A New Year and (Even More) New Beginnings

It's funny how things pan out - how one thing can cause a chain reaction and lead into something else.

During the holidays I was busy looking around for races in 2013, but it wasn't an easy task. One of the problems here in Calgary is that races during the winter months are few and far between, but as with the flowers in the spring, there is an abundance of races as soon as the weather starts to warm up and the days become longer, making it very difficult to make a shortlist of "must do's" throughout the year!

I'm also one of those runners that likes a bit of variety to keep me interested and avoid complacency - a mixed bag of long races and short races, flat runs and hilly runs, fast paced and slow paced, on road and  on the trails. It's small wonder that I've never really excelled at anything in particular but have tended to be mediocre at most race distances.

Anyhow,  I was looking for a road 10k or half marathon sometime in March/April to help me gauge how winter training had gone, when I came across Run for L'Arche Half Marathon - a local race that starts downtown at 10am so no need to get up at some un-godly hour, and with following the Bow River pathway, I would be familiar with small sections of the course. It hit all the right buttons, and so it was that I ended up registering for the race.

The following day, I received an email from the race director. Normally I wouldn't read these emails straight away as I'm likely to forget about them by the time race day comes around, so I tend to leave them unread until a later date. However, for some reason, I felt compelled to read this one, and boy am I glad I did!

A couple of days later, I found myself running around Sikome Lake parking lot in Fish Creek Park, trying to find Dawn (Race Director) and her coach and friend Don (Co- Race Director) ready to meet up for a couple of hours running. It was early at 7am, it was still dark, and it was about -10 degrees. I was also aware that coyotes wander around the park even in broad daylight, and whilst they generally run away whenever I've seen them on previous occasions, I didn't particularly fancy a confrontation with one today with being on my own in the dark. Thankfully, a full moon shed a beautiful silvery light on the lying snow so it was lighter than normal, and although the dark shadows in the trees would normally have made me a little jumpy, I wasn't really too concerned.

We had a fantastic run - Dawn, Don and I - when I eventually found them, running for around 90 minutes or so in the moonlight before catching the first light of day. I really enjoyed their company and their relaxed manner, their enthusiasm for running, their sense of humour, and the way they made me feel welcome. I'm really hoping that we will be spending plenty of time running together from here onwards, and I'm looking forward to meeting the folks that belong to their regular weekend running group, as well as being a member of the team for a 100 mile relay event to be held in June that I've volunteered for, assuming there's a place for me, 

Since doing the run with Dawn and Don, I've gone back to planning out my intended races for 2013, and have provisionally decided on the following:

January - Nose Creek XC Race and Twelve Mile Coulee XC Race

February - Nose Hill XC Race and Weaselhead XC Race, Frozen Ass 50km

March - Fish Creek XC Race and Run for L'Arche Half Marathon

April - Spring Trio 15km

May - Calgary Marathon

June - K-100 mile Relay and possibly Banff Trail Marathon

July - Stampede Half Marathon

August - Iron Legs 50 mile Trail Race

September - Grizzly Panorama 36km Trail Race

October - Grizzly 50km Trail Race

November/December - cross country starts again!

It will mean getting the miles in, it will mean teaching the old legs to run up hills and mountains, and it'll mean doing some speed sessions to get a bit of pace back in those same old legs. The main thing though is having a focus to give me the motivation to get out running, even when the weather is freezing cold and snowy.

Talking of the weather, the week leading up to Christmas was particularly cold with day time temperatures no higher than -18 but feeling more like -28 with the wind chill. It would have been so easy to stay huddled up indoors but I forced myself to run home from work and I have to say that it has been wonderful running through Fish Creek Park and seeing all the animal tracks in the snow and the mountains in the distance. When I haven't ran home, I've done runs with my little dog Wilson who has been more than happy to trot alongside me in his posh new booties and brand new coat.

Things have warmed up this past couple of days and we are now around freezing point which oddly feels really warm, so today I set off on my first run of the new year. A group set up on Facebook by UK friends has encouraged members of the group to set goals for the coming months to help them stay motivated to run throughout the year. With turning 40 this year, I've set myself a goal of running 4000km which may sound simple for somebody that used to run around 150km per week. However, those days are long gone and I tend to run more for enjoyment now - covering 80km a week will actually be quite a challenge for me these days.

Today's run was lovely and I covered just over 14km on snowy terrain in gorgeous sunshine. It was a really positive run - I felt really good, the sun was shining and the skies were blue, and I felt very happy as I ran past the birds on the Bow River enjoying some reprieve from the icy temperatures. I spotted a couple of coyotes out on the golf course playing in the snow, and even they looked happy, and I saw a small herd of deer in the woodland area scouting for food. It was one of those days where all is good with the world and I felt content as I looked forward to 2013 with excitement and happiness. It's a year ago tomorrow that Andy flew out to start his new life here, and I followed a couple of months later - what a difference a year can make! So much has happened in that 12 months, but now, instead of feeling like visitors in a foreign country, we feel  at home, and with new friends in the making, a new house on the horizon, and new adventures planned once again, I have a good feeling that 2013 is going to be a good year for us here in Calgary :o)