I am sad that my cheer season is done for the year! I will really miss all my friends who are not coming back next season
He said
This week, Emelia began her campaign for Relay for Life which again this year is dedicated to Greg. He was one of Emelia’s biggest champions. Last year and this year again, her #RelayForLife campaign was dedicated to Greg. And, in less than week she has already met her goal of raising $750, but she also as of tonight is leading her entire school for funds raised. But, what we love most about Emelia is that she won’t stop there—the goal is less about setting it, hitting it and standing still and more about showing the world how much Greg meant to her.
Today my bike race season officially got under way with the Paris To Ancaster bike race. Three years ago it was the very first race I ever did. I found out I actually really enjoyed races which was a surprise to me as my focus to that point was solo rides, rides with Danielle or with friends. But I never anticipated liking being in races as much as I have. Here we are three years later and I have a summer lined up with possibly 7 races or fondos this summer and I am representing Gremlins Bicycle Emporium when doing so this season.
Looking at the forecast earlier this week it appeared as though the weather was going to shine down big positivity on me with sun, no rain and a temps of 23º forecasted. The trouble is, as anyone who lives in Southwestern Ontario knows the weather can and will change. Through the day yesterday rain started moving around the days’ forecast for the Ancaster area. While I was really looking forward to not dealing with rain, the reality is the P2A is almost synonymous with “rain”. So when I lined up on the start line and the rain started, I thought, because of course there is rain. But, the good news is the temperatures were not hypothermic like they were last year!
Like usual I got out of thew start field and started to move myself out of the herd and into a placing that would allow me to move at pace while not getting slowed down by less confident riders.There have been some major upgrades to the route which mitigated some of the most challenging mud sections from last year which was much to my delight. I shaved more than ten minutes off my finish time from last year and while I did not beat my time from my first year, the course the last 2 years was an over 2 kilometres shorter. And the course the first year was very dry and easy to navigate. When you add in how much better I navigated the mud sections this year and that I picked off and passed a lot of people, on the section of the Brantford to Hamilton Rail Trail, I consider this year my best P2A race ever.
Next week is a big week! Wednesday the trailer goes back to our site at Auburn which means camping season is back. But, next weekend is already my second bike race of the season in the Scrappy Badger which is part of the Substance Projects Gravel Series of which I was in the Eager Beaver last August. I don’t love that this race isa literally the week after P2A, but it is what it is and it will be another chance for me to get in another race and to represent Gremlins Bicycle Emporium. I happened to have the weekend off, and it worked that Danielle could actually finally come and cheer me on!
She said
This week has been a doozy! A few weeks ago just as final exams were about to start at the University our Graduate Teaching Assistants went on strike. What that meant for staff is that we were now being shifted to proctoring so the students did not loose their final exams and for some the ability to graduate. All PMA (the association I belong to at work) were all called upon to sign up for as many shifts as possible, and as a staff of the Office of the Registrar I was on the on call list as well. So for the last almost 3 weeks I have been working full time and proctoring around it, all last weekend I was either working or on call, and this weekend I worked every night. The whole event meant a lot of working around rides for the girls to school which meant some days I was walking in to work to get there early enough for morning proctoring shifts. It has been a LONG three weeks balancing it all but we are almost there and I think I just worked my last shift.
Between extra hours at work we were also wrapping up one sport for Emelia while she ramps up for the next. Last Tuesday was Emelia’s last Sov practice for the season, it meant a heartfelt good-bye to her teammates. Most of her team will not be back next year and some of these girls she has been on the same team since her first season. It was an emotional day but at the same time Emelia is already excited for next season. She is excited to go back for what will be her last season, she is hopefully doing 2 teams next year as she is trying out for a second team called Valour which is an Open team that a lot of the coaches are also on. She cannot wait. Along with cheer wrapping up she is fully in rugby season. Last week she was up against Laurier which is the best team in the entire region. They had a rougher go but still managed to get a few trys and ended the game 34-14 which they were very proud of and came out again bonded more than ever as a team. The rest of the week for Emelia was more about more tests at school, lots of practices and prepping for her game next week against Glendale.
The other big wrench for the week is Doug being admitted to the hospital. We got a message from Helen that Doug was resisting but needed to checked out at the hospital. We were concerned for sure when we heard he was admitted quickly after arriving vs hours in the ER like in the past. He is currently in the ICU but is being taken care of by the best medical staff we could ask for. The nurses are amazing and are just going above and beyond to take the best care of him. And for that we are so grateful. We are really hopeful that things are moving the right direction and hope he is home soon.
Next week is another big week for us, another rugby game for Emelia, lots of practices and tryouts for Valour at cheer, oh and the week after she starts softball practices. Our active girl keeps us on our toes!