Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Next Chapter

I'm procrastinating again...

I'm staring at the 09/10 booking totals for nordic - I have to make sense of these figures, translate it in plain english and then put it all in an 'colourful' Power Point presentation for the sales meeting next week...sigh. I'd rather be running.

I thought that another coffee might help but it turns out I'm simply delaying the process even more - I've had too many cups so far...

Although the business side of my work is a bit obscur at times, I am genuinely interested in the nordic sales figures especially since they've been steadily improving every year - whereas if I were to be staring at alpine numbers...well...(Phil yawns...). Yep, I think you get the picture. It's actually cool to get the complete 'state of the sport' picture as it helps me to develop better marketing strategies too. Today is just one of those days where I'd rather be doing something else...

Thoughts on TR...

TransRockies Stage 1 - Panorama Mountain Village

This was my 4th and final year with TR Bike; for 3 of those years I was the Operations Manager, responsible for the main logistics of the event, essentially getting all the riders from the start to the finish. Year after year the event's success depended on the teamwork behind the scenes, and I think that this year's team managed to showcase one of the best ones yet. Although the entire team is to thank, I throw out a big high-five to the right hand man who helped me manage a flawless show - Thanks Houda.

Like me, Kevin has a bazillion things on the go (one of which is Operations for TR Run) and inevitably gets very tired by mid-August. This fact combined with his tendency to talk a lot (which comes in very handy when negotiating on the price of event equipment such as fencing for example), Kev becomes almost impossible to understand - it's sort of like a grumbling mumble. Throw in a bit of radio static and you've got yourself one interesting conversation to follow. It was always entertaining to watch a conversation between him and our Europeans partners...It's like he was speaking Mongolian to them...Either way, Kudos to Kevin for his hard work ethics and for letting me NOT return the favour in TR Run (only because it's such an easier event to organize! ;-) I'm going to miss the TR gongshow...

Taking one for the 'team' - Houda in action at the post TRR party...

As for TR Run, it was simply awesome. Gavin was super strong and turned out to be a great partner - almost too quiet at times (I had to tell him to "talk to me" so we wouldn't go backwards!). In the end, we ran well, leaving some in the tank for next year - if the opportunity arises again - Regardless, I'm looking forward to running with him again, even if it's rip up and down our local mountains.

Life's been a bit chaotic since my return...It's not a bad thing - I'm starting to realize that a certain level of chaos is...almost necessary for me. It's nice to put your feet up once in a while, but only for a little while.

Time to close the book on some things...and turn the page on others...

I'm looking forward to the fall.

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