Perry feels close to the guys on his team. He explains it as being a mesh of personalities that work well together, which has been built from many hours spent together both in the sport and outside of it. On road trips, the team travels together through airports, van drives, going out to dinner, and playing the ritual team game of hearts the night before competition. The team usually finds themselves at Italian restaurants, more for the ritual of it than for the carbohydrate boost. At home, they are all on basically the same schedule, so evenings before competitions they rent movies and relax.
Every runner has their superstitious rituals before the match.
I eat a Power Bar at a certain time during the day and a little ice cream the night before with dinner. The superstitions on the team create character, and are an expression of the different personalities. Practices for the team are taxing. The average practice consists of runs of up to ten miles, four to six of which are hard running, designed to push the runners' abilities. It takes a mentally strong person to work past the wall, and reach for the goal line.