Arrived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, yesterday for the Canada Summer Games, following an epic 14 hour solo drive from halifax. I started to get a bit punchy around Levis, but fortunately I came round after an emmergency Timmies stop. I remember ordering in French, they didn't have what I ordered so they gave me some alternatives in rapid French, which was unfortunate as in my current state I wasn't conversant in either of Canada's officiel languages at the time! I just looked dumb (dumber?) and eventually got a soup. At least it was hot!
So far, life has been pretty simple since arriving in Sherbrooke, even streamlined. The major technical officiels are based at the Universite de Sherbrooke, whereas the athletes are all HQ'd at Bishops. So, whereas the athletes village is probably hopping right now, the officials village, for want of a better word, is pretty sedate. Pretty grey too! Regadrless of the sport, the official uniform appears to be black-and-white across the board. It's like living in a zebra house! At least we don't feel our age and weight, not being surrounded by impossibly young and fit athletes, but that will change soon enough.
Against my better nature I woke early, so I decided to go for a short run. There's a nice network of crusher-dust trails right outside the door so I did a tranquil 5 miles in the woods. I think I rediscovered why I like running. Anyway, chalice it's hilly! I forsee some kids changing their gearing later today. Magog is very much the same as Sherbrooke and it's not 25T territory!
Accrediation was easy, everything was there waiting for me and scoring a parking pass was easy too. They even gave us our per diem cheques straight up. We even got our majeur officiels polo shirts. This may not sound like a big deal, and in the big scheme it isn't, but until a month ago, we weren't getting anything. It's a nice touch.
The only down-side so far is the accomodation; the Universite deSherbrooke dorms leave *a lot* to be desired. We'd been warned, but they still came as an unpleasant surprise. La belle is going to have a shit-fit when she arrives. I wouldn't be surpirsed if she bails and camps in the Smart Car instead!
I checked in with the TriCan big guns last night and, to my great surprise, I have a spare hour this morning. Partly this is because race-site is currently occupied by the Trimemphre triathlon, the event i've worked for the last three years, and partly because Rene Pommerleau, the RD, is super-on-top of things. So there's no building of race-site for us today; Rene already has it all done. Plus, if you look at it, having an AG race there today gives Rene the chnace to battle-test his course one last time before handing it over to us.
We'l be briefing and checking the Juniors in today. Also, we'll check all the bikes thoroughly todau while we have rhe luxery of time, and just do spot-checks on race day. I'll be workiing with Andrew Armsteong again in the bike-check. Ypu, the two British Andrews at it again. This seems to be a gig I'm getting type-cast in, you know, give the bike-shop guy the bike check, but that suits me fine. For race-day I'm down as chief run, but we'll see what happens. Assignments get changed a lot! I had an interesting chat over breakfast with Troyce from BC who's TDing Challenge Penticton about the, ahem, challenges of working with the Challenge organisation. With St Andrews going Challenge next year, this is a topic I have more than an academic interest in!
Well, I think that's my hour of rest done. Time to ring for the courtesy shuttle and get my arse down to race-site.
A la prochaine
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