One week later...

It doesnt seem like one week has passed since the race...went by so fast. I have been keeping myself busy by checking out some of the other events and enjoying the Melbourne nightlife. The events that I have been to see have been amazing. I saw a world record being broken in the pool and the worlds fastest white man (Craig Motram) in the 5000m. The atmosphere was amazing with over 80,000 spectators going crazy for him. I just got back from the track to watch him run the 1500 but unfortunately he was tripped up and went down. But one of our Canadians came 2nd which was excellent.

Thanks for everyones support and encouragement over the last couple months. It was fun keeping people posted with this blog. Maybe there will be more to come in the future....

Colin, Paul, and Brent say....

Last night was the opening ceremonies. Joel, Michael, Gillian, Paul, and I were the ones representing Triathlon. The rest decided to stay back to rest up. We were a bit worried that there would be a lot of standing and waiting but that wasn’t the case.

We were police-escorted in a huge bus convoy. There were people lining the bus route to wave to all us athletes. In no time we made it to the huge Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) but we were ushered into another stadium right beside it to get organized and wait. All countries made there was in and were given instructions on what to do. They had some of the opening ceremonies showing on the screens and Paul and I played a game of cribbage to pass the time. We also memorized the Geelong Football team theme song…it is great!

WE ARE GEELONG
THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL
WE ARE GEELONG
WE’RE ALWAYS ON THE BALL
WE PLAY THE GAME AS IT SHOULD BE PLAYED
OUR BANNERS FLY HIGH
FROM DAWN TO DARK
DOWN AT KARDINIA PARK!

When it was our turn we made our way through a maze to the MCG, when we made it to the stadium we were basically up next and we walked immediately in. It was pretty incredible walking into a stadium that big with so many people there. We all walked by the Queen and then watched the rest of the show on the ground. To finish it off was the amazing fireworks that lit up the sky.

The show has received rave reviews in all the news here. I was really happy that I went and experienced it.

Paul says: There are only 2 days to go until the race. Today we went down to the race course and did some final reconaissance. The course looks really good once it’s all set up and closed to traffic. They even had all the volunteers out for a dry run. The boys are ready to put on a good show. Me and Colin will be going for lots of camera time on the bike. If we do our job well, you won’t get to see Brent at all (neither will the wind). This is the most excited I have ever been for a race. I am really looking forward to it.

Brent says:

Things have been going really well in the last week and we are all excited to race. I decided to pass on the opening ceremonies to conserve my energy and keep my prep on line. They showed the opening ceremonies on big screen they have in the village with lawn chairs so I didn’t miss everything. The cycling team didn’t attend either but did a march around the village loop.

We have just two more tune up workouts tomorrow before race day. Feeling strong tomorrow but not too good is key. Then Saturday will be go time.

Cheers,

Brent

Skype and day off preview....

Right now I am talking to my girlfriend Lisa on Skype over the internet...it is amazing, like talking over the phone but for free! Sweet deal! It makes it easier to stay in touch with family and friends...about 2cents a min to a land line, free to computers. Pretty cool!

Last night we watched another movie outside called The Castle. It is a purely and Aussie movie, sort of like Napoleon Dynamite. If you like that kind of humor you would love this movie. I am going to try to burn a copy to bring home because it was really good.

This morning Paul, Suzanne and I got a ride to St. Kilda to do a ride while the others went to the track to do some 800's. Even though I was feeling sick it was a great ride. It was basically all on a road that follows the ocean so we had a great view the entire two hours. Afterwards we got a ride back and had a second breakfast before going to the pool for the afternoon swim. It was another good session for me. I thought that today would be a write off but it proved to be a good one, im happy.

The games is said to have 15 000 volunteers, amazing. They have all been amazing so far, really kind and hardworking. We were driven around all day by Lauri. He drove us to St. Kilda this morning and waited for 2.5 hours for us to drive us back and then he drive us to the pool in the afternoon and waited another 90min while we were in the pool. None of them are getting paid, just doing it for the experience I guess. It is pretty awesome.

They are doing the dry run of the opening ceremonies tonight. All of the volunteers are invited which is quite cool. But there is a court order against all media from reporting on anything about the opening ceremonies...all top secret! It should be a good show.

Tomorrow is our day off! We are planning on going to the IMAX, hopefully it is airconditioned because it is going to get up to 34-36! HOT HOT HOT. Perfect day for a day off...BUT none of the units here have AC, just some fans...it is going to be a perfect day for Heaven bars though (icecream!)!!!

Time to get some dinner and rest up for a day of rest.

OH...a couple of us were planning on going to see U2 play here at the Telstra Dome. They were planning on having two shows here just before the closing ceremonies but it got cancelled because one of them is sick! Too bad...there was a rumor going around here also that they were going to play the closing ceremonies...I guess that is a no go!

Today...

Easy 3k swim
30min jog with some tempo
60min spin

That was the workouts for the day. We have gone a different way everytime frm the pool, both there and back, seems like our drivers dont know where they are going, but we get to see the city. Riding is proving to be difficult in the city, we rode around a the Melbourne cemetary like 10 times for our ride, the place is HUGE!

Think I am getting sick...starting to get stuffed and feeling tired. Need lots of rest. I had a 2.5 hour nap today. Need to drink lots of OJ!

Tonight is a warm up track meet that some people are going to. It isnt at the MCG but a track right beside it. There are some big names running it. Im going to bed early.

We got some tickets today for the Mountain Bike races on the 23rd. Other tickets are going to be available later on when they become available.

Saturday we get a day off...we are planning on going to the IMAX to see Wired to Win...about the Tour de France and other stuff.

Well it is time to go get some dinner...maybe a heaven bar for desert.

Update with some pics

Past couple days have been really busy. Lots to do and check out....with a little bit of training.

These first couple pics are from the Sports Super Centre in the Gold Coast. You can see that everything looks wet but we did end up getting in some Ping Pong where I killed Brent every game.






This is a pic of our living quarters, there is another bed on the other side of the room, small but better compared with others.


Bag with all our team clothes!


Before....


After


I went and got a hair cut at the hairdressers here. I got a "Muzacut", pretty sick!



This is where the main dinning hall is, opened 24 hours a day. There is another casual dining place that is good for lunches.



Outdoor movie, Batman Begins....as you can see it was really scary!!!!





The rest are from the training day at St. Kilda this morning.

CHRISTMAS IN MARCH

After writing a huge post I thought to see if my spelling was good before posting, well it erased everything I wrote so here is the condensed version.

Moral low.
Get on plane.
Boring.
Arrive in Melbourne.
People there to meet us.
Get luggage.
Get on Shuttle.
Get to village.
Go through security.
Go through accreditation.
Short meetings.
Sign some papers.
Go get lunch at cafe.
Overwelmed by food.
I know im going to get fat here.
Go to living shed.
Greeted by huge bag of clothes.
Rip open and try everything on.
Holy smokes.
Wow.
Wicked.
Awesome.
Try more clothes on.
Exchange some clothes.
Tailor some clothes.
Try to calm down.
Try.
Try.
Try.
I cant.
XBOX 360 Lounge.
Post office.
Computer terminal.
Blog.
Blog erased.
Swear a couple times.
Blog again.

Well that was it basically in a nut shell. This is so exciting, so much to check out. I am the only athlete here that has not been to a major games before so all this is really new to me and I love it. I have to try to calm down soon so I can sleep.

We will post some pics soon when we get access to wireless with our laptops.

Until then....

Wind and Ice

Don't you just hate going out for rides and it seems like no matter which direction you turn you still end up with a head wind, yea well this was one of thise rides. Paul, Suzanne and I ended up in a small town called Windchelslea...or something like that. There I ate my hamburger that I packed away, not as good as last night and it sat like a rock in my stomach. It seemed like a good idea last night, guess not.

Joel bought some ice for us to have an ice bath when we got home. Just what we needed.

Day done.

Movie, BBQ, and a game of Poker

Yesterday was our first day off we have had since we arrived in Australia. It was a much deserved rest. Luckly we picked that day to take off because it was the hottest day since we got here! We spent it by going to the nice air conditioned movies and watching Jarhead. Then we went and bought a whole lot of meat at the local butcher...some chicken, hamburgers, and of course Kangaroo. The BBQ was fantastic and filling. After we sat around and played some crib and poker where I won all the marbles!



We have tons of leftovers from the BBQ so for our three hour ride this afternoon we are all packing away a couple burgers for a nice snack during the ride.

We swam in a new pool this morning. It cuts down our commute time by 15min which means longer lay in and it is a much nicer pool. We did some start speed work this morning getting ready for the sprint Auzzie champs next weekend.



Brent, Jill, and Jillian are on their way out the door for a hard track session of 8x800. The rest of us are going out for our long ride later on.

Put some shrimp on the Barbie!