A Capitol Fourth (Part 2)

The Fourth of July is by far my favorite holiday. I usually spend it in my hometown of Monument, Colorado which has a major 4th of July bash. It starts with a 4-mile race which I have never won (and that bothers me). The race always falls right in the middle of my hardest training so I am usually exhausted and not running well for it. It’s the biggest race in the Colorado Springs area that day, so all the good runners are there to make it a fast and fun race. After the race, the town of 30,000 gathers for the parade. Typically, everyone is either in the parade or watching it. Monument is still small enough that I see old high school friends and teachers every year.

It was a little bittersweet to be away from home on the 4th, but DC could not have been more fun. In the morning (and after an easy run on the hotel treadmill), Cami and I went along with the other athletes for a private tour of the US Capitol. Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and funny, and we learned a lot about the history of Congress and the Capitol building. After lunch, Cami and I met up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who live just outside of DC for a tour of the Newseum. We had an “emergency” rehearsal the afternoon before the show because the producers did not like how we walked onto the stage, so I had to duck out of the Newseum for a quick jaunt back to the Capitol. After the Newseum, we had dinner and headed over to the Capitol for the performance.

It was raining for the last few hours before the performance, but no one in the crowd or in the show seemed to mind. Looking up at the Capitol from the stage, you could see the crowd of over 100,000 people, a number dwarfed by the onlookers on the mall. There were tons of American flags, and you could feel the excitement and energy in the crowd.

Our part of the show only took a few minutes and, if I do say so myself, we executed our part flawlessly (of course, we could not really screw up walking 10 feet and standing on a platform while music played!). Looking beyond the stage, we could see the Washington Monument in the distance. It was one of those experiences I will never forget as long as I live.

After the show, we attended a reception in the Capitol building. Cami and I got a good laugh when we ran across a notice in the transportation vehicles stating that athletes would ride in the motorcade, but Congressmen needed to walk. We have a picture of the notice on the photo album page of elibremer.com.

The reception was a lot of fun, and again they honored the Olympians in the room as well as the performers at the event. We stayed at the party until almost midnight, then headed back to the hotel.

While I love being home for the 4th of July, this experience was worth the change-up. I love representing the USA, and seeing the nation honor and support our Olympic Team brought more pride than I can describe. It has been described that the Olympic Team is America’s Team. It really felt like that this weekend, and it reminded me how fortunate I am to represent the USA in the greatest sporting event on the planet.