Leanne Stanley

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The Adventure will Continue!

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October 10th, 2009

Upcoming Events

Oct 11 - National Sprint Outrigger Championships

Oct 17/18 - ORPC Bridges, Victoria

Oct 24 - Kelowna Outrigger Clean up

Oct 26 - Who knows?!

Race Schedules

Today was the National Team Time Trials in Vancouver. These trials determine who qualifies to compete for Team Canada at the 2010 IVF World Outrigger Sprint Championships. I had to do two trials. One in a V1 (rudderless outrigger, V stands for Va'a) and the other in an OC1. For V1, each country is given 6 spots in each age division, so top 6 times in V1 get to compete in V1 at the World Championships. The OC1 time was used to determine your seeding for the top Canadian V6 crews (V6 exactly the same as an OC6). I managed to get hooked up with my new Wai Nui O'Kanaka Outrigger Club shirt just before my first race so that just set the day off to a good start!

Going into today, securing a V1 spot was my goal. Last year at the worlds I finished in 4th place. Fourth in the world ... wholly crap and that was just because I said "Why Not". Why not try out and see what happens. I didn't really train for it, just paddled as usual and went for it. So all winter I've been wondering what could happen in 2010 if I actually train. Well, due to my performance today ... we'll find out May 25-29th in New Caledonia! I had the fastest female time of the day.

Goal #1 check!

With the V1 under my belt now I just had to place top 5 in the OC1 to make the Canada I for V6. In V6 you compete in 500m and 1500m. You also combine the Canada I and II crews for a 500m V12 race. Last year I was on the Canada I crew and we came 2nd to Tahiti in each of the three races ... so frustrating!

The organizers must have set up our heat purposely as I was up against three other very fast women. It was touted afterwards as "the most exciting race of the day." I was in lane 1, Kamini Jain (former olympian sprint kayaker paddler extrodinaire and our National Team Head Coach to boot) was in lane 2, Sheila Kuyper (pioneer of women's sprint C1 paddling in the world, multiple championships under her belt) was in lane 3, and Helen Curry (a Kiwi paddler with marathon background that is my body twin, big, strong, and knows how to move a boat!) rounded out our heat in lane 4.

Off the start, Kamini had open water on me. I thought I could see the other two out of the corner of my eye and were inline with me. Coming up on the 250m I could see someone to the side start to drop back and I was making a bit of water on Kamini. After the 250m I started to ramp it up, there was no way I was going to let her win by open water on me. Yes she was expected to win but I wasn't going to hand it to her. I made up a ton of ground and continued to pull up on her right to the finish line. Sadly I knew when I crossed that I hadn't made up enough ground but when I looked over at her after our finish, I knew I made her work for it so I was content with that race. Time was I was about .6 of a second behind her. Helen came in 3rd just over a second behind me. We were the top three female OC1 times.

Goal #2 Check!

Now Goal #3 wasn't exactly a goal for me but it was for my best friend Kelly from Calgary. He's been workin' hard to improve his fitness, strength and technique. Whenever we're on the water together I'm always trying to give him stroke advice ... whether or not he takes it is another story. But I feel the more you are exposed to different techniques and ideas the more you can pick and choose what's right for your body and your boat to help you go the fastest you can go. So even this past weekend we worked on a few things ... and I am sooooooooooo PROUD of him! Kelly posted a PB time in his V1 trial (mind you the tail wind and tide coming in helped a little). He is the top man that will be representing Canada next year!

So now that I know that I'll be for sure heading to the South Pacific next May, the question is ... where do I train for the winter? I want to be on the water for at least 4-5 months prior to the Worlds. Can't exactly do that in Toronto or Parry Sound too well. Soooo ... looking into options in the Okanagan, been getting a lot of pull from the Vancouver folk this weekend and who knows, maybe I'll just load up the motor home of mom and dad's and drive south! Seriously though, I'll figure it out later! For now all I know is that I'm heading to Victoria sometime later this week. Hoping to hook up with a crew for some sprints on the Saturday and doing an OC2 10km race with Helen on Sunday then heading back to Kelowna for a week or more. Then I'll head back to Ontario and do it up with the family back home.

Training wise, this week is pretty easy. The peak is now over and it's rest, recovery and relax time. Paddling this week is all going to be social. Seeing everyone and just hanging out tonight with majority of the paddlers makes all the hard work worth it. It's such an enjoyable experience to be in a group of 40+ people and be able to have fantastic conversations with each and everyone of them and share paddling stories. The camaraderie amongst these paddlers is just amazing. I am definitely privileged to be associated with these people.

Guess I should get some sleep, I do have to race again tomorrow in the National Sprint Championships. Really, it's just going to be a fun relaxed day hanging out with friends. It will be nice to get in the V6 with most of the team we'll have in New Caledonia to see how it feels. Not sure if I'll do the OC1 race or not. Ah, who the heck am I trying to kid, of course I'm going to do them, even if I am tired or having too much fun chatting it up on the boardwalk.

And again, huge THANK YOUS to all those fine folks that have helped me along the way. Moral support (loved the txts, calls and fb posts of support the past couple days!), transportation (to race courses, home from the gatherings, etc), accommodations (and the offers of accommodations), idea givers, wonderful cooks and .... for everything. I have the best friends a gal could ever hope for. TIme and time again you folks exceed what normal friends would do. YOU ROCK!

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