Venue Tour

Today we got to head out to our venue, the Laoshan Bicycle Cluster. It is a straight shot west of where we live, we hop on the subway and ride it all the way through Beijing to the western part of the city. So basically... seats on the subway are like gold here, seriously. When an empty train comes and the doors open up you would think some one was giving away money and adorable puppies for free. As soon as those doors open people RUN after a seat and do all in their power to get one. As I like to say you must "man up and hold your own!"

Knowing about this "local running of the bulls" as one of my fellow students called it, we where in for the ride. We hopped off at the first transfer station, sprinted to the other side and held our own waiting for the train. We knew our ride was gonna be about 50 minutes and our eyes were on the prize, that golden nugget that is a seat on the Beijing subway.

It was tense, our feet planted, elbows out trying to fight off our contenders. "Hold your own, hold your own!" I whispered to my self as the empty subway car was coming to a stop, "eye on the prize!" The doors finally opened, with elbows out defending my terf I plunnged forward to a seat, and I GOT IT! Five out of six of us were able to score in this game of Beijing Subway life. Now, I've never won an Olympic gold medal, but I assume it would feel a lot like that.

Once we got to our Venue we went through security, and then got a tour. We saw the ONS office (where we will spend a lot of time), the huge media office, the photo work rooms and then the mixed zone, where we will actually interview the athletes. The Velodrome is HUGE! Way bigger than I thought it would be. We got to stand in the middle of the track and then we got to actually walk out on the track. The part of the track where they actually race is probably to steep to walk on for long periods of time. It is really, really steep! It's so cool though. We saw the press tribunes and the TV camera stations. There were a bunch of girls in the middle practicing there dance with an inflatable Fuwa character. We also got to tour the BMX venue and we saw the start and finish of the mountain bike course! It was really, really exciting. The best part!?! FREE cold Coke, Sprite and water! It was really cool to finally get to see my venue, I am excited to get in there and have more training, which will be Monday morning.