Vancouver World Cup and a ticket to Beijing

I will not write much about the Vancouver race ... it was very hard and pretty cold.  The week leading up to the race I was never feeling "on" and just thought that I would come around on race day, but that never happened.  The whole race I felt like I could not relax and that I was always at full throttle and could not recover.  Even when the paced slowed at times the recovery just seemed to be nowhere.  This just made for a very painful 2 hours but the crowd there was absolutely amazing!  When I was out there running (not very fast or near the front) the crowd was cheering so loud that it was deafening.  I remember thinking "don't these guys know that I am so far back ... do they think that I am winning?  Oh well, I will just imagine that I am winning and take it all in!"  It definitely gave me some much needed energy out there and made the run just a little more manageable.

So a couple hours after the race I got a phone call from the High Performance Committee to come meet with them in their room.  I went up in the elevator all nervous about what their decision would be and as you all know, I got the nod.  It was just an amazing experience to hear that I will be representing Canada at the Olympics, something that I have been dreaming of since I started sports over 15 years ago.  All the hard work that I have put in since then has paid off!

Of course none of this would have been possible without all the support and encouragement from my family, friends, and sponsors.  It is amazing how many people have been behind me all these years and I am glad to show them that it has not been all for naught.

Most of the thanks should be going to my girlfriend for putting up with me moving away to pursue this dream and putting her goals and aspirations on hold so that this moment would be possible.  YOU ARE AWESOME LISA!

My training partners and coach should be getting just the same amount of credit for my success.  It is easy to say that all my success is because of me, myself, and I but that is simply not true.  Our squad is the best in the world and all of our success is because of how much we push each other everyday day in and out.  We have built a certain attitude and "code" over the past three years that we are all accountable to and because of this we are all better.  BAMF.

Now comes more of the same ... lots of hard work because there is only just over 2 months until we line it up in Beijing.

I have also been writing a blog for CBC that you can read here.  I will be doing regular blogs for them as well as for Slowtwitch (I will get one up there soon).

Thanks again to everyone who has sent their congratulations and encouraging words over the past couple days!