Saturday, December 19, 2009

O-Cup #1: The Thunder Bay Fiasco

Well, today's race was a complete disaster no matter how you look at it. It was not enough that the conditions were "marginal" at best, as Alex very aptly put it, and that the Para-Nordic category was last out at nearly 3 p.m. in the afternoon, but I was also misinformed about the distance I was supposed to ski. So not only was I dead last out of the gate, I was also dead last to cross the finish line! I was told that I was only doing one 3.4 km lap, but actually I was supposed to do two for a total distance of 8.8 km. You can imagine I was not a very happy camper as I ended up finishing my one lap and going over the finish line only to be told that I was supposed to go through the lap lane and do a second lap. So I did after a few choice remarks. I went for a leisurely second lap, and was the last person across the finish line for the day. And there are no words to describe how upset I was. I apologiize to anyone I may have been rude to.

This trip is turning out to be a very expensive nightmare. To add to all of this, I also forgot to pack a whole lot of stuff, such as pajamas and toothpaste. I'm the only girl on the Kanata Nordic team so I get to pay for an entire hotel room by myself. We have had to eat all of our meals at the restaurant downstrairs, which is not exactly ideal pre-race food nor is it cheap or quick. Well, I think I will stop there. You get the picture.

I was trying to find something positive in this situation. And the only thing I thought of was that at least this was not an important race in the scheme of things. You can let me know if you think of anything else.

Now I'm sitting in my huge hotel room and waiting for the rest of my teammates to come back from their very long trip to Fresh Air Experience. They've been there since 4 o'clock! We're supposed to go to some FInnish restaurant for supper, and I'm starving.

I shall still wish YOU a good evening from Thunder Bay thourgh. Have a good one for me.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Margarita,
    I'm Val. Just came from Russia and looking for XC-locations in Ontario. Would you recommend some.
    Thank you in advance,
    Valeri
    ---------------
    2val@rogers.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds awfull!

    Hope you have better experiences in the rest of your training.

    Good luck!

    Therese Provost-Demell
    PWGSC Employee

    ReplyDelete