Competition Over..

After 17 days of competition and even longer buildup, the Games finally drew to a close in Beijing.. Everyone is a little burned out and happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Everyone here is VERY excited that we won't be seeing anymore of these jammed shuttle rides too! Anytime we want to go to the major events, the buses are just packed. This was the one I took to the men's volleyball gold medal match on the final day of competition. Great story with the U.S. winning it all, but the cozy shuttles to and from the venues, media center and media village do get a little old after a few weeks..

Ah, and the cattle call heading into the venues too.. Those will not be missed.

Had a little lightning storm the night before the final day of competition.. Sick of the shuttle rides, Dan and I would often just make the 20- to 25-minute walk home from the media center to the media village in the middle of the night, occassionally with a beer in hand. Stopped for a bit to try and get one of the big lightning cracks, but this was the best I could do behind the main TV tower decked out with the Olympic rings.

After the closing ceremonies, I made the late-night walk home with co-workers Nelson (from our Beijing office), Baynes (Sydney) and Grant (Singapore). We had to take one last pic in front of the Water Cube as it changed colors into the night..

We also stopped in at the Bird's Nest stadium It was just hours after the closing ceremonies, but they were already hard at work closing things down and taking everything apart.

So while they worked around us, we headed down to the track and got in the blocks for one final race.. Okay, so we didn't really run, but that's only because blowing out a hamstring or groin muscle would have been a lousy way to end the trip.

To cap the night, we headed to our usual spot at the media village -- the little bar area outside the food court. It's funny how this place evolved over the course of the competition. At first, the bar was inside and was brightly lit. It just wasn't a very relaxing atmosphere. At some point, people just started taking the drinks outside, then someone brought a chair out and then tables.. Eventually, the organizers realized they really should just move a bunch of tables and chairs outside every night. There were a few nights that we'd get back at 1 or 2 in the morning after working late and then end up outside until 4 a.m... And inevitably there would be some Brits out there until the sun rose and a massive collection of Tsingtao bottles.

Tsingtao was the official beer of the Beijing Olympics and was unquestionably the drink of choice for this trip. Lost count how many I had as we'd meet at the end of the day to decompress, rehash the day's stories, share tales from back home and talk about all the nonsense everyone has to deal with in their respective offices around the world. Some things are universal, whether its office politics or enjoying a cold beer and some good stories at the end of a long day... and longer business trip.

Ah, the end is finally here.