Well, here it is, the attempt at the long over-due update Christmas version.
After making my decision to come down to Arizona in early November, December 23rd was a date that I couldn't wait for, but seemed so far in the future. That was the date of my last shift at work and my last day in Victoria before heading home for christmas and then down to AZ.
Christmas was a blast. I arrived in Calgary on the 24th, and spent the 24th and 25th with my parents.
On the 26th, I spent a fun-packed day with a great friend, Mr. Sean Van Der Lee, who I hadn't seen in ages. We started the day of by heading to our old stomping grounds, the Calgary Climbing Centre, and got gnarly on the walls. And by gnarly I mean, had a few good climbs each and then got our asses handed to us by lactic acid in the forearms. Neither of us had been climbing consistently and neither of us had much endurance. Nonetheless, BAD ASS. We had worked up quite an appetite and since we were sufficiently jacked and could no longer hold on to the largest most generous of holds, we decided to grab some grub. Since I had never been before, Sean suggested we checked out a place that goes way back in his Family's history, Tom's House of Pizza. It's a sweet little place with unreal pizza. We sat, enjoyed pizza, great conversation, some good people watching, and watched Canada play in the World Jr. hockey tournament. Once our stomachs were filled to the brim with delicious pizza, Sean took me to a really cool little bookstore that had EVERY book you could imagine. It even had "The Average American Male" which I had been searching for for years and had never found in a store. I was able to pick up 2 books there for about $10. We then went grabbed a quick coffee to bide time before watching TRON in IMAX 3D, which was quite a show, then called it a day.
The very next day I met up with an equally great friend, Jessica O'Connell. Jess and I decided to head out to Bragg Creek because I thought she wanted to get some moccasins. Turns out, half way there, she didn't want moccasins, she thought I wanted moccasins. So we had kind of gone to Bragg Creek for no reason, since we were out there we still took advantage. We went for a nice little 30min run, after which we ate in a really cool little coffee shop. After we devoured our soup and sandwiches we strolled around the little strip mall in Bragg Creek, which has some pretty neat little shops, eventually stumbling into yet another cool little bookstore! I was able to pick up 3 books this time for $14. Jess and I had a dinner date with a friend of ours so after the bookstore we cruised on home and met Nicki at Ruan Thai for dinner. Nicki is a world-class speed-skater. I always love chatting with her and hearing thoughts and opinions from someone in a similar but completely world of sport. I then dropped Jess off, and headed home for the evening.
My friend Tom Fleming was in town from Edmonton and him and I hit the town for old time sake one night, but other than that it was a pretty low key visit. I didn't really do anything for New Years because I had to fly out the next day and start my drive to AZ.
My day started around 10, got ready, headed to the airport for 11, boarded my flight a little after noon and landed in Victoria right around 1pm, zoomed home finished packing up the car and got to the Coho Ferry right at 2:30 and the road trip officially started.
To be continued...
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thank-you!!
I haven't posted in a while now. I'm not in the biggest of writing moods right now, but I figured it was time for an update.
I've made a big decision as far as my running career goes. Come January I'll be moving down to Scottsdale Arizona until the middle of May to train full-time with the "elite" group of the training centre. The group that is going down is really out of this world. The core group of guysconsists of Matt Lincoln, Geoff Martinson, Quin Ferguson, Andrew Ellerton, Justin Marpole-Bird, Darren St. Clair (UK), Nate Brennan, and myself. There are also some super talented girls that will be down there in Ashley Hinther, Lemlem Bereket Ogbasilassie, Lisa Aguilera, Andrea Parker and maybe more that I don't know of. There are also other athletes that will be coming and going like Taylor Milne, Kyle Smith, Olivier Collin, Leanna Maclean, the list goes on.
Long story short, the group is unreal, I'm going to get my ass kicked day in and day out, I'm going to love it, and I'm going to run real fast!
The main point of this post was to give a big thank-you to my sponsor. Matt Norminton and the Running Room have been more than generous to me over the last year and a bit. Most recently setting me up for my trip down to Arizona. Hooking me up with more shoes than I hope to get through, spikes, nutritional/hydration products, socks, clothes, and everything else you can think of.
These words don't express how truly appreciative and grateful I am, nor could any other words.
Thanks Matt and Running Room.
I've made a big decision as far as my running career goes. Come January I'll be moving down to Scottsdale Arizona until the middle of May to train full-time with the "elite" group of the training centre. The group that is going down is really out of this world. The core group of guysconsists of Matt Lincoln, Geoff Martinson, Quin Ferguson, Andrew Ellerton, Justin Marpole-Bird, Darren St. Clair (UK), Nate Brennan, and myself. There are also some super talented girls that will be down there in Ashley Hinther, Lemlem Bereket Ogbasilassie, Lisa Aguilera, Andrea Parker and maybe more that I don't know of. There are also other athletes that will be coming and going like Taylor Milne, Kyle Smith, Olivier Collin, Leanna Maclean, the list goes on.
Long story short, the group is unreal, I'm going to get my ass kicked day in and day out, I'm going to love it, and I'm going to run real fast!
The main point of this post was to give a big thank-you to my sponsor. Matt Norminton and the Running Room have been more than generous to me over the last year and a bit. Most recently setting me up for my trip down to Arizona. Hooking me up with more shoes than I hope to get through, spikes, nutritional/hydration products, socks, clothes, and everything else you can think of.
These words don't express how truly appreciative and grateful I am, nor could any other words.
Thanks Matt and Running Room.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Wonders of the Amazon
I have had some business ideas for a couple years now. When I was back in Calgary I shared these ideas with my friend Darren and he was super receptive. We started elaborating on my original ideas and actually came up with a pretty sweet concept. We even went and talked to some "experts" who are already in that particular business and they even offered to help us out when the time comes.
When we were chatting with our "expert" she told us about a cool documentary and some books that could help and educate us. So last night I was searching on the web to see if I could find some of what she suggested. Unfortunately it's a bit of an obscure topic and I was unable to find a torrent for the documentary. She suggested that I try looking on amazon. I had never been on the site before, so I decided to check it out. I ended up getting 5 books for like $40. $8 per book, can't complain about that. When in reality I got a couple books for $0.01 but shipping was like $6.50 or something.
Not all the books had to do with business either, in fact only 1 did, the other 4 were purely for pleasure. I took out my reading list I had written down a little while ago and searched a few of the books. The prices were right so I couldn't refuse!
I'm excited to get all my new presents and have many hours of entertainment for only $40.
When we were chatting with our "expert" she told us about a cool documentary and some books that could help and educate us. So last night I was searching on the web to see if I could find some of what she suggested. Unfortunately it's a bit of an obscure topic and I was unable to find a torrent for the documentary. She suggested that I try looking on amazon. I had never been on the site before, so I decided to check it out. I ended up getting 5 books for like $40. $8 per book, can't complain about that. When in reality I got a couple books for $0.01 but shipping was like $6.50 or something.
Not all the books had to do with business either, in fact only 1 did, the other 4 were purely for pleasure. I took out my reading list I had written down a little while ago and searched a few of the books. The prices were right so I couldn't refuse!
I'm excited to get all my new presents and have many hours of entertainment for only $40.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Nostalgic
It's sometimes funny how this world seems to work. Lately I've been watching an old favourite TV show of mine, "The Wonder Years". From watching it I often felt very nostalgic and wished I could go back to being 13 and relive some of the exact same things that Kevin Arnold was going through. Little did I know that in the week to follow, I would be given a chance to do just that... somewhat.
On the 25th of August around 10:15am I embarked on a road trip to Calgary. I was headed home to visit my parents and Darren St. Clair, who was flying in from London, England. I decided not to rush the trip out and stop off in Kamloops on my way out, the old stompin' grounds. For those of you who don't know, I spent my younger years in Kamloops before moving to Calgary. I got in touch with my old bestfriend, Lauren, and we made plans to meet up for dinner. I ended up hanging out with her and her family for about 6 hours. It was really great to spend time with her again, and have the opprotunity to chat with her mom, dad, and sister. All of which I hadn't seen in roughly 6 years.
Through sitting and chatting with Lauren and her family, I was shot right back to when I was kid. Lauren and I remembered stories from back when we were young. Her mom told us a lot of the same stories, but from the adults perspective, which was funny. We went through her year books and I was able to see the difference between how the people looked when I left Kamloops compared to how they looked when they graduated high school, if they graduated. We also went for a drive around the old city. We stopped by my first house and neighborhood in Kamloops. It was almost too much, I had an overwhelming giddyness the entire time. It was such a trip back in time to drive around and remember the way I walked to school, where I used to play, who lived where and surprising to learn that most people still live in the same spot.
After the trip back in time I went to sleep totally content and with a big smile on my face. I woke up early the next morning and headed on out to my final destination, Calgary. A few days into my trip I would be thrown back in time once again. Darren and I were headed to Canada Olympic Park to check it out, and on the way I decided to stop by my old high school and take a peak around. As we walked the halls I was reliving memory after memory and trying to tell Darren about as many of them as could. Then we stopped at the wall with all the class photos and find my photo and looked through the few years before and after my graduating year. It was fun to look at everyone and tell Darren stories of all the different people.
The whole trip I couldn't stop thinking how funny it was that for about 2 weeks leading into the trip I was watching the show wishing I could go back, and then in a way I was given that opprotunity.
It's a crazy, whacky, wonderful world we live in...
**And I forgot, I also found all these old photos and letters hidden in the back of my closet. That was another trip down memory lane!
On the 25th of August around 10:15am I embarked on a road trip to Calgary. I was headed home to visit my parents and Darren St. Clair, who was flying in from London, England. I decided not to rush the trip out and stop off in Kamloops on my way out, the old stompin' grounds. For those of you who don't know, I spent my younger years in Kamloops before moving to Calgary. I got in touch with my old bestfriend, Lauren, and we made plans to meet up for dinner. I ended up hanging out with her and her family for about 6 hours. It was really great to spend time with her again, and have the opprotunity to chat with her mom, dad, and sister. All of which I hadn't seen in roughly 6 years.
Through sitting and chatting with Lauren and her family, I was shot right back to when I was kid. Lauren and I remembered stories from back when we were young. Her mom told us a lot of the same stories, but from the adults perspective, which was funny. We went through her year books and I was able to see the difference between how the people looked when I left Kamloops compared to how they looked when they graduated high school, if they graduated. We also went for a drive around the old city. We stopped by my first house and neighborhood in Kamloops. It was almost too much, I had an overwhelming giddyness the entire time. It was such a trip back in time to drive around and remember the way I walked to school, where I used to play, who lived where and surprising to learn that most people still live in the same spot.
After the trip back in time I went to sleep totally content and with a big smile on my face. I woke up early the next morning and headed on out to my final destination, Calgary. A few days into my trip I would be thrown back in time once again. Darren and I were headed to Canada Olympic Park to check it out, and on the way I decided to stop by my old high school and take a peak around. As we walked the halls I was reliving memory after memory and trying to tell Darren about as many of them as could. Then we stopped at the wall with all the class photos and find my photo and looked through the few years before and after my graduating year. It was fun to look at everyone and tell Darren stories of all the different people.
The whole trip I couldn't stop thinking how funny it was that for about 2 weeks leading into the trip I was watching the show wishing I could go back, and then in a way I was given that opprotunity.
It's a crazy, whacky, wonderful world we live in...
**And I forgot, I also found all these old photos and letters hidden in the back of my closet. That was another trip down memory lane!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Ucluelet/Tofino.
Alright, I now have more places than a tent somewhere in Kananaskis that I want to live. I was just up in Ucluelet, or Ukee as the locals say, and Tofino for a few days visiting my good friend T.J. and loved every minute of it, even the 6 hours spent being sick on a boat in the ocean.
My journey started after work at 2pm. I zipped home to pack really quick and head on my way. However, while I was packing I got a nice surprise text from a good friend, Jocelyn Arnason, from Calgary that I hadn't seen in a long time. So I went and met her and her boyfriend on the patio of Canoe Club for a chatski and a quick bite to eat. I had never really spent any time with her boyfriend, so it was really nice to get to know him a bit and to spend time with her. Not to mention that it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. It was just a little preview of how epic this trip was going to be.
I left Canoe Club around 5:30 and hit the road. I had talked to a few different people before leaving and had heard mixed reviews, some said the drive was almost 6 hours, some said 4 hours. It ended up taking me just under 4 with stopping for A&W and getting pulled-over once. Luckily I got a really nice RCMP guy and he only gave me a warning. If you have never done it before, the drive is a lot of fun, and beautiful. The road is pretty easy going until you get up passed Nanaimo and get off Highway 1 and turn into the 14. Once you get there it starts to get a bit windy, but this is also where it starts to get really pretty. The forest becomes a lot more dense and you drive passed some really pretty lakes and coves. I got to see an amazing sunset. I turned around a corner and all of a sudden there was this gorgeous little bay. I debated pulling over for a minute to watch, but it was getting late and I was unsure of how much father I had. I kept driving and just took as many peaks over as I could, which wasn't many because I was going down a pretty steep windy hill. As the sun went down, the fog rolled in which also made for some pretty cool views. Finally around 9:30 I arrived at the Canadian Princess Resort, which is where T.J. works. He still had awhile until he was off so I just sat and chatted with people and had a couple beers. Once T.J. got off we just headed to his house and sat for awhile catching up and having a couple more beers then went to bed.
In hindsight staying up that late and having that many beers was probably a bad choice. We had to get up around 05:00 because we headed out fishing at 06:00. We got up, had a quick cup'o'marnin' (aka coffee) and headed to the boats to start our adventure out on the old salt chuck. We were going for a pretty long run out into open water. The capt'n said there was some good fishing about 2hrs out. So T.J. and I poured ourselves a cup of tea and prepared ourselves for a long boat ride. I made it about an hour until I started to feel kind of queasy and about another 30mins until I start ralphing. As soon as we stopped I stumbled my way into the wheel house, laid down on a bench and that was game over. That bench became my little resting spot for the rest of the trip. Anytime I tried to open my eyes I immediately felt sick, so I just kept them close and tried to sleep as much as possible. At one point when I was awake and could hear people talking about whales, apparently there were two swimming right beside the boat, and one father out that totally breached the surface. I was pretty upset about that, I mean I was upset about the whole thing, but especially missing the whales. Luckily the fishing trip only cost me $20 instead of the regular $140 because Teej works for them.
Once we got off the boat I felt almost normal. We stopped on the Princess and had a big lunch to replenish everything I left out there on the chuck. After lunch we headed back to T.J.'s and had a 30min nap that turned into a 2 hour nap, clearly we needed it. Once we got up we had a delicious dinner of fresh Halibut that Teej had caught that morning with potatoes and salad, so good! After we finished the scrumptious dinner we headed out to do some rock climbing. We made a pretty sweet little boulder problem which neither of us could fully solve. We then enjoyed a nice cleansing ale on the rocks while watching the sun set, headed home chatted and then headed to bed.
We woke up with the plans to have a quick breakfast and hike out to a WWII Canso bomber plane that crashed in 1945 with a few of T.J.'s friends. T.J.'s brother-in-law had other plans however. He made us a huge fantastic omlette and bacon breakfast. Instead of heading out around 11:00 like planned we started the trip around 13:30. Other than taking a few tries to find the trailhead, the hike was flawless and a lot of fun. The bomber was amazing and we had a lot of fun climbing on and exploring the plane. After the hike we headed into Tofino so that Phil, one of Teej's friends, could buy some new fins for his surfboard. I wanted to stay and bum around Tofino a little more, but we just headed back to Ukee to have a BBQ and Phil and Dave's. Which pretty much brings an end to that night, we just hung out, had a BBQ and a few drinks and then called it a night.
The next morning T.J. and I went surfing, which was really fun. It was my 3rd time ever surfing. The waves weren't exactly the best, but I managed to catch one really good wave which made it worth it. Unfortunately Teej had to work at 15:00 so we didn't have too much time on the water, but after we were done we went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. We got a table with a good view of the beach and had a nice little man-date. After I dropped T.J. off at work and said goodbye, I brought my surfboard back and decided to head into Tofino to explore a little more than the day before. Coinsidently Laura Mitic, Julia Tschanz, and Adrienne Attorp had just arrived in Tofino from Victoria. I made plans to meet up with them and wandered around with them for awhile. And then finally it was time for me to head home. It was a sad realisation. I really enjoyed my time up there, it didn't even feel like I was in Canada. But within a mere 3hrs45mins later I was back at home and in the real world once again.
This trip is definitely on my top 3 favourite trip list. It was hard for me to leave. I had the urge to just pack-up everything and move out there and be a huge surf-bum and grow a big gnarly beard. Now I have a decision to make for once I'm done running, a tent in the mountains being a climbing-bum, or somewhere up in Ukee or Tofino being a surf-bum...
My journey started after work at 2pm. I zipped home to pack really quick and head on my way. However, while I was packing I got a nice surprise text from a good friend, Jocelyn Arnason, from Calgary that I hadn't seen in a long time. So I went and met her and her boyfriend on the patio of Canoe Club for a chatski and a quick bite to eat. I had never really spent any time with her boyfriend, so it was really nice to get to know him a bit and to spend time with her. Not to mention that it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. It was just a little preview of how epic this trip was going to be.
I left Canoe Club around 5:30 and hit the road. I had talked to a few different people before leaving and had heard mixed reviews, some said the drive was almost 6 hours, some said 4 hours. It ended up taking me just under 4 with stopping for A&W and getting pulled-over once. Luckily I got a really nice RCMP guy and he only gave me a warning. If you have never done it before, the drive is a lot of fun, and beautiful. The road is pretty easy going until you get up passed Nanaimo and get off Highway 1 and turn into the 14. Once you get there it starts to get a bit windy, but this is also where it starts to get really pretty. The forest becomes a lot more dense and you drive passed some really pretty lakes and coves. I got to see an amazing sunset. I turned around a corner and all of a sudden there was this gorgeous little bay. I debated pulling over for a minute to watch, but it was getting late and I was unsure of how much father I had. I kept driving and just took as many peaks over as I could, which wasn't many because I was going down a pretty steep windy hill. As the sun went down, the fog rolled in which also made for some pretty cool views. Finally around 9:30 I arrived at the Canadian Princess Resort, which is where T.J. works. He still had awhile until he was off so I just sat and chatted with people and had a couple beers. Once T.J. got off we just headed to his house and sat for awhile catching up and having a couple more beers then went to bed.
In hindsight staying up that late and having that many beers was probably a bad choice. We had to get up around 05:00 because we headed out fishing at 06:00. We got up, had a quick cup'o'marnin' (aka coffee) and headed to the boats to start our adventure out on the old salt chuck. We were going for a pretty long run out into open water. The capt'n said there was some good fishing about 2hrs out. So T.J. and I poured ourselves a cup of tea and prepared ourselves for a long boat ride. I made it about an hour until I started to feel kind of queasy and about another 30mins until I start ralphing. As soon as we stopped I stumbled my way into the wheel house, laid down on a bench and that was game over. That bench became my little resting spot for the rest of the trip. Anytime I tried to open my eyes I immediately felt sick, so I just kept them close and tried to sleep as much as possible. At one point when I was awake and could hear people talking about whales, apparently there were two swimming right beside the boat, and one father out that totally breached the surface. I was pretty upset about that, I mean I was upset about the whole thing, but especially missing the whales. Luckily the fishing trip only cost me $20 instead of the regular $140 because Teej works for them.
Once we got off the boat I felt almost normal. We stopped on the Princess and had a big lunch to replenish everything I left out there on the chuck. After lunch we headed back to T.J.'s and had a 30min nap that turned into a 2 hour nap, clearly we needed it. Once we got up we had a delicious dinner of fresh Halibut that Teej had caught that morning with potatoes and salad, so good! After we finished the scrumptious dinner we headed out to do some rock climbing. We made a pretty sweet little boulder problem which neither of us could fully solve. We then enjoyed a nice cleansing ale on the rocks while watching the sun set, headed home chatted and then headed to bed.
We woke up with the plans to have a quick breakfast and hike out to a WWII Canso bomber plane that crashed in 1945 with a few of T.J.'s friends. T.J.'s brother-in-law had other plans however. He made us a huge fantastic omlette and bacon breakfast. Instead of heading out around 11:00 like planned we started the trip around 13:30. Other than taking a few tries to find the trailhead, the hike was flawless and a lot of fun. The bomber was amazing and we had a lot of fun climbing on and exploring the plane. After the hike we headed into Tofino so that Phil, one of Teej's friends, could buy some new fins for his surfboard. I wanted to stay and bum around Tofino a little more, but we just headed back to Ukee to have a BBQ and Phil and Dave's. Which pretty much brings an end to that night, we just hung out, had a BBQ and a few drinks and then called it a night.
The next morning T.J. and I went surfing, which was really fun. It was my 3rd time ever surfing. The waves weren't exactly the best, but I managed to catch one really good wave which made it worth it. Unfortunately Teej had to work at 15:00 so we didn't have too much time on the water, but after we were done we went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. We got a table with a good view of the beach and had a nice little man-date. After I dropped T.J. off at work and said goodbye, I brought my surfboard back and decided to head into Tofino to explore a little more than the day before. Coinsidently Laura Mitic, Julia Tschanz, and Adrienne Attorp had just arrived in Tofino from Victoria. I made plans to meet up with them and wandered around with them for awhile. And then finally it was time for me to head home. It was a sad realisation. I really enjoyed my time up there, it didn't even feel like I was in Canada. But within a mere 3hrs45mins later I was back at home and in the real world once again.
This trip is definitely on my top 3 favourite trip list. It was hard for me to leave. I had the urge to just pack-up everything and move out there and be a huge surf-bum and grow a big gnarly beard. Now I have a decision to make for once I'm done running, a tent in the mountains being a climbing-bum, or somewhere up in Ukee or Tofino being a surf-bum...
Monday, August 16, 2010
Epic 2 Week Break.
Every year the majestic animal known as the middle distance runner is set free by his/her coaches and allowed to do WHATEVER he/she wants. To see what happens in the absolute freedom, lets take Canadian middle distance runner, Peter Corrigan as an example.
I have to say, this 2 week break was like no other break I've ever had. I took this break more seriously than ever before. I'll have to go back to Toronto just after my less than stellar heat of the 1500m at nationals. Cliff Childs and I were both mildly disappointed after missing out on the final by a few spots and headed directly to the liquor store and picked up a few beers. We were staying in different places so we split ways with plans to meet up at the track in 30mins. I took the subway back up to the apartment I was staying in and freshened up. I decided I'd walk back to the track and enjoy the nice day. I also decided it would be a good idea to keep it classy and brown-bag a couple beers on my way. On my way to the track I ran into my newly engaged friends, Matt Norminton and Jen Kemp, so I sat and had another beer with Matt. So after about 75mins I finally made it to the track. Watched a few races, and then headed out to the pub to drink. I went to bed around 2:30am that night, got up around 11am did some mild detox and started drinking again around 4pm. This night was so much fun, I'm pretty sure I danced for like 4-5 hours straight. I stayed up and got on a bus at 6am to head to the airport and ended up stayin awake until about 8am when I crashed on a bench in the airport. woke up around 9am to get on my flight, lucked out with 3 seats to myself, sprawled out and fell asleep before take off. I slept on and off the entire flight and woke up in Victoria, my body ravaged, my voice gone, and unsure how much dignity I had left, haha. Karl Robertson picked us up from the airport, I was trying to tell stories but gave up after a few mins because my voice was so bad. On the ride Karl asked if I wanted to come camping with him and a few others later that afternoon. Without hesitation I said "NO". I was in no shape to go camping. When I got home I went straight to bed, slept for about 4 hours, woke up, called Karl and told him to come pick me up. Went to the liquor store, bought 16 Pilsners and got right back down to business. After some story telling, laughs, and a little skinny dipping it was 2am and time for bed. We woke up at 9 the next morning and I cracked my first beer at 9:30 and had hotdogs and cheese-smokies for breakfast. That afternoon we went and rafted down the Cowichan river and then I headed home to finally give my body a rest.
I took a few days down, put in some hours at work. I also did a ton of climbing and went to Thetis lake and did some cliff jumping and about 100x more swimming than I had done in recent memory.
I was just biding my time in these days off until August 11th. This was a date that was down in a lot of people's day planners for a few weeks. Not only was it Deirdre's (and all of the engineer's) last exam of summer school and one of her last days in Victoria, but also Kendra's Birthday and one of Logan's last days here as well. To celebrate Dee and I decided to have people over all day for BBQ and drinks. On my way home from work at 2 I stopped by the liquor store and picked up a cheap flat of beer to enforce the mandatory shotgun upon entry into the backyard. Long story short, the night was amazing, everyone had a blast, there was no drama, no crying, one guy puked, but at like 6 so he slept for a few hours and then rallied like a champ. The party really lived up to expecations, if not exceeded them.
The following night Kendra had some friends from home over to Victoria and we went out for a night on the town. We decided to start classy and head to Monty's and then continuing the classy we went to Plan B. It was another awesome night of good times and dancing. After we got home from the bar a couple buddies and myself sat in my backyard watched the meteors.
Today I'm heading up-island to Uculuelet to visit my good friend TJ. We're going to go do some ocean fishing tomorrow morning, some bouldering and also hike up a mountain. Soon after I get back from TJ's I'm heading out to Calgary for a week to see friends and family. Also, Darren St. Clair, a good friend from the UK is coming to visit. I'm really excited to see him and spend some time out in to the REAL mountains.
As I said earlier, I've taken this break more serious than ever before. I partied harder, relaxed more, and did more epic things than any break I've ever had in the past. I'm going to do my first run today up in Uculuelet and I am really excited. I actually had to force myself to NOT run these past couple days. Luckily the scorching heat helped a bit. I'm stoked on getting out there this fall, healthy and injury free and pounding out MILES! I've started reading Once a Runner for the umpteenth time to get me even more pumped. I am totally refreshed and got some things out of my system now before the season starts.
WOO RUNNING!
I have to say, this 2 week break was like no other break I've ever had. I took this break more seriously than ever before. I'll have to go back to Toronto just after my less than stellar heat of the 1500m at nationals. Cliff Childs and I were both mildly disappointed after missing out on the final by a few spots and headed directly to the liquor store and picked up a few beers. We were staying in different places so we split ways with plans to meet up at the track in 30mins. I took the subway back up to the apartment I was staying in and freshened up. I decided I'd walk back to the track and enjoy the nice day. I also decided it would be a good idea to keep it classy and brown-bag a couple beers on my way. On my way to the track I ran into my newly engaged friends, Matt Norminton and Jen Kemp, so I sat and had another beer with Matt. So after about 75mins I finally made it to the track. Watched a few races, and then headed out to the pub to drink. I went to bed around 2:30am that night, got up around 11am did some mild detox and started drinking again around 4pm. This night was so much fun, I'm pretty sure I danced for like 4-5 hours straight. I stayed up and got on a bus at 6am to head to the airport and ended up stayin awake until about 8am when I crashed on a bench in the airport. woke up around 9am to get on my flight, lucked out with 3 seats to myself, sprawled out and fell asleep before take off. I slept on and off the entire flight and woke up in Victoria, my body ravaged, my voice gone, and unsure how much dignity I had left, haha. Karl Robertson picked us up from the airport, I was trying to tell stories but gave up after a few mins because my voice was so bad. On the ride Karl asked if I wanted to come camping with him and a few others later that afternoon. Without hesitation I said "NO". I was in no shape to go camping. When I got home I went straight to bed, slept for about 4 hours, woke up, called Karl and told him to come pick me up. Went to the liquor store, bought 16 Pilsners and got right back down to business. After some story telling, laughs, and a little skinny dipping it was 2am and time for bed. We woke up at 9 the next morning and I cracked my first beer at 9:30 and had hotdogs and cheese-smokies for breakfast. That afternoon we went and rafted down the Cowichan river and then I headed home to finally give my body a rest.
I took a few days down, put in some hours at work. I also did a ton of climbing and went to Thetis lake and did some cliff jumping and about 100x more swimming than I had done in recent memory.
I was just biding my time in these days off until August 11th. This was a date that was down in a lot of people's day planners for a few weeks. Not only was it Deirdre's (and all of the engineer's) last exam of summer school and one of her last days in Victoria, but also Kendra's Birthday and one of Logan's last days here as well. To celebrate Dee and I decided to have people over all day for BBQ and drinks. On my way home from work at 2 I stopped by the liquor store and picked up a cheap flat of beer to enforce the mandatory shotgun upon entry into the backyard. Long story short, the night was amazing, everyone had a blast, there was no drama, no crying, one guy puked, but at like 6 so he slept for a few hours and then rallied like a champ. The party really lived up to expecations, if not exceeded them.
The following night Kendra had some friends from home over to Victoria and we went out for a night on the town. We decided to start classy and head to Monty's and then continuing the classy we went to Plan B. It was another awesome night of good times and dancing. After we got home from the bar a couple buddies and myself sat in my backyard watched the meteors.
Today I'm heading up-island to Uculuelet to visit my good friend TJ. We're going to go do some ocean fishing tomorrow morning, some bouldering and also hike up a mountain. Soon after I get back from TJ's I'm heading out to Calgary for a week to see friends and family. Also, Darren St. Clair, a good friend from the UK is coming to visit. I'm really excited to see him and spend some time out in to the REAL mountains.
As I said earlier, I've taken this break more serious than ever before. I partied harder, relaxed more, and did more epic things than any break I've ever had in the past. I'm going to do my first run today up in Uculuelet and I am really excited. I actually had to force myself to NOT run these past couple days. Luckily the scorching heat helped a bit. I'm stoked on getting out there this fall, healthy and injury free and pounding out MILES! I've started reading Once a Runner for the umpteenth time to get me even more pumped. I am totally refreshed and got some things out of my system now before the season starts.
WOO RUNNING!
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