Long, Cold, Snowy Weekend Update

It's now been more than a week...but I will still give you the update from my weekend in Philadelphia, PA. It started last Wednesday with an early morning swim practice at the Ormond pool (the Port Orange pool was freezing because of a heater malfunction). After about 7500 yards of swimming, mom and I drove to the Dayton Beach Airport for my 12pm flight. Everything went smooth on the first flight. I didn't have to worry about my bike box because I shipped it on Fed-Ex the day before directly to the bike shop in PA. The day started getting worse when I arrived in ATL and they informed me that my 2:40 flight to Philly was canceled. No problem, right? They confirmed me on the 5:40 flight, I grabbed some lunch and headed over to the gate to wait. While I was chillin' and reading a book at the gate...the loudspeaker informed me that my 5:40 flight was now at another gate...all the way across the airport! No worries, grabbed a snacked and walked the length of the ATL airport. At the new gate, I was informed that the flight was delayed until about 8pm. No worries, grabbed some dinner, and waited some more! Since 3 flights to Philly had been canceled...the 8pm flight required a bigger airplane and a different gate...no worries, I wandered over to that gate to wait some more! Around 9pm, our flight was boarded and we were on our way to Philly. (Note: 'on our way' does not mean 'end of story'). As we neared the Philly airport...the snow storm was still there, and a lot of other planes were trying to land...resulting in an hour of flying in circles above the airport waiting our turn to land! No worries, chilled in the plane until landing and wandered over to pick up my one checked bag. Over an hour later the bags showed up on the baggage claim but it was fun because Kelsey and Manny (other members of the U-23 team) were waiting with me. So the group of athletes that arrived on Wednesday finally got back to the hotel around 1:30 on Thursday morning!
After some well deserved shut-eye, we got up and went for a 40 minute jog in the PA cold weather. It was a new experience to jog through snow and slush. Next came a trip to the Cadence Cycling Shop where we were presented with our new bikes! Here's a cool article for more info and a photo of the U-23 team riding on the CompuTrainers in the shop. (I'm in the upper left corner in the USA jersey). http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RunnersWeb_External_Links.html?http://www.procyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=2855
Most of the day on Friday was spent at the bike shop. We started with a time-trial in the morning. We didn't actually GO anywhere...but we raced 3 miles as fast as we could on the stationary trainers...my first 3 miles were 7:50 and my second 3 miles were 7:55. Lots of sweating! After cooling down, we each got professionally 'fit' to our bikes. The seat and handle bar height were precisley calculated...stem lengths changed...handle bar width switched...and pedal-shoe location altered. Then I spent the remainder of the day exploring the cute main street that the bike shop was located in. Bought some snow boots...which came in handy the next day!
After we were all fit to our bikes we headed to Germantown Academy, the local high school for a 5000y swim practice. It was the home pool of Olympian Maddie Crippin and she was there coaching the 8 & unders!
Saturday morning...back to the bike shop for a 2 1/2 hour stationary bike ride! (It really made me miss the feeling of a ROAD under my tires!) As we finished riding...the snow started falling...and falling...and falling. We loaded EVERYBODY and EVERYBIKE into the 15 passanger van and slowly made our way back to the hotel...where in continued to snow the rest of the day and most of the night...it the morning there was about 2 feet of snow!! Bummer that it wasn't good 'snow-ball snow'!
Sunday morning arrives for a drive to the airport to depart for SUNNY Florida. First thing Delta tells me at the counter..."We're sorry, all flights have been canceled today, we can get you home around 11pm tomorrow"!!! I was calm, collected...and I asked "Is there ANY way to get me home TODAY?" After a bit of running around the airport, I managed to get my ticked signed over to AirTran who flew me to Orlando! (Thanks to Dad who drove down there to pick me up!)
The trip was eventful but fun. I met a bunch of other triathletes my age...and it looks like it's finally time for the USA to get on the podium at Worlds!