Day 1 - Tenero to Locarno (3.5 km)
 Day 2 - Luzern (2.5 km)

Joanne the swimmer. (my Nike bathing suit collection)

I am the resident alien on the team. I am a Canadian currently living and working in the US (Boston) since the fall of 2001. I currently work as a scientist for Wyeth Research where I am developing a drug to improve the healing of tendons and ligaments (like those in athletes injured while training for the Gigathlon!).

I went to university for 11 years in a row to obtain a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It is during my 8 years in Calgary that I met Suzanne, in connection with skiing, playing volleyball and generally having fun. I grew up in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, in 1971 where there isn’t much but trees, lakes, moose and black bears. I felt like I was in outdoor activity heaven when I moved to Calgary with its nice mountains and blue sky. But I didn’t have much time to enjoy these because I was working too many hours in the lab, and then training for my sports. My amateur athletic career had me competing in track & field, weightlifting and bobsleigh. I even have a few Team Canada uniforms to show for it. I know that I am genetically endowed to do well at speed-power events that are 5 seconds long.

Joanne the cyclist

So why I am doing this very long swim now? Because Suzanne asked me to! I think I was the only person she knew who could swim… or maybe she knew I don’t say no because I’m a sports nut. I was very excited at the prospect of going to Switzerland, because it will be my first opportunity to travel to Europe. But Suzanne had not told me that I had to swim for 3.5 km (over an hour!), two days in a row, at 6:00 in the morning, in an alpine lake! But I like to see what my body could do and I had eight months to prepare. So I did a lot of skiing this winter. Oops, wrong sport! I went out and bought my swimming gear: a few bathing suits, a swim cap, goggles, a membership at my local pool. The best thing I did was to get my swimming technique evaluated by famous triathlete Karen Smyers, who coaches out of the Fast Splits triathlon store. She corrected my swimming stroke and made it much more efficient. Now I can swim an hour of freestyle in the pool without injuring my shoulder tendons. But that’s the pool. The Gigathlon is an open-water swim with a few other hundred people, who will be kicking me in the head and wacking me in the face… So in June I will start swimming in a nearby lake with a group of triathletes so I can get used to getting kicked. And I will get myself a triathlon wetsuit because it is mandatory for the Gigathlon, and it makes you faster.

Joanne the skier

Once we successfully compete in the Gigathlon, I hope that my friends from Calgary will visit me to participate in our local “extreme” five-person relay race called the Tuckerman’s Inferno: I did the bike leg this past year (30 km with 680 m of elevation gain). Next year I would like to do the ski leg, but I may have to negotiate with Suzanne for that one!