This weekend would not have been the same if I hadn't had the wonderful opportunity to spend so much time with Graham and Paul....two fabulous and mighty entertaining fellas. Friday night we made it to the ferry with minutes to spare for our reservation ticket. Unfortunately Jordy missed out on the 7 ferry......it pays to reserve when it comes to the nanaimo ferry...I've had too many time consuming moments waiting 2/3 ferry boat waits in my past. We arrived to the Riding Fool Hostel as everyone was packing up. Partly due to the ferry and partly due to our or maybe my lack of sense of direction....not sure...i'll just blame it on Paul...he was driving...haha...
Saturday morning, was thankfully chilly but DRY (last time you'll hear that word in the rest of this post). Unfortunaltey I was here and there and not really anywhere before the race as I was angry at the world and mighty frustrated as I could not find a single person who could tape my ankles properly for me and I really needed someone to tape them well. So....I ended up doing it myself...probably the worse decision I could have made. By the time I got myself organized the next thing I know we are in our boats and kayaking. I was with Jordy and Paul and Graham were in the second boat. I was impressed with our paddle despite Jordy losing part of his paddle half throughout the kayak session....
then came the run...oh man this run/orienteering section just wasn't met to be for us on this particular day. Right off the bat we took a wrong turn and that unfortunately set the stage for the rest of our lengthy run. We thought we were heading to check point 9 and ended up at 7 (an example of just how well we did..). It was frustrating for me as I wasn't never physically tired on the run but had to be sooo careful not to roll my ankles at all that I took it super easy in the trails watching every step, making sure I had a positive foot plant. I even had to stop and Graham helped me tear half of my tape job part way off as it was ripping through my skin at the bottom of my foot and was annoying me more than my actual ankle. Eventually we made it back to the kayaks ( a little under the weather and frustrated and our mojo levels were a little low to say the least....we had lost at least an hour from mistakes). We shook it off and jumped into our kayaks and had a great little paddle to the other side of the bay.
By the now the rain and wind had picked up and it was fairly cold outside. My fingers were so swollen that I could hardly close my hands in a fist. We had a quick transition (probably 'cause we were sooo cold) and went off on our bikes...It was pretyt chilly on the bike but once we got into the trails it was just really wet and muddy. We did well on the bike and managed to make up some ground, passing many teams. There were some fun trails but the slippery roots defintiely made it tricky at times.
We finally crossed the line in 5 hrs 44min...we were glad to be done but a little disappointed as we really felt like we could have and should have been much faster. We didn't mingle around too long as we were all freezing. Graham, Paul and I changed and hung out in Pauls truck for a while with the heat cranked and the seat warmers on full blast. Graham and Paul were rockstars and eventually got the kayaks on the truck and strapped down.
Our first stop was the beer store...and then a warm cozy lodge....OH and I have to say we experienced our first snow fall of the season..It was clearly wet snow but it was definitely snow. Winter is a coming. Graham and I hung out under warm blankets and a warm fire and watched Shrek while Paul hit the hot tub. We drank and chilled for awhile until we got the energy to put together some sort of toga outfit and head to the dinner and after party.
Dinner was great, beer was delicious and surprisingly we ended up winning FIRST in our category and were the first team of 4 across the finish line. So,.....we celebrated in the pub until the wee hours of the night.
6am Sunday morning Paul comes and wakes us up...oh man...we were up and out in 15 minutes...ROCK STARS....We again just made our ferry reservation. It was an interesting drive as the first half hour you could not see a thing with the dense fog and hard rain and black skies...not sure how Paul managed that one.....number 1!...We also had two double kayaks on teh roof of the car that were half full with water as we didn't not cover the tops...haha..made for a couple of stops along the highway and one heavy truck.
We made it to the ferry, had a delicious ferry breakfast and then headed home.
I managed to squeeze in a 2 hour nap before my last kayak session with Ben. It was fliping and centering the surf ski day. AWESOME, it is freezing and pouring...
I did not want to go outside and just wanted to curl up and stay in bed but my discipline and determination told me otherwise and next thing I know I am on the water with Ben and John in my wetsuit layaking around this huge freight boat.....and then flipping and getting back into my surf ski. So, now I am a pro at doing all this in nice calm waters....the test will be can I perform all this in choppy waves??????? to be determined...
We finished off our session at the Raven with wings and calamari and kayak and biking chat.
I am out and off to bed....I think I deserve it...or at least I owe that to my poor body...
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