Tracking H and G: Sunday Sept 14

Weather

21 degrees in the morning. Sunny with high humidity in the afternoon and evening with a high of 31.

It was early on Sunday so we thought we would take a cab instead of the subway. In just 20 minutes we were within a couple kilometers but it took another 10 to finish the ride. The cabby nearly killed us and others along the way.

It took one hour to get through the Security Gate! We were constantly moving at a very slow rate. At times people were a bit pushy but overall it was pretty civil. Apparently there are only three entrances to the Olympic Green and there had to be 150,000 people there at least. Well, 90,000 at the Bird’s Nest, 20,000 at the Water Cube, unknown number at the other venues and then many, many more that just were going to The Green (which is not very green!) for the day.

Very cool building. The races go off in quick succession. I imagine this is the case for all Olympics but it is pretty cool to see it happening. The crowed was almost entirely Chinese with a few pockets of other nationalities cheering on. We were near some other Canadians and together we cheered like crazy for our athletes. We could not even make a dent in the cheers for Chinese athletes! Interesting to watch the various athletes get in and out of the pool and some get help at the start. The athletes with no arms have to touch the pad with their head which seems a bit cruel.

After the swimming we wandered around the Green by the Cube and Nest. We weren't in a hurry to get to the wheelchair tennis thinking we had loads of time. Then we wandered north to get to the venue. Along the way we asked for directions and got bad advice. We ended up at the north end across the street from a large park. I knew the venue was in the park (turns out we were still at least 2 km from it). At the gate we were denied access to the park and told we needed to catch a bus near the Cube! We were assured we didn't need to go through security again. At this point we were getting hot (but thank goodness it wasn't as hot as Monday turned out to be) so we took the subway back down.

Time was beginning to be a factor as it was now nearing 2 pm. We got back to the Cube and went west only to find that we did have to leave the Green to get to the bus. Then we watched many buses pass that were packed with people like they were trying to set a record for the number of people that could fit in a VW Bug! We thought about the fact that we would then have to re-enter the Green at the peak time when the Athletics came on and gave up on the Wheelchair Tennis :( I feel rather bad about missing it.

We then went back in to the Green and waited a bit for the Bird’s Nest to open. Once in we had a two hour wait for the events to start. In that time we watched them prepare the field. A little army of volunteers making sure the discuss throwing field was set, the high jump was ready, the podium set properly and many other tasks. Then the events began. This was definitely the highlight. Again the events are going off with precision of an army. Wheelchair athletes were getting ready while the 100 m dash preliminaries were happening.

There was javelin and discuss going on for quite a while but these events took a back seat to the track events. The track events were definitely the highlight. We watched Chantel Petitclerc win two races! We thoroughly enjoyed it and were bagged at the end. We left a tad early to avoid the crush of 90,000 plus leaving at once and it was still packed getting out.

The sun had set and the whole place was lit up like Christmas! The Cube glowed with changing colors as did the Broadcast Pagoda and even lights in the ground.

At the end of the day we got back to the hotel via the subway and ate across the street at a Korean restaurant. It was a great end to the day.

Tracking H and G