Oh Canada!

My day began at 4:00-too friggen early- AM today. I ate breakfast, packed my knapsack, made sure I had liters of waters, tightened up my sneakers and was out the door for Shelagh to pick me up at 6:00 AM.


For the record, the sun rose this morning at 5:10 AM and it was so quiet that it was perfect. We stopped at Timmy's (Tim Horton's for Non Canadian Readers) for the double doubles as requested. Then, off to Rundle Park to meet at the Volunteer Tent.


Denise and her four children claimed the water station at the end so I joined them. Before going to the park, I was listening to the radio and they were talking about how Canadian Geese are overtaking the parks and causing quite the mess with their poo. Yep, I would have to agree that there were many geese there with their goslings. It was fun for the kids to watch the geese and the babies. Don't venture too close because they begin to hiss and don't like their babies threatened! Denise reminded me of a director of traffic, disciplinarian, and I heard : stay out of the way, stay on the grass, get away from the water, don't pick up the geese feathers, don't throw rocks in the water. I'm not used to being such curious kids so even though she was annoyed, I was amused at how she juggled all four between the ages of 5 and 13~! They'd be there one minute and then.. gone!

We handed water to incredibly dehydrated people and after one slip, I mastered the art of handing cups of water to serious runners. By the end, the ones that were there for the fun joked with us, smiled and many times thanked us for voluntering. |That felt good. It was good to be Canadian and Canadians are so polite even when spitting out water, pouring it on their bodies or swilling it! The photographer camped out in our area as did other onlookers. My plan is to do the run next year. This is my personal goal. I was very proud of fellow co workers who did the run and I could see it was tough on them..

After that, we made it over in time for the kid's walk, 1 KM and then 30 mins. later we wandered over to do our 3 KM walk. It was tough for me, the heat, the hills. I started out with three of our team but two of them broke off so Deanna stayed back with me. I trailed five mins. behind them but I was not the last one in. So, I was happy to completed it. A busy day..volunteering, walking, and helping tear down at the end of the day.

Mike and I are taking it easy today. I'm happy to have the sneakers off and sit in the shade for awhile.