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!

Sushi, Sushi, SU-SHI!

If I leave my modesty at the door, then I can tell you-- good God! Tom, Ashley, Andrew and I are good cooks!

In addition to Thai, Vietnamese and over-the-top crab bakes, we can also add homemade sushi to our repertoire.

Last weekend we started with a bowl of miso soup. Complete with silky tofu, green onion and seaweed.

Miso soup.

We sliced mangoes, avocados and cucumbers for filling, before mixing up a batch of spicy salmon poke. We also made a spicy tuna poke, not featured in pictures, to be combined into our rolls.

Spicy salmon poke.

For refreshments, we whipped up a container of Bobby Flay's Coconut Ice Tea, an iced concoction of Jasmine green tea, coconut milk and a dash of lime juice.

Coconut Ice Tea.

Tom decorated our wasabi with a flower of pickled ginger...

Wasabi and pickled ginger.

And voila! The final products! Mango salmon rolls, spicy tuna and mango rolls, avocado and spicy salmon rolls... Basically any combination you could imagine with our ingredients.

And when our rice started to run out, we finished of the plate with same tuna and salmon sashimi.

It was DELICIOUS!

Chicago: Part 2

Where did I leave off?

Ah yes! Navy Pier.

I'm not really sure I "get" what Navy Pier is. I *think* it's an amusement park? There was a Ferris wheel, there were rides, and there were food stalls, but not a lot of them were open yet. I assume that is because we weren't visiting during peak tourist season. Also, Navy Pier is currently undergoing a face-lift, or a "re-imaging", as the signs said.

What Navy Pier did boast was a lovely view of a slightly dilapidated lighthouse, and some sweeping views of the city.

A lighthouse.

Chicago Cityscape.

Walking back to our hotel after Navy Pier felt long the longest walk imaginable. By that point, we had probably walked somewhere around 15km total for the day. We rested for a little while back at our hotel before heading out for dinner. And after that? Well, we walked around some more.

We headed back to Millenium Park to take a second look at some of the public art displays. We went back to see the Cloud Gate at night, and were able to capture some of my favourite photos from the trip.

We finally managed to locate the Crown Fountain. This fountain is an interactive piece of public art by Juame Plensa. It has been in Chicago since July 2004, meaning it is coming up on it's ten year anniversary in the park. Although my photo is of the wrong side, the reverse side shows images of faces smiling, laughing, and occasionally blowing water out into the fountain.

Crown Fountain.

 Juame Plensa is also responsible for a public art installation closer to home-- what we fondly refer to as, "The Big Head" at the Bow.

On our last day in Chicago, we took (another) long walk to the Field Museum. We spent the day at the museum wandering from exhibit to exhibit. It was an excellent museum with lots to see.

On our way home, we passed some vibrant daffodils!

For our last night, we decided to try the highly, highly recommended Purple Pig, for dinner. Purple Pig is a known for cheese, swine and wine. We ate cornbread with a Mediterranean twist, marinated olives, a charcuterie platter, a mixed cheese platter, and finally... Tom convinced me to try roasted bone marrow with herbs.

Am I interested in trying bone marrow again? Sadly, no. Not at all. But I'm glad I tried it.

Before flying home the following afternoon, we made one last stroll past the bean before we boarded the train to head to the airport. Then we waited in the airport for an additional two hours while our flight was delayed... But overall, it was a great trip!

Thanks, Chicago!

Chicago: Part 1

There are so many places in the world that I'd like to see, sometimes we forget about the places that are closer to home in North America.

Chicago is just over three hours away, so Tom and I caught a flight on Thursday afternoon to the windy city. We landed, and it was windy. And rainy. Go figure!

Surprisingly, we have several inadvertent connections to Chicago. Two family friends grew up in Chicago, and they were both able to offer us plenty of suggestions for sights to see and places to eat.

We started with a Chicago classic-- deep dish pizza at Giordano's. We waited over 45 minutes for our tables, and after a day of flying and public transportation, I was basically ready to gnaw my hand off.

Artichoke, sausage and black olive pizza.

Since we new it was going to be rainy on our first full day, we decided to head to the Museum of Science and Industry so we could spend most of the day inside.

All I can say is... You know you're in America when the Museum of Science and Industry has this kind of signage!

Charming signage.

I think both of us were a bit disappointed by this museum. The place was HUGE, and there were plenty of exhibits, but it was very kid-oriented. Moreso than we had expected! The exhibits had a lot of hands-on aspects to them, but they didn't have a lot of substance to them. 

Here was a cool "tornado" making machine.

Day 2 in the city. I can only think of a handful of times when I have walked so much in one day. We started the day with a trip through Millennium Park. Millennium Park is perhaps most well known for it's piece of public art, the Cloud Gate. I don't think a single tourist leaves Chicago without a picture of the "bean." It was a beautiful sunny day, and the square was crawling with tourists like ourselves.

Cloud Gate

Great Lawn.

Our next stop was near the river, where we hopped onboard a Wendella architectural boat tour of the city/ Chicago has a unique skyline, interesting stories, and plenty of former record-breaking towers. For example, the Aon Tower (in the background of the Great Lawn photo above). It has 83 floors, and was originally constructed with slabs of white Italian marble. About 12 years after construction, numerous cracks and bowing was found in the marble, and it was ultimately completely refaced with white granite. Although the cost of the refacing was never made public, rumours suggest that it cost nearly half the amount it cost to build the building in the first place!

We were told that Portillos is an institution in town for hot dogs. When we walked inside, we  were both a little dumbstruck. Flashing lights, hordes of people, lines everywhere! After some wide-eyed staring, we figured out where we wanted to go and ordered some fully loaded hot dogs and onion rings.

Our next stop was Navy Pier. Stayed tuned until next time!

Ate All the Choklat

When Tom turned the ripe old age of 31 in January, I bought us two tickets to Choklat Snobbery 101, at Choklat. Choklat is one of the few shops in the world that actually roasts their own beans and makes their own chocolate. As their website says, they have been voted the #1 Artisan Chocolate maker in Canada.

Tom is a bit of a chocolate addict. There is almost always a bar of dark chocolate in our fridge. It has to be in the fridge (apparently he thinks it's better cold?), and it has to be 80% or darker.

We started our evening with a mug of warm hot chocolate. I admit, I could have done without the bright blue whopped cream-- but the blue matched the colours on their logo. Apparently the blue colouring is all natural (I wasn't listening to well at this point).

The hot chocolate WAS delicious. Maybe a touch too sweet for my taste, but still, a delicious treat.

 

 

Next we moved into the shop to learn more about cacao beans. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. Essentially all of the cacao beans are grown in third world countries. The Ivory Coast produces the most, at about 1.6 million metric tons per year, followed by Indonesia, with about 0.9 million metric tons per year. The beans themselves look a bit like almonds, but in their raw form, they have a bit of a vinegary smell to them.

 

The beans are processed and roasted in the shop, then mixed with cocoa butter for the base of the chocolate. The chocolate needs to be tempered (that is, heated up gradually), and is done so in a series of tempering machines.

 

Eventually it comes to being pressed and molded for consumption. There were dozens of giant baking sheet filled with squares of various types of chocolate.

 

We sampled somewhere between 7-8 types of chocolate from different regions in places such as Brazil and Venezuela. It was interesting-- each of the chocolates had a different flavour. Some were earthy, some were fruity-- and it all comes from the type of bean, and how it was fermented. For the most part, the chocolates were all 70% dark chocolate, but we did get to try an 80% chocolate at the end. We also did some wine and chocolate pairings and samplings.

Tom's favourite part of the night was that he was the only man on a tour with nine other women.

I feel like I now know so much more about chocolate than I ever thought possible.

I wish our house smelled as delicious at the Choklat shop did, all the time. Visit Choklat down in Inglewood-- I highly recommend it!

Tom and I are heading to Chicago on Thursday, so stay tuned for more travel-related posts.

2014 Race Itinerary

Normally at this time of year I would be well into half-marathon training. The last two years I have run the Calgary half marathon which normally occurs the last week of May-- or in this case, the first weekend of June. After last year, two half marathons, eight months straight of training, shin splits and bruised heels, I decided I would take it easier this year, and only run one major race.

As it has turned out, it is probably for the best. I keep catching colds that have put me out of commission, and it has been so cold this winter, I have barely had a chance to run.

However, I have two races on my itinerary this year.

COLOR ME RAD - June 28

Photo Credit

After having to opt out of Color Me Rad last year because of flooding, I deferred my race registration to this year. This is a 5km race novelty race-- I don't even think they record your time.  Basically, you run 5km with a pack of your friends while people throw corn starch colour-bombs at you. It is going to be AWESOME.

LAS VEGAS ROCK 'N ROLL HALF MARATHON - November 16

Photo Credit

 

The Las Vegas Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon happens late in the fall. 13.1 miles (or 21.1km) down the Las Vegas strip-- starting at dusk.  The best part of this race is that it starts in the evening! I have never been much of a morning runner, so the idea of running later in the day is very appealing to me.

 

I had no idea this race was so huge. Past races have had around 45000 participating runners! I'm a little concerned about some of the race accounts I've read from previous racers-- some people say the race is not very well managed. Start corals are congested, not enough aid stations... But I hope that with years of experience of running an event this large, it will have improved over the years!

 

My full training won't start until early August, but I hope to get back to a more regular running schedule as the weather starts to warm up.

 

Ashley and Andrew will be joining us in Vegas for this race-- and hopefully Jasmine and Joel as well.

 

Looking forward to these races in 2014!