Getting closer to racing

So we are still 5 days out from our heat (I think, I'm losing track of days here at the hotel), and about 9 days out from our semifinal, which is likely our most important race here. We are relatively calm, but time is starting to drag. However, we are starting to get indications that the racing is approaching. It happens slowly when the official 'USA' stickers start to go on the boat, and we got our official regatta boat picture taken today, as well as weighed our shell to make sure we were at regulation weight. But the NBC commentators showed up our hotel, and I know people's family will start showing up soon. And pretty soon I know that time will start to accelerate... families will start to arrive to spectate, photographers will arrive, and then it will be important to keep the distractions out so that we can focus on our race. The whole atmosphere will start to have some excitement to it, and it will be up to us to put our best race together in the midst of everything.

We were officially put on lock down today at the hotel. We are not allowed to go and see the sights in our downtime, which is fine - we all want a good performance. But we it's going to be tough because in the week I've been in Beijing I have literally not had a chance to do spend time anywhere other than the hotel or the course. We only get one English TV station at the hotel - fortunately I've got a Nintendo DS and some DVD's to keep me occupied. I've been stretching out my mealtimes at the hotel to over an hour in order to pass time and avoid being in my room. Unfortunately I'm a bit too worked up in order to concentrate on books right now, so electronics will be my only form of entertainment.

The rowing community is small, and those who race in various events all know each other. So I'm running into my 'friends' from other countries - it's hard not to be friendly with them because of the respect we have for each other, since such a small group of people have made it to this level. On raceday we are pretty stonefaced around each other and only acknowledge each other with nods, but otherwise it's kind of like a reunion every time we race.