Day 357: Edmonton Marathon day

so, I didn't get quite a full night's sleep as I got woken up at 4am by the door bell ringing constantly and Cecilia's friend Eunice wanting to get in. my alarm then went off at 6am. Still, I managed to get ready and catch the bus downtown to the race in plenty of time. This is such a good race to be happening the weekend before I leave as I know so many people. Most of the pace bunnies are 109 street folk and most of the people I run with are doing one of the events.

I am especially glad I agreed to do the 10k instead of the marathon, I would have had to get up an hour earlier and I wouldn't have been able to cheer on the other guys I know.

I bumped into Cassondra from the store while I was sorting out my bag drop, she has taken Robyn's race number and is hoping to do 1:15 for 10k, this is her first 10k race.

I had been a bit worried about whether I could manage the pace and doing 10:1s, and this led to me setting off too fast at the start, but I managed to settle into a rhythm after a while. My fellow bunny Marcel disappeared straight away, speeding ahead.

I didn't have an actual group following me so i just tried to cheer on anyone i could.  i spoke to Murray at one point and Jacques said hello too.  When i reached the turnaround point for the 10k, i got to cheer on lots of folks i know who were a little behind (or technically way ahead if they were doing the marathon).  i had the kilometer split times written up my arm and the average pace times written on my hand, but i never saw the kilometer markers to check.  The pace seemed OK, but right before the finish line i wanted people to be overtaking me and feeling good, i didn't want to overtake anyone and put them off, so i slowed down a bit and ended up being a little bit over 55 minutes.  i still need to figure out how to do pacing i guess.  i do quite enjoy it though!

i got my medal, which is glittery and has the Edmonton skyline on it, and a whole bunch of free food including cookies, then went down to grab my bag so i could come back up and see people i know.  I also still had the pace sign even though the wind had made it difficult to carry, and wanted to return it.  Turns out they didn't really want it back and never expect to see them again.  Also turns out Cassondra came in at about 1 hour 5 minutes, way ahead of what she was predicting!  This meant i missed seeing her finish but she was very happy!

I changed my clothes and started wandering up the road as i was going to join Monique for some cheering.  I cheered as i walked and also bumped into Connie so i got to say goodbye.

Monique had signs and a cowbell and was standing just after a cheering station, so most runners came through with a big grin on their faces.

She had been cheering since 8am so an amazing effort.  When she left i wandered further back along the route as I'd seen some friends at a water station.  I found them and chatted to Wade and Gary for a bit.

Amro was now awake and replied to my message so i arranged to meet him in a Tim Horton's on Jasper ave.  As i was wandering back again, the last of the walkers were still going along.  One lady appeared to be struggling, so i walked with her and chatted a bit.  She has arthritis in most joints and shin splints and was told she would be in a wheelchair long before now, but she's still going!  Even if it takes her hours of torment to get through a 5k, she is determined to get to the finish line.  I am so impressed, i nearly went straight passed Tim's, but arrived at about the same time as Amro.  i still have a $5 gift card so got myself a free hot chocolate while he bought breakfast and we had a chat.  

There now wasn't too long until the 109 street group would be meeting up, not enough time to go home and back again.  Amro was going to pick up a friend from the airport so i went with him on the trip.  This meant having to take off the bunny ears for a bit, they won't fit inside a car, but Amro found Emily's pink wig in his car so he wore that.  

At the airport we saw the Brazilian triathlon team arriving.  So exciting that Cath will be here!! Such a shame that i won't be.

Amro and Ali dropped me off at the bar downtown and i joined a big group of 109 street folks.  I didn't want to spend too much money so i just ordered a Guinness and no food.  Turns out Murray accidentally ordered a very large tray of nachos, so i got to help him eat them.

It was great to hear how well everybody did today and what upcoming races people have.  especially the guys going to France for the wine marathon.  i wish i could go along and support them but i still won't have any money by then.  James referred to cartons of wine as "cardbordeaux" and this made me laugh a lot.  he also gave me a ride home after all the "farewell"s.

just as i got home, i noticed a text from Daniel inviting me to a fringe show at 7.  This didn't give me much time but i said i would go and jumped in the shower, finally.

we were cutting it fine and trying to figure out where we buy tickets when one lady offered me a free one as her daughter couldn't make it.  I felt like i should be offering her some money, but i didn't have any so i just said thank you and we whizzed off to try and get a second ticket for Daniel, just in time.

The show was called "this is cancer", which sounded a bit depressing and i was in such a good mood, but it turned out to be pretty funny and silly.

It started in the dark, then the guy appeared wearing a gold spandex suit with weird lumps.  he was playing a personification of cancer but he thought that he was really popular and everybody loved him (more hits on google than Jesus).  he sung songs and told stories, and then discovered that we all hate him, which caused him to strop quite a bit (because he loves us)  eventually he got a guy from the audience to fight him, live on stage, and beat cancer.

The main case study that "cancer" kept bringing up was actually the actor's story.  he and his father had both had eyes removed due to retinoblastoma.  He also encouraged us to write our own obituaries, right now, as an exercise in focusing on life and what you want to be remembered for.

When Dan was driving me home afterwards, i suggested he could come round for dinner, and i messaged Cecilia to check this was OK.  i like that i can invite people round again.  On the drive home, there was a parked car with a full skeleton sat in it.  bizarre!

We had a lovely shared meal with Cecilia, Michael, Tamas and Lee as well.  Some pasta with chicken and salad and hung out chatting and listening to music.  that was a pretty full day!

Day 356: hangover bunny

it was a bit chilly so I didn't sleep much and ended up getting up to stop my alarm going off at 8:30. One of Emily's friends was awake and offered me a ride home, then I had to shower and change and head out to catch a bus downtown. I wasn't feeling too bad but definitely tired and a bit worse for wear. Getting the bus over the river made me feel quite nostalgic (not quite the right word), I will miss views like that.

I arrived just in time, picked up a bunny hat and listened to Randy giving a speech before we all got called up to take a picture. I think there were more pace bunnies there than normal runners. There were a lot of people I know from 109 street bunnying!

We headed slowly outside and went on a run along the gravel and tarmac trails, but it was quite undulating and I was struggling enough at 10 mins/mile pace, let alone the 8:30ish i'll have to do tomorrow. I met my fellow 55 minute 10km bunny, Marcel, who I have definitely seen in the store before and chatted to other 109 street folk.

When we got back they were setting up some food for us so I got some cakes, fruit, yoghurt and juice and sat down with some of the other bunnies. I even managed to give Ed the cheque he needs so they can pay me after I close my bank accounts.

Next I went into the expo to pick up my race number, but I had to do this carrying my timing sign, which was awkward, especially when I wanted to try the free samples and needed a free hand.

When I got back home, I was intending to shower and head down to the fringe or maybe meet up with Amro while he's in town, but I ended up hanging out with Cecilia and Michael for a bit as they had just got up (about 2pm) and we ate some of the left over chicken and salad from the BBQ before they both had to go out. Then I mostly lazed around and didn't really have the energy to go down to the fringe. I tried to get a few things done on my computer but it made me very sleepy so I had a bit of a lie down on the sofa. I made some chicken soup and chatted to Tamas (who got up impressively late) and then there wasn't long until dinner time.

We had a nice big shared dinner of my soup, some pizza Tamas bought and salad Michael bought. The rest of the guys were planning on going out to a bar or two for a bit, but I needed to get ready for tomorrow and get some sleep.

Day 355: Leaving party!

Today I was meeting Fabio for breakfast as he is then going away for work so can't make my party. We drove downtown to his favourite breakfast diner, Rick's and I ate crabcakes with poached eggs on top, shredded potatoes and fruit. I was still tired after another fail at catching up on sleep so I had tea as well. Fabio had steak and eggs and it looked really juicy. We chatted about his travel plans for next year and stuff, then he dropped me back home so I could get ready to run over and meet Aimee.

I left a bit later than I intended so I had to run quite fast and I don't think breakfast had entirely settled in my stomach yet, so I did end up feeling a bit ill. It was great to run along the Belgravia trails again though, they are lovely and shady and green and i'd forgotten just how hilly. With the bridge to the museum being rebuilt, I wasn't sure of the best way but managed to find trails taking me there and only arrived a couple of minutes late. Aimee's colleague Sean was running with us again as well. We did a lovely route round some trails I haven't been along before, but I was much slower than them and struggling. I really will miss all the trail running and the beautiful river valley. After our run, me and Aimee went to the cafe over the road from her house, Vi's for Pies and I got to catch up on what she has been up to recently. She even insisted on paying for my tea and cake. This time I was a bit more sensible and went to wait for a bus instead of attempting to run right after eating.

Cecilia had suggested we have a BBQ before going over to my leaving party, so that didn't leave me with very much time to get all my errands done. I rushed out and got half way up to the Running Room before I realised I didn't have the blank cheque with me that they needed. I got my watch back from Andie and set it to run to see how loud the beeps were. I could barely hear it at all so I think I will just have to use two watches for the race on sunday.

I wandered down whyte ave as I wanted to go to Save on Foods for shopping to see if I could use up my store card points but I also stopped into one shop to try on dresses! Luckily they didn't fit or I might have been tempted to buy one.

Turns out I can't use my points as I don't have enough yet so the long walk was a waste but I got salad things and rolls for the BBQ (Michael would be buying meat) and then headed home.

I had to quickly straighten my hair, get my laundry out of the drier, put make up on and decide what to wear (I texted a photo to Emily) and managed to get everything done within half an hour, in time for the “official” start time for the BBQ, but as nobody was here yet, that gave a bit of extra time so me and Tamas wandered up to the liquor store. Both Alanna and Malcolm were working but Alanna was finishing very soon and would still be able to go to the party.

It feels kinda strange to be having a leaving party, Emily had even chosen the same dress that I wore for my leaving party in England, but I was mostly just excited about having a party for ME.

We got home a couple of minutes after everybody else arrived. (except Cecilia who ended up being quite late back)

There were only five of us so there will be lots of leftover food for later or tomorrow and between us we did a really good job. Michael did most of the barbecuing and the meat was delicious. 

 I was very keen to leave and go to MY party, but we ended up hanging about for quite a while and chatting. Octavio arrived as well and offered a ride to the liquor store for those that needed it. Me and Salim declined and walked straight to Steve's house.

Steve is so good at hosting parties, he had gone to a fair amount of effort decorating with union jacks and a few people had got dressed up. An australian guy was in a tuxedo but with really jazzy trousers. We chatted, we danced, we did poi, it was great to see people. Then, the lights went out and Steve came in with a cake with sparklers on top! Wow!! the cake had even been decorated especially and when I cut it, I found out it was ice cream cake!! then everybody sung happy birthday, which was amusing. This time though everybody knew my name, unlike on my actual birthday. 

There was lots of hat swapping and then Cecilia decided she wanted to swap clothes with me. She was less amused later on when I then swapped with Amro so he was wearing her tiny clothes, but I thought it was hilarious and he looked pretty good.

I was having such a great time, and so touched, I just couldn't bring myself to leave the party with the rest of my house so I stayed and crashed in Emily's room for a bit but with an alarm set nice and early so I could still make the Friendship Run for my pace bunnying duties.

Day 354: last day of work

the weather was cooler today so while I was working outside I was wearing a hoodie and a jacket. I didn't bother bringing a different t-shirt for table moving but I did get myself an iced coffee to make it fun. I topped up the caffeine later with a mocha under the pretense that it would warm my hands up.

I felt like I was counting down the minutes with glee but I have enjoyed working here and spending time with all the wonderful people. Office work will come as quite a shock! Still, its my last day so I spent quite a lot of time trying on sports bras and comparing them. Andie had forgotten to bring in her computer to fix my watch but instead she offered to take my watch away and I could come and pick it back up again tomorrow. I also found some really cheap shoes I may have to buy... oh dear.

It was a fun day and I was being quite silly a lot of the time. I got caught helping an old lady with shoes right at the end of my shift which meant I ended up staying 15 minutes over.

As I was leaving I realised how tired I was and decided I really wanted to get some junk food for dinner, but I didn't know what. I started wandering but nothing was jumping out at me and I ended up walking quite a way before finding some noodles I wanted. This meant I had used up a lot of the evening already and I had intended to go to the fringe show in Cha Island before the couchsurf meet up. When I finally got home, I didn't have much time and I still felt really tired, so I decided to just stay in, have a bath and go to bed early. I feel bad as its my last Thursday in Canada and I wanted to go to the meeting and see everybody.

Cecilia did go, and when she came back she said everybody was asking about me (so I felt guilty) but that they were all going to the party tomorrow (so I felt better again). She had also met up with a couchsurfer who would be coming to stay with us, Tamas from Hungary, then Irish Michael arrived too, then I got sucked in to staying up, chatting and drinking.  which was nice!

Day 353: Fringe day and reunion

I took my time getting up and made myself a boiled egg for breakfast, while introducing myself to the Germans: a father and teenage son and daughter. The father had met Fred in a bar in Germany, then ended up spending a couple of days with him. He had lived in Edmonton a while when he was younger and was going to take his kids to the mall today after meeting some old friends for breakfast, then they would go camping in the mountains. Once they left, I went in and reclaimed my things, moving everything into Cecilia's room. Later on I found out they were only staying one night and going to the mountains straight away so I moved my stuff again.

My plan today was to hang about at the fringe until it was time to go to run club. I texted Daniel to see if he wanted to join me at some point and he said there was a show at 12pm he wanted to see, so that worked out well!

The show was called “no tweed too tight” and was the adventures of Grant Canyon – a high profile insurance investigator in the 70s. With major memory problems caused by heavy drinking and PTSD, in way over his head, leaving a trail of bodies and even a brief scene in space. It was a one man show which reminded me a bit of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar. It made me laugh out loud most of the way through. We then got some food and took it with us to find a cherry tree that Daniel had spotted, so that sorted dessert. Another show was about to start and I decided I also wanted to buy an “elephant ear” (deep fried dough with strawberries and stuff). We sat on the grass near the front and really got into the spirit of cheering and wooping at the acrobats. Towards the end of the show, when they were preparing for their finale, I got grabbed from the audience and dragged on stage to help out. This has never happened to me before and I would never volunteer, but it was fun and possibly the start of a slippery slope to running away and joining the circus...

The next show I wanted to see was the “flo bros”, who were living in Michael's house and their show sounded interesting. They did improvised hip hop and rap based on audience suggestion and they were also being filmed for CTV at the start of the show. For the first game they asked people to hold up an item and they went around making up rhymes about whatever they grabbed. The third guy with them was a local who was making tunes in the background for them. He was pretty amazing. For one of the “games” a guy called Neil was pulled from the crowd and they recorded him saying various things then used those words as part of a song, but the best bit of that was his impression of an orangutan. They ended up saving that sound onto the keyboard permanently and kept bringing it up again throughout the show.

After that, there was nobody waiting at the glitter tattoo stand so I went to get one ( a squirrel) and Daniel got a phoenix. Then a new show was starting – an Australian contortionist with a red mohawk. He was pretty amazing but I had to miss the big finale so that I could get back for run club.

I got distracted on the walk back and bought an ice cream too.

I was supposed to be testing my polar watch out to do 10:1s for sunday's race but couldn't get it to work, despite instructions from Andie. It seemed overly complicated but I still couldn't see what I was doing wrong.

All the run club groups were doing an easy 6k as it was taper week for the race, but Darcy wanted to do hills as his race isn't til November so I agreed to go with him. I feel pretty out of shape right now and i'm a little bit worried I won't be able to do the pace needed for sunday. The hills were hard work, but apparently we were fairly consistent at least.

Andie said she would bring her computer into work tomorrow if I brought my watch in and then she would help me set it up, then I headed back home to eat and shower.

I was just going to have a bowl of cereal but Cecilia had cooked so i got to have steak and pasta.  much better!

Today i had arranged to go back to my old house for a reunion with Oscar the Cat.  I texted Tim to let me in as Oscar would just run and hide if i rang the doorbell.  Turned out he would still run and hide and is still just as much of a scaredy cat.  i spent ages waving a shoelace around near the edge of the sofa to try and entice him out from underneath.  each time i looked he was a little bit closer, then his paws started appearing to grab the rope.  eventually he did come out and i was even allowed to stroke him and rub his belly.

it was great to have that time to catch up with Tim and Salim as well, even Nikola came home a bit later.  Salim was keen to share some of the free alcohol from his liquor store (he is still working two jobs trying to sell it!) so i ended up having a few drinks too and persuading them to come for a BBQ on Friday as well.

i wish i could've just stayed in that house.  Any issues i had living there were nothing compared to what i had to put up with at Michael's place.  it was great to go back and visit again.

Day 352: crazy tea shop and lonely movie trip

I had all sorts of intentions of what I was going to do today, but I took my time getting out of bed, pootling about and having a nice bath. Two of the bedrooms here are en suite and there are currently just two of us here so I may as well make the most of it.

I then texted Cecily to see if she could go for lunch late as I was still not ready, but she had to take lunch at 12 so I wouldn't be able to meet her. Oops.

After faffing on the internet for some time (some of it was necessary planning but mostly facebook – Brenda published her race report from CDR, which was an interesting read) I finally ventured outside to the post office and discovered it was a bit cooler today. This meant I changed clothes into my long skirt to go out again as I was due to meet Brenda for tea at 6pm.

“Cally's Teas” was a cute little tea room with a very dotty woman and lots of little trinkets and things. There was a fringe festival show there at 7:30 so we would have to leave before then as we didn't have a ticket. We must have been asked 50 times whether we were there for the show, and its a small place so there were only about ten people who asked, repeatedly. It was very odd. I had scones and jam and it actually resembled “proper” English scones. Brenda explained that she has accidentally entered the Iron Horse 100 mile race, even though it is not long after her wedding. It was great talking through Death Race with her, and discussing me potentially returning to try one of the races again next year. Ultrarunners are an awesome bunch.

When we got kicked out, the dotty woman gave us both hugs for saying how fun and friendly her cafe was, then I went to wait for a bus downtown.

My plan was to go to the free cinema in Churchill Square to see Frozen, meeting up with Aimee and/or Ian in the process. I ended up waiting around for over an hour for it to get dark enough for the film to start, all by myself as they both flaked on me. Somebody gave me a film magazine to read, which filled in some of the time, the rest was filled in exchanging text messages about how delayed they both were. Still, the film was good.

I got some slightly frantic messages from Cecilia, as the German visitors, who were due to arrive at midnight, had arrived early. I was planning on moving all my bags out of the way when I got back from the film so now it was too late and she had had to try and move what she could quickly. The internet on my phone wasn't working so I couldn't reply.

When I got home (via train – I love living back near the train), the Germans had already gone to bed as they were jet lagged and my toothbrush/contact lens stuff etc. was in the en suite bathroom. I borrowed a toothbrush and slept with my contacts in. the house was full so I was sharing with Cecilia, which meant setting an alarm for 7am as she had to get up for work.

So, a nice lazy start to the day, followed by a bit of a messy evening. I'm really glad to be not working.

Day 351: ten days til Iceland and UK

today has been designated as a lazy recovery day.

I had an alarm set for very late so I could just wake up when I wanted, snooze for bit and eventually get up. Hooray for sleep!

I made myself an epic breakfast of scrambled eggs, spicy tuna, tomatoes and mushrooms on toast and eventually got myself ready and wandered back to Michael's house. Fabio had agreed to help me move as he's not working at the moment, so I had plenty of time to pack (badly) before he arrived at about 1pm. This has made it abundantly clear how much stuff I have and how much I will probably have to get rid of before I leave!

After we dropped all my bags off at Fred's house, we headed out to cha island. I had realised this morning that monday at cha is cheap waffles day! Fabio said he wasn't hungry and would just have tea, but once the waffle arrived he helped me eat it!

Once we finally headed home, I was feeling pretty lazy so spent the remains of the afternoon doing very little until Cecilia came home. The two of us then wandered up to safeways and got back just in time for Cecily to arrive.

I was cooking leftover beef stew and some veggies for us, and Cecily was bringing “baby duck”, a very cheap Canadian fizzy wine similar to lambrini.

It was lovely to just hang out and chat, although stew is much better in the winter and it was a bit too warm for today!

Irish Michael popped round too as he just lives round the corner, but eventually we all headed to bed.

Day 350: Ten days to go

when my alarm went off I thought about not getting up, but this is the last sunday I can go to run club in Canada. The delaying meant I had to sprint up to the store, but I still got there with enough time to find a group running a longer distance rather than the 6km tapering the main group were doing. It was especially nice as they were running a different route, so I got to see some new places I haven't been to before, and they were taking their time which helped as it was hot and humid.

By the time I got home it was past midday, so too late to go and watch Viomar's dragon boat race along the river, but enough time to shower before potentially joining the running group for brunch. I was craving a caesar as its not something i'll be able to drink outside of canada. 

When I heard back from the running group, they were going to the Pint downtown, which is too far to go I think. I'm still pretty sleepy. Instead I arranged to meet Ana at Original Joes (as I've never been there and it seemed to be in between our houses), but her phone was dying, and when I got there I couldn't find her. Instead I wandered up the road to La Poutine to get some food as I've only been there once before. I had three kinds of meat on top of mine.

I needed to get a few things from the drug store, and Ana had mentioned a BBQ at her place at 3pm, so I figured I had just enough time. I also bumped into a Starbucks friend on my walk, while I was eating an ice cream.

When I arrived at Ana's place, I found Simon sitting outside with his dog, Lou. He had also been invited for a BBQ but there was nobody home. Apparently she is always late, and sure enough she came walking up a little after 3pm. We hung about in her house for a bit and talked about my move, then we decided to go back to Original Joes. This meant some rearranging of Simon's truck and I got to clamber into a tiny extra seat in the back and squish in with Lou, which was fun.

They both ordered food, but I just had a caesar as i'd already eaten. Sibel walked past, so we called her and got her to come in and join us. It was nice to just sit outside in the nice weather and chat and take our time. Simon was especially happy that there were four of us from four different countries (continents even) and four different languages.

They offered me a ride back home as Simon wanted to hang out with Michael for a bit anyway, but when we arrived, I went straight into my room to pack a backpack. I didn't really want to face people, so once I was packed I just left to walk down to Ana's house. The door was left unlocked as she didn't have her key so I figured i'd be OK. I used the walk as a chance to text a few people and catch up a bit as i've been so busy lately.

Once i'd dropped my bag off, I wandered up to Safeways to get bread and milk and I also bought two doughnuts and a samosa as that was the kind of mood I was in for dinner. I stopped by the liquor store to say hello to Malcolm and decided to also buy a bottle of wine as I was there.

When I got back I had a mini panic as the door was locked, but Ana was in and planning to go out to the fringe. I was planning on sleeping as I have a lot of catching up to do!

We chatted for a bit while I ate my samosa (the doughnuts didn't last the walk back) and had a glass on wine. Turns out she prefers her middle name, Cecilia, so I asked if it was OK for Cecily to come round tomorrow for a chat – she had offered to help me move, but I suggested she help me drink some wine instead, she has her own housemove to deal with and i'd rather move during the daytime anyway.

She tried to find out what was so bad about Michael's place that I had to move with so little time left, but I wouldn't say and tried to change the subject to happier things.

She had been back and forth to whyte ave quite a few times today so called a taxi this time. She couldn't find the pump for the air matress in the couchsurfer room, so I got to sleep in Fred's room instead.

This is a pretty amazing house! Its really big and clean and neat. I think it will be good staying here.

Day 349: saturday!

I made it to work just about on time wearing my new shoes from yesterday in the hopes my feet would be less sore. I had remembered to wear a sleeveless top, then nearly forgot to put my work shirt in my bag. I am developing a slight caffeine habit again and felt a bit grumpy without it, but Emma offered to go to macdonalds today so I got an iced coffee. There were a lot of us on shift so we got all of the sale tables set up really quickly. A few people arrived asking about their race kits for Run or Dye. It doesn't seem like a well organised event. Most of us were working the full day as well, which is a very long shift. 8:30-7pm. However, time still flew and it was lunchtime before I knew it. Today, I got to work inside in the lovely air conditioning, which other people were complaining about being too cold and popping outside to warm up. We had some coupons from Mucho Burrito, so on my break I texted Fabio to see if he was free to meet me after work.

Again, there were a lot of us so we got the sale put away really quickly too and I was done a bit early. I waited for Fabio and Viomar and then we ate some yummy burritos for half price, although the hot salsa is quite hot, so Fabio popped out to buy icecreams from macdonalds too. They were planning on going to the Fringe festival so I decided to go with them for a bit but I wanted to get to bed early to try and catch up on sleep before run club.

After spending ages trying to find somewhere to park, and then rushing Fabio to the portaloos, we finally made it there and wandered around seeing what was going on. We found Steve volunteering in an information booth at one point.

There was a street performer just starting so we hung about to watch his show. It started off very strange. He blew up a modelling balloon and then swallowed it, like a sword, but completely swallowed it. Then he stuck a latex glove on his head and blew it up til it exploded. Very weird.

 Turns out this is his warm up act, then he introduced himself as an escape artist. He had two straight jackets. First of all he got a small girl from the audience to wear one of the straight jackets (both adult size) then got two volunteers to tie him up in the other jacket and wrap rope all round the outside. The small girl got $10 for successfully breaking out of her jacket, which was pretty cute, then he had to break out of his. He really struggled with the ropes, but eventually got out and he was really entertaining and funny so we each gave him $5. I have always wanted to learn how to get out of a straight jacket.

Fabio has plans to travel for at least six months next year, and he is going to Europe/UK at some point so I will have to try and meet up with him.

as it was saturday evening it was pretty crowded, so im definitely looking forward to being able to wander around in the daytime next week.

Day 348: BBQ crashing

today i perfected the pre-work routine: i was wearing a vest with my uniform in my bag and i left in time to buy caffeine (although i took the wrong route so got expensive iced mocha from Remedy instead of cheap iced coffee from McDs). I felt great, and dancey!

Later on though, i started flagging, especially with the heat and a stomach ache probably induced by too much caffeine.

Run or dye is happening at the weekend and there are crowds of people coming to pick up their race numbers, leading to confusion in customers who think they need to join the queue too.

It was reasonably slow at the sale outside, so i managed to find and buy new shoes.  They are mens shoes, but for some reason we stock them in small enough sizes to fit me and i already own the women's version so they should be good... and the price was hard to resist!!

After work, Emily had invited me to join her at her work BBQ at the university.  There was food, a quiz, and games that Emily got stuck playing with a small child for ages, also people were throwing ice buckets (that had contained soft drinks) over people's head in exchange for donations to charity.

Emily made her excuses, got her bike and we headed to safeways and the liquor store, Malcolm was working there so we got a 10% discount!

The plan had been to head to the fringe, but we decided to skip that as we were both really tired and instead we went back to her house to watch a movie.

i got to see her outfit for a party she was going to the next day, then we settled down to watch Zombieland.  It was the perfect choice for that evening and i really enjoyed it.

I got the bus home just after 11pm and then realised i'd left my alarm clock again.

Day 347: the start of Fringe Festival

I had another 8:30-5:30 shift at the sidewalk sale.  Sierra wore a tank top for table moving and then changed. I will copy this as I just got hot and sweaty.

I decided on a caffeine day again too. It may be a caffeine week.

After work, i went home briefly to change and eat beans and eggs on toast, then left to head to the fringe festival where I was supposed to meet Derek (I had sent him a couchsurf request, he couldn't host me but suggested fringe). After wandering around the stalls, buying a frozen banana and watching the parade, Derek tracked me down with two tickets for a show called Harold of Galactus. It was a two man improvised comedy about a made up superhero, who tonight was Mr. Momentum courtesy of a member of the audience. They made me laugh a lot and the show was only $10 so pretty good! Derek got some food, and while he was eating we bumped into Steve and Tanya out taking photos and hung out with them for a bit, then we went to O'Byrnes as I knew some other couchsurfers would be there.

parade

After one really nice cocktail, I felt good, so stayed with the four couchsurfers and went to Black Dog for more drinks. Brent from Running Room was there too so we all kinda hung out.

I was enjoying myself and didn't want to go home, so we came up with a plan.

Two of us would drive to my place for maple vodka while the other two get ice from Mike's house, then all meet at Ana's place.

When i got there, i recognised it...I've been here before! There was a party at Christmas time here.  I didn't know she was staying with Fred.

We hung out, did some poi and ate some soup made by the couchsurfer.  Ana suggested that i could maybe stay here, even though Fred is away, so this could be a possible place i could move to rather than couchsurfing for a couple of days at a time.  That would be awesome!  i'll have to make sure its definately OK and i won't be imposing, but that's pretty good news for me.

It was a great night and really cheered me up but eventually i wandered home and then set my alarm for about three hours time...

Day 346: mosquito attack

I said goodbye and thank you to Steve and Emily in the morning, as they left the house before me, then I managed to hike to work with my bag. The bugs were pretty bad, so despite bug spray, I got bit. On my face and top of my head!

I was outside at work today, but luckily it was overcast so I should avoid sunburn and I regularly added more bug spray to try and keep the little devils at bay. It was maybe a bit cooler but humid too and even tried raining a few times. I was feeling in a bit of a caffeine mood so offered to do a run to macdonalds and bought myself an iced coffee ($1 so good for the budget).

As i'd forgotten to pack anything for lunch today, I went to remedy and had a lovely wrap and a chai to top up the caffeine a bit.

Customers were steady, but we often didn't have their sizes which made them grumpy. I got to do some receiving in the back today too, which I don't often do. Although it was probably as hot in the back room as it was outside. Only the store is nice and air conditioned.

After work I dug out my run kit from my bag, including the children's shoes I had bought a while back and not had a chance to wear yet. This is my first exercise in a week and a half so I'm feeling pretty out of shape, and the humidity and mosquitoes really don't help. After some drills on the way out, we did 6x4minute intervals with 90 seconds rest.

After all that I had a tomato face and stood under the air conditioning in the store for a bit until it turned to just a red face. Then I grabbed my bag,and more bug spray and trudged home, not really knowing what to expect.

Luckily for me, Irene was there and they were finishing dinner, so nothing much was said between us all, other than “hello”. I could just stick some dinner in the oven, shower, sort out some laundry and get myself to bed.

I did get a call from Steve, a bit confused, asking if I had forgotten my phone... “no, i'm talking on it right now”, but what had happened was I had left behind my nokia, which I use as an alarm clock. This is a bit annoying as i'll have to use my phone alarm instead, but never mind.

I also had replies to some couchsurf requests i'd sent, so I should be able to stay elsewhere for quite a lot of my last two weeks (wow, two weeks!!)

Day 345: folk fest tear down

it was a longer walk from Steve's house to the folk festival site, and fairly warm even that early. I realised I had forgotten to bring a water bottle but there weren't any shops I could pop in on the way. I was definitely glad I had picked a morning shift!

I tried to help, but not sure how much I really did. A group of us were helping take down tents. There are a lot of tents involved in the folk festival! Luckily, they also had a pile of water bottles so I could avoid dehydration, but despite bug spray I couldn't avoid the mosquitoes! Then two of us were randomly assigned to help someone else instead. We got a ride on one of the little golf buggy type things they have, which was great and really cools you down, but then the guy had to do something else so he left us in charge of the buggy to drive around and look for a guy with a green tractor and blue trailer. We found someone, helped him move some chairs and tables, then followed him up the hill to collect some boxes. On the way back down we bumped into the guy who had asked us to come with him in the first place and he introduced us to Laurie, who we were supposed to be helping. It seems we had been helping the wrong guy! Oh well.

After he had a bit of a break, Laurie needed us to help move some tent poles and add them to a bigger pile, then move some big sacks full of jugs across to where they could be collected. It took no time at all with three of us and then we only had a few minutes until lunch time. Laurie then cleverly agreed to move some more things over to stage five... which is right near the kitchen and perfectly timed to beat the rush for lunch.

It was mostly a collection of leftover things from earlier in the week, but still a pretty epic lunch.

I was supposed to be meeting Daniel now for a bit of a walk to help him recover from breaking his back, but I hadn't heard from him so just started heading back to Steve's house. I had all my stuff with me to go straight to work but was feeling like I could do with a shower now anyway.

I finally heard back from him once I was nearly home, so asked him to meet me there. We drove back to his place to collect Jimmy and wandered along Mill Creek Ravine for a bit, where I got to hear all about his accident. We also found a lot of raspberries to eat too. I got dropped back home with enough time to shower and make some toast before heading out to work.

It was a nice short shift, but my feet were hurting from all the walking about i've been doing, and a slice of toast and some raspberries wasn't enough so I bought a clif bar to eat while I was at the checkout.

There were only four of us to help move all the sidewalk sale tables back into the store so it was pretty hard work, although we used the trolley to carry a lot of the tables and got a bit of a system going. It ended up taking us a lot longer than usual and it was getting closer to 10:30 by the time we were finished. We were also getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, which led to dropping shoe boxes on several occasions. Robyn had to send Joel to run to her car and get her phone: the security company apparently phone the police if the alarm isn't switched on by 10pm so she had to call to let them know it was OK. She also said we would get paid extra, so hooray I guess. I decided I needed to get an ice cream from macdonalds on the way home though. So many bug bites!

I got to chat to Emily and Steve for a bit once I finally got home, so that was nice.

It's such a short gap until I have to go back to work and move all the tables back outside again. Sigh.

Day 344: The Monday after

It turns out i forgot to set my alarm.  When i woke up it was 11:30 and i was supposed to start work at 8:30.  This is a day i didn't type up at the time so it might be a pretty sketchy account of the day.
First i rang the store to apologise, explain and see if they still needed me to come in.  i could aim to get there at 1pm but wouldn't be able to stay any later than 5:30.  in the end i arrived at about 1:15pm.  that's impressively late, but given that i shoud've finished work already but they needed me to do this week because of the sale, what's the worst that could happen? sack me?!
within an hour or two of being there i started feeling really ill, like dizzy and sick, not like hangover.  the new manager, Tammy, thought it was probably heat stroke from spending so much time out in the sun.  apparently it can hit you the day afterwards.
i spent as much of my short shift sitting down or hiding in the back as possible, but i did start feeling better.  The reason i couldn't stay later was that i had arranged to meet Brenda, but she had to postpone, and also that i was going to stay at Steve's house for a couple of days to avoid Michael's return from holiday.  i needed to get there before him and Emily went out to play hockey.
i quickly packed up a bag of things and caught the bus down as it was pretty hot out.  i promised to go and see the guys from Florida's fringe show next week too.
i had a nice relaxing evening at Steve's house, tomorrow would be quite a long day!

Day 343: Folk fest party

my alarm went off, but I just couldn't bring myself to get up. I snoozed some more instead. I feel bad about this as i've missed so many run clubs and i'm running out of them, plus i've done barely any exercise recently. However, it was kinda good to have the extra time I gained. I would have had to rush around all day if I had made run club.

My intention was to get to the folk fest early enough for lunch, then kill time before my shift at 3pm. I can't describe how good the food is, its worth it for that alone, even if I end up not seeing much of the festival at all. I killed time looking at all the random stalls, although obviously not buying anything. It was pretty hot, especially carrying round a big bag of stuff with me. I wanted to go to one of the after parties and tonight was my last chance so I had a change of clothes with me.

I was another fairly easy shift, telling people to scrape their plates clean before returning them (all the food is served on plates and you get a $2 deposit back when you return them). I love that just about everything at the festival is made of compostable material. What looks like a plastic solo cup is actually made of potatoes, etc. The kids at the festival are adorable, they will go around collecting other peoples' plates and make a small fortune. Some of the boys had got face paint done to look like a beard. I really wanted my face painted but every time I walked past there was a queue, and the rule is that children go first so you could end up waiting forever.

The last section of my shift was in the beer garden til 9:30. At dinner Greg had said we might get to finish early as there were so many teams working today, which would be good because the beer garden stops serving at 9:30, so he suggested we all meet up there.

It was fairly busy in the beer garden this time, I even bumped into David from running room, but sure enough someone arrived at around 9pm to relieve me, and I headed straight to the ticket booth, then the bar, then realised that it might be tricky to find my crew as it was so crowded. I already had a drink though, so I spotted an empty picnic bench and sat down to drink my drink, check facebook and whereabouts Pam was, and cover myself in more bug spray.

After not long, Greg arrived with a pitcher of beer, but nobody else showed up. We talked about running and stuff (he's doing the Edmonton marathon), and when we'd finished our drinks we headed over to the special volunteer area to see the main stage headliners and find Pam. We got there just in time to see a parade of lanterns! That was cool!

Again, I don't know any of the music, and it was all chilled out rather than up beat and dancy so it was maknig me quite sleepy but I was still determined to go to the after party.

Pam's friend Jen agreed to drive us there, which turned into a bit of a mission in itself. Then I got changed in the toilets, lost everyone briefly, then found them again. The venue was cool as there was multiple rooms to explore.

The main room had tables to sit at, a bar, and a dance floor. Some of the acts from that day at the festival were playing. One of the bands were Cuban and much more upbeat, so we got to dance like crazy for a bit.

The next room was a “sing-a-long” room. Two guys with guitars were there and lots of songbooks with lyrics. They would play whatever people called out and we could all just sit around singing along. That was fun, and definitely not like karaoke so no allergic reactions from me.

Downstairs was a chill out room. Some people bought instruments and were jamming together, including Hannah from my crew with a violin, but mostly people just sat around talking.

In a few of the rooms there was also food, which was some of the leftovers from the kitchen. Today that included the awesome samosas and chutney!

Its the end of the week and I have come in under the slightly made up budget of $150 I had set myself, so I figured I may as well buy another couple of drinks before the bars shut and also get a taxi home. Somehow this party had a much later bar than anywhere else in Canada so it was pretty late when I got home! I think it was around 4 or 5am and I had an early start tomorrow! Wow, its been non-stop.

Day 342: Folk Fest/Rock Fest

a very busy day of volunteering, started by running a little bit late, but I had some very easy duties: plate return when it was so early hardly anyone was returning plates, then I had to set up the wheelie bins in the beer garden, which took ten minutes so I hung about with Elizabeth and Greg listening to the nearby stage. 

at one of my posts near stage 5, three of us guarding one bin

 I was then monitoring the bins in the beer garden when it opened, for about ten minutes until someone arrived to relieve me so I could go on lunch.

Again, lunch was amazing! This is such a cheap weekend with all the free food etc.

Green team seems to be a pretty good deal, you do have to stand around in the sun quite a bit, but mostly the jobs are pretty easy and quite often near a stage so you can hear some of the music.

At the end of my shift I tracked down Pamela, after bumping into her while I was guarding a wheelie bin near stage 5 (where there was shade). 

 We sat in the beer garden for one drink with some of her friends then I went to buy some sweet potato poutine and met her again at stage six for a bit. The band were late starting though and I had to leave soon for my next shift, so I wandered further back to find Brent, who was also there and had a brief chat before heading off.

After being so cold yesterday, I had worn a long skirt today and been roasting hot so decided to pop home really quickly for a change of tshirt rather than going straight to rock fest.

With the weather being nicer and it being a full day of music rather than just the evening, it was much busier. I think the acts were also more well known too.

This meant people were buying way more tickets for booze and the bar kept selling out of things and having to go buy more. It was busy but still heaps of fun dealing with the very confusing drunk people and jigging around to the music. We got given tips for the second day running and I decided to use my tip money to buy one liquor ticket and ran to the bar as soon as we closed to get myself a can of cooler.

I got a lovely falafel wrap for dinner this time, before going to catch the bus.

Today I would be continuing on to Steve's house as he was hosting a birthday party for Alanna. I even had a bottle of wine in my bag that I had been carrying around all day.

Once I arrived, I changed my tshirt and explained to anyone who asked that I was exhausted after such a long day, but still totally intending to go to run club tomorrow. It was great to catch up with everybody, we played some fun games and had a great night. At around 2am, or maybe later, Chantelle offered those of us who were left a ride home.

Day 341: Edmonton rock festival

Today I would be volunteering at the rock fest in hawrelak park, but the food was so good at folk fest I didn't want to miss out. I came up with a cunning plan to go to folk fest just in time for dinner, then head straight to hawrelak park for my shift.

It was cooler again today, so after a trip to the shops in a dress, I decided to wear jeans underneath.

I ended up leaving a bit later than I intended and got there in time to join a really long line of people. I still had enough time to eat and get across to the other festival, and was enjoying chatting to other volunteers on my table, but then the rain started. And it was heavy! It had slowed down a bit by the time I was done, but I couldn't wait it out and had to head out. Luckily I had packed my little water resistant run jacket, but my jeans still got soaked and it leaked in places, plus my hands were freezing! I decided to pop back home and grab a fleece, then try to find a bus instead.

Of course, busses here are stupid so I ended up waiting ages and the rain had eased off by then anyway. I was a bit late by the time I got to the park, and the festival was way over in the amphitheatre.

I was given my t shirt and pass, including a $5 voucher to use at any of the food trucks. I didn't know I was getting this and was stuffed from folk fest, but not going to miss out on freebies!

I met Judy, who was volunteering with me selling liquor tickets. She had similar reasons to me: she wanted to go but didn't know anyone else going, the difference being she knew a lot of the music whereas I knew none.

I had on so many layers, but my jeans and skirt were soaked so I was still a bit cold. It was kinda fun selling the tickets though, although I don't like being sober when everybody else is drunk. They are not as hilarious as they think they are. When it wasn't too busy, I could bounce around in my chair to the music.

I was given my shift time as 7-11pm, but the bar was closing at 9:30 and ticket sales would stop ten minutes before that. I asked if that meant we were doing something else afterwards, but no, apparently we could just go and enjoy the festival. I chose to go and spend my food voucher on a burger, then listen from the back until I was done eating, then headed out to look for a bus home.

much smaller than the folk fest

There was a special bus for a two dollar charity donation, which would take me up to the university. He had music blaring and seemed a bit of a hippy, but it was nice and warm on the bus.

By the time I got off the bus I had thawed out enough to just walk the rest of the way.

Day 340: Corn maze

Cecily is off work for two weeks as she has bought a house and needs time to do it up. Very exciting! So today we went to visit the edmonton corn maze. The corn was high and it was a huge maze. First we stopped by the farm to pet the animals, then we picked up some quiz cards, which help you navigate the maze if you get the answers right. There were different versions, so if we weren't sure of an answer, we checked the toddler card. Sometimes we found the next checkpoint quickly and sometimes we wandered around in circles for ages. The second half of the maze was definitely trickier! We found a bridge but it turned out to be a complete red herring, just leading you round in circles. We also kept passing the same couple and same family over and over. Finally we found our way out! And then went to bounce of the giant pillows.

Just as we left it started raining, so that was good timing. We stopped briefly for Cecily to grab a sandwich and coffee, then went to see her new house!

It was good to nose around and it will be a lovely place when it's ready. Its a bit smaller than her flat, but then it has a big garden with huge trees in it, which will be wonderful. I couldn't stay too long as I needed time to get back home to eat before going to my first shift at the folk fest.

It was two busses, but didn't take too long and I arrived at the gates to folk fest good and early.

I was given an extra large tshirt in bright green and my festival pass. I spoke to the guys who would be on my team, then we were assigned our schedules for the day.

As it's the first day, many things weren't even open yet and it was relatively quiet, but I still felt like I was overheating in the weather with the giant green tshirt to boot. I had to go and hide in the shade a few times to try and cool off.

However, I had heard good things about the food for volunteers and I was not disappointed. It was amazing! There were three kinds of salad and several kinds of hot food too, plus dessert and fruit. I really piled my plate up.

As it was relatively quiet, and my last two hours only had a few small duties which took no time, we were allowed to finish early. I chatted to two of my team for a bit, then tried to track down Aimee who was around somewhere, but she replied to say she had just left. Instead I spotted some poi and went to join in there for a bit. I haven't done poi for a little while and its always a good way to chat to new people, but eventually I decided to just head home. Hopefully I will meet enough people to have fun at the after parties later on but not tonight.

Day 339: missing run club

another evening shift today, which meant I would miss out on run club. This had seemed fine before as I was assuming I would need to recover from Death Race anyway, but as I only went halfway, I might have enjoyed a run. It was good to see all the run club folks though, and congratulate those who had done well at the weekend. I heard one story about a bear!

Day 338: Sorry

I got really busy and missed out some days, then never managed to quite have enough time or energy to go back and fill in the gaps.

From my diary I can see that I had an appointment at 9am to participate in the eye tracking experiment again. This time it went well and I was given another Tim Horton's gift card.

I also know that I worked in the evening, 1-9:30pm but I can't remember anything else really.

I'm sure this means there were lots of other things that happened today and the next few days that, at the time, I wanted to remember. Just little mundane things for my own record, and sometimes I don't even have a valid excuse, I just don't have the brain capacity to feel like writing stuff.

Day 337: long weekend Heritage Days

I slept in a bit, then tried to get all my laundry and unpacking done.  I chatted to Irene and we decided to get ready and go to the Heritage Days festival in Hawrelak Park.  I was assuming i would miss this completely as I'd be in Grand Cache so it was great to have a chance to go.
Just when we were about to leave it started raining!
Once it had calmed down a bit, we decided that i would go to the store nearby to test the weather and if i survived we would head out to the festival.  The trip to the store for milk etc. was fine, so i decided to go to the bank as well as i'd need cash for the festival.  None of the ATMs were working though so i came home unsuccessful... although i did stop for a hot dog as well!
It felt quite late at this point and i was thinking it wouldn't be worth going, but Irene checked and the festival is on til 8pm so we went to catch a bus.
I found a working ATM at the university and we walked down from there.  The weather had cleared and it was warm and sunny again.  The park was crowded and the festival was huge.  Way bigger than i was expecting.  There were so many different kinds to food to choose between and there were little stages all over the place for dancing displays or martial arts in some cases.

During our exploring we ate:
From Eritrea - a spicy beef stew with a pancake that was very interesting although we couldn't work out what it was flavoured with.
From Cameroon - A hibiscus/pineapple drink
From Ethiopia - red lentils with a pancake again
From Korea - a honey pancake (just me)
From Kenya - a doughnut with cardamom (just Irene)

It was a really good afternoon and there were a whole bunch of special busses for the festival so we could get back to Whyte ave again easily.
Irene had mentioned cheap cinema tickets on Monday's on Whyte ave and we ended up walking right past the theatre, just at the time the film was starting.  I decided to go with her as it was clearly a sign.  We saw "I origins", which i really enjoyed.
All in all, i got some things done and managed to enjoy myself so its probably a good thing we came back from Grand Cache early.
I will try and keep track of my spending from now on too so that my money will last for my remaining time... hopefully.

Day 336: Grand Cache

I assumed the sun would wake me up early, but the trees around us allowed me to sleep in and catch up.  It wasn't too hot either so i was happy to just lie in the tent and doze.  I considered getting up and wandering down to watch the last few finishers, but laziness prevented me, plus i would probably cry.
When i finally did get up and eat the remains of my quesadilla for breakfast (and a banana - that's healthy), Steve woke up too.  We couldn't decide whether to stay until monday for the awards ceremony or leave today so we thought we would watch the kid's race at 1pm and see how we felt later in the day.

Our first stop was the information centre, where we picked up some leaflets about walks in the area.  I had initially laughed when Steve had suggested going for a hike today, but i should be ok to do a short walk.  I used the washroom to try and clean Nathan a bit and we looked at their collection of stuffed animals.

We drove to the labyrinth, which was a series of circles made of white rocks and some signs telling us how to walk through it to feel more relaxed etc.  There was also a weird kind of echo to listen to in the middle and a great view.

It was starting to get a bit warm, so ice creams and milkshakes were necessary next, then we went to find a shady spot to sit in and wait for the kids race.  sitting down and standing up are a bit problematic for me today!
Watching the start of the kids race was super cute.  some kids had little mini hydration packs on their backs too.   We decided that we would go back to Edmonton today, otherwise we would have a lot of time to kill and would end up spending lots more money.  I later found out that Melissa's son Colten (who's birthday is today!) was the very last to finish the kid's race and he showed true Death Racer spirit.  It would have been nice to see the awards ceremony, and probably really emotional, but having a catch up day in Edmonton would be good too.
We stopped by subway to pick up some food for the journey, then drove out of town.  We stopped on the way to see Grand Cache Lake (which i had run past on leg one) and i had a bit of a paddle.  Then we drove a bit further away to find a walk to a waterfall.

It was less than a mile through some lovely woods, but with some fairly steep sections and lots of tree roots.  It was worth it though as the falls were pretty amazing.  There were another couple of death racers hanging around near the river too.

On the way back, we had another quick stop for gas and Tim Horton's.  Steve dropped me off at about 9pm and i went pretty much straight to bed.  Irene was there, but when i asked if she had the weekend off, she said she has quit her job, although she is not sure what she will do now.  exciting!

Day 335: Canadian Death Race

I was tired and cold when my alarm went off, but got myself ready and breakfasted.  Steve drove us down to the start line and i went into the starting area to activate my chip.  There was a long line of people waiting to check in, but luckily i saw a bunch of my friends and queue-jumped with them.  I had been wearing my jacket and trousers as i was still cold and when i explained this to Melissa, she said that they have spare sleeping bags!  hooray!
It was great to see so many people i know and wish each other good luck.

Leg one:
The race started backwards.  We all had to walk out away from the start line to the traffic lights on the road.  When the gun went off at 8am we started running up the road, turned at the top and came back and through the start line again.
A customer in the store had told me it was worth moving forwards and starting fast on leg one, even though this seems wrong, because you can get stuck in bottlenecks on the trail.  I took his advice and this meant lots of getting overtaken during leg one but it was never too crowded that i was forced to slow down.  Because I'd seen this leg in training it meant i could just focus on my footing and keep going, mostly ignoring views.
I ate earlier than i would normally and got through three of my supply of flapjack-type things as i knew it would get harder to eat later on.
I saw Melissa's husband and son waiting to cheer her at one point, and a bit after that she caught me and i ran with her for a bit.  I also got stung by a bug towards the end of this leg.  That hurt!
I had been aiming for between 2-2.5 hours for this leg and was pleased with the time i got.  I found Steve past the finish line, but couldn't see any water station.

I refilled my food supplies, topped up my sunscreen, had a swig from a water bottle, grabbed a sandwich to eat on the run and headed off up the train tracks.


Leg two:

Within a few minutes i realised that my brain had been too mushy at the end of leg one and i should have used the bottle of water i was drinking from to refill Nathan.  Now i wasn't sure how long my water would last.  I had also forgotten to spray sunscreen on my legs.  I was glad i'd made the sandwiches though, they were really easy to eat.  It was a lovely climb up to Flood mountain, but really hot and tiring.  At some point my legs started cramping up.  This is new.  I started taking my electrolyte tabs but i probably should have had one on leg one at least. I had been mostly blaming the electrolytes for my stomach ache during Sinister7 so was probably avoiding them.
Despite the heat and the cramping i was still enjoying myself and it looked like i might have enough water to get to the creek.  However, my memory of the route from training is clearly warped and every section i remembered was longer than i thought.  The slugfest section was not too boggy at all and i survived the crazy dusty "bum slide" descents.
Finally i made it to the creek.  It seemed like everybody had the same idea and there was quite a crowd filling up water packs.  I had only a small amount of water left so that was lucky but the water was too shallow to fill up completely.  I would still have to top up at the aid station.  Our neighbour in tent city was sat in the creek cooling off and Melissa arrived shortly after me too.
I carried on and had clearly wiped this section of the trail from my memory.  The aid station was pretty useless.  Luckily they had water but had run out of almost everything else.  Sometimes i thought my legs had recovered and then they would cramp up again, but i could still keep going no problem and kept eating my electrolyte tabs.
I switched my phone on properly (its in airplane mode to save battery) and texted Steve to bring me some chips and nuun drink at the next transition.  Clearly i still need to get more salt into me.
On the ascent up to Grande mountain i chatted to two other runners from Edmonton.  They were both on teams but doing multiple legs.  At the top i retied my shoes before heading down the power lines.
I think i did better this time than last time, but it is still a terrifying, relentless, dusty descent.  With the sneaky steep uphill again halfway through.
I passed a few clusters of people either resting in the shade or having real problems.  A few people, including at least one medic were heading back up the hill with bottles of water.  My legs still occasionally cramped up but it was looking like i might be on target.
However, once i got to the bottom of the descent, the constant cramping and horrendous heat had taken its toll and my legs were struggling.  I walked a lot, forcing myself to break into a jog from one cone to another occasionally, so i lost time and came into the second transition at about 4:15 really needing a break, whereas i had wanted to arrive before 4pm ideally.

Leg three:

I sat on the ground, drunk lots of gatorade and tried to eat some chips but it was a struggle.  Steve fetched an umbrella to use as a parasol and i changed my shoes but i really wasn't feeling very keen.  He had put some nuun tablets into nathan instead of just mixing up a drink (which he should have psychically been aware was what i meant).  He reminded me that the clock was ticking and eventually i managed to get to my feet and start walking.  I couldn't bring myself to run much, and could only manage short runs when i tried.  Even eating sweets was difficult but i kept drinking lots of nuun and thinking i was quite glad that i would time out and not be able to finish.
Leg three is new for me so i didn't really know what to expect.  Climbing up a scree slope next to the garbage dump in the heat was a bit awful, but then it was mostly shaded through the woods with the river nearby, starting to cool down, and quite nice.  I started being able to actually run again whenever possible and really perked up.  Clearly Steve is a secret genius and the nuun has helped fix me.  there were lots of other runners to speak to at various points.  you could spot the soloists as they were generally walking and looking haggard.  The relay runners had all started a lot later than intended as their leg two runner had arrived late - I'm not surprised given the heat today - it was very reassuring to find out that leg two and the heat had caused lots of people to struggle.
I was feeling lots better and now i really wanted to make the cut off time of 7pm and be able to continue.  I wanted to meet the grim reaper in the boat and i wanted to run at night.  I had no idea how far i had come or how much was left but i kept running hoping i could make it, although most runners i spoke to seemed to think there was still a long way left and it wasn't possible.
It seems i had bounced back far too late.   A car stopped on the route and when i asked how far there was he said about 5k.  My watch said 6:40pm or so.  Impossible.
I still felt pretty positive about this though.  I don't get to catch the ferry and finish the race, but i do get to go for a shower and have a beer.  I've done three sections so got my money's worth, and that's not bad for the training i've done.  If it had been tight i might have been really gutted, but i wouldn't get there til long after 7pm now.
I still ran bits and pieces and chatted to other runners.  There were a lot of relay runners who were gutted for the rest of their team.  I wouldn't expect so many relay teams to DNF but the heat seems to have caused lots of problems.
We crossed over a bridge and headed back on the other side of the river.  Some kids cheered and told us we were nearly there!  But then there was a timing station, so i guess we weren't nearly there.  I asked and they told me it was 3.5km to the end.  It was already 7:15pm so i gave up and mostly walked along the highway to the end.  Anyone i spoke to seemed fairly broken but still cheerful.  I got distracted for a few seconds by some chipmunks but generally just kept plodding along wanting it to end and looking forward to a shower.
Finally, i saw a group of people on the edge of the highway and was really happy.  As i got closer i recognised one of them as Steve.  Everyone was cheering and it was wonderful.

It was a little bit further along the grass to the actual check point but people cheered as i walked along and i couldn't help crying with a big grin on my face.  One of the people there was Wade, which was upsetting as he was so determined to finish this year.  He asked if I'd seen Melissa, which means she has also not made it.
They wouldn't let me chip in as it was so late, and that was disappointing, but i handed in my chip and coin, and a fellow soloist asked me about the arm pocket i was using to keep the coin.

Turns out Steve is more of a genius as he had bought a couple of beers with him here, so i sat on the ground and drunk a beer.

apple compote from the aid station

I enjoyed a lovely shower in the rec centre, then we bought some food from the cafe (i possibly had eyes bigger than belly) and back at the campsite we headed over to find where Melissa/Wade/Sheldon/etc were camped.  I swapped one of my beers for a medicinal Guinness and we sat around a fire chatting about running as the stars came out.  Wade was going to go back out and cheer Brenda through the 4/5 transition and he offered us a ride back across the campsite with our borrowed sleeping bags, which i very gratefully accepted.  Looking forward to a nice warm night's sleep!