Training
for our respective events in the midst of a Vancouver winter may be sucky, but
at least you know you’re not missing out on too much in the pursuit of a
successful swim, bike, run. It’s bearable.
In
the midst of our second, and, we now realize, oh-so-precious Vancouver “summer”,
it’s a little more difficult. Aside from the fact we now sweat profusely and
almost faint in 22 degree “heat”, there is so much going on here you know
you’re missing out on. I know I’ve said it before but people really embrace
summer here – barbeques, outdoor movies, local music and food festivals,
markets – the possibilities are endless. I had to laugh the other day when I
was responding to a few emails at work. I kid you not when I tell you that on
three separate occasions, the person’s closing remark was… (not something
standard like ‘kind regards’ or ‘many thanks’) ‘Enjoy the sunshine’. Love it!
I should’ve warned you before I started that this one’s
going to be a long one. My race was last weekend, you see. But before we get
there, I’ll give you a brief (hah!) rundown on what else has been happening of
late.
Two
weeks ago Steven participated in the Vancouver Olympic Distance triathlon – a
training race for him – over at Kitsilano. I must admit it was nice to have a
local race for a change – we arrived in a cab about 30 minutes before race
start and were home a couple of hours after the race ended (we would’ve been
home earlier had the superstar athlete not won 2
nd place in his age
group and 10
th place overall!).
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| A relaxed set-up in transition. |
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| Posing on the beach, mountains in the background - ah, this is the life! |
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| Competitors tackling the swim leg |
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| Steven's out of the swim - yay! |
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| Jumping on the bike for the next 40 km. |
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| Onto the run leg - he's learning to dress appropriately for his blind fiance! |
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| Hello! Stop smiling now and go get that guy in front of you! |
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| Champion effort - 2nd place in his age group & 10th overall. |
Thankfully the weather was gorgeous for a change (if not a little hot
for the competitors), and as spectators we were lucky enough to watch a couple
of Canadian Olympic representatives participating in the race as part of their own
London warm-up preparations. Namely Paula Findlay (Canadian triathlete), who
won the sprint distance event, and Brent McMahon (Canadian swimmer), who did
the swim portion of the three distances (sprint, Olympic & half) on three
different relay teams. Although I was only supporting one athlete on race day,
I ended up being the Mother Theresa of the Vancouver triathlon, helping three
strangers struggle into their wetsuits, offering a spare water bottle to a
thirsty athlete and looking after a dog called Hunter (an Alaskan
Malamute/German Shepherd X) while his mum went to the bathroom.
So
last Thursday we headed off to Lake Stevens in Washington for my race and a
weekend of fun at the lake with our friends. Sadly for Steven, the day before
we left we received a notification under our door from the television series Supernatural – they would be filming the
show right near our building over the course of the weekend. I think he wet his
pants with excitement and then when he realized we’d be away, he had a little
cry.
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| We were so excited about finding the biggest size of our favourite iced tea drink. Steven was also super excited about being able to buy alcohol in Safeway. God bless America? |
On
Friday I registered and Steven and I drove the bike course – it was absolutely
gorgeous – I tried to take it in as much as I could because I figured I
wouldn’t be able to enjoy it so much on race day. The afternoon was made
complete with the first thunderstorm I have heard in two years – it was amazing
(and kinda loud, and kinda scary).
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| I just had to take a photo of this car we saw when I went to register. Seriously? She makes a living? |
On
Friday night the rest of the “team” arrived – my support crew – in the form of
Dave & Missy, Dave B and Shilo &Ben. Thankfully, on Saturday everyone
managed to occupy themselves while I basically sat around the house,
“hydrating”, refreshing theweathernetwork.com and was otherwise unable to
function like a normal human being. Steven had training to do so he disappeared
for pretty much the entire day, Dave and Missy went for a long (and eventful!)
ride on the bike course, Shilo studied, Ben ran and while they prepared dinner,
Dave B made popcorn, bought himself a lacrosse set and danced around the house
rapping to early 90’s music (Salt ‘n Pepa eat your heart out!). I was
thoroughly entertained! I also have to nominate “Two Princes” by the Spin
Doctors as the weekend theme song – no joke – I heard this song play on five
separate occasions (three times on the radio – clearly Washingtonians love their
Spin Doctors) – so many great 90’s flashbacks
(edit: okay so I just Googled
Spin Doctors. I am irrationally excited to learn they reformed back in 2001!). The
team made the night complete with a spot of poker while I went to bed early
like a good little athlete.
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Saturday riding training - no rest for the wicked Ironman. |
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| Shilo cooks; Dave raps with beer in hand. |
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| Rapping to Salt n' Pepa. Missy braided my hair for race day - it looked significantly better before I'd slept on it. |
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| The team amused themselves with poker and buying, and subsequently drinking, beer with funny names. |
When I asked the boys to give me their "best" lacrosse poses, this is what I was rewarded with ...
I
had to write a race report for my coach Richard (aka T:Zero Coaching). If you
want to learn about the fateful events of race day please read on by following
the link below (posted separately so you can skip it if you don’t care or if
you’ve already read it).
So
now I’m officially the ‘food Nazi’ again and have already had to clarify to
Steven on two separate occasions that “no, chicken shawarma is not healthy” and
“no, yum cha for lunch would not be a good, healthy option”. So for now it’s
lots of hard training for Steven, a return to ‘support crew extraordinaire’ for
me, and, once IM Canada is all said and done, a wine tour in the Okanagan and a
cruise to Alaska should reward our efforts nicely.
Enjoy the sunshine! x
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