CANADA

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post anything the past few days I was enjoying being at home with my friends and family.

Did you know you really get to know someone when you spend over 32 hours in a car with them? Try it you will be surprised. You can either really end up hating them or end up wanting to spend another 32 hours in a car with them.

Being so far away from home being a D1 athlete I really forget the simple things of home, such as a Tim Hortons coffee or how Alberta you see nothing but sky. If you have lived in Utah all of your life go somewhere without the mountains so you can experience what it is like to have a full sky, not a half sky. You realize how important your friends really are; you learn who your true friends are. Being away for so long not many people will stick around, but they ones who do are your true friends.

Edmonton is home for me. It is truly beautiful and peaceful. As soon as I crossed the border into Canada I felt as ease. It's so simple, nothing else matters. Going home is just that little piece of heaven you get to enjoy once in a while.

Life slows down when you're at home. No practices, no classes, no worries. Simple and easy.

-Kersten xo.

Family: distance is just a number

Sometimes you just need a little getaway from reality, a little vacation. Tomorrow I am off to Canada to pick up my little brother and bring him back to Salt Lake City for a week. The three Merry siblings will be together for a little bit. It's tough being away from family. 

My youngest brother is 14 and lives in Ontario, Canada with my parents. My Dad is in the military and was posted over to Ontario from Alberta, where I spent most of my life. My middle brother Mitchell is 18; he plays hockey. He moved to Manitoba to play hockey this past year and then moved back to Alberta to graduate with his friends. It's crazy how we aren't able to all be together for holidays and big occasions. Last Christmas I spent it at work, Mitchell spent it with the family he lives with during hockey season and Andrew spent it with my parents. 

Although we all cant be together through the important things we make it work. We talk all the time, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Imessage. We are a really close family, but sometimes it is hard not being able to walk downstairs and have a conversation. It is also hard not being able to share not the hard times but the success! Sharing all the good things with the people you love is the best feeling in the world. I love the emails and messages but getting that hug after accomplishing something is amazing.

I love my family even if we are all over the map. That again is life as a D1 athlete. 

-Kersten xo. 

Practice makes perfect

Practice, a concept that we all hear and know. Practice consumes my life during in season training and right now I feel it is consuming my life during summer. I have high expectations for myself this year and I know I have to be practicing a lot right now to have the best season, but I am struggling. I want to do everything, and I want to just take a step back and breathe. Practice has been tough. It is tough when your teammates aren't around. It is tough when it's beautiful outside and you want to go adventure. It is tough when you're little brother is in town and you have to ditch him to go to practice. But it is also tough regretting the times you didn't go to practice to get better. Back to what I've said a million times. FIND THAT BALANCE. 
-Kersten xo.

The only limitations you have are the ones you put on yourself.

I was up bright and early at 5 a.m. eager and really nervous to see if I could actually run 10km (6.25 miles). The most I have ever ran in my life is 5km (3.2 miles). This was going to be an adventure.

My goal was well to complete the race, but also make it in under an hour. I had people laugh at me and say that it was impossible for me to run it under an hour.  That was encouraging...

I lined up a few minutes to 6 a.m. (start time) set my phone and had my music ready to go. When they said go I ran and ran and ran. I didn't stop once that entire time. The first 3 miles felt like a cake walk. I was going a really good pace (averaging 8minute miles). When I hit mile 4 I started hurting. I kept pushing myself though. I kept telling myself the only limitations I have are the ones I put on myself. I can do this. When I turned the corner on 200east there were people lined up all along the sides of the road cheering. It's Pioneer Day so everyone was waiting for the parade. There were little kids with their hands out, I high fived everyone who had their hands out. I wasn't doing it for record time I was doing it for fun, and that was my motivation and some fun for me.

I turned onto 900south and there it was the finish line. I slowed down a lot the last mile, but I had to finish. I kept smiling knowing I was almost there. I couldn't believe I did it.

I crossed that finish line 7th in my age group (19-24) and at a time of: 51 minutes and 52 seconds.

I did something today that people said I couldn't do. I did something for myself, a new goal a new accomplishment.

I was extremely lucky to have my coach, Richard, at my side through this. He inspires me to always do better. He always supports all of my goals and dreams in and out of the pool. He ran the half marathon and did amazing. I can't wait until I'll be running a half marathon.

 My little brother Andrew was waiting for me at the finish line. He was cheering me on as I came in. He helped volunteer for the event and I am so proud of him for that. I am so unbelievably lucky to have him as my little brother.

Travis was my number one fan today! He may have missed me cross the finish line (due to the fact I wasn't suppose to run that fast ;) but he was so proud of me. I am lucky to have him in my life and to support me in everything I choose to do.

-Kersten xo.

Have goals, dreams and expectations

Tomorrow I will be running my first 10km race. It is still weird to say. If anyone knows me they know how much I HATE running; I struggle to run a mile. I decided to set a goal, cross it off my bucket list and do this thing!

Last year I ran a 5km race and it went fairly well. I ran it in a good time without too much training. I was lucky to have the support of my teammates, coach and friend (he ran the race with me). This time my little brother Andrew will be volunteering at the finish line and I have a few close friends who will be watching me cross off a goal I have always wanted to accomplish.

My best friend/teammate Jasmine, coach Richard and me after my 5km last year

My goal for this is to beat my coach who is running in the half marathon. We start at the same time, and his pace will be a lot faster but he will be starting a good 10miles behind me, hopefully that is enough time to get myself moving. My goal is to finish the race between 50minutes and 1 hour and 10 minutes. That means I am looking at a 9minute mile pace. I haven't done much training for this race but when I was I had been doing 9minute and 22 second miles. So tomorrow will be a true test of what I can do.

Wish me luck and I will let you know how it went, after I can feel my legs again.

-Kersten xo.

Dear motivation where are you?

I had morning practice at the outdoor pool, so that meant 10meter. I woke up in a good mood and decided to give it everything I had today. No excuses. No complaints. Give it 110 percent.

Who would have thought that's all I needed to have a good practice? Today I did three dives up on 10meter: 5253B (back two and a half somersaults with one a half twists in the pike position), 405B (inward two and a half somersaults in the pike position) and 107B (front three and a half somersaults in the pike position). They weren't that bad either. I also worked on my reverse build ups and arm stand build ups. I left feeling accomplished and ready to take on my day.

I haven't said too much about my math class I am taking this summer as there isn't much to tell. It has been one of those classes where I'm questioning how it is even a class. Don't get me wrong I am loving the fact I just have to show up to class to get 100, but I haven't learned a single thing... A little frustrating, but hey at least I am going to pass.

Heading into work this afternoon I started thinking a lot about who I am, where I want to be and everything in between. Lately when I say I want to do something I find every excuse to avoid it, training included. I don't really know what is holding me back, but it is killing my motivation. I have an extensive to-do list and I feel like I am adding things on the list instead of crossing them out. I just need to buckle down and get to it. I think after moving back in with my amazing roommate Bridget and her friend Lauren I will be in a better place. That's another thing I was suppose to move a bunch of things to the condo and that never got done. Where is my motivation at? Even at work I am struggling to work on some tasks that need to be done.

I think it is almost a matter of WHERE DO I START? I have such a long list with so many things on it I don't even want to think about most of them. They are tedious and frustrating. I have realized lately I have too much on my plate. I know I never thought I would ever say that, but it's true. I am overwhelmed with so much going on and I need to step back and realized what I need to do and what I just want to do and make some cuts.

If anyone has any thoughts on where to find that motivation let me know.

Happy Monday

-Kersten xo.

Big leaps of faith

During the conference I attended over a month ago now there was an amazing inspirational speaker, Ann Gaffigan. Ann was a pro track and field athlete, she ran the steeplechase. She has this amazing story of everything she had to overcome to be where she wanted to be in life. The thing that hit me the most was her talking about in high school she was her happiest and a few years later in her life the relationships she had and where she wanted to be where not what she needed. She felt like she was trapped in a box and couldn't escape. That's when she needed to make a change, take a leap of faith.

I am working on trying to surround myself with good people in my life. People who respect my values and make me a better person. I was in a situation where I was changing who I was to make someone else happy. It's been difficult trying to break out of it, trying to start over.

You want to know what the best part about being at the bottom is? You can only go up, and you climb anyway you want too.

I started packing on Friday to move out and move back into my old place, a place that I absolutely love with an amazing roommate, and it hit me. I am starting over. I am on my own again. It's exciting though in a lot of ways. A nice change, a place to surround myself with amazing friends. It is also sad, I helped to create a beautiful home, a place of happiness and a place I could just relax. It is all bittersweet. Leaving behind the cutest dog, a beautiful home and a lot of memories is a little difficult. But I know I have all of my amazing friends and family behind me, and that makes me smile and makes me realize I am quite lucky.

Tomorrow and the next little bit I will be taking a leap of faith. Wish me luck.

-Kersten xo.

Did you learn something?

In May I went back to Canada to compete at the Canadian Summer Senior National Championships. I had high hopes for this competition as my season had gone really well in my opinion. My coach and I flew to Quebec City in hopes of making finals on all events and placing in the top eight.
I BLEW IT. I had one of the worst competitions I could ever imagine. It was embarrassing and just horrible. I couldn't get anything right. I struggled with every dive and struggled with myself. My best event was the worst score I had all season. On 3meter I came last, which was extremely hard to handle.

Why? Why did that happen? What did I do so wrong? Those questions I kept asking myself. I couldn’t get over this hurt and wonder. When I went back to practice at the U I was almost scared to talk to my new head swim coach. He really understood and explained that it happens sometimes. He asked me this one question: did you learn something from the experience?

I didn’t have to think too hard about that question. I learned A LOT. I learned that I didn’t train the way I should have leading up to the meet and that future meets I really need to put 110 percent into my training, not 40 percent. I learned that eating the right way and not staying up until 4 a.m. every night doesn’t help. I learned that I need to work on competing on my own; sometimes I may not have my team behind me and I need to learn to control how I’m doing on the board not what everyone else is doing.

I can look back at that meet and still feel some annoyance, but I learned so much more from it than if I would have placed where I wanted to.

A bunch of my teammates are at sectionals. One of our new freshman Kylie texted me today saying she is not swimming the fastest she could. She was upset and mad that she wasn’t hitting any of her times. One of our coaches told her that it was okay and it happens. I kind of told her about my experience. I told her she’s a great swimmer and she knows how fast she can swim. There are some things that may have changed her training schedule and that she just wasn’t to the level she wanted going into the meet. I reminded her of all of that.

When things go extremely wrong, it was a bad day. You know the level you are at and you know how good you can be. Sometimes for a short time other things may be a bit more important, and you just have to find that balance. You have to decide what is more important. For my meet I decided hanging out with friends and not practicing was more important. For the future I know when it comes down to it my training, my sleep and the way I am eating will help me succeed.

-Kersten xo.

A little Kenny to make it alright

With my little brother around I want to just hang out with him and forget that I actually have things to do. I am really enjoying having him here, nice seeing family. With me being so busy I don’t know if he is really getting to enjoy hanging out with me. He is sitting in front of his Xbox quite a bit; when I get the chance I take him to do something exciting. 

After another practice where I’m feeling like I am going backwards instead of forward I had the chance to feel like a “normal” person. 

Practices have been rough this week. I haven’t been able to hit really any of my dives. I still can’t grasp the concept of my front three and a half. I keep drawing into my tuck instead of kicking my heels and getting the drive on the dive. I have tried numerous things to try and get it. Caleb has been great in helping me, but I still am struggling to get the dive. Have you ever had something that you are trying so hard to do, but you just can’t seem to figure it out? It seems almost hopeless. I need this dive for competition this year and the end result doesn’t even come up in my radar. 

On the “normal” side of things I got to go see one of my favorite country stars, Kenny Chesney. I went with one of my teammates and it was a blast. Sometimes you have to enjoy a little, treat yourself to a night away from everything. That is what I did. I sang so loud I nearly lost my voice and I got just be me without a worry.

Note to self and everyone reading this:

"Well I'm what I am and I'm what I'm not I'm sure happy with what I've got I live to love and laugh a lot And that’s all I need"

Don’t let your fears be bigger than your dreams

I have always believed that being fearless isn’t about not having fear, it’s about having the fear and overcoming it anyway. Fear doesn’t necessarily  have to be in a sport or going skydiving, fear can be talking to someone you get nervous around or fear of not paying bills, which we all know what that is like. 

Today I was standing on 10meter and a small fear hit me. For the first time in quite a while I was scared to do my dive. My favorite dive, my easiest dive, I was worried. I tried to calm myself down, but something in my head took over. I took a deep breath and told myself I have done this so many times, it’s easy just do it. I went for it and survived. Sometimes we have those little fears that come to us and trusting yourself is all you need to do. When you start to worry close your eyes, take a deep breath and say “Trust”. You know you can do it, your body knows you can do it; you just need to trust yourself. 

I decided to trust myself in signing up for a 10KM race on Pioneer Day (7 days from now). My coach is running the half marathon that day and has always been an inspiration to me in running. My coach is to beat his time in my 10K with his half marathon time. So that is approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes. I haven’t been training too much either for this, so I am a little worried. I have done a few 5km runs past little bit, but not too much. I know I have people who are backing me on this and they all believe in me; I just need to trust myself. This is one for my bucket list if I complete it. 

My advice for everyone today is: have goals and trust yourself! 

-Kersten xo.

Stuck in a rut

Same thing day after day after day. Sometimes I find it extremely hard to pick myself up in the morning. The same routine. The same classes. The same practice. The same work schedule. Yes routines mean that I am getting better. Routines mean that I am disciplined and know my priorities. But lately routines have got me down in the dumps. There is this one song I have been listening too, “Something More” by Sugarland. It’s just saying there has to be more than what is in front of me. 

I feel like I take advantage of all of the great opportunities I have. I have to remind myself sometimes where I am at in my life. I am only 22 years old; I am a division one diver for the University of Utah in the best conference in the nation; I am a Dean’s List student; I have a job that pays my bills; I have a place to live; I have a loving family and friends. I am truly blessed, but sometimes I just want to be that “normal college student.” 

I want to be able to stay I want to stay up all night and hang out with friends. I want to not worry about practice in the morning. I want to be able to on a whim take a trip to Las Vegas or Moab. In the past few days I have texted so many of friends saying “I’m sorry I have work.” Or “I’m sorry I have practice.” At what point is there free time? I tend to have it from the hours of 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. So do I give up sleep to enjoy life? 

I’m not trying to complain and I am not trying to say I don’t appreciate all the things I have, but I just want a break sometimes too. I know I have said in my previous posts I only have one year left and I am going to give it my all, but I also don’t want to look back at my college experience and say that I didn’t do anything either. 

Here’s to fighting that never ending struggle for balance. 

-Kersten xo.

Finding that balance

Being a D1 athlete there is that fine line of finding balance. There is not enough time in the day it feels, but we do, it's just how we manage our time.

My friends are extremely important to me and between practices, work and school I find it hard to fit them into a schedule. It's bad when you have to schedule your friends. I have changed plans a million times with a good friend of mine. She was our team captain last year and someone I have always been able to really bond with. It all worked out that I was able to meet up with her (Dani), Nicole (my freshman roommate) and Melissa (one of my closest friends) and have some froyo (frozen yogurt).


I had team building for my work that afternoon and had an amazing time! As much as work gets annoying, tough and frustrating I have such an amazing work family! I know they would do anything for me and I would do anything for them. An afternoon just hanging out, go karting and playing so arcade games was just what I needed.

The evening I got that chance to spend with some amazing ladies who are extremely inspirational. Over a two and a half hour talk we poured our hearts and I left feeling better than I ever have. To sit and talk about everything that has happened since the day I got to Utah inside the pool and outside of the pool and to realize how far we all have come is truly amazing. I have grown up a lot and seeing my teammates and friends grow into the amazing people they are is breathtaking. Nicole has found so much peace within herself. She is a cross fit guru and she has found that family outside of the team. Finding a group of friends besides the ones you spend every moment with is extremely important. It's all about that balance. 

Leaving the conversation we all agreed that having more nights like that is needed and even though we are all extremely busy and feel like there is no time... We need to make the time. We all walked away feeling new and happy. I honestly am so blessed to have amazing friends and teammates. 2013-2014 will be an amazing season and a great senior year.

-Kersten xo.

Why can't I get this?

This past week has been a busy one and I'm sorry I hadn't  had the chance to even just jot down what has been happening practice wise.

So I was a "normal" college student for a little bit this week working on some new stories for the school paper. As I have mentioned before I do sports writing and trying to get that resume building, college experience I decided this is a good way... Well it is extremely time consuming. Interviews here there, phone and in person. I'm starting to realize what it takes to be a journalist... Maybe not exactly my thing, but the experience is there and I'm doing my best to embrace it. I also get to see the other side. I am the one to ask the questions not the other way around, which is new and a little nerve racking. I don't want to write the wrong story, but I also want to make sure I am getting all the information out.

Diving has been going quite well. I am back up on 3meter still. EEEE! So last year around this time I had quite an incident. I smacked pretty hard on one of my dives....

Watch it here

After that I had a long struggle to do it again. I was scared and always nervous. By the end of my season I was able to claim it as my favorite dive. Yesterday I had to get up and do it after a few months of not doing it. I was quite nervous.... My first one was FLYING OVER, I didn't really come out. After that first one, it actually wasn't too bad. I started gaining that confidence and realized it was a fluke that one time and to trust myself.

It's not just that dive I have been getting frustrated about.... I am having a serious time with my 107c (front three and half somersaults). I can figure out the heel drive to get into the dive on a one and a half and sometimes a two and a half, but as soon as I get to 3meter I draw into my flip rather than throw. I am lucky to have a good teammate who sits and breaks it down with me. Being an athlete having video replay is one of the most valuable things to have. I'm a visual learner so seeing all of my issues in front of me can help me start to fix all of them.

I just hope I can get past this frustration and even being nervous on the dive so I can start putting it down.

-Kersten xo.

Look at how far you have come

This morning I had practice at cottonwood. I am still trying to kick this cold so a little worried on the sinuses... Turns out it was a great practice. I brought another dive up to 10meter today. Inward, my not so favorite direction. There was this younger boy up on 10meter too he has just learned a build up for the first time and then went straight up to 10meter to do the dive! WOW! That's all I kept thinking. How he just shrugged it off and did the dive. If he could just get up there and do it without even really prepping for it man there are a lot of dives I should be doing.

I took that attitude and really worked at my armstand. I have a lot of issues with it and always underestimate the fact that I can actually do it. So I reminded myself that I could do it and well it actually worked. Mind over matter. Your mind is more powerful than you think; with diving being a mental sport it makes sense.

There is this amazing young girl who trains out at cottonwood and she is I believe around fifteen years old. Today practice just got the best of her. I hate seeing other people upset, especially with diving. If I could give her or really anyone any advice it would be remember how far you have come not how far you still have to go.  I added the photo above on Instagram as a small reminder to myself on my own diving. Write down your goals, write down how practice went. Keep a journal of your thoughts and how you're feeling. Everyone needs an outlet and especially as an athlete venting helps, even if it is not to a person.

Afternoon practice was another really good one. I worked on my front three and a half somersaults again too. Better attitude this time and well attitude changes everything. It worked out. My 1meter was coming along great too. Worked on some reverse and backs!

Life outside of diving well that's another story. Here at work again. Have to pay the bills somehow eh? Social life feels non existent, but I know it's there.

My really good friend and co-worker came in all bubbly today and told me that she has fallen in love with this new TV Show "New Girl" and the main character Jess; how she lives her life so happily. Kailey and I decided to be a little more like Jess today.

-Kersten xo.

Happy Monday

It's funny I am a person to actually enjoy Mondays, Tuesdays aren't my favorite. This is only because weekdays are extremely busy for me and weekends I kind of catch up on sleep... Kind of being used loosely. Tuesdays are hard because you already had to be up early one day and your body is just not liking you!

I decided that writing on the weekends might not always work just because I'm not really diving. I will however try and let you know what it is like to try to have a "normal" college experience on the weekends. Mine is usually filled of work, work and more work.

Summer practices have some advantages. I was so exhausted and did not think I would be able to get into the pool not to mention dive off of 10meter so I talked to my coach and he said we could move morning practice until Tuesday! Lucky right?

So season must be around the corner as our new head coach sent out an email for the upcoming year. It is looking quite amazing. Training trip to Hawaii, competing against some amazing PAC 12 schools. Only thing that really made my stomach turn was the condition aspect......

As part of the evaluation process for selecting our early travel squad, you will be evaluated on a number of fitness tests over the first 3-4 weeks of the season.  These may include any or all of a 1-mile run, pull-ups (max), sit-ups (in 1 min), push-ups (in 1 min), jump-rope (5min max), 

With that in mind I decided to give a one mile run a shot. Caleb being the awesome teammate he is decided to give it a go with me. Well he didn't make the full mile, but he was definitely on a six and a half minute mile pace. I thought I was running a mile, turns out it was a little less. I ran it in seven minutes and six seconds, so in reality I could do around an eight minute mile. My goal is seven minutes.... There is still a lot to go. I haven't attempted the other things yet. I think I should try and work on this everyday.

Diving was another good practice. I'm starting to see things all coming together. During that time of basics after basics. Hurdle after hurdle I couldn't see anything good coming out of it. I was annoyed and frustrated, but now I am beyond excited seeing the results.

Today was my first day back on 3meter. Oh how I do NOT like 3meter haha. I did a good solid 20 front three and a half somersaults. That is honestly the hardest dive I have in my list! There were a few moments I wanted to completely give up. I didn't understand what I was doing wrong, but it just wasn't working. I just kept going with it. My full outs were actually quite good for first day back. Looking forward to having a solid 3meter list... maybe minus the three and a half.

-Kersten xo. 

Happy 4th!

Today is the 4th of July also known as Independence Day in the United States of America. This is pretty much a first for me! Did you know you can buy fireworks from a stand and light them on your driveway? Yeah... I was shocked too.

I guess you can consider this a day off! Those don't come often being an athlete, even a day off means you are still training. I actually took today off. I am EXHAUSTED.


Life outside of the pool lately hmm.. Trying to have that normal "college experience" right? Well I am writing for the school paper. My first article was just published on Tuesday. Check it out here. 
One of the girls at my work just asked me "What don't you do?!" I laughed and said have a normal life. I sometimes wish I could just get up and go places. Again not all D1 athletes have the busy insane I live. I am trying to have the best college experience, build my resume and dive at a competitive collegiate level. I sometimes think I am insane, but at the end of the day I can look back and be so proud of everything I have accomplished.

 Summertime is the time for fun right?? Well I feel I'm busier in the summer than during season. Work, internship, diving, classes, friends, vacation is hidden in there somewhere right? I could go for a nice long week vacation sitting on the beach somewhere maybe not as warm as Utah has been haha. Then again couldn't everyone?

Taking each day one day at time, or as my Mom likes to say: take it one minute at a time.

HAPPY AMERICA DAY

-Kersten xo.

Getting excited

All I am going to say is IS IT NEXT YEAR YET?! I'm actually getting extremely excited for my senior year. Yes it is extremely sad it will be my last year, but diving is actually going quite well that I'm beyond excited for season to start.

Today I had outdoor practice at eight! My coach came back today too! So it was just me practicing. Kind of lonely, not going to lie, but it went surprisingly well. I worked on a dive off of 10 meter, my favorite so it wasn't too bad. I also started working on inwards again. I have a HUGE fear of inward dives, it goes back to when I hit the board in December. I currently an inward two and a half somersaults pike off of 10meter, but I really want to get an inward three and a half somersaults tuck. This is the summer to do it and get it! Learning new dives are extremely scary, but that's why I love diving. Diving is the one sport that will always give you an adrenaline rush, even if you have done it a million times. Standing on the edge of the 10meter platform backwards, throwing yourself toward the platform and insane speeds... Yeah nothing beats that feeling :)

Second practice was another enjoyable practice. I am finally getting everything I couldn't grasp before. Starting to see what my coach means about certain dives. The summer is an amazing time to practice because there is actually time to break things down. During season it's competition after competition so it is extremely hard to work on basics and technique. I am so happy I chose to stay here and train this summer, as much as I miss home.

Well it's that time... Work time!

-Kersten xo.

Happy Canada Day

EH!

 

Yes I am Canadian and very proud of it. Even though I am in America I still celebrated. I think one of the hardest things about being an international D1 athlete is being away from home, especially when holidays come around. My family was able to go to a huge amusement park in Canada and my brother was able to go to a lake with some friends. I still had class and practice, but I had some amazing friends who still made my day special.

Practice was different today as Richard is off recruiting so it was just my teammate Caleb and I getting work done. It wasn't too bad of a practice. As an athlete I always love someone else giving an opinion on my dives. A second look tends to catch something the first look didn't see. Caleb is great for that! He always sees things in my dives no one else does, that's why he is a wicked coach! He coaches a country club team during the day when he isn't diving. I'm lucky to have him as a teammate and as a friend. 

For a second day in a row I ran 5km on the treadmill. For anyone who knows me that is a shock! I'm loving it! Just me and my music giving it my all. I ran it in a little under 30 minutes, but I know I will improve. I'm looking to run a 10km race at the end of this summer, it will be a lot of work, but since there are no dives and I'm super competitive I need something to work for. Wish me luck!

It's not always work, work, work... Well mostly in my case ha-ha, but I was able to end Canada Day by making some homemade poutine and Nanaimo Bars. They were DELICIOUS! I could have ate a whole pan, but with training, never a good idea! Glad I have some good guy friends who gladly took them off my hands.

-Kersten xo.