Autumn Days

Cause Canada Rocky Mountain half marathon, 10k and 5 k

With all the buzz and excitement and motivation from the Olympics, I for some reason  thought it would be a good idea to enter for about a half marathon . The Rocky mountain Half marathon was in three weeks time and it had been 10 years a hamstring injury and two children since I had done my previous half marathon in Nottingham. However I continued to think that if I managed to get my mileage up and get out for a few longer runs then I may just manage this. So while we were on our camping trip I had managed to get out for about 45 mins every morning and things were feeling ok. However I knew that the half marathon would take about two hours and that was when I was 10 years younger and much more well trained. Although I have always continued my running throughout the last 10 years, I haven't had a goal to train to and have just been plodding along. So I thought that I should join the local run club and get more miles under my belt and a bit of interval training. This was really enjoyable and got me out in the rain and pushed me to do hills and intervals, however my body never felt quite recovered the next day...always a bit of leg stiffness and back pain. Things just don't recover as easy as they did 10 years ago. As the date for the race grew nearer I found myself contemplating the results of completing the 21K and the lasting effect on my body. Yes I would probably complete it, but would I be aggravating an already injured leg.

So the day before the run, I had to pick up my race kit at the local school and I was all set to drop down to a safe 10k, which is my favorite distance to run, but entering the room and suggesting such felt like such a woos and a failure. I hummed and hawed for a while,stuck with the 21 k, registered the kids for the 5 k and then was about to leave when my conscience got the better of me and really it would be more sensible to do what you know you can do....the 10k.

So we were all set to run, and off I went to do the 10k, James and the kids left 15mins later to do the 5 k.
As I was running, I felt pretty good and continued to pick up the pace and just kept going. I finished then went for my complimentary 15 min massage then walked from the finish line to see Heather and Finlay coming down the last straight. I helped Heather run over the finish line. The kids were so proud of themselves and enjoyed drinks to finish. then we went to the school for muffins,cookies and fruit while the results were being printed and posted on the wall. Not thinking that I had run anything special, I went up to see how we had all done and to my surprise I had finished first in my age category...now that I am a vet 40-49, so at the advantageous place in my age category!! After taking a second look I realised that we may have to hang around for the ceremonies!!
So for the 10k I came 1st out of 210 women 40-49, 4th out of 510 females, 30th out of 700 people running in total. As it turned out, a wise choice to drop to 10k. a time of 45mins and 6 seconds.
Finlay and Heather completed their 5k in 55 mins. Heather came234th out of 238 runners, 31st out of 31in her age category(under 15yrs)
Finlay came82nd out of 83 runners and 28th out of 28 in his category(under 15yrs).

One proud boy with his gold medalist mumma!!

Back to school days

That time of year again after a good summer of fun, exploring, relaxing, camping and visiting. Now it is time to get back into the routine of school and activities. Heather is going into grade one and continuing with French immersion and is now starting full days starting at 08.26. Finlay is going into Junior Kindergarten for 21/2 hours in the afternoons. So Iam going to have 2 hours to suit myself.

Last year Heather was in afternoon kindergarten and we enjoyed our time in the mornings, waking to our natural rhythm and I was anticipating this year with some trepidation . However I have had to wake the kids up at 06.45 , but we have managed to get out the house and walk to school and are on time every morning, even with the spanners that Finlay tries to put into the works, whether it be that his socks don't fit right, or his sleeves are rumfelled, or he has to change his jacket to then want the original one on as we are going out the door. So all can seem very calm and organized at 8.00 and then all of a sudden we are thrown into the mist of a melt down and tantrum in the boot room. However we are not letting that hold us back from our great track record of getting to school on time and have often left the house with a screaming boy by our side. If you ignore him long enough that little boy goes away and when we get to school, he has come back to his normal self.

While we wait for the bell and the doors to open, Heather walks to the top of the steps to wait for her little friend to arrive off the bus, she greets her with a hug and then they get in line with the rest of the kids. Heather seems to love school, she enjoys being with her friends and seems to have many friends, she is a wee social butterfly and she also loves her teacher. She is in for the full day, has lunch in class at 12 noon, then has recess from 12.20. Finlay and I are often greeted by her as we settle him into the JK room as she is going out to play. We have started a routine that every Thurs I collect her at that time and we walk to the local cafe for a coffee, hot chocolate and some girl time.

I get to spend the mornings with Finlay and sometimes go for a bike ride, I try to take him swimming once a week and he is making great progress in his swimming, the last few weeks saw a change from a boy who wouldn't put his head in the water, wouldn't jump in and hated being splashed, to now swimming with a float the length of the pool, jumping in and trying to swim by himself. He loves going under water with his goggles on and diving for his buddies. So it is great that I can focus this enthusiasm one on one. He has also enjoyed gymnastics on a Tuesday morning and we try to get to the library once a week too.

My free two hours is often filled with preparing the evening meal so that the transition after activities is smooth and I am not left with frenzied hungry monsters, shopping for food and I try to get out for a run at least twice a week, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 30 mins depending how I feel. Some weeks I have to work evenings, so it is again preparing food for kids,dad and mum then off to work until 11pm. Then at 6.00 my day starts all over again.

Canmore Highland Games

Happy 6th Birthday Heather

Heather had originally wanted her party at the Flat bread pizza place in town, however we managed to convince her that it would be much more special for her to make the pizzas herself for her friends to eat at her party.....sorted....then she wanted a Unicorn and dragon birthday party this year and her wish was that all the girls have unicorn masks and all the boys to have dragon masks.So preparation started the week before, drawing, cutting, tracing and buying felt so that the kids could make their masks at the party ....a good little party gift.

Home made fairy cakes.

Heather's homemade pizza.

Pin the horn on the unicorn.

courtesy of Dad's handy work.

The unicorns and dragons.

The kids enjoyed gluing and sticking

There was necklaces to be made out of cookie cutters and play dough, baked and painted

Birthday lunch.

Birthday smiles.

and barely enough time for pin the horn on the unicorn.

and of course the most important part of all was the unicorn birthday cake.

After her friends had gone she spent some time with Leah and Flynn who had traveled from Lake Louise, at the local park where some other friends and neighbors were hanging out and she was proud to hand out the remainder of the cake to them all.

After a brief couple of hours to recover and tidy up she then had two friends for a movie and a sleep over.

This was how James and I spend our 11th wedding anniversary!!

Happy Birthday Heather hope all your birthday wishes came true...

Kikomun provincial park camping

Our family summer holiday this year was a six night camping trip to Kikomun Provincial Park in British Columbia, where the weather is a hot 30 c and it seems essential to have a warm lake to swim in. Coming from canmore where the weather is also usually warm in the summer, however and can guarantee two weeks of 30 degrees, however the rivers and the lakes remain icey cold and very refreshing. Here it was easy to take a leap and jump or even a run into the water and not turn blue when you come out.

The lake is the home to painted turtles, who swim and bask in the sun at the quieter end of the lake and we often too a break from the beach and canoed down to see them as well as the many fish. At the campsite there are another two lakes, hidden lake is a peaceful quiet lake with an abundance of wildlife floating around .The kids enjoyed trying to catch butterflies, dragonflies, lady birds with their nets and also watching the turtles basking in the sun only for them to slip into the water when they got too close.

On our little hikes we collected bits of nature to build a fairy house and Heather enjoyed adding and changing to this throughout the holiday. It seemed that the fairies were pretty impressed with it as they kept leaving little notes tied with grass and on one occassion they even left the kids 2 silver coins!!!

It was a lovely relaxing holiday, I woke at around 7.30 am and went for a daily jog trying to get the miles in for the up coming half marathon that I had signed up for after some sudden inspiration from out of the blue, despite the fact that it has been over ten years since my last half marathon, and I was a lot fitter back then.
Once back at the camper the kids would wake and then we would get breakfast made. We would often make it to the beach mid morning and the kids would spend time playing in the water building ,sand castles and enjoying a picnic lunch. In the afternoons we would canoe or go on a little adventure hike.

Then after dinner we would have stories round the camp fire roast our smores the kids would go to bed then I could sit by the campfire with my little lamp and read.....I actually was able to start and finish a book which for me now a days is a huge accomplishment.