Canada Day Weekend

Pictures from our Canada Day weekend are up here.

We had a lot of fun. It was sunny and warm-ish and there was plenty of good food.. It was great to see all the family together again - first time since Christmas.  Also crazy to see how much Darcy & Wesley grew in the last six months.

Happy to be home!

My Neat Freak-ness Pays Off

Got up, showered, dressed, made the bed, did my hair and just as I was starting to put my make-up on BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ... BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ... BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ...

The CO alarm in my hallway was going off and waking up anybody in a 1km radius.  It scared the living daylights out of me. That alarm is loud! How happy am I that it didn't go off in the middle of the night? Ridiculously happy.

I pulled the alarm out of the plug in the wall and unplugged the battery. Once the alarm stopped and I could hear myself think again, I read the instructions on the alarm and it seemed it was telling me I needed to get out into fresh air and call 911. Not exactly great timing but I figured I'd better do what it said even if I was pretty sure there was no way there could be a gas leak and now I would be late for work.

After calling 911 and explaining the situation, I took the food compost out for pick-up and before I could get back to the bathroom to finish putting on my make-up, the firemen were pulling up outside my building. Ten minutes later they were gone. Five of them came in, one with some kind of machine to read gas levels (I guess) and they tested everywhere. The fireplace, the bbq, the vents, the drains, the water tank. In the end, it seems this high humidity (I don't think it's that humid but apparently others feel differently) played a mean trick on the CO sensor and set it off.

Now, if you're ever planning to have 5 unannounced firemen (although when are firemen ever expected in your home, unless you're putting together some kind of fundraising calendar ;) hee, hee!), you'll be pretty glad to have made your bed and have everything in the house in its place. No dishes in the sink. Counters tidy. Cushions placed just so. Bed made. Clothes put away. Etc. I can certainly tell you I was very relieved there were no unsightly dishes sitting around or a messy bed to be looked upon by complete strangers. Believe me, I was pretty happy that my neat freak-ness finally paid off.

So yeah, my house was clean and there was no gas leak to worry about!  But then I realised I had 5 people tramping through my house in their big fireman boots and now I will have to clean the floors. Also, this made me 3 minutes late for work.

Out of India

While I'm in India I'll be keeping track of events, adventures and stuff over at Stef Out of India. You will find me posting there starting in February, once I get a wifi connection sorted out.

I hereby solemnly swear to post many pictures and make you very jealous ;)

Another "last"

Today is my last day at work for the next five months! To say I'm excited about my Indian Adventure would be putting it mildly, to say the least.

The refrain in my head these last few days has mostly been something along the lines of "GAH!" and "Lalala!!!" and "Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-tah!!!" and other ridiculous exclamations.

That is all. (Too excited to focus on what I'm writing any longer.)

Last week in Montreal

Down to the final 7 day countdown!  Next Monday I leave for nearly a week of Chocolate, Cheese & Hysteria Therapy (aka Switzerland with my best friend.) Two weeks from today I'll be in India!  Woot!

Back "home"

What's that saying about "you can't go home?"  Well, I have but I haven't.  Having rented out my condo and the last minute change in departure date, somehow I find myself moved into my parents' house for two whole weeks before I leave for India.  My parents' house is not "home" the way the house in Lachine was "home", if you know what I mean.

My stay at what is jokingly referred to as the Titcombe B&B in NDG is off to a rough start.

Moving Day 1 & 2: Track slush and muck all over carpets and hardwood floors.
Day 1:  Wake up with fever, go to work, come home at lunch time and sleep all afternoon.
Day 2:  Blow a fuse drying my hair at 6am.
Day 3:  What could tomorrow possibly bring? I'm afraid I will overstay my welcome as a guest at the Titcombe B&B pretty fast if anything else happens ...

Visa update?

8:30am

Does this sound to you like my visa for India has come through:

"Processed application has been dispatched from the Operations hub to the Indian Visa and Consular Services Centre, Application Centre Montreal on 09-Jan-2013."

Yes? No? Maybe?

4:00pm - Update

"Your application is ready for collection at the Indian Visa and Consular Services Centre, Application Centre Montreal where you had submitted your application."

I think this means my visa is ready. I think.

6:42pm - Update

YES!  It was ready! I have it! I have my visa for India!  Woot!!!

India, here I come!  (After I buy my ticket (now that I know I can get in the country), of course.)

Another week down

Counting down like nobody's business and have crossed another week off the waiting list.

Trying hard to be patient. Not easy.

Coming together

Ever so slowly, things are coming together as I prepare for my 5 month stint in India.

Tonight I signed the lease to rent my condo for 3 months, with the option for an additional 2 months, if the guy needs it.  This is a huge, and I do mean HUGE, relief for me. It will make all things budget related that much more manageable while I'm gone.

Now if my visa would just come through, I'd be able to start breathing again.

Out of my hands

Just back from submitting my application for my Indian tourist visa. In approximately and exactly 7-10 days I will know if they'll let me in the country.  It's out of my hands now!

Not a stick man portrait

Do you have talent? I don't. I am spectacularly talentless, especially when it comes to real artistry. Lucky for me, I have friends, very good and special friends. This one friend in particular, Cecilia, is also a very talented artist. You see this sketch here on the left? She DREW that! Like, with her hands! Hmmm, maybe just one hand. Unless she's ambidextrous and I don't know about it. Possible. 

Cecilia and I met at work sometime around the year 2000. She has told me that we met in one of the many training sessions we had to attend. Typically, I have no memory of this (this will come as no surprise to some other friends.) However, at some point we started having lunch together, then she started sending me doughnuts through our internal mail service, followed by cans of V8, half of a chocolate bar and before you knew it we were doing things outside of work too. Mostly drinking a lot of wine and eating a lot of french fries and cheese cake.

Where the last 12, nearly 13 years have gone, I don't quite know, but Cecilia has certainly been a part of my small circle of friends that whole time. We don't see each other as often anymore. Life is like that.  We don't work together anymore, she's moved out to Mars (a.k.a. Île Bizard), she's had two kids ... The point is that we're still friends and even though we're not a part of each other's every day life, I think on the occasions that we do meet up, we're able to spend quality time together. That's important for me.

A few months ago (maybe it was only a few weeks but when your friend lives on Mars you automatically think everything was a few months past) Cecilia asked me to send her a favourite picture of myself. After sending her this picture, she muttered back to me that it needed to be a picture of my face.(Sheesh, how was I supposed to know?!)  I emailed her back another picture and promptly forgot all about it.

Last week I received her Christmas card, along with a picture of her kids. Admittedly, I was disappointed not to see a reworked comical collage of some kind using the picture I'd sent, seen here to the right. (Also I had hoped her annual year in review letter would be enclosed but it wasn't and have since been told she emails that out in January. I think she's making me wait on purpose.)

Last night we had our Christmas get together and Cecilia presented me with this beautiful (and I mean the drawing itself, not the subject) picture you see at the top of this post. I was floored - I mean look at it! It's incredible! I was also so touched that I promptly burst into tears in the middle of the restaurant.  So I've been wide awake for awhile now thinking about friends and what they mean to me, and why, and lots of other end of year thoughts.  Nothing much to tell you that I can put into words just yet other than Cecilia is a great artist, a true friend and a very special person in my life. I appreciate the thought and time that went into this gift but more than all that, I am thankful for her.  Cecilia, thank you.

Winter, how you try my patience

Winter arrived yesterday with a snow storm. Then it warmed up and rained. And of course, after that it got cold again and snowed. Because winter, you know, is like that. Mean.

This morning I went over to the parking lot to pick up the key for the community car and found that the lock box was frozen solid.  I could turn my key but couldn't remove the metal plate to get to the keys.  I tried the second lock box and the same thing happened. Feeling very MacGyver-ish, despite it being 8am, on a Saturday morning, standing on ice, in the blowing snow - I found a pen in my purse and tried to scrape away some of the ice that was holding the plate in. Five minutes later, now with my nose running and freezing all at the same time, I gave up and decided to go home and get one of those really sharp utility knives. Back with my knife, I started scraping again, broke a few blades off, pushed the next one up, and then scraped too hard because the whole blade thing fell out of the knife and when I tried to put it back in, put the blade in the wrong slot and then couldn't get it out to move it up or down in the shaft. At this point I called the community car service and explained what was going on and how it was impossible for me to get the car back in time, if I ever did manage to get in the lock box to the key. The agent was able to change my reservation time and car. Phew! But would I be able to get to a key?

Question for you, my audience - sensing my frustration yet?  Oh, it was there. Believe you me.

Back home for my back up utility knife and back to the parking lot. More scraping, more blades, more trying to open the lock boxes. NOTHING. NADA. I gave up and tried calling the car service again, only to get stuck on hold as I was walking over to a second (further) car location and then my phone DIED. Don't know if it's because my phone is old or because it was cold and the cold drained the battery really fast or maybe a combination of the two but now I had to turn around to walk home to plug in my phone to call the car service again. (And there was much heavy sighing.)

Naturally by this time I was all out of what little patience I had to start with. Now with my phone plugged in, I was able to call the car service again, get stuck on hold for 15 minutes and finally speak with another agent (so I got to repeat the whole story again, lucky me!) who cancelled my reservation at the first location and added one to the second location (about a 10 minute walk away). 

You'd think by this point the story would be finished, right? WRONG!

Now that I get to a lock box that opens (!), when I put the key into the car door, it was a bit sticky and guess what? The key wouldn't go all the way in! HA! Yes, there was ICE IN IT!  What a surprise, I know.  So, I opened the door from the passenger's side and got it unlocked that way. (Much more heavy sighing.)  Don't forget I still had to brush the snow from the car and scrape the ice off all the windows. A further 10 minutes was spent doing that and finally by 9:15am - a full hour and a quarter after leaving my house - I was on my way to do my groceries. A very quick shop, return home to drop off the bags and then I zipped back to the parking lot and was able to drop off the car with 10 minutes to spare before my 10am return time. Finally, a horribly cold walk back home, into the wind and blowing snow and finally, time for breakfast.

I can certainly say I earned it today.

On my way out to dinner soon. Hopefully public transportation won't try my patience as much as winter has already today.

*SIGH*

Countdown

Five weeks today I will be on my way to India. I'm taking the long route, which includes 2 nights in Zurich to get a much needed dose of BFF and all the hilarity that includes, before arriving in Hyderabad 'round about Friday, January 25.

Five weeks, people!

In need of inspiration?

Do you need some inspiration to do something you've never done? To get back to something you haven't done in a while? To push yourself a little harder? A little further? Is there something you want to check off your "bucket list"?

If so, I highly recommend reading Wild, by Cheryl Strayed.

Maybe you need to let go of the past. Maybe you need to accept yourself for who you are. Maybe ... I dunno ... you want to prepare for a long distance hike.

For me it reminded me of what it felt like to finish (yes, FINISH) my first (yes, I did more than one!) TRIATHLON and how it felt like to finish (yes, FINISH) my second (!) TRIATHLON, and how I want that feeling again and I will make sure it happens again. For the record, FINISHING a triathlon felt like I was/am, to quote Cheryl (apologies to my parents for this language), "a hard-ass mother f***ing Amazonian queen."

Take the inspiration you need from Cheryl's story. And that's all I'm going to say about it.

For Rent

Ooops ... pressed the wrong button a few days ago and deleted the post about my condo.

Here's a link to the ad for my condo on craigslist.

And the one on kijiji.

If you know anybody, please forward the information on to them. I'm open to discussion about the dates (earlier in January, if necessary) and always willing to answer questions.

Cold - but not for too long

You know (or maybe you don't, depending where you live) when you're walking into the wind and it's snowing and blowing up hard against your face, and you get that brain freeze feeling except that it's not summer, you're not wearing shorts and there is no ice cream involved? Yes, so that ... I hate that.

But luckily, if everything goes according to plan, in 2 months I won't have to worry about that! Instead you'll be reading my posts Out of India, where I'll spending the next 5 months volunteering for an organization called Shining Stars Centers for Youth Development.

More about all of that as I start to freak out and panic about plans, packing, etc.  For now I'll just say it'll be another item to check off my Life List and how amazing the experience will be.

Life List #37: Take ballroom dance lessons

In case you've been wondering how my Life List has been going, I am thrilled to say that I can now check off item #37:  Take ballroom dance lessons.

In true Stephanie form (or maybe it's Titcombe - we seem to have a thing about doing things all the way or not at all), I didn't just take a single ballroom dance lesson. First I found a Groupon for 4 classes (2 private lessons, 1 group lesson and 1 practice party) for $40. Then, after having so much fun doing the first 4 classes (huge thanks to the instructors at Arthur Murray Montreal Downtown franchise), I decided to go all out and really make an event of this Life List item. To do that meant signing up for their beginner's "Quick Start" program (9 private lessons, 4 group lessons and 2 practice parties) and I also gave myself a kind of "race date" end to it all by buying a ticket to the Bal Viennois de Montréal.  (There's the advertisement on the left.)

Last night was the night! After completing all my classes, borrowing a dress from a friend, buying sparkly dance shoes, getting my hair and make-up done, I attended my first ball (a BALL, people!) and danced the night away. (And there's my ticket to the right.)  You can find pictures here.

I danced, in no particular order:  the Foxtrot, the Viennese Waltz, the Waltz, the Swing, the Hustle, Merengue, Salsa and even the Tango! And it was all AWESOME!

This was more than just learning dances. This was about meeting new people, learning a skill and proving to myself and the people attending that ball that I can dance. I may not be great at letting my partner lead on the dance floor (sorry, guys ...), but I'm still learning. I also know now that I want to learn more dances, learn the more complicated footwork, learn about style, etc. This last month of dancing has been so much fun that I'm going to take a few more classes before the holidays, just to keep me going so I don't forget everything I've learned so far.

Take ballroom dance lessons - Done!

e-Book Library

Now that I'm on the waiting list for 5 books at one library and cannot find anything decent to read in e-books at another, I'm wondering if other people have this problem too?  I'm guessing yes, but know that I can be hard to please, so am willing to admit maybe I'm being difficult. All I want is to have just as good a selection of books to read electronically as I do in paper format. Is that so much to ask?  It is decidedly so (right now.)

Thanksgiving

In case you don't follow me on Twitter, I was in Ottawa this past weekend, visiting my brother and his family. It was a quiet (or as quiet as a family can be with two young children) family weekend.

Before my other brother Eric arrived on Sunday afternoon, we had time to head to the park to get rid of some energy.  Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Enjoy and happy belated Thanksgiving. I was thankful for a family I could visit at the drop of a hat.

Triathlon recap #2

Once again I will start my triathlon recap by briefly going through the night before the race.

Friday night:  Left work early (and stressed out) to give myself plenty of time to get to the Olympic Basin at Parc Jean-Drapeau to scope out the event site and pick up my race kit. I walked around the transition area which was still not fully set up, watched the swimmers in the water and had a quick look at the exhibition booths set up. Double checked at the wetsuit tent that that was where I would need to go for my wetsuit pick-up on Saturday.  Attended pre-race meeting and then headed home. Managed to get home and get some food into me before Nick showed up. He let me flap around as much as I needed (and also reminded to breathe) and we said goodnight around 10:30pm.

Saturday, race day:  Was awake around 3am thanks to the drunken fools leaving the bar around the corner (and this with earplugs!). Possibly the cops showed up. I was just glad it wasn’t me that had to call. Dozed for a bit but by 4am I was really awake and really nervous.

Earlier in the week I’d checked last year’s race results and was astounded by the times. They were fast. If I did the same race this time as I did last week, I would place 28 out of 30 in my age group. This was hard to take. I knew I didn’t want to be last but I thought if I just pushed myself a little harder, maybe, if I was lucky, I could manage 25 out of 30. In all honesty, I just didn’t think I had it in me. I remembered the words of former IronMan Champion (several times over) Pierre Lavoie, who I’d heard speak Friday morning, when it gets tough, think of the people supporting you, even if you can’t see them or hear them. Do your race, not somebody else’s. So I said, OK, I know I can do a 1:40, and if I push myself the same way I used to in a dragon boat competition, I’m pretty sure I can do it in 1:30. Why not? I’ve been training. I have the distances down. I have no serious injuries (and my shoulder can easily be ignored for a few hours). I’m healthy. I can do this! So that was it, I decided I would do it in 1:30. I knew I would have no idea how I was doing in the swim but I could watch my time on the bike and run and push it when I needed to.

Forced myself to stay in bed until 6am and then got up for some coffee, another coat of nail polish and some kind of food. Nick got up an hour later and convinced me to eat a bagel. It was hard to get it down. I was so nervous I could hardly swallow. We left just before 8am and headed over to the Basin.

Just like last week, we scored a great parking spot. This time right beside the F1 track so we were able to see the first IronMan participants on the bike course. Nick was in awe. I was knock-kneed with nervousness. On site I picked up my race chip, got my body marked with my bib number and age, then went to set up in the transition area. Nick had a look at the expo and the pricy gear and accessories for sale. He was worried it would be an expensive day for him.

We walked around a bit. Watched the bikers at the hairpin turn and then had a seat in the stands for a bit. At 9:45am we headed over to pick up wetsuit. Next thing I knew it was time to get that on. Just as I was heading over to do that, we ran into an old dragon boat friend, also doing the Sprint Tri, and she told me a great tip for the swim:  keep to the right and watch for the cord that goes along the bottom of the basin, it’s attached to the buoys. By following this cord, I’ll be able to swim in a straight line without having to sight so much. Nice. At about 10:20am, Nick had just zipped me up and I’d handed him my flip-flops and was heading into the swim area when I heard my mom calling out to me. There, practically beside me, were my Mom & Dad! They each gave me a hug and kiss and it was time for me to go in. I warmed up my shoulders a bit and then got in the water. Did a short swim just to get some water in the wetsuit. The water in the Basin was so murky! And it was colder than Mooney’s Bay last week. They announced 2 minutes until start time. Kept moving. 30 seconds and then the horn blasted. I was off.

This time I made I started closer to the front of the pack and was determined to stay to the right side. I didn’t want to swim any further than necessary. The first few minutes were terrible. I couldn’t swim. Couldn’t get a proper full stroke in. Kept hitting people and got hit plenty myself. Not in my face, thank goodness. Couldn’t believe how murky the water was. Gross. The bottom of the basin just looked slimy, not sandy and clear like last week. Space around me was opening up now. Good. But the waves! What happened to the nice calm water? It was gone. There were waves all over. I choked down a couple of mouthfuls as I tried to breathe on my left. Tried to breathe on the right; same thing. Ugh. Kept swimming. Breathing on the right was better though because I could see the buoy beside me. It was close. Moved over to the left just a little. No need to get a penalty from the refs just now. Going around the first buoy to cross the basin, as I sighted ahead of me I could see there weren’t a lot of people ahead of me. I kept running into a woman in front of me. Felt bad, tried to keep myself straight. Swimming back down the basin suddenly it was so much easier to breathe. Felt good. Kept my eyes on the cord along the bottom of the basin and followed that. Coming up to the last big orange buoy, I remembered that Nick told me to start kicking hard here to get the blood flowing back into my legs. I would need it to get myself up over the bridge when I got out of the water. Last big orange buoy appeared and I started kicking. Crazy but I could actually feel the blood in my legs. My legs were feeling hot all of sudden. Wasn’t sure if I’d be able to walk. Who cares? Crawl if I need to, just keep kicking.

Came out of the water and my parents and brother Eric were right there in the corner shouting to me. Awesome! I’d finished the swim. As I crossed the mat after the swim, I started pulling down the zipper of the wetsuit but it got stuck. I saw Nick and shouted for him. He tried to help me and got it down as far as he could. He struggled with that and told me to get my arms out. Once I had that done, I kept going through to transition. Here’s where I got into problems. I managed to get the wetsuit over my hips and down past my knees but even though I was sitting down, I just couldn’t move it past my ankles. Took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Saw some women come into the transition area and get changed fast. They were off. I cursed to myself. A. Lot. But slowly, slowly got the wetsuit past my ankles. It was torturous. Now that it was off, I threw on my heart rate monitor (why I bothered at this point, I don’t know), t-shirt, race belt on, dried my now filthy feet to get some of the sand and rocks off, got my socks and shoes on, tucked in my laces, helmet on, gloves and sunglasses. Got my bike off the rack and started running with it to the mount line. Got on it and didn’t worry that my feet weren’t in the cages. Knew I could get them in without looking.

Finally, onto the track and hit my watch to track the time. Going up the reverse direction of the track was disconcerting at first, and keeping to the left also pretty disorienting but I quickly settled into the bike. Had a few sips of water and settled down a little. I knew it had taken me a long time to get changed and was frustrated no end. But I had to get over it and focus now on the bike ride. Going up the river side of the track it was windy but I was able to maintain about 25km/h on Nick’s bike. Wild. Maybe I’d be able to do this in 40 minutes! Came across the top end of the track after a short incline and then started going downhill. Picked up speed, more speed. Changed gear again. More speed. Hit 35km/h. Hit 40km/h. Wooohooo! Felt better now that I knew I could still have a good race on the bike. Coming down into the hairpin turn I hoped to see my family and I did. There they were! Shouting out to me, “Go, Stef, go!” That was awesome. Slowed down a lot to get around the turn (stay on the bike, stay on the bike), stay on the bike) and just as I thought I’d be able to pick up some speed again, the wind slammed right into me. Crap. No speed here. Maintained a steady 24-25km/h again on the second lap up the river side of the track. Pushed it harder going down the straight-away, got the bike over 40km/h in two spots. This track is incredible! This bike is fantastic! At the end of lap 2, my family were there again. Shouting out encouragement to me. Started lap 3. Again with the wind. Ugh. Really felt it now. Maybe the wind was picking up. On this lap I noticed small twigs on the track, along with the leaves that had already fallen. Started thinking about what would happen if it rained. Repeated my mantra:  stay on the bike, stay on the bike. Coming down the straight away kept pushing, passing people but no matter how fast I went, there was always somebody else passing me. Whatever. Just do my race, don’t think about them. Kept pushing. End of lap 3, see the family again and try to give them a smile, if they’re taking pictures. Not sure if they’ll see it. Start lap 4 and the wind is definitely picking up. Pretty sure I dropped down to about 22 or 23km/h. Yes, it was my last lap but I still had to run 5km and my legs were tired. Had a sip of water. Started worrying about the run. Bad. It was too early to think about that. Got my focus back on the bike. Noticed more twigs on the track. Some bottles that had fallen off bikes. Stay on the bike. Stay on the bike. Coming down the straight away decided to push it as hard as possible. Never mind what else was coming. Knew I’d hit about 46km/h but quickly got my attention back on the track. Now wasn’t sure if this was my third or fourth lap. Crap. Where was I? The bike computer said 17 something kilometers. My watch said 33 minutes.  33 minutes? But that’s not possible. Did I still have one more lap to go? Started calculating in my head but I knew that if I did another one I’d be over 20km and I knew that the course was short. Came up to the hairpin turn and shouted out to my family “Am I done?” My mom shouted back, “YES!” Taking her at her word, I pulled to the right of the track and headed back along the road towards the dismount area. Checked my watch. 35 minutes?!  Oh boy, I sure hoped I didn’t have another lap to do. But I’d made it, stayed on the bike. Started running with the bike through the transition area. Yikes, there people everywhere. Volunteers shouting to keep the path clear but I wasn’t sure if they were yelling at me or what. Made my way over to my spot. Got the bike on the stand. Pulled my run bottle out, got that into my race belt and turned it around.

My transition spot was as close as possible to the start of the run, so I immediately started running. Felt awful. Legs were like concrete. Might as well have been walking. Ugh. Running along behind the hangars there was dust and debris flying all over the place. Had to cover my nose just to be able to breathe. Up the small incline and onto the track along the top of the basin, beside the seaway. It was my first time running up there. I had no idea it was just a dirt and gravel track! Ugh. More wind, more dust. Kept running. Short and quick. Short and quick. Nick’s running advice was still in my head. Kept my strides short and quick. Don’t know how quick they were but I was passing people. Slowly but surely. Of course there were a few passing me too, probably just to keep my ego in place. Kept moving. Saw the casino across the basin. Knew I’d done 1km and that meant only 4km more to go. Thank God. Legs still felt heavy and I realised I never did any spinning on the bike before getting off. I didn't give my legs a chance to get that running feeling while still on the bike. That's why this felt harder than last week. Or maybe I’d overdone it by pushing so hard on the bike. Maybe I’d kicked too much on the swim. Kept running. Bad thoughts in my head. Couldn’t get rid of them. Somehow I kept moving and made it to the far end of the basin. Seeing the 2000m marker made me realize (duh) that I was more than halfway finished the run. I only had another 2km left to run. I could run 2km! Yes, I can do this! Checked my watch. Huh. It looked like my time was OK after all. Maybe I could pull off a 1:30. I would try. No pain, no glory – I remembered Chuck, my old dragon boat coach telling us that one night in the gym. Yes, dragon boat – think of all the people cheering me on for this:  Janic, TT, M-Pi, Anne, Annie, Panoy, Chuck. And my family. And Yvette and Cecilia. They would want me to push it. Nick, who’d told me to push it. Now was the time! My legs felt OK. Picked up my pace a little. Lots more people on the track now. Some people walking, some running fast, some slowly but everybody was moving. Yes, I could do this. Sip of water. Watched the markers on the side of the basin. 1500m, 1000m. That meant only 1km left! I really could do this. 500m. Picked up the pace again. I could totally do this! Just over 2 minutes in a dragon boat. I’d told Nick I would sprint the last 250m and when that marker came up I said (possibly out loud …) “In 3, 2, 1 – FINISH!” So I sprinted that last 250m and I gave it everything I had. There was a guy ahead of me and I gave it a little more just so I could catch him at that last stretch going into the finishing chute. I saw my family by the rails and they shouted out to me. There were right there! It felt like I flew past them and then I was through the finish and a volunteer was handing me a bottle of water and taking the timing chip bracelet off of my ankle. I was done! I did it!

Walked out of the finishing area and waited for my family to catch up to me. In a minute they were all there; Nick, Eric and my parents. They took some pictures and started telling me that I’d finished my swim in less than 15 minutes! Incredible! That meant that if my watch was right, I may have actually done it in 1 hour 30 minutes. Too much! We chatted for a few minutes and then Eric and my parents headed home while Nick and I picked up my gear. First I got my lunch from the participants tent, then picked up my gear, returned the wetsuit and we headed home.

At home Nick took the seat off his bike and put it back on mine while I had a shower. When I came out he asked me to look at something. He was looking at his computer screen and showed me what he had up. It was the race results. Are you ready for this? Because I wasn’t!

My final times:

Total:  1:25:16.5

Place:  313 out of 592 participants, 14 out of 28 in my age group (women 40-44) [Editor’s note:  who was worried about placing 25^th???], 109 out of 264 (gender place).

Swim, 750m:  13:50.9 – 2^nd out of 28!!! (I very nearly cried when Nick told me this)

Bike, 20km:  46:08 – 23^rd out of 28 (thanks to all that time lost struggling to get out of the wetsuit *sigh*)

Run, 5km:  25:17.9 – 11^th out of 28!!! (if I’d done a sprint from the 500m mark, I might have shaved 13 seconds off my time and finished the run in the top 10, but STILL, 11^th place!)

I really don’t know how, but I managed to beat my own personal goal by a full 5 minutes. That is just incredible to me. Wow. What a day! Even with the wetsuit fiasco, I still placed far better than I ever hoped I could. Too much.

Now that it’s all over, I can say I’m proud of myself.  I set a goal and reached it. Good for me.

Special thanks to Nick for coming into town just for this, and of course for loaning me Eric’s old Peugeot bike. Huge thanks to Eric and my parents for trekking all over Montreal on the metro to come by and catch a few glimpses of me over the course of a few hours on a Saturday morning. It meant the world to me to have people I care for cheer for me and me alone. Because I’ll tell you, it’s just not the same when a volunteer at the race shouts at you to keep going. It made all the difference in the world to me. Thank you.