Update and Late Photos

I realized that I have not posted anything in a LONG time, so I figured I should throw something together. Actually, I had started a post after Easter, but didn’t finish it and therefore, never published it. So… I know this is super late, but better late than never, right?

First, the update:

I see that my last post was after the Re-Fridgee-Eighter. Well, I’ve run a few races since the last time I posted, so I let you my my results for those races and compare them with my times from last year.

March 24, 2013 - Around the Bay 30K – gun time: 2:44:23, chip time: 2:42:16 (PB)
2012 chip time: 2:42:44. Actually, I just noticed something right now when looking up the results. My gun time for 2012 and 2013 was exactly the same… to the second. Both were 2:44:23.

April 13, 2013 - ENDURrace 5K – gun time: 23:00, chip time: 22:55 (PB and first time I’ve ever broken 23 min for a 5K)
2012 chip time: 23:22

April 20, 2013 - ENDURrace 8K – gun time: 38:18, chip time: 38:14 (PB)
2012 chip time: 38:50 (that was my previous best 8K)

May 5, 2013 - Mudpuppy Chase 10K – gun time: 48:47, chip time: 48:38
2012 chip time: 47:57.
My 2013 PB streak (every race so far in 2013 was a PB) ended on the day of the Mudpuppy, but I still ended up with my 2nd fastest 10K time, so I’m happy with that.

And now… the Easter Run.

When I was at my parents’ house for Easter, I headed out to one of my favourite places to run in Eastern Ontario, the Long Sault Parkway. That probably doesn’t sound like the best place to run, but the road is technically closed from fall until May, so it’s virtually traffic free and offers wonderful views along the St Lawrence River.

The road/causeway itself is 10km from end to end and I decided to run a half marathon that day I started at the West end of the section of road, parked the car by the entrance, and ran along the road to the East end, where I turned around and headed back to my starting location.

I took some photos with my phone along the way. Here are a few. I hope you enjoy them.

As you can see from the photos, there was still some ice and snow, but it was also a very nice and warm spring day. I had a great run and got to enjoy the wonderful views of 2 countries as I ran, with water on both sides of me.

Re-Fridgee-Eighter and More Photos :)

Yesterday was the 16th annual Re-Fridgee-Eighter 8 km and 8 mile race. It was quite cold out, but it was clear and dry and was not windy. The conditions were quite good for a race in February. The race was well organized as always and the post race food was tasty. I had a slice of chicken club pizza which was very good.

I ran the 8 mile distance and was happy with my race. I came in over 3 minutes faster than my previous best time. The course was different this year and I talked to several others who had PBs today, but a PB is a PB and I’ll take it. :) I ran the race in 1:03:32, placing 8th female (out of 65 entrants) and second in my age group. Since the 3rd overall female was in my age group, I walked away with the first place medal for female ages 30-34.

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Since I had previously been updating with photos, I will continue that in the second half of this post. I finished up December last time, so now I will jump into January 2013, which should bring us up to date with the photos.

January 1st – Walter Bean Trail, Kitchener

Obstacle on the trail

January 5
Fun bridge in the trails just off the Walter Bean trail near Ottawa St.

January 6

Snowy Sunday morning run with Runners’ Choice 

January 12

A bit of an odd day weather-wise for the middle of January. As you can see below, I’m wearing a short sleeved shirt and by the look on my face you can tell that I am not cold. I was actually over dressed (I wore long pants.. should’ve done shorts or at the most, capris). I ran along the Grand River by Freeport. The river was misty at one point, so I took a few photos and included one below.

Misty River

January 19 – Frosty Trail 6 hour Ultra

I ran my very first ultra this day. It went better than I could’ve imagined. I had some fantastic encouragement along the way (very helpful and appreciated) followed by good conversation after the race. I ran 51 km during the 6 hours and placed 4th female. It was a good first ultra experience. I’m pretty sure I’m not done.

The trails got a bit muddy…

I was proud of myself after this race.

January 27

The sun started to set as I was finishing my my run near the Grand River this day. The colours looked much prettier in person, but it’s still nice in the photo, so I will include it.

Now that I have included photos up to the end of January, I think I am caught up and will go back to regular blogging as I finish any runs where photos have been taken. I hope you’ve enjoyed the bulk updates.

Photo Update continued: December 16-31

I have a bit of time this morning, so I decided to throw together the 2nd of 3 photo update posts. I hope you enjoy the photos.

December 16 – Homer Watson Park, Kitchener

 

December 20: Where I grew up (Eastern Ontario) 

 
This is the park where I used to play. The playground is not visible in this photo.

Brinston General Store

What used to be Watson’s General Store. I bought my fake Cabbage Patch Kid doll here when I was little. I didn’t even have enough money but Barb let me have it anyway. :)

December 22: Still out my parents’ way – cold and snowy

I had to cut this run short because I was actually in pain from the cold.

December 30: around Downtown Kitchener

I have no idea why there are hats on this window sill.

I will have one more photo update post in the next couple days, which will bring the blog up to date. :) I may also include something about today’s race, the Re-Fridgee-Eighter, which is part of the Waterloo Running Series.

The group run that didn’t happen

This morning I got up shortly before 7, had some coffee, ate some toast with peanut butter and banana, and got ready to meet up with the folks from meetup.com at the Saturday Trail Run that I had organized.

The first challenge of the day was actually getting out of the little lane beside the house. Luckily, Ryan got the car out for me while I finished up getting my stuff together. I hopped in the car and headed toward the trail. The roads were mediocre at best. I arrived just 2 minutes after the time I said I would be there, so I didn’t do too badly time wise, but I was disappointed to see that the parking lot where we were to meet was completely inaccessible.

I drove past the lot and looked for a place to park nearby, but did not have any luck. I drove around to another street and parked near Chicopee. After parking, I ran back to the meet up location to see if anyone else had shown up, but there were no signs of other runners. I trudged through the snow and discovered that there was no way we could run on this trail today. I waited a few minutes to be sure nobody was coming and then headed back out to do a short run on my own.

I discovered later that another runner had been driving around the area looking for me (and others), but unfortunately, we did not cross paths.

My tracks in the deep snow

Not the deepest spot, but still shows the type of ground cover today :)

The trail under the bridge was full of large chunks of ice from the river.

I ran back to where the car was parked and then found some short trails that had been travelled by somebody, so I could actually get through them. I ran around this area briefly and then crossed the road to have some fun running through some deep snow in a playground.

I took some photos while out on my own to share.

Snow covered trees next to where I parked.

I could get through this trail :)

And it connected to this one.

Hi

Total distance covered today was only 5 km, but with the amount of snow, I’d say it counts for more. I could’ve definitely used some snowshoes today.

A photo update

***
It is now February 8th and I wrote a good chunk of the below last week. Instead of changing it, I thought I’d just add this wee blurb to the top so you know why the actual post starts out with info that is no longer true since I posted something yesterday.

Today is essentially a snow day due to the piles and piles of snow we received overnight and are still getting now as I type. I am working from home today, but there are some system issues due to the number of people on VPN. I doubt I’ll run later, but it could be kinda fun in the snow… who knows. I am planning on a trail run tomorrow morning with some people through meetup.com. It could be interesting with all of the snow.

Instead of this post being an update all the way up to now, I think I’ll do it in chunks. Today will be December only. Next time, I will include January and the first weekend of February.

I will try to update the blog on a much more regular basis going forward. Life got crazy and the blogging got pushed aside. Life isn’t exactly “normal” now, but I will blog. :)
*** 

I realize that it’s been quite a while since I last published a blog post. So… instead of trying to think of a bunch of things to write about, I will post a bunch of photos that I took on the runs between my last blog post and now. I will include short blurbs about the runs along with the pictures so that you know what they are about and when they were taking. This should bring you up to speed on my running. I will try to be better at posting from here on in.

December 1st: The Santa Pur-Suit:
As you may recall, I ran in the santa suit with Jordan previously, to promote the event. On actual race day, I got to see my friend Paul and also my mom, who both ran the race as well.

 

December 8th: Saturday morning run with Ron (Runners’ Choice)
I met up with Ron and some other runners in Cambridge. After the group was finished their run, I went back out for another out and back and took some photos on the way.

 

December 15th: Kissing Bridge Trailway, West Montrose. This is a very well marked flat rail trail.

     

I was going to keep going with December, but there are a bunch more photos that I want to share and this post is already crammed full of photos, so I will stop here and start at December 16th in the next post.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some views from the run, even though they are old.

A Quick Update

I haven’t posted anything on this blog in months, so I thought today was a good day for a quick little post.

I started a photo update post last week, but haven’t finished it yet. I will hopefully have that done this weekend.

So… it’s Thursday night, which means I was out with Runners’ Choice tonight for a workout. It was hills on Longfellow tonight. I ran from work to the store, as usual, then ran with the group from there.

On the way to the store tonight, there were crows flying everywhere! I had to take a photo to share, so here it is (sorry it’s not very good):

The hill workout consisted of a couple of longer, gradual hills, and one shorter but steeper hill. I did the sequence of 3 hills four times. Total distance covered from leaving work until I was back at the store after the workout was 9.4 miles. I was happy with that, especially since I haven’t really run much this week. It was good to get a decent run in tonight.

And now it is time for me to get some sleep.
Goodnight.

First Snowy Run of the Season

After running in a Santa Suit in above seasonal temperatures just a few days ago, today I was running in the snow.

I headed out to the Grand River Trail this morning to do an out and back between Freeport and Blair. My actual plan was just to run along the trail for about and hour, then turn around and head back. My turn around point was slightly under an hour just because I would have had to cross a major road and get over to another section of trail to keep going. At my turn around point, I was over 58 minutes, so I figured that was close enough. :)

It was a very enjoyable run this morning. The snow fell gently the entire time, the wind was relatively calm, my legs felt good, and I even saw a fox a little over 5K into the run. I wasn’t quick enough to photograph the fox (wasn’t expecting him), but I saw him trotting along towards me and then quickly turning around and running away. I did happen to take a photo of his tracks, which show his turn around point.

The bridges over the Grand River and over Hwy 401 were quite slippery this morning, but the trail itself was in quite good shape. There were only a couple spots where it was a bit icy and some small slush puddles.

Overall, I had a great time on my run this morning. I took it pretty easy and it was quite pleasant.

I took some photos to share with you. Enjoy.

Time to start my run at Schneider Park at Freeport

From the starting point, I had to run over this bridge and then under it, to get to the main trail.

Once on the trail, there are nice sections right beside the Grand River

As well as tree lined portions, just away from the river.

Here’s where the fox quickly turned and ran away.

Bridge over the Grand – it was a little icy

I couldn’t see the river from here, but this was my favourite section.

Just under 60 minutes, but looked like a good place to turn around…

And take a wee Sharkies break :)

Headed back down the way I came

Which takes you past the Pioneer Tower…

And this interesting tree…

past the small dam…

and back toward the first bridge.

After under, over, and under the bridge…

I was back at my starting point and finished my run.

Total distance: 19.43 km
Time: 1:56
Weather: –3 C, snow, wind 17 km/h SW