Yesterday and today

Yesterday...



This is going to be a long entry – yesterday and today. I've been remiss about my entries, but I always run into problems - either slow Internet, or just too busy. I may as well forget about posting too many pictures or videos. The videos from my camera are too big. Updating my blog isn’t as frequent as I thought it would be either. I can always catch up later though.

Sunday started off early. We were up and at ‘em at 5 am for our first race. I wasn’t sure if it was safe at 6am on the streets of Sydney while walking to the train station, but when I gave it a second thought, I realized I was being silly. Of course, it’s safe here. People are so friendly. When we arrived at Sydney Olympic Park (I like saying that) it was abuzz with activity. We all gathered at the starting point and I ran into a fellow Edmonton Triathlon Club member and his wife, as well as another friend who was at the Gold Coast for the world championships of short distance triathlon. She extended her trip to come to these Games. There were about 2,500 running. The gun went off and the race started. Wow, I’m running in front of Olympic Stadium and the weather is chilly, but it is only 7:30 in the morning. The weather warmed up nicely and I soon took off my long sleeved t-shirt. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was running – about a 5:05 minute/km pace. At this rate, I would be finished in just over 50 minutes. I was having so much fun talking and laughing with other competitors and watching the scenery. Hey, was that just a man I passed? And another! Hey, did you see what I just saw? Probably not, since you’re in Canada. A man, about 70, was racing in bare feet! It felt good passing men, particularly since they started five minutes before the women. Most of them were in much older age groups, but there was one guy who was in the 40-44 category. About fifty two and a half minutes later I was crossing the finish line; but how can that be, I was running 5:05 minute kms? I should have finished in 50 and a half minutes. Here are my results. Later I found out that the course was actually 10.28 km, so I was very happy with my time. I just calculated my speed (on the running room online calculator ha). I ran a 5:06 minute kilometer or an 8:12 minute mile, and 7:31 mph or 11:77 kph. How's them for stats? No post-race food so we quickly found something to eat at a local restaurant and headed back downtown (SOP is about 40 minutes by train away from our hotel and that’s why we spend so much time travelling - to get to our races and pick up our timing chips). We wanted to check out the market. It’s like a farmer’s market, but bigger and no vegetables, but alot of people were eating corn-on-the-cob-on-a-stick. I bought part two of my Cher outfit for Las Vegas and three boomerangs. The boomerangs came with instructions!

Before we knew it we had to catch the train to SOP again for the Opening Ceremony. For about the first time, we were impressed and our standards went up again. The Opening Ceremony was fantastic. Aussies really know how to put on a party. All 28,000 of us marched into the Olympic Stadium with our respective sport instead of with our country. We were on the Jumbo Tron and it had an Olympic feel to it. Just like in the Olympics, each sport is announced as that group entered the stadium. OK, here come the stats - oldest competitor, 101 and the youngest, 24. These are the biggest World Masters Games in history. Wow, I'm part of history! The entertainment was fabulous. The people were crazy and we had sooooo much fun.












Today...


WHAT...I can wear shorts and sunscreen??? First on the agenda - the Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens is something that everyone coming to Sydney must do. It is beautiful and huge. I saw fruit bats, which are huge bats that fly out during the night towards the Blue Mountains in search of fruit and come back to hang out in the trees at the Botanical Gardens during the day. They are much different than bats in the Northern Hemisphere. They are huge and look like regular birds when flying. The bats are slowly destroying the gardens because when they hang from the trees, their sharp claws (or whatever you call birds' feet) dig into the bark of the trees and kill any new leaves. They call them flying foxes because the bats' faces look like a fox.

The sea wall follows the edge of the gardens and leads to a point called Mrs. MacQuarrie’s Chair. There is a lot of history behind this point and it is a great place to take pictures of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

I decided to go for a tour of the Opera House since I had a free voucher. There are tons of stairs here and my legs are feeling a little stiff from my run yesterday. My legs generally don’t get sore after a 10 km race, but I have been sick and I ran hard because, well, I’m in Australia. What does that have to do with anything, you ask. Well, the answer is NOTHING. It just sounds good. The architecture of this building (or work of art is a better way to describe it) is amazing and took 14 years to complete. It’s just as beautiful in person as you see on TV and the Harbour is truly just as beautiful as they say it is. It isn’t just a saying that the Sydney Harbour is the most beautiful harbour in the world – it truly is. I can't wait until we go on the Bridge Climb during twilight and see the Opera House lit up in all its glory. I can see why people love Sydney. I am going to make it my mission in life to find a way to move here. Sorry Mom and Dad.

I am on the train now going out to SOP to pick up my timing chip for my 8 km cross country race tomorrow afternoon. I just have to somehow multi-focus - on this blog entry and where I am, or I am liable to miss my stop, and who knows where that would take me. Gotta go now - Lidcombe stop has arrived.

I'm baaack ...

Guess who I saw first when I got off the train - the old man from yesterday's race with no shoes, and he didn't have shoes today either. Must be a culture thing.

OK, so I picked up my chip and the Games Centre has put out about 20 computers to use. Finally, Internet connection for as long as I like. Some German people needed help to send an e-mail. They had a sort-of interpreter with them who was computer illiterate. After long explanations trying to tell them that they need an e-mail account so they could log in and send, I finally decided to let them use my account to send their two sentences. Sometimes I am too kind for my own good. I typed in the two addresses they wanted the e-mail to go to and I let them type the message. Then they didn't understand that I typed in both e-mail addresses and it went to both people and they wanted me to send it to the second person. I finally lost my temper and told them to go and find a technical person to help them who can speak German. Where's Angela when you need her??? I told them that this is my account and I have my own stuff to do, blogging included! They still wouldn't leave me alone and I told them to leave me alone. I think I started something because all of a sudden a few people said "you seem to know what you're doing - can you help me". I had to say "No".

I am finally able to upload videos, but they still take a long time, but there is at least progress. I have been on the computer for 4.5 hours and no one has asked me to move. Get a life you say! I have to take advantage of fast, free Internet because I haven't seen it anywhere else. I'm getting more impressed by the minute. Maybe the gliches on the first day were because everybody was checking in at the same time. I am sitting beside some athletes from Ukraine and they smell. I'm uploading a large video right now and it's taking forever and I'm hungry. I wonder if I can order pizza. Oh, they have McDonald's here, but they call it McCafe. Apparently it has a variety of coffees and cappuccinos that are very tasty. Maybe I'll check it out on the way back to the hotel. I may as well sleep here though since I have to come back tomorrow. It may take that long to load this video. I'm just babbling/typing as I wait.

Oops, the computers just went down - yikes. I was talking to some locals while waiting for net to come back up. I found out lots of funny things about Aussies. Queensland folks are called Banana Benders and Perth Aussies are called Sand Gropers. Don't ask!