After a break from training for three weeks, I started up again just before Christmas. I was excited to get back at it so that was a good sign that I was recharged and ready to face another season. I thought my cross-country season was over until March but as it turns out, I have been offered the wonderful opportunity to travel to Scotland and Spain to run a couple of cross-country races in Edinburgh and Seville. I feel extremely lucky and grateful to Thelma Wright for all her hard work at setting everything up for me and another young from Kitchener. So I arrive in Edinburgh, January 8^th, race on the 10^th, leave for Seville on the 13^th and race there on the 18^th and fly back the following day. I am pretty thrilled to be racing in such competitive races. I have arranged with my profs to make up for any lost work and lessons and Jon has been great getting me fit again in such a short period of time. We got a couple of dumps of snow here in Victoria which made training a bit trickier than usual. The first race will be tough but I think I will be ok. I have done a couple weeks of hill repeats and grass workouts and they went well. I will do up a report once I am back with some photos. Once I am back, I’ll be running my first indoor track meet on the weekend of January 31^st in Seattle, with the Vikes, so stay tuned!

Some technical difficulties with the computer equipment has prevented Ray from sending a phto today. We hope to have it resolved by tomorrow. FYI the whiteout conditions experienced by the team are the worst that Richard Webber has ever seen at either pole.

“Hey everybody, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. We started out this morning with great anticipation of doing our fourth twenty mile day in a row, but unfortunately after 6 miles the whiteout we were in, and I mean WHITEOUT so white that we couldn’t see a thing. It was so severe we decided that we would camp for a few hours and then try to head out again and ahhh get a few more miles in and head towards twenty. But unfortunately even after a few hours of camping the weather has not improved, so we decided, that unfortunately, that’s it for today. Ahhumm, but we wake up and tomorrow morning and we start our march toward the south pole. We will reach 89 degrees tomorrow and ahhhh do our very best to be at the south pole ahhh in the next few days. So umm thank you all so much for following our blog and for your support. It’s been bitter sweet and we wanted to do 88 degrees in three days ahhh a degree in three days, unfortunately weather like this in Antarctica is what can happen, and it happened to us, and it stopped us. But the sweet part of the bitterness is that we actually did do a degree of travel in three days. We had our three twenty miles in a row. Ahhummm so there you go. So have a great night and to everybody in the next day or two. Bye Bye.”

Day 30 Whiteout

Hey everybody, it’s just a short blog today, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Errr… we’re exhausted, we’re just making some food; having a nice hot milk drink that we have every night, with maple sugar in it? Mmmm sounds good eh, and ahhumm, basically relaxing after doing another twenty nautical today, so, Two err.. actually is our third day in a row of twenty nautical miles, (background coughing) but the second day in a row of our goal of trying to complete 88 degrees in three days, so 20 more nautical miles to do that. We’re up on the plateau, it’s incredible, ummm it’s it’s like a big vast well it’s a desert. That’s exactly what it is, it’s a desert. It’s this huge flat snowy desert, it’s incredible (I guess he’s never been in Winnipeg in the winter). Ahhh that’s Kevin coughing in the background, still suffering a little bit of altitude sickness. I hope your all enjoying your holidays and ahhh keep reading the blog through the weekend. Have a great night, K bye.

Getting Closer (Listen to Audio)

“Hey Everybody, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team, filling you guys in, hope you’re having a great new year. Happy new years day to you all. Ahhh.. we had our second consecutive day of twenty nautical miles, we’re pretty excited about that. Ahhhummm, and ahhh.. the two guys, Kevin and Richard, my partners of course are skiing, and here is a photo for you of ahhh the binding system that they are using, which has been incredibly reliable to this point. They’ve really had very little go wrong with it at all, and we’re all wearing the same boots. You guys have seen my boots before and it’s the same boot that’s in the binding there, keeps you very warm. Ahhhumm.. but ahhh yeah from the photo of this.. the binding system that Richard has more or less developed and invented for use on ahhh… trips like these, to the poles, both south and north poles. So ahhh have a look at it and enjoy the photographs and as well ahhumm.. . Just thought I would fill you guys in on the altitude. It is getting really tough up here. Ahhhumm.. the snow is getting a little bit deep and so ahhh.. I’m using snowshoes right now ahhumm. and trying to keep up with the guys on their skiis. and we’re having a blast though, we’re really enjoying ourselves. so happy new year to everybody, and ahhh.. we will talk to you tomorrow. bye bye.

Day 28 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Ahhhummm.. finished the day in 18.2 miles, nautical miles, in absolutely white out conditions. Probably the most white out conditions we’ve ever had as an matter of fact it’s probably even snowing a little bit. We couldn’t see at all. It was like, it was zero visibility and really bad sastrugi. But on the plus side we’re back in the tent right now and about to sit down and chow down to a huge bowl of pemmican and pasta and butter and bacon, and as you can see in the photo there. that’s how we’re adding calories to our meals right now. Becasue we need to be prepared for the last days. The last days…. yikes that sounds kind of scary. Ahhumm… the final days of the expedition as we head towards 88 degrees. Sooo we will be enjoying our dinner, I hope you guys enjoy you new years and please check in for the blog tomorrow and you’ll hear our plan for 88 degrees. OK bye.”

Day 26 (Listen to Audio)

Welcome to 2009 and La Malbaie, Quebec, my “home” for the holidays!

With la riviere St. Laurent flowing to the east, salted with mini icebergs travelling towards la ville de Quebec and the cold winter air biting my face I thanked my parents (aloud) for putting me in French immersion at the age of 4. I quietly thanked myself for sticking with it through my graduation.

In a small Quebecois town where the English-speaking citizens turn out to be tourists I definitely proved my dedication as an athlete by asking as many people as possible until I could finally figure out where I could get my workouts done properly.

Le Complex Sportif!
This good-sized building has a full pool, hot tub, gymnasium, as well as a cardio and weight lifting area.

After a lengthy explanation from ‘le gars’ at the front desk I bought a month pass for 28,00$ and have full access to everything.

The first day, I took advantage of the space in the gym and did a full warm up, some hurdle mobility and the circuit I’d been sent by Coach Carla from her new Blackberry ® wireless device (kudos to her!)

*big smile* I had tons of space and worked up a great sweat.  Cause after those few days of break- it’s always nice to get back into a groove.

My second day as a gym membership holder I (in true holiday fashion) came down with some fantabulous 24h stomach problem  - OH! and the power was out for the entire area = candles and flashlights anyone?!
Needless to say, it was a great day to stay in bed!

I slept a lot and tried to drink as much as possible. The next morning my insides were feeling like new (as they should - after being completely emptied) we headed back to the gym.

I did the entire lifting session and managed to attract a bit of an audience. I guess not many athletes visit La Malbaie?) ha!  After I explained who I was and why I was power-cleaning and squatting more than my own weight in this small French town, I jumped into the deep-end of the pool with a floatation belt and did 8 sets of 2minutes hard water running. <With a 2.5 min break>.

<TRY IT with a time to suit your skill level. Hooray for low impact cardio!!>

Hopefully everyone enjoyed an extra second in 2008 and had a very happy New Year’s Eve. I wish you all the best of luck with the resolutions; KEEP RUNNING!

“Err hello everybody, it’s errr day 27 the title of the blog is “Happy New Years Eve”. We’ve just come through two of the toughest days we’ve had of soft snow and whiteout. We had fresh snow which make the going really, really tough but were ahh, we still managed to do 20 miles today in 11 hours of trekking…… and were planning to average 20 miles a day for the next three days to cover the next degree from 88 degrees to 89 degrees. Hope everyone has a happy new years eve ans we’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Happy New Years Eve (Listen to Audio)

“Umm. hi everybody, this is Kevin from the South Pole Quest Expedition. Ummm, ahhh, today I’d like to discuss ahh, sort of ahh, one of the things I have a real passion for during this trip. Ahhh.. and that’s actually videoing as we mentioned yesterday and taking photographs. And ahh those images you see on the website are predominantly, not all, but most of them are taken by me. Ahhh.. because I love to take shots and I’m also shooting with an SLR. It’s really quite fantastic to see this landscape and to ahh take shots of it. Ahh.. today it’s tough though we’re moving fast, like for example today we did 19 nautical miles again. We’re plugging away fast, ahhumm but you always have to find those moments to take a shot and ahhh if you take a look at our blogs today you’ll see the not so pretty pictures. And that’s ahhh.. Ray’s god awful blister, that he is travelling with, and ahhh that’s you know there’s nothing you can do but suffer, but take a look and commiserate, we’ll be taking soon. Bye now.”

December 28 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team, ah, you will be hearing from Richard and Kevin in the coming days as well. Richard’s got a very special announcement actually, about our plans for 88 degrees. I think you will find that very exciting, so keep tuning in. So today, what I’m calling in about,  to talk a little bit about was something that I alluded to yesterday when I talked about gear and how we sort the gear. And the fact that Richard and I are carrying the group gear and Kevin is carrying the film gear. So, I thought I’d talk a little bit about that. One of the… This expedition has many unique things about it that make it very special. One of the little quirks is our educational programs and all our educational partners and all of our great volunteers and the people that are involved and of course we are attempting a record from Hercules Inlet to the South pole. We are trying to be the fastest to get there unsupported. Also, the fact is that we are all using different disciplines.  Richard and Kevin are skiing and of course, I’m trekking and snowshoeing. But, one of the things about this expedition that is very special is something that Kevin and I discussed a long time ago and that was that we wanted to document this expedition on film. So, all that gear that Kevin’s carrying…we have a fantastic camera, we have video equipment, we have everything and we are capturing the entire expedition on film and it’s no small feat when you are, you know, gong after ah speed record and ah and Kevin is trying to ski and do everything else and ah you’ve got to shoot this expedition. So, on a daily basis or at least every second day, we try and get as much film footage as we can. Sometimes I’m even allowed to use the camera. You can imagine that’s a challenge to get that out of Kevin’s hand judging by that photo that you see there.  But, ah, none the less, we have a lot of fun doing it and we hope you have something that, um, ready for everybody to see and to share with everybody so that they are able to experience the expedition, um, from our point of view. And we’ll get to that hopefully sometime in the New Year. But I just thought I would drop a few hints of what it’s like trying to film an expedition in the freezing cold and when you are trying to go really fast and everybody is tired. It is really tough. ”

dec27 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Richard’s cooking away and Kevin is right now prepping up to send a photo for this blog, so I’m leaving the blog today. Ahhummm… a lot of question always come up, they say an people ask us and and my family has asked. “Well you’re on snowshoes, or you’re in your boots, and the other two guys are skiing. How do you guys decide ummmm… who carries what in their sled?”  And I thought it might be a great topic for today ahhh.. seeing as now everyone is probably re-distributing some weight after all of the holiday feasting and everything. Ahhhum.. actually the way it works is this. Richard and I carry all of the gear for the three team mates …………….. cary our own compliment of food. Kevin has all the high tech equipment to not only make our own film, )because don’t forget we’re filiming this entire expedition), but our communication equipment and our solar stuff as well. So that’s how gear is distributed between the sleds and they all pretty much weigh about the same, and that right now is way too heavy. so hope everybodies is doing well. I’m not sure if I mentioned it already 18 nautical miles today, on Boxing day, day 22, and we’re at 86.24.7. We’re getting there talk to you soon bye

dec26 (Listen to Audio)