Lacombe Charity Triathlon 2009

Last weekend, on Labour Day Monday, I did my final triathlon of the year, the Lacombe Charity Triathlon. This was an interesting and fun race, and I'm really glad that Joel convinced me that I should do it. I had registered for it months ago, but then when I realized how tough it would be to train through the month of August, I had been planning to drop out. Then Joel informed me that he had registered, too, so the pressure was on to stick with it.

August was a very crazy month. The biggest consumer of my time was the new house. We took possession on August 7, worked on it all of that weekend and every night that week, and then moved in on August 15. On August 19 (our third anniversary) we went on our holidays for the year, a week driving down to Spokane and back for Jana's sister's wedding. We got back on August 25, and spent the rest of that week doing more unpacking, and then school started the following week on September 2. There are a few blog posts planned about all of these things, so I'll go into more detail later. But the point is that it was very busy, and difficult to find time to train.

That's why I'm so surprised at how well this race went. Fortunately for me, this was definitely the easiest course out of the three races I did this summer. All three of the distances were shorter than advertised, and because the bike was one way, it was a net downhill ride. These things worked to my advantage.

The swim did not go very well. Gull Lake is a very shallow lake, and so when the horn went to start the race, it felt like we were jogging forever until the water was deep enough to start swimming. When we did, the first corner was only a few metres away, so the pack was very congested. There was no time for people to spread out before the natural bottleneck of a corner, so it was a bit of a mess. I apparently do not handle this well, and found myself keeping my head out of the water so that I could see what was going on around me. It wasn't until probably 150 metres into the swim that I found any kind of space and was able to start swimming properly. I was pretty tired by this point from swimming with my head up and was never able to get into a good rhythm. It didn't matter, though, because with at least 100 metres to go the water became too shallow to swim in any more, and we began walking and jogging our way back in. Walking through thigh-deep water is very tiring. My time was 15:05, but there's no way that was a 750 metre swim. I would guess 500 metres, at the most. 15:05 is over a minute faster than my swim time at Coral Springs, which involved no walking, and in which I did find a good rhythm and swim well. On this day, my swim time was 5/10 in the Male 20-29 category, and 44/88 overall. So I guess you could say I was somewhere in the middle.

As a result, my first transition was very slow. I didn't have any trouble getting my wetsuit off, but I did have a difficult time getting my socks and shoes on. My next training session after the race I ran without socks, and it wasn't a problem, so my plan for next year is to race without socks, which will make this transition a lot easier. I feel like I gave up unnecessary ground here.

The bike ride was awesome. We started by riding through the Gull Lake community, where the original site of the Gull Lake Invitational Croquet Tournament was located. Then we got onto Highway 12, which has recently been repaved. It was the most pleasant ride I've ever done, zipping down long hills on perfectly smooth asphalt. Towards the end of the ride I lost a couple of spots, but I kept track, and had a net gain of three spots on the bike. This ride was a little short, too, only 19 km (this based on several odometer readings plus a map of the course). My time was 36:59, which is an average speed of 30.82 km/hr. That time was 7/10 for my age group and 50/88 overall.

My T2 was, as always, very quick. I don't change my shoes, so all I have to do is rack my bike and toss my helmet on the ground. I know I made up a lot of time here.

My run was suprisingly my strong point of the day. The run started with a long uphill, but I'm used to running hills, so this didn't really phase me. Then we snaked through a neighbourhood for a while (there were lots of people out cheering, which was fun) and ended with a run along the lake with the finish line in sight. Again, I suspect that this run was short, but I've heard that based on one guy's GPS watch, it was only about 250 metres short. I know that I pushed very hard, a lot harder than I've pushed in previous races. My goal was to have nothing left at the end, and I came closer to that than I have before. My time was 23:29, making it the fastest 5k I've ever run, even in training. I'm very proud of that. That time was 6/10 in my age group, and 28/88 overall. I kept track, and had a net gain of five positions in this leg.

My final time was 1:15:32, good for 4/10 in my age group and 37/88 overall. If I was to pretend that the distances were accurate, that would mean that I cut 17:56 off of my personal best time, which I can't do in good conscience. But it is a very good time, and I'm very pleased with it.

By my calculations, I gained 8 spots during the bike and the run. I came out of the swim in 44th, so that would have me finishing in 36th. So clearly, between the two transitions, I had a net loss of one position. That should not be happening.

What I'm the most proud of is my age group result. At my first triathlon in June, I finished 7/7 in my age group, at Coral Springs in July I was 8/10 in my age group, and at this race I was 4/10. I recognize that this is very dependent on what kind of people from my age group are racing, but the fact remains that I am now faster than other triathletes in my age group, and I like that feeling. Surprisingly, I didn't finish higher than 5/10 in any of the three legs, but I finished 4/10, which means I was more consistent than some of the guys who finished behind me.

My bike time, as good as it was, shows that I was not in as good of shape as I was at the Summerside triathlon in June. My average speed over 19 km was 30.82 km/hr. This is much faster than my Coral Springs average speed of 25.10 km/hr, where I really struggled on the bike. Part of this, of course, is the downhill factor. But looking back at my past results, at Summerside, which had a 29 km bike ride and was on very rough roads, my average speed was 31.26 km/hr. So clearly I have a lot of potential, if I can just do a race when I'm in better shape. Even by that race in June I was not feeling like I was at the point that I had been in March.

So now it's back to school, and back to training in the gym. Even with my very busy schedule, I'm already finding it a lot easier to fit training into my day, since I'm down at the university already.

And I've decided what my two triathlon related goals for next year are: to finish in the top three in my age category at a sprint triathlon (and win a medal!), and to complete an Olympic distance triathlon.

Europe Trip - Part 8 - Switzerland

I’m so close to being done these Europe travel blogs, and I love writing them, but I’ve been having a difficult time getting motivated to write this one. I think it’s because in reality I’m rewriting it; my hard drive crashed again, and while I’d been much more careful to have things backed up this time, some stuff was still lost, including this blog. But it’s been over a month now, so I think it’s time to move on and get this thing done.

As I mentioned at the end of the last post concerning our lovely days in Rome, we left Rome on a night train, which departed Rome at about 8:00. We had reserved couchettes, which meant we had two bunks out of 6 in a private compartment. We were quite worried before getting on the train, because we didn’t know what to expect: how much privacy would we have, what would our roommates be like, how comfortable would the beds be, etc.? Fortunately, everything turned out to be not bad at all. The 4 people sharing our room with us were not boarding in Rome, meaning we had the room to ourselves until midnight, when they got on in Bologna. The compartment was air conditioned, but the train had been sitting in Rome all day long and was quite hot. Our bunks, though, were the two bottom ones, meaning the air conditioning affected us the most, and it was quite comfortable on our beds. I stuck my hand up onto the top bunk, and it was probably close to 30 degrees up there, just stifling. We were very glad to have the bottom bunks. The door to our compartment locked, and the curtains had velcro strips so that we could ensure they were tightly sealed around the windows. We felt quite comfortable changing in our rooms. Each carriage also had its own washrooms, maybe even two sets, and its own steward. The steward came by to make sure we were comfortable, to tell us when our roommates would be boarding, and to take our passports and train passes for the night so that when we crossed the border out of the EU into Switzerland, we wouldn’t need to wake up for customs. He also came by to wake us up before we reached our stop at Bern so that we would be ready to go.

I really enjoyed the feeling of laying out flat on a high-speed train. It was very unique. We were provided with clean sheets and pillows, and I actually found it quite comfortable. It was nice to travel all the way from Rome to Lucerne without using up a day, too. That said, we did not have the ability to shower, so we spent the whole next day feeling dirty, so I don’t know if it’s something we’d make a regular habit of, but when we do go back to Europe, I’m sure we’ll take advantage of the couchettes again.

We arrived in Bern at 6:20, and then transferred onto a commuter train at 7:00 that arrived in Lucerne at 8:00. At Lucerne we rented a locker, put our luggage into it, and set out to explore the city.

We began by following the Rick Steves walking tour of Lucerne. Immediately we came across the Culture and Convention Centre, a large building on the waterfront designed by Jean Nouvel, the (at that time) most recent winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. This beautiful building is built into the lake, with water flowing through the building. It’s large roof is designed to reflect the water, giving the illusion that the building is part of the lake. It is a very original concept, and we enjoyed looking at the building as we grabbed a quick breakfast.

The next stop on our walking tour was the famous Kapellbrücke, with its medieval tower. At first I was not convinced that we were looking at the right bridge, because I had expected the tower to be much taller. But then I realized that it was the bridge itself, not the tower, that is the reason this is Lucerne’s most famous landmark. The bridge, originally built in the 14th century, is filled with original medieval artwork, in addition to being a beautiful sight on its own with all the flowers. A portion of the bridge was rebuilt in the 1990s after a fire, but they had spare paintings in storage (the bridge used to be longer), so all of the paintings are still original.

We continued on through Lucerne, exploring a beautiful Rococo church, wandering through a bunch of “garage” sales, over the city’s dam system, and through the city’s many squares. Many of the shops are decorated with murals, which Rick Steves insisted on describing in great detail. I found the endless description rather boring, although the buildings and artwork themselves were somewhat interesting.

For lunch we sat on a covered patio (it was a cool, rainy day, a very pleasant switch from Rome) alongside the river, and had cheese fondue. While it was good, it was no better than the fondue we’ve made ourselves, and I would say not as good as the fondue at the Laurier Lounge in Calgary.

One of the tricks of the Eurail pass is that if you ride an overnight train that leaves after 7 pm, the arrival date is the only one that counts as a travel day. That meant that our Eurail passes were valid all day while we were in Lucerne. We had researched this in advance, and discovered that this meant we could ride the ferries for free all day. So after lunch, we caught one of the ferries that does the full loop of Lake Lucerne. The ferry was much nicer than the BC Ferries, meaning that Jana and I sat at a table with a tablecloth and had some nice drinks (I had a locally brewed cider) while we watched the amazing views of the lake. We hopped off the boat at Bürgenstock, where we had been planning to go for a hike. The rain, though, changed our plans. Instead, we immediately came upon a funicular train that was about to go up the mountain. We had noticed the tracks from the boat, and had remarked how nearly vertical they looked. When we asked the train conductor how much it would cost, we learned that we could get a 50% discount because our Eurail passes were valid that day.

We rode the train up the side of the mountain, which was a really cool experience. At the top we had spectacular views of the Alpine meadows (when you’re actually in the Alps, I think the word “alpine” should be capitalized) on the other side of the mountain, as well as of the lake (pictures didn’t work because of the mist). There was a lonely cow, with a cowbell on, wandering along the top of the mountain.

After enjoying a bar of Swiss chocolate (ie. Toblerone) at the little hut at the top (the entire “town” at the top is a row of 5 or 6 hotels), we rode the funicular back down to the lake. We had about 45 minutes before the next boat would arrive, so we wandered around through the houses and cottages along the side of the lake. In and around these houses were quite a few cows, and the sound of tinkling cowbells was omnipresent. It felt very Swiss (assuming "Swiss" means "Heidi" and not "neutral banking centre").

When the boat did arrive we rode back on the outside deck, taking advantage of a nice patch of dry weather (unfortunately we lost our umbrella at some point this afternoon, probably left on the boat when we suddenly realized we were at the Bürgenstock stop already and rushed to hurry off the boat). The views of Mount Pilatus, the city of Lucerne, and Culture and Convention Centre were particularly impressive.

After we disembarked, we decided that it was time to continue on to Zurich. As previously mentioned, our Eurail passes were still valid for this entire day, so we used them to take the train into Zurich.

Our hotel in Zurich was fairly near to the train station, and definitely not in the nicest part of town. After dropping off our stuff we tried to find a bite to eat, and across from the adult theatre and next door to the strip club we found a little sandwich place with about 3 sandwiches left in the cooler. We bought 2 of them.

We were feeling rather tired, having spent the night before on the train and then having a busy, although relaxing, day in Lucerne, so we decided to take the evening off. We paid the fee to get TV in our room for the next 24 hours, and sat in bed watching the Olympics all night. It was a very pleasant end to the day.

The next day was Sunday, which turned out to be rather significant, as it meant that virtually everything in Zurich was closed. I did not personally enjoy Zurich very much that day, as it just felt rather dead and empty.

We spent the day exploring the city, following the mandatory Rick Steve’s walking tour, and trying to find a place to have lunch. Like I said, everything in Zurich was closed, so this actually took us quite a while. Eventually we did find somewhere affordable and open, and had a very pleasant fish lunch.

The highlights of the Zurich walking tour were the churches (the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster), which both boasted stunning modern stained glass windows, especially the Cezanne windows in the Fraumünster.

One thing that always weirds me out a bit is people who dress up and pretend they live in a different historical era. A couple of weeks ago we were driving through Idaho and we spent a bit of time in a little tent village of people living as though they were explorers. They were selling furs, muskets, tobacco, and pots. I found them creepy. Likewise, in Zurich there was a large “Renaissance Faire” going on in one of the town squares. Jana wanted to go in, but I very much did not, especially since we would have had to pay. I was quite content to watch the big bonfire from the outside and hear the town crier tell an apparently hilarious story (in Swiss German, of course) from the outside. I’m not sure why I felt so strongly, I just dislike those kinds of events. (I realize that in neither of these pictures can you see anyone who is dressed up, but trust me, they were there.)

The major upside to Zurich was the lake. At one point our plan had been to go swimming in the lake, but it turned out not be all that hot, so we didn’t really feel like going swimming. And we never really found the beach. But we did go to a grocery store (in the train station) and buy ourselves a great picnic: salami, cheese (unfortunately I can’t remember what kind, maybe Jana can?), bread, little tubes of mayo and mustard, pure apple juice, and chocolate. It sounds so simple, but it was honestly one of the best meals of our entire trip. We sat on a bench down by the lake, watching the boats come in and the sun set and ate our picnic. It was amazing. We walked along the lake and then back through the deserted streets to our hotel, which we found by spotting the big strip club just up the block.

In the end, I had to admit that Zurich wasn’t really all that bad, although for most of the day I had found it extremely dull. I was probably just frustrated by how expensive everything was, and how everything else seemed to be closed. But I did have a very enjoyable evening, so at least I have a positive memory of Zurich to dwell on.

The other thing we did in Zurich on that Sunday was wait in line for a chance to talk to a ticket agent about switching our ticket to Paris the next day from first to second class. Back in Vienna (why is it that the two cities I think of as the most boring were also the two that I had to get my tickets switched in?), the agent had only been able to change the tickets in Italy, not for this final train ride. So unfortunately that meant we had to leave it to the last minute. And unfortunately this meant that by the time we requested the switch, there were no second class seats remaining on our train, meaning that we wouldn’t arrive in Paris until 4:30, not 11:30 like we had planned. This was disappointing, because in effect it shortened our time in Paris by one day, which turned out to be fateful foreshadowing.

Our New House

If you recall last year when I did a series of blog posts about my lifelong goals, you may remember that one of them was to own a house. Well, this post is an acknowledgement of the fact that last week I checked that goal off my list. Jana and I have bought a house!

After two incredibly stressful weeks of negotiations (we did not use a realtor, meaning we had to deal with the seller directly), we lifted the conditions last Tuesday. Everything's moving really quickly, and we're getting possession on August 7, which is less than three weeks away already.

We have not taken any pictures of the inside ourselves, but here's what it looks like on the outside:

As soon as we have possession, I'll be sure to post more pictures.

This now means that Jana and I will be hard-pressed for cash for the next few years, as of course we're still both unemployed students, just now we have mortgage payments, utilities, taxes, and home repairs to pay for.

We are incredibly excited about this house. It has beautiful hardwood floors throughout the house, with ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathroom. There are two bedrooms in the second storey (the house is technically a 1.5 storey house, because the second storey has sloped ceilings), and then the potential for two more in the partially finished basement. There is a huge yard, with big beautiful trees and a firepit.

The neighbourhood, Prince Charles, is just south of the Yellowhead, and just west of the Municipal Airport, if you're familiar with Edmonton. It's a mature neighbourhood, with lots of trees, and low crime. All of the houses were built just after World War II, including ours in 1948.

Anything else you want to know, feel free to ask. And if you're coming through Edmonton, make sure to come visit, because we'll actually have a guest room soon!

Coral Springs Triathlon

Yesterday I participated in my second triathlon: the Tri-It Triathlon at Coral Springs. Once again I did the sprint distance (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run). I was joined by a lot of friends: Leif did the Olympic distance, Laura did the sprint distance (her first triathlon!), Joel did the sprint distance, and my mom did the Try-It distance (her first triathlon, too!). We had beautiful weather down in Calgary, and the water was nice and warm!

I set a new Personal Best time yesterday, making that two consecutive races at which I set a PB. My previous PB was 1:44:53, and my time yesterday was 1:33:36, an improvement of over 11 minutes. This was the breakdown, with last race's times in brackets:

Swim - 16:30 (21:40)
Bike - 47:49 (55:40)
Run - 29:18 (28:08)

So as you can see, the major improvements were in the swim and the bike. But even that is a little misleading, because remember that the bike time includes the transition. That is where the real improvement was, because I had torn the narrow ankle off of my wetsuit, allowing me to take it off in less than a minute, as opposed to the 7 minutes I took last time.

Overall, I was in way worse shape for this race than I was for the first one. In the 4 week interim, I really slacked off on my training, doing only one bike ride, one run, and one swim. Pathetic, really. As a result, you can see that my run was over a minute slower, and I'm sure that my bike was as well. What helped on the bike was that this race was regulation length (20 km, although my odometer said 21.2), as opposed to the 22.4 at Lake Summerside. However, my swimming improved vastly, due to two factors: I figured out how to fit my wetsuit on properly, meaning the arms didn't fill up with water, and the water temperature was much warmer than it had been in early June. These two things enabled me to actually maintain a proper swim stroke for the swim, and that cut over 5 minutes off my previours swim time.

My next triathlon is scheduled for Monday, September 7, in Lacombe, which gives me almost 2 months to pick the pace back up in my training. Like I said, the large improvement in my time was due to being able to swim, getting the wetsuit off much faster in transition, and the bike course being shorter, and was not due to any improvements in my fitness.

My time of 1:33:36 was good enough for 53rd out of 127 overall, putting me into the top half of all finishers in the sprint distance. Notably, I finished 8th out of 11 in my age group (Male 20-29), a distinct improvement from last race, where I finished 7th out of 7.

I'm still definitely hooked to the sport of triathlon, but now I know better than to take my fitness for granted. There is a lot of room for improvement if I actually take the time over the next 2 months to get myself into shape.

Michael Jackson

I have been feeling, as I'm sure many have in the past few days, that I've only realized how much I appreciated Michael Jackson since he died last Friday. This doesn't cause me guilt, as my opinion of Michael Jackson had no effect on the man whatsoever, but it does cause me to question how it is that we view artists/celebrities. If you'd mentioned Michael Jackson last Thursday, I would have instantly thought of the deformed nose, child molestation allegations, and bizarre lifestyle. But within hours of his death, his legacy transformed into that of a musical prodigy who changed the face of popular music and dance forever.

I can't claim this idea is original, but I can't quite get it out of my head: Michael Jackson is the Elvis Presley of his generation. Both men bridged the gap between "black music" and "white music," defining new musical styles all their own. Both men suffered massive falls from grace, turning into recluses with rumours swirling about what sort of debauchery went on inside their respective mansions. Both died relatively young, and I'm convinced that there will be many who believe that Jackson's death, like Elvis', has been faked. I'm also sure that within a few years Neverland will become a major tourist attraction on the scale of Graceland.

Every time I watch any musical talent shows (American Idol, Britain's Got Talent, etc.) I see a Michael Jackson impersonator. I can't think of any other music stars who are impersonated as much as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Part of that is because there are few musicians with as distinctive styles as those two, and certainly none with as distinctive of dance moves. You can immediately tell when someone is dressed and dancing like one of those two, something that can't be said for other popular musicians of the past century, with the possible exception of the Beatles.

The golden ages of both Elvis and MJ were fairly brief. I think that my experiences with Michael Jackson are probably similar to those of the Baby Boomer generation with Elvis. Michael Jackson was ever-present. I can never remember not knowing who he was, or not associating the moonwalk with him. I do remember the first time I saw a Michael Jackson music video: Free Willy around 1993. Already by that point, he was becoming a disgraced star, and I remember being aware of rumours about him being transgendered. I would imagine that for a lot of Boomers, they were also aware of Elvis for their entire lives, but anything he did in their lifetime was already well past his peak: some movies, and then the famous Vegas concerts and the jumpsuits that he wore for them.

So many of Michael Jackson's songs are deeply engrained in my cultural consciousness. Billie Jean, Beat It, Black or White, and Thriller all seem to be default dance numbers at weddings, talent shows, etc. Free Willy is one of the most memorable films of my childhood, and Will You Be There was stuck in my head for years.

It's sad that a person has to die before we appreciate them. I realize that it was impossible to look past the circus that surrounded Michael Jackson over the last decade or so, and he didn't do anything artistically to distract from that. Even as I was becoming a big fan of the Thriller album, there was a disconnect in my mind between the man who lived in an amusement park and the man who sang those songs I love so much. It has only been after he has died that I've been able to bridge that gap and realize that they were one and the same person, and that his musical and dance achievements are far more important than how he looked, what he bought, or what he did with his children.

The death of Michael Jackson is a very sad one. He was a man who never had a childhood, and who perpetually tried to regain those lost years. He suffered from several severe illnesses, most notably vitiligo, which changed his skin colour rapidly. He faced a lot of pressures, and collapsed under them. His death is not a sad one for the loss to the musical community, necessarily, as I don't think he was going to ever put out new music that would come close to his older work, but it is a sad one for the man himself. He suffered a lot in his pursuit of happiness, something that it never really seemed like he achieved.

Photographic Proof

Technically none of these pictures show me crossing the finish line, so you'll have to take my word for that.


The start: I'm the guy in the black wetsuit and blue swimcap.

Actually, I'm the guy in the very middle of the photograph whose hands are splayed out oddly.

All I could think about getting out of the water here was how happy I was to be done, and that I needed to be very careful not to trip or stub my toe on the large blocks of concrete.

There's probably a gap of 10 minutes between that last picture and this one, since my wetsuit is finally off.

Starting out on the bike, just before that old guy in front of me stopped suddenly and completely blocked the way out.

Coming back in on the bike. I was really pleased with my performance on the bike, and I passed a lot of people. I was 63rd coming out of the water, then had a terrible transition, but even with that transition I had the 37th best bike time.

I look like I'm sprinting out of transition here. Obviously I did not maintain this sort of pace for very long.

Like I said, none of these pictures show me crossing the finish line, but this is about 3 paces before the finish line. It was such a good feeling to finish that race.

My First Triathlon

Yesterday I accomplished the goal I set on New Year's Eve of completing a triathlon! I raced in the Sprint division of the Lake Summerside Triathlon yesterday in south Edmonton. As you may recall, it was Leif who inspired me to participate in triathlons. Last year he started racing, and when I began swimming in the fall, I secretly decided that I might surprise him by showing up at a race in the summer. But at New Year's, when we were all writing out our goals for the year, I decided to go public with that goal, hoping that doing so would make it happen. Yesterday, along with Leif and my friend Joel Houston, I reached the culmination of all the training from that point on. It was an amazing feel to cross that finish line, and I'm incredibly proud of accomplishing this goal.

As for the race itself, here's how it went: the day before, Leif and I met up at the lake to go for a practice swim. This was the first time I'd ever tried to really swim in a lake, and also the first time using my wetsuit, and it didn't really go very well. The water was too cold for me to be able to keep my face in the water properly, and so I found myself completely unable to swim anything more than a breaststroke. Furthermore, the arms of my wetsuit filled up with water, and I didn't have the upper-body strength to lift them out of the water. It was a little bit frightening, and certainly didn't build up my confidence for the next day.

However, that night I focused my mind on swimming slowly and easily, flipping onto my back whenever necessary, and just making sure that I completed the swim, no matter how long it took me.

The next morning I was up bright and early, and Leif and I met Joel at the race site around 7:30. I checked in, got body-marked, picked up my timing chip, set up my bike and gear, and began the long wait. My wave (all the Sprint racers) didn't start until 10:00, so there was plenty of time to wait. It was good, though, because I could think through everything, make sure nothing was missed, and get mentally prepared for the race ahead.

Joel and I stood on the beach watching the Olympic racers go before us, and I was encouraged to see a lot of people going very slowly. In fact, we watched a number of people drop out of the race because they couldn't handle the swim, and I was very glad that I had done the practice swim on Saturday. I think that if I hadn't, I probably would have panicked and quit. Instead, I knew I wasn't going to be able to just do a quick, normal swim, and as a result I finished comfortably.

The time came for our race to begin. The horn sounded, and I slowly jogged into the water, letting most people go in front of me. There was some congestion initially, which is impossible to avoid with 91 people starting at once, but nothing too bad, just some bumping. Pretty quickly I found some space, and almost immediately flipped over onto my back. The cold combined with the wetsuit just made me feel too constricted, and I couldn't hold my breath long enough, so I didn't really try. I probably completed about three-quarters of the swim on my back, and a lot of it just chugging along with my legs. Whenever I did flip onto my front I could go a lot faster, but I just couldn't keep it up for long enough. But my emphasis was on finishing the swim, and that's what I did. In the final 250 metres, I picked one guy who I would try to beat, and I did, by about 20 metres. Final swim time: 21:40, 63rd (these places are out of the 80 people who finished the Sprint race).

My transition was horrible. Absolutely horrific. I knew going in that I would have troubles getting my wetsuit over my heels, but hadn't realized how tired my arms would be. It must have taken me 5 minutes to get it off. I'd estimate my transition time at around 7 minutes, which is unacceptable. There is a lot of room for improvement here. Unfortunately this race didn't do separate times for transitions, so I don't know how much of my bike time was taken up in this transition.

I felt really good on the bike. I kept up a good speed the whole time, and passed a lot of people. The bike course was not very well planned, as much of it was on nearly gravel roads, and a lot of people suffered flat tires due to the poor conditions of the roads. There were also some very strong headwinds, which made the ride difficult, but I like to think that my leg strength is my strongest point, and I was able to push past quite a few people. The bike was pretty uneventful, even though it was the longest part of the race. I couldn't feel my feet the whole time, which was weird, as they were still numb from the swim. Leif passed me with about 7 km to go, and it was nice to see him and call out some encouragement. Final bike time (22.4 km, including swim-to-bike transition): 55:40, 37th.

My second transition (T2) was amazing. Because I don't have cycling shoes, all I had to do was rack my bike, pull off my helmet and start running. I think I was probably in and out of the whole transition zone in less than 30 seconds. The announcer called out my name as I started off on the run, which was a pretty cool feeling.

The run was two laps of a loop through the Summerside neighbourhood, including running along a gravel path and over 3 wood bridges. It was overall a very pleasant run, and there were lots of places to pass by runners going in the opposite direction so I could know exactly how my friends were doing. I had, as a bit of a joke, set a goal of finishing my Sprint distance race before Leif finished his Olympic distance race (all distances doubled). Leif had a 30 minute head start, and it turns out that this was actually not a guarantee, given his super-human speed. I passed him going in the other direction as I started out on my 2nd lap and he was finishing his 2nd, so I realized that I just needed to finish my lap before he could do two, which I did, finishing about 5 minutes before Leif did. The first lap of the run was tough, because my legs were very tired. The swimming on my back had been a lot harder on my legs than I had anticipated, so they were starting to cramp up. Also, running after a long bike is a major switch in muscles and doesn't feel very natural at all. I'm certain that my second loop was a lot faster than my first one. I turned on the speed in the final 300 metres, and passed 2 or 3 people so that I could have the finish line all to myself. I came around the corner, heard Jana and our other friends that had come out to watch cheering me on, and sprinted across the finish. I felt so great!! Final run time: 28:08, 38th.
At various points in the buildup to this race, I had set different goals for myself. At one point, I wanted to finish in 1:30. However, I abandoned that goal early on, realizing that it was both way too fast for my abilities and also didn't factor in any flexibility for a longer bike (such as in this race) or race-specific factors (like the headwinds and road conditions on the bike). Later I set a goal of finishing without walking. I abandoned that goal after a heavy workout in the river valley in which I realized that some hills are just too large to run up. But after seeing the racecourse, I re-adopted that goal, and yesterday I achieved it. That is probably what I am the most proud of out of the whole day: I finished the whole triathlon without walking, and pushed as hard as I possibly could.

My final time was 1:44:53, good for 40th overall out of 80 finishers. I am extremely pleased with that result. I was mentally prepared to finish in last place, as long as I finished. To finish in the top half (91 started) is much better than I had expected. There is a lot of room for improvement (especially on my swim and T1), so I find myself in the position where I am now hooked to the sport, and must do more. I've registered for the Lacombe Triathlon in September, and am planning to register for the Coral Springs Triathlon in Calgary in July (in addition to Leif and Joel, I also know that both Laura and my Mom are planning to run their first triathlons that day). I can't wait to get out there and do another one!

By the way, I know that pictures exist of this day, I just don't have them yet. As soon as I have them, I'll post them.

Europe Trip - Part 7 - Rome

Exams are looming over me, but it’s lunch hour and I’ve only got a few minutes before class starts, so I may as well write a bit of this. I enjoy writing these blogs so much, and from the Florence one I see that other people besides myself actually do read them and enjoy them as well, so it’s not difficult to get motivated to write them. This post will concern Rome, the final Italian city on our trip, and what ended up being the longest we spent in any one city. (Note: it is, of course, several weeks since exams ended, as once again this post took me over a month to write. I should forewarn you: we took less pictures in Rome than anywhere else, for some reason, so there will be a lot more text than photos in this post, sorry. And the photos I do include may be of lower quality, since I have less to choose from.)

I had a hard drive crash a couple of weeks ago, which wiped out all of the pictures on my computer. Fortunately, Jana had the Europe pictures saved on her laptop (and we’ve printed quite a few of them), so none of those were lost. And my law school notes were backed up online, so I only lost a few days worth of those. But it was a good reminder to start backing up regularly.

Anyway, I’m off topic already and on my third paragraph and haven’t talked about Rome at all.

We left Florence bright and early on the 7:52 train which took us directly to the Stazione Termini in Rome, arriving at 9:30. That was a really great bit of planning on our part, because it meant that we didn’t have a travel day between those two cities. Between Venice and Florence we had still done stuff on the travel day, but the whole afternoon was taken up on the train. This was great, because we had the whole day in Rome.

Our hotel was right by the station, so we went there immediately and put our luggage into storage for the day. The hotel was pretty nice, and well air-conditioned, which was very much appreciated. Our stay in Rome was very, very hot. The highs were in the high-30s every day that we were there, and the sun was always beating down. It was definitely too hot at times, and we didn’t always enjoy things as much as we could have because it was so uncomfortable, which is too bad. But that’s what you get in mid-August.

The best part of the hotel, though, was its location. Rome has a pretty terrible transit system, but it’s all focused around one hub: the Stazione Termini. That’s part of why it’s so bad, in fact. The subway consists of two lines, and they make a giant “X” over the city, converging only at the Termini. This was also the hub for nearly every bus line. It must be very frustrating to get from one side of the city to the other using transit, as you would have to make your way to Termini first in order to get anywhere. However, for us, this was great, because our hotel was one block away from every transit line.

We learned, as the week went on, that central Rome is actually a lot smaller than we thought, and had it not been so hot, we would have done more walking. We also learned that taking the bus was always quicker than crowding onto the train, especially since we usually only wanted to go a few stops.

This first day in Rome was our second wedding anniversary. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning that now, but it’s good to remember everything that we did on our anniversary, even if most of it we would have done anyway.

The first thing we did that day was ride the train over to the Piazza del Popolo. This is a beautiful square, famous for the two matching churches flanking the street leading out of the square, and for the Egyptian obelisk in the centre. I’ve seen it in the previews for Angels and Demons, so I imagine it figures prominently in that movie. We then walked up the Via del Corso, past the two churches, and up this high-class shopping street until we turned and reached the famous Spanish Steps. We could not understand the hype about these steps. After all, they were just steps. The sunken ship fountain is interesting, but that’s about it.

Then we decided to head out on a walking tour, so we got back on the train, and headed to the nearest train stop to Trastevere. This was poorly planned, as we could have gotten there much quicker by a bus and then tram (a route we used several times later in the week), but I was never able to find a good transit map of Rome, so in these early days we were rather reliant on the metro. In this case, it meant about a 45 minute walk to get to where we would start our walking tour, down a street with no trees, in 38 degree heat.

Fortunately, we loved Trastevere. This neighbourhood became our default place to go, and we came back here 3 or 4 times while we were there. One of the main reasons was an early stop on our walking tour: the Sora Mirella grattachecca stand along the Tiber River. The picture of it here is not my own, as bizarrely we did not take any pictures of this place that we would plan the rest of our days around coming back to. A grattachecca is a drink made from fresh shaved ice, fresh fruit, syrup, and some dried fruit on top. It is absolutely delicious. We started planning our days around getting back to this little stand, because the heat was so unbearable otherwise.

The rest of the walking tour took us through the tiny, twisting streets of Trastevere and to the beautiful little Church of St. Cecilia. Then we went back to the hotel and got dressed for dinner. We had not planned a place for dinner, but we started looking for a place nice and early so we never really felt rushed. Italians eat nice and late, probably due to the high heat during the day.

While we looked for a restaurant, we explored a lot of central Rome. We made our first visit to the Trevi Fountain with its vast crowds and the Piazza Colonna. Quite unexpectedly, we came around a corner and were face-to-face with the Pantheon, which is a very, very impressive building. It was just a block or two beyond the Pantheon, on a tiny street that was little more than an alley (in fact, there was no vehicular traffic on the street) that we found the amazing restaurant that we ate our anniversary dinner at. We sat out on the patio, as the night began to cool off, and had one of the best dinners of our entire trip, which was a great treat for our anniversary. For our first course, the pasta course, I had Spaghetti alla Carbonara, my all-time favourite pasta dish, and Jana had pasta with fresh Porcini mushrooms. For the main course, Jana had salmon with a tomato sauce, while I had a beef tenderloin encrusted with pink peppercorns. It was delicious, served with fantastic fresh-baked bread, and all washed down with a great Chianti and sparkling water. I can’t remember exactly what dessert was, but it was some sort of chocolate, and I know I had an espresso (I’d check with Jana on the dessert, but of course she’s away in England right now). It was a beautiful warm night, the patio was full of locals enjoying a beautiful evening at a restaurant that they clearly knew was superior, and we had amazing service. I think we’ll be hard-pressed to ever have a better anniversary. We walked back through the Pantheon, wandering through the huge columns in the dark, and back up the Via del Tritone to the train station.

The next morning we started with a visit to the Galleria Borghese, for which we had a 9:00 am reservation. This Renaissance villa is filled with the private art collection of the Borghese family. By and large, it was a bit of a disappointment, as the Borghese’s taste was rather tacky. However, a few works were among the very best we saw on the entire trip, most notably Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne” and Canova’s “Pauline Bonaparte”. It was really nice to be up and about in the morning, though, while it was still cool, especially as the villa is located in a very large park, which we were able to walk through for a while.

We then made our way over to the Vatican. We had been warned of very, very long lines to get into the Vatican Museums, so we wanted to get there around lunchtime so that we could still get in even if we had to stand in line for 3 or 4 hours. As it turned out, there was no line at all; we just walked right in. The Vatican Museums were fascinating, a huge collection of art spread throughout the Papal Palaces. We started with the famous spiral staircase, and then made our way through art history starting with Ancient Egypt and ending in the Renaissance. My favourite part of the museums were the Papal apartments painted by Raphael. This is right near the end of the museum, and these rooms, combined with the final exhibit in the museum, are probably the pinnacle of Renaissance art. The most famous of the many frescoes in these rooms is certainly “The School of Athens”. The final exhibit, which I just mentioned, is of course the Sistine Chapel. Jana found the Chapel slightly disappointing, as it was not what she had expected. Personally, I found it overwhelming. There is so much art in that room, and so much of it is so far away, that it is impossible to really take in what you’re seeing. We sat in that room for quite some time and soaked it in. Some of the segments are of course very famous, such as “Creation of Adam” and “God Creates the Sun and the Planets.” The most impressive part, however, for me at least, was “The Last Judgment”, which takes up the entire wall behind the altar. Thanks once again to Rick Steve’s audio guides, we were given a detailed description of this work of art, and pointed towards many of the fascinating details found in it that we might very well have missed otherwise.

Following the Sistine Chapel, we made our final stop in the Vatican: St. Peter’s Basilica. Once again we had an audio guide that we were both listening to on our iPods, starting with the exterior. As a result, we walked in through the front doors on command and gazed up into the most breathtaking sight of the entire trip. This cathedral, the largest in the world, is stunning. The sun was beaming down onto the altar. As I stood there, and tears came to my eyes from the incredible size and beauty of the place, I heard a choir sing a heavenly chord. I turned to Jana in amazement, and said something to the effect of, “My mind is playing tricks on me: it was so beautiful, I swear I heard an angel chorus.” Jana laughed, and informed me that I had indeed heard that chord, in fact she had as well, as it was recorded on our audio guides! It was a little embarrassing, to say the least. But it was perfect timing, because I honestly thought it was real.

We spent the next hour or so slowly walking through the cathedral in silent awe. Everything in St. Peter’s is larger than life, and designed to fool the eye: for example, the writing you can see in the picture, which snakes all the way around the entire church, is made up of letters that range from 6 to 8 feet tall. This completely changes the scale of the church, because one assumes that they are maybe one-third that height, and so your brain is tricked into thinking the space is smaller than it actually is. Furthermore, the letters get larger the farther away they are from the entrance, so that they all appear to be the same size when you are standing in the nave. You can’t really comprehend how large it is until you take the time to walk all the way up to the altar, which is fully 200 metres away. And of course, the Basilica is filled with incredible artwork, most notably Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. This marble sculpture, with the folds in the robe and Christ’s twisted body, is yet another example of Michelangelo’s mastery. Looking back, it is quite astonishing how much art we saw by both him and Leonardo da Vinci, and how all of it was so extraordinary. I learned quite a lot about art on this trip, and have developed a very deep appreciation for the Renaissance in particular.

We made our way back to our hotel, through the famous Piazza di San Pietro in front of the Basilica, but we didn’t pause for long because it was so overwhelmingly hot outside. After some relaxation in our air conditioned hotel room (and watching the Olympics, of course), we headed back out for supper. Again we stumbled across a great restaurant in the back streets of Rome, and enjoyed another relaxing evening as the sun disappeared and the temperature became bearable again. This time we ate in the Trastevere neighbourhood, where we had spent our first afternoon the day before. The restaurant we ate in was a packed, lively place, again filled with locals, which is always a good sign. I went way out on a limb and had gnocchi with clams, something I’d never had before. It was delicious. Afterwards we explored more of that neighbourhood, including the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere and walked through the very lively nightlife scene in that area of the city.

The next day, looking back, was probably my favourite of our days in Rome, and the evening was one of the best of our entire trip. We started off the day by heading to the Palatine Hill, the site of the Roman Emperor’s Palace. The Palace is in ruins now, but there is enough still there to get a sense of the size and grandeur of the place. Behind the Palace is the Circus Maximus, famous for its chariot races, such as in “Ben-Hur”. It was a pretty weird feeling to stand on the spot where the Emperor’s throne stood, knowing that a couple thousand years earlier Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Constantine, and Nero had all stood in the same spot. There was also a museum containing several pieces of Classical art. One thing that stood out in my mind a lot on the trip was the huge gap in time between the Classical period and the medieval period, when art began to flourish again, and the Renaissance, when it finally regained the glory that it had in the last centuries BC. It’s really a strange thing that the Romans and Greeks lived before the Dark Ages, because their societies were so similar to ours in so many ways, and yet for centuries after that humanity seemed to descend into ignorance. It’s quite a strange phenomenon.

Another interesting thing about Rome that you can see in these pictures is how the city has been built up around the ruins. All throughout the city you see little pieces of ruins, either on its own or with a modern building built around it. This city embraces its history and has integrated the old with the new in a very unique way. These sites are not separated from the rest of the city.

The biggest problem with this day was that we were outdoors at midday, something we did a pretty good job of avoiding on the other days. That did put a damper on things somewhat, but I think that what we were seeing was so wonderful that it all balanced out. From the Palatine Hill we made our way over to the Colosseum. I don’t know what to say about the Colosseum that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just say that it is a brilliant example of classical architecture and that its ability to endure for so long is amazing. It was quite fascinating to see the underground workings of the Colosseum, such as the dozens of elevator shafts for bringing up props and wild animals in order to keep the masses entertained during the gladiator games. Outside the Colosseum is the magnificent Arch of Constantine, erected by Constantine to commemorate his conversion to Christianity after his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312. This huge arch is the inspiration for many other such arches around the world, including the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

We then crossed the street and made our way through the Forum, the heart of ancient Rome. It was very interesting to visit all three of these sites in a single day and to get a sense of their proximity to one another. The first two pictures below were taken from the Palatine Hill, so you can get a sense of how close these sites actually are. Located in the Forum are the immense Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine with its huge barrel vaults, the Temple of Saturn with its famous columns, and the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, among many others.

After the Forum it was time for another grattechecca, and then back to the hotel to cool down. For supper we made our way down to the area around the Trevi Fountain again and had yet another very enjoyable dinner. Oh, but first we slipped into the Pantheon just before it closed to be awed by the massive dome. After dinner we set out to do what is in my mind the most memorable walking tour of the whole trip: Rick Steve’s Night Walk Across Rome. We began by making our way towards the Camp de’ Fiori, the starting point for Rick’s tour. On our way, we passed by the Largo di Torre Argentina, the ruins of the ancient Theatre of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was assassinated. While looking at the ruins, we noticed a cat wandering amongst the columns. Soon we realized that the ruins were absolutely overrun with cats, and I think we counted somewhere around 30. Having researched it more fully since coming home, I’ve discovered that the Torre Argentina has a permanent cat shelter set up, due to the immense number of feral cats living in the area. In fact, it is estimated that there are 300,000 feral cats in Rome, and the city has declared the ones living in the Torre Argentina, the Colosseum, and the Forum, to be protected as part of the city’s bio-heritage.

The walking tour took us through the Campo de’ Fiori, with its statue of Giordano Bruno, through the streets of Rome to the Piazza Navona, with its famous Four Rivers Fountain. Unfortunately for us, the Fountain was undergoing major restoration, and so only parts of it were visible, and there was no water flowing. However, the square itself was alive. There were artists, street musicians, street performers, and tons of people. I loved how Rome was more vibrant at 10:00 pm than at 2:00 pm. It is a lifestyle I could get used to quite easily.

We departed from Rick’s walking tour at this point, because I realized, in looking at the map, that we were not very far from the Castel Sant’Angelo, which we had not yet seen. So we walked, in large crowds, through the streets from the Piazza Navona to the Tiber River. Once at the Tiber, the crowds disappeared. We descended the steps onto the walkway, where we were all alone. It was a beautiful night, the lights were reflecting on the water, and there was nobody else around. We walked down the river for quite a while, enjoying the romantic moment. By the time we returned to ground level, we were nearly at the Vatican. We crossed the river, and made our way back on the other side. We passed by the Castel Sant’Angelo, which was hosting a festival of some sort. Out front was a huge market, and we strolled through all the booths, which were open at 11:00 pm. Finally we crossed back over the river and returned to the Piazza Navona, where we sat for a while longer watching a street performer make jokes we couldn’t understand. From the Piazza Navona we walked through an area we had become quite familiar with, past the Pantheon and the Piazza Colonna and to the Trevi Fountain. This was the first time we’d seen the Trevi Fountain at night, and it was magnificent. The roaring water, the huge crowds, and the lively sculptures made it a really fun place to be. We took a few pictures, and then tried to get the courage up to ask someone else to take a picture of us (something neither of us is very good at). Then suddenly, at midnight, the police arrived and started blowing their whistles and herding everyone out very quickly. In a panic I grabbed the nearest guy and asked him to take our picture, which he did while the police shouted at him to get moving. The picture, as you can see, is of very poor quality, but there was no time to take another one as the police were quite insistent that we get out of there.

The walking tour continued through the emptying streets of Rome to the Piazza di Spagna, home of the Spanish Steps that we had visited a couple of days earlier. This time there was nobody there, and even less to see than the first time.

It is important at this point to recount an overarching theme throughout this entire walk: I had to use the bathroom rather desperately from the point we first reached the Piazza Navona. So if you’ve been following the times at all, you’ll notice that it had been about two hours at this point. Public washrooms are very difficult to find when you need them, I discovered all over Europe, and especially late at night. Instances such as this, with me anxiously keeping an eye out for a washroom while we explored a city, repeated themselves over and over again throughout Europe, because I insisted on keeping myself well-hydrated. This night was the worst, though.

Having now reached the end of the walking tour, we went around the corner to the metro station to head home. As we entered the station, we noticed a barred door and it struck us as odd. Also odd was how empty the station felt. When we reached the top of the escalator to descend to the platform, it became very clear that the Metro was closed for the night. Apparently, the Metro in Rome, one of the world’s major cities, stops running at 11:00 pm. Unbelievable! We wandered through the station, eventually coming out at the other end, in the Borghese gardens of all places. By this point it was getting close to 1:00 am, and the sight of plant life was enough to make me risk a public urination ticket. It was a very relaxing experience.

We found a bus stop, and figured out that a night bus would be coming by on its way to the Stazione Termini. We caught the bus, and rode it 5 minutes to the Termini. I think this was the point that we realized just how close everything was. I think, after having walked for 3 or 4 hours already that night, that we could probably have handled walking the equivalent of a 5 minute drive, but we just didn’t realize how close we were to home. We felt foolish, though, that’s for sure.

The next day was an odd one. The night before had been our final night in Rome, but our train didn’t leave Rome until about 8:00 that night. So we check out of our hotel, but still had the whole day in Rome. Fortunately, the hotel was very accommodating, letting us leave our luggage there while we went out, and even encouraging us to sit in the air-conditioned lobby in the heat of the day.

We basically took this whole day off, just lounging around all day. We walked a couple of blocks over to the Sana Maria degli Angeli church, which Michelangelo designed. The church was originally the ancient Roman Baths of Diocletian, and Michelangelo converted them into the church. From there we proceeded past the Art Nouveau fountain in the Piazza Repubblica down the Via Nazionale. It was my turn to go shopping, and I took about 15 minutes to get both of the items I had wanted to get on the trip: an AS Roma jersey, and brown Italian leather shoes. I found the shoes on sale, on the clearance rack, with only two sizes left, one of which was mine. I’ve never loved any article of clothing more, and at this point I can’t imagine ever owning a more beautiful pair of shoes. I really love them.

We continued on down to Trastevere for one last visit to the grattachecca stand, and our last real meal in Italy. We picked what may have been the best restaurant yet, and Jana had her favourite Italian dish, the Caprese salad, while I had delicious tortellini in a meat sauce. After lunch we returned to our hotel and spent a couple of hours cooling off in the aforementioned lobby, playing checkers and reading.

Once the heat of the day was over, we made a foolish attempt to visit the catacombs. I knew they were a ways away, because my map of Rome didn’t extend far enough south to where they were. Not having them on the map, though, meant that I didn’t know exactly where they were, and it turns out they were a lot farther south than I’d realized. Fortunately, we figured that out at the metro station just before we got on the bus to go all the way south. In fact, I feel like we were even on the bus and then jumped off when we realized that there was no way that we had time to go that far and make it back in time to catch our train. So instead, we wandered around the area of the Porta San Giovanni, a Renaissance gate in the ancient Roman wall (the Aurelian wall). We found a park that ran along the wall, and spent the next couple of hours sitting in the park, just enjoying the evening sun on our last day in Italy, looking through the pictures of our trip for the first time, and watching people enjoy the park.

Eventually we got back on the train and returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and returned to the train station. I will tell the tale of our night train in the next blog, due out sometime in 2012 if I keep up this pace.

At the time, Rome mostly consisted in our minds of searing heat. Looking back, though, we did a lot of things that we really enjoyed, had spectacular luck with restaurants, and had, overall, a really relaxing visit. We had our second anniversary there, and some of our favourite moments of the whole trip (the anniversary dinner, seeing the Pantheon for the first time, the night walk through Rome, stepping into St. Peter’s). Our memories of Rome have definitely become more positive over time, and we both want to return there, just not in August ever again.

Summertime

On Sunday I ran my first organized race since I was in Grade 6. I ran the 10k race in the Mother's Day Run and Walk in Calgary. My official time was 50:17, which was good enough for 90/222 in the Male 20-29 division, and 398/2329 overall. Which I happen to think is really good considering that the first time I ever ran 10k was last Wednesday. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun. My Dad and I ran the 10k together (until about the 5k mark), my Mom ran the 5k, and my sisters walked the 5k.

I have started my new job, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm getting very valuable hands-on experience, which is rare for a first-year law student to get. I've already got 11 trials scheduled, so it's going to be a very busy summer. The days just fly by, which is a welcome change. I've never had a job before where I consistently have more work to do than time to do it in.

I'm working on my Rome travelogue, so hopefully that will be posted in the next couple of weeks.

Goal update: I did not accomplish goal #1 (make the Dean's List), because I fell short of the minimum GPA threshold by 0.1. That still leaves me in the top 20% of my class, though, so I'm still feeling good.

Done

I feel like I've been beaten up. In the last few weeks, I've developed a coffee addiction (seriously), and am sleep deprived. But I have finished all 5 of my law school exams, ending with today's, the one I was most dreading: the closed-book Constitutional Law final. I think it went pretty well.

Now it's just the waiting game to get my marks back.

Jana leaves for England next Friday, and then I'll be on my own here for three weeks. Hopefully I'll find a few things to blog about.