Arrived in Kamloops

Hi left Merritt this morning headed for Kamloops, the 80km drive was an experience, I had to drive again over a mountain pass, it got to 1550 metres high, there was plenty of snow next to along the edge of the road, very wet in some parts, so it made the drive very difficult, I don't think I will being any further north and I will taking a different route back to the USA to avoid the snow affected roads.

When I got to Kamloops I headed straight to the Airport and picked up another ACT athlete Rad Leovic, we then checked went and registered for the Athletics competition that I am attending here (World Masters Indoors) which is being held at the university here, we ran into Jan & Bob Banens both from Canberra as well, we had a partial look at the indoor track, you couldn't see all of it, there was basketball games being held in the big centre.

We then went and bought a few things at the supermarket for breakfast and snacks, went back to the Motel and changed into our running gear and went back to the Uni and ran a few laps on their outdoor track, my legs were feeling a lot better today, the rest did them good.

At night we went out with the Banens and had dinner at the White Spot Restaurant that was close to their Motel, the meals were fine and we ran into a few other Australian athletes.

Heading North

I didn't run this morning, I woke up a bit sore in the upper right leg, I might have over done it yesterday with 2 runs, a couple of days rest won't hurt me.
I headed out of Billingham today heading north to Canada, I wasn't aiming to get all the way to Kamloops, but I was getting tired and I did stop at Merritt which is about an hour or so from Kamloops.

The drive was very interesting, it was only about 50kms to the US border, I didn't go the same way towards Vancouver, you head a bit north east along some minor roads, the country side was pretty flat, I filled up at the border, prcie of petrol is a lot cheaper in US (75-80c Aus a litre) than Canada ($1.10-1.15 Aus).
Once I was in Canada the weather was getting a bit more cloudy, more rain and then when I was getting into the mountains, there was plenty of snow along the road, but the roads were cleared, I hadn't expected this, I am a bit worried if I want to head further north than Kamloops, the roads could get worse than what I have seen, and the car is not really setup for snow conditions.

I have stopped at the Motel 8 in Merrit, for $85 a night it includes breakfast and free wireless internet.

Its Hockey time

I had a great day today, I got up early and headed out at about 6.45am for a run, I did the same circuit as yesterday but a bit more efficient today(didn't get lost), there had been a bit of rain overnite, but while there was water lying around I didn't get rained on other a couple of spots in the last couple of kms, I end up running about 10kms, I am trying to build up a bit of abase before next weeks events.

I then drove up to Vancouver, plans today were to get a ticket to the Women's Ice Hockey bronze medal playoff match between Sweden & Finland. Went thru the border again, had the usual 20 questions, no waiting time at all, staying in the USA and driving up was the best move I maid, saved money & time. I parked the car at the same park & ride and then caught the bus to the train station and caught the train into the city area.There were already guys outside the train station selling tickets, so I knew I wouldn't have any problems getting a ticket.

I first had the Tim Hortons breakfast, Xlarge coffee, muffin and a donut, they are a supped up Starbucks with Donuts, Muffins, Cookies and Sandwiches, plus they are a lot better, if you watch any Canadian shows, you will see the people carrying around Tim Hortons coffee cups.



I headed to the Canada Hockey Place, a guy offered me a $200 ticket for a $100, I told him that the guys at the Train Station are selling for $80 and he let me have it for that price, I might have been able to get him down to $60-70 but I got a very good deal.

The match was great, I was very impressed by the standard of women's hockey, with my boarder (Ari) having a Finish heritage I was following them, they looked really strong early, the game is made up of 3 20 minute period, but it was nil all after 1, then the Fins took control but were only 2-1 up after 2, the Swedes only took 2 shots and scored once, whereas the Fins had 8 shots. The Swedes came back in the last period to level at 2 all, Fins were getting heaps of penalties, and sometimes they had players in the Sin bin for 2 minutes, and the Swedes scored both times when there was 5 on 4. The game went to Overtime and then the Fins scored the golden goal and won the Bronze medal, what was interesting after they scored and there gloves and everything was tossed in the air and wild celebrations, a Swedish player pointed to her foot to the Referee, they showed a replay on the big scoreboard, it did look like that the Finish goal was scored off a foot rather than her stick, too late now.


Got back to Bellingham around 3.30pm, at least the day wasn't as long as tuesday, I then went for another run, but this time I took my camera in my bum bag, I wanted to take a few shots of the places I saw as I ran round, there was a nice rustique town area, the running paths over the water, they looked liek they were old wharfs rebuilt to run along and then join up with paths along the bay, tomorrow I will head back to Canada but this time for about 11-12 days, I will get the usual questions at the border, I won't get all the way to Kamloops, I will stop about halfway there.

A quiet day

Hi all, I was raining when I got up this morning around 8ish, but i thought I will still go out for a run, it started to drop off around 9am, so out I went, in the area of Billingham where I am staying there is a bit of a hill, I am close to sea level and I would think the hill is 200-250 metres up, looking at a map I can see that I could run around via some roads/streets and head back towards where I ran close to the coast on tuesday, so I will get a bit of a loop in.
I ended up running 15kms, got slightly lost but because I had my Garmin on I could put myself in the right direction. I did run up a road that runs to the top of the Hill, fairly steep, nearly as steep as Black Mtn road, my garmin showed that I was up around 200 metres and didn't get to the top of the Hill, I was really happy with the run, my hammy is feeling ok and I am feeling a lot stronger, but I will keep an eye on my hammy. A few weeks ago I was worried that I couldn't even run out a half marathon, let alone a full one.

I had breakfast at the local Diner, the usual eggs, a few sausage links, toast & coffee, a lot better than a franchised place, because I finished that around 12.30 I didn't need lunch.
In the afternoon I went shopping at the local and bought a few things for my trip, picked up some cheap running socks, I had a look at store that sells a lot of camping, biking & skiing stuff, a bit like Kathmandu but with a lot more gear like skis, bikes etc.

I have been watching a basketball gamed on TV tonite, its good to see these games live on TV at night and not a very strange times, the Winter Olympic coverage is quite poor, even though the USA is the same time zone as Canada they still replay most of the events. I just did a weather forecast for Kamloops where I am going for the Athletics, they are basically forecasting rain for the next week, I was hoping for better weather but this is winter of course, so better be ready for a muddy xcountry run.

Vancouver here I come

Today was the day, I was off to the Vancouver Winter Olympics to see the Curling , I have been to the 6 previous Summer Olympics, but this was going to be my first Winter Olympics.
I started well, went to the local pancake place that have a free stack of 3 pancakes (mmmm) to help celebrate Shrove Tuesday which is International day of pancakes.

I drove off around 7.50am too me about 30minutes (45kms) to get to the border, the Canadian border asked me how long I was going to be here for, I said about 10 hours, he looked at me strangely and asked why short, I just said that I was staying in the US and driving up to Vancouver for the games. I drive about 15-20kms into Canada, I managed to get some Canadian money at a Service station (gas station here) just in case I need it for the bus. I then parked my car at a Park & ride from where I was catching a bus to the Train Station, normally you need to show your Olympic ticket to get a free ride but explained to the bus driver that I was going into the city to pick up my ticket, he let me on and gave me a ticket for the bus/train. I caught the train on the new Canada Line, I got off at the stop in the city, everything was moving well, I picked up my ticket by 10am, the curling wasn't on until 2pm, so I had 2-3 hours to wander around.
I walked down the river that runs thru Vancouver and then walked along the board walk, I noticed in the distance a big boxing kangaroo on a building. It was the athletes village that is on the other side of the river (obviously well protected), and I was looking at the big flag that caused a lot of hassles with the Australian Team. Just around from the Kangaroo was an even bigger Canadian Flag draped on another building, I am sure the Canadians didn't want to be beaten.
The downtown area wasn't that busy, it seems like mainly Games fans & spectators were wandering around, maybe the general public had been scared off. I went past where the ice hockey is being held, there were a lot of people selling hockey tickets, I even heard a guy offer them for half price. I might come back into town Thursday or Friday for a hockey match, I might be able to get one cheap.
Onto the Curling, I had to catch a train back down the Canada line to the Prince Edward station and then had a 10min walk to the Curling venue. They had the usual security but a lot better that was at Beijing, got in about 1ish, I had an Australian take some photos of me in front of a Vancouver sign, also the RFYL hat got a few of his own shots.

Inside the venue, I bought a long sleeve Olympic top, took a few photos of some Canadian Mounties there. I got my seat and watched some of the practise session. With Curling there is 4 pitches side by side length wise about 2-3 metres apart, I am guessing that the pitches are about 30-35 metres long 4-6 metres wide. There were 4 mens games going on together, the match in front of me was the french Swiss game but they were some of the bottom teams, I was more interested in the British Norway game that Norway won 9-6, Canada had a easy win against China 10-3, but the Chinese fought all the way, Curling is like Bowls on ice, you have to land the most of your Granite rocks closest to the circle at the other end of the pitch, the Chinese were hammered 4 shots in the first end, there is a maximum of 10 ends, but if a Team gets to 10 the mercy rule is enforced, I heard somebody comment that the games could be over in 3 ends. But the Chinese settled and didn't concede that many until 3 in the 7th ending the game. Curling is very strategic and is played by 4 people, 3 sweepers and the skip who pushes the granite rocks along the ice, i won't go into much detail, because I was only learning as I went along.

After the matches ended, I had a pretty good run back to my car via a wet walk (it started raining this afternoon), train ride & bus ride, I got home by 7, not a bad day, I might have a easy day tomorrow, a run, might go to the local Mall for some shopping and maybe catch a movie.

If people are wondering the time zone here, add 5 hours (5 1/2 in SA) to your time and then take a day off.

Arrived in Billingham

Hi all, I left Portland this morning after a nice breakfast at Dennys, yes it was probably not the most healthy breakfast that you will get - omelet, hash browns, pancakes & coffee, but with that I didn't need to have lunch, it took me 4 1/2 hours to drive to Billingham in northern Washington State, from here I am only 90kms to Vancouver, for which I have a ticket to the curling tomorrow at the Winter Olympics. I have again booked in at the Motel 6, a bit noisy close to the Interstate Highway, but i did bring ear plugs with me. I don't know if I will attend any other events but I will check when I pick up my ticket tomorow, I would like to go to the Ice hockey but at $500 a ticket - not likely, the womens bronze medal playoff is on Thursday, that is my most likely event I will get a ticket at a realistic price (<$200).

I did a 14km run when I got here today, ran the streets for the first 4-5 kms, but then I found my way down to the bay and ran along a few bike/walking tracks they have along the bay, I went out along the track away from downtown for about a km and then did the track back towards downtown for about 2kms and then back towards the Motel, this mighten actually make much sense, I ran a few back streets just to get it up to 14km, I will have a better idea where to go wednesday, tomorrow I will be out all day going up & back to Vancouver.

On Saturday I will arrive in Kamloops which is about 250kms NE from Vancouver, it is here that I am competing at the World Masters Indoor Athletics event (March 1-6), I have entered 4 indoor events - 800, 1500 & 3000 metres & the Pentathlon (which consists of the 60 hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and 1000 metres), there is also 2 outdoor events - 8km xcountry on the first day and a half marathon on the last day), the track is 200 metres long so the 3000 will be very interesting with 15laps, the bends will be tight.

The weather here has been fine, cool at night and the morning, this morning it was about zero, going up to 15-18C during the day, I think it will get cooler as I go further north.

The Trailblazers blow it

I went to see the Portland Trailblazers play the Utah Jazz in Basketball tonite, Portland played` really well in the first half and led by 22 points (61-39) part way into the third qtr., then the wheels fell over, Utah forced them into overtime when they hit a 2 point shot with the clock running out and then won the game 93-89 in overtime, so the Blazers only scored 28 to Utahs last 54, they were awful in the end, I always do this to the home teams that I watch in Basketball.

Arrived in Portland Oregon

I had a long day today, after doing a run around Lake Gin. I caught a Murrays bus up to Sydney Airport, for $15 one way it is good value, nearly quicker than flying from Canberra to Sydney, today was the day of queuing, getting my boarding pass, going thru security, getting into the Departure lounge for my flight with United Airlines to Portland via Los Angeles, they were really making sure nothing illegal onto the Plane, I forgot to take my small bike pump out of carry on bag, I had to explain a couple times what it was.
The flight was good, food was ok, United were really good value, I then had a couple of hours wait in Los Angeles, I wandered around, got a coffee and some food, I stuck my head into one of the eating places that had the basketball on, so I could watch the end of the Orlando - Cleveland match, its not like me to watch any sport.
I then flew to Portland in a small 64 seater arriving around 4pm, the toilet was small even for my height, I would hate too see how a 6' 5" guy goes in there, I picked up my rental car, a nice Suburu Imprezza and I then drove into Portland Downtown and got to the Motel 6 that I booked. I then wandered down to the Basketball stadium where the Portland Trailblazers play and bought a ticket to the game tonite against Utah Jazz, ex Canberra AIS player Patty Mills plays for Portland, I hope he gets some court time, I will give you an update to the game later.

Heading Off Soon

I am heading off Sunday for the USA/Canada, I will competing at the World Masters Indoor Athletics at Kamploops Canada, it is on Mar 1-6, I am also going to have a day trip to Vancouver to see a Curling match, I am going to first stay in Bellingham WA which is 90kms from Vancouver and spend 4-5 days there and then head up to Kamloops.