The big event of the weekend took place this morning.  Jules organized a brunch and orientation to Big Brothers Big Sisters at Moxies which turned out to be a great success.  11 people showed up for the brunch and we had two special guests for the orientation; Lisa from BBBS came out to inform everyone of the types of mentoring opportunities that are available and we were very fortunate to have Adam Kreek come out as well and talk some about his experiences as a Big.  It was a great morning!

Yesterday the annual BBBS Holiday Party was held at Pearkes Arena.  It was a very cool event, with some help I was able to get a few very inspiring people to attend and provide the Littles, Bigs and parents with some fun, some great stories and a ton of motivation.  The highlights for me were Kelly Guest’s entire presentation, his play-by-play of Simon’s Silver Medal Finish at Beijing was awesome, and the rowing drill that Cam Baerg and Adam Kreek put the kids through, after about the fourth rep Adam asked if the kids wanted to continue and he was answered with a thunderous “NOOOOO!!!!” - it was hilarious

I can put my full weight on my ankle and there is no pain or discomfort while walking but it definitely did not like the plant during a running pace.  I could have hobbled my way through a run but it wouldn’t have had any training benefit, probably would have made things worse, the only reason for it would have been to satisfy the addiction…

Now the story would sound way cooler if I was able to say that it happened during a descent down some SICK technical single track but unfortunetly I’m not able to do that.  When it happeneed we had already come down the descent and were just cruising along, chatting, on one of the well groomed flatter trails and to top it off I just wasn’t paying attention to where my feet were at!

Fortunately it’s not a really bad sprain; the ankle is tight but I can put my full weight on it and walk with just a little limp.

I do have one small issue - I am registered for the Bear Mountain 10K this Sunday.  I was planning on running out to Bear Mountain from home that morning and then run the race but will have to see how the ankle feels.  I am hopeful that after taking today and tomorrow off, the ankle will be ready for some running on Sunday : )

*** I’ve just recovered from a late morning/early afternoon bout of Cranial Rectal Inversion and realized that the Bear Mountain 10K is tomorrow morning…  now I am not sure how this is going to go : (  I will head out to FR Westshore tonight to pick up the race package and then will just have to see how things feel tomorrow?

I turned today’s run into a long day and went out to the lake early to get in a few laps before the Relay started.  In total I got in 10 laps, 6 before and then the 4 Relay laps.  I had talked with the Race Director, Bob Reid, yesterday about what I was going to do and he was cool with me using my first four laps as my ‘official’ time for the Relay which was awesome as I really started to drag my feet during those lap couple of laps.

My lap times were:

• 1st Lap - 27′06″
• 2nd Lap - 27′22″
• 3rd Lap - 27′54″
• 4th Lap - 28′31″ (20K - 1h50′55″)
• 5th Lap - 29′01″
• 6th Lap - 30′09″
• 7th Lap - 27′52″
• 8th Lap - 30′45″
• 9th Lap - 31′46″
• 10th Lap - 33′10″ (50K - 4h53′40″)

 “You Ain’t Tracks - You Ain’t Shit”

 Today is the Marine Corps’ 233rd birthday and tomorrow is Remembrance Day.  I will be celebrating/remembering both tomorrow during the 12th Annual Harriers Thetis Lake 20K Relay.

In August 1990 I was running training operations at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the island of Hawaii when my unit, Alpha Company, 3rd Assault Amphibian Detachment, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, received orders to prepare for an overseas deployment to Southwest Asia as a response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In the following weeks we went from Hawaii to Guam to the Phillipines where we met up with and boarded our Maritime Prepositioning Ship squadron.  We floated from the Phillipines to Saudi Arabia and then offloaded all the equipment, supplies and ammunition from our boat.

We trained and patrolled the Saudi frontier with Kuwait for many months until the start of the ground war in February 1991.  In preparation for the assault into Kuwait, the battalion divided into two main mechanized infantry task forces, along with 1st and 3rd Tank Battalions, to form Task Force Ripper and Task Force Papa Bear respectively.  I was assigned to Task Force Ripper, the primary maneuver element in the attack to penetrate Iraqi defensive positions located between the Al Wafrali and Umm Gudair Oil fields.

After five days of combat we, along with the other Marine task forces, British and Pan-Arab units, captured Kuwait International Airport and a cease-fire was announced. During the march to Kuwait City, the mechanized infantry task forces were responsible for the defeat of numerous Iraqi regiments, the capture of tens of thousands of Iraqi prisoners, and the capture or destruction of thousands of enemy armored vehicles.

T “The Gecko” Peterson

Saturday - After the Relay I spent part of the evening at Il Greco with PanPan, Lindsaylator, and Joyce enjoying some great food and incredible company!  Later that evening I met up with St.J, Beddall and Jim for a laugh filled evening at the Atomic Vaudeville.

Sunday - It started with an early morning Packman pickup, a drive out to Thetis Lake and a couple of very enjoyable hours on the trails.  I spent Sunday afternoon with Stinky and Maestro enjoying a wonderful brunch and some wandering downtown - I was stoked to get caught up with them, it had been awhile!  I made Sunday night a lazy night, watched a movie, ate some popcorn and laid on the couch.

Once again I’m behind on my blog posts, this race happened on Saturday…

I was very happy that the race didn’t start until 1pm, I was able to sleep in a little, had time to get a few chores done in the morning and then was able to leisurely drive up to Nanaimo and make a couple of stops on the way.

I made it to Westwood Lake just after 12, arriving to some very light drizzle and a little bit of wind, I checked in and then went back to the car to get my kit on.  Even with the drizzle and rain it was still quite mild so I opted for a short sleeve shirt, gloves, shorts, and a toque.  As I wasn’t planning on hammering I didn’t bother with much of a warmup, I did a few short jogs and a couple activation drills and then lined up at the start area.

My plan was to run steady, try to keep my pace at or just under 5′/km and try to stay there comfortably and easily.  I was told that a lap of the Lake was approx 5.5km so I was hoping to keep my lap times under 27′30″ including any stops or breaks I took.  The course was primarily on flat wide groomed trail with a few short bits of mildly undulating single track, one small creek crossing inbetween 2km and 3km and one large hill that was around 500-600m before the exchange point/finish line - all very runnable!

My race went well, my first two laps were both under 27′, I had run the ‘large hill’ on both of those laps, so for laps three and four I decided to walk the hill and see if I could still keep the 5′/km pace going - it was not a problem I ran both laps three and four just under 27′30″.  My finishing time was 1:47:28, an average pace of 4′53″/km, and since I was the only official solo runner I took first in my category.

For it’s first year the Westwood Lake Relay was definitely a well organized and very fun race, hopefully the turn out and positive participant response will be enough to keep it going for next year!

It’s been awhile since I’ve run in an organized race, the last couple of races I participated in were the Fletcher’s Challenge 12km in March and then the 24 Hour Relay in June.

I toned this weeks training down some hoping that I’ll go into tomorrow with fresher legs and have a strong run:
Monday was a really easy clean out run.
Tuesday I hit the  stairs for some hard steady climbs.
Wednesday and Thursday were easier days.

Today I will run a little easier as well but will toss in a few short and quick surges to wake up the legs for tomorrow.