The Mysteries of Snow
Over the Christmas holidays I have been staying at my folks place where I have been happy to be away from the Ottawa cold and snow for a while. I knew that the absence of snow wouldn’t last long. Overnight we received two inches of fresh snow which brighten up the muddy front yard. As I was taking Hoover out for his morning walk, I started to notice something that the snow had revealed. The snow exposed all of the local animal activity. As we were walking around the back forty we saw mouse, rabbit, mole, vole and deer tracks in the snow. I spotted where mice had started to eat the bark off tree for food. Flying overhead were red-tailed hawks in search of a daily meal.
Another 30 seconds faster….
strongShort version/strongbr /br /Ran the PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix, Arizonabr /Finish time:1:35.26, 30 seconds faster than 2008 timebr /Place: 443/21,000br /Distance: 13.1 miles/21.1kmbr /Visited the Grand Canyon and Four Corners, Arizonabr /(Location where four states meet at a 90 degree angle)br /br /strongLong version/strongbr /br /In mid-January, I ran my third PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix Arizona. On race day, I got up at 0500 and ate half a box of Vector cereal before taking the hotel-provided shuttle to the start line in Phoenix. The race starts in Phoenix and runs south-west finishing in Tempe. When I arrived at the start area it was pitch dark. There was an air of anticipation as both the marathon and half-marathon start side by side about an hour apart. It was fun watching the sunrise and to take in some people watch. Some people wore minimal clothing and shivering while others were bundled up and would sweat a bucket during the race. I was happy to chill on a hillside and watch the race traffic mosey by. About an hour before the start I munched on my Clifbar and did an easy warmup. As the race approached I dropped my gear at the UPS trucks and had a couple of biobreaks.br /br /I would start the race in the first of 26 corrals. They volunteers at the corral entrance were checking your bib number to make sure you entered the right corral. One of the race innovations I really like are the new disposable timing chips. It is a loop of plastic that contains an RDIF chip which you fasten to your shoe laces. At the end of the race you throw it away. After the playing of the national anthem the governor started the race. The conditions were a sunny 5C/41F. But it wouldn’t stay cool for long as the blistering Arizona sun started to rise. I started off at a brisk pace and then geared back a bit at mile three. The course is flat and fast and quite familiar. When I arrived at the eight mile marker I thought I would need to take in a gel as usual but still felt energetic. My friend JB met me at mile 10 and we ran together for the final three miles. It was good to run with him as it was at this point that I started to feel the heat. Up to this point, I had been taking in water and pouring water on myself every second water stop. With two miles to go I decided to speed up as it couldn’t be any worse than a Pretoria Bridge to Bank Street bridge fartlek surge. As we crossed the finish line I was a little concerned as I thought I ran slower than last year. It was only back in the hotel that I realized that I had run 30 seconds faster.br /br /After the race we headed north to the Grand Canyon and were able to hike around part of the south rim. It sort of felt like home as there was snow and ice everywhere. We drove the Grand Canyon parkway as far east as we could before heading north to Monument Valley the backdrop of many western movies. Our final stop would be Four Corners, USA, a location where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet at a 90 degree angle. By perching yourself you can have your hand and legs in four states at the same time.
Arizona 2009 — part 1
A little while ago I came back from my annual Arizona adventure and so it is time to blog the adventures. Early Friday morning, I caught my flight from Ottawa to Chicago and finally to Phoenix. JB and Raeanne met me at the airport and we headed to the race expo to pickup my race packet. I would be running in the first corral which was a intimidating and the same time exhilirating. We next heading over to a href=”http://www.rei.com/”REI /ato pickup some clothing that I had shipped to the Tempe store. I really like my new Muir Woods polar fleece jacket fitted. We headed across town, to the Bitlmore plaza home of Teavana and the Apple Store. It was my first time visiting Teavana and I had a fun experience. I bought some Early Grey and Dragon Pearl tea. To my regret I would have to wait until I was home before trying the teas. We went to the nearby a href=”http://apple.com/”Apple /astore and I checked my email and checked out the Time Capsule backup drives. We ate dinner at PF Changs which is a traditionally place where we have our pre-race dinner.br /I was up early on Saturday by Arizona time and had a hearty breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Mid-morning JB picked me up and we headed over to the gun range to meet Pete. He is a former private investigator and has in excess of 300 firearms in his house. Canada has strict rule on firearms making it very difficult for me to check out handguns. For a long time I have wondered what it was like to shot a handgun. I also wanted to have a better understanding of the second amendment to the US constitution. Here was my opportunity to explore both and have some fun. Pete brought four guns of varying caliber including a 9mm and 45 calibre “John Wayne” gun. We bought $200 worth of bullets. After putting on eyeshield and ear protection we headed into our range slot. Pete and his son loaded up the gun cartridges while JB mounted the paper target. Pete gave me some firearms training and I emptyed my first cartridge consistently hitting around the same area. As Pete put as long as you are hitting “body matter” that is all that is important. During the experience I had sweay palms. I don’t know whether it was my body reacting to the warmer conditions or the experience of firing a gun. Over the next two hours, the four of us cycled through successfully more powerful guns. Even with a double hand grip of a 45 calibre handgun, I found it had quite a kickf. Firing off these various guns will be a memorable experience for quite some time.br /br /We stopped in a Qdoba’s for lunch and watched Obama’s Baltimore speech. It was a good speech and one which I think he wrote himself. We headed north of Phoenix to Lake Pleasant which is a source of drinking water for the Tempe-Phoenix-Scottsdale area. JB had done a triathlon in the area and the cycling hill looked brutal.Our next stop would be Glendale, where the last SuperBowl was played. JB, his parents and I had a pasta dinner at a Italian restaurant.
Half-marathon and some traveling
pThis coming weekend I will head to Arizona to run my first half-marathon of the year. I am looking forward to the race as it will give me some relief from the arctic cold weather that the Ottawa area has been getting recently. There is also another thing I curious about and that is my physical fitness. Over the Christmas holiday, I ran a 10 mile race in Hamilton in a time that suggested that I am in better shape than last year. This could be because I am eating better this year but I really think it is the extra exercise that I am getting each day. I run to and from the office twice a week and walk the other days. One of the bummer is that all this exercise leaves me more tired than usual in the evenings. The upshot is that I am loosing more and more weight which is a good thing and might mean that I will run faster on the weekend as I will be lighter. /ppbr /Once the race is over I’ll spend a couple of extra days in the Phoenix area and head up to explore the Grand Canyon area as well as head up to the north-eastern corner of the state to a place called “a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_(United_States)”Four Corners/a.” The states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet at a 90 degree angle. It is the only place in America where this happens. I am excited to take a picture of myself with each arm and legs in a separate state. I’ll post a blog and pictures next week talking about all my adventures./p
Meeting a distant friend
Over the weekend I did something that I have been meaning to do for a while which is to meet a friend from the other side of the globe. Gemma and I have known each other for a couple of years but only formally met in Montreal when our paths crossed recently. A couple of years ago I exchanged emails with the a href=”http://www.goldenkey.canterbury.ac.nz/”New Zealand chapter /aof my a href=”http://www.blogger.com/www.goldenkey.org”honor society/a. Gemma was their communications person and put me in touch with some folks that would be attending the Arizona conference that I attended. We connected again through myspace and finally on Facebook. A while back she commented how she had been able to buy a ticket from New York City to Toronto for $12.00. She would then be heading to Quebec City for a World Youth Summit. I could either meet before or after the summit. Getting together before the summit proved hard to schedule so we opted to meet afterwards. On Friday, met in front of a href=”http://www.blogger.com/www.mcgill.ca”McGill University /aand had supper at a nearby Italian restaurant. [The caesar salad and pizza were great.] We went across the street to a href=”http://www.benjerry.com/”Ben amp; Jerry’s /aice cream as even though she has been in the U.S. for six months she hadn’t experienced the marvelous Vermont ice cream. We concluded the evening talking at a local coffee shop. As the clock was striking midnight, I headed back to Ottawa and she departed for Toronto-New York City-Washington, DC.
Easter and Facebook
My Easter weekend was more productive than usual. On Good Friday, I ran in a 10 mile road race close to where my folks live and ran a race that came with a surprise. My second loop of a five mile course was 63 seconds faster than the first. This was good news. During the weekend we installed a new countertop in my folks kitchen which went without a hitch. I also did something I should have done at Christmas but for time and weather reasons didn’t; to catch up with some of my running friends. On the weekend, Perry and I went for a seven mile run on an extremely hilly course that we would usually do twice a week while training on the cross-country team. The course is known as the “three-hills” and every two miles you have to descend and climb the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Escarpment”Niagara Escarpment/a. We finished the workout in a brisk 53 minutes. Perry and I haven’t seen each other for a while as he went to Korea to teach English after university. During the fall we reconnected by Facebook and vowed to catch-up and go for a workout. He is married and has an energetic son that loves hockey. We played a game of pickup hockey after our run. I did some a href=”http://www.geocaching.com/”geocaching /awhich was good as area near Niagara Falls has less snow and as a result locating a cache involves little or no digging in the snow. In keeping with tradition, the three families got together for an Easter dinner and the kids are getting older at an incredible rate.
Phoenix half-marathon — part 2
The Racebr /br /I awoke at 5:15 am and started the processing of fueling for the race. It would take the form of four bowels of a href=”http://www.kelloggs.ca/cgi-bin/klog-canada/product.pl?product=458″Kellog’s Vector cereal /aand hot tea. At 6:00, I headed down to the lobby and was able to catch the race shuttle a couple of minute early. The start area was a haven of activity as there were 30,000 runners milling around the downtown core of Phoenix. I had brought along the daily babble puzzle and worked on it while watching the sunrise. As it was getting brighter, I checked out the senate building and took some pictures of nearby statues 1 2 . At 7:30 am the marathon race started which much fanfare. Of note, the organizers had set aside 27 corrals. I started munching on a Clif bar. At a little before 8:00, I stripped off my layers of warm clothing and dropped then off at the UPS depot and headed for the start line. It was a cool 4C/39F. After the playing of the national anthem we were off on our 13.1 mile journey. My first two miles were done at a brisk pace of 6.55 and 6.59. At around mile 8, I started to feel my energy level drop, so I pushed back a Clif Gel with 25 mg of caffeine. This would stabilize me for a little while but I was running faster than my energy intake could keep up. At mile 9, they had a volunteers handing out Powergel so I grabbed two. These would act as a lifeline for the final three miles. I had run the first half of the race too quickly and was starting to pay the price. I could still rely on one advantage and that was, I knew the race course and could run towards familiar landmarks. At the start of the Tempe Town Bridge with 1.5 miles to go, I opened up and sprinted for as long as I could and held on until just over the finish line. I would finish in position 456 while 21,000 participants were still out on the course. The finish was special as I was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158141400289224354″greeted with flowers and two beauty women/a. After cooling down for a while and sucking on multiple popsicles it was time to see how JB’s race was coming along. With ten minutes to spare, I was able to watch him cross his finish line. a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158141288620074642″JB/a was excited by his finish as he ran a 3:28 marathon which was two minutes faster than he had expected to finish.br /br /A little while later I headed over to buy some tea. It is special tea and much sought after. I bought multiple boxes of Revolution tea and walked ever so slowly back to the hotel. We closed out the day with a celebratory dinner at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158141421764060850″Cheesecake factory/a.br /1:36 — 13.1 miles/21 kmbr /Mile splits time heart rate datebr /1 6.55 162/131br /2 6.59 13.54 164/165br /3 7.21 21.16 168/166br /4 7.07 28.23 168/167br /5 7.15 35.38 168/169br /6 7.11 42.49 168/170br /7 7.23 50.13br /8 7.23 57.6 168/169br /9 7.24 1.05.01 171/173br /10/11 15.40 1.20.42br /12 7.20 1.28.20 173/175br /13 7.23 1.35.25 173/178br /13.1 1.36br /br /The Road Tripbr /br /On Monday morning, I was up early as we had to pick up the rental car at 7:30 am. JB’s dad took us out for breakfast before we started our trek north. Our first stop was a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezuma%27s_Castle”Montezuma Castle /ain a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142370951833458″Camp Verde/a. It was an impressive sight. The Hopi Indians had built their homes into the side of a rock face 15,000 years ago. During the summer heat the thick wall would keep the folks living their cool. We continued our journey north and stopped in at a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142388131702658″Bell Rock /a(N34 47.506 W111 45.697) in Sedona. All around us the soil and rocks were red. It was like driving through a Martian landscape. Throughout the drive I let my mind wander as I envisioned John Wayne riding ahead through the desert and through the large rock outcrops. Continuing north we stopped at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142396721637266″Chapel in the Rocks /a(N34 49.920 W111 45.988) which is a church built in the 1950s in a rock ledge which is an architectural marvel. The next part came as a surprise, snow and cold. Flagstaff had received about a foot of snow in early December and it was still on the ground. We stopped in at a href=”http://home.nau.edu/”North Arizona University /aand took a tour of the campus. The university’s crest contains a snowflake and the mascot is a lumberjack. Flagstaff is also the site of the US Olympic training center as it has an elevation of 7,000 feet. We threw snowballs and built a snowman. Our journey would take us next in an easterly direction to the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barringer_Crater”Meteor Crater /a(N35 01.934 W111 01.298) which is the largest well preserved crater. It was huge and could hold 20 football fields at the bottom. We arrived a little late and missed the hiking tour around the perimeter. A couple of facts about the crater: As the sun was setting we started our journey in a south-westerly direction back to Phoenix. We closed off the day with a steak dinner.br /br /Tuesday’s adventure would involve a fair amount of driving as we headed south just as the sun was rising. We headed in a southerly direction and were within earshot of the Mexican border. Our destination was a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombstone%2C_Arizona”Tombstone, AZ /a(N31 42.837 W110 04.018). The drive south started out flat as a pancake and ripe for speed traps. Tombstone is an old Wild West cowboy town frozen in time. There was the famous OK Corral, the general store, the post office and the saloon. The saloon was just as one would expect a great bar, cheap drinks and scantly clad women. JB opted for a whisky on the rocks and I a local Merlot. Drinking the booze on an empty stomach gave me a bit of a buzz. We visited the world’s largest rose bush and the attached museum. We stopped in at the OK Corral to watch an enactment of the famous Wyatt Earp shootout which was fun. The Tombstone Epitaph, the local paper, has a museum so we checked out the offerings. As the sun was setting we visited the Tombstone graveyard which is home where the remains of 50 of the famous western heroes. Back then justice was severe as the ceremony was riddled which folks that experienced really gruesome deaths. On our journey north we stopped in at the University of Arizona campus and eyed some weird signs. They have a pedestrian crossing for both deaf and blind folks next to a performing arts center. Visiting the a href=”http://www.arizona.edu/”UoA/a would mean that I had visited all three of the universities in the state of Arizona during my stay. Early Wednesday morning I caught early flight back to Ottawa.br /br /a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008″http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/a
Phoenix Half-marathon parthttp://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142882052942002 1
Getting therebr /br /Friday January 11br /br /My adventure started at 5:00 am when I caught the taxi to the airport. I arrived at the airport a little later than expected and was whisked through security and customs with the stern warning that if I did hurry I might miss my flight. This had the unintended affect of boosting my blood pressure needlessly, as once I was in the departure lounge it was announced that the 6:30 am departure would be delayed due to light bulb issues. There was some talk in the lounge about how long it could take to replace a light bulb. As time went on the airline staff called up more and more folks rebooked them on other flights. After a five hour delay our flight took off and we landed in Philadelphia an hour later. My new flight to Phoenix would leave late afternoon so I had lunch and spent much of the afternoon surfing the web with my laptop. I had packed a Robert Ludlum thriller novel helped in passing away the time. The flight to Phoenix was uneventful and JB met me at the airport. In keep with tradition, we had supper at PF Chang’s and started off the meal with lettuce wraps. The main course was Chicken Chow mien. JB dropped me back at the hotel and I bedded down after a 21 hour day.br /br /Saturday January 12br /br /I awoke at 7:00 am local time which is 9:00 am Ottawa time and headed down for breakfast. My first stop would be Arizona State University (ASU) which is the location of the half- and full-marathon finish lines as well as the shuttles to the start line. My goal was to see how much time I would need on Sunday morning to walk/jog to the shuttle buses. The further they were away to earlier I would have to leave. The distance was 1.5 miles. While on the campus, I tried my hand at some geocaching but couldn’t find a single geocaches but found a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142834808301682″petrified log /ainstead. As I was heading back to the hotel, JB texted me and we set up a rendezvous time. Once back at the hotel, I checked with the front desk and they confirmed that there were still some seats available for the 6:15 am shuttle to the start line. This was a relief. I took the last available seat. My legs would be grateful on Sunday morning.br /br /Early afternoon JB arrived and we headed over to REI to pick-up an order that I had placed over the Christmas holidays. It was a relief to find that the down jacket I had ordered fit. While trying on the jacket we starting talking to a staff member originally from Michigan and she was able to give me a good overview of the features of the jacket. From REI, we headed to downtown Phoenix to the race expo which was twice as large as last year. I quickly picked up my race package and we checked out the rows and rows of exhibitors. We next headed out for lunch at a local burritos chain. The next part was cool as we drove up to one of the highest part in the Tempe/Scottsdale/Phoenix area, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142882052942002″South Mountain/a, having an elevation of 2200 feet. It is a long a windy road without any guard rails. The a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Phoenix_Jan2008/photo#5158142869168040098″trash cans/a are elevated and set at an angle because of the coyote threat. The panoramic view from the top was awesome.br /br / It was then onto JB’s place where I met his folks and watched and listened as he played a variety of pieces of music on his piano. It was great listening to him play his concerto. Our plans of eating at the Spaghetti Factory were scuttled when we learned the wait time was 90 minutes. We opted to have a pasta dinner at a nearby fast food place. Before heading back we stopped at Kroger’s to get some bananas, fig newtons and pretzel goldfish. Before calling it a night I laid out my running gear for the morning.
Wet in Phladelphia
This weekend I’ll be in Phoenix, AZ running in my second PF Chang half-marathon. Last year, I set a personal best for the half-marathon distance (13.1 miles) in a time of 1:33. On Sunday, I hope to try run a faster time. As I type this blog I am sitting at the Philadelphia airport waiting for my flight to leave. I was up at 5:00 am to catch a 6:30 am flight and arrived a little later than I had expected. I had to rush through security only to find out that the airplane was having light bulb problems. The flight was delayed and delayed for about five hours scuttling my chances of arriving in Phoenix during the early afternoon. Once I boarded the flight at 11:00 they explained the problem. A light bulb for one of the main sensors on the plane had burn out. They would have to remove a couple of panels to replace it. I’m glad that they spotted the problem while we were still on the ground.
