Lotsa good walking butts!

Here is the rocking walk star Tam family team - each an age category winner!

It was a spectacular weekend for walkers as the KW Walking Classic in Kitchener Waterloo celebrated an overwhelming response in both quantity and quality of walking participants at their third annual event. There were some butts in serious workout mode on that course!

This year the organizers introduced a half marathon and the distance drew more competitors than either the 5k or the 10k events. Each event fielded more than 200 participants.

Four judges on the course ensured that everyone was walking according to the Common Sense rules posted on the race website.

The course was a challenging series of rolling hills, the start and finish areas were well organized, and there were some yummy snacks at the finish. I liked the protein on offer including peanut butter and cottage cheese. We need carbs before the race but we need carbs and protein within an hour of finishing.

Being the geek that I am (and isn't there a little bit of geek in all of us?), I love the fact that the last 1/4k leading up to the finish area we pass the Perimeter Institute - a gem of a research institute that can claim Stephen Hawking as a regularly visiting Distinguished Research Chair . The building is featured in a book called "1,001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die: the world's architectural masterpieces" .

The KW Walking Classic belongs in such exclusive landscape as a gem and a masterpiece of a walking race!

An inspiring walking community

Behold, TEAM DARRELL. Built in a mere six days - but, oh, the enthusiasm, accomplishment, and inspiration!

With an estimated 75 team members (we lost count!), TEAM DARRELL was a stand-out at the Oakville site of the Terry Fox run today. We also lost count of all the money that was raised on behalf of Darrell for the Terry Fox Foundation but our best bet puts it at over $10,000.

If you are reading this and you did not get a chance to participate with our team or in a Terry Fox event, the opportunity is not lost! You can still donate. Go to www.terryfox.org and look for TEAM DARRELL.

If you have walked a marathon, you know that little steps eventually make it to a big finish. It's the same with our goal to support Darrell and the excellent work of the Terry Fox Foundation. Getting to the end of cancer seems like an overwhelming task but, like the marathon, it will be finished, one step at a time.

Thank you to everyone who came out and everyone who supported us with donations. You made today a good day.

What's that race doing at the end of my training walk?

The most recent issue of Runner's World suggested a training strategy for long training runs of ramping up the speed for the last 5 to 8 kilometres. By extension I think we can do the same with long training walks. The idea makes sense to me. Just when the training walks get slow and tiring, pick up the speed to race pace. The challenge is making it happen. I'd probably need a large dog chasing me to pick up the pace!



So, when I recently realized that I could incorporate the inaugural Bang and Olufsen 5k race into the final 5 kilometres of my planned long training walk last Sunday, I signed up. Being in a race, I thought, would ensure I walk at race pace.

Waking up early Sunday, I walked through a quiet city ending up in celebrity village - Yorkville during the Toronto International Film Festival - where the start/finish line was in place. No, A,B, or C grade celebrities in sight, though there were lots of black limos and security types hanging around the entrance to the Four Season's hotel. There wasn't a lot of time to search them out since I arrived in time to get my timing chip and walk a lap of Queen's Park to stay warm before the start.



While there was no walking division, a funny thing happens when I cross a timing mat. I get competitive with myself! Even though I had walked 17k to get to this race, it was like those 17k had not been walked. I wanted to finish in a good time - darn it!

The weather was perfectly cool and overcast, the course was flat and easy to follow, the bagel at the end actually had slices of cheese, lettuce and tomato, and there cinnamon buns for the craving!

Best of all a cheque for $10,000 was handed over to the YWCA Elm Centre as part of the awards festivities. Like I always say, these races are win, win, win.

Early morning walk in Halifax

George's Island, 0700 hours. Morning after Earl, from the Halifax boardwalk.

Hurricane or sunshine - the morning walk is a gift.

Doesn't look like much from my blackberry camera but this is the view from the Citadel looking out to the harbour as Hurricane Earl powers in to Halifax at 0700 today. I managed to sneak in my morning power walk just before the weather got wild. In its marathon along the Atlantic coast Earl "hit the wall" and downgraded to Tropical Storm.


As my hotel window shakes, I am grateful for Earl's bonk!


Yesterday's morning walk was almost on a treadmill. Blasphemy! When the door to the hotel fitness centre was locked at 0620, I was forced out into the land of big box stores in suburban Halifax - not a venue of preference. In the end I am grateful for the lock-out. Just 50 meters from the hotel door, I discovered an idyllic path cut into the green space of the surrounding housing developments of the Bayers Lake area. Here, I came in close contact with three deer who were trying to eat an undisturbed breakfast in the peace of a suburban garden. Either they were famished or that garden held some tasty treats, as I was an arm's length away from three pair of eyes daring me to munch on their lettuce.

Too bad I thought I'd be in the fitness centre, so I did not have my camera.

Lesson learned, again.

GET.

OUTSIDE.