September 2021

 The best thing-school is back in session!!! In person!!!  It has been so soothing to my soul to have a routine where we leave the house and the same things happen each week and we interact with others.  The kids are wearing masks indoors only.  High School has 2 classes a day for a week, then they swap and take the other 2 classes-that seems to be working out well.  C is taking Electricity, Chemistry, English and Math.  He's only really finding math difficult so mom and dad are brushing off their Quadratic Equation skills to help and helping him figure out good study skills for test taking that will be invaluable in future years.  V is in Grade 6, H in Grade 8 and C in Grade 11 this year.  

I'm keeping busy playing doubles tennis 1-3 times a week and still running daily. In fact, on Sept  24 i completed  2 years of a run streak. For two years I have run a minimum of 5km (3.2mi) a day. In the last 2 years I have run a total of 7,725 km/ 4800 miles (4425km /2750mi in the first year, this year 3300km/2050 miles). Celebrated by doing the north end of the Merritt trail which I will do the entire 46km of in November with my run buddy.

In that time I have:

-run the Niagara section of the Bruce trail 2 times in a day (50 miles/82km- I plan to do it in a weekend next month*)

-run 100km in a 24 hour period*

-run a 50km on the Bruce trail*

-run from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario along the Welland canal (just over a marathon- marathon in 4 hr 1 min)*

-run a marathon in less than 4 hours*

-run the Laura Secord Trail (32km)*

-run a trail non official marathon

-run the Seattle Tunnel marathon

-14 other 30k+ runs (approx 20 miles) (some*)

-30 1/2 marathon to 30k runs (some*)

*indicate runs partially or mostly instigated by the best run buddy ever.

This month's running highlights:

Running a few laps with friends who ran 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours (total of 48 miles in 2 days) to raise money for Pathstone mental health.

Hitting 2.5 years I've been trail running. As you can see it's made a big difference! (I'm in purple on top in spring 2019 and in orange on the bottom this September.

Sept 8 I ran another 50 miler-the Niagara Section of the Bruce trail-again. Remember last year when I went up with a group of 6 to run the Niagara Bruce Trail section? Robert Rintjema was in that group-not only did he make it 55k before stopping, he ran another 11k in the dark with me as I finished alone.

Saturday, Sept 4 at 4pm he texted me, "Wanna run 83K on Tuesday? Didn't think so. Ha Ha." I responded, "I have to move a tennis game, but sure." He should know better! Rob ran an amazing run, staying ahead of me for 95% of it but close enough to stay together. Including in the soaker of a storm we had for the last 5-7km of the run.

We had a professional crew-Henri & Di are race directors for the Niagara Falls International marathon. As ultrarunners themselves and race directors, I doubt we could have found a finer crew and it was just one of the many reasons I said, "yes".

My first run on this was 16 hours 13 minutes, this time was 14 hours 51 minutes. (11 hours 34 minutes run time)-rest of the time were aid stops I feel much better the day after than I did the first time I ran it.

Starting in the dark in Queenston

Screaming tunnel

Just crossing Victoria Ave-that's Lake Ontario in the background

    Finishing in the dark in Grimsby

This month Hubby started to work with the curling club to put the ice in. It's a huge job for the icemakers. I've had the first several hour long blocks of time alone in my house in about 18 months. It's quiet and calm and amazing! After the first 4 hours he was at the club and the kids were at school I did start to miss them all, but I really did enjoy the quiet!