A long way to go and a short time to get there: Part 1

Until 2011 every year in Squamish the STORMY! (Squamish Test Of Running Metal, Yeah!) race was held and a few hundred people got to run in the mountains.

Only a few days after joining PRR in 2009 I got to volunteer at the event and I got my first view of ultrarunning. Ross, Ed and Ellie were running the 80 km (50 mi) race, John, Terry and Susan were racing as the JeTS and three other club teams took part in the relay over the 80 km course. I was enthralled. I had heard about ultrarunners but never known one let alone seen a race. I had run 3 marathons by this point and thought I knew what pushing yourself was about, here were people doing practicaly double that distance over mountains! As I manned the PRR tent at the half way point, just before 9 Mile Hill, don't worry it is actually only 6 miles :), I saw people of every shape, size and ability come past. Maybe not all had a smile on their face, although most did, but all had the unmistakable shine of someone doing something amazing in their eyes. Ellie went on to win and Ross and Ed both finished their first 50 miler, and as for me, well I was hooked.

It took several more months before my friends got me out on the trails. I was nervous about venturing into the woods, I had images of rolling ankles, falling down hills and face planting into the mud, all of which has happened numerous times now, and this kept me from trying it out. At last Sukhi convinced me to try it out and I've never looked back, well I have done on occasion and that is normally when I trip, roll and smack into to things.

Over the next few months I learned on to be lighter on my feet down hill thanks to John, push harder on the up thanks to Susan and faster on the flat thanks to Terry. And as the summer of 2010 rolled around a competition was born. The JeTS would be racing STORMY again and Sarah, Barry and myself would challenge them as team BaDaSs. They had about 30+ years of trail running experience on their side we had a 10 year (+/-) lower average team age. We lost. Experience won out but as I saw Sukhi push across the line finishing the whole distance solo, I declared that as the race fell on my birthday in 2011 I would do the whole 80 km that year.

Months past and I did my first, second and third 50 km trail race with a sprinkling of marathons thrown in and I was getting ready for the STORMY challenge. Then the rumours started. STORMY wasn't going to be run that year. Eventually the official announcement came that permits could not be obtained and for 2011 STORMY was taking a break. I was frustrated. I was fit (ish) and ready to give this a go but it just wasn't going to happen.  I could have done other 80 km races but STORMY was special. It was a fun course, not to far from home and I knew I would have a ton of support from my friends and club members.

So again the months went by, I ran the Juan de Fuca trail on the Vancouver Island (a story for another day) and a and a few more marathons to keep me going and then the great news came out that the race was being reborn. Gary Robbins, local runner and top ultrarunner had some downtime and decided to fill it with organising a new and improved course. The race was aptly renamed the Squamish 50 (SQ50) and after a small amount of second guessing myself I signed up for my first ever 50 miler!

My training was varied at best. I took part in the Knee Knacker (another story for another day) and tied on to that some practice runs on the new sections of the SQ50 course. My fitness had slipped a little and when my scales asked if I remembered the weight I had previously lost because it was back and this time with reinforcements I knew that I could have done more to prepare. But never the less, race day was approaching and what I lack in training I make up for in stubbornness, which actually is a really good thing for ultras as no matter how fit you are at some point your body is going to ask the question "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING TO ME?" and it is really nice if your brain can respond by going "LA, LA, LA I can't hear YOU!".

The final days ticked down and due to unfortunate timing we found out that Julia would be out of town for the weekend of the race. I know what your thinking, "Yeah, sure, UNFORTUNATE timing" but Julia assures me she was really looking forward to spending a day in the hot sun chasing round the mountains after me, picking up my sweaty gear as I swapped t-shirts and filling my hydration pack, all whilst listening to my whining and self doubt. This left me trying to find someone silly enough to take on the job. That narrowed the list down, add in being a good enough friend and that shortened it further still. Long story short (I know, I know) and a few glasses of wine later, Amber graciously, if a little slurry, offered to help out on the day.

Barry was also going to be running his first 50 miler and although he was guaranteed a PB agreed to still share a room the night before (there is a back story which may or may not come out at a later stage). This meant Amber not only got to crew both of us, who have wildly different paces ensuring that a moments rest would never be hers, she also got to spend the evening before picking up race bibs and listening to us obsess about the following day. Lucky girl. 

We were early enough to packet pick up to have little in the way of lines and had plenty of access to the complimentary Howe Sound Brewery beer keg. Ultrarunners tend to be a little more relaxed about drinking the night before a race. We grabbed our awesome race shirts, Gary and an co-race director Geoff had landed sponsorship from Arc'teryx, and headed off to sample a few more of Howe Sounds beers, oh and get some food too.

A mention hear must be made to Amber who was tee-total (ish) that weekend so she could drive Barry and I around and we could enjoy said beers without concern. She suffered for us that weekend.

A quick pint or two and some mac n' cheese to fill the carb loading quota and we headed off for an early night. Now I have heard some grumbling that I attempted to sabotage Barry's race by falling asleep first, snoring and keeping him awake. I maintain this was self defense as I have fell victim before to not hitting REM fast enough and having to listen to Barry's tone-full sleep pattern. Regardless, sleep was had and the morning arrived...

This was meant to be a single post race report about SQ50 but in my usual style I realise that I have somewhat rambled on. I do happen to feel that it is important for you to understand what led up to me choosing to do this race though. So to stop your eyes from bleeding out, I will stop this post here and split the actual race report into the next post. I can hear the baited breath. 

Until next time, auf wiedersehen.

I know what I did this weekend!

Well to sum before I even start, this weekend lived up to and surpassed expectation.

I had been wondering whether or not to take part in a trail race this weekend as I have never done one and do enjoy the trails and wonder what the differences would be from running on the road and on the trails. This weekend saw the first of the Five Peaks series and I had thought about giving it a go. As it turns out I didn't, It cost to much and it was to far away so the story of my first trail race will have to wait for another day :)

Instead, Ross, PRR's esteemed president suggested doing an orientation run (means trial run, I think) for the ominously named, although I'm assured it's for a different reason, Iron Knee and Tender Knee races. So at 8am on Saturday morning Ross, Barry and myself were to be found on the North Shore lined up in the drizzling rain waiting to go for a bit of a jolly in the mountains.

The group that organise these events are called Mountain Madness, name says it all, and are very well organised at that. On arriving we were handed maps with a full list of directions on that the course would be taking. Unfortunately these directions mainly consisted of trail names such as Power line, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Old Buck and Mystery Creek to name a few. As this meant pretty much nothing to any of us we resolved to follow the trail run leaders instead, who make sure no one actually gets lost. There was a many groups to cater for most abilities so if anyone is tempted, you could do a lot worse than to try it out with theses guys and girls, and for once in running the girls seemed to outnumber the boys.

This would be Barry's first real trail run and while the temperature was cool and the rain coming down it did nothing to dampen his spirit of taking on the challenge. We all headed off and the order for the rest of the run was pretty much sorted straight off, Trail leader Darren in front, Barry close behind and Ross and I trying to keep them insight. The course was only 12k long but fairly soon into the run we were faced with the Power line Trail which is aptly named as it follows the power lines running up to the side of Mt. Seymour, raising over a 1000ft in elevation over nearly 3k of constant incline. After attempting to run the first couple of hundred metres we all pretty much switched to power hiking, then hiking, then walking and then using our arms to push our legs to keep them moving. I have to say it was a bit of a challenge. As always though, what goes up must come down and let me tell you it was a fun run down. I have said it before about trail running but there is something that makes me feel like a little kid again. Running heedlessly down a mountain jumping over rocks and trees and splashing through mud and puddles, it real is great fun. We eventually arrived back at the start after nearly an hour and half, coated with mud and all with big smiles plastered over our faces, although that could have been due to the fact that we could now change into warm dry clothing, you decide.

The fact that it was still only just after 10am meant we decided to grab some brunch and headed over to a place I first went to when I got to Vancouver, The Three Lions. A British pub where the football (soccer) was on the TV and we could grab some breakfast and an early beer, well we had been running we had earned it!

After getting home and soaking in the bath for a while to regain feeling in my toes I got the mundane weekend tasks out the way, clothes washing/drying etc and in between cycles, catching some welcome naps.

Saturday night and for once I had plans that didn't involve running what so ever. Ed had organised a meal at a restaurant called Chambar where Belgian Tapas was the theme, followed by a film and then a few drinks.

Trying to speed up this blog I will just say that while the food and drink at Chambar was amazingly cooked and presented I was left a little hungry and it was a tad expensive. I think that it is more due in fault to me than the restaurant. I get a little grumpy when portion size is small and to be honest I'm just probably not sophisticated enough for places like this, which the fact that I managed to drop a muscle into my lap attested to. Don't get me wrong though I did enjoy the meal, The different beers that the waiter kept recommending were great and I did try muscles for the first time which as long as I didn't look at it as I ate it, tasted lovely. The bits of bison we had while small were very tasty as well. Although I did draw the line at calamari, I have said it before and it is worth saying it again, I like calamari as long as it is not in it's original form, tentacles, I don't do tentacles!

It should be observed at this point that this weekend has not been a good one for the vegetarian challenge with several slip ups. I would however argue that I would have hardly eaten if I had stuck firm and frankly I have been very hungry all weekend.

The least said about the film the better. We saw Control Alt Delete and frankly while I try and find the good in most movies this was just horrendous from start to finish. It was a Canadian film, shot in Vancouver I wanted to like it but just couldn't. Not to spoil it for anyone but the basic blot is that it is set in 1999 and follows a stressed head programmer who is in charge of Y2K fixes for a major corporation. He finds the only ways to 'relieve' his stress is to drill holes into PC's and screw them. I kid you not. There were a couple of funny moments and good performances but nothing could make up for the scenes of him banging away at his desktop or in the big finale, the firms mainframe. Wrong, wrong, diddly wrong! Stop funding this rubbish, there are talented people out there, let them have a chance.

Right, I've got that out my system. Thankfully the evening picked up again after that with us heading into Gastown and a great cozy little bar called Six Acres. With pictures on the wall of celebrity guests, ranging from Rowan Atkinson to Don Johnson and a shelf full of board games like Ludo and Connect 4 this was a great place to hang out, sample some more tasty beers and enjoy the conversation. With Victoria back from her trip to Australia and Barry, Ed, his friend Fiona from New Zealand and myself we covered most a vast array of topics thinking nothing of bashing our way through politics and religion, insulting pretty much everyone along the way, or I did at least, fun times :)

Sunday morning and again the alarm is going off before 7am. With only a week to go before the Vancouver Marathon and Half, this morning's Sunday PRR club run headed off the trails and back onto the road. We were running from the False Creek Community Centre where we meet on normal club nights and running up to the UBC campus and back with a round trip of just under 22k, perfect warm up for those running the half next week.

The run is basically a 9.5K 'ish flat run out to UBC where we climb a long but not steep slope into the UBC campus, turn around and retrace our steps back to the Granville Island. There were lots of runners out today getting in the final long run before next week and several times we saw people we knew along the way. The running community here is very friendly and it's great to have some one give you a wave when you are not feeling that into it. We also managed to run through a film location who seemed to be trying to recreate a carnival type scene at one of the many beaches along the way. I do still get a kick from seeing all the trucks and lighting and cameras although it is a fairly common occurrence here.

After getting to the top of the UBC hill and turning around the weather which had started off cold and windy decided to through another element into the mix, rain. It was a long hard slog back, running into the wind and rain I was soon drenched and frankly I was sapped of any energy I had left. The film crew seemed determined to get there scenes shot with background cast playing Frisbee and the like in beach wear while simultaneously shivering. The last 3K were really rough, with not a dry centimetre of clothing and cold hands and soaked feet I had to remind myself many times that I was doing this for fun. I think I can safely say we were all glad to get back and finish and in not a to shabby time considering the conditions.

A quick change into dry clothes and a hot drink and muffin at Pedro's perked everyone back up in no time.

Getting back home and again sitting in bath to warm up all the cold bits I found myself heading for what must have been the umpteenth nap of the weekend. I'm a napping animal!

Power nap over and done with, I awoke to find the sun had come out. I had promised Sukhi I would take a quick look at a PC problem he had and I took a walk in the sun over to his house. Thankfully I managed to find the problem fairly quickly, which went to fix some of the wounds to my ego that my issues earlier in the week had caused and in reward Sukhi came along to help me look for a bike. I have been thinking of getting gone since I got here as Vancouver is a very bike friendly place and it would not only give me a different form of exercise but also save me a little money on Sky Train tickets.

I'm still indecisive about getting a road bike or a hybrid but I'm leaning towards hybrid as it would take a little more punishment which as I haven't really ridden a bike in many years it would probably sustain regularly.

To top of the weekend I was even treated ti a magnificent home barbecued burger with freshly made spicy onions. I know, I know, I'm not meant to eat meat at the minute, but I have been hungry all weekend and have exercised more than enough to justify the calories and frankly this weekend I have been so low on energy that I felt that I need meat. I will say that this is my own fault as for the rest of the month energy has not been an issue but with a tough end to the week and a busy weekend I have not had the time it takes me to think of and prepare the proper vegetarian dishes. I have been lazy and that is the cause of lack of energy but it still doesn't alter the fact that I was drained and so fell back to what I know and that is meat. Sorry, I feel bad, I really do, but I want to be honest about these challenges and some are harder than others.

On the plus side on getting home and pottering around for as bit I discovered I was still hungry and even though the desire to fall back on my old friend McDonald's was strong I didn't and instead whipped up a fast vegetarian pasta dish which did the job nicely.

So while eating that meal I made another error by watching this weeks Doctor Who episode in the dark. For those that don't watch it you may think me foolish but I would put money on the fact those that do understand why after a few minutes the little voice in my head was screaming at me to turn on the light or at least pull the blanket up a little higher. Good to see the new Doctor return to form.

Oh and I nearly forgot, as near misses of death inducing embarrassment go the trip to Costco ranks right up there. Popping into the rest room I walked into the men's area to be faced with a fairly common sight, a big long chrome trough to pee in. As I stood up next to it and prepared to get out little David I started thinking how high this trough was off the ground, it was pretty much at my waist height and being 6ft (YES I AM!) I thought this a little odd. with fly down and getting ready to 'shake hands with the man' I finally realised one small detail I had previously missed. this particular chrome trough came with taps! Bugger! I had very nearly peed in the sink. As I subtlety relocated myself to the right location I did say a little prayer of thanks for the last minute revelation. May be a little more attention to detail is required on my part.

Past Few Days

To finish off my splurge of blog writing for the day I will just do very quick recap of recent activities.

Over the weekend I started off my 10k training plan for the Sun Run on May 9th. My first run back on the treadmill for a while went well and the speed felt pretty good so here is to hoping that the next few weeks go as well.

Saturday night was a trip to the cinema to see Kick-Ass. Definitely not a kids film. A touch of Tarantino-esque violence and some humour and action thrown in for good measure. A film I would happily recommend if you like that genre of movie.

Sunday morning had me up early again but not as bad as the last couple of weeks. Some friends from PRR headed out on the trails up in Lynn Canyon. It was my first trail run in a few months and my first real go with new trail running shoes, Montrail Masochists. The shoes did a great job and the weather turned out well, we did a lap around Rice lake and then up through the long Lynn trail. Going through the trees and streams and over the rocks was amazing fun and it would have been an awesome morning if it weren't for the fact that Ed who was just ahead of me, stepped badly onto a rock and turned his ankle. From my view point it looked quite nasty and from the colour of Ed's face he felt just as bad. Fortunately we weren't to far from the end and through a combination of people helping and Ed limping, we got him back to the car.

Tuesday's club run was fun, with me trying to keep up my pace not going brilliantly but still fair and the new guy Ben running us all into the ground. Also Sarah has caved and now joined Barry, Sukhi, Ross, Ed, Jackie, Bill, myself and others by purchasing a Garmin. With all the GPS going on in the club now, we will have all of Vancouver mapped in no time.

Today I popped out for the cheap matinee showing of How to Train Your Dragon 3-D. It is a good fun kids film but saying that there were only adults in the audience when I was there :)

While I'm still not 100% convinced by 3-D it definitely works well with this film and I'm just amazed at how far animation has come. Really amazing.

With 9 days to go with the vegetarian month I have been putting some though tin what May we hold in store for me, I have some ideas and will let you know when I have chosen a good option. Although if anyone has suggestions I will gladly listen. I did like the idea of having done a month on no meat maybe I should do a month with no vegetables :)

One last thought for the day is that I'm toying with the idea of trying to set-up my own 5k race near to where I live. I have been thinking about it for a while and I'm intrigued to see what is involved. Will update you if I pursue this idea.

Tested to breaking point

The theme for this blog entry is: Things I might be making up.

To start with, November in Vancouver, the wettest month in the world anywhere, EVER! I do not believe they has been a day when it has not at least rained once. I know, I know, I complained when I got here that it was too hot and that I had come to Vancouver for cooler weather but really this is just taking the aardvark.

Tuesday was a wet run with the club, and because of the weather and maintenance work around the seawall, the normal picturesque run was just running through back streets trying to avoid the worst puddles. I have to say at this point if it wasn't for the running club I don;t think I would have run at all this month. The company makes even the wettest, coldest run, fun to take part in. Also the a beers in the pub afterwards never hurts. The new game at the moments seems to be if we can get the barman and waitress to smile, neither is inclined to do this with any regularity.

Up until this month, Wednesday normally signalled the opportunity to climb up the Grouse Grind in the afternoon. I have a natty little card that records all my times for the ascents and also totals up the total distance climbed and tells you the equivalent mountain you have scaled, with Everest being the goal obviously. Now in all honesty I forget where abouts I am and I'm to lazy to go fetch my card which would let me access the info but I know I'm not quite at the peak of Everest yet. Now the snow has arrived on the mountain and the skiing is open. So after last weeks poor effort due to gale force winds and a snow storm I was ready to give it another shot. 3 more runs had been opened and even thought there was a lot of cloud around and yes it was raining I had faith that the slopes would be above the cloud and it would be glorious. I was wrong.

After getting all dressed up in my ski gear and putting my boots and skis out, I was making one last pass into the lounge (1 step from the kitchen) when I caught my toe against one of my ski boots. In my mind I had shattered every bone in my toe and several in nearby locations. The truth is probably more like I stubbed it and it bruised a bit. But at the time it hurt and certain curse words were uttered and I have no doubt that if any of my neighbours had heard I would now be looking for a new home. With a strapped up toe and with Skis over my shoulders I headed out the door and limped towards the skyTrain Station, as soon as I crossed the road though I realised I had forgotten my ski pass. 5 minutes later and more subversive muttering I was back under away again. 8 stops on the train, a SeaBus and a bus ride later I arrived with little fanfare at the base of the mountain. Another 5 minutes, a lot more whispered profanities and a few worried glances from parents later, I have changed from my shoes into my ski boots (which I have now taken a personnel dislike too) and I am standing at the front of the queue waiting for the SkyRide to take me to the skiing nirvana I know awaits. Only to be told by a far to chirpy girl that the mountain was now closed due to "Poor weather conditions".

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I found that when I got home, Martin had tried to warn me that the mountain had shut down but I was at that point hopping around holding my toe instead of checking messages. Bugger!

So with skiing now off the cards I decided not to waste the day entirely and I went in search of a doctors. No not for my toe, even I'm not that bad. for the last 7-8 weeks I have had a patch of irritated skiing on my left wrist and even after adhering to the two major rules of skin care:

Rule 1: If it is dry put something wet on it.

Rule 2: If it is wet put something dry on it.

Nothing had worked. So having paid about $200 in health care payments already, I decided to seek out a doctor and start seeing some of the benefits of that money. Luckily there is a doctor within 50 yards of my front door so I didn't have to travel far (which was a good thing or my toe my have fallen off, not sure but I'm just saying...) An hour and a bit later I'm in seen by the doctor and after my tale of bravery and resourcefulness at how I had been battling this ailment, she rolled her eyes and sent me home with some a tub of cream that "...should clear it up in a couple of days". The really annoying things is, it has.

Club night on Thursday saw the first clear nights run we have had in a while and we took full opportunity of it. Steve, Sarah and I had a great extended run around the creek and even picked up the pace a little at the end. Some how I looked a lot more exhausted than Steve but I'm sure that was just the light playing tricks, that all the black spots in front of my eyes. And to top of a good run we even took in a sneaky beer at the pub too, on a Thursday!

For a while now I have been offered the chance to have a go at finding out what my VO2 Max is. Quick explanation of what VO2 max is, the higher the number the better your muscles are at using the oxygen that you breath in. I have put this off for one reason or another but mainly because I was scared. The idea behind the test is that you run on a treadmill which increases in speed and incline until you can't run no more, while all the time being strapped up to some fancy gizmo's piloted my some genius looking people saying things like "hmmm" and "ahhhh". For a change I want bore you with all the details of my heroic exploits I will just say that I didn't get any where near the machine having to use an incline to tire me out I was done long before that, and that I set of numerous alarm bells on the machine, my heart was going a tad faster than maybe it should. I will however include the video I made of my heroic attempts instead. Ha not letting you get away with it that easily.

A big thank you to Sarah and Heather who administered the test and were very good at supporting me and making sure I didn't die. By the way my result showed I was pretty average for a runner, who knew?

After a nice long lie in on Saturday morning I decided to make use of the afternoon by heading to somewhere I saw on a run a while back and thought would be cool to look around, then completely forgot about it until I read an article this week saying it was getting shut down in March so I thought I better get myself in gear and visit promptly. I'm referring to the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park. It is a dome shaped building (a little like Centre Parcs, Sherwood Forest, only smaller) which house some tropical birds and plant life. It is being closed due to the fact the dome needs repairing at a cost of a couple of million dollars. After visiting I can see why it need repairing. It was strangely enough raining outside and it was pretty much raining inside too, there a quite a few leaks in the joins that hold the dome shaped roof together. Even with the leaks it is a great little place to visit, and although it only take 30 minutes to take a quick walk around it has some beautiful species of plants and tress and also having budgies flying round your head and parrots sitting around chattering to you, it makes for a nice place to while away a wet afternoon.

And finally. Sunday morning saw me take my latest adventure into trail running. With my shoes still a little moist still from last week we headed up to Lynn Valley again, but this time to run along the creek and finishing at the Norvan Falls. Speculation again on my part but I think the name might originate from the fact they are in North Vancouver, I don't know, but it sounds plausible. For a nice change it started off dry and we had a nice run up to the start of the trails proper before the wetness set in. I have mentioned before about running along streams and over boulders etc... this took it to a new level today, all the recent rain had made large sections of the run pretty much under water. Sukhi just plain gave up trying to keep his feet dry and just waded through the swollen stream while John seemed to leap the whole damn thing and I lumberingly leaped from rock to rock, every now again submerging a foot or both. The views along the way and especially at the falls were well worth it. There is some amazing places tucked away in the back of beyond and that I'm very glad that I'm getting to see. As an added bonus to this weeks run Sukhi and I were given a brief and interesting history and botany lesson by John, who showed where the old tree logging railway tracks used to be, where slots had been cut into tress to help the loggers cut down trees higher up to make their life easier and also what must have been the highlight of the day, I got to taste a root (actually a rhizoid, I do listen) of a licorice fern, which probably not all that shockingly has the a taste of licorice, and also a little taste of dirt and root too.

Until next time...

Rain, Rain Go Away...

The weekend has come and gone and what have I got to show for it...wet shoes.

The nice sunny autumn days of Vancouver where I walked through the park while the sun shone through the golden leaves seem to have vanished. They have been replaced by rain and all those golden leaves are now slippery mush ready for me to slip on when my mind wanders as it tends to do.

Coming from the UK, I'm used to this type of weather, but for some reason the fantastic summer lulled me into a false sense of security and now I feel slightly betrayed. Actually all this is lies, I say this to justify my complete lack of exercises over the last few weeks, only getting out to run with the club.

I have signed up for the Los Angeles Marathon in March and next Monday hails the start of my training for it. It is a brand new point to point course running from the Dodgers Stadium in the hills, through Hollywood, Century City (think Die Hard), Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and then finishes at the Santa Monica Pier. I'm hoping with this mainly down hill course I should be able to improve my time and edging towards a 3 hour marathon.

Back to the weekend. Saturday I decided to get some fresh air and go see a movie... what????Between my buildings door, the skytrain station and the cinema I was outside in the rain for a good 500 yards.

I went to see Pirate Radio, for those in Europe, The Boat that Rocked. Having been out in England some 6 months back I missed it then but normally enjoy Richard Curtis films so I thought now was as good as time as any.

The first thing to mention about the film was the difference in trailers. In the UK the films trailers had your usual comedy clips from the film showing the story of how they were getting round the Law and Government. In North America it concentrated far more on the one American character, even suggesting he was showing the Brits how it was done. Marketing you have to love it.

The film was enjoyable and Bill Nighy is always fun to watch. One problem that did emerge in the theatre was when the humour relied on regional knowledge. There were a few uncomfortable moments where I was laughing and the people round me were just looking like maybe I was on day release from a straight jacket.

With still some daylight to kill, I decided that Science world might be worth a gander. I go past it on the train a lot and have even run past/around it a few times but have never made it in. The building itself look very futuristic or it did at some point, think Epcot Centre but smaller and with lights all round it. It has to be said, it is mainly set out for kids with lots of hands on stuff to do, but... if you are willing to ignore the looks, whispers and scowls from narky parents adults can fully enjoy it too. With exhibits to test your flexibility (I'm average), your grip (erm, I've got a good grip for some reason), your brain waves (yeah, I think that one was broken) and the worsts one in my opinion, your fears (there were people walking round with fricking snakes!!!). It was fun but I really think it is best to do with a kid so at least you can pass it off as you are there for them, like Disney movies, you know what I mean.

Sunday started early with getting up in time so I could have breakfast and have chance for it to digest before my second attempt at trail running. Sukhi and John from PRR were kind enough to take me back out to the Baden Powell Trail to do what I presume is roughly the third quarter of a race known as the Knee Knacker. We started at Grouse Mountain and ran through to Lynn Valley Headwaters and then back again (the route should be visible through a link in the Garmin section on the right for those that are interested).

The first trail run I did was on a beautiful crisp morning with the sun coming through the trees. It couldn't have been more different on Sunday. The rain while not heavy was consistent and the temperature was cool to say the least, especially up in the mountains. We ran just below the snow line even crossing it at one point although I'm not sure 1/2 an inch of snow on either side of the trail counts. It was an amazing run, all the streams were up and you could here the waterfalls from quite a distance, my favourite part would have to be running over one bridge that was partial submerged due to the rise in water. I think Sukhi summed it up best my saying we had run the Baden Powell stream not trail.

Trail running is a very different art than road running and one I have yet to master in anyway. While my two guides were lithely leaping from rock to rock, gliding over roots and fallen branches, I was clomping around like the tyrannosaur in Jurassic Park. There was no fear of meeting any wildlife along the way, they had heard me from a long way away, and had time to finish what ever they were doing and amble away at a leisurely pace long before we got with in range. Oh well, something for me to work on.

The rest of Sunday past in napping, I did get up early, and doing a bit of food shopping. I did manage to get a whiteboard though where I have laid out my day to day activities so I don't keep forgetting to do them, you know, the small things like getting dressed (I'm not kidding). I did manage to get out to the buildings gym to have a quick run on the treadmill as I'm concerned that I have lost a fair amount of speed and fitness since completing Chicago back at the beginning of October. I was doing great until Jerry McQuire came on the T.V. and I had to stop.

Today has been basically about recovery, all the feet slapping from yesterday has left me a very sore back and calves. To see me this morning would have been like looking at in 50 years (I'm hopeful) I was sort of limping with an arched back and a blanket over my shoulders, It's got cold out side and I'm too cheap to turn the heating on. Thank you pharmaceutical companies for Ibuprofen!

And just for the record, I did get dressed today as per schedule :)