The Auspicious Business Hotel

Out the window of the Auspicious Business Hotel in Changping

Out the window the airplane landing in Beijing


My friends at Ediya coffeep wall of picture fame behind us

At the CheJu Airport passing time, gaming...

It is Friday night and we have arrived in Beijing. It was a beautiful day- blue skies, good visibility, one of the best the athletes have ever seen. Our day started early as we packed 6 bikes and LOTS of luggage onto the back of a flatbed truck at 5am at the Marathon Center. There was a LOT of stuff between bikes and bags and everything else. It cleared the way to fit everyone in the vans and get us safely and with enough room to the CheJu airport for our 9:15 direct flight to Beijing. I mentioned that many other countries were training in CheJu- and we were ALL on the same flight. Every major contender for a gold metal, both men and women, were on our flight. I think there were some 60+ bikes they had to fit on. They ended up bring many pieces of luggage onto the plane to fit in empty seats. Good thing the athletes are as big as my little pinkie because with all the extra baggage, that plane must have weighed a ton. We claimed all our bags and bikes and were quickly through customs- a very painless process. Our contacts in China met us there at the airport, packed us up on the tour bus and we were on our way to the Auspicious Business Hotel, our home the next 7 days. Tourists cannot rent cars in China- kind of crazy, I think. Makes things that much more challenging for such an event like this but, oh well. On the bus ride Julie whipped out her computer and led us in a game of “Olympic Trivia”. Do you know how many countries are competing in the 2008 Beijing Games? I forgot the answer so I suggest contacting Julie. At the Auspicious, in the Changping district up near the Mind Tombs, we were greeted by the staff. The Auspicious is more of a Chinese style hotel, extremely elegant and with more of a Chinese touch. After a lot of running around to get everyone squared away, I headed out for a run. I made it 20 minutes up to the triathlon venues and then back. So many people out, so many Chinese riding their bikes and very few cars on the streets. Everyone was amazed at how clear it was. Blue skies and clouds which is pretty rare. Our venues is about 30-40K northwest of Beijing. It’s very close to the Great Wall which I hope to see after my responsibilities have ended. So the run went well. I was coughing a bit when I returned but who knows. As for food, the concern, of course, is that the athletes do not get sick. That being said we have a nutritionist who has to go every morning to the Beijing Normal University (this is where all support staff who can’t get into the village are being staged) for all the meals. Bob is the lucky man with that job. So we have purchased a microwave, some coolers, a set of plates and silverware, cups and whatnot so he can serve athletes’ their meals out of his room. Crazy, huh! For sure but it is food the athletes are comfortable with and know (knock on wood) has been prepared properly in order to avoid sickness. It is now close to 9pm and I have been up for a bit. I usually have no problem sleeping on planes but I was next to two Spaniards on the plane. Quite the comedians, these guys, enjoying their beer and flirting with the Korean flight attendants. That’s all for today…