Monday, October 17, 2011

Vulture Bait 50K

I learned a lot at this race, I know its hard to believe, since I have been doing this sort of thing for about fifty years. But first I had not signed up like I had thought I had and it was only by the hard work of Jenifer, of the organizing club, that I got to race at all and second there is no point in E mailing pick up details to someone who does not have access to a computer. As a consequence I arrived late at the race. where I learned  that the cut-off times for the 50k was  on clock time not your own start time. I put in a good effort but arrived at the 25k cut-off about 7 minutes late.
In spite of this I would recommend this 50k. The trails were well marked and all the aid station volunteers were fantastic! It was one of the best run races this year

Saturday, October 8, 2011

CleoDog 2001-2011

I was sitting at the front door trying to tie my running shoes and couldn`t because they were wet and slippery  from my tears. CleoDog died . She was diagnosed with ostro sarcoma in December 2010 and after a short illness she bounced back as my loyal running partner. We were in her favourite field , when she scared up a deer.  The chase was on. The deer covering the ground in graceful souring leaps. CleoDog close to the ground, her powerful hind legs throwing tuffs of sod and grass. The Deer sensing the closing dog.  dogged right. CleoDog in attempt to follow, tumbled and rolled, She let out a painful cry. When I ran up to where she was lying, I saw that her cancer weakened leg had broken. She tucked her head into my lap and  I could see in her big brown eyes she had had enough.
It`s been a week and I ran her favourite route. I did not see the deer but two Doberman Dogs, who usually went berserk when we would pass. Stood silent starring on their property line at the strange old man stumbling past, Crying! file://localhost/Users/spencedickson/Desktop/IMG_1501.JPG

The Prince Edward Country Marathon Oct 2 2011

This is a nice point to point marathon that finishes in Picton ON. I think that this could be called a very picturest marathon However it was a lost to me ( no Fault of the organisers ) The day dawned cold and windy 6C 30-50klm winds from the east and driving rain. The race ran west to east so doing the half, the wind and rain was in my face for 13 miles. To make maters worse I was suffering a bout of the Flu and had to stop at too many Porta Potties. To cap it off I broke a front tooth off on a peice of frozen power bar. But I finnished! sort of!