Friday Thursday February 11, 2010
(the Volunteer "Break room" Breakfast Lunch and Dinner meals 24/7.)
So today from 6:00 a.m. when we loaded on the Creekside Gondola and used head lamps to ski to our section of the course, where we buttoned up all of the edges of the course and them smoothed out the track. It was going to be another training run for 89 racers. The snow from the day before had been minimal overnight so most of the work was done by large wide long handled "asphalt rakes" and snow shovels. Also following the course inspection by the coaches and racers we send "Slippers" down the course who with speed and understanding of the "race line" remove any loose snow and polish and buff the race course.
At 9:30 a.m. the course was totally cleared and the we could see from the top of the course to the valley floor. The training run started, but due the prospect of weather coming in and to speed up the training run the racers were coming onto the course in only 40 second intervals. This left very little time for the course workers to make any small repairs to the course or replace any damaged gates. But finally by 11:30 a.m. all 89 racers had been given an equal and fair change to ski down the course at full speed. We are now ready to run the Olympic Men's Downhill Race - the first and one of the premier events of the 2010 Olympics.
The plan now is starting tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. all course work will be a 24 hour a day effort up to the completion of the Men's Downhill Race. There will be on opportunity to cancel or to prospone the race because the track is not ready. But we can not control the weather.
So my job tomorrow is to get my crew of 22 excited and committed to this once in a life time event, to put in all of the necessary effort and to make it happen.
I am very excited and can hardly wait for Saturday morning. Stay tuned.
Gerry
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