Weeks 38 through 40: Visit from Grandma, Toronto and Back Home
I haven't had a chance to post recently, so I need to catch up on the last few weeks.
The balance of my mom's visit went well, and the weather even cooperated for the day and a half I took off at the end of her trip. We took a couple of nice walks out to Sylvia Grennell park and to Apex, which she really enjoyed. She left Wednesday at noon, and then we had Thursday to get things wrapped up before leaving for Toronto on Friday. Alexa was pretty good on the flight to Ottawa, and somewhat less good on the flight to Toronto; however, it was past her bedtime, so it's understandable if she was a bit grumpy. Unfortunately when we arrived in Toronto we discovered that one of our bags (which included all of my clothing and my running gear) had been delayed. It arrived late in the day on Saturday, but not soon enough to get a run in.
My running suffered a bit that week, as I only got in three runs for a total of 28.4 km, and adding another 10 km to my deficit.
The remainder of our stay in Toronto was really nice. We bought the Toronto City Pass, which includes admission to the museum, science centre, CN Tower, Casa Loma and the zoo. The funny thing was is that we ran into another couple we know from Iqaluit who was vacationing with their 2 or 3 year old daughter - they stayed at the same hotel, roughly the same dates, and were doing essentially the same things. It's a small world. Alexa really enjoyed herself; she got to spend lots of quality time with mom and dad, she liked the full length mirror in our hotel room (she played "peek a boo" with her reflection) and was excited to see the animals at the zoo. Another neat moment was when we were riding on the subway; Alexa looked around, saw all the people holding on to hand rails, and grabbed hold of one herself.
While we were there, we saw our friends Ryan and Karolina, who had moved down from Iqaluit the year previous, and Christine re-connected with a friend from journalism school, Chelsey (sp?).
I managed three good runs during our stay in Toronto, each between 12 and 14.7 km, averaging about 4:15 minute/km. The last run was particularly good, 14.68 km at an average pace of 4:04 minute/km, and I did the first 10 km in just under 40 minutes. I'm going to miss running in warm weather.
On Thursday we flew to Ottawa to spend a couple of days with Christine's aunt and uncle before returning to Iqaluit. We took Alexa to a playground close by, and put her in an infant swing to see how she'd like. It was a big hit. I got in one additional run in Ottawa, 10 km at 4:24 min./km pace, so that was all right. On Saturday we flew back to Iqaluit, giving us Sunday to get organized.
I'm acting manager at work these days (until Friday!), so it's been pretty busy. I'm looking forward to handing the reigns over to my co-worker, who will be acting until mid-December when it becomes my turn again. Yay. I managed five runs on this first week back, and I am reminded how little I enjoy running in the dark. Iqaluit does not sufficient street lights everywhere, which has forced me to really slow down so I can be sure of my footing. The runs were 10 km each, give or take a couple hundred metres, and averaged 4:36 km. This brings my total for the year to 1476 km, with a deficit of 64 km still to make up. I've been knocking the total down by about 10-12 km per week, so I'm hopeful I can be caught by up mid-November.
I'm not sure where this fits in the chronology, but I have a cute story about Alexa to share. Sometimes when she's crawling around, I'll get down on all fours as well. Often she'll get a big smile on her face and come roaring toward me, and then we (gently) bonk heads. Every time this happens I saw "bonk", and recently she learned how to say it as well. So, we get down, bonk heads, and both say "bonk". I love my little girl.
The balance of my mom's visit went well, and the weather even cooperated for the day and a half I took off at the end of her trip. We took a couple of nice walks out to Sylvia Grennell park and to Apex, which she really enjoyed. She left Wednesday at noon, and then we had Thursday to get things wrapped up before leaving for Toronto on Friday. Alexa was pretty good on the flight to Ottawa, and somewhat less good on the flight to Toronto; however, it was past her bedtime, so it's understandable if she was a bit grumpy. Unfortunately when we arrived in Toronto we discovered that one of our bags (which included all of my clothing and my running gear) had been delayed. It arrived late in the day on Saturday, but not soon enough to get a run in.
My running suffered a bit that week, as I only got in three runs for a total of 28.4 km, and adding another 10 km to my deficit.
The remainder of our stay in Toronto was really nice. We bought the Toronto City Pass, which includes admission to the museum, science centre, CN Tower, Casa Loma and the zoo. The funny thing was is that we ran into another couple we know from Iqaluit who was vacationing with their 2 or 3 year old daughter - they stayed at the same hotel, roughly the same dates, and were doing essentially the same things. It's a small world. Alexa really enjoyed herself; she got to spend lots of quality time with mom and dad, she liked the full length mirror in our hotel room (she played "peek a boo" with her reflection) and was excited to see the animals at the zoo. Another neat moment was when we were riding on the subway; Alexa looked around, saw all the people holding on to hand rails, and grabbed hold of one herself.
While we were there, we saw our friends Ryan and Karolina, who had moved down from Iqaluit the year previous, and Christine re-connected with a friend from journalism school, Chelsey (sp?).
I managed three good runs during our stay in Toronto, each between 12 and 14.7 km, averaging about 4:15 minute/km. The last run was particularly good, 14.68 km at an average pace of 4:04 minute/km, and I did the first 10 km in just under 40 minutes. I'm going to miss running in warm weather.
On Thursday we flew to Ottawa to spend a couple of days with Christine's aunt and uncle before returning to Iqaluit. We took Alexa to a playground close by, and put her in an infant swing to see how she'd like. It was a big hit. I got in one additional run in Ottawa, 10 km at 4:24 min./km pace, so that was all right. On Saturday we flew back to Iqaluit, giving us Sunday to get organized.
I'm acting manager at work these days (until Friday!), so it's been pretty busy. I'm looking forward to handing the reigns over to my co-worker, who will be acting until mid-December when it becomes my turn again. Yay. I managed five runs on this first week back, and I am reminded how little I enjoy running in the dark. Iqaluit does not sufficient street lights everywhere, which has forced me to really slow down so I can be sure of my footing. The runs were 10 km each, give or take a couple hundred metres, and averaged 4:36 km. This brings my total for the year to 1476 km, with a deficit of 64 km still to make up. I've been knocking the total down by about 10-12 km per week, so I'm hopeful I can be caught by up mid-November.
I'm not sure where this fits in the chronology, but I have a cute story about Alexa to share. Sometimes when she's crawling around, I'll get down on all fours as well. Often she'll get a big smile on her face and come roaring toward me, and then we (gently) bonk heads. Every time this happens I saw "bonk", and recently she learned how to say it as well. So, we get down, bonk heads, and both say "bonk". I love my little girl.
posted by Matt at 4:49 p.m.
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