Author: Christine Cogger

I am not a writer. I like my kids, coffee, running around and reading about you. I live in the most incredible part of the world and am lucky enough to live some pretty great adventures.
CITS, Running, Whistler

The best laid plans

Christine Cogger

We set out for our planned run (insert ominous foreshadowing music here) at about 9:20 on Monday morning.  Sunny day, not too hot yet, perfect conditions!  Liz, Jen and um… Jane (as she’ll be known in this blog post) had the goal of getting to the top of Singing Pass, then heading over the Musical Bumps back to the Roundhouse.  We’d then enjoy a leisurely snack, take the gondola down and then hit the Scandinave for a relaxing afternoon of girl time.

We made it pretty much ¾ of the way up Singing Pass (including that delightful creek crossing) before Jane went from feeling kind of off to really, really crappy.  We took a break and then made the call to move a little further up the trail to the junction rather than head back down.  In hindsight, probably not the best call.  But the reality of going down Singing Pass when your balance is off isn’t that fun and the consequences of toppling off the trail can be rather severe.  So up we went.  And up… and up…

As we neared the top of Flute, we got to a point where Jane couldn’t move forward anymore.  It was too painful and disorienting and frankly, dangerous.  We sat her in the shade of a big rock (the only shade around), Jenny stayed with her and Liz and I ran ahead to meet patrol.  My call to patrol was actually to our old friend Gavin who, without hesitation got the necessary details, got on the line to dispatch and sent help our way.

Ian, a senior patroller with the mountain, set out on foot from the top of Harmony to come and find us (about 4k away).  Along the way, he encountered Renata, an ER doc and her husband Doug, a heli pilot, who were out for a run.  He asked them to come with him.  Only in this town…

After a brief discussion with Jane and a medical assessment, it was decided that the safest, quickest and frankly, only way to get her off the mountain was to fly her off.  So the call was made and we waited for the chopper.

Sidebar: are helicopters not the coolest things ever?

Once Jane and her medical friends were safely on their way, Liz, Jen and I stared at each other, squealed something like “I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED”  and then booted it to the Roundhouse.  Clouds were rolling in, collectively we had about 8 sips of water and 4 shot bloks.  Not ideal, but we knew we didn’t have far to go (even if it was mostly uphill).

We were about 1K from finishing when the gentle rains started.  It was so hot and dry up there that raindrops were bouncing off the dust.  We kept moving and Liz did let out a little chuckle of “oh my god” when we heard the thunder rolling in.

Sidebar #2: The gondola shuts down during thunder and lightning storms…

We got to the Roundhouse with time to spare (and the gondola still running); stopped to grab the most delicious bag of salt and vinegar chips ever and a cold Coke and we were on our way down.

The good news is that Jane is safe and healthy and that we couldn’t have had better and nicer help.

Another adventure in the books.  I wonder what the next one will hold?

Family, Kids, Olympics, weekend

Rolympics

Christine Cogger

4 years ago, Rory was born… amidst a rock slide that shut down the Sea-to-Sky Highway and left us separated from Will for something like 6 days.  That adventure was followed shortly thereafter by the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget being in my brother’s apartment, Will asleep in the other room, Rory on my shoulder, whisper-screaming for Simon Whitfield to GO!  GO!  GO! And Go! He did… to a silver medal.

Sadly things didn’t end well for Simon today, but in honour of that event four years ago, we gave Rory’s 4th birthday party a fitting theme this year.

Bring on… The Rolympics!

We like our Games to be inclusive (we mix age, gender and qualifying times for every ‘event’).  We keep our athletes hydrated and fueled (aka juice boxes and cupcakes).  We provide diversion from the stress of competition (aka smash the piñata).  We are quite flexible on uniform rules (nudiness encouraged).  Our flag bearer was selected by his peers (more like forced to do it).  We all napped afterwards.

All in all, success!

Day-to-day life, Olympics, Running, Whistler

Inspiration

Christine Cogger

Sometimes I have it, sometimes I lack it.  With the Olympics on 24/7, I certainly have more of it than usual!  Between live feeds, Twitter, FB, news, etc I’m having a hard time keeping up but I’m loving it and I’ve managed to keep my FOMO in check.

A few of the more captivating stories for me have been…

The Canadian Olympic Team, especially since we seem to have moved beyond the attitude of “oh, I’m just so happy to be here, I’m pleased with my 47th place” attitude to our “I’m here to win!” attitude.  Go Canada Go!  Also because my Olympic boyfriend is a serious medal contender.

The US swim team.  They seem to genuinely like each other – legitimate rivalries included – and who doesn’t love a team that does something like this.  Also, the fact that Rory has a HUGE crush on Missy Franklin helps.  Oh, and well… Lochte.

The sculling sloth.

Tonight I’ll be in my jammies, cheering at the top of my lungs for the triathletes as they take over Hyde Park.  I don’t even care if I wake up the kids, they can watch with me.  We can nap tomorrow.

On that note, a few pictures from my inspired lunch-time run (it was hard to turn around and go back to the office, that’s for sure).  Stay tuned for a report from Monday’s upcoming adventure… can’t wait!

Biking, Family, weekend, Whistler

Another weekend wrap up

Christine Cogger

That was certainly a full and fun-filled weekend.  CITS had to take a backseat this weekend (for me anyway) so that I could partake in the silliness that was Charlie’s Angels.

DH Angels.

I have to hand it to Tony Horn.  I’d never done one of his events and can now say, with certainty, that if he does another event, I’m in.  He puts on a  great event that was challenging yet achievable and more importantly, all for a good cause.

I haven’t raced a mountain bike race since 2003… and I’ve been on my mountain bike precisely 3 times this summer.  I was certainly out of my comfort zone as we rode up to the start of the DH.  Surrounded by downhillers, there’s no doubt in my mind that I am definitely more of an Uphiller (that’s a word, right?)  I had seeded myself just about last because of my, uh… prowess in the park?  However, I couldn’t take sitting up there watching everyone go.  So I jumped in and went.

Proof that I made it to the bottom – in one piece, no less.

I loathe time-trial starts and despite  not pre-riding the course, I didn’t exactly light the world on fire BUT I laughed (nervous laughter) all the way down, even after I hit a tree and then crashed off a jump.  I made it down in one relatively unscathed piece and then flew home to catch the Opening Ceremony.  It was, in my opinion, a great way to spend an evening.

Back of the packer…

Saturday held the XC portion of the race and although I experienced some kick-ass cramping in muscles I forgot how to fire, I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the course Tony put together.  It was fun to ride to some fun women I rarely get to see.  I much prefer mass starts (it’s where my pointy elbows come in handy) and especially ones that start uphill.  It got me out of the fray quickly and on my way.  2.5ish hours later I was at the lake, ready for more Olympic spectating (I immediately turned on my phone to see who won the Phelps V. Lochte dual – NERD).

Of course, no weekend is complete without some kind of medical emergency with the kiddos.  This weekend we were treated to 2!

Little broken beaner…

Onwards with the week.  Here’s to my arms regaining some of their feeling after the weekend and looking for the next adventure…

Pretty sure I was cramping here.