Trip to Norway and general "Ketchup"

Nope, not a condiment for the taste – more of a “I’ve been busy with life that I haven’t written, but I’ll try to 'ketchup' everyone on how busy life is”.

The last time I wrote it was a race report and giving some excitement to a new product I was going to be testing/demonstrating for a good friend of mine at Bite Tech (www.bitetech.com) that has partnered with Under Armour (www.underarmour.com) to release a new line of mouth guards. I’m a firm believer in mouth guards since I have 2 fake teeth, I’ve tried eating a couple of softballs in my day and have a chipped tooth to show for it, and have been saved by mouthguards as I dig playing volleyball in the past, not to mention the times I’ve probably been saved of a concussion in hockey and/or bandy. Yes, they are a part of my equipment no matter what sport…at least, until I started doing triathlons. Swim, bike, run – who needs a mouth guard in those sports? Non-contact, pretty much individual sports (unless going as a relay team), I’ve never worn a mouth guard in these sports, until now.

As you’ll read on the Under Armour site, the mouth guards provide many benefits to athletes of all sports; concentration, precision, shortened recovery…all of this in addition to the protection of my teeth – what’s not to love? I’ve found that my jaw is now more relaxed when I run, and when I ride, I’m not trying to pedal with my mouth as much as a clinch my way on each pedal stroke to the end. I have found these mouth guards – both the performance and the athletic to be quite beneficial. I’ve been wearing the athletic guard the most this winter as I’ve been playing lots of hockey and bandy.

Hockey has put me onto a team with the MN Xtreme this year – a group of gals in the “A2” league – the league where competition is high and fun. I’ve enjoyed being a ‘sub’ for the team, yet I’ve played in almost all of the games. I hope next year, I’ll be on their roster as a permanent fixture since I’ve had so much fun with such a great group. The cool thing - - - most of these gals are also on the bandy team. Which leads me to my latest ventures.

I currently write from the plane to Stockholm, Sweden, on our way to Oslo Norway before we take a bus to Drammen, Norway – our final destination for the World Championships in Bandy, 2010. We left Minneapolis on the 21st with high hopes of making it to Oslo by late afternoon on the 22nd so we would be prepared to take the ice on the 23rd a couple of times before our games on the 24th. That plan was good, until United decided to blame their delays on the weather….well…we would believe that if…
1) The crew didn’t get paged 4 times while we were waiting at the gate in Minneapolis
2) The crew wasn’t escorted by the gate agent to the gate
3) The crew didn’t have Burger King crowns under their arms as they passed by us to the walkway to the plane.

Yep – blame it on the “weather in Chicago” all you want – that wasn’t what delayed us, it was the crew. Crap! We only had a little over an hour between flights in Chicago. This 30 minute delay was going to cost us. Truly, if it was weather delaying our landing, it would be weather delaying the next departures. So point #4) You can blame it on the weather if our flight to Europe didn’t leave 10 minutes early! What was ironic is that the gate agent that led the crew to the gate to help us was the same crew member that helped me in my attempts to get back home to see Grandpa Powell in 2006. I recognized her and she recognized me – apparently, my total appreciation and gratitude for her efforts carried over 3.5 years later and she upgraded Thom and me to first class for the ride from MSP to ORD. Little did we know what we were in for, and that was truly a blessing in disguise.
It’s been a rough start to the trip – once we were delayed leaving the MSP airport, we attempted a landing in Chicago…where our pilot almost overshot the landing strip and did a last minute pull up on the flight stick to ensure our safety (uh---whatever!). They claimed that another plane was on the runway when we tried to land – if that was the case, based on the accounts of the fellow team members on the plane near a window, we could have been on top of that plane with as close as we were to the ground – it was a lack of runway space for landing. That would explain why each time we did a circle around as if we were going in for the landing, the flight attendant in front of us in first class would sit in his jumper seat and brace himself – was this a new pilot? Perhaps we will never know. After circling around for another 20 minutes, we finally land….and then taxi….and then wait….and taxi to another gate….and wait….. no crew to let us off of the plane…another 15 minutes in the plane – and now, we are missing our connection flight to Europe. Wait? What’s that? One of our team members gets an email that SAS has delayed the flight 45 minutes? We can make it? Let’s haul butt to get there – all 19 of us! We get to the check point, only to find out….the SAS flight left 10 minutes ahead of schedule, not 45 minutes after schedule. Crap. To the SAS counter and they help us get a hotel at a reduced rate because they have to book us on a 4:30 flight tomorrow (Sunday) – the original flight we would have taken had we not wanted to get to the games a day early to “get our skating legs back under us”. The evening at the hotel was uneventful and relaxing. The morning, nothing much to report. The afternoon we start our trek back to the airport to start the journey from our current starting point – Chicago to Stockholm to Oslo to Drammen. Arrival at the airport and I decided to work with our team lead to approach the United Airlines counter to see what they could do for us since we had now encountered expenses for a night in a hotel and extra food on our own, which we already paid for in Norway too. Nothing much they can do for us ‘after the fact’, but we shall write a letter later, explaining all that we know and how we know it was not “weather related”.

Perhaps their mothers should have told them not to lie – the truth is always found.

If that’s the glitch in our trip, it was tolerable, but I’m not going to jinx us this early in the trip, so we are prepared for whatever is thrown our way, ready to react and respond, willing to battle for our spot –
Team USA is on their way,
Watch out Norway!
We’ve had a long travel
Our seams, we will not unravel.
We’re tighter as a team now
It is the Bandy world we will Wow!
We have new speed and new skills
For sure, the bandy ball we will kill
Our defense will not be beat
Our speed will flow through our feet
A slow down was in the journey
But our speed will show on the ice in a flurry.
We’re strong, we’re smart, we’re playing with our heart!
We’ll have ants in our pants
From sitting aboard aircrafts.
We’re ready to take to the ice to play bandy
Our instincts are guided with strategy and theory
Our muscles are at their peak
None of them could be deemed weak.
Our klubben are striking hot
Hell hath fury in our shots
WC2010 we are here
Hear us loud, hear us clear
Team USA
We’ll beat you in Norway!