OPPORTUNITY!

Anyone interested in sponsoring a new talent?! Alison Hooper joined our National Training Centre in Victoria last year (we poached her from swim club :) In her first year she won Junior Nationals, Canada Games and placed 6th at the Junior World Championships! Yea, I know...watch out. :) She is a feisty, determined little thing in the package of a cute little girl! :) Let me know if you are interested! Check out her blog at alisonhooper.blogspot.com

Fall!!

I forgot how fun fall in Victoria can be! We did a nice muddy cross ride yesterday. It's basically mountain biking on a road bike with thicker tires...safe! haha but sooo fun! I am slowly getting into a bit of base work. Swimming volume is up to 5k and increasing the bike and run slowly slowly! My knee is feeling great so we are looking good for future progress! Last night the NTC celebrated halloween in style! We had a great time at the twins house! Everyone had great costumes! This is the first time in 6 years that I have been able to dress up for halloween because I always had cross country race the day after in vancouver! Here is a picture of our costumes...


Sandy from greece, Eve (Adam is missing) and a lady bug!

Tomorrow is a bit of a regeneration day and then its back to it! Nothing intense just yet!

Olympic torch relay: Officers won't let flame out of their sight

Five-man team will spend 106 days and 45,000 kilometres on relay





Rob Sweetland will be part of the security team on the torch relay, while his triathlete daughter Kirsten is expected to compete under the flame in London in 2012.

Rob Sweetland will be part of the security team on the torch relay, while his triathlete daughter Kirsten is expected to compete under the flame in London in 2012.
Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist, Times Colonist

Rising triathlete Kirsten Sweetland is expected to be one of several Island athletes marching into London Olympic Stadium beneath the flame for the 2012 Summer Games.

But her father, Rob Sweetland, has one up on her. He actually gets to sleep with the Olympic flame. Sweetland, an RCMP sergeant with the Island district administrative detachment in Victoria, is one of five police officers who will be within a few metres of every one of the 12,000-plus torchbearers for every step of the 45,000-kilometre journey leading up to the 2010 Winter Games.

The officers on this long-haul five-person detail -- which includes Sgt. Tony Parks of Victoria police and Sgt. Roger Plamondon of the Ladysmith RCMP -- are never supposed to be out of sight of the flame.

In fact, they're even expected to take it into their hotel rooms overnight in a lantern on a rotating basis.

"How many people get to sleep with the Olympic flame?" said Rob Sweetland.

Since he will be away for 106 days without break, beginning today with the torch's arrival in Victoria and continuing until the opening ceremonies Feb. 12 at B.C. Place, the Sweetlands held their family Christmas dinner last Sunday.

Twenty-year-old Kirsten Sweetland, considered a prodigy, was expected to be among 46 Island athletes who competed in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics but was kept out by injury. She isn't the only athlete in the family, however.

The police flame detail demands officers who are fit, since it will largely be conducted on foot and bike alongside the torch runners. Rob Sweetland, 47, has been competing in triathlons since 1982, before most of the sporting population had even heard of the sport.

"As a competitor myself, and now with Kirsten, triathlon has been a big part of my life," he said. "The Olympic ideal has inspired me since I was a kid."

Sweetland, who grew up in Corner Brook, N.L., and was posted to the Parksville RCMP detachment in 1987, sees his assignment in symbolic terms. "I've spent half my life on Canada's island in the east and half my life on Canada's island in the west and this torch relay throughout the country really connects the dots for me."

Not that everybody feels so warm and fuzzy about the Olympic flame. Sweetland realizes there will be protests along the torch route, starting today in Victoria, and said he will deal with them in a respectful manner. But that attitude must be reciprocated, he said.

"We, of course, are expecting protests. It's a free country. Everybody has a right to have their say, as long as it is done legally. I would hate to see a young torch bearer not get to run his or her 300 metres."

cdheensaw@tc.canwest.com

Christmas Came Early!

Nope, I'm not talking about the cliche line for after you get a package from a sponsor...Christmas literally came early! My Dad is the security for the Olympic torch on the 4 month torch run! He leaves this week so yesterday we had a full on Christmas dinner! haha gifts and everything! We all got so full we couldn' breathe...nice...how North American of us!! ;) I've been getting my Canadian back on in many ways actually!
Over the weekend Patrick held an NTC bonding camp in Cowichan Valley! Friday night we went back to our roots and watched a Jr. A hockey game. Saturday morning Pat an I did a cross ride while the others ran. We rode through a reserve for part of the ride and on the way out a pack of dogs came darting across the street at us! Of course, they only went after me ;) i managed to keep riding while they hopped on me and my bike. One of them managed to find the 3 inch gap of skin showing on my calf and bit me! It was bleeding pretty good! Pat did a good first aid job and cleaned me up before swimming. At swimming was the "eye opener" set! oh dear...my 4th group swim of the year and we are doing 6 100's on 1:10 pacetime! By some kind of miracle, I actually managed to make it! By make it I mean come in on 1:09 and go again hahaha it felt a bit like death but I was proud! :) From there I hopped straight into my shiny red mini cooper :) and drove home to pick up another bag and head to Vancouver for the Nike Human Race in Vancouver! It was a hit and it was great to catch up with all the reps and runners again!

I am still a bit jet lagged and up a lot in the middle of the night but sunday morning i slept in until noon!! Something I have never done before! So that day went by super fast! I was up again last night and up early for the optional monday morning swim. me and Kyla Coates get the gold star for being there! Then I had an awesomely muddy cross ride...West Coooaaast! :) Fall here is pretty...as long as you dress for it!

I am attempting to write some cover letters now but somehow my computer keeps opening facebook....weird... ;)