Completed

Big Gifts for Little Lives (2022)

May 22, 2022

Sunday Runday, and my morning run (though short) was a fast, local race.

Too often I discount and downplay the value of lacing up for a cause that isn’t just another tick on the tally of my own personal achievements. Yet a five kilometer fundraiser race, as far removed as it is from the epic half marathons and ultra trail races that seem to consume my training calendar these days, is a heartwarming reminder of my sports more enduring legacy in the modern running landscape.

Some backstory may be relevant here.

Disney World Half Marathon 2022

January 16, 2022

Ready to run?

Sunday Runday, and just over a week after rolling through the finish line of three Florida Disney World races, I did a (socially distanced) ten klick run back with the crew through the icy streets of Edmonton.

Amazing. Crazy. Chaotic. Nostalgic. Insane.

What other words can one use to describe the first international mega race back after a multi-year break from the same.

Rivers Edge Ultra (2021)

Having spent about three and a half hours running an ultra-style half marathon yesterday, the first actual bibbed, chipped, other-people-on-route race I’ve run in nearly two years, I was feeling very tired.

By the time I crawled out of bed yesterday morning, the folks who tackled the much longer distances, eighty and one hundred kilometers, had already been running for a couple hours.

The twenty-one kilometer race was set to start at noon, so I had plenty of time to sip my coffee, make pancakes for the family, do some stretches and prep my gear.

Quarantine Backyard Ultra (2020)

April 6, 2020

Post-Race

I woke up at about 530am to get myself prepped.

To be very, very clear: After watching the race live feed for the better part of the weekend, and as I write this 48+ hours later the live feed is STILL going and 3 people are STILL racing, my two laps and 13.5 klicks seems pathetically inadequate. The runners are approaching 330 klicks and 49 hours and three people are still racing.

So, I participated.

Resolution Run (2020)

Each year for at least a decade I’ve been negating my ability to sleep in on the first day of the year in exchange for the glory of running a simple five klick race. The annual Resolution Run is a weather gamble, bringing out a thousand ambitious runners in sub-zero temperatures — fewer and fewer with each successive degree below freezing.

This year was no different.

Leave the house at 10am to get myself a reasonable parking space at the local YMCA.

Linger in the lobby trying to corner familiar faces, maybe snap some New Years selfies and group shots.

Okanagan Half (2019)

I ran my last half marathon of the year in October and a summer of training followed by an autumn of faster training netted me a pretty decent time.

About mid-month we packed up the new car and drove for twelve hours westward on Friday morning. It was planned. I had registered for the Okanagan Half Marathon in Kelowna, British Columbia, a beautiful little mountain valley city on the edge of a lake and tucked inside a microclimate that made it feel more like September than the nearly-winter chill back home.