Sickness and Sorrow: Italy to Turkey

After Easterns my flight itinerary went as follows, Ottawa-Toronto-Munich-Istanbul-Erzurum-Istanbul-Geneva-Montreal-Quebec. My overnight flight to Munich went quite smoothly. It was an empty plane so it was comfortable to sleep and watch movies. From Munich we drove to Livigno, Italy, often getting lost on windy mountain roads looking for our hotel. We were looking in the city when actually our hotel was at 2200 meters on top of a mountain pass.

Livigno was beautiful. As you would most places in Italy, we dined on fine Italian pasta, veal, and croissants. I took it easy for most of the training as I picked up a cold on the way over seas. The hotel’s scented steam room helped clear my sinuses and by the time we were leaving to Turkey I was confident I was on the mend. After some intervals in the neighboring city Bormio, we headed back to Munich. I guess we were wrong to think we would be better off on our way back. The road out of livigno through Switzerland was closed. The would-be 4 hour drive just turned into an 8 hour detour. Here we are in our steam room.

                                 In the van

After 8 hours crammed into a van with 40 plus pairs of skis we finally found the Movenpick hotel. After sleeping at altitude for the past week I slept like a baby. The next morning I woke to this amazing breakfast, which I later discovered, gave me food poisoning. 

We waited 5 hours in the sweltering Istanbul airport before we made it to Erzurum. Our hotel there was even at higher altitude; 2400 meters. Just as I was recovering from my cold, I woke up with a stomachache. I choose wisely to not ski that day as later on I started puking all day… and four the next four days until finally I went to the hospital. I spent the night there sucking up IV fluid. After almost having my appendix removed for no reason I was finally diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. If spending a night in a sketchy Turkish hospital wasn’t enough, my taxi broke down on the way home and I walked home from the hospital (and the hotel is on top of a mountain). Here is the view, looking down at smoggy Erzurum from our hotel.

 I was finally getting better but there was only a couple days left until the racing started and I hadn’t skied for 6 days. Anyone would know it is less than ideal to be sick leading up to a race but I still came into the races with high expectations. Those expectations were shattered in the sprint qualifier were I was an entire 17 seconds off the lead. There was bad luck with the rest of the team too. Alexis and Graeme were just outside of qualifying in 33 and 31 position and Heidi, one of only 2 Canadians to qualify, had her ski pop off in the quarterfinal.

Just when I thought my racing couldn’t get any worse I got completely annihilated in the 10km classic. My skis were great, I did a good warm up, but my body was just not recovered after being sick.

The pursuit went better but I still felt helpless after about 10km. I finished the race in 49^th position. Geoffrey had a great race finishing 20^th and the junior girls did well too.

I had a much better race in the relay having the 7^th fastest time on my leg. It seems I am getting my strength back now so I think with another 2 weeks I will be set for nationals.

 After a disappointing week of races we had a day in Istanbul to snoop around. We visited such significant religious buildings as the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. It looked just like the movie Aladin. We saw priceless jewels: more gold, diamonds, rubys, and emeralds than I’ve ever seen in one place. They were so significant you were not even allowed to photograph them. We also visited the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market: an enormous and almost overwhelming market full of crazy salesman who will do anything to lure you into their shop. We had a great meal at a Kebab restaurant and that was the last of Turkey. Here is the Blue Mosque.

It is great to be back in North America. It was unfortunate that I was sick for my first and only World Junior Championships but I came away with a good experience and I am looking forward to redeeming myself at Nationals. Here I am in the relay.

Easterns

photo credit: musicianonskis.ca

After Westerns I flew "home" to Quebec. I actually don't have a home in Quebec but luckily our team doctor and mother of Alex Harvey, Mireille Belzile was nice enough to invite me into her home for a week. The first day I was in Quebec it rained. I wasn't impressed. Then I got a taste of the real Quebec winter. 50cm of snow came out of nowhere. I couldn't help but build a huge snow fort. Surely it will still be standing in march when i return to Quebec. All that powder snow made for so gnarly conditions for intervals. 

Driving to Ottawa: I had the pleasure of riding shotgun in the Tercel through freezing rain all the way to Gatineau. Etienne and I stopped at every Subway along the way #5dollarfootlong. We rolled up to the Motel Chevalier where David Greer was already waiting. 

Easterns was another mini-tour (3 races are combined for an overall result). The first race was a skate sprint. It was an interesting course, almost completely flat with one steep-as-hell hill right in the middle. My qualifier was good, my skis felt fast and I was ready for the heats. In My quarter-final I took it out nice and easy, deciding to let the others lead. It worked well as I skied only as fast as I had to to move on. It was risky though. there were people falling everywhere. In my semi-final I wanted to stay out of the trouble that I barely avoided in my quarter. I started fast and finished safely in third place to advance to the final. The final was just nuts. we all came into the steep hill together. skis and poles were everywhere. I took the safe route along the outside. One skier went down. I was sitting in about fourth place when the pace seemed to slow down a lot. I wanted to speed up but there was no place to pass and the skier who fell was able to catch up. as soon as he had caught up, he was tangled up again but this time he took out 2 other people. I jumped over some skis and dodged some bodies to find myself in second place which I kept to the finish. 

The next day was a 15km individual start skate. Another interesting course; 3 laps, the first half of the loop is very flat and the second half, full of hills. I had a very mediocre race finishing third junior but well off the winning time of Graeme Killick. 

Once again I had some major time to make up in the final stage of a mini-tour. The last race was a 30km classic, the first of my career. I started fast to catch Alexis, Lee, and Colin. Once together we started catching people one by one. I should also mention that although we skied as a group, most of the "work" was done by long time friend and teammate Colin Abbott. The pace seemed very steady for the first 5 of six laps. A 30km is long but I think it hurts less than a 15. On the last lap things started to pick up. Colin made a move starting the sixth lap. I waited another 2km before I dropped Lee and Alexis. I pushed hard on the uphills because my skis were quite slow but had decent grip. I caught Colin just before the finish and was able to get him a the line. I moved up 8 places in the over mini-tour standing. A good day!

After the race i watched the Super Bowl. Not a big fan of football but it was exciting game, even though i didn't have money on the line like so many others. The next day I would leave to Europe and as luck would have it I woke up with a sore throat. After checking out of our hotel at noon we really had no choice but to chill outside the motel with our ski and duffel bags for 2 hours until our ride came. I didn't get to see GWS at Winterlude! If one good thing came out of this day its that I had a row to myself in the airplane. 

Updates from Livigno, Italy to come!