Sorry that I'm already 3 days behind, but I hope to catch up a little in the next couple days.
Today, we are off to speed skating for the women's 3,000 meter race. We have a little breakfast (toast, yogurt, fuji apple and green tea) with Sunny before she heads off to her cafe. I work on the blog a little (too little - I know) and then we head off toward the train station to find something to eat. We aren't sure about the bus schedule on Saturdays, but there are people waiting so we decide to stop and see if a bus shows up. At the stop, we meet a woman from France that is staying in the same apartment complex and is a member of the same Olympic pin club that I belong to. She is headed to the Coke pin trading tent and is obviously a lot more serious about this than I am because she's nearly filled up her backpack with pins.
The bus does show up (saving us a 40 minute walk!) and deposits us at the train station. There is a performance of some kind going on:
It appears that they are having these performances 4 times per day. Nearby are some people dressed in squid outfits:
I don't quite get what this is all about, but it is entertaining and I appreciate that they took the time to stand out in the cold to do it.
Across from the train station are two tents that have a sign "Taste of Local Food". Hmm, worth a try. Inside are tables where you can stand and eat, surrounded by a variety of serving stations. Here are two women cooking what look like vegetable filled crepes:
Unlike most of what we've seen so far, there are a few signs in English indicating what the food is. We share an order of sweet and sour fried chicken "nuggets" and a couple ears of broiled corn coated with some sort of powdery seasoning. Yum!
Feeling somewhat warmer, we head off to the Gangneung Olympic Park located about 2 km (1.2 miles) north of the train station. For some reason, the only shuttle buses going this way are for elderly and disabled people so we walk. Shortly after, we come to a nice sign:
To the left of this sign is a monster hill (steep enough to be a cat 4 or cat 3 at the Tour de France). After a lot of huffing and puffing, we get to the top and have an almost equally long descent before we get to the area where the spectator buses drop off and pick up. Beyond is the security checkpoint. There, I ran into a problem with my camera. Before we left California, I checked on the list of prohibited items and found that they had banned tripods and monopods in addition to prohibiting all photography for professional/commercial purposes. Fair enough, but sometime between then and when we arrived in Gangneung, the decision had been made to ban all camera lenses longer than 300 mm. I had seen a sign in Jinbu about this so knew it was a problem, but I wanted some nice close-up pictures so I decided to see how firm this ban was, especially since I had brought the same lens to ski jumping without a problem. Sure enough, they asked to look in my bag and the two security guys at our X-ray scanner started talking to eat other in Korean. They indicated to me that it was prohibited. I responded that this was the only lens that I had on my camera and that I did not want to lose my camera and lens. They conferred for a couple of minutes and then one said that they will call a supervisor. After 5 minutes or so a young woman approaches and in very good English tells me about the ban on long lenses. I explained that there was no way that I would be able to produce commercial quality pictures from my seat in the back of the stadium no matter how long my lens was. Eventually, she decides to let me keep the lens. I hope that I'll produce some nice pictures today, because I'm not sure that I'm willing to try this again.
The gates haven't opened for speed skating so we visit the Olympic superstore. This one is much less crowded and we pick up some more pins and a couple of t-shirts. There are often a number of commercial pavilions in Olympic parks and this one is no exception. There is a long line for the Coke Cola pavilion that we decide not to brave, but we make plans to visit the Samsung pavilion as well as Korea House and Tokyo 2020 House on a later visit.
Speed skating is one of our favorite events, but not so much for the sport. We are in it for the Dutch fans:
They are so passionate about this sport that it is just a great atmosphere. The venue is beautiful:
There are 12 pairs skating today and they are normally seeded according to their world rankings so that the top skaters go last. The early leader is Japanese skater Sato Ayano (last name first) with a time of 4:04.35 - about 7 seconds off the Olympic record and 10.5 seconds off the World record:
One advantage of a long lens: notice the string around her waist that she uses to keep her inside hand behind her back? I had not seen this before. Speed skaters will do almost anything to decrease drag (skin suits, goggles, etc) so I'm surprised that she would wear something that might increase drag. I guess that the gain of better securing her hand behind her back is worth the drag from the string.
The Dutch fans all got fired up when the first of the three Dutch skaters, Carlijn Achtereekte, skating in the 5th pair against Karolina Bosiak from Poland:
Carlijn was skating in this pair because she's currently ranked 21st in the world at 3,000/5,000 meters and has a personal best of 3:58.63 set at high altitude (where the ice is faster and air resistance lower). Going into this race, she had never won a world cup race, but after a couple laps, it is clear that she is skating a great race. She finishes in a time of 3:59.21 - a spectacular time on what is considered the quite slow ice in Gangneung due to high humidity and being at sea level. She is clearly happy with her time:
But there are still a lot of skaters left. After the first six pairs, they resurface the ice:
Since 2010, these Zambonies have been electric, but unlike the one we remember from Vancouver that dropped hot transmission oil all over the ice surface, these work fine and the ice surface is back in shape in little time.
American speed skating in the longer distances is not in very good shape at this point and only one American, Carlijn Schoutens:
born in the US to Dutch parents, qualified for this event. Carlijn crosses the line in a relatively slow time of 4:15.60. But she is only 23. Speed skaters, like most endurance athletes tend to reach their peak later than other sports, so perhaps we will see her again in four years in Beijing.
In pair 9, we get the woman that the Dutch fans think will win today: 4 time Olympian with 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal, Ireen Wust:
Ireen's specialty is the 1,500 meter so she starts off really fast and by 2,200 meters, she is nearly 1.5 seconds ahead of Achtereekte - yes, I understand the irony of saying that some one is way ahead when you are talking about a period of time slightly longer than it takes to snap your fingers, but that is an indication of how close all of these competitors are. Wust tires badly in the last lap to finish second in 3:59.29, 0.08 seconds behind Achtereekte.
In the following pair is one of the legends of the sport, 45 year old Claudia Pechstein from Germany who is competing in her 7th Winter Olympics:
seen her on the outside lane. To give you an idea, we saw Claudia set the current Olympic record of 3:57.70 in Salt Lake City 16 years ago! She has 5 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. But even though she is still ranked in the top 5 in this event, she has no magic today and finishes in 4:04.49. Nevertheless, she gets a huge cheer, especially from the Dutch fans who know a legend when they see one:
With the top two spots, it is only a question of how many and which kind of medals the Dutch will win. First up is the rising star of the Dutch team, 22 year old Antoinette De Jong skating in the next-to-last pair. She cannot keep up with her two teammates and moves into 3rd place with a 4:00.02.
The only one who can stop a Dutch sweep is another legend, 30 year old Martina Sablikova from the Czech Republic:
skating here on the outer lane. We saw Martina win this event in Vancouver. She has also been the number 1 ranked skater at this distance for 11 of the past 12 years. But by halfway through the race, it is clear that she doesn't have it today. She finishes 4th in a time of 4:00.54. And the Dutch fans go nuts:
The stores in the Olympic Park are shutting down so we head for the exit. Beth is getting tired, but there does not appear to be anywhere we can pick up a taxi. So we decide to try to walk down the city streets below the very steep path back to the train station. Apparently, there are a bunch of people with the same idea because we are following a small crowd of spectators going in the same direction. But the streets are getting narrower and darker. Then we see some of the people who had been in front of us turning around. We see why when we arrive at a dead end. We saw a larger street to our right (farther away from the direction we know we need to go) so we head there. I manage to fire up Google Maps for a few seconds before the cold kills it's battery again to confirm that we can get back to the train station in the direction we are going. But our short cut definitely ends up a long cut so we are very happy when we get back to the train station and catch a taxi back to Sunny's home.
Steps for the day: 8,419 (before the phone died again!)
Today, we are off to speed skating for the women's 3,000 meter race. We have a little breakfast (toast, yogurt, fuji apple and green tea) with Sunny before she heads off to her cafe. I work on the blog a little (too little - I know) and then we head off toward the train station to find something to eat. We aren't sure about the bus schedule on Saturdays, but there are people waiting so we decide to stop and see if a bus shows up. At the stop, we meet a woman from France that is staying in the same apartment complex and is a member of the same Olympic pin club that I belong to. She is headed to the Coke pin trading tent and is obviously a lot more serious about this than I am because she's nearly filled up her backpack with pins.
The bus does show up (saving us a 40 minute walk!) and deposits us at the train station. There is a performance of some kind going on:
It appears that they are having these performances 4 times per day. Nearby are some people dressed in squid outfits:
I don't quite get what this is all about, but it is entertaining and I appreciate that they took the time to stand out in the cold to do it.
Across from the train station are two tents that have a sign "Taste of Local Food". Hmm, worth a try. Inside are tables where you can stand and eat, surrounded by a variety of serving stations. Here are two women cooking what look like vegetable filled crepes:
Unlike most of what we've seen so far, there are a few signs in English indicating what the food is. We share an order of sweet and sour fried chicken "nuggets" and a couple ears of broiled corn coated with some sort of powdery seasoning. Yum!
Feeling somewhat warmer, we head off to the Gangneung Olympic Park located about 2 km (1.2 miles) north of the train station. For some reason, the only shuttle buses going this way are for elderly and disabled people so we walk. Shortly after, we come to a nice sign:
To the left of this sign is a monster hill (steep enough to be a cat 4 or cat 3 at the Tour de France). After a lot of huffing and puffing, we get to the top and have an almost equally long descent before we get to the area where the spectator buses drop off and pick up. Beyond is the security checkpoint. There, I ran into a problem with my camera. Before we left California, I checked on the list of prohibited items and found that they had banned tripods and monopods in addition to prohibiting all photography for professional/commercial purposes. Fair enough, but sometime between then and when we arrived in Gangneung, the decision had been made to ban all camera lenses longer than 300 mm. I had seen a sign in Jinbu about this so knew it was a problem, but I wanted some nice close-up pictures so I decided to see how firm this ban was, especially since I had brought the same lens to ski jumping without a problem. Sure enough, they asked to look in my bag and the two security guys at our X-ray scanner started talking to eat other in Korean. They indicated to me that it was prohibited. I responded that this was the only lens that I had on my camera and that I did not want to lose my camera and lens. They conferred for a couple of minutes and then one said that they will call a supervisor. After 5 minutes or so a young woman approaches and in very good English tells me about the ban on long lenses. I explained that there was no way that I would be able to produce commercial quality pictures from my seat in the back of the stadium no matter how long my lens was. Eventually, she decides to let me keep the lens. I hope that I'll produce some nice pictures today, because I'm not sure that I'm willing to try this again.
The gates haven't opened for speed skating so we visit the Olympic superstore. This one is much less crowded and we pick up some more pins and a couple of t-shirts. There are often a number of commercial pavilions in Olympic parks and this one is no exception. There is a long line for the Coke Cola pavilion that we decide not to brave, but we make plans to visit the Samsung pavilion as well as Korea House and Tokyo 2020 House on a later visit.
Speed skating is one of our favorite events, but not so much for the sport. We are in it for the Dutch fans:
They are so passionate about this sport that it is just a great atmosphere. The venue is beautiful:
There are 12 pairs skating today and they are normally seeded according to their world rankings so that the top skaters go last. The early leader is Japanese skater Sato Ayano (last name first) with a time of 4:04.35 - about 7 seconds off the Olympic record and 10.5 seconds off the World record:
One advantage of a long lens: notice the string around her waist that she uses to keep her inside hand behind her back? I had not seen this before. Speed skaters will do almost anything to decrease drag (skin suits, goggles, etc) so I'm surprised that she would wear something that might increase drag. I guess that the gain of better securing her hand behind her back is worth the drag from the string.
The Dutch fans all got fired up when the first of the three Dutch skaters, Carlijn Achtereekte, skating in the 5th pair against Karolina Bosiak from Poland:
Carlijn was skating in this pair because she's currently ranked 21st in the world at 3,000/5,000 meters and has a personal best of 3:58.63 set at high altitude (where the ice is faster and air resistance lower). Going into this race, she had never won a world cup race, but after a couple laps, it is clear that she is skating a great race. She finishes in a time of 3:59.21 - a spectacular time on what is considered the quite slow ice in Gangneung due to high humidity and being at sea level. She is clearly happy with her time:
But there are still a lot of skaters left. After the first six pairs, they resurface the ice:
Since 2010, these Zambonies have been electric, but unlike the one we remember from Vancouver that dropped hot transmission oil all over the ice surface, these work fine and the ice surface is back in shape in little time.
American speed skating in the longer distances is not in very good shape at this point and only one American, Carlijn Schoutens:
born in the US to Dutch parents, qualified for this event. Carlijn crosses the line in a relatively slow time of 4:15.60. But she is only 23. Speed skaters, like most endurance athletes tend to reach their peak later than other sports, so perhaps we will see her again in four years in Beijing.
In pair 9, we get the woman that the Dutch fans think will win today: 4 time Olympian with 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal, Ireen Wust:
Ireen's specialty is the 1,500 meter so she starts off really fast and by 2,200 meters, she is nearly 1.5 seconds ahead of Achtereekte - yes, I understand the irony of saying that some one is way ahead when you are talking about a period of time slightly longer than it takes to snap your fingers, but that is an indication of how close all of these competitors are. Wust tires badly in the last lap to finish second in 3:59.29, 0.08 seconds behind Achtereekte.
In the following pair is one of the legends of the sport, 45 year old Claudia Pechstein from Germany who is competing in her 7th Winter Olympics:
seen her on the outside lane. To give you an idea, we saw Claudia set the current Olympic record of 3:57.70 in Salt Lake City 16 years ago! She has 5 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. But even though she is still ranked in the top 5 in this event, she has no magic today and finishes in 4:04.49. Nevertheless, she gets a huge cheer, especially from the Dutch fans who know a legend when they see one:
With the top two spots, it is only a question of how many and which kind of medals the Dutch will win. First up is the rising star of the Dutch team, 22 year old Antoinette De Jong skating in the next-to-last pair. She cannot keep up with her two teammates and moves into 3rd place with a 4:00.02.
The only one who can stop a Dutch sweep is another legend, 30 year old Martina Sablikova from the Czech Republic:
skating here on the outer lane. We saw Martina win this event in Vancouver. She has also been the number 1 ranked skater at this distance for 11 of the past 12 years. But by halfway through the race, it is clear that she doesn't have it today. She finishes 4th in a time of 4:00.54. And the Dutch fans go nuts:
The stores in the Olympic Park are shutting down so we head for the exit. Beth is getting tired, but there does not appear to be anywhere we can pick up a taxi. So we decide to try to walk down the city streets below the very steep path back to the train station. Apparently, there are a bunch of people with the same idea because we are following a small crowd of spectators going in the same direction. But the streets are getting narrower and darker. Then we see some of the people who had been in front of us turning around. We see why when we arrive at a dead end. We saw a larger street to our right (farther away from the direction we know we need to go) so we head there. I manage to fire up Google Maps for a few seconds before the cold kills it's battery again to confirm that we can get back to the train station in the direction we are going. But our short cut definitely ends up a long cut so we are very happy when we get back to the train station and catch a taxi back to Sunny's home.
Steps for the day: 8,419 (before the phone died again!)
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