Royal Digs

About a 40 minute bus ride from Eton Dorney, the Royal Holloway Guest House houses the Olympic rowers. Margot has her own room and bath and Internet access. The food is ample and good, but according to her the food at the Eton Dorney cafeteria is even better.

For the first few days, the US was one of only a few countries in the UK. So, they had plenty of space and quiet. Although Margot was looking forward to the arrival of additional teammates (the men's 8 for instance) and other countries.

It is quite a hike from Margot's location to the race course. I created some maps for our personal use. This is one that shows Eton Dorney/Windsor on the left, Royal Holloway Southeast of Windsor (A), and London to the far East.



Margot took some photos and Matt has a blog at the Potomac Boat Club (PBC) site with lots of photos and information.

At Eton Dorney, Sarah and Mar have enjoyed getting back in the boat and are overcoming jet lag, although Mar says it's still a bit difficult to get a good sleep at night.

I'm going to add more pictures, but I'm having trouble fitting them, so I'll add some words!

We are in the final stages of preparing to pack. I had an Xray on Monday and chest looks OK. Had another iron study and was able to have an aranesp shot today. This is a shot that stimulates the bone marrow to product more red blood cells. For cancer patients who are on certain types of chemo, red blood cell counts may get very low. This causes anemia.

One symptom of anemia is fatigue. Between narcotics and anemia, I have rivaled Rip Van Winkle in the long nap department. Not to mention short nap, totally unintentional nap, nap when I should be packing... etc. Down side is that it takes a couple of weeks before there is really any impact. I'm pretty sure I won't be taking a nap at the race course though!

The only procedures I need now are a mani/pedi, so hopefully I can fit that in somewhere tomorrow.

Margot and Sarah at the starting gates (above).

This is a cool picture of Margot and Sarah framed by the rings next to the bike path.

I definitely have to do some beginning packing because my clean clothes are all over my bed. The hardest thing to do is to pack light. It's always the goal, but rarely the outcome. And half my mind is overseas already, hoping that Mar and Sarah are doing well and that they will have their best races ever.

Thanks to our dapper coach Matt Madigan for some of the photos but mainly for being a terrific COACH!