Bittersweet memories

I can't believe it. My time as a volunteer at Laoshan has finally come to a close, with the conclusion of the mountain bike events today. At times, it has felt like the days dragged on and on; others flew by and I wished I could pause and rewind them at least one more time.

Today was a mix of those moments. One one hand, it was a looong day. Due to the rain earlier in the week, the women's race was changed to this morning, while the men had their race this afternoon. I sweated gallons in the morning race; the sun was beating down on us and it was hot! I don't know how the ladies did almost two hours on the bikes, but there were a few DNFs due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.

On the other hand, I had to say goodbye to many of my Chinese friends that I was used to seeing all day, every day, at work. It was also sad to see the photographers go that I had gotten to know, some of them at every event I worked. The Olympics is crazy like that, everyone has been working and preparing so long for just a few short weeks. Then, before we know it, it's over.

And now it is. But today was another day full of little fun surprises. I got assigned to the medal ceremony photo position for both mountain bike races (aka right in front of all the action!) and so during the races I could go wherever I wanted, including up into the mountain to watch the riders. Val met me up there during the women's race and we were literally a foot from the action. Incredible. I am also proud to say I might have prevented a wreck because the girl who eventually got silver lost her water bottle out of its cage on the rocks near us, and no one made a move to grab it, so I ran out and got it out of the way. I kept it. Good souvenir, I think. They get millions, don't worry. A Belgian rider almost took out some spectators when he chucked his out into the crowd later on in the day. I don't understand how they have the energy to do that (or pick up their bikes high over their head at the end of the race like gold medalist Julien Absalon. By the way, I was standing with his family as they watched their son win his second Olympic gold. Love this job...

At the medal ceremony, I met a photog, Liz, who looked like she was about to pass out under all the camera gear she was carrying so I offered to help her carry it (against the rules but hey, it was hot out there). We got to talking and she's from the States, her husband is a professional Iron Man triathlete, and she is a very talented photographer. How do I know? She was the official photog for Team Discovery at the Tour de France (yes, Lance's team). She also does work for Lance's Livestrong Foundation. It's so fun to meet such interesting people everywhere here.

After I helped her out, she was asking me about the Trek store down the road and did I want to come to a reception there with her? Ummm yeah! So Val and I went with her to this reception where there was amazing American food (I had a grilled cheeseburger. You can't even imagine how good it tasted to me, especially after the long day I had), interesting people (we hung out with US mountain biker Mary McConneloug's family, and the team manager and PR people for USA Cycling), and of course, air conditioning and a place to sit down. After hanging out for a while, Val and I headed back to where our shuttle would pick us up to head back to the CUC.

Our volunteer friends started up some karaoke on the way back on the bus microphone. They even convinced Val and I to do a song (Backstreet Boys' Shape of My Heart). I figured out why the Chinese love to do karaoke so much--- they are actually good at singing! I was so impressed. I, on the other hand, am borderline tone deaf so I felt sorry for them. They cheered us on, though, so I wasn't too embarassed. One guy's voice cracked and they told him to stop in Chinese haha!

I can't believe this is almost over...