Papa Lion!!!

It's Thursday and that means my Papa Lion (aka one half of the parental unit, my Pops, me Da, Father) is flying in tonight! I'm totally stoked that he's going to be here for Dads day and to watch me race. Usually both of the parental unit come out to cheer me on, but Mama Lion is going to be in Vancouver cheering on her buddies who are participating in the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.


I swear, my folks are the best fans anyone could have!! An example, last year at Ironman Canada my Dad had the computer set up and was checking everyones run pace. He then would enter said information into an Excel spreadsheet he created, came up with when they would reach the hotel and then where I was near the finish line. With this information in hand he would text me the ETAs (estimated time of arrival) for everyone we knew out there so I would know they were coming! He was dead on the time for everyone! So cool.


This weekend he will be hanging with Jen, Linda (Keiths Mrs.) and Melinda (Shannon's Mrs.) as they also cheer on Shannon, Keith and I.


So what have I been up to the last few days, well, I ran on Monday - just a nice easy one. Then on Tuesday I hit the bonus hill repeats. I gotta tell ya, I am sooo no longer liking the bonus hill. It's BORING to go up and down a wee hill all by your lonesome!


This time I did have the company of three dump trucks who where taking dirt from a place at the top of the bonus hill, then dumping at another location right where I would turn around to start the bonus hill.

So basically it was me and these dump trucks doing intervals. I am sure the drivers were thinking what is wrong with that girl that she keeps going up and down this friggin hill??? At least she's cute. (Okay, that was my thought thrown in there!)


I did 6 of them and I tried to do them all hard. They were. My legs hurt and I was tired.


On Wednesday I did a run in the morning with some pacing intervals. It was a goregous morning (I went out about 6:15 am) and I was just happy to be there. The intervals went really well and I told myself, this is how I'm going to run this weekend! Here's hoping!


In the afternoon I picked up my race package and went to Keiths to chill out. Eventually he got around to telling me he was bailing on the swim. Nooooooo! All was well though because Shannon was still going.


I really didn't want to swim on my own because I have this thing with seaweed and how it hides the lake monsters. Think I'm kidding??? You should see my Jesus impersonation if my eyes catch something moving in the weeds!


I didn't see Shannon when I got the lake - I got lost, which is kinda not a good thing as this is part of the bike course so I was trying to figure out where I'd be riding, but a good thing because now I know where I'm riding! I got all my gear on and chatted to a friend of mine that had just finished up. Finally I went into the water...tenatively I opened up the neck of my wetsuit and let the water rush in.


Cold. Cold. Cold. Okay, it was for the first minute, but then I went in again and was totally excited to find out it was actually a great temperature!


As I stood there farting around with dumping water in and such, I noticed a lone swimmer coming in to shore. I thought, I hope that's Shannon! I'll wait and find out, and if it isn't then it will just have to be me and Ogopogo's cousin...


Turns out it was Shannon! We set off for a lap of the lake. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with him, but was comforted knowing someone was there and more important knew I was there in case anything happened.


For the first bit I kept close by and at one point almost got my nose ripped off my by his foot as he did breast stroke or something - it was quite amusing to be honest. Then he was ahead of me so I just focussed on my technique.



He was kind enough to keep taking a break and checking to see if I was okay. I spotted him doing this as I practiced my sighting. I was much appreciative of this!!!


My wetsuit was bugging my neck and giving me that 'I'm strangling you' effect, which was good. At least I'll remember on Saturday to pull up the sleeves more and hopefully that won't happen again.


I was happy with my swim and even more happy about the warm water. Well not warm, but at least not icicle cold! Below are some pics of the lake. We will be starting our swim on the left side of the lake, and doing a 2 lap course from there.










I'm getting excited about the weekend, and a little nervous. Not sure why I'm nervous, I know I can do this. Ah well...more pre race thoughts to come in the next few days.




Peace out my incredible friends!




PS It turns out that the text message I sent my Dads mobile rang as he was at security in the Abbotsford Airport...(this is a small airport and they take there jobs very very seriously - everytime I go through there I set off all the alarms and am almost nekid by the time they let me through, yet when I go through other security stations this never happens, hmmm)...needless to say the ringer on his phone caused a little bit of excitement! Too funny!