Thursday, January 30, 2014

On the Road

Coach T and I are off bright and early this morning. We're driving probably near to 10 hours or so to get to Ottawa for the Para Nordic Nationals. Admittedly, I wasn't excited about this whole adventure at first, but now I'm looking forward to it. Actually, at the beginning of the month I was excited about the prospect of going to the Para Nordic Nationals, but I had determined early on that it was just not in our budget. So, I prepared myself for not going. Then, a very generous soul came along and donated the needed funds to go. The rest of the cost was picked up by the club. After those thoughtful gestures, how could I not go?
This is the second time in my life that I've attempted to be, or at least I was before, an elite athlete and I am always so (pleasantly) surprised and touched by the generosity of my little city. People who aren't from here often ask me why I'm so loyal to the city or why I moved back and really, how could I not be? The people of this city have shown me nothing but support and have stepped in when I've needed them.
The first time around as a swimmer, people fund raised for various reasons, one of them being to get my dad to Sydney Australia so he could watch me race. In the two short months that I've been trying to cross country ski, I've had two big trips that I really needed to go to in order to be considered for the Ontario Development team and both times complete strangers have stepped in and made it happen. I can't say enough about Coach T's dedication and assistance. He's also made this whole thing possible and without him I wouldn't be skiing at all.
So, even though I initially wasn't excited to go to Ottawa, my tune has completely changed. I'm ready to attack those races and hope for the best. That is, after we drive, what for some people would be, across an entire country.
O, Canada. Whoever wrote the national anthem should have written, "our home and gigantic land," because there aren't many other places in the world where you can drive 12 hours and still be in the same province; and that's not even from one end to another!

2 comments:

  1. Have a safe trip, and an awesome ski! I'll hug some puppies for you. :)

    ReplyDelete

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