A Shoe Deal!!

I had a 90 minute massage scheduled after work. Once I was done I called in a take out order to my favourite sushi restaurant and I had about 30 to 45 minutes before it would be ready. I opted to wander around Kensington and visit Ridley's Cycle. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I just enjoy wandering around the local bike shop. I stepped up the the cycling shoes and noticed some baskets full of shoes on the ground. Tons of men's shoes, maybe three pairs of women's road/triathlon shoes and maybe another three or four pairs of women's mountain biking shoes. All of the women's shoes were a size 40.

I picked up a pair and looked at the price tag. They looked like a huge deal! Unfortunately they were too small. I grabbed a different style to try on just in case. They felt like heaven on my feet. They are the Shimano SH-TR50, a triathlon specific shoe. Rather than my other shoes that have three velcro straps, this has one big strap. The big loop at the back makes it easy to pull these on. Easy on, easy off!
The front of the shoe is also really well ventilated. Inside at the ankle is nicely padded for a snug and comfortable fit. I think these will be really comfortable without socks.The shoes have a carbon fiber sole.There is also a little hole in the sole near the toes. I guess this is to allow for water to drain through after the swim? Pretty cool, eh?These shoes are a 2008 sample pair, which explains why every pair was a size 40. They look to retail for about $170 US, $250 Canadian. I got these babies for $59.99!?!? I got the cleats put on for a few more dollars. I love me a deal and cannot wait to try these out!!

A New Chapter

So...exciting times are ahead my friends. One of the reasons why I didn't want to continue with boot camp was because I wanted to leave more time for cycling and swimming, plus leave me some more free time in the evenings to unwind. I figure with being home a bit more I can focus on my nutrition which I still know is one of my downfalls. Because I was always running in and out the door it was far too easy to call it an Edo night for dinner this summer. I'm surprised that the girls in the restaurant didn't see me and immediately spit out "combo number one with extra veggies and extra sauce, right?" as soon as I walked into the place.

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Anyhow, this fall I want to focus on swimming and cycling more (and still running). Plus I have some big goals for next year's racing season so I thought it was time to stop trying to do everything on my own and look for some support. One of my coworkers is a triathlon coach for the YMCA in a different part of town and he's pretty familiar with all the coaches and teams out there in Calgary. He gave me the name of someone who would push me hard in a supportive team atmosphere. I wanted supportive, not competitive, and someone who cared about technique in their athletes. Last night I finally a chance to sit down and chat with coach about where I've been and where I want to go and I'm really excited. When we talked about my marathon time at Quebec versus my PRs for a 5K/10K/half marathon she got really excited about how much room I have to improve my marathon time come January. I spend most of my runs at the same easy pace and I'm pretty bad for trying to push myself hard on my own. With a little direction and a group setting I know I'll be able to push to run faster and to train at a higher intensity rate to see results. Let's be honest, I've been running for awhile now so I think it is time to strive for some improvement. Where this is all going, well, we'll see. But I'm looking forward to being a part of a group and taking my training to a new level.

St. Albert Sprint Triathlon - Race Report

Today I was up in St. Albert, Alberta to race the final tri of the season. St. Albert is about 20 minutes northwest of Edmonton, so I drove up Saturday afternoon to have the weekend to relax and spend some time with an old friend and her husband. The weekend was good - we caught a replay of House, one of the Fringe festival shows, went to check out the Royal Alberta Museum, and I made the mistake of going to West Edmonton Mall (the world's largest mall) on a weekend when everyone was going back to school shopping.

Pre-Race
I was up at 4:45 to shower, pack up, and have a quick breakfast before driving out to St. Albert. Transition opened up at 6:00 and the race was scheduled to start at 7:00 so I wanted to be sure that I would arrive as close to 6:00 as possible. The first thing I did was check in to get my race packet and my long sleeve race shirt. I was scheduled to be in heat 2 of the swim and had to check in poolside at 6:50 am. That wouldn't leave me very much time to set up and be ready. I headed over to get body marked, then grabbed my bike out of the car and headed over to rack it in transition. The racks were set up according to your heat number. I found a spare spot and laid everything out. This time I put a bit more thought into it though, so I laid my towel on top of my bike handlebars so it would be the easiest to get to, then set up my bike shoes, sock in the shoes, and a long sleeve jersey to put on afterwards. Sunglasses and gloves in the helmet, running shoes next to everything else. I hurried back over to the pool, stuffed my post race gear into a locker, hit the bathrooms, then headed out on deck for the pre-race briefing. Once that was done, bagpipers walked into the pool playing a tune and escorting our master of ceremonies, Carolyn Murray. Carolyn is from St. Albert and was a member of the Canadian women's Olympic triathlon team.

Swim - 750m (20:03)
The swim start was pretty well organized in that we were all given heats and lanes ahead of time. For some reason a bunch of people were told they would be in heat 2, lane 2, just like me except we were only supposed to have 4 people per lane. After a whole lot of discussion and reorganizing my group of 4 was together and we donned our respective swim caps. The lead swimmer wore blue, second swimmer yellow, third swimmer purple, final swimmer burgundy. I got the purple cap. I was happy to have such an early swim heat as it meant less waiting around and less time to get nervous. We cheered for the folks coming out of the water, but pretty soon a lane emptied and it was time to start. Rather than crossing a timing mat our chip was scanned by a little hand held device before we headed over to our lane. I got in the water and just started to swim. I found my groove immediately - arms, kicking and breathing all fell into place naturally. We had one girl who had way overestimated her swim time in our lane and she passed me twice. I also got passed by the guy who had entered the water just ahead of me. I finally had my chance to touch some toes and pass the lady who had entered the water just after me before starting my final lap. The swim was over before I knew it. I ran out of the pool where Carolyn was cheering us on, and out into transition.

T1 (2:10)
The one unfortunate thing about starting so early was that the weather was still downright chilly as I ran out into T1. I tried to towel off as best I could, but pulling my jersey on while still fairly wet felt like it took forever. In fact, T1 in general felt like it took forever. I put my glasses on, pulled my socks on, put the Garmin on, realized the glasses were foggy so had to take them off and clean them, then put my helmet and gloves on and ran out of transition. As I was leaving I heard my name - my friend from Edmonton had made it up to root me on!

Bike - 20 km (44:24)
It was cold on the bike. Really, really cold. My legs just felt numb. As I was heading out there was still some fog out over one of the fields. Despite the chilly weather it felt so good to be on the bike. I absolutely love riding my bike. The best thing about the races in both Strathmore and St. Albert would have to be the terrific scenery on the bike. You head out into rural farmland and it just feels really neat to ride out there. The volunteers were all fantastic on the race too - they shouted out encouragement as you passed and I yelled "good morning" or thanked them for coming out. I also passed a guy out for his morning jog and he congratulated me on my race so far. I passed a few people, including one lady riding with an iPod of some sort. Hmm, thought you weren't supposed to race with those things on. I did get passed by a couple of speedy cyclists as well though. The route had some hills to it and despite not having ridden for a bit, and my marathon last weekend my legs were feeling pretty good. I was back at transition before I knew it.

T2 (1:42)
This time I remembered to hit the button to start timing for T2 as soon as I hopped off my bike. I racked it, swapped out shoes and took my helmet and gloves off and headed out on the run.

Run - 5 km (30:50)
When I started running it felt like I was running on a pair of peg legs. My feet were just numb from the cold on the bike. Despite the odd feeling my running didn't feel too off though. I didn't want to push the pace, I just wanted to run fairly nice and easy since my legs are still recovering from the marathon last weekend. I didn't really look at my Garmin, I just kept plugging along. Every once in awhile a competitor in front of me would stop to walk and I'd try to encourage them, but I'd just keep on running. As the sun was coming up things were warming up and it felt really comfortable out on the run. The course was reasonably flat along sidewalks through neighborhoods, on to a park pathway occasionally, and every once in awhile along grass. I had enough in the tank for a sprint to the finish and I was pretty surprised that I managed to break 31:00 on my run. Not bad considering I thought I was taking it easy!

Post-Race
They were serving up pancakes, sausages, bananas and oranges once I was done. I grabbed a bit to eat while my friend and I chatted. Eventually I was getting pretty cold so we said our goodbyes and I hit the showers. I hung around at the finish line for a bit, cheering competitors in, but eventually it was time to make the trek back to Calgary. All in all it was a really fun race and I'm glad I gave this one a go. Overall my legs felt ready to get back to some activity and I think this was a nice way of easing into it. My second triathlon down - and I loved every minute of it!

Final Numbers

Final Time: 1:39:08
Overall: 120 out of 164
Females 30 - 39: 13 out of 22
Swim: 20:03 (132nd)
Bike (including transitions): 48:16 (98th)
Run: 30:50 (128th)

Once again, the bike seems to be my strongest aspect of the race.

An attempt to get back at it

Last night I skipped boot camp because the focus of the evening was lower body endurance. I didn't think I needed to test my lower body endurance ability quite yet so I got together for dinner with family one last time before my mom heads back home. This morning I thought I would head out for a nice and easy run just to see how things felt. And yeah...my legs are still pretty tired so I only went for 1.5 miles. My legs were stiff and sore all of Monday and Tuesday, but things finally started to loosen up Wednesday. I have some pretty big knots in my right calf though that really need a work out, so I'll head to my chiro later this afternoon to get them worked out with some ART. Tomorrow is a massage to help some more. Like the nutter that I am, I am off to Edmonton this weekend to hang out with friends and run the St. Albert Sprint Tri on Monday. I doubt I'll be doing too much activity between now and the race so hopefully I'll be nice and rested up. With that said, I'm just racing to have fun so I won't be pushing myself too hard on the run.

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I have a dilemma about the race though folks. Apparently September equals the start of fall weather around here and the forecast doesn't look too wonderful for this weekend. On Monday the forecasted low is 3 deg C (37 deg F), the high is 17 deg C (63 deg F). What are your suggestions for how to handle coming out of the pool and hopping on the bike in such cold temperatures? What should I wear? Do I wear a long sleeve tech shirt that won't be super warm, but will allow me to dry off (maybe)? Or do I throw on a long sleeve bike jersey/jacket that may not allow for much drying off?

Random bits and pieces for the week so far

On Sunday the family all went out to Bolero, a Brazilian churascurria here in town. $35 gets you a parade of seemingly endless young men past your table carrying swords with big hunks of meat on it (although they do have some grilled pineapple that comes by from time to time as well). It is good times! On Monday we all got together at my brother's to celebrate Avery's actual birthday with some good Hungarian food. Truthfully I'm not sure if I'm eating to get ready for my marathon or if I'm preparing for hibernation.

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Apparently NBC didn't broadcast the men's triathlon, but CBC up in Canada did and my family was nice enough to let me watch the event after dinner on Monday. I have to say...what a race! If you want to see the highlights go here, then flick through the list of clips to page 10 of 30 to watch it. The commentator was interesting. He kept exclaiming that he didn't like how Simon Whitfield looked, how he was going to be the first to drop off of the pack in the run. He was kind of negative... Two of my favourite lines from the night included:

1. "They look like cyclists just going out for a run..." (commenting on how the two lead guys off of the bike didn't have very good running form)
2. "These two guys are going to be cannon fodder in about another two and a half to three minutes." (once the next 40 men or so ran out of T2)

Congratulations to Simon Whitfield on his silver medal and a fantastic performance from his teammate Colin Jenkins. My brother and I were jumping up and down, yelling at the TV and cheering Simon on across the finish line. It was thrilling!

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I got in 1500m at the pool yesterday morning. I was on deck at about 5:45 and the place was busy! All three roped lanes had 2 people in each lane already, plus the unroped area had 3 folks swimming up and down as well. No one in the unroped area wanted to share swimming space. Am I missing something on pool etiquette? Do you not swim circles if the lane is not roped off? I managed to carve out a bit of space and swam some really good strong laps. Last night was a cardio intensive night at boot camp and we lucked out with some slightly less warm temperatures and some cloud cover. There was a fair bit of running involved and I tried out a heart rate monitor for the first time. I asked my mom if we could swap Garmins (since she had the 305 and I had the 205 but she wasn't using the heart rate monitor). I'm interested to see if I learn anything from tracking my heart rate. I won't wear it during the marathon though since I think I may need to tweak the fit a bit more. It was pressing against my breast bone and is kind of sore in the area now and I really don't need that to happen for 26.2 miles on Sunday. I thought about running this morning as well, but at the end of the day I decided to sleep in, all in the name of the taper. Tonight I'm taking my mom to Corteo so it will be a full on rest day!

Some final thoughts on the race

1. I had three fears going into the race. Going commando, having massive high beams throughout the race, and being super stinky from having my deodorant wash off in the pool. Silly...maybe... As it turns out I didn't care about any of those three while I was racing...
2. It is true, you really don't notice that you are wet when you jump on the bike.
3. There was a couple at the race - obviously the guy supporting his girlfriend and I think her parents were there too. They were one massive PDA-fest as she kept jumping up on him and it seemed like they were almost permanently in a lip lock before the race. Seriously, no one wants to see that...
4. If I were still 29 I would have come in 5th in my age group. Apparently the 30 - 34 category is pretty competitive, although I still think coming in 13th in my age group was a pretty nice showing for my first tri.
5. I have to give a massive kudos to the volunteers. One spent 7 hours on Saturday sweeping the shoulder of Hwy 817 so that we wouldn't be riding over all of the debris from the silage trucks on the road. That shoulder was amazingly clean. I don't know if anyone flatted or not, but I did see two vans from Ridley's Cycle driving up and down the highway ready to help people out. I also really appreciated the lady at the water stop who pushed me on and encouraged me. That was what I needed to hear at that moment.
6. I do need to work on my set up in transitions. I laid out all my stuff on my towel, but when I came out of the pool and wanted to dry my feet off before putting socks on it wasn't the most efficient system.
7. This race was a fantastic one to take away some of the intimidation of a triathlon. They really promoted the idea that anyone can do this. This was especially evident with one mother-daughter-granddaughter team as the 79 year old mom finished her first tri. That was pretty awe inspiring. I'm pretty sure that most of us were tearing up as she went to collect her age group award.

Yesterday I was reminded of why I don't run in the evenings...it is just too easy for me to procrastinate and not want to get it done. I hummed and hawed on the drive home and I debated on whether I should just take a rest day. In the end I figured I'd feel better if I got the run in. When I got home I immediately put the running clothes on and made it out the door for a 3 miler after I finished tending to the pup. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. This morning I got in 1250 slowww metres back at the Y.

Strathmore Women's Triathlon - Race Report

This morning I raced my first ever triathlon, the Strathmore Women's Sprint Triathlon. I woke up at 4:30...well before my alarm was supposed to go off. I enjoyed lounging in bed for a few minutes, then got up to shower, get ready and have some breakfast. It took just under an hour to get to Strathmore as we headed east away from Calgary toward the prairies. It was looking nice and flat out there. The first thing I did was set up my transition area. I had a towel, my bike shoes, socks, bike helmet, gloves, sunglasses, race belt and running shoes. I also gave my tires one last pump. Here's a shot of me looking nervous in transition:For the record, I was following the plan of alternating how bikes were hanging on the rack until a nearly identical Kona Lisa RD bike next to me hung her stuff up... Anyhow... You could tell that there were all kinds of women at this event just by the different types of bikes hanging up. It was neat to see how many first timers this race attracted. At 8:15 it was time for the pre-race meeting which was a pretty standard summation of all of the pre-race literature. It was then time to get read for the swim.

Pool Swim - 500m
The pool swim worked on a continuous feed. The slower swimmers started first. We were in groups of 4 according to similar swim times and once a lane of 4 swimmers was complete the next group of 4 would jump in the pool. I found a group to go with that I figured would be a bit faster than me by maybe 30 seconds. There didn't seem to be anyone in my same time range nearby so I just hopped on with them. Because of the continuous feed there was a whole bunch of standing around on the pool deck just waiting for the line to move. It was a great chance to chat with other ladies around though. Finally around 10:30 it was our time to get in the lane. I jumped in last since I knew I'd be the slowest. It took me a bit to get into a groove. Maybe it was nerves but I kept getting water in my mouth when taking a breath. On the second half of the first lap I had a head on with the first swimmer. What the? I thought we were swimming counter-clockwise and I was pretty sure I wasn't drifting out my lane... We actually collided a few more times during the swim. She was also pretty fast as she lapped me about half way through. The other two girls lapped me on my second to last lap. Oh well, I kind of figured I'd be the last one out of the pool. Apart from the collisions I thought my swim went pretty well.Swim - 180/257 - 13:51

Transition #1
Transition times were included in our bike split, but I estimate I spent about 2:38 putting socks and bike shoes on, and all the other assorted gear.

Bike - 20km
I had my bike in a nice easy gear heading out of transition and the first thing I did was move into my big ring to start powering through the bike. Almost immediately I passed one of the girls from my swim lane. I felt like I was flying on the bike - I passed the other two ladies from my swim lane probably within the first 5 minutes on the road. The course had a slight downhill on the out and by the time I hit the turnaround I thought I'd barely spent any time on the bike it was going so fast. I kept passing people on the way back, impressing a couple of volunteers as I passed girls on the uphills. I thought I worked my legs pretty hard on the bike as I was really spinning so I wasn't sure what I had left in my legs for the run, but I really wanted to push myself. No one passed me on the bike.
Bike - 27/257 - 39:53 (although I hit the lap button on the Garmin too late, so it is actually slightly lower than this...)

Transition #2
I hit the lap button just after I racked my bike, so it took me 00:45 to swap out shoes, remove the bike gear and hustle out of transition.

Run - 5km
I ran out of transition on what felt like pretty awkward legs. The first water stop was right away and I walked to grab a quick drink, but then kept going. I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was running an 8:30 pace... I can't believe I was going that fast! Of course the pace didn't hold but I kept picking the people off in front of me and passing them. About a mile in my left shin started to bug me. I told myself that this was a 5k and I was supposed to run fast and it was supposed to hurt! With that in mind I just kept going... I stopped to walk the second water stop and was pretty happy to see the turnaround. When I hit the water stop again I grabbed another cup of water and stopped to walk. One of the volunteers was this really perky lady that came up to walk with me. She asked what I was doing walking. Well, I was drinking my water. She pushed my cup in to form a spout and said to try that. Hey, that was better! She told me that there were three walkers just ahead of me and that she knew I could catch them. I promised that I would and I took off. By the time I reached all those walkers they were running but I did pass them. As I hit the last kilometer I knew I still had lots left in my legs and that I wasn't pushing hard enough so I worked to really pick up the pace. As I rounded the corner and saw the finish line I looked down and saw 27:xx on the Garmin. I figured I might be able to reach the finish in 2 minutes so I kicked it in, but didn't look down at the watch anymore. Pretty soon I heard Karen cheering my on from the sidewalk since she had finished her race earlier. I can't remember what she said but it made me fly even a bit faster. I hit the finish line and heard my name, then hit the stop button. Sarah was there cheering some friends on and she grabbed a shot of me just as I crossed the line, then introduced herself. Sarah, it was nice to finally meet you! After saying hellos I finally had a chance to look down at my watch. And oh yeah, no one passed me on the run either...Run - 98/257 - 29:12 -- a 5km PR!!!!!!!!!

Post Race
After the race I grabbed some snacks and took a quick shower to freshen up. It was time for a delicious lunch of hot lasagna with friends afterwards. The final results went up on the wall just as we were eating.

Final Time: 1:26:17.5
Overall 60 out of 257
Women 30 - 34: 13 out of 60

For first time triathletes: 11/97 overall, 3/25 in my age group.

I had a fantastic time and I loved, absolutely loved, this multisport event. Apparently this was the key for me to finally PR that 5km and smash my sub-30:00 goal. Neil came out to make his final appearance as my sherpa/race photographer (as we broke up a few weeks ago) and he commented how much my running form had improved since my duathlon in May. Less shuffling, more nice long strides it seems. Check out my run shots - such air! I definitely see more tris in my future...

Newbie Triathlete - Help Needed!

Did anyone catch the inaugural Iron Girl Triathlon in Las Vegas show on NBC this weekend? I PVR'ed it and watched it Sunday evening. It definitely helped me to get excited for my upcoming first tri. Something I won't be attempting is the "undo my shoes while riding to attempt a flying dismount" thing. That just sounds like I'm asking for a definite opportunity to face plant.

So with that, I need your advice on this tri thing! I have a couple of questions that hopefully you guys can help me out with:

1. The swim is in a pool, then we run into the parking lot to the transition zone. Do I need a pan of water to rinse my feet, or will a good towelling off do the trick?
2. Okay, I have tri shorts and a tri top that I'm planning on wearing throughout the race. Um, do I really have to go commando under those shorts?
3. Nutrition - should I attempt some sort of gel consumption during the race? If so, when? Before I get on the bike, while on the bike, or just after I get off the bike? It is a sprint, so do I really need food?
4. What do I need to remember besides bike, bike shoes, helmet, and running shoes?

My marathon recovery plan

First off, boot camp last night was total body endurance night. The theme must have scared some people off because there were six of us out there last night out of the twelve registered for the class. I was expecting some hard core hill repeats, but instead it was a circuit workout and the magic number was 40. 40 walking lunges with a weighted bar, 40 back and forth sprints with a burpee at one end, 40 step ups on each leg...you get the picture. It was a fantastic workout. I do realize that I will miss boot camp in the fall. But I'm looking forward to concentrating on new endeavours.

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So...my little countdown clock is politely telling me that I have 29 days to go until my next marathon. I hate to say it, but I kind of jump from running Quebec City to training for the Disney Marathon. I have found the perfect way to keep me motivated after Quebec. I found another tri to do. And this one is co-ed..! The week after the marathon... I fully realize that I may regret this decision later, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get another tri in before the season ends. Plus, it is a pool tri, so no worries about renting a wetsuit. It is up in St. Albert (just northwest of Edmonton) on September 1st. To top it all off I just found out that a friend of mine recently moved from the east coast to Edmonton. So we'll be able to catch up and I'll be able to race. Most likely quite slowly...

A Wet, Wet Tuesday

It rained all day Tuesday...with the exception of a short window between 3:00 and 6:00 pm. I was pretty convinced that boot camp was going to be a no go, however most of us showed up in time for our 7:00 workout at Edworthy Park. At first it just drizzled while we ran a couple of laps around the park. As soon as we got into our circuit training with tubing the rain started to get heavier. And heavier. We all wanted to stick it out and keep working out hard in the rain though. With rivulets running down your face you feel kind of hard core for working out. Dedicated. By the time class was over I was soaked and ready to hit the pool so I drove over to the Sir Winston Churchill Aquatic Centre. I got there a bit early for adult lane swim, but since the pool was pretty quiet (smaller than expected turn out for lessons) I was able to start getting some laps in. I tried out a front crawl. It went okay except my goggles weren't sealing and I got a bit tired of having to empty water from them on a continuous basis. Angry was right...land aerobic fitness is a whole other ball game from aquatic aerobic fitness. That front crawl was a workout! I mostly swam a breaststroke while I was in the pool and I can keep that up forever... It was enough to let me know that I can definitely swim 500m in the pool at the tri in August, whether I front crawl, breaststroke or do a combo of both. I wound up putting in about 1250m last night.

So armed with the knowledge that I can indeed still swim I entered the Strathmore Women's Triathlon this morning. It is a 500m pool swim, 20k bike, 5k run on August 10th. My goals leading up to this race are:

• To get to the pool at least twice a week.
• To get some new goggles that don't leak.
• To work on my front crawl so that I won't have to breaststroke during the 500m swim.

Tagged! And the weekend wrap up.

I was tagged by Making Waves, who will also be running the Footstock Half with me this coming weekend:

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Running? 10 years ago? I think at the most I would huff and puff my way through 10 minutes on the treadmill at the gym. I was more of a step aerobics nut back then.

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?

My best race experience? Too many to narrow into one! I loved the Nike Women's Half - that was a day of pure racing nirvana. I also loved running the Disney Half with my cousin and her husband! My worst run ever? My 15 miler around Glenmore Reservoir, in the dark, past the bear warning signs.

3. Why do you run?

I started running mostly because I hated it, but now I love it. There is nothing like running further, or faster, than you have before. Plus running gets me outside and enjoying the scenery. If I could only run on treadmills I would definitely not run.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

Best advice about running? To break a race up into thirds and tackle each third separately. The first third you should be running easy and relaxed. The second third you should be focused. On the final third keep positive and stay strong. The worst advice I've received? When I told someone I was running the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge he asked why I would want to do that, and said that I should just skip running the half the day before.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I was never a super athletic kid. Sure, I used to swim and ride horses when I was really young but I had no talent for any sports in phys ed and hated it. In middle school I played on our school volleyball team but I was so bad... In grade 8 when there were so many people that tried out for the team I was cut despite having played for the last two years.

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In other news, torrential rain on Saturday put an end to my planned 12 miler that day. We were camping out in Banff and I had a great route picked out to run, but it was about 4 deg C and raining when we woke up that day. Instead we packed up the gear and tent and made our way back to town to enjoy our smokies and smores indoors. There was a 3 hour break from the rain around lunch time on Sunday and I managed to fit my 12 miler in then. I took it nice and slowly so that I'll still have some pep left in the legs for the race, but I'm ready to go for my next half marathon on Saturday.

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Also, I'm going to hit the pool after boot camp tomorrow night to test out whether my body remembers how to front crawl. After that I will most likely register for the Strathmore Women's Sprint Tri on August 10th...!