Bingo!

I officially have Olympic tickets {cue happy dance}.

Well, I guess they are not officially in my hands, but I won the lottery. No, not the one where you win millions of dollars. The one where you win a chance to watch your husband, the love of your life, live out his dreams. I'd say that's better than a million dollars (though if someone wants to give us a million dollars I wouldn't turn them away).

Olympic tickets are hard to come by. I wrote about it here. And here.

But, I won. Mark did not. Weird, huh? My mother won (some, but not all tickets) and Mark's mom also won (some, but not all tickets). I was the big winner of the family. I won (the chance to buy, for a handsome sum of money I might add) tickets to prelims, semi's, and finals of the 100m breaststroke for prelims and finals of the 4x100m medley relay. When I was practically turning cartwheels as I told Mark he looked at me and said, "Now I've just got to make it."

While this is the truth (and honestly the pressure sucks), all Mark really has to do now is enjoy the journey... everything else will fall into place. Actually, I take that back. Things don't just fall into place. Our everyday Olympian will work his tail off, give it everything he's got, get beat sometimes, but win others, he'll hurt, he'll push it, and then when he thinks he's done, he'll push harder. That is when things "fall" into place. And, when they do, I'll be there with tickets in hand {again with the dance}.

This weekend Mark will be in Tifton, GA for a clinic and later this summer he'll be in Paris, Australia, Shanghai, and California. Quite a journey he's got in front of him--and I'm just talking through August.

Stay tuned... tomorrow I'll tell you about when Mark cried at swim camp.

Today's letter

This post was inspired by Today's Letters. I think this idea is brilliant (one of many I wish were my own). Well... here is my letter of the day (I'm trying not to think about the Olympic trials that are still more than a year away, but our CoSport ticket purchase last week has got me thinking, and dreaming, daily about what next summer will bring).

Dear touch pads in Omaha at the Olympic Trials,

I'm not sure if you remember my husband or not. His name is Mark and he is my favorite everyday Olympian. In 2008 he came to visit you and touched the wall second in his event. Though thrilled at the opportunity to represent his country at the Olympic Games, I know that he wished he would have gotten to you first.

I am a PhD student and instructor at a university. After I teach the "Motivation" chapter to my class I ask Mark to come speak to my students. He talks about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how his motivation has changed over the years. I have never heard him say this before, but last week in class he said, "I've finished second twice at the Olympic trials-which is great, don't get me wrong-but I want to finish first. I want everyone to know that I am the right man for the meet." This got me thinking about writing a letter to you, Omaha Qwest Center touch pads. As silly as it may be, and I can almost hear Mark rolling his eyes at me right now, I wanted to write a letter to you to reintroduce you to my husband. His goal is to get to you first next summer; please welcome him with open arms. He so wishes it be and I wish it for him.

I know it will still be almost 14 months until we meet again, but I just thought that I should write. If you' d like to meet me, I'll be the crazy lady in the stands (hopefully up close) with a two and a half year old on her hip and a tear in her eye--I may also be doing a happy dance.

Sincerely,
Ashley Gangloff
PhD student, mom, wife, and crazy-nervous swim wife

Olympic tickets already?!

It is that time again. I requested Olympic tickets yesterday.

You see, the purchasing of Olympic event tickets (especially when you want to go to one of the most popular Olympic events) is not simple. Nor cheap. For the past two Olympics I have scrambled to get tickets. We talk to friends, we talk to officials, we shop ebay, we shop the side of the street outside of the venue (shhhh... don't tell) just to find tickets to watch our everyday Olympian race. Every year we say that we only care about having tickets to Mark's events before we get there. Remember, we are traveling around the world and spending thousands of dollars to watch Mark swim-we better have tickets in hand to get in the door. Other event tickets will pick up when we get there.

I received an email from CoSport the official ticketing broker for the 2012 Olympics. The email explained that the tickets would be sold through a lottery system. You put your request in, provide a credit card number, and wait to see if your name is drawn and you are lucky enough to get to buy tickets (as soon as you "win" they run your cc). CoSport puts a max constraint on those who enter the lottery (4 tickets for prelim sessions and 2 tickets for every finals session). There is no guarantee that you will win the the lottery and there is no guarantee that if you do that you will receive all of the tickets you've requested.

But, aren't you just given tickets if Mark makes the Olympic team?!

Nope. Well, not nope... just not enough.

In the past Mark has been given 2 tickets for the events in which he swims. We have heard a rumor that this time around each athlete will only receive 1 ticket for each event in which he or she swims. Which helps, but when you are popular (or maybe it is just because he's got a lot of family), 1 ticket doesn't cut it. So, we entered the CoSport lottery. With no guarantee, Mark and I both entered the lottery for the max number of tickets for a grand total of $1,006 each (and this only for the sessions in which the 100m breaststroke and the 4x100 medley relay are swum... and it is the cheap seats!). Ouch!

Ordering tickets and then writing this post makes me squirm a bit. You know how superstitious (and nervous and anxious) I am. I don't like talking about the meet that Mark hasn't even qualified for yet. But, when it comes to Olympic event tickets, you gotta do it or risk sitting at home watching it on TV.

The rest of the planning will wait until Mark's hand touches the wall in Omaha at the trials. Until then, keep your fingers crossed that we win the lottery and have Olympic tickets in hand by the end of the summer. And then, keep your fingers crossed for the next year that Mark earns a spot on the team.

Two weeks is a long time

Okay, so I am officially the worst swim wife-PhD student-new mom-blogger. I stink. I don't even remember the last time I posted. Well, shame on me. Now, let's put the past behind us and move forward. Which is really a funny thing to say, since I will be going back to tell you about all of the things that I have failed to tell you over the last few weeks.

I'm not sure where I left off, so I'll pick it up wherever I want which is three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, after a family trip to Albany, GA with Mark for a Mutual of Omaha Break Out Swim Clinic, we took Mark to the airport, waved goodbye, and said, "we'll see you in a couple of weeks." Boo. I hate long training trips, though I appreciate them for Mark and do see their value. You see, Mark trains with the Auburn University college team (kind of) and with the Auburn coaches. So, come college championship season (conference championships are in February and NCAA championships are in March), those swimmers that train with college teams and college coaches must find alternative training. Mark used to just hang around and, without fail, be a bit disappointed in his lack of training. So this year, Brett (Mark's coach) and Mark decided that he would go on training trips as to not disrupt the plan. In February, Mark went to Florida to train with a French team and SwimMAC for a couple weeks, and just a few weeks ago he took a little USOC National Training Center tour. He first trained at Chula Vista and then at Colorado Springs with our friend Dave Denniston and his team.

This was Mark's first visit to Chula Vista. He said it was amazing--beautiful with fantastic accommodations. The only hitch is that there is not a pool on site (not sure why), so the swimmers were bused to a near-by pool. Mark enjoyed breaststroke specific workouts with some of the best breaststrokers in the country including Mike Alexandrov, Clark Burckle, and Kevin Swander. He loved racing the best of the best. The only other thing I really heard about, remember Mark is not a big talker, is that Mark crossed paths with the Facebook rowers. Remember the twins that were at Harvard, claimed that they came up with the idea for Facebook, and then sued the Facebook guy (and I think are suing again)? Well, they are Olympians (Rowing) and evidently still training... at Chula Vista in fact. Mark saw them and immediately texted me. Yes, we are still in awe of real famous people. Mark, though not a big talker is funny, and texted, "Do you think I should sue them for copying my idea to become an Olympian?" Good one, hon.

In Colorado Springs Mark trained with the Paraolympic national team. Here is a quick video starring Mark and the guys he trained with.

Click here to watch the video.

He said they were amazing. He said that no matter what their challenge, that they made it up and down the pool. He said that they worked their booties off. And, it seemed to work as Mark did get beat in practice a few times. Mark explained to me about the altitude and said that no matter how good of shape you think you are, that altitude will royally kick your butt.

Two weeks is a long time, so my mother came down to stay with Annabelle and I for the last half of Mark's trip. I am always ready for Mark to come home, though. Not to mention help with the baby, running errands, and other daily things that seem so difficult alone, I just miss my buddy when he is away. I think he feels the same, because Mark changed his return ticket and surprised us two days early! It was awesome. My girl friend (a swim coach's wife), Annabelle, and I were huddled on the sofa watching the live streaming of the NCAA championships (Congrats Dave!) when in walks Mark. I turned my head in complete shock. Even Annabelle was paralyzed with surprise. We were so happy to see him. And, again, though I understand the reason he travels, and I support it whole-heartedly, sometimes we just want him to be home.

Okay, now I promise to post again. Soon. Really soon... I swear. I've got to tell you about a note to a sponsor, and I want to follow up on a great suggestion by Turtle. Stay tuned... I'm going to tell you all about the swag.

Memory lane to Beijing

I received a phone call from a dear friend last week to let me know that she and her family are heaed to China later this month. She was hoping for a little advice about China travel (good restaurants, fun sites to see, places to explore, etc.), but I couldn't hardly remember a thing... so I took a little trip down memory lane. Mark kept a blog leading up to the Olympics in the summer of 2008, which I took over during the Olympics when all of the athletes were banned from blogging during competion (we also had to change the name of the blog from Markgangloffolympicexperience.blogspot.com to markgangloffbeijingexperience.blogspot.com after the IOC-International Olympic Committee-came down hard on the rights to the word 'Olympic'). Wow. What a trip!

If you'd like to take a trip down our memory lane, you are welcome to visit www.markgangloffbeijingexperience.blogspot.com. The blog is still acceessible, though we really only contributed for about two months (shortly after the Olympic trials until right after the Olympic Games--sort of like this blog we thought it would be good for friends and family, but we quickly realized that a lot of people were quite interested in Mark's (our) experiences that summer).

A little press... and a mention of the wife

Check out 'our' latest interview (20 Question Tuesday with Mark Gangloff)... well, Mark's interview, but his wife (uh hem) is mentioned.

I'm not sure how I like the frequent reference to '30'