After five weeks away racing and training in Europe, I’m finally home. I made stops in Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Poland on EuroTour 2008. I raced six races at three World Cups, winning five gold medals and one bronze, came within about a second of my PB (personal best) and the world record time in the K1 1000m (my time in Poland was 3:25.725), and broke the world’s fastest time in the K1 500m by 0.6sec with a 1:35.630, cracking that 1:36 mark for the first time ever.
Setting a new record is kind of an eerie feeling; it’s like I’ve got to re-evaluate how quick a good 500m is now that it’s almost a second faster than we previously thought. I feel like I have some work to do. World records in our sport aren’t as big a deal as track and field or swimming; those races have the luxury of being raced under very controlled conditions while canoe/kayak races are at the mercy of wind, air and water temperature and waves. Even the buoyancy of the water and what kind of algae is growing in the water has an impact on how fast we go.
(Okay, my nerd alarm is going off, I need to stop typing about race times and algae … I apologize.)
Pointe-Claire’s Tom Hall, Canada’s best bet for an Olympic medal in C1 1000m, and I both finished atop the World Cup points list, which entitles us to a grand prize of 5,000 euros each. I just read Simon Whitfield’s blog about a triathlon in Iowa where the winner was awarded $200,000. I’m not doing this for the money, but seriously, another zero or two wouldn’t offend my amateur athlete values. I’m sitting here trying to figure out why the International Triathlon Union can find sponsors to fork over that kind of dough for prize money, while the International Canoe Federation is stuck in this Chariots of Fire, “gentlemen athlete” type era where it seems appropriate to the dinosaurs in charge that our prize money doesn’t even come close to paying our travel expenses to the races. I’ll stop whining now.
Two things I am currently very stoked about and which are more along the lines of typical Sportsnet discussion topics — Cito Gaston and next year’s Raptors line-up. Getting rid of Nesterovic and TJ was an excellent move; anything that allows Calderon to start every game is an excellent move. Jermaine O’Neal and the “Aussie Shaq” (which might be a stretch) Nathan Jawai will provide them with some size in the paint which was clearly lacking in that final run-up against the Magic. And Cito, my childhood Jay-pride is reborn and I wear my retro Jays cap with pride now that you’re back.
I need to commend Mike Toth for putting Terry Fox at the top of his Canadian Dime list for Top 10 Canadian athletes in history. His list shows an intense pro-sports bias, but I can live with it if Terry is up leading the charge. (I can already read the “Stick to your kayak-blog Olympic-guy” comments.)
I’m pumped to be back in Canada for Canada Day. I’ve got all of July to train here, enjoy the comforts of home, and tune up for mid-August. And if you see some painted-red maniac wearing a Jays cap running down Front St. tonight after the Toronto FC game, be kind, it might be me.
I love it here. Happy Canada Day!