Postcard from Beijing

Ni hao,

Looking down on the Olympic Stadium track, saw a woman who sure looked familiar. Aha! We sat next to each other on the flight from Seoul to Beijing.

Nicole Nemra, 18, was lining up for preliminaries of the women's 800 meters. She's from Seattle, where she placed fifth in this year's Washington state high school meet. She's part of the six-person strong and first-ever Olympics team from the Marshall Islands. She's never been there. Her dad is from there, but hasn't been back for 40 years.

Nicole, who has run as fast at 2:13, finished last in her heat here, 2:18.83, more than 18 seconds behind Ukraine's Yuliya Krevsun.

”Unbelievable. Especially walking out into the crowd,“ she said. ”My heart just dropped. It was like, "Oh, my gosh!' Nothing like State Track Meet.“

Did she think she could run with the pack, which included a Russian, a Brit and an American?

”Only in the beginning, and then it was like, "Dang it! Make it to the end, make it to the end. ... (I'm) exhausted and my legs are hurting.' But I had a great time and I'm happy that I was here.“

Me, too.