Week #8 Recap

Monday--3 miles: 29.30 (ish)

Tuesday--3.0695 miles: 30.01 (exact)

These two days had great runs. Monday's was at the gym. Had some unexpected cheerleading, which was really encouraging. Even ending my run in her honor listening to a little Sasha Fierce (Beyonce, for those who weren't positive).

Tuesday, I ran outside our little three mile run and it felt pretty good. This run/walk thing has enabled me to build up some endurance that allows me to run for a bit longer than 10 minutes before a walk break. Although, my knee usually tells me when it needs a break and that often happens right around 11 minutes, but who's timing?

I was supposed to run on Thursday, but we left for a wedding on Thursday morning and I didn't pack hardly anything the night before, so . . .no run.

But really I was saving all of my extra stored energy for Saturday's 11 mile run in Canada

Saturday: who knows how far--our best guess, 12-13 miles

who knows how long--about 2 hours 15 minutes.

Why don't I know such basic information about a run that took over two hours? Well, that's because we got totally, seriously, and completely lost in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada during our run. Not just a little lost, really lost, like call up Eric's parents and tell them we don't know where we are but we have just run for over two hours and we need them to come find us and bring us back to the hotel--that's seriously lost.

Did we plan to be that lost? No, that's a silly question. Eric was the man with a plan. He spent a good hour trying to find and map a suitable run for us. But no plan can work when you leave the hotel and immediately go in the wrong direction. Oops! After a short while we came to a road that he had planned for us to run on, but not at that time--it was the road that we were essentially supposed to come out of and then finish up our run. So we decided to follow it for a while--we passed some nice parks and ran through a seriously new and huge and crammed-together subdivision before we came out near a place where we were supposed to run, so we sorta continued to follow the plan from there--ran for a while down River street to Lorraine. But then Eric was concerned that if we had turned around at that point and just run back to the hotel (which we could have done with no problems) that we wouldn't have enough mileage for the day. So we kept running. . .

Down Lorraine to Heritage (where again Eric thought we should turn around--but I am not one for turning around, it sorta sounds like a horrible idea). So we turned onto Heritage. That's where we left the semblance of anything that we knew and ventured into guessing territory. Down Heritage to a light at Ottawa (which we recognized)--I was hoping we would simply run down Ottawa until we reached another cross-street we recognized and thereby return to home. Umm, no. The man with the plan saw the name of a street that was on the original run list and opted down that street. So up Oldfield we go (at this point we have been running for 1 hour 40 minutes--I know this because we had our second Gu and a water walk break on Oldfield.) We get to a light on a major road (which we had never seen before, but would have been really nice to have known--it would have saved us a great deal) But Eric realizes that Oldfield turns into Zeller, which is again on his list--so we proceed into the Subdivision Of Doom! (insert ominous sound effects here!)

Running along, getting ready to be done, but still feeling okay--Zeller turns into Old Zeller. It was a huge subdivision, lots of houses jammed really tightly together, but lots of construction still yet to be done. Somewhere along this road a sweet lady stopped and asks us for directions to the Radisson (which is where we happen to be staying). We give her the directions that we are following--take Zeller to Projected Rd to Fairway to the hotel. Not an issue--except that Projected Road was not a street name, it was a projected road to be built by the subdivision. Um, yeah. So we send this ladies off thinking that we Americans have done such a great service.

As we run down Zeller we see the ladies turn, but never ourselves do we find Projected Road. In fact it looks like Zeller DEAD ENDS--into a river. But handily enough, there is a trail off the road--the Grand River Trail. Well, this is something we recognize, Eric looked at it when trying to find a run for us. So we think that this will get us somewhere. And on this trail we realize we have been running for enough over two hours that E's parents (who are graciously watching the kids) might start getting worried) and that we don't see where this trail gets off (although it was a beautiful trail). Oh wait, isn't that the farm that we passed way earlier on Zeller Road? Oh no!

At this point we have called for help. Eric's Dad and brother come to rescue us. But not before we manage to find our way out of the massively, huge and winding Subdivision of DOOM! (enter ominous soundtrack)

Although we were lost, it was a pretty great run. It was a cloudy and not too warm day, occasional drips of rain, a nice breeze. And my running partner was pretty great. Together we kept it from being a tense (although there were moments--like Ottawa and Oldfield) and instead we had a nice adventure. However at the end, our legs felt like they were empty, out of energy stores. Mine sorta felt like they were going to start cramping in order to find more energy stores. And now, we both feel it, my knee is very stiff and Eric (and my) legs are tired. I think tomorrow is going to be a sore morning. Oh well. We're still in Canada-there's more adventuring to do yet!