Close... but no cigar...

Sometimes you get peanut butter when all you want is jelly... I was looking forward to soft tracks and slush and showed up at the venue to find classic tracks resembling "ice luges."  I'm not big into making excuses for goals that come short - and I won't. Sometimes, you just need to be faster, or have more experience, or be tougher. Today I needed, or at least wanted to be faster than I was. 

I had two goals coming into the classic sprint. First, I really wanted to qualify for the rounds by skiing into the top 30. I was 1.6 seconds from making that goal. My other goal was to improve upon the result of my race on Monday. I did that by moving up four positions in the field. (Yes, it was a smaller field overall but I have reason to believe that the whole front end of the field was represented.)  Now that I've had some time to reflect upon my result I realize that maybe it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. It's important to take things into perspective. This was only my 7th sprint race in the past 5 or so years and my fourth International racing experience ever. This is the Olympic Games for crying out loud and I was the 38th fastest women in one of the greatest competitions on earth. How sweet is that? 

I think that ski racing has a knack for bringing out true character in individuals. I once heard a really sweet quote that goes something like this, "a true hero is humble when they win and gracious in defeat." Not that I "lost" or anything but when I crossed the finish line I was bummed and there was nothing I wanted more than to have a few minutes to myself. NOPE. "You've been randomly selected for doping control"..... Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about clean competition and fair play but today was rough having to walk through the media's "mixed zone" followed by an entourage of chaperones and escort/doctors to doping control...... Four bottles of water later and a pee experience where you're squatting over a small cup surrounded by mirrors with your pants at your ankles and your shirt pulled up over your belly button isn't my idea of fun. It's experiences like these that make we wish we could just trust that everyone was competing fairly. Oh well. 

After my "pit-stop" I hurried back to the athlete lodge because it was time for the quarterfinals to start. Two of my American teammates, Kikkan and Simi, made it into the heats and I wanted to cheer them on - even if it was through a tv screen. It was funny to be AT the venue and almost prefer to watch the TV because you could see more of the race through the live feed. I did go out to find my family and husband for the finals. It was fun to watch the race in what was HOT SUN. 

My sister Robin, myself, and brother Scott, aka "mountain man" right now :) 

Perhaps the most dramatic part of the whole day was the fact that the heavy favorite, Petra Majdic of Slovenia fell off the course ten feet into a STREAM during the warm up.  She broke one ski, both her poles, and really hurt her back.  She finished the day with a bronze medal. That was impressive!  There are a couple photos -click here.  There is an even more impressive video somewhere but I haven't located it yet. 

Anyways, congratulations to Kikkan for an awesome preformance and 8th place finish today - that was impressive! Time to get some rest so I can prepare for Pursuit training tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and thank so much to everyone who was out there cheering for us today. You guys were great!

More to come soon,
Holly :)

Rob and Holly pre-10k

How's this for a "care package!" (Don't worry, I'm sharing!)

Bib 50 again?

Hey all,

The start list is posted. I am bib #50 - again.  There are only 54 racers in the field but that is not to be underestimated. These are 54 of the fastest women in the WORLD!  Racers have to qualify for the sprint race by having good FIS Sprint profiles.  That removes many of the "exotics" (I was informed tonight that that is the proper term) and folks racing for non-traditional ski countries. Anyways, my start time is 10:27:30 for those that are interested. I've heard that some of the "live" coverage isn't live whatsoever but some of you are clever enough to disguise your IP addresses to receive coverage from other countries. I don't even begin to know how that works....

Anyways, thanks for all the support. I'll report back tomorrow after this is all said and done.
Good night,

Holly :)

Rain boots, NBC coverage, zeros, and good luck!

 Two hours of technical difficulties and a deleted blog later..........

Thanks so much for all the kind words about the race yesterday.  You guys are all AWESOME. And, special thanks to the Schoens who forwarded a link to my NBC coverage from Anchorage's KTUU website.  To check it out, click here.  The co-comentator, Chad Samela compared my Olympic appearance to the Lions making the Super Bowl.  I don't know anything about football but I am going to venture to say that he was calling me a long shot (or last minute) to make this team which is completely true :)

A big agenda to cover on the blog this afternoon!  First of all, this was the seen out our window this morning - the first time that we've seen ANY new white stuff in the athlete village:

  

The conditions inspire me to publish a packing list for those that are enroute to Whistler to watch and cheer: 

1) Bring your rain boots - or, if you're an Alaskan, bring your x-tra tuffs! This was the seen today at the venue: 

2) If you plan on doing any nordic skiing down here, bring FISH SCALES! I would not want to be out here classic waxing. Skate skis or running shoes will do the trick too. 

3) Bring your patience for the security lines and the buses. 

4) Your smile - the volunteers and everyone involved in the Olympics is super happy and nice - don't be the odd one out! 

5) USA costumes and schwag - the Nowegians have us totally out done with National pride on the side of the ski trails... be loud, be colorful, and if you're Alaskan, don't forget your flag! 

6) Last but certainly not least - bring your camera to capture the moment (I got a new water proof one for the occasion after my other one died.) 

This was a random scene at the venue this morning:

 My training session earlier today focused on preparing for tomorrow's classic sprint.  It should be fun and exciting... be sure to tune in.  I hadn't fallen on the trails at all until today - Kikkan and I were doing speed work on the course and I bit it HARD on the 180 degree high speed corner.  I had snow stuffed down my practice bib and my jacket.  Hope that doesn't happen tomorrow. 

The condition were variable, per the usual at Whistler Olympic park.  When I first got there it was 33 degrees and snowing hard.  Perhaps the one constant is there was so much water in the snow that the tracks were actually BLUE instead of white!  For my training session I used my "zero" skis.  Zeros are basically new-school no wax skis that excel in conditions like we are seeing here.  I've included a picture of the bottom of my ski... 

 Ski selection and wax will be critical in tomorrow's race. I'm looking forward to it! My goal is to qualify for the elimination heats which necessitates at top 30 preformance.  I did it in Canmore last week - let's see if I can do it again. 

Last but not least, I would like to wish all of the APU skiers who are competing in Middle School Championships and High School Region 4 GOOD LUCK this week!  This photo is my lame attempt at a wave - 

 I miss you all and think of you often! 

That's it for now... my stomach is grumbling, 

Holly :)

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 :)