It's been one heck of a summer for Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
It began at the end of May with a gold medal at a meet in Austria. Less than two months later she married Ashton Eaton, her college sweetheart and the reigning Olympic champion in the decathlon.
To cap things off, the newlyweds owned the podium at the World Championships in Moscow last month; he won gold in the decathlon, she took home silver in the heptathlon. After a final event this month in France, Theisen-Eaton and Eaton finally got a bit of a break, traveling to Humboldt for a much-needed week of rest and relaxation.
"It was really busy," Theisen-Eaton said of her summer, speaking from St. Augustine School, where she and her husband recently visited with some students. "Our coach always talks about how a wedding by itself is enough. It was almost as if we were so busy heading into worlds that we didn't have enough time to think about what we were doing."
"I think we've been home [in Eugene, Ore.,] for maybe four weeks out of the past three months," Eaton added.
In Moscow, Eaton had to watch his wife compete from the stands, as his event finished first. It was a nerve-wracking situation, one made worse by the fact that the two-day event can be such a mental grind.
"I think Ashton really helped by getting me pumped up, because sometimes you feel like you just want to finish because you're so tired," Theisen-Eaton said. "It's not fun. It's stressful as hell."
In the end the Humboldt native finished a close second and got the opportunity to drape herself in the maple leaf.
"Making top three is huge because you get to do a victory lap with your flag," Eaton said. "Seeing her do that for the first time was a big deal."The two are now back in Eugene, the centre of track and field in the U.S. Oregon is Eaton's home state, but living in a place where track is a second religion has taken its toll.
"There's no getting away from it," Theisen-Eaton said. "People are always asking us to come and do functions or speak at something or this and that. Sometimes you just want to go to the grocery store and be a normal person but that doesn't always happen in Eugene."
They look forward to training in Santa Barbara, Cali., where other residents of the area, including Oprah Winfrey, dwarf their star power. Eaton remembers feeling anxious after returning to Oregon from a five-week training trip in California, dreading a trip to the grocery store where he would surely be asked for autographs and pictures.
"Oh, so it's Eugene that makes me feel this way," he remembers thinking.
The Eugene fatigue got so bad that on a trip home last Christmas, Theisen-Eaton had a bit of a crisis.
"I came home and I was around all my friends," Theisen-Eaton said. "They treated me like a normal person and we didn't talk about track. It brought me back to living here when everything was normal. It was a bit of a mental breakdown for me where I was like, 'I don't want to live in Eugene, I'm sick of it, I just need a break.' I want to do track but I also want a normal life."
That's why they value trips to Humboldt so much, though the flat and open landscape of the prairies has long unsettled Eaton, used to the rugged hills and mountains of central Oregon.
"The town creeps me out a little bit because if you just look down to the end of the street, it's the end," Eaton laughed. "There's just fields as far as you can see. Where I'm from it feels like we're surrounded by something but out here I feel super exposed. If I walk to the end of the street and turn toward the fields I feel like I'm in outer space."
"I just think he's not used to a feeling of isolation," Theisen-Eaton added.
Despite their concerns about Eugene, they expect to be there through the next Olympics in 2016 (which they said could be their last), but hope to eventually move to Portland. The facilities in Eugene are world-class, built through the deep pockets of Nike, the athletic apparel behemoth that is headquartered nearby and sponsors both Theisen-Eaton and her husband (both wore Nike shoes during their trip to St. Augustine).
Thanks to support from Nike and their respective successes, neither Eaton nor Theisen-Eaton have to work other jobs to make ends meet, a common occurrence among track athletes.
"I think if you're not top five in your event, you're probably working another job," Eaton said.
"I make most of my money through prize money or appearance fees," Theisen-Eaton added. "There is a salary but it's not a whole lot."
At the end of the school day Theisen-Eaton and Eaton took questions from about 50 students in the music room. It had been less than 10 years since Theisen-Eaton was in the same spot as the kids who took turns looking at her world championship medal. It gave her a chance to reflect on how far she'd come.
"In high school I said I didn't want to be in the Olympics because it would be too much work," she said with a laugh for her naive younger self.
As the Q and A session wrapped up, the two Olympians chatted with Theisen-Eaton's father Cal, the vice-principal of the school. The kids stacked their chairs in the corner of the room and began filing out. It was a rare moment of quiet and relaxation, one that would pass quickly. In just a few days the husband and wife team that took the track world by storm this summer would be back in Eugene, back in that uncomfortable but necessary bubble that is their home. It might not be a perfect existence, but it was close to a perfect summer.
