Blogging From The East Coast

I'm sitting in a room somewhere on the George Mason University campus...using the computers for the Pan Am athletes...checking in with the world and saying that "I'm on my way to RIO!"
Yesterday, the day started semi-early with a 6:30am shuttle to the Springs airport...a 8:30am flight to Denver...an 11:14am flight to Washington, D.C...a short bus ride to the University to check in and get some chow. I went for a short run with some of my teammates (Sarah, Julie and Nate) around the campus...I won't go into details about how miserable the run was with the combination of east-coast-HUMIDITY and the remains of my weekend sickness...but it was just enough to get the blood flowing again after a day in the air.
The meals here at the University are fantastic, kinda just like the ones I'm used to at the OTC. That could be because they brought the OTC cafeteria staff here to make sure that we had good, healthy food for our layover:)! Unfortunately, they did not pack and ship a bunch of the amazing Hilton beds out here...we were stuck sleeping on the plastic mattresses in the dorms from the mid1950s! But, I had a decent night of sleep because I stayed awake the entire trip from COS...not one second of napping on the plane for this girl...I knew it was going to be hard enough sleeping on the East Coast and I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible (it worked for me from 10pm until 7am when my alarm went off).
I got up this morning and with a campus map in hand, jogged down to the GMU track for my short running workout. It's really really really nice to be at sea level!! I just wish I could tell a difference from altitude but my lungs are filled with gunk from my cold...but at least I'm starting to feel more like myself on the roads and more positive about the outlook of the race this weekend!! After my run and a quick shower, I headed back to the dining hall for breakfast and then joined all the other triathletes and the swim team for the "Team Processing Meeting" where they went over some protocol and told us to conduct ourselves with pride because the media is "always watching":)!
We finished off the morning in the 'outfitting' room where we got a small laundry basket full of red, white, and blue Nike gear. The Opening Ceremonies outfit isn't very exciting, just a red shirt, khaki golf shorts, and some hideous white sneakers (you'll get a picture of it afterwards:)! After individual and team photos, we all headed over to the pool for a team practice...busted out 3000 meters (my first real swim practice since Friday morning so it was nice to stretch out and loosen up!) and then came back to this building for lunch in the Ciao Hall.
Other than catching up with my emails and blogging this post, I've got nothing but relaxing to do until the 5 pm buses back to the airport. The flight is a red-eye, 10 hours, with one stop in San Paulo before we reach Rio. We arrive around noon and bus straight to the Athlete Village to check in, get our credentials, and hopefully find some time to build our bikes and get a short spin to re-start that blood flow!
Some other things that have come to my attention...there are about 30 women on the starting list for our race (about 37 men). The water is going to be warm enough for no wetsuits. We race on Sunday the 15th...women start at 10:30am (that's the latest update we've been given).
The next post will be from Rio! I've decided not to lug my heavy laptop with me on this trip...and it's working out just fine because the USA team is always provided with computers and Internet access (no need to throw my back out for nothing:). Apparently, the new 7 Wonders of the World were announced last week and the big statue on the mountain top in Rio just made the new list so it will be my first 'check mark' on that list. If things go as planned, I will also be able to check off the Great Wall of China in 2 months when I go to Beijing to race (the Wall also made the new list).