Morning group run on the beach!  Not sure you could lose this group in a sand storm!!!!  Was a nice change of pace for our pavement workouts, that's for sure.

Check out this nasty beast I almost stepped on during the run!  Yikes!  That would of been an "bloody" mess...eyeballs and all!

Third day of training down and 2 to go!  Almost had a couple of casualties during our team building activities today!  We were broken up in to 2 teams of 15 - half of the team blindfolded, the other half with hands tied behind their backs.  Played a game of handball on the beach, where the people with no hands could only direct the blind people to the ball as there was no kicking allowed.  Imagine a group of blind officials - aren't we all blind...LOL - all running at one another barking out instructions to the blind people telling them to bend down and pick up the ball and throw!  One official took a head in the nose....and people were falling and diving all over the place.  I got smart after having a few people fall at my feet that I could not see and decided to go stand in net with a couple of other officials who are much faster thinkers than I!  Crazy, but quite fun all the same.  Hopefully we finish the pre-tournament camp with all 30 officials in tact:)

Day 2 of training camp is in the books!  I almost started out on the wrong foot....as I set my alarm for PM and thankfully work up with 10 minutes to spare to make it down for "good morning exercise" with the group:)  My heart rate was certainly higher than it normally is that early in the morning as I brushed my teeth, put our running uniform on, and tied my shoes literally all at once!

The jet lag has clearly set in with the group as our team psychologist recognized we were all half asleep while finishing up our last class session before his "teamwork" session - therefore he made an executive decision and told us to all go rest as he could see the jet lag hitting us all like a hammer in the head!  Have to admit, the jet lag slammed me pretty hard today.  It's a really good thing we're here a week before the games start as we should all be ready to rock and roll by then!

Great group of officials; great clinicians and trainers.  Sessions have been awesome and interactive.  Our opinions and thoughts are promoted and valued!  It's been a valuable 2 days thus far and I expect will be extremely beneficial for the entire group and games themselves when we take to the floor on the 6th!

Completed first day of training camp.  Consisted of an 8am morning run and stretch for 40 minutes, mechanics discussions, group work assignments, and team work activities to help us strategize as a small group and figure out a given scenario/problem.  Was really neat!  Very good way to get to know one another and feel comfortable problem solving on the court.

The weather is a little cooler than we all expected, albeit it it's winter here.  That said, daily forecast is supposed to be 25-28 celcius, cooling off to 20-22 at night .....there is NO WAY it's that warm.  End of the day, doesn't really matter as we are not outside much of the day anyways as it's all business right now.

Four more days of training then we'll be on our way back to Rio to the Olympic hotel.  The opening ceremonies are on the 5th am I'm told by members of the officiating group here who have experienced it before, it's absolutely amazing to be a part of.  I can hardly wait....but I can wait to see the "uniform" we are receiving to wear!  If it's anything like the "flight attendant" uniform I received at the Universiade Games in Russia, I may have to cry:)  I know there will be requests for a photo of me in whatever catastrophe we receive!

Day is done and I am still fried from a bit of jet-lag, so signing off to have an early night in prep for another full and exciting day tomorrow!

After 15 hours of travel, I have arrived to Rio!  The US rowing and gymnastics team were on the flight, along with a couple of athletes from the Philippines.  Kind of cool!  I was very happy to be joined on the flight with my fellow Canadian official, Steve Seibel, as it's always nice to find one's way to the accreditation process, bag collection, then locating transport to our hotel "with" someone else instead of alone.  We get to our temporary hotel near the airport only to have USAIN BOLT walk right past us!  WHAAAAAAAT! The fastest man on the planet is the FIRST athlete I see who I recognize!  How incredible is that!  Off to meet the other officials for lunch before we all head to the hotel where we will begin our 5 day training session.  More to come!!!

Well it's finally here!  I'm leaving today and cannot actually believe it!  I'll arrive in to Rio tomorrow morning to meet some old friends and new officials and begin our 5 day training camp!  Looking very forward to a very exciting experience!  I can feel myself getting emotional thinking about the opening ceremonies - the realization of actually being at the Olympics, and seeing Team Canada walk in to the stadium!  Very excited and looking very forward to the moment!  Talk soon!