Car Camping Weekend

Ryan and I went camping at Guelph Lake Conservation Area this weekend. It was a relatively last minute trip as we decided and booked it just a couple days before going. The car was loaded without even really going through any of our camping items, so a couple things were missing,but nothing too important (didn’t have a dish cloth, so a potholder was used instead).

I had intended to go for a shorter easy run on either Friday night or Saturday morning, but we got to the park a bit later than planned on Friday evening and after a very loud evening (other campers, some of who were kicked out that night) and after an animal ran right into the side of the tent in the middle of the night, and a couple of girls decided to walk by talking, laughing, singing, etc LOUDLY at 4:30 am (they were kicked out) I was not bright-eyed or bushy-tailed at 7am, so I stayed in bed.

Saturday became a cross-training day with lots of walking, swimming, paddling, and a bit of hiking.

Saturday night was much quieter, but we did still the skunk waking us up by walking along the edge of the ten (on the edge of the tent floor). I guess we invaded his walking route. He didn’t bother us, though, just woke us up a few times.

I did get out for my Sunday run today. This morning, I went for a 15 km run, a good portion of it on 2 trails, one being the Speed River Trail. It was sunny and hot, so I was very glad to be in shaded trails for about 9km of the run. I had an enjoyable run, but really wanted to jump straight into the lake from the dam, when I was running across it. I resisted, of course.

It was a quick weekend, but a good one. It was quite a contrast to our camping up in Algonquin the previous weekend. But as they say, variety is the spice of life.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 15 km
Weather: 25 C, sunny, not much wind.

Guelph Lake 10K

This morning, at 10am, I ran the Guelph Lake Conservation Run. The course was nice, a little hillier than I’m used to, but nice.

When I went to bed last night, it was raining. When I woke up this morning, it was raining. Luckily, it stopped before race start and only spit a little during the race. It started up again about an hour after the race.

I finished in 53:14 as per my Garmin and 53:47 as per the timing chip (there was no timing mat at the start). I finished 4th in my age/gender group. It wasn’t my best race, but as I said earlier, the course was nice.

Lessons from today’s race:
- I need to do hill training
- I need to make sure my shoes are not too tight (my right foot went numb and I needed to stop to loosen my laces)
- When re-tying my shoes, I need to make sure my sock does not bunch under my foot (I could feel a fold or something under the ball of my right foot the whole rest of the race after adjusting my laces)
- I should definitely pay more attention to what I eat the day before a race (went out for dinner last night, enjoyed my food, but it didn’t like me… I felt ill last night and didn’t feel fantastic this morning.. I actually had a moment in the race where I started to think about what to do if I need to vomit. Luckily, the feeling passed)
- If the weather is above 10C, even if I feel very cold before the start, I do NOT need to wear a jacket (I brought my jacket thinking I would wear just the vest portion and leave the sleeves in the car, then when I got there, I was cold, so I put the sleeves back on and started the race. About 2 km into the race, I needed to take off the jacket and tie it around my waist)’

So, there were mistakes made today, but I still had a good time. I would definitely do this race again.