Final post

As closing ceremonies are today, this is likely my last post. Yesterday was my first day off and it was spectacular. As the village and venue is so gigantic I never really had an interest to do any exploring. Today I watched the 100m final that I really wished I was in but it was also therapeutic. Everyone in that race ran much faster today, in less than ideal conditions than I ran on my best day in the best conditions.

After the event, I booked it out of the stadium and to my American Friends condo where we then went to the “Market”. Think of a 5 story office building converted to a mall. The outside looked like a regular building, but unlike a mall that could have 10 large stores on each floor, there were 400 - 10ft x 10ft kiosks. Once inside, you realize each store nothing more than 3 walls and 3 obnoxious sales people. After a closer look, the walls were not walls, but rather stacks of product covered in a thick canvas like a tent. The walkway is no more than 3 feet wide and with stores on both sides it allows people to yell in your ear and literally grab you and pull you in

In this place you could find everything and nothing all at the same time. There was mainly popular and normally expensive clothing makes Like Dolce & Gabanna or Armani. I assume it’s easier to put a fake label on a regular pair of jeans compared to trying to recreate a digital camera. I was told that because everything is made in china now, the fake one is not any worse than the reall ones.

The price is the most fun part of the process but get’s exhausting very quickly. There is a system based on insults that is embraced by both the seller and the buyer. For example I bought a few real 100% silk scarves. The price started at 300 Yuan which is about 50 bucks Canadian. The sales person says “this is best price for you, very good price just you”. I then say 50Yuan which is about 10 bucks, and I do it with a huge smile on my face. She comes back and says “can’t do it, real silk, good price for you, ok 200 Yuan. I come back with a counter offer of 40. I ended up with 2 scarves and a nice bag for 45 which it’s still likely that I got a good deal and she still made some money.

As I wondered around I ended up in the watch section. I tried on a “real” Omega watch that confused me. I know that watches costing $5,000 have amazing craftsmanship. Although 1/100th of the price it looked the part and was even an automatic winding, which can’t be all that cheap to make. On my way out, I was approached by a guy with a bag saying wannabuyrolex….. I didn’t want to pull my wallet out but I wish I had because that watch looked cool regardless of it being a fake, and for 10 bucks Canadian it only has to last a month to get my monies worth.

After my shopping experience we went for authentic Tibetan cuisine and a show. I don’t know much about Tibet, but apparently they eat a lot of Yak. We had 6 different plate of food and 5 included Yak to some degree. We had steak, roast, soup, dips, and some other stuff. At one point, I looked at the bean dip and it was very strange to eat the food and especially the dip because there appeared to be a swastika design in it. It was explained that they use that symbol for good luck and the Nazi’s adopted it for their logo.

The dancing and show was amazing and lots of fun. We cabbed it back to the village and tomorrow are closing Ceremonies followed by 2 days of hanging out before I come home.

Closing Cerimonies were amazing and I’m really glad I went. In the past the event is over by 9pm and then everyone looks for the after party. I always stress over looking for the right people and spending half the night searching.

This time the after party was actually in the village and it was spectacular. It started with a already good party for Canada and the Aussie’s and sooner than later everyone else came. It was a great time and I can’t think of a better way to leave here. I think we closed it down around 4am and if you ask me, i'll tell you all the things I can't post.......

I’m arriving back in Winnipeg on September 19th at 7:08 and hope I can connect with everyone then.

I’m actually coming home with not injuries, with clean clothes which is always nice because stinky shirts can ruin a bag and makes those airport dogs gag.. I don’t think I’ve lost anything but seem to now have 2 full bags regardless of arriving with one.

Bye for now.

4 great pushes

So I run the 100m in a few hours. In all the 100m races I have done, the first few pushes are what makes or breaks the race. I do not need a top speed that is crazy, but I do need a great accelleration. I tested things out yesterday and things feel great. I was at 98 % of my top speed before 40% of the race which means I plan on cruising for 60m at my top speed.

LETS SEE

shopping and sprinting

Thanks for the suggestions. I have enlisted someone else to do my shopping for me and that frees me up to do the sight-seeing. Although not very accessible, I think it will be the great wall.


Yesterday was very cool, as I raced early, I wondered around after and met a old racing buddy from Arizona that I would consider the next best thing to family, and we hung out awhile. Later that night we went to dinner and then the water cube and watched some swimming. I have to say that "the cube" was much more interesting on the outside. Inside it's just a pool (really)..As the stands are small and the paralympics are so popular, I had to buy scalped tickets. that was a great activity it's self.

- I had one guy want 50$ american for a pair of tickets that had a face value of $10
- There was a guy selling tickets really cheap that turned out to be the stub from last nights session
- I saw a guy yelling "TICKETS HERE", only to find out he was selling knock-off watches. For 5 bucks Canadian I could have had a genuine POLEX.
- I also got an offer to marry a chinese girl from her mother. She said that she's really pretty and smart too. I got the feeling that I had to agree without meeting her first.

I ran into a canadian swimmer and she explained why all the world records are broken here.

The pool has negative edging which removes all the waves very shortly after they are created by the swimmers. Normally the waves come from the water being displaced and boucing off the edge. With no sides the water stays calm and it creates a situation similar to a day with no wind on the track. - I had no idea.

At one point I went looking for a bathroom and went down a wrong elevator and wondered around before someone helped me. I was in the wong place so I got to wheel around the bowels of the arena to the proper elevator. We passed a car park where there were at least 50 Audi A6's. They were all black with tinted windows and squeaky clean. I nearly hit my escort because I was not paying attention. I may have drouled a little too.

As for the task at hand, today's training went very well. I had a very short session just to stay sharp on my few days off between races. It's very important to not sit around when faced with a few days between races, but also not to go crazy and break more muscle fibres the day before I need them intact.

In training today, I focused on starts and very short distances such as 30m, 40m and 60m. The feedback I was given by my coach Jean was that I was faster today than my fastest day in sherbrooke. I changed a slight place of my knees in response to not hitting my top speed last week and although it didn't help my top speed, it gave me a killer start. It's very strange to not be hitting a massive top speed yet still pulling in good times. I also noticed that in the past 5 days, there has been a headwind in the 100m straight. I thought it would be good to fabricate a fairing to help me cut through the wind if it's there.

I have no ilussions that I'll win the 100m on Monday, but based on my new start, I just want to have a great reaction to the gun and leave the line at the same time as everyone else. I think if the wind is nice to me, we may see a new canadian record in the preliminaries.

200m recap

So what can I say.... I ran nearly my personal best time in a very stressful situation after not feeling well for a few day's leading up to the race. I was very happy to find 3km/h in my top speed last night through little modificaitons and a stern talking to myself to relax.

The race iteself went nearly perfect and if I were to have had a tail wind of equal strength to the headwind I fought, I think I would have had a serious Personal best time.

After the race, I was sure I wasn't progressing to the final, but not disapointed because I hit 98% of my fastest time ever, the problem is that there were 8 other guy's who had 103% days. When the final is made of 8 guy's who are running under 26 seconds (a few under 25), I shouldn't expect to be there based on my 26.3 result. (YET)

Now I have 3 days off and I start again on Monday. I have been given permission to do some touring for one of those days. I'm torn between seeing the great wall, or the Silk Market. I heard that both are insane for different reasons. Any suggestions?????

Bye for now.

C

400m final

All I can say is that I'm sort of happy to have not been in that final. Although the weather was perfect, the chinese competitor slaughtered everyone with a new world record and paralympic record of 45.01. Even if I had a personal best, I would have been in the 48's and that would have felt like a beating.

After a good night sleep, great breakfast and a fantastic push today, I think I revived the great position in my chair that has served me well, and also the map to my happy place in my heart and head. I just need to go there tomorrow. I'll pack a lunch......

no traction, no final, no smile

So I raced today in the 400m semi and it couldn't have gone worse (maybe some lightning would be worse). I arrived at the warm-up track at it was pouring with rain, I warmed up in the rain (very difficult to be both wet and warm) and felt like everything was par for the course considering how well I know I push in the rain.

As I had lane 1, I actually have about a meter where I'm not even in the corner yet and that lane assignment is basically for the person who qualified last in the previous heat. As we lined up and they announced us, we waited in the rain for a long time, only to be pulled off so a medal awards could take place. By this time, I was really wet, and really cold.

The gun went off and basicaly I didn't move forward until the third or fourth push. By that time most were 20 meters ahead. I started to accelerate and reel people in at the 250 meter mark and entered the final straight in much better shape that the begining of the race. Unfortunetly, with 50m to go I slipped a few more times and couldn't move up past 6th place. I fought, but not enough. To progress, I needed to come top 3 or have the the 7th or 8th fastest time. I missed the placing and had a time that was .10 seconds off that time.

I was really choked because this was the first day that my back and neck weren't hurting and the rain didn't seem to affect me during my warm-up.

I'd like to think better luck next time, but based on not making the final there won't be a next time. Tomorrow's a regrouping day and then a light training on the 11th to get ready for the 200m heats on the 12th.

C

The 400m Semi & 5000m final

My 400m prelim last night went very well for the first 300m and then got really difficult and frustrating. I started very well and held a resonable top speed in comming into the second corner. At the half way mark, I was actually hovering around my personal best for the 200m of 25 second.

Unfortunetly when I came around the corner, a few of the athletes made up the stager and I lost my concentration. I shortened my stoke rather than lengthinging it which made me decellerate a little dropping me from 3rd postion, to 5th. I still made it into the Semi-final but I need to figure out how to cruise at my top speed becuause it wasn't there last night, maybe some longer accelerations in the warm-up to get ready for that will be best. I also am thankful of not needing the naproxen anymore and have now gone back to IB Profen with only slight discomfort.

So after my 400m heat, I came back to the village, showered and jetted off to the track to watch the 5000m where we had both men and woman competing (not together of course). The womans final was amazing right up until the last few laps. I was seated in the final straight and was able to the the worst crash I have ever seen live. Fortunetly I was also able to see my friend and training partner Diane Roy bypass the carnige and captured the Gold Medal.

In my perspective, the swiss girl caused the crash and was invloved in it which isn't nice but it would be terrible if you caused a crash and weren't affected. I don't know what happend after because there were 4 girls sprawled out on the track and no one helping them. As the remaining girls started to come around, they officials started pulling the off the track. This late action nearly caused a secondary crash because the officials were oblivious to the remaining athletes and one had to go really wide to avoid the stretcher with a broken athlete on it.

Sadly as countries sometimes do, a few protests were lodged and although you can't protest a crash, they seem to be protesting the fact that the officials walked out onto the track during the race. With one girl looking completly knocked out and another I hear has a broken collarbone, I think getting them off the track was the right thing to do. Also, this happend after several athletes were out of the race which makes me wonder the relevence.

Anyway, I've heard that they may re-run the race and that makes me sad because Diane won that race by surviving for 5000m and that's always half the battle. Think of nascar, 30 cars start, 15 finish. It's just racing....

I race my 400m Semi tonight and think I may go for a jog after lunch to make sure I'm nice and sharp.

Bye for now

The day before "the day"

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ll write an extra long one to fill in some huge gaps.

I had some difficulty with the muscles in my upper back and serious stiffness in my neck after a very intense training session on Thursday. At this stage in the game, my body and mind are acting in unison and although usually in a positive way, they can also tag-team me once in a while when things are not going great and I get body-slammed with both emotional and physical plaque (not to be confused with injuries or a psychosis).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the other day I had an amazing training session and just expected that the subsequent ones would be as good leading up to my first race. It turns out that when you hit a peak, there really isn’t anywhere to go but down (even a little). The day following the great workout, I wasn’t able to hit that same top speed and I made the huge mistake of pushing harder rather than accepting that I was destined to have a 95% day rather than a 101%. During an all out sprint, I tweaked my neck and upper back and it got much worse sleeping on it funny that night. Over the past few days I had some massage and although it helped at the time, it’s continued to be stiff. The funny thing is that I’m still able to hit my top speed, just not comfortably and not for as long.

Today’s training was designed to be lighter yet still enough to prepare me for my 4oom preliminary tomorrow morning at 9am. Directly after my training I had some vigorous manipulation and massage followed by a healthy handful of Naproxen. I won’t lie; there was some crying and cracking going one.

According to the heat sheets, I’m in lane 6 (a great lane for me) and I’ll be in the same round as David Weir who is the current world record holder. I think that if I can keep him in my short sights, everything will be fine because I’ve never seen him run slow. The three factors that are in my favour for a good race are:
1- There is no wind which means it’s only the distance that’s tough and I don’t have to worry about a head wind when I’m already out of gas
2- The track is so lightning fast that I can cruise at my top speed easier and won’t have to pace my self for the first 200m.
3 – Based on the stagger between lane 1 and lane 6, I’ll be ahead of David (likely for the first 150 – 180 meters) and I’ll be shoulder to shoulder when it get’s tough going into the final straight which will be exhilarating.

The schedule tonight is pretty simple; hydration, a dinner with lot’s of simple carbohydrates and absolutely no coffee, even if the guy at the latte shop keeps taunting me.









As for the Opening Ceremonies, all I can say is crazy, there must have been about 70,000 people live which is pretty loud. With the hundreds of cameras snapping away and video feeds, I can only imagine how many millions more were watching at home. The opening ceremonies are a great way to judge the atmosphere just so you’re a little prepared for the lights people and the noise. I also took note that although there was tons of wind outside, there was nothing in the bowl. They needed fans to make the flags dance.

This ceremony started like all others with a lot of standing around and waiting for things to get coordinated. We were amused with an hours worth of fireworks and thousands of people just taking in the experience.

When we were given the 5 minute warning my hear rate started to spike. We walked into the bowels of the stadium still not able to see anything and as we neared the mouth of the stadium, I nearly lost it. In spite of all the things to be distracted with, I instantly found the Canadian Flag hanging in the rafters and was overwhelmed. The show was spectacular and I even received a text from my mom saying that they may have seen me during the march of the nations. I was truly impressed that the local spectators although obviously patriotic to China, cheered just as loud for everyone.

As everyone is walking all over, the track is naturally covered with a thick carpet. I kept looking for an open spot just to see that beautiful surface 12 hours before everyone else.

I guess that will be something to dream about tonight…….BYE FOR NOW

- Happy Birthday to both Tiffany and my Grandmother Evelyn, I wish I could have been there…..
- Congratulations to my sister Jenna for making the Varsity volleyball team

Non-subjective subjectivity at it's finest

Today was a fun filled day, and it was my day off of training – Go Figure…

It started with a strange breakfast that I ate anyway and shouldn’t have. I wheeled around all day with a sore stomach.

At 4pm I had an appointment with the classifiers and it was like sitting in the hallway before seeing the principal. I was very nervous because if I was reclassified to a T-53, I would have guaranteed at least 4 medals and most of them would have been gold.

For those not familiar with the classification system, athletes are grouped by their disability level and I have always maintained that although I do fine as a T-54, based on physiology I should be a T-53.

The other reason for requesting a review was that the previous review took place in 1995 after a protest and I’m not sure how it was allowed, but the guy who protested me, also sat on the panel of “impartial” professionals. During the process, he received credit for removing himself from the actual decision, but was asked back when they realized his absence created an even number of votes and there was a split decision, so he also was able to be the tie breaker.

Anyway, today was a regular day in the office and I was thankful not to see any of my competitors in the room with me today. After poking and prodding and asking me to use muscles I don’t have, they decided that I am the least functioning T-54 they have ever seen and although I’m sitting on the line, I fall on the higher functioning side rather than the lower class.

The really crappy part of the process was that through the grapevine, I heard even prior to my meeting taking place, there were people ready to appeal the decision if I were to have had my class changed. How’s that for paranoia.

So tomorrow’s training will start like all the others, and when I go out on the track for my first race, I’ll be the chaser rather than the one everyone is trying to catch. I think in some ways the chasing task is easier than the rabbit because I can lock on to the guy in front and know exactly if and when I’m going to close in. If I’m the one being chased, I almost need a rear view mirror and would be running away from everyone instead.

Another thought is, if I were to win a whole bunch of medals as the lower class, I can’t imagine I’d be as satisfied. I’d rather come in 5th knowing it represents the fastest in the world, and would not likely be as happy with being the fastest in a lesser or discounted class.

Tomorrow’s workout is in the afternoon which will allow me to relax all day, and consists of my favourite distances 150m’s and flying 200m’s so I’m stoked to try and hit 36km/h rather than 35.8km/h which I hit the day after we arrived.

Can't sleep

Today's post (tonight's post), comes at at a time where I have made a small tactical error. Today's practice although very productive totally depleated me of everything. It was the first really hot day and my workout purposfully took place on a slow track to work on my starts which felt like going up a hill into a headwind on thick berber carpet. The workout it's self was successful as I bettered my fastest 30m,40m and 60m times in spite of being on the slowest track I can remember which reinforced that I'm ready.

I came back to the village only after 2 hours (at around 3pm) , ate some lunch, had a shower and sat on my bed and read my book. I woke up feeling well rested but rather than it being morning, it was 10:30pm of that same day.

Now I'm well rested but will likely wonder around until I'm tired again. I just hope I get tired before tomorrow. Thankfully the village is like Las Vegas where it's never closed.

C