Olympic Fever

Rocking my favorite new Olympic mittens delivered straight from BC along with the Canada sweatshirt I picked up at the 2002 SLC Olympics, I've been obsessed with the Games. Back to back nights of mogul competition (freestyle) have got me stoked out on my couch yelling, the occassional tear of delirium and euphoria trickling down my face, watching the top-ranked skiers push almost beyond the point of control going for broke to nail a podium spot.

With the highest qualifying skiers slotted last the tension builds with each run as the top 1-2-3 wait to see if they'll get bumped out of the medals.

CANADA JUST WON GOLD! MEN'S MOGULS. GOOOOOLD! And thus ends Canada's streak of gold-less Olympics when it's been the host country. (It hosted 2 other games prior to Vancouver.) Congratulations, Alexandre Bilodeau and Canada!

And a big shout out to Team USA - Hanna Kearney took Gold in the women's moguls while Bryon Wilson took Bronze for the men. Boo ya moguls! Amazing athleticism on display. Absolutely amazing. If I could do one thing over again in my not-too-distant youth I'd compete on the mogul tour. Damn you elusive helicopter - has my moment of opportunity been lost? Is there a mogul/aerial camp for...girls of a certain age? Say, out of college? By a few decades? :)

OOOH, Apolo is on the news! Shed a tear watching him qualify first and then snag silver after the 2nd and 3rd skaters - both South Koreans - took each other out with 10 yards to go Friday night in the finals. Love that kid! Miriam and I got to see him skate in Salt Lake when we were there for the Olympics. He was brash and cocky and had killer hair and wicked talent in a super intense sport. I adored him immediately. Short track speed skating is nail-biting to watch. I love it!

Couples figure skating on now - back to Entourage.

In the non-Olympian world, Dana, Jessica and I jetted up to Royal Gorge to visit the schnee and practice our nordic skills for a few hours. I couldn't let a weekend pass without a snow check! It was a gorgeous day - 68 in Sacramento - and we were roasting within an hour as we made what seemed like an endless climb up around Kidd Lake.

Some laughs, some pains, a PB&J break in the sun and we were back at the lodge 3 hours later feeling various unused muscles reacting as we toasted over the ceremonial apres-workout round of beers on the deck. It was around this time that some sight-challenged douchebag snatched my skis. In the overload of irritation that exploded in my mind - are you effing kidding me?? they steal skis at a nordic mountain!? my used craigslist skis!? when i ski on $1000 Volkls at Squaw without a problem!? someone stole my skis in the 15 minutes we were on the deck?! in this granola, KQED crowd?? are you kidding me?! - I noticed that 80% of the skis stacked around the area were yellow. YELLOW. Mine are yellow. What the hell? Does anyone make a nordic ski that isn't yellow?


And so, though I wasn't quite done ranting, the thought that possibly, just maybe, some sight-challenged tool had picked up my yellow ROSSIGNOLS and mistaken them for one of the hundreds of yellow FISCHERS that Royal Gorge rents slipped between my f-bombs and into my subconscious. It helped, too, that Jessica and Dana felt sure this was the case. And naturally, as I sulked in the car on the way home pondering who to exact my profound irritation on, RG called and said someone had turned them into the rental center thinking they were their rentals. Uh dur. DURRRRR.

The big idea to come out of all of this? HUGE opportunity to bring some hipness to nordic skiing. People! Take a look at alpine and snowboarding and figure out some graphics to fit those skinny skis. Kabam! If I knew how to get from A-Z I'd do it myself and blow out of my 9-5 job tomorrow.

Anyway, it was another stellar weekend in the extended bay area. 24 hours before skiing I was laying in the sun in my shorts/running bra at Rodeo Beach after a run in the headlands that jarred me with the reality that skiing does not necessarily translate to running. I've got work to do in the next month. Big, long, fast miles. It felt great to be back in the hills of Marin running. I've missed you trail running shoes and Garmin. Take me back!

Check out this sweet nordic video - great beats in the background. So NOT how we looked today.