Finally - a race!

On duty by 7:30 a.m. Richard had a great position for both races - in the stadium. I thought I was going to miss all of the action but I was wrong. The morning race was for the women and they did 2 laps of a 5 km course which did not pass by me at all so my position was quiet especially since they hardly allowed any training prior to the race today. Conditions are not great so they were trying to preserve the course for the race. We only had one Canadian in the women's race and she finished 51st out of 78. There were 3 others who decided not to race - one due to illness (Brittany) and two because they want to save themselves for the sprint. We're hoping that Brittany will be well enough to race in the team relay and the 30 km. The men's race came by my station (2 laps of a 7.5 km course). Boy...the top guys look good! We had two in the top 20 with 2 others in the middle of the pack (total 96 racers). My job today was mostly to be sociable with the spectators walking by on the pedestrian walkway. Everyone seems to be in such a good mood. Many people were new to the competition side of the sport so I became a bit of a teacher explaining how interval start races work and pointing out the Canadians as they came through the corner. (Side note: I don't like our race suits - black/red/yellow combination. I took pictures of some of the more interesting spectators - strange hats mostly - but I'm still using real film so they will have to be developed and scanned before I can share them with you (probably post Olympics). Richard took some shots but he says none of them are worth sharing. I left my position at 1:30 so that I wouldn't miss lunch (open from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. daily). I'd been on my feet on position since 7:30 with no break so it was nice to sit down. The only time I wasn't on my feet was just after I arrived on position and was asked to pick grit out of the race course. While the conditions weren't the greatest for the course and the competitors, it was pretty nice for standing around as a course marhsal! I didn't even wear any gloves today and it didn't rain AND the sun came out for awhile!

When we get home, we watch Olympic coverage. I wasn't sure that I'd be seeing very much of the other sports but we've been keeping up with things. This evening we invited our hosts to join us for dinner with Peter and Dorothy. (For those of you who are not in our skiing circle, Peter and Dorothy are close friend who work with us at competitions. We've shared the road the the Olympics with them - sharing a condo the other two times we were out here for competitions. Peter used to work for DuPont/CSC.)

Up to Whistler tomorrow for the 3rd and 4h runs of the women's luge. We watched some of the first 2 rounds today and are disappointed that they shortened the women's course as a result of the tragedy last week. We understand shortening the men's course due to speed issues but the women don't go as fast to start with. Their start now is more difficult because they go immediately into a curve and if they don't leave the chute exactly right they lose alot of speed. But, I guess all of the women are in the same boat.

Well, this hasn't been a very exciting post but I guess for some things - you just have to be there. Stay tuned.