Canadian girl out and aboot

I definitely don't like trapeze as much as I thought I would, because I have very little upper body strength. It's really quite hard. My classes are in the back of a gymnasium and kids were training all around me, which was pretty neat. There are six people in my class. This includes a girl in her teens, another one in her early 20s, two girls who may be in their late 20s and another girl about my age. One of them is originally from Quebec and is studying at the university. She moved to Edmonton with her Chilean boyfriend, who needed to be able to work in English.

We did a lot of warm ups, and then tried out the trapeze. The first thing we did was swing from the trapeze, and then we learned how to do "beats" which involves swinging back and forth. This was followed by a hanging from our knees from a much lower trapeze. I could do this, but instead of unravelling myself, I just dropped down onto my arms, freaking out my instructor. I was fine, but she warned me not to do that on the much higher trapeze. I also managed to sit on the trapeze and balance in three different ways. By this time, my arms decided that they had had enough and I was pretty much grounded for the rest of the class. The other people in the class are much better than I am. My flexibility is a definite asset, but my upper body strength needs a lot of work. Unfortunately, there were no nets for us to fall into and we just placed big mats under us. I was slightly disappointed by this because falling into the nets looks like a lot of fun.

Still, I'm glad I tried this. However, I don't feel an instant love for the aerial arts, and I probably won't take more than my six classes. Dance and yoga seem to be more my thing :)

I'm so excited! I just signed up for trapeze/aerial classes. I'm not sure how I learned about this, but I have been tracking classes at Firefly Theatre for a while now.

I will start a six week aerial class in April :)

I managed to get down to the ski park yesterday for my first lesson. I was able to find the park without a problem and was instantly enchanted by the trails. They are well maintained and gorgeous. I got there very early so I was able to wax up and take a test run. This was my first time using my new skis. The last time I went skiing, I was still using the old three prong technology and my skis were much heavier. I can't get over the lightness of my new skis.

I skied a lot as a child, but haven't skied actively since about 1999. My dad thought I should take lessons to perfect my technique and make sure I'm not doing anything that could cause me any type of injury.

My ski instructor was about my father's age, but he was obviously an excellent skier and a good teacher. The other people in my class are all about at my level. There is a Korean woman, a Chinese guy about my age, a small German marathon runner, a recent immigrant from the Netherlands and a former alpinist. Our instructor made us do a lot of technical drills and perfect our technique.

I had a fabulous time, but I am really, really sore today. I also bought the world's greatest socks . Seriously, I can't say enough about these babies. Wearing them was practically a spiritual experience.

I couldn't figure out why I reeked like a campfire when I got home, but I soon remembered that I had worn my shell to a work related weiner roast in October. My sweaty ski body brought the smell out of the coat and the front of my apartment still smells like camping. It's really weird.

Technically, 21 km is called a half marathon. I do not know if I will ever do a full one. 42 km is a bit much.

Anyway, I got there bright and early at about 7:45 p.m. The weather was nice, overcast, but a bit warm. Right before we started, they asked us not to wear headsets. A lot of people wore their Ipods, but since I use an actual headset, I ended up handing mine over to a radio Dj I know, who put it in his van for the duration of my walk.

The actual walk was good. I went at a steady clip, staying in the middle of the pack for most of the way. There were people there to cheer us on, give us water and make sure that we were going the right way, which is what I was really worried about.

At one point, it started to rain on us, which was quite nice. I just kept right on marching at a steady clip. At one point, the runners started, and so there was more fanfare and cheering. One family was cheering their relative on with airhorns and bells, and managed to add a lot of festivity to the track.

I laughed really hard because one of them tried to encourage their relative by yelling, "There's a sale on at Winners."
(This is probably only funny to you if you know my mother.)

Anyway, I ended up coming in with a time of about 3 hours and 5 minutes to walk 21 km. I actually walked past the finish line as I saw our sports reporter, Woody, who had his big camera out, ready to take pictures of us as we crossed the finish line. To try to prevent him from taking my picture, I gave him the finger and ended up walking by the line. He took a picture of me giving him the finger anyway.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, my chip (a computer bracelet that goes around the ankle to keep track of time) was yanked off my leg before I even noticed it was gone. Someone put a medal around my neck, and I was given a water and congratulated, which was nice.

Then I sat with my fellow walkers and discussed the race while eating some fruit. My editor said that her husband had shown up to the finish line with flowers for her, to which I replied, "That's really sweet, but at this point, I think I would have really liked a big bag of chips."

Fortunately, everyone thought that was quite funny.
I also won a draw and ended up getting a three month pass to the gym. I intend to take full advantage of their yoga classes.

It also turns out that I won a silver medal, as I placed second in my age category. (I don't really think there were many people in my age category, but it's still cool) I haven't seen it yet, because I had gone home by that time. My editor accepted it for me, and it's at the office.

****
My legs are sore, and I have three blisters on my feet. I've spent the rest of the day reading and watching movies. Tomorrow I'll be doing my chores. All in all, I had a fantastic time, and I'd definitely do it again.