Dawn on the Run

Earlier in the week I called Nikayla. “Heh Nikayla, wanna run you first 10k this weekend?” Without hesitation my granddaughter’s response was “YES!!!”. We had always promised her once she turned 10 she could do her first 10k. The Back 9 Run & Ultra is an awesome event hosted by the QuickSilver Running club in Airdre. It got it’s name Back 9 as it used to be run around the Back 9 holes of the Country Hills Golf Club. It has now moved to the trails in Airdre. A runner has a choice of running a distance from 5k to 50k. The best part about the race is it’s all FREE. Yes, I said FREE! Great fun, great food and a prize for everyone.

Nikayla is an awesome kid, but then I am slightly prejudice being as we are related…lol. What a kid. She amazed me the whole race. We headed out with everyone and as we promised to take our time so she would enjoy the race we soon fell way to the back of the pack. Heck it wasn’t long before we saw 5k runners heading back our way. The 5k was an out and back. The longer distances were 1 or more loops of 10k depending on your chosen distance. There were even a few doing 50k that had started a lot earlier in the morning.

I had been thinking to myself at the 5k turn around Nikayla might suggest we turn around and do 5k. To my surprize and joy, she did not. Instead she just giggled and carried on. She did sets of walk/run while I did my usual slow jog. The race was all on trails except for a few spots where one had to cross a street. Not once did the kid complain or say “Are we there yet?”.

With only a few km to go we took a wrong turn and almost took a short cut. There only a few marshals on the route and none at this one spot where we missed the chalk arrows. Ooops. We didn’t travel too far before seeing our mistake so being the honest runners we both are we retraced our steps back to the mistake and ran the correct route. The little goof added about 500m to our run. No big deal.

Near the last stretch I spotted some bathrooms. I had to go for the last few kms so I opted to hit the potty and told Nikayla to run to the finish I would join her shortly. I hear she had a great finish and I was there only minutes later. She finished around the 2 hour mark and still had enough enegy to run back to the bathrooms…lol.

Following the run we headed to the park area where an awesome post race meal was served. We both ended up with some awesome prizes. It was a fun day for all.

Check out the photos on Flickr.

Every fall the Calgary Roadrunners start their XC season with the River Park XC. It’s one of my favorites. I just love the river crossing part. However for a variety of reasons I have opted to not run most of the XC races. Instead for this one I chose to wade into the river and stand there taking photos of those running the race. I had a blast and got some great shots.

Here’s a fun video of my daughter and granddaughter making their way back on the second crossing. Sure looks like fun doesn’t it.

Photos on Flickr
Photos on CRR Website

Time flies when you are having fun, eh. Yup once again I’ve fallen behind on my blog. Dang Facebook addictions and oh yeah sidetracked by Twitter…lol.

Training sucked for most of September but the month was far from boring. The first part of September I was involved in the Calgary Corporate Challenge for my company. I attended many events to cheer on my team. Photos always tell the story better so I’ve added a couple of links for you to check those out.

• Sept 2011 – Family Day
• Sept 2011 – Misc Sporting Events

What was I thinking? At least that’s the question I asked myself over and over as I shut off the alarm at 3:30am. OMG, I need more sleep. I had gone to bed early enough but did not sleep well. If I was stressed I can only imagine how little sleep an athlete may have gotten. Thankfully I had laid everything out the night before. It didn’t take long to dress and eat breakfast.

I was out the door by 4am. Oh yeah but before doing so I woke up the athlete I was sharing my suite with. Hopefully she slept better in the bed then I did on the couch. Man was it dark outside. Again, what was I thinking….sheesh.

As I approached the Transition area I saw vehicles being towed away. Silly people had parked in front of the clearly posted signs…oops. Holly handed out large black markers, we each took a few plus wipes for errors then we waited for the athletes to arrive. It didn’t take long before each of us had a line up of athletes wanting numbers. I was lucky and some of my friends got in my line. I gave them each a heart on their shoulder as well as nice neat block numbers. Many athletes saw how myself and my neighboring volunteer were doign such great numbers so our lineups grew and grew. Cool, sweet! I’m popular…lol.

Time passed quickly and all the numbering was pretty much done. A couple of volunteers hung around for the stragglers but the rest of us moved over to where the athletes were suiting up. We got a bit of a break to help with wetsuits if we wanted, mingle with friends and complete strangers. Then we got to get up real close to see the swim start. I got some awesome photos (links at bottom).

Once the swimmers were off and swimming Holly our awesome volunteer captain gave us the low down on how to “strip” as in remove wetsuits. It was recommended we partner up with at least one or two other “strippers”. I don’t remember when the first speedy swimmer came out of the water but it didn’t take long before they were streaming out of there and we were stripping left right and center.

I had to laugh. We were all pretty much soaked. Oops careful not to wipe your face as well ya just don’t know what has been done in those wetsuits…ewwww. Let’s just not go there…lol. Despite that I had a lot of fun. We joked with the athletes and that helped many of them get into good spirits before heading off on the bike.

They gave some stats at the volunteer banquet on Tuesday but I don’t remember the numbers. I just remember being in awe of how many athletes we stripped. I don’t have a clue how many I stripped personally. I stripped lots – big, small, gal, guy, old, young – eventually it became a blur. I remember pausing briefly to look up and OMG it was a zoo. Athletes on their backsides everywhere and volunteers whipping off wetsuits in seconds. Man we were fast. I never saw a line up or an athlete waiting. They were in and out quicker then pit crews at NASCAR.

It was sad to see the time run out on one of the last athletes. He had mere seconds to make it out of the water and across the mat. Unfortunately he stumbled and his race day was over. We watched and help the last few swimmers out of the water and out of their wetsuits. Their day of competing for Ironman was done. The last lady out of the water was nearly 20 minutes past the cut off of 2:20:00 for the 2.4 mile/3.8km swim. It was her second failed attempt.

Volunteer shift over, now I get to watch and cheer on my many friends. Wooohooo! Ah but first to clean up. I left the transition area via the lake. It felt good to wade in the water a bit and wash off. It felt much better once I was back at the hotel and had showered. Ahhh fresh clean dry clothing.

Now it was time to put up all the cool signs I had made the day before.
I had a lot of fun making these. The bottom one had myself and some friends ROFLMAO. I put the signs up along the run strip and then headed off with my fancy camera to get photos of the cyclists heading out.

Wow it wasn’t long before the front runners or should I say cyclists were off their bikes and heading out on the run course. Throughout the day I wandered from the bike side to the run side. I made occasional trips back to my room which was near one of the turn arounds for the run to change, eat and hydrate. Man it was a hot day – somewhere over 30C. I cheered on friends and was happy to spot many of them on the run.

It was a long day for me. I can only imagine how long it felt for the athletes that finished into the last few hours of the event. The athletes have until Midnight to finish – 17 hours from when they started. They Swim 2.4MI/3.8KM, then Bike 112MI/180KM and Run 26.2MI/42.2KM. Yes they must do it all in one day – no stopping over night at a hotel…lol. Someone asked me that once when I was talking about a marathon. The fastest athlete this year finished all three legs in 8:28 (Jordan Rapp) and the last official athlete finishes at midnight..

Speaking of cutoff, their are swim and bike cutoffs as well. Sister Sister Madonna Buder, one of the older athletes (80+) and well known by many missed the bike cutoff by only a couple of minutes. Her race day ended with the bike. Still an amazing day!

As I said I made many trips back and forth to my room. The Kms added up for me as well. I should have had a nap earlier in the day….what was I thinking. Had I napped I might of made it to midnight to see the last athletes finish. But silly me wore myself out. I made a trip back to the room somewhere around 10:30 or 11pm. So close and yet so far away. I was just too tuckered to make it back for the last hour. I collapsed on my bed and tweeted until midnight.

Next year I vow I will make it to midnight. Heck if I can’t make it that long as a volunteer how will I ever compete in one of these things. Yes, Ironman is on my bucket list to do before 60. I have yikes less then 4 years. Only time will tell if it gets crossed off the list or remains as unfinished business.

Oh yeah, I will return again in 2012 as a volunteer. Loved it, wouldn’t miss it. And who knows, I may find myself brave (or is it foolish) enough to sign up this time.

Links:
Subaru Ironman Canada
Flickr Photos – Race Day

Finally a chance to ride my bike. Rather then walk up to check in as a volunteer, I went for a spin on my bike. Another beautiful day in Penticton. The ride felt good. I’d already gotten my shirt from Holly but it was huge and I needed to trade it in for one size smaller. For bodymarking/stripping we got teal blue shirts. Dang it all the women’s change tent volunteers got pink. Oh well.

Back at the room I cleaned up to give the bedroom to Ally and I would sleep on the couch as I had to get up and be out the door first. Went to bed early but about 9pm I had a panic attack thinking my car was unlocked. I went and checked in my PJs…lol. I can only imagine how stressed I would be if I was racing.

Yeah it’s Friday and I’m loving it here. Up early and dressed in my underwear. Why you ask? Oh yeah, it’s time for the Underpants Run in support of bikes for kids. Hardly a sole on the street as I walked there….hmmmm. I walked about 1.3k to get to the meeting place, Starbucks.

Thankfully a lot more people had already gathered there and more arrived. I got a lot of great photos and thanks to this awesome laptop, they are already up on Flickr . Once the gathering was complete we headed out for a short run through the neighborhood and along the beach then back to Starbucks, about a 2k loops.

I took a couple of videos but haven’t upload them yet. Another 1.2 walk back to my room put me just shy of yet another 5k day. This might just be one vacation where I lose weight.

Oh yeah, on the way back I stopped by the beach. Many of the athletes were doing a prerace swim in their wetsuits. I ran into Lisa Bently heading out for a swim. Now that was cool. After all she’s one of the many reasons I started doing triathlons.

Back at the room Ally had arrived. She’s competing & I’m volunteering. We did some errands together then while Ally went off to the Athletes’ Banquet I headed over to check out the local “Street Dance”. You guessed it, more walking. Add about another 4k. The so called street dance was more a bunch of street vendors, some bands and some belly dancers. It was entertaining but I didn’t stay long, instead I meandered back to the hotel along the waterfront. Another fun-filled day in Penticton done.

What a great place to stay. I can see the lake from my living room window. Oh yeah, I’m in a one bedroom hotel suite right on the Lakefront. On my own for now but Ally, a friend is joining me on Friday.

First on my agend for the day was to head up the road to the Ironman Expo. Before doing so I meandered around past the Bike Barn, okay I went in and looked around as well. After that I made my way to the local running shop to pick up my gear for Friday’s Underpants run. I also found a great pink fuel belt.

The Expo was just a few blocks from there. More shopping, yeah. I found a great top and bought myself a mug & glass for a little pre Iroman motivation. I have a 2 year plan so we shall see.

By the time I made it back to the hotel I had likely done yet another 5k walk. Not done yet, I changed and went for about a 500m swim in the lake. It was a great swim but with the water being a tad choppy, I soon realized that maybe I should learn how to bilateral breathe…lol. Hard to take in air when a wave hits you in the face.

Still not done, Thursday evening included more walking with a trip to Smith & Co for the Team TriLife pre race gathering. It was a great meal of lasagna, salad and fruit followed by a cool video presentation of the team’s competing athletes.

Richelle and I headed out of there in time to head back over to the Expo for Ladies’ night. Cool 10% off so I picked up and Ironman top & shorts. It was pink, had to have it…lol. Meandered back to the hotel and I figure I likely did 10k of walking on Thursday.

On Wednesday I left Fernie, bright and early. The road trip to Penticton was long and twisty. I made a pit stop at Timmy’s somewhere along the way and later to get some gas. There were a couple of construction delays but for the most part I made good time. I made one lst stop at a small fruit stand before finding my way to Penticton and later to the Hotel. I was all checked in by roughly 3:30pm.

After settling in I went for a walk in hopes of finding a grocery store. Plus that was a nutrition talk happening at some coffee shop. I was told it was only a few blocks but a few ended up being 17 blocks and nearly 5k by the time I was done..lol.

Being smart I opted to take the bus back to the hotel. Okay not quite all the way. I still had 6 blocks to walk from the last bus stop.

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can’t
                        I give myself reasons why I can!

…quote on my parents wall

Not having run for a bit, when Kim invited me to go for a run I opted to suggest we walk. Besides, Kim is this tiny and speedy runner. Walking was likely the only way I could keep up…lol.

We brought along her dog Sonic. The trail leads right from behind their house to pretty much anywhere you want to go. It meanders along the river and is absolutely beautiful. Yes I took photos but for now they have not made it to the net. I’ll try to add them later.

Along the walk we saw guys heading onto the river in rafts to do a little fishing. We saw a couple of nice houses that backed onto the river that were for sale….hmmmm. We saw lots of dogs and kids on bikes. I saw lots of cool things to photo. I got a photograph of dogs, mountains and even a grasshopper for my friend Mark.

I spotted a cool weed, yeah I know it was just a weed but well I wanted a photo. I stepped off the path to get the shot. Something moved, “YIKES”. I little snake slithered into the rocks before I could take a shot of it. That was enough excitement for me. I took the photo of the weed but found myself watching the path for more snakes along the way. I’m such a chicken.

Luckily we saw no more snakes. We managed to walk about 5.5k. Later I visited with a good friend I had not seen in years and then it was off to see my parents again. After that Kim BBQ’d some chicken for an awesome dinner. We followed that with a game of Blackout. Not having played before, of course, I got my butt handed to me.

Oh well. time to repack stuff into the car. I’m on the road again, this time headed for Penticton. I’m so excited. So many of my friends are doing Ironman Ca this year. I figure it’s about a 6 or 7 hr drive so I’m hoping to be there late afternoon.