So... Time for another update. This time about my ski races in Grande Prairie. We left on Friday the 8th, the same day as I turned 17! After a 7 hour drive, Ken, Bryn and I arrived to the hotel. It was getting time for dinner so soon all the guys from Foothills Nordic Ski Club was gathering in the lobby area where there were some tables. After dinner it was time for two birthday cakes. Both Kim and Stephanie from the ski club had made me cake so I was quite stuffed when it was time bed.
It was with a feeling of happiness and style that I the next morning took on my extremely sexy race suit. Chris, my coach, had supplied me with a black and white spandex suit that I could use for the races. A couple of hours later we were sitting in the lodge at the ski club in Grande Prairie. Before I knew of it I was standing ready on the start line. Ready, set, GO! And then I was off. It was the qualifier so I was running alone and after completing without a crash a had the 6th best time out of the 9 people in my category. After two more rounds on the 750 meters sprint course I was in the B-Finals. As the gun went off I sprinted off and soon I was number two out of the 5 of us. If I kept this place I would have a 5th place in my category of 9 people! I remember thinking "Wow... This is going pretty fast..." and then my left ski catched the deep snow and I was rolling around on the snow. Three people passed me before I got up again, and right when I had got the balance back I fell again! I took a relaxed ski to the finish line and damned my left leg. It was pretty unlucky to miss a 5th place out of nine skiers. And quite unlucky too to have two crashes in one lap!
Well what the hell... I ended up with a 7th place which means that I finally beat somebody in skiing! I was pretty tired when we returned to the hotel to get ready for the dinner for all the skiers at the races. Soon I was sitting with the ski team at the community centre eating. After some entertainment and talk we returned to the hotel and the rest of the evening went away with having fun at the rooms. Next morning I took on my extremely sexy spandex suit again and we drove towards the ski club just outside Grande Prairie. It was the day for long distances. In my case that meant 10 kilometers of skiing! I was already tired just thinking about on the start line but soon I was off and the race had begun. After about 52 minutes my pain stopped. I had reached the finish line and this time only 14 minutes behind the number one skier. Even though I couldn't feel my body I was satisfied with my result. I had survived!
Soon after we were leaving Grande Prairie to start the drive back to Bragg Creek. I slept most of the way back and after 7 hours of driving we were back in Bragg Creek.
It had been an awesome weekend with races and the fact that I actually beat somebody out there was great! I'm starting to like those races quite a bit...
If you want to watch a video with my races then follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xXFwScRDQ
And thanks alot to Stan Prenioslo for filming my great skiing!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Birthday In Bragg Creek
On January the second it was time for a big birthday party. In addition of my own birthday on the 8th, Ken had his birthday on the 10th and Darren's mom, Ingrid, had her birthday right on the day!
So that day on January the second guests came to the house in Bragg Creek. We ended up being about 16 people for dinner. After a nice dinner, I and the other guys went to the basement until Kim came down and wanted to tie a scarf for my eyes. I was led upstairs and Vince and Darren spinned me around until I got dizzy. Then I was finally allowed to sit down and all the sudden the famous Danish birthday song began. In a combination of a deep Danish voice and all the birthday guests' beautiful voices rang the song throughout the house. As soon as I had realized that this was the Danish version I started laughing and when the song ended I was allowed to take off the scarf. A big birthday cake was standing in front of me on the table with lots of candles in it. It was time to find out how many girlfriends I had. After a powerful puff 16 of the 17 candles was still burning and I had to confess.
After cake it was time for presents and I can report happily that I was quite spoiled that night. After some really nice presents for both me and the two other birthday "kids", there was lots of laughter and fun until it was time for people to go home.
The conclusion: the Canadians way of celebrating birthday is really nice!
So that day on January the second guests came to the house in Bragg Creek. We ended up being about 16 people for dinner. After a nice dinner, I and the other guys went to the basement until Kim came down and wanted to tie a scarf for my eyes. I was led upstairs and Vince and Darren spinned me around until I got dizzy. Then I was finally allowed to sit down and all the sudden the famous Danish birthday song began. In a combination of a deep Danish voice and all the birthday guests' beautiful voices rang the song throughout the house. As soon as I had realized that this was the Danish version I started laughing and when the song ended I was allowed to take off the scarf. A big birthday cake was standing in front of me on the table with lots of candles in it. It was time to find out how many girlfriends I had. After a powerful puff 16 of the 17 candles was still burning and I had to confess.
After cake it was time for presents and I can report happily that I was quite spoiled that night. After some really nice presents for both me and the two other birthday "kids", there was lots of laughter and fun until it was time for people to go home.
The conclusion: the Canadians way of celebrating birthday is really nice!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Late Christmas/New Years Update
So the last weeks I have received complaints about my maintenance of my blog. I have been feeling guilty about letting my dear readers down which of course have been unacceptable! I would like to bring out to you my deepest apologizes and I hope it will not happen again. (Still unexpected blackouts on my behalf can cause missing updates that honestly can't be considered my mistake!)
Let's get to the point. This year, or last year to be precise, was my first year ever with a Christmas outside Europe and without my dear Danish family. It all started to be different and a little weird on December the 24th. Kim's parents had arrived and eight hours earlier the Danes had opened their gifts. Still I had to wait another 12 hours before it was present time 24 hours for the big lovely turkey dinner. The 24th went away without the big great traditions that I'm used to. When I woke up on the 25th the story was another! It was time to get up and rip up the presents. Bryn got a little frustrated by my patient way of opening gifts but she came through it all ok. It was nice to open all the nice presents and there could be no doubt that the most of the presents under the tree was for me. This was a fact that I did not complain about!
Soon Kim's brother and his family came by and after opening the last presents it was time to try another great Canadian tradition. Hockey! After getting into the rumble with keeping the balance and after Kim laughing about the fact that I had only tried skating about 6 times in my life, it went pretty good. Kim's brother taught me to shoot the puck and after some practice it started working. We got challenged by another group of guys on the rink and soon I was in the middle of a hockey match. I came out of there alive and when it was time to go home I could feel that my appetite was getting ready for dinner.
A couple of hours later we were all sitting around the table with turkey on the plates and lots of other good stuff. An excellent dinner even though I have to admit that I did not eat as much turkey as I did on Thanksgiving. The evening ended with some tobogganing down the hill in the yard. The ending of a nice, special and a little weird Christmas.
Soon it was time to enter 2010. I went to Darren in Calgary and spend the New Year's Eve with him and Vince. We started out with some movies until about 23 where we left the house and headed towards the rink close to Darren's house. After some hockey 2010 was sneaking up on us and we skated into the new year on an ice rink in Calgary, Canada... We played a little more hockey before we started returning to the house. I can't imagine a more Canadian way of getting into the new year then skating with a hockey stick in the hand...
December and the night of January the 1st was times I will never forget! Even though there was no fireworks on New Year's Eve and no presents on the 24th it was an amazing time with some amazing people! It feels weird to think of the fact that I will be leaving them all in only five and a half month...
Let's get to the point. This year, or last year to be precise, was my first year ever with a Christmas outside Europe and without my dear Danish family. It all started to be different and a little weird on December the 24th. Kim's parents had arrived and eight hours earlier the Danes had opened their gifts. Still I had to wait another 12 hours before it was present time 24 hours for the big lovely turkey dinner. The 24th went away without the big great traditions that I'm used to. When I woke up on the 25th the story was another! It was time to get up and rip up the presents. Bryn got a little frustrated by my patient way of opening gifts but she came through it all ok. It was nice to open all the nice presents and there could be no doubt that the most of the presents under the tree was for me. This was a fact that I did not complain about!
Soon Kim's brother and his family came by and after opening the last presents it was time to try another great Canadian tradition. Hockey! After getting into the rumble with keeping the balance and after Kim laughing about the fact that I had only tried skating about 6 times in my life, it went pretty good. Kim's brother taught me to shoot the puck and after some practice it started working. We got challenged by another group of guys on the rink and soon I was in the middle of a hockey match. I came out of there alive and when it was time to go home I could feel that my appetite was getting ready for dinner.
A couple of hours later we were all sitting around the table with turkey on the plates and lots of other good stuff. An excellent dinner even though I have to admit that I did not eat as much turkey as I did on Thanksgiving. The evening ended with some tobogganing down the hill in the yard. The ending of a nice, special and a little weird Christmas.
Soon it was time to enter 2010. I went to Darren in Calgary and spend the New Year's Eve with him and Vince. We started out with some movies until about 23 where we left the house and headed towards the rink close to Darren's house. After some hockey 2010 was sneaking up on us and we skated into the new year on an ice rink in Calgary, Canada... We played a little more hockey before we started returning to the house. I can't imagine a more Canadian way of getting into the new year then skating with a hockey stick in the hand...
December and the night of January the 1st was times I will never forget! Even though there was no fireworks on New Year's Eve and no presents on the 24th it was an amazing time with some amazing people! It feels weird to think of the fact that I will be leaving them all in only five and a half month...
Monday, December 7, 2009
Ready,,, Set... Go!
This weekend was in many ways an experience. It was a weekend with skiing, guns and of course lots of snow.
Friday Kim picked me and Bryn up at school. Unfortunately I therefore missed my last class which was math. What a shame... Anyways when I got outside the snow was falling and the wind was blowing. We were going to drive to Canmore in a snowstorm! After an hour and a half we arrived safely and without any crashed car. We had seen a couple of cars in the ditches though and there had even been a camper that had parked in the middle of the two lanes. Canadians apparently have some weird camping traditions. We got some hot chocolate before we headed up to the Nordic Center just above Canmore. We had a workout there which went pretty good. The other guys on the team was getting ready for their big race the next day. I just skied around trying to keep up with them. When we were done I went with Vincent to his family's cabin a little down the road outside Canmore.
Saturday came but what met me when I came up from the basement of the cabin was a really sick Vincent on the couch. He had been up at two in the morning throwing up. So unfortunately he was to sick to go for his classic race. So me, Stan and Linda (Vincent's parents) left the poor guy and drove up to the Nordic Center. Here they were really making ready for the races. The last things were getting settled and the athletes were warming up. Kim who was doing the starting of the races had asked if I wanted to volunteer that day since I wasn't really doing anything else. So that's what I did. At all the qualifiers I was standing at the finish line pressing a button every time a skier passed the finish line. That went pretty well but after 280 skiers my fingers were getting kind of cold in the -16 degrees. I got some food and a couple of hours later at 1 o 'clock my new task was to load Kim's gun. A very exciting job, and even better I had a second task: trail-jumper! If there was a false start and the skiers continued skiing I was supposed to jump out on the tracks a hundred meters ahead and stop them!
Unfortunately there was no need for me on the trail so I only loaded Kim's gun. The good thing was that the finish line was just besides me so I could cheer my team mates on.
After a cold day as a volunteer I thought it had to be more fun to race. I asked Kim if I could join the midget boys category tomorrow but she didn't think that was possible. So me, Stan and Linda went back to the cabin to get changed before heading back to Canmore where there was a party with the ski team. It was a nice evening with good food and good company. When we came back to the cabin we went straight to bed to get some sleep before the Sunday that was another day of racing. When I woke up I took on the sexy tights that Chris (my coach and a great man!) had given me because today it was my turn to race. I didn't really feel that nervous before we arrived at the Nordic Center and found out that the sports category that I was supposed to be in had been cancelled. Instead I was now in the junior boys category where I belonged considering my age. So instead of the nice relaxed sport group I was now in group with guys who had been skiing for 10 years. This was a quite scary thought since I have only been cross country skiing for 2 months! I had three hours until my race and that was a lot of time to wait. After a long time it finally got time to do some warm up and soon I was standing at the start line with a group of other guys who knew quite well what was going on. As Kim fired the gun we all started off and after 200 meters I was behind. This was expected so I just continued going as well as I could. My only goal was to pass somebody out there. After a lap the girls that had been started after the boys started to pass me. This was my chance! They passed me with 20 meters and then I accelerated and passed them. It was a great feeling all the 10 seconds it lasted before they passed me again. But I had achieved my goal and now I only had to reach the finish before I myself was done.
After my third lap I spend my last energy passing the finish line as fast as I could. And just as the finish was reached the commentator said: "And here comes Bjorn Ubbe from... Belgium! All the way from Belgium ladies and gentlemen!" I couldn't possibly come up with a better way to finnish my 6 kilometers race and was smiling a lot when took on my warm pants and went into the lodge. I had done my first race on skis and even though i finished 15 minutes later than the winner and 7 minutes later than the second last person I was quite satisfied with my time: 34 minutes. After all I have only been skiing for 2 months and if it hadn't been 6 kilometers of uphill skiing I would have kicked their butts. It was great to race but one lap would probably have been a better distance for my small lungs. A great experience and definitely not my last race over here!
Friday Kim picked me and Bryn up at school. Unfortunately I therefore missed my last class which was math. What a shame... Anyways when I got outside the snow was falling and the wind was blowing. We were going to drive to Canmore in a snowstorm! After an hour and a half we arrived safely and without any crashed car. We had seen a couple of cars in the ditches though and there had even been a camper that had parked in the middle of the two lanes. Canadians apparently have some weird camping traditions. We got some hot chocolate before we headed up to the Nordic Center just above Canmore. We had a workout there which went pretty good. The other guys on the team was getting ready for their big race the next day. I just skied around trying to keep up with them. When we were done I went with Vincent to his family's cabin a little down the road outside Canmore.
Saturday came but what met me when I came up from the basement of the cabin was a really sick Vincent on the couch. He had been up at two in the morning throwing up. So unfortunately he was to sick to go for his classic race. So me, Stan and Linda (Vincent's parents) left the poor guy and drove up to the Nordic Center. Here they were really making ready for the races. The last things were getting settled and the athletes were warming up. Kim who was doing the starting of the races had asked if I wanted to volunteer that day since I wasn't really doing anything else. So that's what I did. At all the qualifiers I was standing at the finish line pressing a button every time a skier passed the finish line. That went pretty well but after 280 skiers my fingers were getting kind of cold in the -16 degrees. I got some food and a couple of hours later at 1 o 'clock my new task was to load Kim's gun. A very exciting job, and even better I had a second task: trail-jumper! If there was a false start and the skiers continued skiing I was supposed to jump out on the tracks a hundred meters ahead and stop them!
Unfortunately there was no need for me on the trail so I only loaded Kim's gun. The good thing was that the finish line was just besides me so I could cheer my team mates on.
After a cold day as a volunteer I thought it had to be more fun to race. I asked Kim if I could join the midget boys category tomorrow but she didn't think that was possible. So me, Stan and Linda went back to the cabin to get changed before heading back to Canmore where there was a party with the ski team. It was a nice evening with good food and good company. When we came back to the cabin we went straight to bed to get some sleep before the Sunday that was another day of racing. When I woke up I took on the sexy tights that Chris (my coach and a great man!) had given me because today it was my turn to race. I didn't really feel that nervous before we arrived at the Nordic Center and found out that the sports category that I was supposed to be in had been cancelled. Instead I was now in the junior boys category where I belonged considering my age. So instead of the nice relaxed sport group I was now in group with guys who had been skiing for 10 years. This was a quite scary thought since I have only been cross country skiing for 2 months! I had three hours until my race and that was a lot of time to wait. After a long time it finally got time to do some warm up and soon I was standing at the start line with a group of other guys who knew quite well what was going on. As Kim fired the gun we all started off and after 200 meters I was behind. This was expected so I just continued going as well as I could. My only goal was to pass somebody out there. After a lap the girls that had been started after the boys started to pass me. This was my chance! They passed me with 20 meters and then I accelerated and passed them. It was a great feeling all the 10 seconds it lasted before they passed me again. But I had achieved my goal and now I only had to reach the finish before I myself was done.
After my third lap I spend my last energy passing the finish line as fast as I could. And just as the finish was reached the commentator said: "And here comes Bjorn Ubbe from... Belgium! All the way from Belgium ladies and gentlemen!" I couldn't possibly come up with a better way to finnish my 6 kilometers race and was smiling a lot when took on my warm pants and went into the lodge. I had done my first race on skis and even though i finished 15 minutes later than the winner and 7 minutes later than the second last person I was quite satisfied with my time: 34 minutes. After all I have only been skiing for 2 months and if it hadn't been 6 kilometers of uphill skiing I would have kicked their butts. It was great to race but one lap would probably have been a better distance for my small lungs. A great experience and definitely not my last race over here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
