What has Andrew been up to?
Long time no post. For some reason when summer hits, I completely forget to post. I have certainly have had some fun postable experiences since the marathon; in fact I am sitting here in Ottawa on a weekend for the first time since April. Here is a small recount of my life since then.
Weekend of April 30 – Went to Montreal to celebrate being done classes and to see my French housemates before they headed back to France. Highlight of the weekend was having to do a 33km run on my own….oh wait, no it wasn’t!
Weekend of May 7 – Salomon Adventure Challenge in Bon Echo Park. Although we dropped behind at first due to our tiny yet heavy (~80lb.) canoe coupled with the fact that it was our first time in a boat for the year, we recovered to take 2nd place co-ed by 1 minute!
Weekend of May 14 – Thousand Islands Fluid Mechanics meeting. Yep, I went to my first academic conference and I was extremely surprised that a) I was able to follow more presentations than expected and b) actually enjoyed them.
Weekend of May 21 – Good ol’ May 24 weekend was spent at Leanne’s parents place in Orillia. They live on a lake, many good times had, I love sea kayaks!
Weekend of May 28 – My first marathon in Ottawa. Okay, so I did spend this whole weekend in Ottawa, but it was a busy weekend anyway!
Weekend of June 4 – How is this for random? I volunteered at a 24 hour adventure race put on for the BAR Honda F1 racing team at Mt. Tremblant and was put up in Hotel Sommet des Neiges! Nice!
Weekend of June 11 – Volunteered at Salomon Adventure Challenge Marmora long course and saw Team adidas Divas (all female) take fourth overall behind one of the strongest co-ed teams in Canada and two extremely strong all male teams. Awesome work guys!
Weekend of June 18 – Hiking trip in Frontenac Park. I didn’t know that Ontario could be this beautiful for hiking.
Weekend of June 25 – We (Team HolisticClinic.ca) took first at Quest for a Cure 48 hour adventure race. Beautiful scenery and 18 TAs?!
Weekends of July 2 and July and July 9 – Went to Scotland to celebrate my granny’s 90th birthday and she doesn’t look a day over 80! Special lady. I hiked the last half of the West Highland Way in 2.5 days with my two cousins. Beautiful!
Weekend of July 16 – Stayed at a friend’s place in Gatineau park and had a relaxed time of trail riding, swimming, movie watching, and eating lots of good food!
Weekend of July 23 – Raid the North Deerhurst 36 hour adventure race. Long story short, it should have taken us 1.5-2 hours to reach CP1 and we took 7.5 after being a little turned around. We moved quick enough after that to finish the “remedial” course in the allotted time. Very hungry for my next race now!
Weekend of July 30 – Took the long weekend to do a canoe trip on the French River. We raced there last summer so it was nice to go back and actually enjoy the area instead of hammering through it. I swam 1.6km; not bad for a pylon!
Weekend of August 6 – Canoe trip with Brett and Mel in Algonquin. Very fun and relaxing trip. Amazing stars out on the Saturday night and we did a successful double gunwale bob.
Today – Did a 110km trail ride in Gatineau park. I love that place!
Some of the “during the week” events were also fun and included many morning paddles on Mooney’s bay, ultimate games, Josh came to visit and finally got to meet Chantal, we had our power cut-off (not my doing), many rides in Gatineau park (did I mention I love that place?), and of course I am progressing daily on my thesis research.
The most exciting part is that I am keeping my streak of moving every four months going in a couple weeks, but then I am going to stay there for a whole year! So exciting!
So there is my summary of what I have been up to….if you actually made it this far that is.
