Monday Musings: Holiday Weekend Edition

1. Remember how I said I had a 16km race pace run to do on Friday?  Well, I did the run.  That's about as good as it got.  There was no race pace.  There was barely a steady pace going on.  Here is the not so fun recap of it:

• When deciding to do a race pace run of any distance make sure that you:
• Do not stay in the car for 5 hours prior to your run.  That was the time it took us to get from our house to my in-laws place.  We did stretch our legs quite a few times - we have a potty-training preschooler after all - but there was a fair amount of sitting.
• Do not forget that you are gaining altitude.  We gained about 1300ft and didn't give ourselves time to acclimate.  We remembered our run last summer as being so much more enjoyable.  Probably because we ran a couple days after arriving.  Friday we were both sucking wind within the first 10 minutes.
• Do not run on a fairly full stomach.  We ran about 3 hours after lunch, but it didn't help.  I can't regret the two open faced tuna melts (they were fabulous!).  I can only regret the feelings of nausea they caused for much of my run.
• Do not run in the afternoon.  My head said, "Oh, 15C, that's not too hot.  It's nice and sunny, too."  My body said, "You just ran away from all the wind and shade.  You're over-dressed with those tights, but thanks for the t-shirt.  At least you brought water.  And, yeah, 15C is hot when you've made me run in RAIN for the last 4 months!"
• Other tips when out on a run:
• Do not pick up out of place produce.  Sure we were visiting the fruit stand capital of Canada.  However, nothing is in season and oranges don't grow there.  So we left the suspiciously shiny navel orange on the side of the road.
• Do not let dogs that are following you see your fear.  Colin was certain that the hound dog that followed us (he sauntered along so I can't exactly call it chasing) was just lonely.  I'm sure that I saw teeth when I turned back to look at him.  Between feeling queasy and not wanting to run away even if I could that dog took the opportunity to stay with us for about a kilometre.  Fun times.  Eventually I told him to go away, that we weren't "his" and that we weren't coming back that way.  
• Do not follow your husband when he wants to back track a few feet to see what's on the side of the road.  I still don't think we determined what it was.  It was a carcass of sorts, but if it was roadkill or a dump site we're not sure.
• Do know where you are going.  We had a vague idea (it's very hard to get lost there), but knowing which streets led out to the highway would have been reassuring.
• Do know where accessible bathrooms are.  Hotter than expected weather meant more fluids consumed.  Not good for this girl with an admittedly tiny bladder.  The problem with out of season fruit is that there is no tree cover (and I'd feel bad about relieving myself on someone's apple tree).  We passed by some outhouses, but it was the port-o-potty rental place so they weren't available to use.  Thankfully the corner store we ran by was actually open on the stat holiday.  I think it was actually his house attached to the store, but he was nice enough to let me use it.
• Do not accidentally shut off your watch/gps and then have your running partner pace you.  When you run different paces it sucks to have to ask how fast you're going and if you can please slow down...
• Do force yourself to rehydrate at the end.  I didn't really want that G2 (kind of thought it wouldn't stay down), but felt so much better for it afterwards.  

2.  The Easter Bunny spoiled Spud rotten this year hitting both his grandparents' house as well as his own.  No almost 4 year old needs to collect over 40 eggs.  Spud has turned into a pretty hard-core egg finder.  He's still convinced that there are more at our house.

3.  We saw a black bear on the way home in Manning Park.  It went kind of like this:

Me: You might want to slow down.  It looks like there's traffic up ahead.

Colin: Okay.  Oh, the cars are stopped to look at that bear.

Me: Are you going to pull over?  Your camera's in the back seat. (Note: Nikon D200 with 70-200mm zoom lens... or, rather, a big ass camera that looks like a gun to a bear).

We wake Spud up from his nap so he can see a real bear.

Colin: Yeah.  Can you open your window?  I can't get out of the car.

Me: I guess.  (Note: leary tone of voice used.  Borrowed my dad's new, but basic, Toyota Corolla for drive so only had crank windows).  

Colin starts shooting pictures.  Noise starts to attract bear, who starts to walk towards our car!

Me: Um, can you put the camera away now?  I'm not too comfortable with how close it's getting.

Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click!!!

Me: Can you please put it away?

Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click!!!

Me:  PUT IT AWAY!!!  I'm rolling up the window now...

We drive away.

Me: Do you really think that was very bear aware of you?

Colin: Well, I didn't feed the bear or get out of the car, so, yeah...

After that Spud kept asking if we could go into the woods to find a family of bears to say hi to.  I'll post a picture of it on Wednesday so you can see how big it was.  It might have only just come out of hibernation, but it was still pretty darn big.

4.  The Canucks lost game 6 yesterday.  I listened to it on the radio on the way home and then stood in front of the tv having minor heart palpitations during overtime.  Thankfully I was doing laundry when the Hawks scored.  After being up 3 games to 0 it's going to game 7 tomorrow.  I hold out hope as a fan, but not too highly.  *Sigh*.

5. Only a few more days until marathon #2!  The long range forecast is for sun/clouds and a high of 15C.  That would be great, but I'll believe it when I see it.  Be prepared for daily updates.