So here I am in the team hotel, sitting in reception updating the profile. Being in a competition like this you see a few famous faces go by. While writing I've seen Mo Farah, Alistar Brownlee and Spencer Barden go by and Steph Twell is just down the other end of the reception playing cards with a few of the other junior men. While in the middle of writing the last sentence Lauren Howarth and Katie Knowles decided to stop by and have chat. Every once in a while you see a member of staff rush by like Jo Mersh, Ian Stewart or Bob Ashwood. We're in a hotel with Belgium, Belarus and the Czech Republic, so a member of one of those countries may stroll past. Yeah, this place really does help make it ring home you're among Europe's finest.

We've been put up in a nice hotel which is very cool. It's very flash with huge rooms and bath robes and tons of other little gizmos and gadgets. The food is great here and they've kept us well fed and fuelled up. We're only a five minute drive from the course which is handy. We went down there earlier today to have a course inspection. We were one of the first countries to get on it and at the time it wasn't very muddy but the grass was pretty long. There are various loops that can be done on this course and our race just happens to be made up of 2 1k loops and 2 mile loops. It's pretty flat the whole way round with a little gradient at some point, nothing too taxing really. But after all the other countries have had a run and a walk down I imagine it will get pretty mashed up and slippy. Behind the start there is a big tent where all the teams are kept and then behind that is a warm up area which is basically just a big field. After walking the course we jogged round the warm up area and the course and I felt quite bouncy, which makes the experience more enjoyable. 

We walked the course in our separate teams with our own team managers. My team manager for this trip is Andy Hobdell, Andy Baddeley's coach. He's a nice guy and a great team manager. So far he's taken good care of us and made sure we're all ok everytime we bump into him. Anything we need sorted he's willing to get sorted. He's just very good at making us feel as comfortable as possible. Spencer Barden has also made a great effort in sorting out the admin for the team. He got all our rooms sorted and again, any problems,  he's the one you want to speak to. The back up team behind us is awesome and it includes media officers, 2 phsios and a doctor. A combination of all of these guys has made everyone's prep very stress-free. 

The only thing we've got left to do is wait for the race. Admittedly this can be a bit boring but I've managed to help it go along smoothly by updating the profile and having a little nap after lunch. At half 5 we have a team meeting before we head over to dinner. After that it's just a case of chilling out some more and getting tomorrows kit ready. Hopefully Jonny Hay will keep his mouth shut long enough so I can get some sleep later tonight. I'm joking, he's not that bad.        

Til next time,

Goolab xxx