Is there an acronym for that?

VANOC really likes their acronyms.  Day 4.  Needed to be at our briefing at 0900.  Went up and got breakfast at the WAV. Caught the WCS bus over to the village.  Picked up our lunch tickets.  Got our radios today and picked up my "three day pin".  The rest won't get their pins till tomorrow because I  checked in a day early with Stas.  They're jealous!   Went to the dining hall and picked up lunch which we take with us up the mountain.  We have a new chant for SpecMed (that's spectator medical).  "Spec Med, better off dead!".  Okay, it needs work.  We needed something on the spot.  Stas' group has a good one:  "Attitude check: We love this shit!".  It really sounds great when the whole group chants it. 

My assignment is on the MAT today.  That's the Medical Alley Trail.  Sounds very important right?  Not.  It's basically the halfway point up that despicable trail, basically between two major inclines.  They must have figured if anyone's going to have a coronary, it would be there.  We have a tent on a platform, and a space heater and a cot.  That's it.  Every morning we have to drag down the large duffle bag with the med supplies, and the AED.  Plus carry our packs, extra water, any anything we deem necessary.  There are no bathrooms unless you walk all the way to the bottom (and conversely, all the way back up), or climb all the way up and then back down.  Either way it's a haul.  Needless to say we try not to drink much at the MAT.   I finally had to use the woods, and the whole time I'm thinking about all the security cameras they have around the perimeter, and we know there are military/RCMP out there in the woods too.  There's a story from the Olympics where a guy went into the woods to pee, and a voice said "I wouldn't do that here".  Probably folklore, but you never know.  Anyway, that was what was going through my mind at the time... 

Today was the first day of racing and I was bummed that I was stuck on the MAT all day.  Racing was scheduled for 1.  It was blue and clear all morning. Just before 1 the fog started rolling in.  The All Call over the radio said the race was postponed till 1:15.  For the next two hours we got 15 minute updates that the race was postponed another 15 minutes.  It was getting kind of ridiculous.  In the meantime, we needed to figure out the backboard system they use.  They use some crazy spider straps we'd never seen before, so we decided the only way to figure them out, was to try them out.  After fiddling with them forever, we finally got them on (me!).   (PS: We did it wrong after all, they're supposed to crisscross in a crazy pattern I've never seen before, go figure). 

Finally they canceled the race, so everyone filed back down the trail.   We had fun harassing people.  On the way up we would tell these poor people they were almost there...only 5 miles to go!  You should have seen the looks we got.  The Italian team came by on the way down.  Three were athletes in their wheelchairs.  One guy tossed a snowball back at us and suddenly snowballs were flying everywhere.  It could have been an international incident.   Hey, you had to create your own entertainment at the MAT!   After our debrief, we headed to the Weasel House. 

Mark, giving out our precious water to thirsty hikers on the trail from our medical hut.