I made it!

Just a quick update - I made it to Winnipeg in one piece. It was an early morning on Thursday, with my flight leaving Bagotville at 5:40am EST. I was supposed to have a one hour layover in Montreal before departing to Winnipeg; however, because of mechanical issues, they had to change our plane and that delayed the flight about 4 hours. I finally arrived in Winnipeg around 3:00pm CST and got settled into my room on base. I went for dinner with a friend of mine but by the end of the day, I was exhausted.

Yesterday was spent doing all my in-clearance. This meant going around from building to building filling out paperwork and getting things signed and stamped. I probably walked at least 10km all over the base - CFB Winnipeg is much bigger than Bagotville. I also got my uniform and I'll get to wear it to work on Monday. In the evening, I checked out the gym here and did a quick upper body workout.

Today was my first run in Winnipeg. I mostly stayed on and around the base, as I'm still learning my way around, but I'm definitely going to have lots of running routes to choose from.

Only a few more days!

I made it through the yoga challenge! 4 days in a row of yoga at 5:45am! I am not a morning person so I'm quite pleased that I repeatedly managed to drag my butt out of bed that early in the morning.

I took a couple days off from running after Wednesday's 5k race. Good thing too because it's been brutally hot here the last couple days. Yesterday evening I waited as late as I could to do an easy 3 miles, but I still came home drenched in sweat.

Today we hit the weights at the gym and enjoyed the air conditioning there. That's about all we enjoyed because Chris and I both had a rough strength session. I managed to get through everything (just barely) but Chris had to abandon some of his exercises. I think the week of not eating properly after his wisdom teeth surgery affected him more than he realized. To make up for it, we played some 1-on-1 basketball in the gym. He beat me 22-18 though I think if we had kept going, I might have won. We finished up our workout with RandomAbs to keep the streak alive.

Workouts aside, the weekend was pretty busy. Our friend's babysitter bailed Friday night so we babysat her two kids. Other than that, most of my time has been spent cleaning the house before I leave and packing. I found out that my flight leaves at 5:40am on Thursday, so it's a good thing I spent last week practising getting up early.

Le Vincent 5km - Race Report

Last night, I ran my second ever 5k. If you look at a calendar, you'll see that yesterday was a Wednesday, which I've heard is an unusual day to have a race. It was race #12 out of a 20-race circuit that takes place around the region over the course of the summer. I'm not sure why, but about half these races are held on either a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

There's one thing I've noticed about racing in the Saguenay and I don't like it. Whether it's running, cycling, triathlon, etc, no one here is an "amateur." They have this mindset that either you need to be super hardcore and take everything really seriously, or you shouldn't even bother. As a result, there's no room for casual athletes. Even the kids "fun" races are way too serious, in my opinion. It's really quite discouraging.

The start of the race was delayed 15 minutes, which meant I ended up sitting around a lot longer than I would have liked. About 25 minutes before the start, I did a mile warm-up with some pick-ups. It was pretty hot out so it didn't take much to break a sweat. By the time I got to the starting area, there were already a lot of people waiting so I didn't get as close to the front as I would have liked. I'm not a pushy person, so I navigated as far forward as I could before elbowing became necessary.

Just before the gun, the announcer gave instructions regarding the course. This was important because they didn't publish the course beforehand and I don't like going into a race blind. However, I didn't get to hear a single word he said between the crowd noise and amplification distortion; add to that that he was speaking in French and I couldn't pick up anything. Grr.

It took about 10 seconds for me to cross the starting mat after the gun went and the first 0.1mile was a downhill. I remember thinking, "Great, I have to run back up this to get to the finish line." The course, as it turns out, was very similar to the one used last year in the duathlon I did. And man is it hilly! The Garmin data doesn't do it justice - it's up and down the whole course.

The rest of the race was just about survival. I ran hard and it hurt. I think the first mile is the fastest mile I've ever recorded. Unfortunately, the hills kicked my butt and I wasn't able to run negative splits, though my effort definitely increased throughout the race. My limiting factor in this race was not my legs but my lungs, so I need to work on that. The last mile was brutal and I curse the idiot who decided to have an uphill finish.

In the end, I finished in 26:22, a 56 second PR. That was good enough for 63/88 overall, 21/41 among the women, and 9/12 in my age group (F20-29). Here's a pic from the finish line (showing the gun time):

Garmin time: 26:22

Checking in...

Since my marathon, I haven't had anything very exciting to report. Here are a few tid-bits from the last week or so:
- 23 miles of running so far in July.
- I have 5km race coming up on Wednesday. I hope to beat my previous time (27:18).
- My RandomAbs streak still lives (since June 8).
- I'm starting a 4-day morning yoga challenge tomorrow. The classes start at 5:45am and it's really going to be a challenge for me since I am 100% not a morning person.
- Everything is still on track for my enrollment next week and my departure on the 19th. A lot of my time lately has been spent researching, making lists and planning for my move.
- I had a wonderful lunch with a friend of mine this afternoon. I'm trying to catch up with as many people as I can before I leave. While I won't exactly miss Bagotville when I'm gone, there are a lot of people I'll be sad to say good-bye to.
- Chris had his wisdom teeth taken out last Wednesday and his squirrel face is almost gone. Sadly, he won't let me post any pictures.
- A friend of mine got married on the weekend and the pictures I've seen so far are absolutely beautiful. Best wishes to the happy couple!


That's it, folks!

Back from vacation

After spending a week on the beach in Maine, we're back in Canada. We had a pretty good time - the weather was decent for most of the trip, though we had a few more rainy days than I would have liked. And......I didn't get a sunburn! This is quite an accomplishment, considering my pasty complexion. I managed to squeeze in a few good runs while I was there, plus RandomAbs every night. Even though it's nice to get out of the region every once in a while, I was happy to come home to my puppies. (By the way, Mika's ear is healing up nicely.) Here are a couple pictures of the beach:

Goose Rocks Beach

The other side of the beach

Now I've got just under 3 weeks left in Bagotville before I leave and I'm trying to figure out how best to spend them. There's a lot of stuff to get ready for the move, but I want to make sure I get everything in before I leave. I don't really have much planned, except a 5k race on July 11th and a good-bye party for a friend who's also leaving this summer.

Random side note - I did something today that might almost be considered "tech-savvy." First, I connected my Hotmail account to my Outlook program on my computer. This then allowed me to connect my Outlook calendar to iCloud so that it syncs seamlessly with my iPhone. What that means is that I can add an appointment on my computer and it will show up on my phone and on the iCloud website automatically. It's like magic!