Ottawa Marathon (1 day)

It is FREAK'N STINKING HOT here, wow! We stepped off the plane into a 30C wall of heat and humidity, quite the contrast from the 2C and dry air in Calgary. We took a cab to the marathon expo to pick up our race packages (Ally is doing the 5k on Saturday, I really like events that have smaller races prior to the marathon). My race number is #224. After wandering around for 10' and buying a couple pairs of race socks, we decided to take a free shuttle bus back to the race hotel (we're not staying there but somewhere reasonably close). While waiting for the bus it started to sprinkle and then BOOM, the heavens opened with thunder, lighting and a lot of rain... you just don't get anything like his back home (I love it). The best part was the bus driver, he felt sorry for us and went out of his way, and off the route, and dropped us off right at our hotel; it was fantastic (he's retiring soon he said)!

Just came back from a run and I'm still dripping, cooling off here is going to take a while. I went out along the canal and loved every minute of it. I think it must be a combination of the rain and humidity but the odour was fantastic, you could smell the essence of everything, trees, every blade of grass, the pavement, the slow moving water. Again, you just don't have anything like this back west.

My run was good. Instead of strides I opted for a 1/2 mile at marathon effort with a few drills along the way. I had to keep telling myself to slow down, ease into things and save the rest for Sunday. The best part is that my stomach seems to have settled down. I'm feeling much more optimistic about my race now. We're off to find a bite to eat soon, until later then, cheers!

Training: easy 29' with 1/2 miles at marathon effort