100% stupid trying to come up with precentages

I'm having a productive evening.  I've managed to get a bunch of things typed up and out the door, or more like onto the interweb.  Figured I might as well keep it going and get a new post out too.  I enjoy writing these much more because they are anything but formal.  I can use crappy English and use words like "boring" if I really want to.  Unfortunately, my mommy who is an English teacher, reads this blog.  She likes to let me know when my writing sucks and when my posts are boring.  I really do try hard with our club website and "press releases".  I make an attempt proof read those articles and go over them once before publishing them.  Same goes when I'm trying to put together some sort or proposal, request, or form.  No squiggly red or green lines and were set!!

Hunt, Huff, Friesen, Brockerville, Wilkie, Forester, Gant, Pawluk

A bunch of us were in Whistler last weekend for the Whistler 50 relay.  Road relays are pretty awesome and I wish they had more of them.  They remind me of university cross country days.  Something about the team dynamic that you simply don't get in regular races, even if you have a dozen other team mates on the line.  We dominated the race too winning all 8 stages.  Fancy new Timex watches for all.  None of us ran particularly fast, but there was no pressure to do so.  We won by about 20 minutes and somehow missed our record from last year by 2 seconds.  Now the challenge is to find another road relay, hopefully with some competition and hopefully somewhere closer then Japan.  Were eying one down in the States, but missed the registration and its now sold out.  Hence the formal proposal free of grammatical and spelling errors that I was working on earlier tonight.  If anyone out there knows of any solid relays let me know!!  Or better yet, anyone who thinks they have a team that can challenge us, come out to Whistler next year and race us!

Pawluk #123, Winter #389

BC Cross Country Championships are tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it and its bringing back some old memories.  The race will be in Abbotsford and it will have been 10 years since my last race on this course which was BC High School Cross Country Champs in 2002.  That year I won, beating Chris Winter and Geoff Martinson.  Best part about tomorrow?  I'll be racing against Chris Winter and Geoff Martinson.  Those guys are pretty darn legit.  I'll have my work cut out for me.  Both these guys are pretty fit right now too.  Hell with it, I'm pretty fit right now as well.  It'll be a good race.  I'll put some sort of race recap up if it turns into an epic battle.

25% cold, 75% rain drops keep falling on my head

I was planning on getting something out here a few days ago, but then I got sick.  Being sick mostly sucks.  You know you're eventually going to pick something up, its just a matter of when.  Thankfully I got this cold at a semi-ideal time (super ideal time is when your not racing at all and just putting in some base mileage).  The time qualifies as semi-ideal because there are no major races for a few weeks, so plenty of time to get healthy again.  In general, I'm a lucky SOB and don't get sick too often.  I can't even remember the last time I got sick.  In fact, sometimes at the end of a season, when I have a few weeks to run relaxed, I go out of my way to try and get sick.  Yeah, it sounds messed up to deliberately get a cold, but if you know your going to get sick, you might as well do it on your own schedule.

So we had a really nice summer over here in Vancouver.  It was so wonderful and spectacular that we didn't have any rain drops fall on our heads for all of August and September.  It was so dry that even trails and parks were closed do to "extreme fire conditions."  I ignored all the signs and ran off limit trails anyway.  Made me feel like some kind of bad ass rebel.  As wickedly wicked as the nice dry weather was, it was not meant to last forever and we finally have rain drops falling on our heads.  Its actually a bit of an understatement to say "rain drops," as we haven't seen drops for the past few days, but buckets of water instead.  I'm now three for three in being completely soaked and drenched after my runs.  I have all sorts of awesome rashes on my chest and behind my knees (half tight chaffing?)  Today was a beyond miserable 2 hour run.  We started going a little nutty after a dozen miles or so and started jumping in puddles trying to splash each other.  Oddly enough we couldn't actually get any wetter. 

Now I started getting a bit off topic here, but I'm talking about rain (and lots of it) because Vancouver (Jericho) is hosting national cross champs again this year.  Those of you who were here last year, or saw the pictures know what a pleasant afternoon we had last year with sunshine, no wind, dry hard footing, and warm temperatures.  Oh wait, that's what we had on Wednesday when we did a work out at Jericho.  Amazingly enough, when we were down there today the place was already flooded, and it only took three days.  So heads up to all of you thinking about traveling out to Vancouver at the end of November for Nats, the weather will probably suck and it will likely be a mud bath yet again.  Remember those 13mm spikes. 

Next up, is the Whistler50.  Its a 8 person, 80km relay (alternating 13k and 7k legs).  This is the events 2nd year (replaced Haney2Harrison).  We dominated the race last year and were planning on doing the same this year.  We're mostly made up of Point Grey guys but for kicks we have a Newfie for good times and laughs. This event generates awesome stories.  Check out our 2012 t-shirt.  We name our team after outhouse/port-a-potty brands.  Last year we were Team Honey Bucket, this year Point Grey Port-A-Loo.  If you know any awesome port-a-potty names let me know!!  We'll need something fresh for next year.  Heck I'd even send you a t-shirt if you have an awesome name for us.