05.07.06
July Update
I’m sitting here between shifts in the laundry listening to live commentary of the Lleyton Hewitt quarter semi final from Wimbledon and thought while i was being Australian, i’d better update everyone as to what i am doing.
So here we are in July! At the end of the month it will be exactly 12 months since i finished up at Treasury, and early August will signify 12 months since i arrived here in Canada. It seems like only yesterday that i got in. It is even more noticeable when i have customers talking about there final few weeks leading into Ironman Canada and this time last year it was Karl getting ready to race Ironman Canada. However i am not getting as excited by the Ironman Canada as i will not be going up to watch it this August.
So what has been news since i wrote at the beginning of June? Well June is the month of my birthday so to celebrate that we had a dinner at Todd’s. A quiet affair for just some select invitees. Nothing to big considering that we had the big party at the end of May. Everyone was forced to bring something to the dinner so there was plenty of food to go around. It wasn’t meant to be a big night as the following week I was off to Vancouver Island for the Victoria Half Ironman Triathlon.
The big event i had been training for was the Victoria Half Ironman Triathlon. I headed over to the island on the Friday Afternoon with Kristi, who runs in the store’s clinic. This gave me a chance to kick back and relax in the passenger seat and enjoy the ferry ride over to Vancouver Island. Arriving late afternoon on the Friday gave me the chance to look around downtown Victoria, which is the capital of BC, before catching up with Kelsey who was over on the island with her sister Rebecca and friend Lorraine. Victoria was nice. Very pretty down by the inner harbour/downtown area. It has a Colonial English feel to it. I took the chance to look through the Parliament Buildings and look around downtown, but the problem was being there to race means you don’t have the chance to spend all day sightseeing.
Of course the Saturday, after having breakfast with the girls downtown was more about race prep and resting up. Sunday was race day. The day i had been semi-training for. I had an awesome day out and did a new half ironman PB of 4:52:29. I won’t go into the details of the race, but if you do want to read about it you can at http://broughton.id.au/2006/06/19/2006-victoria-half-iron-triathlon/
Back on the Mainland the following weekend i ran another Half Marathon here in Vancouver. A really stupid idea considering that i had run one the weekend before as part of the half ironman. Obviously my body had not recovered and I limped home. I was close to stopping as the race passed only 10 blocks from my house, a simple 5 minute walk home, but i pushed on. Not something I’ll do again.
I have also recently taken to the ice and been playing hockey each Sunday night. I have managed to get 3 games in so far. I would have had a few more but didn’t play the week before and of the half ironman. It’s a lot of fun to play, although i have been saying that i act as more of a decoy than a player, as i skate around in circles. I haven’t managed to put the puck in the back of the net as yet but i have had a few chances, but have not been able to get enough on the puck. The highlight of my career so far is stealing the puck from Todd which resulted in a goal for our team. The only bad thing is they rent the ice from 10:45 till midnight on Sunday nights.
So what is coming up??
Friday my brother Dwayne and Xavier Stakelum arrive for a month or so in Canada. Monday we are loading up the car with Panda, Dwayne, Xavier and driving for Calgary and the legendary Calgary Stampede. It’s a festival of all things Cowboy and Country. It’s meant to be a huge party, and all the locals say it’s awesome. So we are pumped for that.
Late July Art and I are off to Washington State to do RAMROD. Then August 6th will be my last shift at the store. Then August, September and October will be spent traveling, First Seattle, BC and Oregon, then the Eastern Seaboard, then BC again in early October before Heading to Hawaii for the Hawaiian Ironman in Kona and a few night in Waikiki before heading home.
Hope everyone is well. It’s hard to believe that its almost been 12 months.
It’s my parent’s birthday this month, so make sure if you see them you wish them a happy birthday for the 29th July.