat a lot of contending runners. He did his best R. Kelly and Doubled Up on that money! Now he's got to carry two of them big trophies back to the house, I guess that's really not a bad problem to have.

We are stepping pretty nicely in the hurdles as far as our camp goes, myself at 12.95, Aub 13.30 and Joel 13.38. Having them to train with this year is the direct reason why my times have started going down, you can never underestimate having great coaching and great training partners. The thing I always remind myself of is that you can't win anything in April, May or June, you have to bring it on those two days for four races in July. You can run 12.9 everytime you touch the track but if on July 6th you run 13.9, then everything went for not. Well not everything, but the main goal for this year has.

My hamstrings are TAPPED right now, I think I might have to hang it up for a second and recover. Joel and I are here until our flight leaves at 1:30am local time Sunday, I don't know what I am going to do all day tomorrow, I might go hit this lovely beach right outside the hotel and work on my tan some more, I'm coming for you Aub-RIDA!! Wax already called me dark skinned!!

If I can find the video, you know I will have it up.

Finally Made It To Doha

After countless hours of flight time, delays and sprints through the airport terminals, I finally arrived in Doha, Qatar. The travel wasn't half bad, I slept for about 85 percent of the flights. The only time I was really up was when the meals were coming out, you won't see D.O. catching any missed meal cramps.

The Doha Super Grand Prix is to me, one of the best meets on the circuit and well worth the travel. At this meet last year, I reached the 13.1 range for the first time in my carreer, this year I am hoping to far supercede that time. The field is a good one, comprised of Andy Turner (GBR), Charles Allen (CAN), Home Team (QAT), Arend Watkins (USA), Joel Brown (USA), Antwon Hicks (USA) and myself.

Right now my body is aching and I'm going to go do something about that before I head off to sleep, I plan on hitting a light workout tomorrow morning.

Quick Update on the Monotonous Goings On

Nothing much has been going on in the jading life and times of D.O. since the Penn Relays, some how my tv stopped working while I was away and I had to upgrade to a Samsung. Aub-Rida was really pushing for that model, he said he'll never buy a tv that isn't a Samsung, and the way this tv is looking I'm in that same boat. Other than shopping for tv's, I've just been training upon training upon more training! I put around 500+ hurdles in the bank this week, quite a few 200's and 300's. I'm tuning up for the Doha Super Grand Prix, which will be my next competition next Friday.

I have nothing planned for the rest of this weekend, my masseur came by the house and hit half the training group, we are watching the De La Hoya-Forbes fight at the house tonight as well. I hope De La Hoya gets beaten, how can you explain paying a guy like Forbes to put on 25 plus pounds for a fight, trying to get an easy win? That's like having a miler drop down to race a 10 flat guy in the 100. That's pretty weak to me, but hey what do I know.