Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Where to begin. I cannot believe that it is ALREADY JULY 8th! That means there is 6 weeks and 2 days until Ironman, and 7 weeks and 1 day until our Wedding!

Today, however, is also a special day. 4 years ago Ben and I each had a moment. A moment where we realized that we had met someone very special. Ben's moment was when he finished his first marathon and felt an urge to text me and tell me how he did. Despite the fact we had only known eachother for less than a month, and there were plenty of other people he could have informed first. The moment for me was when I woke up next to him the next day, and the first thing I thought was "you're going to wake up forever next this this person." Completely illogical, but it was true. 4 years ago, Ben and I both realized that we had met our soulmate, and it has been the most incredible 4 years of my life. Ben is my best friend, my training partner, my cheer leader, my strength, my confidant, my champ, and my everything. I am so lucky to have him in my life, and I cannot wait until I can call him my husband! So tonight in celebration Ben is taking me out on a date, and I have no idea where we are going! I'm pretty excited!

On another note, we had a little hiccup with the wedding planning, when I found out that the lady that runs the lodge and was doing all the organizing and catering was going out of business. Lets just say the stress level rose to an uncomfortably high level. Thankfully, however, it all seems to be sorted out now and the guy who is buying out her share is actually going to just employ her staff and it will be identitcal to what we had originally planned. PHEW. Other than that, everything seems to be coming together nicely! Infact, we JUST booked our honeymoon this afternoon! How about a week in the Mayan Riviera in a 5 star all inclusive resort. And the best part is we have gotten an AMAZING deal on it. We cannot wait! I've never been to an all inclusive relaxing vacation in my life. It will be a blast, and just what we need after ironman and then the wedding.

The Begining of the Champs

Well since Ben and I just got engaged I thought I would write about how the champs became the champs in the first place:

Ben and I met in June of 2007, and he brought me back to life. I was not in a very good place at the time: I had just quit my hockey scholarship in the states, and moved to Edmonton where I got a job in an office in order to be with my (ex) boyfriend. Our relationship was not a very healthy one, and needless to say it ended badly in less than a month of living in Edmonton when one of my second cousins came and picked me up at 2 in the morning with as much stuff as I could grab and he took me to his parent’s house. The next day my aunt, who happened to be in Edmonton for the weekend, picked me up, and took me back to the house to grab the rest of my stuff, and drove me back to Calgary. Thank goodness for family.

So, there I was; broken and lost. I found myself living back at home and looking for a job in Calgary. I wound up getting an interview at COP for a guest services position. It sounded like a fun job, just what I needed. I remember walking in and seeing this really good lucking guy at the front counter when I asked for directions to human resources, little did that he would be my future husband. I had the interview, got the job, and started the following week.

There was a great group of people working in guest services that summer and I made some really awesome friends, but most importantly I met my champ. At first nothing much happened between us, except for the fact that I would go out of my way to ask him questions, pick the till closest to him, and offer to work any extra hours if I knew he would be there. Yes, I had a crush on him, but according to all the others that we worked with Ben was not looking for anything. After a few group functions we wound up getting to know each other a little more, but Ben was focused on running his first marathon in Calgary that was just a few weeks away and he was training like crazy. After the marathon, we started doing more things together. Then one weekend in late July, I managed to score tickets to the Stamps game (thanks grandpa) and it was more or less our first official date. We had a blast and then met some friends from COP after for a few drinks. The next day, hung-over, we decided to go climb Heart Mountain and boy were we naive; we had only packed ONE bottle of Gatorade and some trail mix. It was tough, we were thirsty, hungry, and hung-over, but once we got to the top (or as far as we could get since we took a wrong turn) we were awestruck by how beautiful it was and have been hooked on mountain climbing ever since. That was our first champ weekend (although we didn't have the name champs yet and had called it the weekend of fun). We continued to plan weekends full of fun and adventure every weekend and by any definition we were dating but we were both cautious of getting into another relationship, plus the fact that he was my supervisor at work. But we couldn’t resist. We had an awesome summer; we went hiking, mountain climbing, camping, running, white water rafting. We talked, laughed, and just enjoyed each other’s company. Ben ran the Edmonton marathon after the Calgary marathon and inspired me to pick up running, we trained together for the Okanagan half marathon in 6 weeks and we both have been training for some sort of running related event since. I remember one morning I woke up beside him and the first thing I thought was “you will wake up forever next to this guy.” I brushed the thought aside thinking that I was just being a girl. But, it was true; I had met my soul mate, my champ. In only a few months, Ben had brought me back to life.

Towards the end of August, we were inseparable. We worked together, and more or less lived together. My family had Sunday night dinners every Sunday, and Ben and I would go to dinner, at which point I’d pack a fresh bag of clothes and head back to his house. There was no official moving in. Gradually more and more of my stuff started staying behind. That was nearly 4 years ago and we have been together ever since.

In the last 4 years we have climbed mountains, hiked hundreds of kilometres, camped on top of mountains, skied waist deep powder, I finished my University Degree, I ran my first half marathon and then marathon, Ben ran the Boston Marathon along with other marathons, we started doing triathlons, Ben did the death race, I went to Peru, we moved to Revelstoke, along with everything else in between. It has been the best 4 years of my life, and I look forward to a life time together.

here is a picture of us at that first stamps game.

Here is Ben on heart mountain

And me on heart mountain!

Engaged!

Well, last friday the champs got engaged! Ben had mentioned that he wanted to go camping this weekend a few weeks back, but unfortuneately the weather was not cooperating and it was supposed to be pouring rain. Plus there is still over 3 feet of snow on the ground, so it would have been almost impossible to find some wood for a fire. So, we didn't really have any plans going into the weekend other than training. Nevertheless, we had a great weekend. It was a gorgeous spring day on friday and since ben has friday's off and my work is very slow right now, Ben hung out with me at work in the afternoon and we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. We had some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (mm one of our favorites) and some wine, went for a walk, and then I went to have a nice relaxing bubble bath when Ben came in and proposed! and obviously I said yes! So we are officially engaged! We spent the rest of the evening calling our family and having a few drinks before heading to bed.

Saturday morning came and we planned on training first thing, but instead we decided to head to Vernon and Kelowna to get some errands done. The ring was a little bit too big, so it had to be sized down and there was a jewler in Vernon that would do it that day. I also needed to get some new glasses and Ben needed some tools. So off we went. It was a pretty busy day and we didn't get home until 6, too late to go to the gym. So we had some nachos, watched a movie and relaxed.

Yesterday we woke up to rain, and wet snow. We had a 2 hour run and a 2 hour bike to do (making up for the day before) and we set out on the road. Within a half our I was not feeling so well. All week my stomach had been bothering me, and so I hadn't really eaten properly. Plus I had a tea before the run, which I haven't done in a while and I dont think my stomach can handle it. Lesson learned. So I stopped and walked home and ben continued on. I decided to try and take a short cut because it looked like there was a trail through the trees. Well that was a bad idea because every second step I was sinking past my hips in snow. It was horrible. I was freezing, and I almost lost my shoe. I finally made it home, stripped out of my soaking wet clothes and stuck my feet in the bath to try and defrost them. Ben came home shortly after, and we set off to the gym for the 2 hour bike. Ben did awesome, me on the other hand, not so great. I just had no energy and was not feeling great, plus I was in a horrible mood after that trek through the trees, so I left and went back to pick him up later. The sun finally came out that afternoon, and after doing some cleaning up around the house we went for a huge walk outside enjoying the sunshine (and admiring how the sun sparkled off my ring!). When we got home home we had an afternoon nap and just relaxed. We love lazy sundays after training. So, although we did not end up camping, we still had a great weekend together. I learned that the only things I can eat before running are stone wheat cracker, water/gatorade, half a bannana, or a fruit to go. And I am still getting used to the whole ring wearing thing and having a finacee (it just sounds so weird saying it)! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

--Jen

Reminiscing

So training last week started slow, but in the end we got through it; we even got our weekend workouts in! We attempted to ski on saterday morning but the snow at the hill was nothing compared to our epic day last saterday, and the top had 50+ km winds, so we took one run down from the top back to the parking lot, headed home, and hit the gym for our long bike. We got the darn thing in, but it was tough. The gym is so hot, even with our heart rates only at 75% we were dripping with sweat, and we didn't have music. So we decided that it was about time we purchase 2 new ipod shuffles (hopefully these ones last a while :s). SO we left revelstoke and headed to vernon, where we spent the afternoon doing errands and getting out of snowed in revelstoke. On Sunday, we got up and did our long run outside with music. It was awesome. Then I hunkered down and did some work on my CFA course while ben lounged, and that was the extent of our weekend!

The CFA course is coming along. I have already read over 1800 pages and writen over 60 pages of notes. I have no idea how I am going to remember everything, but I think practice problems will be the key. I have been making sure I do all the questions at the back of the book, and I have found an online question bank that I have also been using. I am a little bit freaked out though because only 30% of people passed this test in December. But I am going to do my best and that's all I can do.

Last night, while laying in bed trying to fall asleep despite the time change, I started to go through all of our old photos, and I couldn't stop smiling.It's pretty crazy, in nearly 4 years we have gone on some pretty amazing adventures and racked up some pretty cool pictures. So I thought I'd do a top ten of my favorites. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, until it got down to only choosing 10 because they are all so awesome! Anways, here are a few that I picked out:

Number 10:

This picture was taken this past summer (2010) when we climbed up Mt. Begbie and camped just under the glacier.

Number 9:

This picture was taken the first summer we were together (2007) and it was our first time in Fernie. This was on the top of Mt. Fernie. The view wasn't great because of the smoke from BC forest fires.

Number 8:

This picture was taken out in kananaskis by Black Diamond in 2008. We eyed a cool hill and decided that we wanted to camp on top of it. It was cool because that night we could see the city lights in the distance

Number 7:

This picture was taken while snowshoeing up Mt. Revelstoke a couple of weeks ago. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Number 6:

This picture was just taken this past new years day (2011). This was climbing up the sub peak on the ski hill with an inversion in the background.

Number 5:

This picture was taken during a 3 day backpacking trip of North Over ridge in 2009. This is in the morning after our first night.

Number 4:

This was on the same 3 day trip in 2009, this is the view from on top of the ridge!

Number 3:

This was on top of Mount Temple in 2007. I was pretty excited!

Number 2:

Ben on top of Mt. Temple. Pretty amazing.

Number 1:

Sunrise while camping on top of Mt. Proctor in Fernie in 2007. Wow.

The song that came into my head while I was looking through all these pictures was "I still do" by Paul brandt. So this is to my champ, my other half :

It's in the way you move me
The way you look right through me
Still brings me down to my knees
Every time you smile
And after all this time love
It's still hard to get enough
From the very first time I thought you were the one
Who'd make all of my dreams come true

I still do
I'm still amazed every time that we kiss
I still do
I'm never gonna stop feeling like this
Like the first time that I fell for you
I still do

They all might say we're crazy
Sometimes I think we may be
When I think about the way we
Live like life's a dare
I'd lay my life down for you
I'd do anything to prove it's true

--Jen