2 Hours & Ironman Dreams

I am doing the Run For The Toad 25km trail run in October. As part of my training, I went for a two-hour run this morning. I have missed several runs lately with Jeff being away and because of other commitments so I found today's run tough. Both my running buddies are away as well, so I was on my own today. Just me and my iPod. Thank goodness for my brother Allan, who is a DJ, who e-mailed me a list of recent pop and rock songs. I downloaded almost all of the songs he recommended and it was nice to have some new, recent music to listen to.

I decided to take my camera for the first hour. Here is what I saw along the way:

Jeff's building @ The University of Waterloo (The Davis Centre).

Finally, some daylight is appearing!

Little lake by the School of Optometry.

Corn fields.

I took this photo for my buggy girl Addie.

My feet.

New logo and colours of UW.

Almost home for a pit stop.

Pit stop.

Hour one complete.

I didn't take my camera for the second hour of my run.
Home after my second hour.

Okay, it was almost an hour! Close enough!

I spent a lot of time on my run thinking about all the athletes in Penticton, BC, who are about to start the Ironman Canada Triathlon. This race involves a 3.8 km/2.4 mi swim, a 180km/112 mi bike ride, and it finishes with a marathon - 42.2km/26.2 mi. I competed in this race in 2001 and had the time of my life! It was an incredible experience for me and I have always wanted to do the race again. I have been thinking about the possibility of doing the race in 2011. I figure that is a good year to do it since it will also be the year of my 20 year high school reunion (yikes!). I could go back to my hometown (a 10 minute drive from Penticton) with the kids for about a month to train on the Ironman course, go to the reunion and compete in the race. Training in 2010/2011 would be ideal because both girls would be in school full-time and Lauchlan would be attending preschool two mornings a week. I also won't be back at work yet either. All those reasons mean that I would have some time to train that wouldn't interfere with my family time as much. I am sure there must be many women with families who train for this race. I am not sure how, but it must happen. I have one more year to ponder this and decide if doing this race in 2011 is the right thing for me. It is hard not to be excited every August, though, when I know people are competing in the race. It just makes you want to sign up. Really. Trust me!