Edmonton

Friday | 10 August 2001 | Edmonton, The World's | Day 8: We have just stopped purchasing the legitimate papers and are now only buying the tabloid, The Sun. I can't tell you the amount of pleasure we get from this sleazy rag. They have so many mistakes (giving the wrong country for an athlete, naming the wrong coach, etc.) and then there is the "Sunshine Girl" - a full-page photo of a local girl in a bikini, always with a tattoo and a pierced navel. From today's headlines: "IT'S A BEAUT!" So says that evil reporter from the UK after he was flown over the beautiful city of Edmonton in - get this - a mosquito-control helicopter! He was accompanied by the Mayor of Edmonton, who joked about tossing the writer out of the chopper during the flight! Oh, those crazy Canadians! Another yet-unnamed - though male and possibly from Belarus - athlete has tested positive for EPO. A photo of the man who ran over the moose outside of town the other day was in the newspaper with his head stitched up all over the place and a major shiner! All this time I was feeling bad for the moose! And then the column about the biggest untold story of the games: low attendance and how ho-hum these particular World Championships are turning-out to be. The jest of the story is - "Hey, we doubled the size of Commonwealth Stadium for this event and now you are complaining that it is not full. Canadians do not "get" track & field. The last World Championships were not even televised in this country. Our athletes did so poorly in Sydney, we just can't be interested. Plus, a hockey player is paid millions and a Canadian Olympic athlete receives a $1,100 per month stipend from Sports Canada." It was a good statement. Also in a column by a Canadian writer: "Unless the defectors are Ethiopian, we don't want them." There were reports from the German team party - at a fancy private club - after winning 3 medals the night before last. The report went on to say how the party was being televised in Germany and the athletes were making sure their Adidas logos were showing on their shirts and that the sponsors beer bottle was held "label-out" so it could be seen on millions of television screens in Deutschland. And then a smaller blurb from the local Ethiopian restaurant, The Blue Nile, where they were having a party too. The average German makes $45,000 per year, the average Ethiopian makes $150 per year. Guess who was having more self-sponsored fun?

We had such a late night last night at the track that we were extremely lazy this morning. The Princess can barely open her eyes before noon on a normal day, so we let her sleep. We read the paper, drank coffee and lounged around until Lisa was presentable and went out in search of the "Great Canadian Bagel". These bagel shops are on nearly every corner, usually housed with a Second Cup Coffee Shop. We enjoyed a late breakfast of pretty decent bagels - though I hear the bagels from Montreal are the best on our planet. Second Cup is very similar to Starbucks... and they do have Starbucks here, usually combined with a Chapter's Bookstore. After this excitement, we toured through the local Safeway and loaded up on breakfast things, fruits and juices and perused the aisles. One can buy (we did not) a vat of margarine - in a 10x12-inch tub. Lisa enjoyed the good selection of English sweets. I bought several veggie bouillon cubes - they come in a vast assortment of flavours here and I always stock-up when I am in Canada. Canadians seem to have a thing for processed cheeses of the bright orange variety. The gourmet deli cooler was heaped with jars of Cheez-Whiz. We also found dill pickle potato chips and Philadelphia Dill Pickle Dip. Don't knock it, 'til you you've tried it... we haven't. I bought a jar of Branston Pickle - hard to describe... like a thick relish made from rutabagas, carrots, vinegar, zucchini, dates, pickles etc. - it is thick and brown, sour and sweet... always served with a Ploughman's Lunch in the UK - I love it with cheese. (Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it.) So, back to Goldie to unpack the groceries, rest up and then back to town for our late lunch/early dinner - Lisa wants to go to Little Italy.

LATER: We parked less than a half-mile from the stadium in Little Italy and had a beautiful meal at Sorrentino's Restaurant. Our first (nearly) ripe tomatoes in Canada! We had tomato salads and Lisa had her favorite, carpaccio - thin slices of raw beef. (Lisa was driven to eat beef after seeing all the billboards supporting Alberta Beef and seeing the Alberta Beef Girls at the stadium each night.) DT and I shared a plate of pasta and we also all tried rice balls - huge balls of risotto and cheese in a tomato sauce - divine! We had lovely wine and Lisa also had a dessert. Okay, okay, I MUST add that mounted on the mantel of the rustic Italian stone fireplace was a framed autographed photo of - The Great One. After our lunch/dinner, we left our car in front of the restaurant and walked over to the stadium.

Tonight's meet was fabulous. I will tell you about the 5,000m final. Okay, I will only tell you about DT watching the race - he was in heaven! It was a very exiting race and it was 'who could hang out ‘til the end'. I will let DT tell you what happened in his own words:

DT SAYS: "After an opening lap in 59 and the first four laps in 4:06, the Kenyans (mainly Sammy Kipketer) were saying "We are here to run - let's see who can out-run us." The race did slow a bit, with 8 laps being hit in a pedestrian 8:24. Then the Algerian tried to steal the race with 2 laps to go, but Kenyan Richard Limo had a 56 lap in him to win in an eyelash over 13 minutes. Not a bad stroll around the track when a 13:08 could only get 7th place. Adam Goucher, USA, was with the peloton for all of one-and-one-half laps, but still managed to run 13:23 - a season PR for him and he was never in the race."

Queen Marion receives more Gold

Marion Jones won gold in the 200, in a usual 22.32. In the concourse tonight we met TC for a beer. We were given postcards and temporary tattoos from the Alberta Beef Girls! We also saw Tegla Laroupe, Angelo Taylor and Don Quarrie again. I guess after 8 nights, we are getting to be regulars, along with 35,000-40,000 other people. We are really enjoying the people sitting near us - everyone booked the entire package on the first day they went on sale and are true fans. The couple in front of us have a small inn in the Swiss Alps and travel all over the world to attend meets. It was a lovely, warm evening and we didn't need sweaters... however, it was another late night. After the meet, we walked back to our car with our seat-mate Brian and gave him a ride to the transit center. 

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