“If you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.” – from the movie Grease

Words to live by.

While the world has spent the past two weeks celebrating the 10,000 amazing Olympians that have converged upon Rio, there have been others of us who have dedicated ourselves to the watching of the Olympic Games. And, sure, those athletes deserve their time in the sun. They’ve worked hard to get where they are now, at the top of their game and the peak of performance. They are absolutely worth watching. However, no one seems to talk about the stamina and endurance it takes just to keep up with the Olympics! But I know, and maybe you do too.

• We don’t record the Olympics unless we have to. We’d rather see it along with everyone else to “oohhh” and “ahhh” in unison.
• Timing your bathroom breaks and meals just perfectly so as not to miss a moment.
• While inspired by these incredible people to work out, we instead make the hard choice to order pizza. Because, don’t they need us there cheering for them?
• Live Tweeting, Instagramming and posting on Facebook at just the right time, with inspiration, wittiness or sarcasm. You understand that its an art.
• Bringing yourself to an insane level of sleep deprivation because you’ve stayed up late every night, and still rise early to watch the interviews at updates on the Today Show.
• Crying, laughing, celebrating and mourning with all those athletes on a daily basis as events progress.
• Googling countries you never knew existed, and are still a bit unsure about because you can’t figure out how to spell them.
• Checking the websites and apps to stay current on other events because now you regret not buying that expanded sports cable package.
• Reading up on the new sports, forgetting what some of the sports are and how they’re played, and trying to figure out which sports you might be good at.
• Getting caught up in all the personal and amazing stories, and what it took to get to the Olympics.
• Fighting off the desire to jump on a plane to the Olympics because all the commentators, visitors and TV anchors are having the time of their life.
• Feeling a sense of patriotism, while also being so excited for other countries who overcame heartaches, won their first medals and broke personal records.
• Deciding which country you’ll move to with low athlete counts so you can finally achieve your own dream of being an Olympian.
• Judging the judges when they make the wrong call.
• Ignoring friends and family because you’ve got this other huge thing to worry about.
• Generating your Olympic Spirit at just the right time. It takes practice!
• Quitting your full-time job in order to stay home and binge-watch the Games. (Just me?)

It’s exhausting, both physically and emotionally. But we’re in it for the long-haul (of two weeks).

So, I salute you, Olympics fanatic. I’m with you. I’m one of you.

And now I have to go because Primetime is about to start.

One more full day, then we’ll all be together-ish again in two years. Get some sleep! And go, #TeamUSA!