Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

I wasn't intending to do Survivorfest this year, but having put my name down to marshal from 5pm until 11pm, I thought it would be good practice for The Divide 200 if I signed up to run the 6 hour event, but starting at 2am Sunday morning. One may ask how 6 hours on a track could possibly prepare me for a 200 mile trail race in the mountains of Southern Alberta, but this time it wasn't about the terrain, nor even running long or fast. No, this time it was practicing being on my feet all day, and then having a couple of hours sleep before waking up and making my body run through the night, when it very likely would much prefer to be resting in a comfortable bed! I arrived at the Strathcona Athletics Park mid afternoon on the Saturday, and having set up my own aid station for later on, I settled down for the remainder of the afternoon, and watched some incredible athletes churning out mile after mile, as they took part in the 24 hour event. At 30°c, it was certainly a warm day fo...

May has always seemed like such a long month for me, and yet this year, it's whizzed by and I can't believe how quickly we are speeding towards the month of June, and the height of mid-summer! Things have certainly been summery here in Alberta, and for several days this month, we have encountered extreme heat in the 30 degrees Celsius range and minimal rainfall. With such dry conditions and lack of rain, combined with some very windy days, the wildfire season started early and there have been several fires burning which has created horrendously smoky conditions for many areas, including our neck of the woods. The air quality has been at a +10 which is very poor, and there's no doubt that this has had an impact on many people that spend a lot of time outdoors. The sad thing is hearing about all the people that have had to be evacuated, and this really hit home when Leduc County itself became affected by the fires, and we at work were being asked of we could help out at the e...