Posts Tagged ‘Canmore Real Estate Agent’

Canmore real estate for August was yet another month of consistent sales throughout town with a total of 26 properties selling this month.  Read the rest of this entry »

Another month is in the books for Canmore real estate and again we had a consistent month of sales in town even with what I perceived to be a quieter month for showing activity. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend some 300 teams of 5 or 10 persons plus a whole bunch of crazy folk that ride this event solo congregated at the Canmore Nordic Centre for the annual 24 hours of Adrenalin mountain bike race.

Canmore becomes a hub of activity from about the Thursday before the race onwards as people to start to arrive from all over the Country, Continent and World to compete in this endurance relay race.  This year Canmore was host to the National Solo Championships where the winner from both the men’s and women’s solo category would win their airfare to Australia to compete at World Championships being held later this year.

I’m neither fit enough nor crazy enough to attempt to ride for 24 hours straight by myself to see if I compete in such an event.  I am however just crazy enough to compete on a five person team.  This was my fourth time competing at this event over the past 10 or so years and after every previous year I’ve vowed never to do it again, but somehow I always end up back at the start line ready to take my turn at riding a lap.

The object of the exercise is to ride as many laps as you can within a 24 hour period with each member of the team riding a lap then handing the baton to the next member and so fourth until you have each ridden one lap, then the baton returns to the first person in the rotation.  The event seems to become more and more competitive each year yet stays incredibly friendly with great camaraderie between all the thousands of competitors.

Our team of 5 guys was competing the 200+ category, no we weren’t all over 200 pounds, our combined age for the 5 of us was over 200 years of age.  This set us up with a little advantage as the category itself, while being extremely competitive, was not as fast as the under 200 category.  Our team of five riders paced ourselves in the early going and was holding down a respectful 5th place after we had each ridden a lap.  After we had each ridden 2 laps we had moved up to 4th place in our category and were dreaming of a podium finish as nightfall came upon us.

With headlights on, a clear sky and a full moon we rode the night laps extremely consistently and by the best lap of the day – the Sunrise lap – we had moved ourselves in to third place by about 13 minutes.  At 11am on Sunday morning I was the last lap our group was going to put in for the race and by 11:10am I was setting out on my 5th lap and our team’s 22nd lap with a 7 minute advantage over the 4th place team.

Now, 5 laps may not sound like a lot, but after being awake since 7am the previous morning and having already ridden 4 laps of the 19km course I can tell you that it was all I had in me to keep turning the pedals one foot at a time to climb the single track switchbacks to the top of the Nordic Centre.  The one and only thing that kept me going and not getting off the bike to walk some of the harder climbs was the fear that the 4th place guy behind me was catching me and I’d be the reason we lost our podium finish – the one thing I was never going to let happen no matter how tired I was.  After 12kms the trail passes back through the pits at the Nordic Centre where I was met by the rest of my team cheering me on and letting me know the 4th place team was catching me but that I still had a few minutes to play with.  As I headed out on the bottom half of the course I was exhausted, but knew from the previous 4 laps that it was mostly downhill which gave me lots of time to recover for the final climb back to the finish line in the arena at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

My last lap wasn’t my fastest but it was fast enough to hold down 3rd place for our team by 3 minutes and 39 seconds. After 24 hours of 27 teams of five guys in the 200+ age group category racing a 19km loop we beat the 4th place team by 3 minutes and 39 seconds.  Of the 301 teams that entered the event we placed 14th overall, no small achievement for 5 guys that work full-time and have kids and families to take of.  We’re proud of what we accomplished this weekend, the team I was on was incredible and were certainly the reason we ended up on the podium.

I received an e-mail on Monday from our team captain letting me know that he has signed the team up again for next year – I’ve already told my wife that I’m never doing this race again, but if history plays it’s part I’m sure you’ll see me on the start line raring to go again next July.

Boxes, Boxes and more Boxes

Over the last few years I’ve helped numerous clients sell and purchase homes in Canmore.  Throughout the sales process I help them organize their affairs that relate to the transaction such as property inspections, condominium document reviews, marketing the property on-line, showing the home and numerous other services.

When I was in the hotel business I’d organize my departments to run efficiently and effectively.  To ensure the hotel stayed ahead of it’s competition I’d go to other hotel’s and restaurants to experience for myself the services and quality of product they offered.  By immersing myself in new experiences I found I became a better manager and leader and the hotel became a better property.

Why do I bring up my previous career? well, I’m currently experiencing a side of the real estate business that all my clients go through, that I’ve never really thought of before – packing and the actual move itself.

I’ve lived in the same home in Canmore for the past 7 years and when we moved in to our current home the Hotel chain I was working for at the time paid for the moving company to pack and move all our personal property, so I haven’t experienced ‘the move’ in a good 10 years.

When I help clients sell or purchase a property I rarely, if ever, think of the stress that the actual move brings.  I understand the stress of the transaction – negotiating a price, working through the conditions, finding financing and the nail-biting tension of a Seller when waiting to see if a Buyer will remove the conditions.  I see that stress and work through it with clients daily.  I don’t necessarily see the stress that comes with packing boxes, organizing moving vans, calling all the utility companies, ensuring you have the right insurance, finding boxes large enough to fit your possessions in (this is big one for us!) and living with the mounds of boxes in the house while preparing to move.

Well, all that is currently changing, last week we sold our home and bought a new one.  A few days after all the deals had gone unconditional my wife took the boys on a 10 day vacation to see her family in Ontario – a vacation that was planned a long time in advance of us even thinking about selling or purchasing a home.  When my wife returns from vacation we have exactly 5 days before we move, so most of the packing and all the above list has fallen on my shoulders, much to my wife’s discomfort. My wife has always been the better organizer in the family and is more than a little worried that nothing will be done when she returns from vacation.

Experiencing how stressful the actual move can be for people is something I think as Realtor’s we tend to forget, we all know that purchasing a property is a stressful experience because it tends to be the largest financial purchase we make in our lifetime, but we hear little about how stressful the organization and execution of the actual move is on a person, couple or family.

I have 11 days of packing and organization left before we move in to our new home, which in the long run is going to decrease our stress as a family as we have twice the room we have now, which is good for everyone. But, for the next 11 days I’ll try and remember all the experiences I go through so I can keep them fresh in my mind so when my clients are going through the same stressful situation I can better relate to them and help them further through a very tough few weeks.

Moving house is so much more than the transaction of purchasing or selling a property and just as I sought out experiences to help me become a better manager and leader in the hotel business this experience is certainly going to make me a better and more compassionate Realtor.

All of my regular visitors to this or my Canmore lifestyle blog already know I’m a huge advocate for what I like to brand the Canmore Lifestyle.  Living in the mountains and enjoying all the mountain activities and mountain culture that is so accessible right out our front doors.  Canmore is an incredible community to live in and be a part of and this past weekend our town and community became even closer – in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

Every year on the second weekend on May the town of Salmon Arm hosts a 6 hour endurance Mountain Bike race called “The Salty Dog”.  This event has always been a popular event to attend with Canmore residents, but this year over 30 families packed up the tents and campers and headed out for the event.  Canmore moved to Salmon Arm.

This was my family’s first time at the event, I was scheduled to race the 6 hour race as a solo competitor and my 10 year old was registered with a friend to ride a 3 hour race as a team.

When we arrived at the campsite we couldn’t believe just how many Canmore families had made the trip – it was fantastic as

The broken and battered wheel

we basically had the whole campsite booked.  The kids had the freedom to roam around and find their friends and play for hours with each other. We had the comfort and knowledge that one parent or another was keeping at least one eye on whichever kids were closest to their campsite, without infringing on their new found freedom to play in dirt piles, climb trees, find bugs, go swimming or roast marsh-mellows at whichever campfire was the largest at the time.

The race itself was amazing, again it seemed as though all of Canmore was their either to race or to support the racers.  The race itself had two courses, the main loop for the Adult solo riders or Adult teams of two and a secondary, smaller loop for the U15 kids to race on.  The race was incredibly well organized and I’ve never had the opportunity to race such a fun race loop before.  From the start you basically climbed single track switchbacks for 3 or 3 kilometers from there it kicked you out on to a climb of about 4 or 5 kilometers of fire road double track and then the real fun began.  At the top of the fire road you had the opportunity to grab a cookie and a drink if needed, all compliments of the organizers, and then you head down, all the way back to the finish line going over  wooden bridges, pyramids, jumps, ramps, steep technical rocks and roots and dusty fast single track coming through the finish line with the biggest grin on your face and ready to climb all the way back up to the top to do it again.  It felt like a roller-coaster you never wanted to get off and the climb, however hard it might have been – and it was a hard climb, was instantly forgotten when you started your decent back to the start finish line.

I managed to complete 2 and half laps before I was a little too aggressive and fast heading back to the start finish line and the bike kicked the wrong way off a root and threw me straight at a tree, my front wheel hit the tree dead on and instantly became a taco and my day ended early.  I walked and ran down the trail back to the pits where I was met with cheers and shouts of encouragement – until they saw my wheel when the cheers turned to “oooooo’s and aaahhhhs’ and even some eeeessshh’s.

I didn’t have another wheel with me so I sat next to a friend who had also crashed out of the race by going over the handlebars and dislocating his finger, opened a couple of beers and cheered the kids and the rest of Canmore on throughout the race.

I was very proud to be from Canmore this weekend, the encouragement, support and camaraderie on display was very impressive and I know none of the people racing could have competed without all the support from the friends and families.  I want to thank everyone from Canmore who came out to support the racers, the Rundle Mountain Cycling Club for putting on a great dinner at the campsite on Saturday night and especially Skookum Cycle in Salmon Arm and all the volunteers and organizers that did such a wonderful job throughout the weekend.

Here are the results from the race if you’re interested.  Our family is already committed to returning next year because we had so much fun this past weekend.  Next on the race agenda in the Givr 8 at Calgary Olympic Park in two weeks time, I’ll update you on that race once it’s complete.  I’ll be racing as a team of two and hopefully I can stay away from those pesky trees!