Lots of surprises in Vancouver

So I arrived yesterday in Vancouver after a pretty uneventful flight other than having to change planes in Toronto because of mechanical problems. It was a little bit on the cool side here when we landed but the sun was coming through at times. I swear our cab driver used to be a race car driver in his past life because what we were told should of been a 30minute drive turned in less than 15minutes...need I say more. I'm staying at Becky house, a friend who used to live in Sudbury that I swam with many years ago and is going to dentice school here at UBC. She has a beautiful apartment that's only about a 10minute bike ride from the race site. Once at the apartment I put my bike together, I must say I enjoy the putting together much more than the taking apart! I hoped on my bike and headed down to the race site with my swimming stuff. Once I started getting close to the race site I started to see more and more of the athletes that I will be competing against. This was when the nerves really started to kick in. It's always been a big issue for me seeing my other competitors even back when I used to swim. I can remember my coach having to hide the heat sheets from meet because I would spend an hour studying them memorizing everything to who was in the lanes beside me, who was in my heat, who was in the other heats and what everyones times were. It seemed though once I had that all memorized I would be calmed down and ready to go. Anyways so about 1km from the race start and finish is an out door 50m pool so I hoped in there and did my swim. After my swim I just headed back to the apartment and got some groceries for supper. Oh and by the way I'm pretty dissapointed with the outcome of the hockey game!
So today was a little less productive then I wanted it to be. I had planned on riding the bike course today but the weather was not co operating and it still hasn't stopped raining. So I biked down to the race site with my swim stuff and wet suit so I could swim in the ocean where the race will be. I decided to use the public washrooms along the beach to get out the rain for a bit instead of the usual famous deck change and as I walked in I could see I wasn't the only one using the washrooms to get out of the rain. There was a whole group of homeless people in there and they were having a jolly old time drinking Listerine. It was quite funny especially when they started talking to me about my race. Good times! So the swim didn't last long again. The water temperature is 13C!!! I'm pretty sure it wasn't this bad back home in Sudbury. It's going to make for an interesting start to the race.
After the swim I walked around the race expo a bit...nothing to exciting. Then once back home I decided to go for a little walk and I stopped in a bike store and it just so happens that they sell the kind of bike I ride (Blue) and I get talking to the guy who owns the store and he tells me that the guy who I deal with back in Ontario has been fired from Blue and that's why I havn't gotten my new bike, why I havn't been able to get ahold of anyone at the office in Ontario and wont likely be getting my money back. Great news to be getting from a complete stranger on the other side of the country.
Anyways I decided to blow a little steam off and went for a run tonight. The legs felt pretty good so I'm happy about that. Now it's just off to bed, trying to get as much rest as I can before the race. So I'll leave you with a little reading material incase you didn't see the article in the news paper yesterday. http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1057859&auth=BY+TREVOR+STEWART%2fTHE+SUDBURY+STAR


"Thank you to the people who said I couldn't, you have been what has defined me, never give up, and never back down".