Woo Hoo!

Great news on the home front with my daughter Steph finally getting accepted into the Atlantic Veterinary College or AVC at UPEI. This was her third attempt at getting in and might have been her last try but now that she's made it we're very excited and happy for her. Steph is a life long animal lover and has always wanted to be a vet since she was very little. She now has the opportunity to work hard and achieve her dream. The road ahead will be long and difficult because the program is very demanding but she knows this and is well prepared to do well. You can visit and congratulate Steph at her blog where she also does some occasional running!

In fact I'm told that Steph will also be running in our St. Andrew's Father's Day race which we're putting on tomorrow. This will be the 29th edition of this 5 mile race and it goes around the perimeter of our beautiful little town. Its over a route that I run on most days but usually without 'the hill'. Here's the elevation profile. The kicker is in the last mile!

I've been busy today doing last minute things for the race like checking my computer registration forms, gathering food and drinks, checking on a few sponsors, etc. I even took time to fit in my run where I ran both the 1.5 mile kids loop and the 5 mile main loop with a can of spray paint in my water bottle holder so I could spuce up the faded course mile and kilometer markings (don't tell). Hopefully all will go well in the morning. We never know how many are going to show up with numbers in recent years varying from about 50-150 runners (it's just a small out of the way race ;-).

A quick update on my running for the past week:

Sunday - 17 miles in 2:34, a bit slow and tired with sore feet from all the running I did on concrete last week in Halifax/Dartmouth

Mon - rest

Tues - 5.5 easy with an unusually early 7am start because I was doing a long drive with my Mom to Bathurst and back in the same day. She's back in the chemo circle once again but we're hopeful the new drugs will work better this time around. Ended up driving for about 12 hours and was exhausted by the end of it.

Weds- 6mi dragging my butt run (I wonder why)

Thurs - 8 mi fartlek-y run with 10x1min surges with 1:00 rest but found out later I'd misread the workout and should have done 2-4min rests. Oh well avg pace was a decent 7:3x.

Fri - 10 mile in the heat of the day (8:01 pace); the sun actually came out and the temps shot up to the mid 20's (70'sF) would you believe? Nothing for you southerners but hard on us Canuks! I drank 2 bottles of water and was dying at the end.

Sat (today) - 10 miles running and marking our race course. Slow pace with all the stops and starts.

Total of 56 miles in 7hr 40min for the week and I still don't have a plan written down! Next week will be more of the same with a tempo run and maybe some cruise repeats but don't know how I'll do the long run with Sunday being a write-off due to the race director thing happening.

Wish me luck and have a great week! Summer officially starts on June 21 at 18:06 hrs which is also happens to be the longest day of the year (or at least the longest daylight hours) !