exciting news!

I'm very excited to announce some of the new sponsors & ambassador programs I will be working with in 2012!  I feel so lucky as I already have some great people & companies helping me out (Aquadiva, Reflect Sports, Chicked.com) so what a dream team to be working with all of these groups in 2012!

PACIFIC MULTISPORT

I'm very happy to be partnering with John at Pacific Multisport on Main Street in Vancouver.  It's very exciting to get a tri specific bike and John's been very helpful with me making this change over.  I'm ok with admitting I need a lot of help with the technicalities of bicycles and I've been able to ask almost all the stupid questions and not feel stupid at all (I can fix a broken chain though - can you?).  This will also be the first time I've ever had a real bike fit - so that can't be anything but great news for my body on my bike!  Knowledge is power (and power is leg zoom), and I can tell I'm going to learn a few things about biking this year.
Visit this great shop for a super relaxed feel, a great place to ask questions & feel at home.  In my eyes, small business with solid values are where it's at.  Support your neighbourhood economy & shop local!

www.pacificmultisport.ca

COMPRESSPORT CANADA AMBASSADOR

Always a fan of compression, I've very excited to come on board as an ambassador for this great company.  I took a pair of lovely hot pink sleeves to Kona for some taper training and recovery and they became daily essentials following the race.  It's not pretty but I get cankles and being able to wear cute pink sleeves really helped in the week following the race.  I'm very excited to try out more of their gear in 2012!
These will be part and parcel of my plan of attack (and plan of rest & recovery) and I am excited to wear these puppies during a swim (did you know that Compressport products remain lightweight even when wet?).  Follow me along this year on twitter & facebook to see how they're working for me!
And hot pink?  What else could a girl ask for?  Right....sparkly gems?  They've got those too.  Solid.

www.compressport.ca

FAST AND FEMALE AMBASSADOR

So exciting!  Some of you may have been privy to my new obsession with skate skiing, and you may recognize this logo as the creation of Chandra Crawford, Canadian XC skier extraordinaire.  No, they haven't accepted me onto Team Canada (yet?).  I stumbled upon this group in my spare time while reading about Canadian women in sport - so many of them are connected to this organization and I am very excited to be a part of this amazing group of women!  This group's mandate is to encourage the participation of girls 9-19 build confidence and leadership through sport.  Truly awesome.

 I've always wanted to give back and help girls because as a kid I had so many great role models and so much encouragement, but it's hard to know what to do in an organized way.  I've worked in non-profit groups and it takes a lot of work to get these projects off the ground so it's great that this is up and running already.  I encourage you to go over to their website and take a peek at what's going on and who's involved - inspiration abounds!

www.fastandfemale.com

TEAM H20 AUDIO

Time to put a little zing in some 4000m swim sets!  I'm very happy to announce my acceptance to the H2O audio sponsored rider team!  I love music when training but I'm definitely aware of safety issues when being around cars, darkness and other scary things - but I'm safe in the pool (well, rogue paddles and crazy backstrokers aside) and I'm very excited to be able to be swimming along to some of my favourite tunes.  Music is definitely motivating and helps me get solid training done.  Music isn't 'cheating' - to me it's FUN & a great time to reward that music loving part of my brain.  I've spent a lot of lonely hours underwater and am very excited to have music along for the ride with me this year.  Part of me does wonder that H20 audio will be so awesome I'll never stop using it....

http://www.h2oaudio.com/

GOTRIbal AMBASSADOR

I'm very excited to announce my new ambassadorship with GOTRIbal!  This is a great organization that focuses on supporting women in endurance sport - there are SO many ways they do it!  You'll have to check out www.gotribalnow.com to get all the info (there is a LOT!) but I'm very honoured to be working alongside this terrific group of women who are all moving forward in building a network to encourage women at all levels of support.  I think the great thing about GOTRIbal is that they realize what makes sport and that is reflected upfront in their values: "humility, service and empowerment, inclusivity, and fun"!  Sport is much more than just a race, and my life is what is it is largely due to the beauty of sport.  GOTRIbal is based on a 'pay it forward' type process - and I have certainly been the recipient and am looking forward to giving back in 2012.  It's a win-win for everyone, how great is that?

www.gotribalnow.com

2.0.1.2., or "a sublime dozen"

Happy New Year to everyone out there!

I have been meaning to sit down and sum up 2011.  It seems a mountainous task.  I could just lump together all of my blog posts and that would pretty much cover it.  So I won't rehash much here, but feel free to peruse my earlier posts at your leisure.  If I dislike anything in 'blogs', particular ones related to the multisport world, it's the ones that just keep repeating the same thing.

So I'm going to tell you what this year meant to me, I hope, in a reasonably realistic and precise manner.


It's 2012, there are 12 months, so maybe I can make 12 statements.  12 may be my new lucky number.

yes, 12 trees

1.  This year was eye opening.  Never assume you're not great at something just because you're not good at it yet.

2.  Come Christmas time, I needed and wanted nothing.  I had never had that feeling before in my life (and I'm reasonably frugal).  I had been given or achieved all I wanted and that left me with nothing but peace. I had left behind any sense of bitterness as if I had 'deserved' something.  I was quietly elated.

3.  I learned to love mayonnaise, eggs and potatoes in a way I never thought possible.

4.  I feel I've tacked a few years onto the end of my life not because of fitness, but because at age 30, I was able to stop for a moment & think about life.  Simply put, I could remove stupid, accumulative stress and negativity, and let my physiological system thrive in an optimum environment of exercise, rest and nourishment (see #3).

5.  I love swimming.  It shocks me every day.

6.  Your fastest performance is not necessarily your most special.  Hold onto your proudest moments when they happen and stop searching for more.  Don't rush it.  They'll come when they need to.  If you enjoy the pureness of sport, everything takes care of itself.

7.  I learned what 'inspiration' really was.  I watched a friend run a marathon in which she qualified with a Boston standard.  I could feel tears in my eyes and an upwelling of emotion in my chest, almost breathless.  People have told me that I've been an inspiration to them over the past year, and although it was nice of them to say, if they felt what I felt that day, I am speechless.

8.  I joined the most exclusive club in triathlon.  Me and 9 of my friends brought our road bikes to Kona.

9.  At 30, I learned that life is relatively short and no two paths are the same.  I also think the secret of life is to have 50% enjoyment and 50% struggle.  Decide what side of the slide rule you're on.

10.  It's probably worth reading the "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann, so that one may not get one's head too far up one's derrière.

11.  "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)".  10 leads to 11 (if you paid attention to hit singles in 1998) which is I take sunscreen and sun protection in high regard.  I spent 3 hours in a skin cancer clinic with my family and I was cured of whatever I needed to be cured of.  Of crashes, heart arrhythmia, renal failure or a shark attack, I'm most leery of sun exposure.  And I live in CANADA and take Vitamin D.  Get real and protect yourself.

12.  I love what I do and it makes all the difference in the world.  Although I've had quite a few accomplishments in life - I have really found what I am good at.  And that, would be sport.  It seems simple and it doesn't make me much money (or friends), it certainly doesn't get me ahead in the rat race, but I feel completely fulfilled.  As was written on my grade 8 report card (no embellishment):


"Gillian shows great prowess in sports, but it would serve her well to pay more attention to her studies"


I did what I needed to do, but like salmon in the sea, they always come home.

Then they die?  Ooom-pah!  Not all metaphors work out the way you want them to.

Actually, I think that's an analogy.  Hence the comment on my report card.  I also spent my day getting my butt kicked by my high school english teacher skate skiing today, so it seems fitting that I am getting my butt kicked by grammar as well.  Not that I should tell you this, but I just had to double check how to spell 'grammar'.  Good thing.

I think I should add a disclaimer that *sport may cause low blood sugar, silliness, temporary (?) lowering of IQ and a few other things you never thought you'd do in public*.

I digress.

For all the people out there hoping for their best year yet, I hope you find what you need and I bet it wasn't what you were looking for.  I feel so fulfilled and I am in a state of 'icing on the cake'.  If I was told I had to walk away from it and do something new, I'd have no regrets.  This sense of peace doesn't stop me from being ferociously competitive.  I have more drive, confidence and belief in myself than ever before - teetering on the egotistical, I'm sure.  Never fear though, my ego was handed back to me today when a 7 year old beat me up the hill on skis.  It's all about balance, and the ability to find the humour in it all (I could have picked him up and thrown him in a snowbank).

Stay tuned for exciting news on multiple fronts & a very exciting 2012!

gillian