Kinga hooked me onto this race during the Boxing Day 10 Miler. I was immediately enthused. Once I returned from Cleveland, I immediately e-mailed Dirty Runner Diane and Kinga for more information. Once the information was forwarded, we all started getting psyched up for our adventure.
The drive to St. Catharines was uneventful, except for a bit of snow on the way down. The mistake I made was drinking a can of Ensure on the way. My stomach decided shortly after to display signs of intolerance - while I was on the highway! Because of the fact that I was a little short on time, I elected not to stop enroute. Upon arrival at our meeting spot, the bush welcomed me and I relieved myself there, spelling relief into the snow.
After greeting everyone and getting the gear prepped, we walked uphill to the starting area. Kinga, Diane, Henri, Stephan, and I all chatted excitedly on the way up. Kinga and Diane decided to warm up by playing "Cat and Mouse" with Kinga being the Mouse and Diane being the Cat. They had this game going since Creemore last summer and it keeps them both moving. As we were waiting, we saw Monica and Phil drive to the parking lot with their two crazy dogs, Tonto and Alecka.
As we started, I decided that I was going to stay with Diane for the entire run since she knew the course. We bantered for most of the race and had quite a ball. The "Cat and Mouse" game was quite entertaining to watch as Kinga came towards us after reaching the out and back. On the way back, we saw Monica and Phil coming toward us with the dogs. After a quick chat, Di and I were off. Because of the dogs, Monica and Phil only did the half marathon. We got back to the parking lot and proceeded out to the road where we had to climb a hill on the way up to Brock University. Because we made a mistake with the instructions, we decided to have some fun and cut through the halls of the school. We couldn't really run though because of the screws on my trail shoes. After descending the escarpment trail and getting back to the parking lot, we restocked before setting off for the second loop.
As we ran along, we encountered the half-marathoners on their way back, as well as some of the others ahead of us. Cat and Mouse also met up but they were too tired to do anything crazy. As we were on our way to the turnaround, Di decided that she needed to get into a zone so she pulled out her MP3 player. Well, she was really entertaining for the remainder of the loop. She was singing, and dancing, and putting on quite a performance. She had me laughing as we were moving along. It kind of took our minds off the cold that was threatening to dampen our spirits. Upon returning to the parking lot prior to heading up that long hill, Henri, Kinga and Stephan greeted us and gave us oranges and gummies before shooing us away. All the other cars were gone. This gave us some ammunition as we powered up the hill and modified the Brock University route to the correct way. As we descended and approach the road, we decided to really announce our arrival. WHO-DEE-HOO! Diane also did her charades to Lola as we approached. We were greeted by the gang with horns blaring from the parking lot. We are winners! (in our minds that is :) )
Pictures (From top to bottom)
- Diane huggging the post at the turnaround point along the trail
- Me hugging the post
- Shoes on the wire
- Diane is a star!
- Group photo after the finish
We then made our way to the racquet club and gym, a hang out spot for the St. Catharines Roadrunners Club where we all showered and then met in the bar. As we were snacking, Nabil (the organiser for the run) told me the story behind this event. The event was an idea conceived by a bunch of runners sitting around a table a few years ago. The name, Fools Marathon, did not refer to being "fools" for running in January. "Fool" referred to the full distance. Pretty interesting, eh?
After awhile, all the runners disbanded to the ordinary lives that are lived outside of the group. I noticed when I was driving that winter was definitely getting a grip on us this time because there was snow falling when I was driving. Oh well...
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