Whitlock writes about bacon

[Hammock Parties]

http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/st...journal-072812

I don’t get it. I was just in London three weeks ago and my mind and body had no problem with the clock. Four days into this Olympic trip and my body is malfunctioning.

Maybe it’s the food?

Saturday is my last day eating breakfast (I hope). We’re staying at the Doubletree Hilton, and my boss has scheduled a morning editorial meeting, complete with a breakfast buffet, the ultimate P90 Whitlock-killer.

At home, I’ve been eating oatmeal and/or a protein shake for breakfast. Here, it’s been four days of bacon, eggs and potatoes. Bacon in London is like a chicken leg-and-thigh quarter in the States. There’s a strip of crispy bacon attached to a fat piece of ham. Who knew? I’m not really big on ham, but Rule No. 1 of food is: everything tastes better with bacon. Farmers in the UK obviously figured out how to slice their pigs in a way to keep the bacon connected to the ham. Freaking brilliant! I bet pork sales in the UK double sales in the States.

Thankfully, Engel showed up to breakfast around 7:30 and insisted we leave for the main press center a little early. She wanted to stop at Starbucks for coffee before we hopped on the tube for Olympic Park. I only had two bacon-and-ham quarters.

Engel is only about 5-foot-3. But, like most white sportswriters, she walks at a 6-foot-5 pace. By the time we made it to the tube, I had a dash of sweat across my brow. By the time she led me up the three flights of stairs to the USOC office to pick up the media swimming tickets, I was in the process of pitting out. And I was pissed. Bill Hancock, the media liaison for the USOC — yep, BCS-defending Bill Hancock, my Kansas City homeboy, the man I will always defend for being right about college football’s regular season — wasn’t in his office when we arrived around 9. Ticket pickup wasn’t until 11 a.m. And the media only need tickets for the nighttime swimming events.

I had time for at least two more bacon-and-ham quarters!