Greek Blog Tuesday June 28
The day of the transit strike has arrived, and we do not want to take any chances with missing Molly’s 9am race. Up and at ‘em at 6am and out the door by 7--dressed to walk the 5 ½ miles to the stadium. Out on the main street the lack of noise confirms the bus/metro/tram strike is indeed in affect and we hoof along…Jer’s knee feels better but… As we approach the Hilton Hotel I see a luxury bus with an SO sign in the window..it is just closing it’s door. I dash up, tap on the door and beg to be let aboard…it works! The kind man opens the door and we step onto the bus, blissful coolness surrounding us and padded seats welcoming our tired legs. And off we go!! Arriving at Helipo just before 8 is a dream! Thank you GOD is the first thing we say when we exit!! We head down the road to the stadium and find the family lounge. We hang out in there for about 30 minutes and there are loads of officials tin there who are willing to pin trade with Danny! His collection is truly astounding, and impresses everyone, to his delight! Of course it is so heavy it gives him a neck ache! Just before 9am we take up our positions around the stadium and out comes our girl! The field looks tough but good. The gun goes off and they start running. Molly is super stiff for the first mile, then settles in to a relaxed pace. I am hoping she gets through it with no incidents so she can get her track legs back. She is in 4th and gaining on the third runner, who suddenly experiences cramps or something and pulls out of the race. She is well behind runners 1 and 2, but finishes with a great kick and a final time of 28:18. This is a great time for her and right where she should be! We hang about the stadium watching long jumpers and the men’s 5000 (which is smoking fast, top time was 15:43, with several more guys right around that! Oh my! ) then it is time to cheer for Molly in the 4X400 relay. Unfortunately, if you have a co-ed team you are slotted with the men, and the USA has 3 women and a man. Also unfortunately, the man on the team just finished running VERY SLOWLY in the 3rd heat of the men’s 5000. So he is exhausted and super slow. The other 4 teams have finished their whole race before Molly, in the third slot, had even gotten the baton from the young man. She ran a hard lap though and that was good. Ted and his video crew showed up right at the end of the race, I was bummed that they didn’t come for one of her signature races…oh well. We met Heather Spohr the blogger, and alli the film gal and another photographer and we did some interviews. Jerry signed Molly out (YAY!!!) and she came over and talked on camera. Then we all went to the festival area where we bought sov-nigns, drank cokes, had an impromptu dance party with Team USA swimming, and went through the TRAIN tent. This is a new SO program designed to help athletes learn about and incorporate the tenants of a healthy lifestyle into their everyday life. This area was really fun for our super competitive family, and we tried to beat each other in push-ups, shuttle run, chair sit, sit and reach, etc. I must brag that I had the family and tent day record for the sit and reach!! GO ME!! J Next we headed to the natatorium(don’t you love that word?!) to see Sabra’s 1500 metre swim. She came in fourth. We enjoyed cheering for her, holding up our USA flag and attending the medal ceremony.
Molly needs to go back to her group at 3pm and I am sorry to see her go. She had been asking me all day if she could go to the embassy party tonight, but I kept saying that I didn’t think so, and no one had said anything so I thought that athletes weren’t invited. Jerry had asked the coaches and they said she could go but WE would have to transport her back to the Olympic village ourselves(and with no car and a transit strike, impossible!) So she and Jer go off. Then I hear from some swim coachs that athletes are going, if they have no events on Wednesday. I text Jer to try to have him ask the athletics coachs about Molly and they have headed off already to watch a Bball game. By the time we hook up with Jerry, find our way to the basketball game, ask the coaches about the fact that swimmers are going to the party, it is 4:45(party is at 7 mind you!) They tell me that “my husband said she couldn’t go to the party!” I say “No way, he said we have no way to return her to the village.” They say, “oh, we had a misunderstanding, but it’s too late now because the group already took the 45 minute bus ride to the village and will be turning around to come back at 5:15.!” Uh huh! So we say, “how about if we take Molly with us, clean her up and bring her to the party, could she return to the village with the team?” “oh, of course!” And so we race out, try to find a cab, end up on a shuttle to the Hilton, dash off, race to the metro which is now running for the evening with another strike planned for the morning, trying to get Molly going up and down many staircases and escalators as fast as possible in the evening commuter crowds. When we arrive at Sytagma station to switch lines, the station is filled wit tear gas from the protests and we are pushing along with our shirts up over our faces, coughing and eyes watering. That stuff is powerful, even when experienced second hand like that. We get to acropolis and race up the streets to the apartment, every crack and bump and tiny unevenness of the sidewalk magnified now that we have Molly with us. But we make it! We wash faces and feet, throw some yogurt and granola at the starving kids(yes, if you note in this entry a lack of comments about breakfast or lunch there is a reason, we never got a chance to have any!) get everyone dressed in finery, including Molly in one of my skirts and a top and flip-flops! We head down to the street a start walking, Jerry made we promise we would take a cab there and the metro back and I agreed though I am worried about the cost. We hail a cab and we end up with a driver that speaks neither English nor Greek, only Armenian! And he doesn’t appear to know where we are going…oh my! But Jer pulls up the map on the blackberry and together they find our way there. We make it to the door of the residence at 6:50pm, We’ve done it again!
The residence is absolutely beautiful, lit up with twinkling lights and balloons, and after checking in at the guard gates and going through the metal detectors we enter. We see Team USA setting up a photograph with the Ambassador and his wife, and Molly hops right in! I see Glenn Williams from P&G and them Jim O’Connell and his wife Mimi! YAY! These guys are my favourites and I am so happy to see them and introduce Jerry and the other kids. We chat,mix,mingle and take it all in. Soon the ambassador gives a speech, along with Team USA folks and the Sergeant Shriver Global Messengers. Then Jim gets up on behalf of P&G and gives a great Thank you Mom speech. As it turns out there is no time for me to speak(that’s ok!) and I am introduced by Jim and step up onto the stage! Wow!! Throughout the night lots of people want to meet me and call me “the P&G Mom!” I am happy that so many people connect with the commercial and I feel so proud to be able to represent the Mom’s of Special Olympics. The navy band starts jamming out rocking tunes, athletes begin to dance, food is being passed around, wine flows and the talking begins. We are able to meet Tim Shriver’s wife Linda, dance with Michelle Kwan, chat with former NBA great and Special Olympic board member Sam and just have a blast. Jerry and I are both very proud of how great our kids do at this type of function, talking to everyone dancing being polite…amazing. Soon Team USA heads for the bus and we say goodbye to Molly. We head to the base of the yard to see the pool and visit the bathrooms and we run into Ted, Eileen, Kristin and other Devries/SO folks and visit a bit. We are just about the last ones to leave, given a parting gift from P&G that was given to all the Mom’s in attendance. Sweet! As we travel through Syntagma we smell only the faintest whiff of teargas and though we see the police massing on a main street, we see no sign of trouble as we head home.
Settling Danny into bed he say “I glad tomorrow is an off day!) You said a mouthful kiddo!
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