Martin Parnell Finish the Race Attitude

Last weekend Sue and I were walking along a beach at Comox on Vancouver Island. We picked our way through sopping seaweed and over massive BC fir timbers that had been washed up on the shore. They've had 26 days of rain out of 30 in November but luckily we hit 3 dry days. We tried some trail running but it was mainly puddle jumping so we ended doing a couple of road runs.

Fast forward to today and we're in the middle of a huge snow storm. I picked up Nephew Chris early this morning and headed off to Sunshine resort for a day of skiing for his birthday. We drove down the #1 highway and stopped ay Humpty's for a gormet breakfast of low cal eggs benedict. When we went in, no snow, when we came out, snow strom.

We continued on for 20mins but the driving was nuts so we turned off at Morley and headed back to Cochrane on the #1A highway. The snow had eased up but the road was still pretty slick. Suddenly from behind a bush a deer jumped into the middle of the road and stopped. I hit the brakes and the vehicle started to slid. At the last moment the deer bolted to the other side and I missed it by inches. No more driving today!

Beachcomber:

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The Cochrane and Calgary area got nailed with a big time winter storm this week. It started last Friday and we're still in the deep freeze (Thursday). A perfect time to test out the winter gear.

I headed out on Sunday (-21C, -31C with the wind chill) and made it 15km before my CamelBak turned into a block of ice. I had two pairs of gloves but the hands remained cold, I also realised that another pair of insulated shorts would have have been a good idea. I managed to complete a half marathon in 2hr 25min 14sec but I had work to do on my gear.

My friend Dave had mentioned that hand warmers in the lining of the gloves works well, so I slit open the backs of my mitts and shoved in a couple of packs in each glove, excellent. I also purchased an insulation kit for the hydration pack, we'll see.

Yesterday I headed out for my second "Winter Test", this time on the Cochrane Foothills Marathon course. The temp was a tropical -13C (-20C with the wind chill) and basically the gear worked well. The hands stayed warm and the CamelBak remained unfrozen (a drink every 4m 30s to keep the water moving). I was pretty beat at the end but I completed the marathon course in 5hr 35min 27sec. I'm using a Garmin 310xt and down load the run info at home, very interesting.

The other CamelBak

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Chrismas Eve so it's time for a pre-turkey training run along the banks of the Bow. It's been pretty cold the last few days but the frost clinging to the trees has made for some spectacular scenes. The last two weeks have been pretty hectic, there's been good media interest with interviews with the Cochrane Times, Calgary Herald, City TV and Canadian Press. I managed to get some training in as well because they always want to video me running along the Cochrane Foothills Marathon course.

The "Virtual Map" (Cochrane to Boston and back) of my milage has been printed. The Rotary Club of Cochrane sponsored 50 maps and they will be going to the Schools I'll be running at through out the year. I have 9 schools signed up but I still need 31 more, if you know of a school that might be interested in having me run a marathon around their track or field then let me know.

People have started sponsoring the marathons and others have been great helping me along the way, several have helped with in-kind donations, covering some of the costs of Marathon Quest 250.  I've posted these individuals and businesses under "Sponsorship" on the website.

Finally have a great Christmas and New Year

Can you spot the Penguin?

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Sue and I had decided that Sunday would be our first snowshoe outing of the year. Photographer Ted, from the Calgary Herald had mentioned that Kananaskis country had received a dump of snow and the conditions were excellent. We headed off , mid morning, with our friends Kevin and Kathy, they had never snowshoed before and wanted to try out their gear.

Last March I had competed in the Coldfoot classic, a one day 44km snowshoe race in Yellowknife, NWT. I showed our friends the secret training location (Middle Lake in the Bow Valley Provincial Park) I had used to prepare for the race. It consists of a 1km loop around the edge of the lake and I had trained up to 30km a day on this route.

We arrived at the Peter Loughheed Provincial Park visitor centre and talked to Park Ranger Carol. She explained the avalanche situation and the snow depth on the trails. She mentioned that there was 75cm of snow at the moment and when I asked if this was good for this time of year she asked me to show her how deep I thought that was? I indicated that it would be around mid thigh, "not bad" she said.

Having passed Park Ranger Carol's snow depth test we had a bite to eat and hit the trails. The snow was amazing and we finished just as the sun was dipping below the mountains.

Yeti tracks

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Three months ago my friend Bill sent me this and I've had it pinned to the wall above my desk ever since:

"Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, the Providence moves too.

Multitudes of things occur to help that which otherwise could never occur. A stream of events arises from the decision rising to one's favour all manner of unforeseen accidents, meeting and material assistance, which no one could have dreamed, would come their way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

Helping kids - One Run at a Time

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