Jana Rawlinson training with young kids (© Getty Images)
As she prepares to leave Australia on the trip that will take her to Beijing, Jana Rawlinson runs through a check-list of the few things she can’t do without, including Vegemite - a dark brown savoury food paste made from yeast extract, rich in Vitamin B, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast and cracker biscuits and with a taste that evokes memories of home for Aussies and varying reactions from everyone else…
"I take Vegemite everywhere, I take a tub wherever I go. I’ve made everyone try it - my managers, athletes I meet. Most of the reactions are pretty gross. You have to grow up on it, I guess! Even Chris doesn’t like it."
"We leave for the US on 23 April. Cornelis is coming with us; we’ve got so much luggage it’s ridiculous."
"We’re going to a two dollar shop and buying a whole lot of funny toys for him. When he gets bored with them we can dump them."
"Our accommodation in the States is a proper little house, so we all have separate rooms. I’m quite looking forward to it, because the weather is so nice."
"Then we move to Loughborough, our European base in England. I love Loughborough. We’re only there for seven weeks this time. We’re renting a place. It’s in our favourite village, and it’s got lots of lovely walks that I take Cor on every morning. I’m looking forward to being back in an environment that I know will be great for our training."
"I’m not having vaccinations for Beijing. We decided the reaction could be worse than the injections. But Cor had to have his - we’re more worried about him than me."
"It’s hard trying to imagine everything you might need over the four months between now and the time we come home again."
"You basically have to pack all the comforts from home plus all the things that you could foresee needing if anything goes wrong, just in case."
"I have to take everything I need for the Olympics, even my green and gold polish I use to do my nails for races. It’s hard to get good stuff while I’m on the road, so I take that all the way from Australia."
"Then there’s all my ‘rehab’ stuff because you have to be prepared in case you get injured. I take a special boot - a stretch boot, a back arch, all my gym equipment; then there’s about five or six pieces of electronic equipment - a TENS unit, laser pens, that sort of thing."
"I don’t pack many ‘favourite things’ to remind me of home. I have a small bedside clock Chris gave me, and a teddy bear with a photo of Cor and Chris on the front. If I go somewhere on my own, I take the teddy so that they come with me."
"As far as my racing program goes, I’m not totally sure yet."
"We went to (Dr Hans Wilhelm) Muller-Wohlfahrt in Germany to have a look at my alignment and my toe. He’s pretty confident that it’s not going to be a problem. I’ve missed a few more weeks training so I prefer to wait a little bit longer. I don’t intend to race until I’m 100 percent ready."
"I know I’m running New York and I know the American girls will be running there close to their trials, so they’ll probably be a lot quicker than me. But I’m not worried, I know my form will come later in the season, rather than early this year."
"I’m desperate to race. I can’t stop thinking about it, to be honest. I wish it could come a few months earlier, but then again I wish I had a few more months before the Olympics, too. It’s coming very quickly."
Jana