About KG

Who is KG you ask? Well, first off, let’s just clarify the origin of my name. Kelowna is the name of the city where I live in BC, Canada. It’s pronounced Kah – LONE – ah.

So about 15 years ago, I was signing up for some website, and I had to come up with a “handle” (as they were called back then).  I couldn’t come up with anything original so I went with Kelownagirl.  After a year or so, I started signing up for more websites and I found that the name was already taken on some sites so I changed the “i” to an “u” and the rest is history.  Since then, I have tried to snagged the KG name on every social media site I can find so if you google the word, you usually find me.

Kelownagurl Quick Notes

* My real name is Barb.

* I was born in Vancouver, BC, in 1960.

* I am married to Erik, who is sometimes known as Kelownaguy.

* I have 3 kids, all mostly grown now – 2 girls in their 30s, 1 son in his 20s, a son in law, and young grandson all in Kelowna. I also have a step daughter and son-in-law and 3 grandchildren in New Zealand.

* I am a retired elementary school teacher – I’ve taught just about everything from K-6, was an elementary music specialist for 10 years, learning assistance, gifted enrichment, and primary classroom teacher for the last 10 years of my career.  I truly loved my job but I’m am really enjoying retirement now and have more time to travel with my husband.

* I am a (former) runner, a cyclist, a swimmer, a hiker, a triathlete, a marathoner, and a half ironer (is that a word?). I no longer race, but I do enjoy walking, hiking, running on and off, and cycling for pleasure.

* I didn’t start doing ANY of those things until 2007, when I was 47 years old.

* I started a blog in 2008 and chronicled my journey from a being a completely un-athletic, slightly overweight, middle-aged woman to a fit and healthy even older woman. My original blog can be found here. My motto has always been “It’s never too late to be who you might have been” by George Eliot.

* In 2009, I started a podcast for beginner triathletes called the Kelownagurl Tris (tries) Podcast. I recorded episodes weekly for about 3 years and then began to post them more irregularly. Although I no longer post triathlon related podcasts, most of the original shows are still available on iTunes or for download at archive.org. The show notes for the old podcast are stored on the KG Tris Podcast website.

* In July 2015, I started a new blog (this one) and a new podcast to share the new direction my life will be taking this year as I finished up my last year of teaching and prepared for retirement beginning with a three month trip to Europe in April-July 2016. I only recorded podcasts for a year when the format changed and it became a hassle so now I don’t do it anymore.

* My goal for retirement (and topic for this blog and podcast) was to stay fit and healthy so that I can travel as much as possible in my retirement.  While I have travelled a lot since 2016, with one-two long trips (~6 weeks) to Europe every year, I haven’t been as successful in keeping fit.  My love of cooking and travel, coupled with no more racing, has made it harder for this 60+ year old woman to keep those extra 20 lbs off.  So for the most part, I’ve embraced my age and continue to enjoy life, while staying “relatively” fit and healthy.

* Stay tuned – there is more to come!

Link to my retirement post– April 5, 2016.

Link to the map of our trip – France, Spain, Italy – April-July 2016

Getting Closer – update on our trip March 2016

Yeah, so this isn’t a recent picture. It was taken around 1979 I think. 🙂

Want to check out Kelownagurl’s old triathlon blog?

Follow this link!

http://kelownagurl.blogspot.com