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.

The Updated List

1- Meet a Spice Girl

2- experience the Olympics

3- go on a blind date

4- West Coast Trail

5- Backpack through Europe

6- run a marathon

7- go on a zip line

8- touch 4 different oceans

9- kiss someone who is in a different country then you are

10- kiss a cowboy

11- learn how to surf

12- visit Michael Jackson's grave

13- be part of a flash mob

14- get lei'd

15- learn another language

16- climb a pyramid

17- kayak trip

18 – go on a yoga retreat

19- do something that someone told you you couldn't do

20- volunteer at an orphanage

21- touch six different continents

22- learn the thriller dance

23- suspension bridge

24- develop laugh lines

25- send a random person in the phone book a letter

26 - Hang out with the boy from the "Buried Life"

27 - Watch a broadway show in NYC

28 - camp at the grand canyon

29 - give a waitress/waiter a large tip

30 - pay for someone's coffee/lunch

31 - throw a summer BBQ

32 - Slide down a fire pole

33 - knit a pair of mittens

34 - go hang gliding

35 - graduate from University

36 - throw a celebratory bash which includes a band

37 - drive across Canada

38 - go to Oktoberfest in Germany

39 - bake a wedding cake

40 - plant 20 trees each to offset our carbon footprint for one year

41 - see Niagara falls - Kiersti

42 - compete in a triathlon

43 - be in Ireland for St. Patrick's day

44 - drive down the west coast

45 - take a child in need on a shopping spree

46 - bike from Calgary to Banff

47 - ski in the Alps

48 - Participate in a sandcastle competition

49 - be an extra in a movie

50 - swim with the dolphins

51 - participate in a photo contest

52 - donate a memorial bench

53 - be a part of a Bocce ball tournament

54 - go to Mardis Gras in New Orleans

55 - sleep under the stars

56 - go on a sailing trip

57 - make a Christmas card together

58 - have a margarita, mojito, and martini on a beach

59 - make a movie

60 - become a part of .life.unleashed. – Kiersti

61 – volunteer for Dreams Take Flight Foundation

62 – make a child's wish come true through Make-a-Wish Foundation

63 – attend a cooking class

64 – design our own t-shirts

65 – go on a safari

66 – tell someone how you really feel

67 – finish a crossword puzzle

68 – start the wave in a crowd

69 – ace a card trick

70 – go floating down the Bow together

71 – take photography lessons

72 – design and sew a dress

73 – create our own 'masterpiece'

74 – bring a snack/freezies to a kids sports game

75 – bring a special gift to someone in a seniors centre

76 – have or adopt a child

77 – volunteer in a third world country

78 – compete in an ironman triathlon

79 – listen to peoples stories

80 – create my own tradition

81 – raise chickens

82 – be remembered for something

83 – teach a child how to read

84 – read a book under a tree

85 – build my own house

86 – own my own greenhouse

87 – go white-water rafting

88 - take a photo every day for a year
 

airport.experience

Kait had an extra AirCanada lounge pass so we decided to target someone and invite them to hang out in the lounge. We asked a few people around the airport but weren't getting the response that we wanted at first. After about 15 minutes we finally had a taker!

It ended up being her first time flying by herself and got to the airport really early for her flight. She really appreciated the pass and was thankful to have a nice place to hang out for a few hours.

Inspired by our previous night we thought it would be a good opportunity to give back since we were able to knock an item off of our list! Then we were off to Calgary for the rest of our reading break.

#26 – Hang out with the boys from ‘The Buried Life’

Kait met up with her friend Steve while I was 'cleaning' up back at my place for the next round of Olympic partiers. We were talking about how we had to start our blog asap and work on our '100 things to do before we die' list when she gets back from dinner. Weird sequence of events brought us a pretty unforgettable moment. Kait and her friend were finished dinner and stumbled upon a girl who had a sign saying "#8 – Meet guys from The Buried Life" and obviously Kait had to question this!

I receive a phone call about thirty seconds later saying that the Buried Life guys were having a party at a local surf shop 'Sitka'. I bolted as fast as I could to get to the party not even thinking about trying to look half presentable – hence the awesome pictures. We ended up partying with Duncan and Ben and listening to a band Jon & Roy play. Overall, it was a pretty amazing night and wouldn't have happened if anything else went differently. It was inspiring to meet them and we both will remember it for the rest of our lives.

#2 – Experience the Olympics

Day 4.0

Gibran departed back to Calgary and left Kait and I to experience the city on our own. We took a walk around Kits so Kait could experience some of amazingness that I experience on a daily basis (if there is no rain!)

Tip: If you want good pizza try out Nat's Pizza on Broadway

We decided to head downtown to check out the flame – we figured that this was probably a must during the Olympics. We weren't able to get too close to the flame so the pictures aren't the best. Regardless, we witnessed the flame with all 5 pieces standing tall. Sorry VANOC but that was pretty funny in the opening ceremonies!