Running across Tennessee, School ending, etc.

The kids finished off the school year online. Because of this, instead of finals, the kids had large projects at the end of the year.  C finished all his projects with 2 hours to spare after 2 all-nighters (he claims he never wants to do 1 all-nighter again, let alone 2 in one week).  H did a big powerpoint presentation about various planets and space things.  V did a big report on the Inca civilization, including figuring out how to make tamales during quarantine in Canada.  We already had Masa flour, we used parchment paper in lieu of corn husks and I found a recipe to use the Instant Pot instead of a steamer.

H decided to try his hand at sewing a mask.

Since the marathon in May went so well, we then decided to run 20k on the Bruce Trail.  The Bruce Trail goes from the NY/Ontario border up to the northern part of Ontario. It's over 550 miles long has 250 miles of side trials.  I'd never run further than 15km on trails with the trail running group I joined last spring. We started at the southern end of it in Queenston and worked our way towards a restaurant about 18km in.  We were going tor a 1/2 marathon distance of 21.1k, so ended up running 3k on the canal trail once we got back to the car.

Showing off injuries.  I tripped over a root-about 10 minutes later, K did as well. But we're fine.

 This is the screaming tunnel. It's super gross and has water from a spring that smells like sulpher all year round.  The frogs like it.

The trail includes some beautiful areas-the Niagara escarpment, Woodend Conservation area, a golf course and an older Welland Canal.

Then, we decided to try running the Laura Secord trail. I mean, the 20 km on the Bruce went ok and LS is only 32-33km.  We'd been warned a significant portion of it was through downtown St. Catherines-cement, boring and hot (summer has arrived in the area).  Most people we talked to said, "yeah, do it once, then do the better trails from then on."  So we did it.

A lot of it is along the Bruce Trail. 

We started at Laura's homestead in Niagara Falls where we were dropped off.

These Canada geese tried to murder us.

We made it on to the pedestrian bridge. On our foray on to the Bruce last time, we missed a turn and ended up having to go over the railroad bridge.  This means we are learning from our mistakes!

We made it through town!  12 mile creek is in the background.  This is a little over 1/2way.

We made it! DeCew house! Called for our ride to pick us up.

Covid dragged on.  C and I grew the same hairstyle.

It's gotten hot here.

I decided to try out 20k in Shorthills in my own backyard.

I usually go out early before the kids are up to do their schoolwork.

V was given a health assignment today to watch a video about children and exercise. One question was, " Was there anything that surprised you in the video?" Her answer: "I was surprised that boys are more active than girls because in my family my mom is the most active of all of us by far."

Then, we were still bored, so K and I decided to run a 50k on the Bruce Trail. I downloaded maps, found a ride to the start and end and a 30K refill point (grocery store near the trail for more water, etc). We started at Louth Conservation area (just before that was closed for COVID) and followed the trail until Devil's Punchbowl. It was my first time outside our home region of Niagara on the trial.

This was about 40k in (marathon ish) I got the one leg over and got tired and had to mentally tell myself to bring the other leg over.

When people travel on the trail there's log boxes like the Appalachian or Pacific Coast Trails.  So you can find someone if they don't show up by seeing where they were last.

On the escarpment above Grimsby, the blue water is Lake Ontario.

This was what the trail was probably 50% of the time.  Turned out we were "running" what was more of a hiking section. We expected it to take us 7.5 hours based on our previous adventures.  It took over 9.

K was good enough to hold this tree up for me.  

Emergency Kit: Body glide, ibuprofen, tissues, sun block, deep tissue pain stuff, bug repellent, pepto bismol, aquaphor, tape, guaze, bandaids, blister stuff, duct tape, lip balm.  

We ended up at 52km, 9hours 23 minutes and 3800 calories burned. 

Then things started looking up and as Ontario hovered around 200 new cases of COVID a day (mostly in Toronto, our area usually kept under 5) I was finally able to go to the outlet mall.  The mall has outside entrances for every store and only a few people at a time were let in, sometimes with needing a mask and being able to try clothes on only in fitting rooms that had solid surfaces that could be disinfected.  I ended up buying shorts TWO sizes smaller than I wore last summer.

Then I reached another running goal. Even though races are cancelled, I was in a goal group for 2020km in 2020. I’m going to try for 2020 miles now. 2020km = 1255 miles and it’s only mid June. #hindsight2020

ETA: talked to middle son about this and that there would be 765 miles left to go and it’s not even 6/30. He said, “you can do that without even trying. I mean, you run every day.”

In our efforts to find more crazy people to run trails with, esp women, we had 4 of us go to Ball's Falls in Jordan-it's a very technical but beautiful trail. And shady.

 There was a snake.

 Ball's Falls

 The upper falls.

 The headless snake K threw at me in the parking lot.

Luckily the two little kids have been getting along amazingly during this time of togetherness.

Sometimes the eldest leaves his room to feed.

 V solved the world's problems:

I tried different mask patterns.

 All the kids have grown a bit.

We tried to take the kids to Louth Conservation area

But V fell face first in a puddle and everyone said that leaving the house only leads to heartache.

Then they cleaned up trash at local Decew falls.   They put up with it for a bit.  We will dress them in orange next time for the full community service effect.

 They are reading a lot.

 The eldest is almost fully nocturnal now that school is out.

A week before June finished, I finished my virtual race across Tennessee!!

50 days 1027km. 710.3 running and 316.7 walking ( in miles that’s 638, 441, 197). That's an average of 20.5km (12.75 mi) everyday for 50 days. I finished somewhere in the 600s of a race with 19000 participants.

Now I'm heading back across, hoping to finish by the deadline of August 31st.  

Have seen a lot of things along the way, including the snapping turtle.

Started off with a 1/2 marathon for my birthday and a backyard gathering of under 10 (Yay phase 2!)

Then Canada Day ran all the numbered trails in Shorthills.

We swam, had hotdogs and smores on a fire and lit sparklers

 So, we finally made it to summer.  The little kids are supposed to be taking a mindfulness class once a week online for 90 minutes and C is supposed to be taking math and english refresher courses. 

No swim team for V this year, our local pool is open but not enough of the other pools are open to compete against.  H was able to sign up for skating lessons, though! They are supposed to start in November.