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For those of you that want to watch Brayden race live, he’ll be racing today at 11:30am. Of course you’ll have to watch it on the paralympic tv website. It’s a two hour race, so if you’re at work, you’ll probably want to close the office door.
Well we left at 8 am and drove out to the ming tombs, that’s where the road races are (where the triathlon was for the Olympics). We got here before 9 but didn’t make it to the seating until 930. We had to take a bus from where the cab dropped us off up to the spectator stands. And they are packed. Like insane. We are in the last row and there are enthusiastic Chinese all around us. They must move sporting events here because everythings been packed! Now we are watching the hand cyclists and waiting for Brayden to ride – not until 1120. So we have a while. Today Brayden will do 24 km which is 2 laps. Tomorrows race is 5 laps which is 60 something.
Not sure if you watched but Brayden was a DNF (did not finish). His bike was broken. Were not sure what the problem was but his wheel was moving side to side and he had to stop. He rode around at the end so they mustve fixed it. Hopefully he’ll be able to race tomorrow. The results for today were Ochoa in 1 followed by Kenny in 2 and the Korean in 3 it was close in times between Darren and javier. And then close between the Korean and the other Spanish guy that was 4th. Jean came 5th. That’s all for today. Everyone here is grumpy. 
For those that are wondering … diarrhea, but the meal was great.
Well Weds was the last day of the track races – the girls went to the market (someone in the market actually asked if they were a daughter and her 2 lesbian mothers, I will be getting some mileage out of that one). Brayden did not race but was the alternate for the team sprint so he had to go and prepare to race in case he was needed. He and I decided to meet at the track and go out after the races. Turned out that he had to take his road bike back to the village, so we arranged to get together just outside of the village. When he arrived back at the village, he took his bike off the bus, and went back to get his gym bag .. when he returned .. the bike was gone!! For the next 3 hours, Brayden was in a panic .. I could not help him because I can’t get into the village. Turns out while Brayden was inside getting the bag, the bus driver saw the bike and put it back on the bus .. it showed up at the bus barns and someone from the Canadian contingent, who had heard about the “lost bike”, put 2 and 2 together and returned the bike to Brayden. man was he ever relieved. Nice to have some excitement in your day. Not.
Breanne, myself and the lesbian mothers went to the Hou something or another area, which is Beijings famous “bar/restaurant” area, for supper and drinks. The area probably had 50 different bars, all them along a street that wound around a lake. It was really neat.
I had breakfast with Brayden today, while the girls went out to the great wall. He was calmed down and ready for tomorrows time trial. The team was going out to pre-ride the course.
As I mentioned earlier, the venues have been packed and gettings tickets has been hard work.. We still don’t have tickets for the road events, so I am sitting here waiting for Brayden to come out of the village, as he has been able to scoop up some. Breanne and her lesbian mothers have gone to the exotic food market (scorpions, silk worms etc) .. Probably saved myself another bout tomorrow by not being able to go with them.
Tomorrow is race day, so everyone is heading to bed early. We will update everyone after the race.
Well, I have spent the last 3 days sitting at the Velodrome and watching the races. Brayden has had 2 – 7th place finishes, one of them better than we thought and the other one a little slower than we had hoped for. The racing has been fantastic, lots of World Records have been broken and the fans have been loud and rambuncious. The Laoushan Velodrome holds about 6000 people, and it has been standing room only for all the events. Lots of Brit’s and Aussies, and most days, Cdns, so the banter back and forth has been great. I have been betting beers with them, thank goodness they cost less than a dollar ea, and are only 4.3% alcohol, because I haven’t won that many.
Brayden has become some what of a celebrity here .. with other Canadians in the athlete village, because of his Petro-Canada commercial and at the Velodrome because of a shot of him with Eric V (head coach) during the kilo, both of them have their game face on (those that have watched him race in Calgary know what “face” I am talking about). There is a 30ish story building here, shaped like the flame, with a 60′ TV screen on all sides of it, and they show that shot all the time.
Traffic to and from the Velodrome has not been that bad, but the way the cab drivers drive is very exciting, to say the least .. not as bad as Rome .. but worst than Paris. Although I have discovered that 3 or 4 beer at the track, allow me to relax and not worry too much about the ride. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. It is obvious that the general public has been coached on how to treat us, yesterday, when I was about 4th in line at the taxi stand, a young local couple got in when it was their turn and immediately the Security guard ran over and after much yelling, the couple got out and everyone motioned for me to get in .. I refused, but everyone just stood there and the Security guard glared at me .. I decided that I would have to see this guard every day, so it was best for me to take the cab. Weird eh?
That’s it for now, we are going out for some authentic Beijing food tonight, so I will probably have either a good story or diarrhea, or maybe both, tomorrow.
Today was another exciting day for us at the track. Brayden was racing in the kilo, his best track race that he got gold at nationals.
His mom and dad were very nervous. Probably more nervous than him!
Brayden raced his hardest and finished 7th. His time was 1.22, not his best time ever, but his coach was happy with this result being as this was his first time at this big of an event.
Brayden is a celebrity here. When he sits with us people come up constantly to get their pictures taken with him and his autograph! And in athletes village people are recognizing him from his commercial!
Breanne
Ok 4.5 days in and the fun continues
First the market – in two words – Holy Sht!!! I hate shopping at the best of times, even in Calgary, where you walk into a store .. wait for service and then pay what they ask for. Not even close to the process here in China!! The market is like a department store, multiple floors with an escalator in the middle. That is where the similarity stops. These markets have 8′ x 6′ kiosks, in row after row, with a walk way of about 8′ between each row. The merchants are nuts, and come right out of their kiosk and grab you to try and get you to buy their stuff. Most of the goods are fake brand names, but, according to the girls “good ones”. Seemed like crap to me. Basically, if you took the time to negotiate, you could purchase this stuff for about 10% of their first offer, and for about. 5% of the real stuff’s price. After an hour of this, I went to the bar and waiting for the girls to finish shopping, for some reason I don’t remember what they bought.
Opening ceremonies – they were fantastic, and I hope that those that could, did, watch them. I can’t describe the feeling you get when you see one of your family walking into the Olympic stadium behind the Canadian flag, it is unreal. There were 91,000 spectators and 4000 athletes marching, the place was electric. Originally Brayden was not going to take part as he had the pursuit early the next day, but the CPC decided that, being as this was his first Paralympics, and he was not expected to medal in the pursuit .. they let him attend. He was thrilled. I am sure I told most of you about my screw up in buying opening ceremony tickets ($450 ea) .. well guess what., we ended up with seats that were worth $12 each. Talk about nose bleeds!! But on the good side, all of the Canadian fans were in that area, so it was a lot of fun. The Chinese people obviously don’t believe in gouging you at these events .. we have been paying about $3 per beer at the bars … at the Birds Nest (and today at the velodome)… $1 per beer. You can’t beat that.
Brayden raced today, he set a PB and ended up 7th, a great result for a race he still struggles at. The good news for Canada is that Jean Q of Quebec raced to a bronze medal .. which was an unexpected, happy surprise.
More in a couple days, going for supper now.
We finally got to see Brayden last night, and that was great .. he looks healthy and strong (they must be taking better care of him than we do)
The security here is amazing. The area within 2k of the grounds is restricted for traffic, and our apt is within that area, so taking cabs to and from always involves negotiation with security to get in. The entire Olympic Green perimeter is surrounded by 2 – 10′ high fences, about 2m apart. Every 250m, there is a manned guard house between the fences. I would say that the grounds have a perimeter of about 30k. All of the gates to get in, have armed guards c/w dogs etc. The Paralympic village is within the grounds, and has it’s own security. Within the village, the Israeli’s have their own security around their quarters..
Ticketing – what an adventure – we received almost all we requested from the CPC – just the quality of the seats are brutal. Apparently the locals bought all the better seats. As I said “almost” what we wanted .. we were missing tickets to Braydens best event on the track. The official ticket agent here is the Bank of China, so, at noon, while the girls went to the market I went to the closest bank, and took number 151, then looked at the board .. calling number 41 .. scoured the line for someone who might speak english and met a young lady from Wales. She was number 57 and she got that number at 6:00 that morning. … Oh oh. … so, I turned on the charm and when that didn’t work, I offered her a bottle of champagne … she kinda smelt like booze so I thought if my natural good looks and charm didn’t work .. booze would (that worked with the girls in high school) .. I was wrong, there was a 10 ticket max and she needed to get all 10 tickets. There was a group of locals In front of the bank, who were obviously scalping tickets, so I found a bank clerk who spoke english and asked if he could help me broker a deal. He couldn’t but told me that the tickets were legit and I would have to pay twice the actual price. So the negotiating began .. after about 10 mins, I found out no one had cycling tickets .. Note to self, ask first. The clerk came out for a smoke, and waved me over .. He said that banks farther away from the Olym Green did not have as long a line up. I contacted the girls and there was a bank where they were .. an hour later we had the tickets we needed. (Kind of an anti-climatic ending to great story, wasn’t it?)
Anyway, today – Opening Ceremonies and I tackle the famous Pearl Market, so stay tuned for another story on Monday.
I got word from my parents – they’ve made it to China (I leave today) and here’s what they have to say:
We made it! Our apartment is quite big but has no utensils. The Canadian check in people are great though and are looking after it for us. It’s very busy here – cars and people everywhere. The city seems ready for the Paralympics. It is really humid but I haven’t noticed any problems with the air. We heard from Brayden and he sounded really happy to know we are here. He said Athletes Village is incredible.
Can’t wait to see more! – Mom
Well we have now been here for 24 hours., and in a few words .. “This place is awesome!! “. Smog is none existent, and the streets are as clean as can be, people friendly and the beer is good. We are staying about a block from the Olympic Green. We can’t get in though, which sucks because we have not seen Brayden yet. The Cdn team had the velodome booked for practice today, so we took a cab over there, hoping to see everyone but even that venue was closed up, security wise, and we couldn’t get in. Wasted 1 1/2 hours during the cab ride, but did get to see some of the city during the ride. Cabs are cheap here, about $15 for an hours ride. Haven’t seen a service station anywhere so I don’t have any idea how much fuel is.
Our room is fantastic, lots of room for everyone.
Tomorrow we are going to the market, and hopefully getting together with Brayden.
Well, Brayden’s in China and he sent me an update (FINALLY!)
China is good. I am happy I am here and made the team but even though I made the team it is only a step towards the big goal, which is getting a medal for Canada. Maybe not this one, but you never know! And all the coaches want if not a medal than for everyone to try their best.
Also, I’m having fun – I am happy for when you, Dad and Mom come. And I talked to dad a few days ago and he said that Auntie Yvonne is coming as well, which is cool!
-Brayd