Edmonton

Edmonton, The World's | Day 9: Another beautiful sunny day in Edmonton, little wind and clear skies. Well, there is a little haze and it is being blamed on those darn Russians! A forest fire in Russia is causing haze in Alaska and Canada! It is hardly noticeable, and I haven't heard about an athlete complaining. Yet. Since it was in the newspapers today, maybe someone can use it as an "excuse". The papers were pretty mild today. Just good things happening on the track - and the British journalist has apologized. Even the "Sunshine Girl" was nearly clothed and without tattoos or piercings - and she is a regular on The Man Show! Yesterday the IAAF blamed Edmonton for poor attendance and last night 45,000 people showed up to the track - the stands seemed really full, and Marion Jones thanked all the fans for showing up! This morning the Mayor blamed the IAAF for not publicizing the event! Oh, the fur is flying in the Edmonton tabloids!

Headline: KENYA BELIEVE IT? The coverage of the men's 5000m race was surprisingly good. The writer actually seemed to understand racing! There was also an interesting aside about winner Richard Limo - his Kenyan name (Kipkemei) means 'child born during dry season when food is hardly available'. Limo said all went according to plan - Kenyan Sammy Kipketer followed the pre-race strategy of tiring out Algeria's Ali Saidi-Sief. Limo kept close, and then blasted past the Algerian with 200m to go! What a sacrifice for Kipketer... but we all know he will be rewarded for his chore. (I must come up with a name for Lisa... something like "child born in 3rd world country when mother was young".) There has been one more defection and two more EPO busts - no names yet. Maurice Greene was back at city hall, with Donovan Bailey, signing a giant plastic White Buffalo for charity and talking up Edmonton as the Greatest City in the World! Jamaican 100m hurdler Bridgette Foster collapsed and went into convulsions after her semifinal. She had to be taken "to hospital" - no word today of her condition or the cause.

News from the track today: We were at the track from 2:00 - 6:00 pm. Day Nine is Relay Day (as is tomorrow). We had a lot of fun at the track tonight with Brian and our American/English/Swiss seat mates. Lots of excitement in relays - lots of last-minute substitutions, scratches and then all that wondering as to who will run in the finals! Edmontonians sent a huge message to the IAAF today - 47,000 fans were in the stadium. We also had the women's 5000m final. Szabo was not going to run with the drug-using Russian Olga Yegorova... but she did. It was a very good race, with a pack of women running together for the entire race - mostly lead by Chinese runner Dong Yenmei. Szabo, who had already won gold in the 1500m, was never in the race and in the end Yegorova won and she was hardily booed by the crowd and knew better than to take a victory lap. Olga crossed the finish line and headed straight for the press gauntlet and out of the stadium. The IAAF knew better than to hold the medal ceremony right away, too! The American men won their 4x100 heat, even though Jon Drummond pulled up in the first leg and barely made his hand-off before falling to the track in an agonizing leg cramp! It was pretty gross as his face was wincing in pain and his leg was disgustingly distorted. After the final results were posted, the Americans were then disqualified - with no explanation. As we were leaving the stadium tonight, there was an announcement that the Americans were reinstated. We will have to see the news - or read the tabloids tomorrow - to see what exactly happened. Also disqualified for lane violations were some the best teams: UK, Jamaica, Bahamas and Cuba. This gives Canada and Israel huge advantages!

After that excitement, we came back to Goldie for a rest and then we actually dressed-up and went out to a nice restaurant in downtown Edmonton, Il Portico, for a lovely dinner. We had a nice table on the patio and our waiter was most attentive. For our appetizer, he brought us a small bottle of Deep Woods Off mosquito repellant (pump spray). Lisa still has two bites on her shoulder and DT has a bite on his forehead! Lisa thinks Deep Woods Off may be one the best-selling perfumes in Canada. Our meal was just fabulous - two good Italian restaurants in a row! Score one for us and score at least three for local mozzies! (Hey, mosquitoes like foreign food sometimes too.) The restaurant makes their own bread dip with balsamic vinegar, infused with herbs and olive oil. Very nice. For appetizers, DT had a Caesar salad, I had Caprese (but of course) and Lisa had bruschetta. For entree's, Lisa had Alberta veal tortellini, DT and I had big bowls of pasta. We really had a nice time at our Mosquito Coast-type Italian restaurant tonight - our daughter is very witty and she kept us laughing with her amusing tales.

RV Park: Glowing Embers RV Park in Spruce Grove, Alberta