Janel Blancett has arrived in Terre Haute, Ind., in preparation for the NCAA National Championship race on Monday. Janel was kind enough to keep a blog while in Indiana. Stay tuned to hear her thoughts post race and be sure to watch the race on the Versus network or at ncaasports.com at 12:58 p.m. (EST).

DAY ONE

We are in Indiana! the weather is pretty much perfect. It's about the same as it is in Atlanta right now, in the fifties. Everywhere you turned at the airport, you would see cross country teams. We're taking over Terre Haute! Terre Haute is going all out for Nationals. Driving along the highway you can see huge billboards advertising for the big race on Monday. When I saw those billboards, I thought, wow, I'm gonna be racing in NATIONALS in two days! This is unreal.

Last night the NCAA put on a banquet for all the runners. It was exciting to be eating in the same room as the best runners in the nation. We also had guest speaker Billy Mills come speak to us. In case you haven't heard of him, Billy Mills was the 1964 Olympic gold medalist in the 10,000 meters and is still the only American individual to win gold in the 10,000. It was inspiring to watch footage of the race and hear him talk about how he was on the verge of dropping out of the race, but found the strength to kick it in the end and set a new Olympic record. The food was yummy, I bought my first Nationals t shirt and I got to get all dressed up and eat with fast people. Today was a great day!

Janel