It's alive.....

Right, due to me being incredibly lazy, I have fallen behind in my blog writing, so this entry will try and catch you up with where I am and then we can return to normal service as soon as possible.

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I wrote this part of the blog back in August and never posted it...

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The afternoon after my half marathon race, Gayle landed at the airport in to claim the title of my first official guest (Martin you don't count as you were helping me move in therefore you were 'The Help'). If you cast your minds back I was telling you that during the race there was a light drizzle of rain which kept be nice and cool. This drizzle became a downpour on the way to the airport. By the time Gayle was through customs it was lashing it down. Regardless of the weather, we headed off and did a quick tour through downtown and thought that due to the rain the indoor aquarium might be a plan. We thought this as did half of Metro Vancouver. The queue was a round the block and with my stomach still feeling the effects of the run (runners know what I mean, non-runners don't want to know) I vetoed the aquarium and decided that as the rain had started to ease from monsoon to at worst flash flood levels we Capilano Suspension Bridge a try.

This turned out to be one of my best decisions all week, not saying much but still. The bridge is located half way up Grouse Mountain and because of this , as we went up I think we either went through the low cloud level or we just struck it lucky and the sun came out in a big way. I'll be as brief as I can in describing the place. Basically it is a massive canyon that for reasons that seem to resemble a well known joke, a rather rich fellow decided to build a bridge across to get to the other side. We happened to come across a free tour of the park and one of the first nuggets of information we were told was that this was the fourth incarnation of the bridge. This prompted me to ask what I thought must have been a common question in response to this info, "What happened to the first three?". As usual I assume to much, after he stopped what I thought was an unnecessarily long laugh, the guide said that no one had ever asked the question previously. Long story short that were replaced due to just improved building materials but I still think before you walk out over a very deep hole you should know what you are letting yourself in for.

The view from the bridge is amazing and apart from slight rocking, which adds to the fun, is a very safe way to get to the other side, the chicken will be informed. On the opposite side of the canyon they have setup a fantastic treetop walk, some viewing platforms of the river which flows beneath the bridge and a few other attractions to keep your interest. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is now and official stop on the Parker vistor tour schedule.

The rest of the week Gayle and I meandered our way through Vancouver doing your usual tourist things, shopping, cycling around Stanley Park, going to the Indian festival (free Indian food, whoo hoo)

I had a great visit, thank you for the company Gayle.

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3 months later....

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In the last few months I have been having a great time in Vancouver and doing a little travelling too.

I have now run the Chicago Marathon and completed it with in my goal time and BQ'd (Boston Qualified), I needed to complete the distance in 3:10:59, I rolled across the line with time to spare, 5 seconds to be exact :) My watch read 3:11:05 but thankfully the race chip read 3:10:54 and that is the one that counts! A quick shout out to Andy and Martin who also completed the race, Andy completing his first ever marathon in a scorching time of 3:56:11 and Martin who smashed his target time of 3:45 to come home in 3:37:17. A BIG thank you again goes to Gayle for being our spectator support extraordinaire (her turn to run comes soon).

After the run, we managed to do a small road trip through, Cleveland and onto New York City. While New York weather let us down a little , the run through Central Park was a great highlight.

I also managed to get back down to Houston to see some friends I have missed since being 'up north'. It took all of 30 mins after landing before I need to change my t-shirt due to sweating. How quickly I had forgotten. Another BIG thank you has to go to Dan, if it wasn't for some persistent questioning of flight times I wouldn't have found out I was half way to the wrong airport in rush hour traffic! Thankfully all it cost was a $100 dollar taxi ride and a brand new bottle of eau de cologne, no time to check bags so id didn' make it through airport security :( Lesson learned! Thanks to Alan and Gill and Dan and Leann for putting me up for my stay. Another lesson that some Woodway residents should learn is that when late night skinny dipping in the pool, check to make sure no one is watching you from the balcony ;) Maximum points to the brave resident though for getting two girls into the hot tub in the first place!

Running wise I have been ticking over since Chicago. PRR club nights have kept be honest and most Sundays I have been fortunate enough to have been invited on some great runs around different parts of Vancouver. The best one of these runs having to be the last quarter of the Knee Knacker trail race course. Amazing scenery and I can easily see trail running becoming a big part of my running.

PRR also took part in the very wet and cold Haney 2 Harrison 100K relay race. We had a great day, even with a 6:30 am race start in the dark, cold, wind and rain. I got to run leg 3 of this adventure, a 15.5k distance with the first 7.5k up hill. I let myself down a little my attacking to hard to begin with but will be wiser for next year.

The movies I have seen over the time have been far to many to report back on but for me the top picks have been: Inglorious Basterds, Whip It and Zombieland.

My last topic for this catch up is skiing. Grouse Mountain has now opened there ski runs, well one run so far. I was lucky enough to spot an offer for Grouse which allows me to go skiing one night a week for the season for the really cheap cost of $150. Wednesday was my first trip up there. I lugged my skis, boots, two set of poles (don't ask) and sundry items, gloves, helmet etc.. on to the skytrain then Seabus and then finally on to the bus that would take me up to the top of the mountain. I did all this dressed in full ski gear, needless to say I got a little warm and a also few odd looks from passengers on all the forms of transport I took. Arriving at the top I found there were 100 kph winds and a snow storm in progress. Not letting these small issues get in the way of skiing, I strapped up and went for it. After approx. one hour of getting ready, 1 hour 20 minutes of travelling to the very peak and then another 10 minutes waddling to the slope it self, I was on the snow for maybe 30 minutes. With only a very small slope open and near snow blindness, there was little fun to be had. But I will say this, it was good to have a look around and to actually have even a truncated play in the snow. I look forward to more slopes opening and the weather improving.

I have skipped lots of stuff unfortunately but I shall try to get back to form and I have even joined twitter (see link on the left) as a micro blog to try and keep me up to date.

Thanks for reading and I promise to do better in the future.