In the Final Stretch

I've now finished my 2nd venue - canoe/kayak slalom at the Minden Wild Water Preserve. The course was set on the Gull River 3 hours northeast of Toronto. Luckily, I had a place to stay in Minden and didn't have to make that daily commute. The venue was so natural and unlike any other I've been to. The Venue Media Center was a tent with no air conditioning and more bugs than reporters. But it was also refreshing and fun riding a golf cart through the woods from one end of the venue to the other.

Now I head to soccer, which has already been going on for 10 days. This will be the first venue that I'm not running the (media) show. I'll be helping out the Venue Press Manager and he's got a team of volunteers that already know what they're doing. It's a much slower pace, with athlete interviews taking place only once every couple of hours, but it has the potential to get crazy during the medal rounds.

I'm loving my experience so far, but I'm excited for my 4-day vacation coming up where I get to be a tourist in Toronto with Teresa. I'm meeting a lot of great people (see my canoe sprint volunteer supervisors pictured above) and learning a lot about event operations. It's like some sort of Olympic summer camp.

Follow me on Twitter @nickolivier