Mel and her brother Jeremy picked me up around 5:40 (I think) and off we went. The roads were covered, but Jeremy's car was good in the snow and we had no issues. That was until we got to the top of the Malahat where we hit bumper to bumper slow moving traffic. I swear we were there between 6:45 and 7am but after that we started to move so slow. Initially he was supposed to drop us off somewhere and then we were to be picked up by someone else to head to the airport, but instead he decided that he would drive us straight there to ensure we made the flight.
Time crept by and we slowly moved through Victoria. We even called WestJet at one point to ask if our flight was delayed. After we were told no and asked if there was anything else the lady could do for us, Jeremy asked her if she could delay the flight. She politely said no. We had to make it there by 8:45am latest or we would miss our flight. I think we arrived about 8:35. Eek, so close, but we made it.
In the airport I found my coach Matt C, who said "I bet you wish you had flown through Vancouver eh" but he would later regret saying that, which I will get to later.
On the flight, I saw we were sitting way at the back. I walk up to my row and find I am seated next to the lovely and talented Lucy Smith to my left and Matt P on my right. We ended up having a 50 minute delay while sitting on the plane waiting for a truck to de-ice us with bright orange and then bright green liquids. Finally we were in the air.
We flew to Edmonton, where we had a brief stop where we did not get off the plane.
Bye Bye Edmonton
From there we were off to Toronto. This flight seemed to take FOREVER. Eventually we got there though and while we were taxiing into the terminal Lucy turned on her blackberry to find a message from Maurice (our BC athletics team manager) that stated the Vancouver crew was still in Vancouver. You see, they were initially supposed to arrive about an hour before us and were supposed to be waiting in the airport. Instead, we found out that they waited for 2 hours on their plane in Vancouver before they had their flight canceled and rescheduled for the next day.
So instead of meeting up with them, we collected our luggage and took a huge greyhound type bus from the airport into Guelph. Upon arrival, we checked in and I found out I was rooming with Mel!
A quick change of clothes and Mel, Craig and I headed off for an easy 30' jog in the pouring rain. The rest of the time was spent getting dinner and then me trying to convince Mel to go to bed. She was on west coast time and I had already adapted to east coast time after being up since 5am with only 5 hours sleep the night before. She finally went to bed around 1am I believe.
Friday was spent eating breakfast at the hotel, then Mel and I headed down the road to some shops where we froze our faces off walking into the wind on the way there. We bought a few things including some groceries and then headed back to the hotel. Enough time to quickly change and then we were off to the race course to check it out. It was windy, especially at the top of the hill and VERY cold. I did my usual 30' pre race routine around the course.
Self Portrait? Sure why not
2.5km loop to the left, 2km loop to the right
This way?
Towards the finish, Left up to finish, Right for multiple loops
Later that afternoon we had a team meet, which I guess was really a 1/3 team meeting where we received our race numbers, chips and uniforms. The Junior girls were cute, going over to the Christmas tree to open up their uniform's so I had to take a photo.
Pretty sure this is long enough, so up next.... race day!
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