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2002 Pictures
(Click on Images to see the Full-Size Version)
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Immediately upon getting back to school, I ordered a camera as Parag's graduation present. Ofcourse, since I wouldn't see him till March at the earliest, I thought I'd put it to good use around town.
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I grew my first ever beard and had a little fun ... although it took over a month to get to the final picture.
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In my usual tradition of getting psyched for the upcoming triathlon season, I bought a new bike. Well, actually it was used and I found it on the Internet. Either way, now I'm psyched to start training! |
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It's March now and I've gotten to know many of the Master's swimmers and really look forward to seeing them at practice everyday. Just like at Waterloo and when I was back home in Fredericton, these guys are becoming my little family here. Here are most of them. |
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Our first swim meet was Central Illinois Championships in Bloomington, IL. You can check out the results and some pics of the entire team at UIUC Master's Home. Here are a few of me racing. Come to think of it, I don't think I have any pictures like these from the many years of swimming. |
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Over Spring Break I took my first trip to Waterloo for the year (and most likely not my last). I ended up seeing everyone I wanted to see. Although I don't have pictures of everyone (Kristen, Jenny, Christy, Carrie, Sweny ... remind me to get some pics of you guys next time). As usual it was a fun weekend. Also, as it turned out to be a reunion of the Fatboys, we held a few eating contests. |
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Well, triathlon season is fast approaching. Actually, I've been training for the past 11 weeks. Since my new (and first ever) wetsuit just came in today, I thought it was time to take some more pics and put em up. |
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The year has hardly begun and I'm already noticing this page has too many pictures of me. Well, given my goals for the year it will probably be my most self-centered year of my life. Anyways, I ran my first race of the year this weekend. Damn it hurt! |
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May 1st, the last day of class for my first year at G-School. In typical undergrad fashion we celebrated with a little drinking ... as the night went on, my eyes felt heavier and heavier, my speech became more and more slurred, and I wore less and less clothing. |
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It's well into June now. The first tri of the year was June 1st, Tri-shark in LeRoy, IL. It went reasonably well. I tried doing a short, hard brick the day before and that killed my run (and so did eating oatmeal for breakfast). Otherwise, I met my swim and bike goals ... that was enough to make me happy. |
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After Parag's Formula SAE competition in Detroit, he came down here to visit. Over the two weeks we first went to the Incubus concert, then I raced Trishark (above), the weekend after that we went climbing in Bloomington and finally visited Chicago. Here are the pictures from Upper Limits climbing gym. |
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Before heading back to Canada (for the first time since Christmas vacation), Parag and I made a quick (half-day) stop in Chicago to see the sights. We made it to the Sears Tower, John Hancock Observatory and the Museum of Science and Industry (super cool). Ofcourse we couldn't leave without sampling some of our favorite foods ... Giordana's Chicago-style pizza and The Cheesecake Factory ... oh so good!!! |
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We then returned to Waterloo for a week. Actually, we stopped at Point Pelee national park first - Canada's Southern-most tip. Then there was Parag's UW graduation. Finally I got to hang out with Cam, Sath and Kristen. |
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On July 13th, it was race day once again. This time it was off to Muncie, IN for the Muncie Endurathon. Also, I got to go up with Park and Gabe (and Sarah) so it turned into sort of a road trip with a big race in the middle. Check out the story.
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Between August 12th and 16th, I was left homeless in Central Illinois. This was the perfect opportunity to make a training pilgrimage. I went down to the Shawnee National Forest for some cycling (Le Tour de Shawnee). Read the Tour Summary.
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Just a couple weeks after school started, Andrew came down for a visit. It had been since April 2001 since I'd seen him (in that time he'd been to Alaska and Guatemala for travel)..
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The triathlon season has finally come to an end. The Ironman is over and went well. The bike was hilly but I expected that. The heat was much more than expected though. The temperature rose well above 30C with humidity. And to make things even tougher, the run was hilly too (not expected). Hey, as a triathlete these are the kind of challenges that are part of racing. Here are the pictures.
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To celebrate the end of the season, "The 3" got together for a little pig-out session. It was beef burritos, followed with caramelized fruit, and the all topped off with brownies, ice cream, and cupcakes. BTW, the term "The 3" was coined by Park and refers to "Team 2 Softies and Fuji", or just Park, Gabe and me. As you can see, that was a lot of food, even for us ...
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So the season was over a month ago. But the tri club decided to run a trail race as our first team outing for the 2002-03 season. Ok fine, I'm in, but I'm not running to prepare for it. The day ended up being perfect for running, sunny and cool. Most the club members were there, including Patrick who had just raced Ironman Hawaii a week ago! For the 5.5mi race I ran 39:00 off not a step of running in 4 weeks. My legs didn't even feel it, it was my lungs that let me down. I guess you lose aerobic capacity pretty quickly.
All the pictures were taken post-race while eating and after the guys got their awards.
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To go along with my already crazy year, I decided to make it back for Homecoming at Waterloo ... again! It was a much needed vacation. I had been feeling overly stressed lately and was dying to get out. This would probably be my last homecoming for quite a while so it would be nice to see everyone one last time. The weekend ended in Toronto with getting to hang out with Louise and Margaret too ... that was a surprise. Go see the pictures.
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I usually don't like travelling too much, it's a really big pain. This year though, I've been to way too many places (many of them new to me) and haven't been around Champaign enough to get my work done. My last trip of the year (before going back home for Christmas ofcourse) was to Thousand Oaks to visit Bobby, Al, Gautam, and Marie ... check it out!
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Yet another year in the saga of my life has come to a close. Last year was about travelling and seeing new places, this year was about achieving for myself. The two things that stand out are racing my first Ironman and finishing my Master's degree. The year ended with a very relaxing vacation back in Fredericton, pictures from Christmas day and other gatherings can be seen here.
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