Man how time flies! Feels just like yesterday I was
procrastinating writing a blog after my first race in San Diego. Now with the slower paced days and the
changing colors of the fall, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the
season and thinking how grateful I am of my adventures this summer and of
the people who made them possible.
Here’s how my 2013 season went down:
April
One night I was writing a university exam and the next I was
sitting in my first WTS race briefing in San Diego! Being my first WTS race
ever, I went in with no expectations and an open mind. I remember warming up in
Mission Bay before the race in the sunshine and thinking that this WTS thing is
pretty cool. As for the race, I surprised myself by coming out of the water in
6th position and riding in the first main pack. I finished in 25th and felt pretty
proud of taking that leap to the WTS level.
June
Next stop was to my home province of Alberta to race in the
Edmonton World Cup. Most of the races this season were outside of North America
so having a race on home soil felt extra special. Pretty sweet having my family there to watch!
I even got to go to the Press conference and I pretended I knew what I was
talking about. The race was story tale
perfect for the Canadian women with the top 4 positions locked up by Canadians!
I grabbed the silver medal and sung the Canadian anthem proudly alongside
Amelie Kretz and Kirsten Sweetland.
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| Ellie p on the mic |
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| Oh canada |
While I was super stoked about the Edmonton World Cup
weekend, the devastation from the flooding in Calgary definitely put things in
perspective. My family was incredibly
lucky because my dad’s business was really close to the flood zone but was miraculously
spared. However lots of my friends and
their families had extensive damage to their homes. I spent some time at home
post Edmonton and helped out a bit with the clean-up; it was a humbling yet
inspiring experience. You might expect
the affected areas to be a dusty, dismal ghost town, however the energy at the
flood zone was anything but. Thousands
of Calgarians wearing rubber boots grabbed a shovel and would go into random
strangers' homes to rip out drywall, haul out sludge and toss garbage in
dumpsters. I joined an assembly line
with a team of Aussie Rules Rugby players to remove tiles from a person’s
basement. Among the chaos of dumpsters,
dust and garbage was a vibrant sense of resiliency.
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| Birthday love for Bear |
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| Flood dust |
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| Mom (top left) cannonball queen |
After some solid family time at home (which also included
some cannonballs and my dog’s birthday), I jetted off for my first ever
European adventure. First stop was
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain for some training en route to Hamburg, Germany for World
Sprint Championships. Being my first
time to Europe, I was blown away by the architecture, cobbles, narrow streets
and culture. My first day in Hamburg was
a sensory overload and I just wanted to explore. A pre-race adventure run got
it out of my system and I was able to mellow out before the race. As for the
race, I got absolutely pummeled around the first buoy in the swim and didn’t
make lead pack. I still ran my heart out
and came 31st . My ego was a bit bruised because swimming is kind of
my thing and have never experienced such carnage before. But I got thrashed on a beautiful sunny day
in a triathlon in Europe. Life ain’t so bad.
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| Vitoria commuter |
After Hamburg I headed back to Victoria, Canada to move into
a new place with my brother! We live a
block away from the ocean and have some cool hipster furniture and make foamy
lattes in the morning.
August
After the move, I headed back to Vitoria-Gasteiz to polish
off the rest of the racing season. I made a pit stop in Magog, Quebec to watch
my brother and the rest of the Alberta kids rip it up at Canada Games.
Next race was WTS Stockholm.
I rekindled my swim abilities after Hamburg and found myself in the
front 5 girls nearing the end of the 1500m swim. I had the prime line around the last buoy and
was like YOLO and surged to come running out of the water first! My moment of
glory before being dramatically dropped on a hilly and technical bike course to
finish off 28th. Embraced some Swedish culture the next day at the
ABBA museum and gave a rousing performance of Mamma Mia on stage in front of
several other museum goers.
September
We had about two more weeks in Vitoria-Gasteiz before U23
World Championships in London, England.
I had some pretty epic rallies to survive these last two weeks of hard
training, but made it to London in one piece.
The Canadian crew assembled daily in the artsy Canada House and
established a good sense of team. In the
days leading up to the race, I listened to some new Arctic Monkeys (fitting
being in London) and carbo loaded on bread pudding. Ready to go.
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| Team Canada |
The swim went smashingly and I was out of the water in 2nd
to then eat pavement around the first corner on the bike! I bounced up quick
though, thinking if I got up fast enough nobody would notice. I joined in with the main pack and was
cautious not to make this a repeat of my double crash at Junior Worlds. Survived the rest of the bike unscathed and
it was going to come down to a run race.
The pack of girls settled into a decent clip and I played it safe tucked
in mid pack. The first 3km I was
thinking “just hang on” and then all of a sudden I started feeling better and
better. Coming down to the last 180 turn
and about 800m to go, I was feeling antsy for someone to make a move so I took
the bull by the horns and pushed the pace!
The sprint at the finish line was such an adrenaline rush and I ended up
crossing in second. Huge congratulations
to Charlotte for taking the W and fellow Canadians Amelie Kretz and Joanna
Brown for taking 3rd and 5th.
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| Photo by Mark Bates |
I often think of all the strange coincidences that lead you
toward the life you’re living and all the people you meet that shape the
direction. That being said, I have some
BIG thank yous to give out to all the people who have supported me and made
this summer possible. Thank you to
Shimano, Nineteen, Carolyn Murray, Alan Carlsson, Jamie Turner, Randy Bennett,
Houshang Amiri, Libby Burrell, Marilyn Adams, Kyla Rollinson, Sharleen Hoar, Sue Lott, Steve
Keeler and Vanessa Young, Kim Ward, Dave Coleman, Drew Mackenzie, Reed Ferber, Triathlon
Canada, Own the Podium, Podium Alberta, CSC Calgary, CSC Pacific, my mom, my
dad, my brother and my dog!
Also check out this amazing ski movie I'm obsessed about:
xoxo, ellen
