One down, more to go

Well, the first race is over... officially.  I wasn't nearly as nervous as I could have been...after all, it was the Olympics.  Just the world's best skiers!!!!  In the Canmore World Cup I remember the announcer saying, "this will be live for 100 million viewers overseas"  Well, there are probably even more viewers for the "big show."  Oh well - my motto was, smile at the start camera and ski as hard as I could. The "secret" if there is one is that this was just another ski race.

(By the way.... I cannot officially post any pictures of the ski race itself - either of myself or anyone else. There is a rule to protect NBC's sponsorship of the event. While it initially sounds like a bummer, it's important to protect sponsor's rights because they make the Olympics happen!)

Left to right: Dad - Don, Friend - Chip Treinen, Me, Husband - Rob, Brother-Scott, Sister-Robin, Mom-Chris. 

The race was two laps of 5 kilometers. The conditions were actually perfect.  Yesterday, they salted the course and it was TOO hard. The days before it was super soft.  Today was a happy medium. I started conservatively because the last two 10k skate races that I've had I've started really hard and fallen off my own pace.  I haven't seen any splits but I have a feeling that I skied pretty even laps. Skiing through the stadium was awesome but one disappointing part was that there was many parts of the course with absolutely no one. The top of the course was the hardest because it was gradual uphill, long, and absolutely no one was there. 

I can't say that I'm overjoyed with my result - 42nd. I was middle of the pack.  Who doesn't want to do better, myself included?  But, I find it important to remember that this was just my third International race, the first and second which were one and a half weeks ago. Many of my competitors are fulltime athletes, most which have a plethora of International experience including support from their national teams. Ten kilometer skate has not been my strongest event recently and I hope to improve upon my results later this week. It would be SWEET to have a top 30 on Wednesday and qualify for the sprint heats.  We'll see! 

Thanks to my mother-in-law Sue who made this huge handmade surprise banner!  There was surely some other good fanfare at the event including the Dario Fan Club.  The Swiss skier took Gold today with a smashing time a full 24 seconds ahead of the silver medalist!

A couple of other things that happened today: 

*During my warm up I saw one of my college coaches, Tom Olson who came out to watch the race.  Tom was always wonderful to me and the rest of the ski team at Whitman and I owe a lot of my experience to his hard work. Tom - it was GREAT to see you out there. 

*Seeing my family and Rob was great too.  Rob actually came into the athlete village for dinner. He was awestruck by the temporary dining tent (the biggest, white plastic structure that you've ever seen!) and most of all the amount of food and the choices offered.  His comment was, "Its a good thing I'm not eating here everyday - I would gain 10 pounds!" If you know Rob this is very funny.... 

*We came up with the next phone application that someone should invent. Have you ever heard of schazam (sp?) the application where you hold your phone up to a song and it will look up the title of the song and the artist?  Well, we wish that an application existed where you could find out what sport different athletes belonged too. I suppose if we were really that curious, we could ask them! 

*I heard that I actually received decent NBC footage today but haven't been able to view it myself.  Funny enough we aren't authorized to view NBC videos because we don't have an IP address from the US.  I guess the USA Team house doesn't count?!?

Rob and Holly in the "dorm" room 

Well, that's it for tonight. Thanks for following. Tomorrow I have training on the classic sprint course. I'm looking forward to skiing klister tomorrow! (Probably) 

Good night and thanks so much for all the support - you guys are the best! 

Holly :) 

My first Olympic Bib.... plus, the village (and my race schedule)

It's the eve of my first race:

I'm bib #50.... starting at 10:25. The seeded racers (the 20 fastest) usually start last but due to the unpredictable weather conditions, they are starting 10 skiers in.  In the men's biathlon race earlier today some of the fastest skiers were  sabotaged when it started to snow towards the end of the race and the snow slowed down considerably.  This is all part of the unpredictability of Whistler. Sometimes it may be in your favor, sometimes it will work against you.... this morning they actually salted the course (literally) and the conditions were just the opposite. In places I thought it was TOO hard. Have you ever been skiing on bulletproof corduroy and your ski gets stuck in a rut?  Anyways, I'm confident that it will be great out there tomorrow!

Some of you have been asking - "What other races are you doing?"  Here is my schedule as it stands now:

Tomorrow - 10k Individual start skate race
Wednesday 2/17 - Classic sprint
Friday 2/19 - 15k Pursuit (1/2 classic, 1/2 skate + transition time)

I hope to compete in the women's 4x5k relay race on the 25th and the 30k mass start classic on the 27th. But, the coaches won't be naming those starters until they see how we are skiing in the first couple of races.  We want to make sure that THE fastest racers represent the US here!

Speaking of represent, CONGRATULATIONS to the Nordic combined boys who finished 2nd, 4th, and 6th today.  Johnny Spillane made an awesome move with 1/4k to go and took the silver medal - the first Nordic Combined medal in US history! For more info on the Nordic combined guys, check out this link.  Right now those guys are on a private Learjet on their way back to Park City for training before flying BACK here for their next race! (Compton just googled Learjet statistics and it can hold 9 passengers which includes the toilet which is a certified seat?)

On another note, here are a couple of pictures from the athlete village:

This is "HOME" for now.  We share it with a couple of smaller countries including Australia and Great Britain. 

Here is another style of lodging: 

It's pretty sweet because everyone has flags or country-specific decorations on their buildings. 

Apparently the Vancouver organizing committee felt the need to house Norway in a trailer due to the country's long-standing lead in the winter Olympic medal count.  (They are serious about their "own the podium" campaign.......)

Just kidding.  Actually, there are a few trailers for over-flow support staff :) 

Here are a bunch of the blue-coat Olympic volunteers have a jam session outside of the Olympic village "living room."  The volunteers have been absolutely AWESOME. They are all super friendly and patient. Kudos to them. I feel like I actually saw a statistic somewhere saying that there have been 25,000 volunteers involved in this effort? That is IMPRESSIVE. 

This is the Vitamin Water bar... you can try ALL flavors if you wish :)  There are also coke and powerade machines everywhere and you only have to "wave" a little tag in front of the machine and whatver you want will fall... 

There are "bat-phones" where you can call anywhere in the world for free... also an arcade where you can play dance, dance revolution or pin ball - it's all here. 

Hand sanitizer is a HUGE theme here at the Games. These stations are EVERYWHERE.  I think you have to walk by 8 separate dispensers walking into the dining hall. There is also a handy sign which gives you 8 steps of instructions in case you forget HOW to rub your hands together?!

There are also some subliminal messages hiden in the village rockery... 

Alright - that's it for now. Time for bed. I have a big day ahead of me. Can't wait to see Rob and my family out there!!!! 

Good night, 

Holly :) 

My deepest condolences

I just got word that there were two fatal avalanches in Alaska yesterday.  One up Hiland road and one on the Kenai Peninsula. Not all of the names have been released but we do know that Jim Bowles, President of Conoco Phillips Alaska was one of the victims.  My heart goes out to everyone involved in this tradjety, the families, the Conoco employees, and all of the friends that are left behind to deal with this accident.

Under Jim's leadership Conoco has been a wonderful contributor to cross country skiing in Alaska.  For the past two years they have been the title sponsor for US Nationals at Kincaid Park, they have been a long time sponosor of the APU program, and they have recently jumped on board to help my Olympic pursuit.

Avalanches scare me to death - as many of you know, my husband Rob was buried for ten minutes in a small slide last year in British Columbia. Luckily I wasn't there to witness it but it was still a very difficult experience for me.

My condolences to everyone affected by these slides.  My heart goes out to you.

Sincerely,
Holly

opening ceremonies, the venue, drug testing, and last but not least, my wonderful husband!

Hey Everyone,

Here is the "mondo-post" that I've been wanting to write for a while. I have my new camera...... and finally have a couple of extra minutes. I've delayed training this am because theoretically I wanted to sleep in. (I say "theoretically" because I was woken up this morning by random drug testing) We returned from opening ceremonies last night at 1am. Getting down and back to and from Vancouver took forever. That said, I don't regret my decision to go to the opening ceremonies at all. (Some folks opted to stay behind and watch on tv) This being my first Olympics, I was really looking forward to marching!

Although there were tons of long waits the energy was incredible... on probably 50 different occasions our whole group burst out in "USA, USA, USA" chants.  I won't say that I'm usually the most patriotic person on the block but I think I can speak for everyone that this was a time when we were all really proud to be Americans! 

 

Here is our flag-bearer.... he is a 5-time Olympian and two-time medalist.  Speaking of lugers (sp?) the hardest part of last night's ceremony was the announcement that the Georgian Luger, Nodar, had actually passed away from his accident. I feel horrible for his family, his teammates, and of course him. All 40,000 or 60,000 (?) of us last night had one minute of silence to honor him and his Olympic dream. 

But, onto happier things.... Here is the view just before entering the stadium: 

Everyone always talks about "the moment" that you first enter the stadium... it was pretty incredible.  I think that I had about 10 seperate episodes of full-body goose bumps!  I think it's finally sinking in that I am at the Olympic games! 

Here is a picture of Compton with Shawn White and Bode Miller. I wanted to get a picture too but I could tell that Bode, especially, wasn't too psyched about fan-fare amongst his own teammates and decided against it. Good for Caitlin though to just dive right in! 

Caitlin and I were in line right next to the figure skaters so it was interested to talk with them. One of the ice dancers had a HUGE scar on her hand from a fall where her partner's skate cut her hand to the bone: 

It might be hard to see in this picture but it was an awesome scar. I also thought it was interesting that she was only 19 yet had been skating with her ice-dancing partner for 10 YEARS!  That means they've been working together since they were 9 years old!  

Here are a couple more pictures of us staging in Whistler before getting on the buses: 

Most of the cross country squad... 

And my Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center teammates, Kikkan, James, and myself rocking the Ralph Lauren... 

Back to the skiing! Training yesterday was awesome. Erik and I tested skis after getting a sweet pic in the waxing cabin:

It's HARDLY freezing at night.  The first 2k of my ski was semi-frozen water-logged snow. By the second lap, everything was breaking up and the fast downhill corners literally had 6-10 inches of HEAVY SLOP.  Try that at high speeds with tiny skis. I think it would even be a challenge for the super G skiers! We're wondering if they will ever salt parts of the course in an effort to get it more firm? 

I have NO IDEA why Sarah Palin is on the door of our waxing cabin....? I've already had a couple of questions from other countries when they find out I'm from Alaska. 

Here is the stadium

This is a train-track for a camera that can film the finishing stretch. They also have cameras that travel via telephone wires suspended in mid-air plus tons of cameras operated by people on the course. Should make for great coverage! 

Here I am in the Olympic stadium with my training bib on. You can't go anywhere without the thing

Last but CERTAINLY not least, I want to thank my husband Rob who has been working double time on my behalf: 

Not only is he still working fulltime as a firefighter but he has been busting his butt trying to help me out with the blog, trip logistics, helping me get the gear I need, the whole "GO HOLLY" campaign, and trying to help line up a couple of sponsorships for me.  In addition, he's doing everthing at home - cleaning, paying bills, setting up our house sitter (Erin you rock!) taking care of the cat.  The poor guy hasn't gotten to work out in 3 days!  (If you know Rob, that is a giant sacrifice!)  Without him this whole Olympic pursuit certainly wouldn't be possible. I owe all of this time him - he was in fact, the person who told me I could make the team when I didn't believe it myself....... I am very excited that he will be joining me down here tomorrow. I only hope that he has a chance to relax and enjoy the great aspects of the Games. Thanks so much for everything Rob - I love you!  

Ok, off to late training.... I'll end on one of the latest hair-dying pictures: 

Thanks APU boys! 

Have a wonderful day, 

Love, 

Holly :) 

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Folks...this is Rob(holly's husband).  She asked me to put up a quick blog....I just talked to her, she was in the motorcade traveling from Whistler to Vancouver for the opening ceremonies. Get this.....the motorcade of buses full of US athletes had armed vehicles ahead of them, armed vehicles behind them, and even a helicopter above them...all the way to Vancouver!!  How's that for security!?

Here is a great link (in Dutch, nonetheless) to watch live streaming of the opening ceremonies (thanks for Frank in Boulder for locating this):


http://www.livescorehunter.com/live-streaming-video-other-sports/


Just click on the link you're interested in (tonight: "Ceremonies: Opening Ceremony") and then start clicking on all the links until one of them works for your computer.  

Opening Ceremonies Today & Super-Dooper fans!!

This will be short, cause I'm running out the door to the opening ceremonies!  (an all day process....we leave the village at 1 PM and get back super late tonight)

Check out this photo sent to me from Mrs Gray's 3rd grade class at St. John Fisher School in Portland, Oregon!   These students took the time to make these great signs and send a picture!  So, why not post it on my blog as thank you?!?!   I'm fortunate to have ya'll cheering.  Thank you, you rock!   FYI, Mrs Gray is married to Rob's college friend, Alex.... thus the connection!  Apparently, Mrs. Gray's 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have a surprise package that Rob will deliver once he arrives here in Whistler on Monday!

Hugs to everyone!    Let the Games begin!

-Holly

Snoqualmie snow and catch up!

Oh boy.... so much has happened in the last two days. Its gone by fast but 48 hours ago also seems like an eternity.  One reason I've been delayed is because my CAMERA BROKE!  So, instead of blogging earlier, I had to take the entire afternoon to go on a camera hunt into the Whistler village. BINGO. I got one.  (Can you really think of a more inopportune time to have your camera break - the DAY before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics?!)

This is our room. We had six HUGE duffle bags to unpack. It's a huge mess - and absolutely no storage space.  In many ways, I really feel like moving into the athlete village is like going back to college. You have a roommate (actually, she's "hidden" in this picture - can you see her? It's not Where's Waldo - it's Where's Caitlin?!) 

The skiing here has been fun. It makes me wish that I had some Whistler-specific training camps back at Snoqualmie Pass where I grew up skiing! Both days during training it's been 34 degrees and snowing hard. I actually talked to Rob about brining my extra tuff rubber boots from home. The snow flakes are dime-size huge and if you want to have a huge snowball fight, you would be in heaven. There are tons of "course volunteers" out on the trails and one was "marshalling" next to a gigantic snowman today. (I would have gotten a pic for you guys if my camera had been working!) 

(My teammate, Liz in front of a Vancouver sign pre-press conference yesterday) 

Today for training I skied on my "zero" skis. For those that aren't familiar, think of it as a new-age waxless racing ski.  They are particularly good in conditions like we are experiencing here - 32 degrees and snowing. I had heard a rumor that Kris Freeman owns 27 pairs of this partiular kind of ski. I tried to confirm it on the bus ride back from the venue today but he, "didn't really know...."  It's takes a lot of skis to be a competitive ski racer!  Also, as a side note - Kris was on the Today show the other day. If you haven't checked it out, here is the link: 

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35329776#35329776

It's always great to see our sport bust into the mainstream media! 

(Here is our team walking into the athlete village. It's been grey and pretty rainy but lucky the atmosphere is so good that it doesn't really seem to matter. Lots of the buildings are temporary white tents - the kind you would see at a wedding but only a LOT bigger. 

McDonalds is an official sponsor of the Games and there is a full-fledged restaurant inside each athlete village dining facility. Ronald McDonald sits on this bench 24 hours a day, everyday. Apparently, McDonalds took their top 300 employees from all over the country and brought them here to work as part of an incentive program. So far, I've been really impressed by the food. They have a huge variety

and it's pretty good. No complaints.  

I was also really fired up to see one of Sean McCabe's painting in the athlete lodge at the venue. For those that don't know, Sean was a nordic skier/teacher/mountains enthusist from Winthrop WA that recently passed away from cancer. He has some amazing paintings, many of which are skiers. Check out his website here: 

http://www.seanmccabestudio.com/index4.html

The other thing that's worth mentioning today is that our entire team went to drug testing. This time we had our blood drawn to check our hemoglobin levels. (Hemoglobin is the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs.)  Sometimes high numbers indicate evidence of doping but sometimes levels are high because of dehydration, lots of time at altitude, etc, etc. The coaches had our whole team POUNDING the water and gaterade to avoid any suspentions. If your numbers are found to be high you get an automatic 5 day suspention and are subject to further tests. We can also be testing at ANY time during the day for both urine and/or blood. We turn in extensive "whereabouts" filings that basically tell anti-doping folks where they can find us at all times so they can do surprise tests. Testing is great and helps us protect the integrity of the sport.  

Okay, more good pictures to come tomorrow. It will be a busy day between training and attending the opening ceremonies. The ceremonies are a 10-12 hour commitment for those staying up here in Whistler. Lots of driving and lots of standing around. But, I'm REALLY looking forward to it. 

Talk soon/thanks for reading! 

~Holly :) 

ps. Thanks so much to Kaladi... apparently an AK coffee care package is on the way. Thank you to Gina Romero (wife of a co-worker or Rob's) who read our coffee worries and put a plan into action!  THANKS!  BIGTIME!!