Hello 2011: Ski, Run, Swim... bike?

Before 2011 is over and before it's over a year since my last post, I feel I owe my blog a quick update on... the past year!

Lets pick up where we left: After Ironman Arizona (last november), we treated ourselves with a fabulous honeymoon in Fiji. Snorkelling was amazing and we had a great time relaxing on the beach and in our own beach bure.

Once back in Canada, winter was already on and we started cross country skiing quickly. I should say early in the season, because at first, quickly didn't apply to both of us! Jennifer had a steep learning curve to overcome: growing up on a nice Florida beach doesn't give someone much natural talent for any sport taking place on cold white stuff called "snow"! Despite an allergy to hills (up and mostly down), Jennifer did her first cross country skiing race at the Gatineau Loppett in February of her very first season. My brother Louis and I were able to race faster and we're happy to have been able to beat her at least once. I'm still confident I can ski faster than her again this year, but I think Louis is a little bit worried about the little Florida girl's capacity to improve! See all about it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7E2kWwRTu0

Going Up!

New skis!

During the Gatineau Loppet

After a great first winter in Toronto, the spring made me run, literally! We were running with the winter/spring marathon clinic and since most people in the clinic were running the Toronto Goodlife Marathon, I decided to be a pacer for that race, although it was only 2 weeks before my goal race: the Ottawa Marathon. I ended up pacing the 3h30 group, which was a great experience and also did great in Ottawa, qualifying for the Boston marathon with a Personal Best of 3h08m24s, improving by 9 minutes my previous PB of 3h17 at the Scotia Waterfront Marathon in Toronto. While the time was good for a "BQ" (Boston Qualify), it was by less than 5 minutes for my age group, and I was not sure to be able to register for the Boston Marathon. I decided to keep on running through the summer and try to qualify by over 5 minutes at the Québec City Marathon (Marathon des deux rives SSQ de Québec) at the end of August. It was great to visit Québec since this was Jennifer's first time out there. Staying at the Château Frontenac made it even more special. Unfortunately, hurricane Irene decided to show up to the race and the organizers cancelled the full marathon. I ran a PB at the half (1h28) and decided that I would try to register for Boston with my 3h08 and that if I wouldn't get in, then I wasn't meant to run Boston in 2012.

All this running made me skip a very important part of our 2011 summer, which between the Ottawa marathon and the Québec City marathon, brought us to Greece for amazing adventure called a SwimTrek! (www.swimtrek.com) We swam for a week, often twice a day, swimming from an island to another. Not only the adventure by itself is amazing, but we had great company with my brother Marc and his wife Marie-Ève, as well as 3 of Jennifer's good friends, Carla, Jill and Michelle. Our group took over the majority of the entire group, and definitely set the bar for the fast group. At least they did, I tried to hang on for dear life with the fast pace group, but a "B" group was created to allow me and Will to enjoy the swimming without being completely out of breath all the time!

Link to some pictures on Facebook

Most recently, we just came back from Hawaii, where Jennifer competed in the Ironman World Championship. I can't say how proud I am of her being there and what she accomplished to finish this very difficult race. Wonder what I'm talking about? Read her blog: http://jenvaillancourt.blogspot.com/2011/10/kona.html

And for some picture from Hawaii, here's a link to my Facebook album.

We're now back to work with about 2 months before we're on Christmas holiday! October is almost over and my next post might be about... Movember! I've been preparing since our return from Hawaii and my Mo should be a good one this year!

The title did mention bike, and yes, we did bike a couple times, but it wasn't a big focus for me this year. I better bike more next year if I want to do good at Ironman Mont-Tremblant in August 2012!