London Olympics 2012 vii

Yesterday was another marathon day for the Bush family. We went in to town to watch the women's marathon.

We caught the train in to Waterloo station. It was raining quite solidly when we got there. It was a short walk across Waterloo Bridge to the north side of the Thames, where we hoped to find a spot to watch. The crowds were already pretty big, and with the pram we were fortunate to find a great viewing spot on top of a building.

Our unobstructed view of the action

We weren't the only ones to find this spot

The rain continued to come down and got very heaving for a while.

Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long before the women came past the first time. They would go past 6 times.

The first time they went past they were all in a pretty big group. There were a few stragglers and one in particular from East Timor who was a long way behind. The kiwi girl, Kimberly Smith, who went to Jackie's school, was in second place in the main pack the first time they went past.

After the runners had been past the first time a lot of people left from our viewing platform, I assume because they weren't prepared to put up with the weather. We took the opportunity to get a more advantageous position.

Going past the drinks station, still quite early in the race. 

The weather cleared at times and it didn't rain much after the initial down pour. Theo had some time in the front pack watching the action.

Snug as a bug in a rug

The atmosphere was amazing, the cheering for the Brits was pretty special and I'm sure gave their runners an extra lift.

We were positioned next to the drinks stations. Each country had their own drinks station and many had coaches at their drinks station. The drink stations were laid out alphabetically, we were at the end so had Zimbabwe, Venezuela, USA, Uganda, Turkey, Tunisa and TLS - it took us a while to figure out who TLS was, Timor Leste (East Timor).

Field spreading out a bit

As the race went on the crowds become more imaginative with their cheers including a version of "Rain, rain go away, come back another day" and "The old man's snoring..." The real fun came when the kids started cheering for the coaches of the countries who in between the runners going by didn't have much to do.

Before long one of the coaches ran over to the people that were cheering for them and gave them some sweets or something. Well that set the standard with each country coughing up some form of treat or memento.

The best moment was, the Ugandan chap, a big burly bloke with a moustache was well liked. I don't think anyone actually cheered for the East Timor lad, who was a small weedy kind of a guy, but he could see what was going on and had the ultimate present - flags. He dished out a number of East Timor flags to the fans to everyone's delight. So his runner, who was coming dead last by quite some margin got the biggest cheer of all when she ran past next. She had been receiving a great cheer anyway as the person that obviously wasn't in the same league as the others.

The photographers were driven around on the back of a truck, I think I would have got car sick doing this for 2 1/2 hours. 

As the race progressed the field spread out, the kiwi was still doing well staying close to the front runners.

This was the leaders coming past on the last lap

This was a brilliant event to go and watch and we had a great viewing spot. We're hoping that the same spot will be equally vacant for the men's marathon next week.

The East Timor athlete finished with a personal best of 3:05:07, and wasn't last, she ended up beating one runner (who got injured but still limped on to the finish).

After the marathon we went for a coffee in town before heading to Tooting for a Sunday roast and watched Andy Murray win another gold for Team GB, beating Roger Federer. Then home to see Murray again, this time in the mixed doubles, no more than an hour after his match with Federer. He did well with his partner but couldn't hold on for the double gold. Gold and silver in one afternoon is more than enough for him though.

Later in the night was the big one, the 100m final before bed.

All in a days work for the Bush family.

London Olympics 2012 vi

Huge day for us yesterday.

We packed up early and headed in to town to watch the women's triathlon in Hyde Park.

We caught the train to London Victoria and then walked the rest of the way, the transport was all very easy, there were crowds but it wasn't too crowded, just enough to create a great atmosphere. There was enough room that having the pram didn't cause any problems.

Our view, the cyclists coming through on their first lap

Pretty close aye! 

There were a couple of moments where I worried about knocking one of the cyclists over

We found a good spot where we could see the athletes approaching on the cycle leg and we saw them go past 5 times before going to find our spot to watch the run.

Our spot to watch the run wasn't as good, the crowds were huge by this point. We managed to get a view over the crowds from a small hill so were able to see who was coming and cheer out for the kiwis and we even cheered for the brits too, the atmosphere was amazing, the setting was too. A few photos below...

The crowds for the run

The stands and finish on the other side of the lake where the  the swim took place

Behind the hands of the person clapping is one of the kiwi girls

After the triathlon, we went for a coffee, picked up some sandwiches and headed back to Hyde Park. Sammies in the park before we went in to the BT Live Site which is basically like a massive music festival but with rather than music on stages it was big screens with the Olympics on it. It was free entry, they had pretty strict security but the atmosphere inside was great. Lot's of people lounging around, watching sport, eating icecream and enjoying the day out. 

There wasn't much in the way of good sport to watch, we ended up watching some beach volley ball. 

Cadbury is one of the big sponsors of the Olympics so we endulged in some Cadbury products. 

A bobby was holding someone's dog while they were in the porta loo

Relaxing in the park, English style

They had various sports set up, this was some cricket. 

Some swing ball

This looked fun, get zipped up in a big plastic ball and roll around on the water

This robot was carving things out of chocolate, this is a model of the shard, which is a new building in London. 

Jackie picking up some snacks

We then moved on, heading home, via a drink at a nice pub near our local train station. This was a great find actually, lots of space, very kid friendly so we'll probably be back there a bit more often. We watched a bit of cycling while we were there.

Then home, friends over for curry (delivered from Rajah Rowing Team - our favourite) and watching an amazing night of athletics with golds for Britain in the long jump, heptathlon and 10,000 metres. We cheered all of them, particularly Mo Farah winning the 10k. We saw him compete at Crystal Palace last year.

A big day for us, Theo loved it and is really getting in to the Olympic spirit, lots of cheering (screaming) and clapping!

London Olympics 2012 v

Nothing really new to add today. Gold for New Zealand today which was very exciting.

Everyday more tickets get released so I've been trying to get us some more tickets but so far no luck.

As promised below are a couple of photos of the cycling I got on my phone:

The Technical Rehearsal, I think this was a USA cyclist

The morning of the race, no cars on a normally busy road, crowds yet to arrive

View out my office window. Surely one of the closest offices to an Olympic event

The 'Games Makers' getting ready

I think this was Belgian cyclist

Later that day - amazing how quickly it was all cleared away.

This photo was taken by a colleague, it's Bradley Wiggins, the gold medal winner.

London Olympics 2012 iv

Today was one of the big days of my London Olympics. The Olympics were right outside my office, a matter of metres away were crowds and elite cyclists, it was the real deal and all I had to do was saunter out of my office.

If only it was that simple.

To back-track a little, I have been undertaking a wide reaching review of part of the way my university operates, an outcome is going to be a restructure and today just happened to be the day we needed to meet with some people that would be affected by the changes - not the kind of meeting that was going to be easy to rearrange.

It was ok though, I would still get a chance to see some of the event, and lets face it, it was work time so I couldn't complain too much if I had to do a bit of work.

That said it was still a great day and a great experience. It's been building up over the past few days as preparations for the cycling time trial became evident.

Signs were going up warning of road closures, barriers were appearing, on Monday afternoon a few Olympic cyclists could be spotted trying out the course, Tuesday morning was the 'technical trial' where roads were closed, police cars, security personnel and volunteers all had the chance to test out their roles and a bunch of Olympic cyclists went around the course.

Then this morning it was all on. Roads closed, barricades up along the roads, road sweepers doing the rounds, my Riverside Cafe was open early, some spectators were getting in position by 8.30 (4 hours before cyclists would go past). Volunteers and security guards were all over the place. There was a real buzz around the office, today was special and everyone could tell, not least because we couldn't have the front doors to our building open for security reasons.

All morning cyclists would go by, some Olympic, some not. You could tell when an Olympic cyclist was coming because their disk wheels made a very distinctive noise. I saw the kiwi lady go past a few times.

The crowds were building throughout the morning.

We have a tv in one of our offices so once the cyclists started heading off we knew it would be just half an hour before they went flying past our office. By the time the cyclists came by there was a big crowd lining the streets, I managed to get a couple of photos but found it tough to take photos and clap and cheer at the same time.

I saw most of the women go by before I had to literally run to my meeting. Unfortunately the meeting went longer than I'd hoped (not my fault). At the end of the meeting I ran out the door (not too professional but tough) but as I got outside I could see people streaming away from where the cycling was, I'd missed the last men going past by just a few minutes. I was pretty angry at the time for missing some of the cycling but I still feel pretty lucky have seen what I did.

What was amazing after the cycling had finished was how quickly the roads were returned to normal. The barriers and temporary road signs were gone by the time I left work. I was reflecting with a colleague that it was similar to the day after Christmas, so much excitement leading up to it and great while it's there but gone too soon.

It was an incredible day and has been an incredible few days, London is really buzzing in a way I've never seen before, we're really enjoying the Olympics and are looking forward to continuing to soak up the atmosphere over the next 10 days.

Below are a few photos I took of the day on my camera, I've got more on my phone which I'll try and upload tomorrow.