Thursday 31 October 2013

Birthday present to myself


Look at what came in the mail this week. They've started salting the paths most days now and the grass is all icy too. They also put gravel on the 'sidewalk' and I didn't realise why until I saw someone eat dirt walking off the track. That will teach them.
Anyway I put my new coat and boots on for the photo and got so hot in the 5 minutes I had them on. But don't you love these laces? The coolest snow boots out there!
Perfect for moose hunting I think.

Monday 28 October 2013

Good day at the office

With the first dual meet done and dusted, Alaska Nanooks showed the Californians who's boss.
Points are scored for the place getters in each event, something like 9 for 1st 6 for 2nd etc.  I have to explain this so it makes sense when I say we won 143-62. Nanooks took out 9/11 events including a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 fly. My first race as a collegiate swimmer leaves plenty of room for improvement. To put a positive spin on it I went out a bit 'ambitiously' in the first 100 of the 200 free. But this is something I worked on the next day, it was still under 2 minutes though, which sounds really cool to me.
I swam the 100 and 200 free on the Friday night. There were some great swims from the team. A few best times, which is great to see so early in the season and one trooper that swam the mile, 400 IM and 500 all on one day. 
Since we brought the team all the way up here, we race them over two days and it count as two separate meets. Some of the races are the same over the 2 days ie 50 and 100 free, but day 1 has the 200 back and day 2 has the 100, day 1=100 brs day 2=200 brs etc.
The second day was another sweep for the Nanooks winning 9/11 events and this time 1-2-3 in the 200 IM.
you can read all the recaps almost as soon as the meet finishes from the Alaska Nanooks website. Here is the recap for Day 2: www.alaskananooks.com/news/swimming

Dual meets are different to any meet I've ever been to. For starters, there only about 30 swimmers and one heat of everything. If you look at the results sheet you wonder how it took almost 3 hours to swim about 45 minutes worth of races. After every event there is a five minute warm up/ warm down break so people can prepare for their races.
There is a LOT more cheering. Swimmers get right up close to the end of the pool and cheer for their teammates. If you remember I told you about the water level, how the water comes up to the top of the wall, this means if youre swimming brs or fly they can get so close they could reach out and pat you on the head for encouragement.
Also lap counters. Even for the 500! You get someone on you team to stick this board into the water and it counts up, not down. for the mile they count all the way up to 63 on the board and then flick it to a red square which means 1 length to go.
The Team spirit is awesome. We do cheers and  wear the team uniform. even after the meet we went to watch the volleyball match, still in our togs.


Stay tuned for another action packed weekend next time as we take on LMU.


Saturday 26 October 2013

Getting Psyched

The team is getting ready for the first dual meet that starts tonight. Its against Biola University from California and will last two days. Go Nooks!

Alaska Nanooks Write Up



Daily News Miner- Local Newspaper Write Up

Thursday 24 October 2013

KTVF 11 Sports Beat




Turned up to training yesterday afternoon and there was a news crew there. You know you've made it when the local news wants to do a story on you. They interviewed coach, Bente, our senior swimmer, Victoria, the winner of the blue gold meet, and the girl from New Zealand. Does this make us local celebrities?

Link to the Transcription: www.webcenter11.com

Link to the Video: Sports Beat Channel 11




Tuesday 22 October 2013

Road Trip

This weekend we had the weekend off. One of the girls on the team was travelling down to Palmer for her little brother's swim meet and offered to drive me and my roommate down to see her family. It's about a 6 hour drive each way from Fairbanks to our final destination- Anchorage. Anchorage is the biggest city of Alaska, population 300,000.
So we left after training on Friday night and got in around 11. On the way down there were some beautiful mountains dusted with snow past Denali national park.




In the morning we took a walk down some trails and saw some moose. There were two in the yard across the road from the house and two on the trails. My moose count in now up to 4, not including the dead one strewn across the highway late in Friday night. I would say they are over 6ft tall, quite slim in the frame and quite docile. They say you shouldn't approach them however, and if they charge you should hide behind a tree. Not the smartest animals....



Typical Alaskan dinner, Sockeye Salmon, prepared by someone who really a knows they are doing makes all the difference. I also gt to see a very unique neighborhood. A horseshoe shaped road with an airstrip in the middle. That's because everyone in this street has their own plane.



Just a heads up, The Blog has passed 4000 views, so either mum has nothing better to do, or there a actually people out there that want to see more of Alaska. If its the later, heres two bonus pictures for you all!






Monday 14 October 2013

Columbus Day

♪ Chris Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in 1492 ♫. He spotted the Bahamas on the 12th of October after his five week voyage from Spain. This date has been observed in Latin american countries officially since the 20th century as Discovery Day. In the USA is it every second Monday in October. So it turns out it's not a big deal here at all. Hawaii, South Dakota and Alaska are the three states that don't observe the holiday. Theres a bit of controversy over Columbus so there are no special things happening today where I am.

Blue is Best

Good job to the blue team that took out the meet. If you watched the live stream we were in the pink caps thanks to the birthday girl on our team who's favorite colour is pink. These tie dye shirts were a little team project and they turned out pretty well!



It went by pretty quickly so the races got tougher as everyone got more tired. Although this didn't stop a lot of the girls swimming PBs in some of their events.

Blue team took out the 200 medley relay, the 100 brs (Birthday girl Eileen) and the 100 free (that girl with the awesome New Zealand accent) and had some strong 2-5th place getters also. Huge congrats to my roommate Victoria who was the star of the meet winning 3/5 and second in another event.

Here is a link to the recap article: Blue Gold Recap
And the results: Blue Gold Results. times are in yards so they look pretty impressive!

Good way to kick of the season, but I cant wait to swim some other events in a fortnight in the first dual meet against a team from Califorina.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Blue Gold Meet

This is an intra squad meet where the team is divided into two, Blue and Gold. Everyone will swim 100 Fly, Back, Brs, Free and IM and its a good test to see how the season is going so far. I am on the blue team but you can look out for the cap with POUND on it.
Racing starts at noon tomorrow so 9am Sunday NZST. You can watch from this link:

Blue Gold Live Stream

Friday 11 October 2013

Hunting season

Smart casual out for dinner.


Had to walk over to the sustainable village through a bit of mud, but it was so worth it. Moose meat pasta! Now I know it doesn't look great but it was so tasty. It has more flavour than beef but since its not available in New Zealand, I haven't changed my allegiance from Beef ad Lamb. Thanks McKinley for dinner






Thursday 10 October 2013

Hydro Seeding

Theres a lot of construction going on around campus that they have to get finished before the cold hits. Bulldozers have been doing some landscaping and now they are re-seeding the grass. I found this pretty interesting after working over the summer planting clover on the farm. This is a bit different to the way we do it back home, there a truck with a tank and a hose. I didnt get a picture of the truck (I was trying not to be too creepy), but It turns out like this.






Tuesday 8 October 2013

PFD

October 3rd was pay day. PFD stands for Permanent Fund Dividend. Alaskan residents, as part of the Alaskan constitution, receive a pay out for the oil. Since about 1982 all residents of the state have received between $2069 and $331 (as long as they don't commit a crime and stay out of jail). The average is about $1000 and this year it was $900. So this week the shops are a bit empty as you can imagine. Think of a family of 5 just got $4500.

Heres a link if you want some more info: pfd.alaska.gov

Monday 7 October 2013

Swimming 'fun' raiser

An unofficial kick of to the season was a meet against alumni and masters. There were fun relays as well as proper races. The races included 50s and 100 im which everyone got excited about because they stop swimming stroke 50s when they are 12.
Safe of say we won, dispite a few close finishes and my inability to work the touch pads 2/3 times.
You may notice a familiar lock knee stance in the this photo, thanks for pointing it out jono :)


Tuesday 1 October 2013

Starvation Gulch


Starvation Gulch History Video on Youtube. Its been an annual tradition since 1923. basically they build four fires out of wooden pallets, and its a competition between a couple of the dorms to see who can build the best.




There was music and a DJ. Its one 3 big events of the year, so there were lots of people.