Color Me Rad

It was about 20 minutes to 9am when we arrived at Canada Olympic Park to run in the 9am start wave in the 2014 Color Me Rad 5km Race. It was cloudy, it was windy, and we were all freezing our asses off in shorts and t-shirts waiting for the race to start.

Brrrr!!!!

About five minutes to the start and the glorious, glorious sun came out. We followed the hoard of people up the hill to the start gate, so we could have our chance to run the most challenging 5km course I have ever encountered! Mind you, I've really only encountered ten or so race courses, so it's not like I am overflowing with experience, but even so it was challenging.

Race course.

If you are at all familiar with Canada Olympic Park, then you know it was created for the 1988 Winter Olympics and it is perched on a steep hill to accommodate ski jumps and a bobsled track. Us runners-- we got to run UP the hill! And since it had rained heavily the night before, we got to run through fresh, slick mud on our way UP the hill!

Over the course of the race there were color bomb stations. Orange, yellow, blue, purple and pink! The paint bombs were delivered via coloured cornstarch powder. Essentially there were people along the race course hurling handfuls of powder at you. You spent a lot of time trying to avert your face so it didn't get in your eyes, and trying to hold your breath so that you didn't breathe the powder in.

Running up the hill under (what now felt like) the burning sun was a slow slog, and ended up being more of a run/hike. I cramped up on the downhill portion which made the "easy" part considerably less enjoyable.  The last 1.5km were a bit of a torture because you could see the finish line, but the course kept winding back and forth away and towards it-- taunting you. But at the end you were greeted with a bottle of water, and your choice of color bomb packet.

Joel and Jasmine after crossing the finish line.

My paint-speckled self.

Jeff, Ashley and  I.

We made friends with some policemen that were on site, as well as with Simon the Safety bear. Ashley then threw some green paint at them (they were okay with it).

Ashley, Jeff, Julie and I with the Police.

RAD-ioactive Runners, post race.

Overall, it was a beautiful morning and a great way to spend some time with friends. I won't speculate for now as to whether we'll run again next year... That killer hill is still too fresh in my memory! :)

Hiking and Deer

Last weekend Tom and I drove out to Bragg Creek to do our first hike of the season. The weather was beautiful-- warm but cloudy, and we were full of pancakes and sausage from our community Stampede breakfast that morning.

And... Wouldn't you know it? On our way out to the trailhead we hit a deer. It was a low-speed collision, so we were both okay. We had slowed down for a deer that was already crossing the road, and Tom had seen the second one indecisively standing in the ditch. He thought it had decided to cross behind our car, so he started to speed up. At the last minute, it changed it's mind and ran in front of us. The deer got up and ran away (hopefully it was okay), and there is some front-end damage to our car. But overall, it was not too bad. Clearly the situation could have been MUCH worse!

We continued on to do the hike, and were pretty disappointed with the Sulphur Springs Trail. We hiked for about 12km through the forest without seeing any real scenery (unless you count forest and more forest). The trail signage was also sadly lacking in legibility, and we took a wrong turn at one intersect and popped out on the highway.

It turned out this wrong turn lead to the ONLY scenery we saw on the trip, a nice view of the VERY muddy Elbow River. Waterways are high with runoff this year, so we steered clear of getting any closer.

We have a few more hikes on our radar this summer. We will (once again) attempt to hike Crypt Lake in Waterton in August. Followed by another multi-day backpacking trip with Ashley and Andrew in the North Cascades National Park in Washington State.

Stay tuned!