sarah-anne

hey there...

2010-08-22T22:37:00.004-04:00

Long time no post

I raced today, national championships...kinda of a big deal i guess. Ended up 6th. solid race. Got to stand on the podium with Paula and Kirsten. Sweet deal. Sweet race. sweet people.

Great posting again. See you in 6 months.

Gandalf

tonight, i was gandalf at dinner.

The Tempo Loop

2009-10-11T12:36:00.006-04:00

There's this place in Morgantown called the "Tempo Loop". All the college runners know exactly where it is. Somewhere in Suncrest, a nice jumble of random streets make up a loop about a mile a a half long. How it came to be exactly the way it is today, no one really knows (alright, Sean probably had a bit part to play in it). The veterans talk of a time when the tempo loop was quite a bit longer, spilling into Universtiy Av, which could be dangerous when workouts where held at the high time of Morgantown rush hour traffic. As the name sugests, it is mostly used for tempos, although it can also accomodate fartlkets or road intervals. Needless to say, it is use a lot. There comes a time in every West Virginia girl's running carreer where she might realize she knows pretty much every crack in the road, every corner angle (urban designers around here dispise clear cut 90 degree intersections) and every incline, down or up, she might encounter.

Sometimes we go fast on it, sometimes its more of a controlled workout. Saturday it was controlled. But it also happened to go fast.

Best Average Ever. 5:39 per mile. big thanks to Jess O and her crazy arms for bringing that last mile down.

Looks like a good season ahead...

Highlights

2009-10-09T10:21:00.005-04:00

I realize why people blog more during race season: not much happens at other times of the year. Everyone trains, but thats not hardly interesting enough for the rest of the world to read. However, I will ignore that fact and post an update on my life anyways.

#1. Charlie is still alive. In case anyone was worried, it's been proven that I can take care of 1 goldfish for a few weeks without him dying on me. We're planning on investing in fish food soon. Big commitment.

#2. Everyone is running great. We do track workouts during cross season sometimes, so it's easy to see how everyone is progressing. We had one Tuesday, and the fast group was fast. We're putting it all on the line next Friday, at the Penn state meet. That's when we'll know how good we are. Also, Tad took some sweet pictures of the last race which can be found here.

#3. The crazy midterm stuff at school is almost over. This is now the period of in-between-ness when I can relax a bit. And update my blog. And call home.

#4. Gatherings at the house tend to turn into dress-up dance parties. It seems to be quite inevitable. But yesterday this came through as well, thanks to freshie Sarah M.

wicked. Why not use the talents you have eh....

Awesome

2009-10-04T10:35:00.005-04:00

I made it on Flotrack. My life is now complete.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

He doesn't believe me, but it's true we haven't talked about nationals much. It's true. Also, there's a video of the race. Funny part at 1:20.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

The whole experience was really cool. It's quite somethin;, the entire day, they had races going with over 300 runners in each, and it seamed to never stop. Who knew so many people even ran in the states. I thought people were supposed to play video games and eat junk food. For West Virginia, the whole team ran great, and we ended up winning the race. Congrats to Guelf to who came second, there were some good teams out there. From what I know anyways. (I don't know much).

Well, I have to go do my life in homework now.

Until later,

Take #423

2009-09-30T10:51:00.008-04:00

I lost count of how many times I've tried to do this already. But didn't someone say "It doesn't matter how many times you fall, it's how many times you get up". Or something like that anyways.

I feel like a runner now. I guess thats what happens when you run a lot. So we'll see if feeling like a runner makes me run like one too.

We're leaving for Paul Short on Friday, and last time I checked with the coach I was racing. Shoul be fun :-) Most of the team is racing, either the college race or the JV open version.

On another note, we have a new roomate at the house. Everyone welcomed Charlie home this Saturday. We all hope he doesn't die.

A Race and some more stuff

2009-06-22T11:05:00.002-04:00

First off i want to say that i tried really hard to write a post last week but I was unsuccesful in my attempt. Josh decided it wouldnt't be. But we are now in between training sessions in Rigaud and I have no excuse not to update a few people on my status. The Auberge where we are staying is great, kind of in the country, with a sweet breakfast every day! The roads around the place are a bit bumpy but we'll see if we can find some nice hills to ride later today. And the High school pool we're swimming at has crazy currents...makes for interesting intervals.

Well, i cant ignore it too much, I have to say that i raced last week-end in Coteau-du-Lac. The organising comitee did a great job, everything went smootly as planned (for the race anyways, not for me). I'm not sure what to say about the race. The swim was fine. Good i would say. Then the first half of the bike was fine. Then i got dropped and nothing was fine anymore. People don't get dropped on flat courses. It just doesn't happened. Very depressing. Thats pretty much all I have to say about the race.

On another note, this week reminded me of other important things in life. Like friends and family. One thing is for sure, I had the best cheering sqad at the race site! Simon and Michael came with Anne et Sylvain, Sylvain's sister brought the entire family (Jeremy et Justine) et les 2 couples de grand-parents sont egalement venus pour l'apres-midi! On dirait que tout ce beau monde s'est bien amuser et les encouragements on beaucoup aide! Apres la course on s'est tous diriges vers un restaurant grec ou je me suis tres rapidement rappeler comment c'est um...diferent....la vie avec des jeunes qui n'arrete pas de bouger. Et Sophie et Francois nous on rejoints avec la petite Marie-Odile (qui est un peu moins petite et qui mange beacoup), ce qui etait un bien belle surprise. Et pour ce qui est des amis, on a eu petit party chez Julie le soir avant que je parte et pour l'avoir organiser la journee meme, on a eu un montant impressionant de gens qui sont venus! Notre jeu de poche a demontre que c'est toujours bien de sortir quand on est au top, et que les bacceux resteront toujours de bacceux (ok guys, on essaye de faire 520 avec les poches qu'on rentre. On a le droit aux multiplication, division, soustraction et addition. et pas de calculatrice...). En fin de compte, une bien belle soire ou la seule partie plate a ete le temps de dire aurevoir a Kateri que je ne vais pas revoir avant Noel parce que la chanceuse s'en va trois semaine en France...

C'est tout pour l'instant,
a bientot

Sarah

2009-06-09T16:00:00.006-04:00

So I have a lot more respect for the people who blog regularly now. I don't know how they do it, most likely its superhuman skills that allow them to think of something interesting to write about their lives and then actually get around to writting about it. And I, as a mere mortal, am having a lot of trouble keeping up with the times. But following the exemple of Stevie and Riley, who have been dutifuly updating the new MNTC blog, I am back on the wagon. For now.

Unfortunatly, (isn't unfortunalty such a wonderful word? so classy when you really have to excuse) too much stuff has happened this year for me to update you readers on truly everything. So I'll just pretend nothing happened and that all I have to update you on is this past week. Maybe one day I'll write a novel explaining my whole freshman year. But right now I'm back home in wonderful winnipeg and back to being a full time triathlete (which I quite enjoy, can't lie about that). And since there is no better way to remind myself of the infinite joys of triathlon then to go right ahead and race one, thats what I did. And, lucky me, the whole country decided to come have fun with me in freezing Birds Hill park. But I can't say it wasn't a good time, and everyone went home with all their toes (I think).

And then this week it was time to get back to work with some intense cycling. As Josh pointed out, I was basicly trying to fit 17 days of Tucson training camp into 2 days in Winnipeg (Gary and Daryl's masterplan here). It turned out all right, with two tire changes and one sore butt. Some swimming and running to go along with that and we were set for a solid week. And also a trip to the hospital and a bunch of Advils...triathlon is risky business sometimes :-) But I forgot my worries for a bit and watched the NCAA on the computer/TV where Clara Grant (she's on my team!) ran an awesome race to get 4th in the 10km! Also my man German, in a pre-like fashion, imposed total domination in the 1500.

thats it for now
Sarah

News and Pictures

2008-09-09T12:37:00.006-04:00

I found some pictures to put up because apparently a blog without pictures is just not worth it. So this week-end there was the home meet for West Virginia, where the WVU cross-country team competed...against no one. Yes, it was more of a workout race relay style, which I didn't do but I did go out to cheer. The event was held on the school farm, which I tought was pretty cool (I like farms). Coudn't really tell who went fast or not, since it was relay style, but the paper mentionned the next day that 3 runners broke the course record. If you want good pictures, here is a link to some professional site where I can't copy pictures.

http://tadadavis.zenfolio.com/p346173324/

Its mostly the girs racing. But fortunely facebook can also be a source of unprotected photographs, like this one of the entire team, including freshmens and a couple girs I don't really even know.

---

La saion est donc belle et bien commencée, avec la troisième course de suite pour certaines des filles de l'équipe en fin de semaine. On part pour Princeton, NJ, vendredi après-midi pour une course le samedi matin (course a laquelle je vais encore une fois pas participer). J'ai quand même hâte au voyage, et on va essayer de courir notre longue du dimanche matin sur le parcour qui sera utilisé lors du championnat Big East plus tard cet automne. Pis ca fait longtemps que je n'ai pas fait un voyage en autobus...A part de ça j'ai mon premier test universtaitre demain (pour lequel je devra d'ailleurs étudier maintenant) en biologie et les devoirs commencent a être constants.

Le 6ième étage de la bibliothèque du downtown campus est pas mal beau. Vraiment silencieux mais pleins de fenêtres avec une belle vue sur la ville. Je crois que ca va être mon repaire pour les jours d'école...et les fauteuils sont assez comfortables pour dormir. C'est ça qui compte vraiment.

Autres nouvelles: on est tous désolés d'apprendre que West Virginia a perdu samedi lors d'une défaite écrasante par la Caroline du Sud (je crois). Tout le campus est en deuil. Le problème semble être à la défense à ce qu'il parait. (Je parle de football, évidement)

"Tremendous Turnaround"

2008-09-04T17:29:00.003-04:00

Un lien vers un article au sujet de l'équipe de cross-country de West Virginia. Assez bien écrit, il décrit un peu la saison à venir pour l'équipe.

Cliquer ici pour l'article / click here for WVU article

Randomly happened to come accross a nicely written piece about the program I joined by coming to West Virginia. I think its going to be a good season for WVU cross-country.

some crazyness and some runnin'

2008-09-02T21:12:00.005-04:00

So its been a while already but time seems to be going faster every day. The long weekend flew by but I did do a couple things worth mentionning in the blog. First of all, since this season is all about running cross-country, I'd like to underline the fact that I did my first workout with the team this saturday. We only do hard runs with a coach twice a week, so its a pretty big deal whenever we do them. Well, I thought it was. I didn't push it too much for this first one. We did 90-60-30-15. fours sets. So: 90 seconds fast, 90 seconds slower but not jog, and after 4 we go right into the set of 60s. Apparenlty we'll be getting a lot of practice with this one as the season goes on.
That was the workout in the morning. Then it was football time. I had been warned about this football madness before coming to WVU, but I was not prepared. While we were working out, there were people tailgaiting - drinking beer, eating and playing games in the field by their park cars. crazyness. at 8:30 in the morning. The game itself was nice to watch, although everyone stands, which makes it hard to stay for the entire game time, but makes for a cool atmosphere. The student section is pretty crazy (and smoky and stinky) so we snuck into the senior student section, where people seem a tad more tamed. I didn`t really understand what was going on all the time, but it wasn't really a problem; when the crowd cheers, were happy. And I have to say the band stole the show, with pretty swifty shape shifting (along with a good ol bit of american patriotism and the biggest americain flag ever seen). We stayed extra long to see those troupers. We eventually had to leave and we drove to the next county's high school as some of the girls on the team were racing the first race of the season. We tried to watch but it was the foggiest evening I've ever seen. And it was dark by the time everyone ran. Therefore, there wasn't much to be seen. The girls still ran great and it was an enjoyable evening with a pretty drive. I'll tell more stories later, right now its time for some rest and recovery.
bonne nuit :-)

Des nouvelles mais pas de photos

2008-08-26T14:27:00.003-04:00

Il fait encore beau et chaud ici a Morgantown, et je commence a m'habituer a tous mes cours, Bientôt je pourrais même m'installer dans une routine. J'ai réussit à changer mon cours de biologie (c'était pas trop difficile, il y avait 1 trou pour moi) alors mon horaire est très supportable, avec 4 cours les lundis et mercredis, surtout le matin, 3 cours le vendredi et 1 cours les mardis et jeudis. J'ai donc eu une journée plutot relaxe aujourdhui, un labo de biologie où il fallait faire semblant de ne pas reconnaitre le pH de solution comme HCL et NaOH. J'ai deux cours avec un nombre ridicules d'étudiants dans la classe (bio et psyco 101), mais ça ne me dérange pas trop. Au moins je ne pourrai pas avoir de "devrais participer plus en classe" comme résultats à la fin du semestre.

À part l'école, la vie en résidence va bien. On vient d'acheter un chaise de WV pour membler nos quelques mètres carrées d'espace habitable et de réaménager la chambre. Je montrerais des photos, mais je n'est présentement pas de caméra. ¸Une autre fois peut-être. Et pour ce qui est de la nourriture à la caf, j'ai pas trop à m'inquiéter. Les déjeuners sont vraiment biens, avec des fruits frais chaque matin (des bons fruits!) pis cette semaine il y a un bonhomme qui fait des omelettes personnelles où on peu mettre ce qu'on veut! Et les moules à gauffres on même une empreinte du logo de WV. Les reste des repas varient. Il y a toujours des salades, pizzas, pâtes et sandwichs en plus d'un assortiment de viande et légumes. C'est juste dommage de voir le monde avec leur hamburgers et chiken wings à chaque repas...

Vu que le campus est un peu éparpiller a travers la ville, les étudiants utilisent surtout le PRT, qui est pas mal amusant à utiliser. Il a même sa propre page de wikipedia avec des photos...

C'est bizarre d'avoir maintenant besoin de rencontrer du monde et travailler un peu mes social skills...mais ça s'en vient. Je ne pense pas avoir fait trop peur a personne encore. Même si les premiers jours de classes avec mes numéros tatooer sur les bras on peut-etre occasionner quelques questions. Et les américains aiment les canadiens et leur accent de tout façon...

first things first

2008-08-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

So, since it seems to be the norm these days amongst most triathletes, and also random people, I, Sarah-Anne Brault have decided it might be a good idea to start some sort of blogging thing. I don’t know what will happen with it, specially knowing my limited computer abilities (although I am presently taking a course, hopefully improving those), but I hope I’ll have some good stories to tell of my life in West Virginia, and also keep people informed so that I don’t have to repeat everything that happens to me, and also maybe help not forget where I am and who I am also. I’m hoping my life will be interesting enough to make this blog worth reading, or else you can always go read Simon’s blog…who by the way we are very proud of here! (well I am anyways, don’t know about those Americans…). Some people might notice parts of this blog harder to read…I intend it to be bilingual. Just to be fair. But I won’t be translating everything, because I’ll be too busy with my first year of university studies and intense training...

Alors voici en grande première mondiale, le premier blog officiel de Sarah. Sarah-Anne Brault. Brault. J’ai décider que j’ai trop de choses a raconter, et ça fait long a répéter, surtout quand la communication est pas super (surtout par ma faute, faut l’avouer). Alors, grace entre autre a la nouvelle technologi du 21ième siècle, je vais au moins essayer de garder un journal de mes aventures à partager avec le public.
Je suis donc arrivée à Morgantown lundi soir, pleine d’espoir et d’idéaux pour cette nouvelle vie que je viens d’entreprendre…et un peu fatiguée après une courte nuit de sommeil et bien des heures de voyage. Je suis présentmnt en train de m’installer et à chaque jour ça va un peu mieux. Je ne m’entraîne pas vraiment cette semaine, alors c’est bien plaisant d’avoir ces heures d’extra dans la journée pour faire des choses que je dois faire de tout façon, comme organiser ma chambre, trouver tous mes cours et rencontrer des gens. Tout le monde est bienvenue de laisser un commentaire ou m’écrire pour me raconter leur vie.

a bientôt
sarah