#35 - Graduate from University

Well, I am proud to say that we have knocked another item off the list! This has been 6 years in the making and I could not be more proud of Kaitlyn.

I have only known Kaitlyn for four years now, and have only lived in the same city for one of those years, but within that short time it didn’t take me long to figure out that she is one smart cookie! I have to say that she has been one of the most outstanding students I have ever met. She is the most motivated and naturally talented girl that I know and will do anything to pursue excellence.

Without her even knowing it she has inspired me to keep pushing through classes even when I felt like giving up. The tears that I wanted to cry were held back because she understood how hard those classes are. She would always give me mini-pep talks (probably more to help her through her ridiculous econ courses) that kept me motivated and committed to studying.

Graduating with Honours in Economics cannot be easy; in fact it turns my stomach whenever I think about how challenging that must have been. Kait had a rough ride getting there but managed to come out alive.



Her family celebrated her graduation by inviting friends and family over to her house for a little get together. Her and her father made speeches to the group and I couldn’t hold back the tears. I am just so proud of Kaitlyn and I’m glad I got to be a part of her journey.

I only have one picture for now but I will add more pictures as soon as she send them!

Thought for Kaits graduation:

“You have brains in your head,
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
- Dr. Seuss – Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

The New Bike

So the day had to come sooner or later - I got a new bike!

I was talking to one of the salesman about my knees killing me when I bike ride and he said that if I got a bike that fit properly I shouldn’t notice a thing! This almost brought tears to my eyes, I was so excited that I could actually ride a bike without wanting to get a knee replacement at the end of it!

Being the savvy shopper that I am, I wanted to look around for the best bang for my buck. Unfortunately, this also took me about a month to get up the guts to fork out the money to buy a new bike. I stuck to my guns and kept telling myself that it would be a great investment. So, I have officially put my years of agony behind me and have upgraded to a road bike. I purchased a Giant Avail and she is a beauty.



First bike ride of the season – I was really excited to get riding my bike and start training for that triathlon that Kait and I signed up for. I get on my bike and fifteen minutes later I was already complaining. It turns out that the seats on road bikes are definitely not anything to brag about. Any other seat would seem like a cloud compared to my seat; it almost feels like I’m riding on a piece of wood.



A few bike rides later and a really sore butt I was back in action. Knees felt good, butt felt.. umm.. manageable, and I was ready to keep training. I’m still thinking of where I need to go before I get to the triathlon in August. I’m still worried about riding 40kms and then having the enthusiasm, drive, and determination to complete a 10km run. I may need to have some cheerleaders situated at every 1km to help me finish the race.

It’s been snowing and raining here in Calgary so I’ve been a bit of a baby in terms on exercising in the cold. Summer has finally rolled around and I am determined to do well in this triathlon so if any of you want to go for a ride I'm in!

To end off the entry here is a quote from a man that will help me push through any kind of pain and cross that finish line with a smile on my face:

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”
– Lance Armstrong

Scotiabank 10km Run – Race number 2

Race Start time: 7:30

Temperature: 2°C

Well it was one of the last days of May and Mother Nature was a bit confused as to what season we were in. Kait and I, being the troopers that we are, still show up at the race start line at 6:47am. Yes you read that right – two degrees and not even 7am! That takes some heart..

The race started and Kait took off being her awesome runner self. She's really good at weaving through the crowd at the very beginning of the race. After about 10 minutes of trying to track where she was I could no longer see the blond ponytail swinging back and forth. I was officially on my own.. again.

I look around the crowd and found someone who was keeping the same pace as me. Luckily he was a trooper and decided to run with me for the first 5.5kms. Without him I don't think I could have achieved the time that I did. Sometimes I struggle with the fact that I'm running 10kms in freezing cold weather. After the 5.5km mark he said "Kayley, I can't run with you anymore – my heart hurts" and decided to walk after that.

At about 6.5km I picked up my next victim and we decided to finish the race together. We had been running at the same pace the whole race and decided to gather some inspiration from each other! Jo-Anne usually runs with her 16 year old son but he had pulled his quad and couldn't be there to keep her motivated. I was more than happy to fulfill his role for the last few kilometres.

At km 8 I heard someone call my name from the sideline – it was my Mom! She had made a sign at six in the morning just to keep me motivated on the last bit of the run. She ended up inspiring a lot of runners, some of which came running up to Jo-Anne and I saying how cool my Mom was.

In the last kilometre, Jo-Anne and I decided to pick up the pace! We decided that we would run as fast as we could without having to throw up. We both achieved our personal best for the race and it was a pretty exciting moment at the end (minus the nausea!). After we exchanged a few hugs we parted ways.

Kait's Time: 51:09 KM Pace: 5:07 Overall Place: 83/1241 Division: 17/150
Kayley's Time: 54:04 KM Pace: 5:25 Overall Place: 162/1241 Division: 32/150

This was our second race of the season and we still managed to mess up with the camera. Last race Kait forgot to put her batteries in her camera and this time I forgot to put my memory card in. So unlucky (or lucky) for you, you don't get to see too many pictures of the race.

Just a quick thought from race day: It's amazing how a stranger can be in your life for 15 minutes but within that time they will leave a memory with you for life.

Thanks to everyone who helped me beat my personal best by 5:02!

May 9 2010, Calgary

Race Start Time: 9:00am

Temperature: 0°C

Kait and I decided to start off our running season with a 'just for fun' 10k run. By the time May rolls around most people are thinking that there will be green grass and potentially some flowers looming around Calgary – why not?! It's May! I think that's a pretty reasonable assumption but Mother Nature can sometimes have a mind of her own.

We are standing on the platform waiting for the C-train when Kait says something she'll regret for the rest of the day – "At least it's not raining or snowing". We get downtown and guess what happens? It starts raining and then starts snowing. People actually do this for fun?! What were we thinking?

The race finally starts and we are ready, numb fingers and all. Although it was cold and our muscles were severely tight we both finished under an hour. For me I finished the race and achieved my personal best – don't get too excited I still have a long way to go!

Although I'm sure Kait won't be very impressed if I posted our results I'm going to anyways to track our progress over the season:

Kait – total race time 54:58 with a pace of 5:30

Kayley – race time 59:07 with a pace of 5:55

Next on the agenda is another 10km run is in 19 days! Stay tuned for the race update..

Quote of the day (courtesy of Lululemon): If it were easy, everyone would be doing it

Two 10k’s, one Tri, and maybe one half marathon?!

This week we came to an unfortunate realization – the triathlon that we were hoping to do was closed because they had reached their maximum for registration. Kait and I wouldn't let this get in our way! Although the one we had wanted to do was a female triathlon and might have had a better atmosphere for our first we decided to find another one. Turns out finding triathlons isn't that hard (deep down I was kind of hoping there wouldn't be one – just the thought of competing in one turns my stomach!) so we finally settled for one in Calgary. Mark your calendars: August 8, 2010. It's going to be a really big day for us. We're hoping to just have fun and finish... strong (that's for Kait - I'm just hoping to finish haha)

Kait being the slightly more competitive one has this great idea to compete in two 10km runs and one half marathon just to help train for the tri. Writing this blog entry is giving me butterflies as I type. We haven't found a half-marathon yet because of conflicting schedules but it is on the agenda for this summer. If anyone knows of any, preferably close by, please let us know!

So, just a recap:

May 9, 2010 – first 10k of the summer

May 30, 2010 – second 10k

August 8, 2010 – the triathlon

Sometime throughout the summer there will be a half marathon! We might have a bit of a road block right now but we haven't let that stop us before...

The great thing about our list is that it pushes us out of our comfort zone and into a new place where it's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time – hence the butterflies. Kait and I were chatting a few days ago and we realized how much this has actually changed our lives (I know... very cliché). Just by setting out and trying to complete our list gives us a sense of empowerment - who knew getting out there and pushing your limits would result in such a thing?!

Anyways, if you're reading this I encourage you all to set some time aside and write your own list. It doesn't have to be anything like ours (it's looking like a life project now!) but just some fun/different things that you want to try. We are always looking for people to help complete some of our items on our list so you should definitely join us... maybe it's on yours too?

And to finish off here is another quote from Curious Case of Benjamin Button... I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again

#7 – go on a zip line

So I initially chose this item because of the zip line that was going through Robson Square in Vancouver during the Olympics. When Kait was here for the Olympics I thought for sure that we would be able to try it out! A zip line, during the Olympics, in the busiest part of downtown and free, what could be better? Apparently 30 million other people thought it would be awesome too. It didn't even occur to me that the line up might actually be long! On every single news channel they said to anticipate a wait for 7-9 hours to take a 20 second ride on the zip line. I was beginning to think that this would't happen for me. I was under the impression that the zip line would only be open during the Olympics and would shut down after the closing ceremonies.

I re-watched the gold medal hockey game on Shaw V.O.D and then watched the late night news to see if they had any Paralympics on – can we say Olympic withdrawal? I decided to go brush my teeth and then they started talking about the zip line! My ears perked up a little and then they mentioned the line up - ONLY 90 MINUTES! Are you kidding me?! I could definitely handle a 90 minutes wait. I thought it was a dream! I sent a message to my friends and got a few commitments. Unfortunately, the day of my friend Keshika couldn't make it but I was determined to try out the zip line.

Alvin and I head down there and the sign said 3.5 hours. I know what you're thinking – who would wait 3 hours to go on a zip line for 20 seconds? Well, Alvin was a trooper and stuck it out even with low blood glucose levels and it starting to get cold. To be honest, it didn't seem like three and half hours at all, we had so much fun and met a good group of people while we were waiting. Who knew you could get that close to some people in such a short amount of time? Within the first half hour we had our full twenty second zip line experience planned out and what we were going to do. We had all decided that we couldn't go across looking like fools – bottom line: we're all cooler than that and you don't wait in line for 3.5 hours just to have a boring ride.

After we got suited up and started climbing up the 6 stories of stairs we decided we probably weren't going to be going across upside down, backwards, superman, or running man but still had to have fun going across. Here is what the ride looked like!

NOTE: The screaming is not out of fear but we were really trying to milk the twenty seconds experience for all that its worth! We did get some attention while we were up there – that's for sure!

Quote for the experience from my friend Benjamin Franklin: He that can have patience, can have what he will

#25 – send a random person in the phone book a letter

Well, we figured this would be an easy list item to complete so we decided to make it just a little bit harder. With all the excitement of the Olympics we decided to send a postcard... internationally. It was a pretty tough decision as to where we would send the card, you would think that this would be easy but it definitely wasn't.

We started off brainstorming places that might be into the Olympics – Mexico was definitely out with only one athlete competing! We started off with Australia, then Ireland, England and then finally we decided on Norway. It turns out that addresses are really hard to come by in Ireland and England.

Kiersti had just visited Norway for a year and we knew that they would speak a little bit of English. Lucky for us Norway was doing really well in the Olympics and we figured that their country would probably be supporting them/actually know the Olympics were on. We did a little creeping on the internet and found a Norwegian household that we could mail our postcard to. Kait and I had absolutely no idea how their addresses worked so we called up our trusty Norwegian traveller (Kiersti) to breakdown the address for us – much to our surprise there really isn't anything to a Norwegian address, not even a postal code/zip code!

Roy from Norway, if you ever read this, we really hope you enjoyed your postcard!

This item was simple but hopefully in the process we added a little more 'cheer' to someone's life and a little more confusion.