A series of updates from Jim Hinsvark

Digging through my email spam box today, I found a host of email updates from Jim Hinsvark sent from Prague. I'm posting them in chronological order from the earliest to the latest.

Update #1
Today we race the 2000m. Woke up early with thoughts of racing running through my head. It seemed as though the entire team woke up early and was down eating breakfast in anticipation of the days events. Today we find out where we sit in regards to the other teams that have come to race. Hopefully the race goes well and we place in good stead.

Yesterday Janet and I walked the old town area and up to Prague Castle. This city is amazing in so many ways, the culture, the archetecture and the people that live and visit here. We walked for hours and were constantly amazed at tne varying types of stuctures in the city. When we alked throught the old town square the local vendors were out in force. The smells of the smoked ham, sausage sweets and potato dishes was WOW. We ate ham, potato pancakes and corn for dinner as we watched the sun light fade over the city.

The hike across Chalres Bridge and up the streets to the castle was very cool. I had to explain to Janet the almost overpowering erge for men to spit off bridges. I told her that I had surpressed the erge so she waited a moment and dared me to spit. A dare! I readied myself and as I leaned over the rrail I saw, just in time, the paddle boat below. What a stinker!

We ran into some teammates and so I walked up behind Skinner and gently grabbed her behind. The look o her face as she realized everone in her group was ahead of her was great! She spun around, red faced ( after enjoying the moment of course) and saw me. Gret fun!

Gotta go and get ready fo the races.

Update #2
Hi there, trying to catch up and fill you all in to what is happening here. Wed. we raced the 2000m. Thought we had a pretty good starting postion ,3rd, and took off ready for the race. First turn we caught the wake of the lead boats and took on water. Came out of the curve into hugh waves and took on more water. The waves were enough to our callers ass wet! By the time we came into the second turn we were half full and then the turn began. Sloshing water is not a good thing to have in a curve! Side to side we rocked and filled, sinking as we finished the turn. We drug the boat to shore and called it a day!

Next was the 1000m Thurs, and we did fairly well, but had to come up through the loser bracket, we were .013 out of the final. We placed third in the next theat and were off to the minor final, again by hundreths of a second. 6th overall was where we finished. The day ended with an amazing lightneing storm alll around. We sat in the bus instead of watching the final races.

Today, more of the same. Finishing out of moving into the finals by hundreths of a second in the 200m

Day off tomorrow, so Janet and I will spend the day checking ou t the city. It will be a nice break as we can get some good sight seeing in and the paddlers can get ours minds around how to pick up those hundreths!!

Update #3
Hi there, It has been a few days so here goes.

We had Sat off from racing so Janet and I took off on foot to explore the city a bit more. We planned a route that looked like it would take all day and headed out to see the city. Meghan would be proud of my figuring out the transit system as that was always her task in Thailand. We jumped on the subway and took off walking. The route led us through some less touristy areas and into the large park area on the west side of the river. There was an orchard in one area that had pears (ripe) and what we think were almonds and apples and it was like anyone could pick what they wanted as there were no signs to hint otherwise. The walk was much shorter thatn we thought and we were back at the castle in a couple of hours.

There was an orchestra of some sort playing that we could hear from quite a distance. I think it was some sat. concert in the castle. Hungry we headed to the Old Town Square and to the vendors that were roasting and smoking various meats and treats. Enjoying the huge kelbassa we had beer and margaritas (Janet is not to fond of beer).

Sun races

It was great. My birthday and I was racing for Gold! We worked our way through the heats and into the medal round. Sadly, I set my goals to low and we only raced for the gold. We finished .06 seconds out of 3rd. I have never been in so many races that were determined by so close a time. Our heatsfor advancement or medals were missed by no more than .13 secs . Crazy, fun racing.

We are coming home early and will see you soon.