From the Folklife Festival

 

The Girls trying to stilt-walk

Happy Canada Day!!!!!

Today is Canada Day. Woo hoo!

Today is also the 97th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel which was fought on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Beaumont-Hamel is an important piece of history for the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador. In 1916, Newfoundland was officially the Dominion of Newfoundland, and while no longer a British colony its ties to the Commonwealth and to the Crown were strong and contributed greatly to the First World War. Beaumont Hamel was the Royal Newfoundland Regiment's first major battle. Under the direction of British officers the RNR were the first troops over the top at Beaumont Hamel when it was believed that a prior attack had breached the German lines. The lines were not breached and when the RNR went over the top they were the only attacking troops on the field of battle and faced the full force of the German defensive positions. 22 Regimental Officers and 758 other men went over the top. The following mornings roll call had 0 RNR officers and 68 men in line. Only one other British regiment faced greater losses than the RNR.

For the men who served in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, for all Canadian Armed Forces members, past and present, I want to thank you for your service and on Canada's 146th birthday I want to wish you a ...

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!

Morning Paddle

Took this panoramic shot this morning while out kayaking

A fantastic Fathers Day

I had a great day yesterday ... thanks to all my girls. An early message from my beautiful daughter in Ottawa, and an afternoon with Laura, Kris and Sam made for a great day. Some BBQ for a picnic before we kayaked at Fountainhead Park was a great way to start the afternoon and an ice cream in Clifton a great way to end it.

Thank you all. Here are a few pics of the day

All loaded up

Sam ready yo go

Kris seems excited ... even though exercise is not her thing

The rewards of an afternoon kayaking

Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!

I think Mom sent me this picture a couple of years back. I just love it. It is no wonder I still like old

cars and still do my best to look after them it was obvious you did and I think I learned my best from seeing your example.

I want to thank you for all you have done for me by living that example ... working hard, being strong and firm but also letting us make our decisions, not being afraid to get your hands dirty and do do the things that needed to get done. You taught me to be able to do things myself and to do things for others as well. You were always willing to help others with whatever they needed and I know that I learn a lot from other people by doing that as well.

Thank you for always being there and thank you for being such a wonderful father.

Happy Father's Day. Love you

The Brutal Race Weekend

So it may have been the new kind of race, it being my first trail race; it may have been that the temperatures were in the high 70s to low 80s with high humidity; or it may have been that this was my 3rd weekend in a row racing but it was a looooooong day Sunday morning.

If you have been reading you will see that this is the 3rd weekend in a row that I have raced - a hilly half in Fredericksburg two weeks ago and, a nice flat 10K in Ottawa - but both I did personal bests in - Fredericksburg for the race and Ottawa for the distance. Yesterday was the North Face Endurance Half Marathon. Well it was called a half but everyone I spoke with had it at over 14 miles - but we all ran the same course so all the runners were even.

The weekend started out well - I stopped by North Face in Georgetown between meetings and picked
up my race packet - including a nice new shirt and some SmartWool running socks. It was actually really good since with the new clearance on the Jeep street parking is more critical in Georgetown and I found some right away. Saturday was an easy day and Sunday I woke at 5:30 to make sure I was all fueled with protein and carbs - Canadian Bacon, Waffles and banana for breakfast and snacks as I headed to the race start.

The race seemed very well organized until the announcer stated that we would pick up a water bottle at the first aid stop at about 2.5 miles but it would not have water until we filled it at the second stop which was supposed to be at mile 8.5. REALLY - 8.5 miles without water other than what we carried - and most people planned based on the aid stations being equipped. Well after some quick work they rectified that and we had water in our water bottles at the first stop.

The course itself was a good course - very scenic. Well not that you saw that since if you looked anywhere but down and two feet in front of you you were face planting after hitting a root or rock - I know - I did it when I looked up to see if I could find a place to pass. I had to look for places to pass as we had about 2-1/2 to 3 miles of anything but single track - and it was truly single track. Thankfully the start was mostly on wider trails so I moved ahead a bit over the first 2.5 - 3 miles but even in those first 3 miles we hit single track where it became obvious that this race would be dictated by how big a crowd was in front of you.

The Course and Elevation Profile

Once we got into the continuous single track there were lots of obstacles - some small that would catch feet and some very large that require clambering, jumping, wading or scrambling up muddy embankments. Of course that plus the inability to pass made it near impossible to get and set a pace. At mile 5 I was thinking about that - how to set a pace - but after 10 miles of climbing, jumping, falling, scrambling and sprinting where I could I realized that this was called Endurance for a reason.

When I finally hit Algonkian Park I knew the finish and a glass of beer were not far away so I kept the pace and crossed at 2:24:21. I was a little disappointed at that point as I knew it was a solid 40 minutes slower than my best half and 36 minutes slower than just two weeks ago but now that I look back at it adding 36 minutes based on the extra mileage, the heat and humidity, and the course is nothing to be disappointed about. It turns out I placed 7th in my division of 35 runners and 130th overall in a field of 773 - a good day.

Now I will take a few weeks off from racing and maybe a week or two off from running at all - just to get recover a bit - my legs are advising me of that and my nipples are screaming for it. The next planned race is the Tely10 in Newfoundland at the end of July and I want to be ready to nail that!

Memorial Day Weekend

Looking up at the East Block Parliament Building

Memorial Day Weekend meant road trip for us. We had been invited to a reunion in Ottawa - basically a gathering of people that had worked together at Nortel. It happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend so we decided to make it a longer weekend and head to Ottawa for the event and to get to see Tika.

The drive up was interesting as it was the Friday before Memorial Day and we drove through sleet as we entered New York State from Pennsylvania. The weather in Ottawa was similar to DC so it meant for a cool couple of days but started to warm up by Memorial Day.

We spent the weekend at a condo that we had rented. It was very convenient being right downtown and the fact that it had a well equipped kitchen meant that we could also relax a bit about where to eat and do some of our own cooking if we wanted - which we did.

The weekend was also Race Weekend in Ottawa with a full slate of 2k, 5k, 10k, half- and full marathons being run. A friend had registered for the 10k but was not able to run it so I joined 3 friends and ran in his place. Running in Ottawa is great - everything was green - the weather was not too warm and the views are fantastic. On top of that it seemed that the entire city was out supporting the runners. Even though it had not been a week since my half-marathon in Fredricksburg I ran a pretty good race, bettering my best 10k by over 2 minutes finishing in 47:56 - good for well within the top 10% of finishers.

After the race we went straight to the re-union and got to see some old friends. Some we keep in touch with regularly, others I had not seen in almost 20 years, but you would have thought it had been 20 weeks. We had a great time.

We also got to spend a good bit of time with Tika. We had brought some stuff up for her which meant she had to go through her place and do some culling of clothes etc, which she donated to a local charity. We also brought her up a new bike for her birthday. We went to ZenKitchen for lunch on Sunday, a birthday lunch, and did some shopping together. It was a great way to spend the day.

Monday was a beautiful day and Laura and I spent it relaxing and walking around Ottawa. Of course we did some shopping as well but it was just great to have a sunny, warm Memorial Day with no need to hurry to do anything.

It turned into a great weekend and I hope we will find time to go back soon - I now September I will be back as I have a race in Ottawa which I am looking forward to :-)