A half marathon and belated Birthday

I didn't mean to go MIA for a week. In fact I was ready to write a recap of the Calgary Marathon 50th Anniversary but the day after the half I woke up with a cold and have been fitting a cough since then.

Let me go back to last Sunday. I caught the first C-Train in the morning to make my way down to the Stampede grounds and the start line. I wandered around a little that waited inside the Grandstand building as it was a wee chilly in the morning but I knew it would warm up. I kept to my no bag check policy, which in retrospect wasn't the greatest idea.

 Me in the corral. Now I am spoiled by all the RunDisney events I do so I kind of expect the same level of detail. There were 4 corrals in all - Elite, A, B and Open. My bib let me in B but I wasn't feeling 100% so I opted for open and moved to the back. The cut off time was something like 5 hours and I knew I would finish before that so corral placement wasn't so important.

 The amount of people in front of me in the corrals, now the corrals were not separated it was just one long mess of people.

The race started at 7am and as I made my way to the start line people were still loading into the corrals, it was chaotic.

The race itself wound it's way through Calgary streets. There were times I thought I was dead last as there was no one around me. This was kind of nice as I didn't need to dodge people. Later on I realized I wasn't dead last just had a pocket of emptiness.

There were a few people in costumes and by few I mean I saw 5 people out of 8000 or so in costume. The other observation I didn't see a single person wearing KT Tape which stuck out to me because at RunDisney events I see loads of people taped up.

 My dirty socks post race

 Tada I did it, in 3:19. My goal was under 3:30 as due to feeling blechy I walked the whole darn thing. Now my regret about no bag check. At the RunDisney events I'm usually relatively close to my hotel. I didn't factor in the two train rides home and the post race refreshments were a wee odd. They gave us bottled water, a juice box, piece of fruit, Spicy Marinara potato chips and oreos The big thing I failed to do is have a post race strategy for when I got home. I didn't have anything ready like chocolate milk in the fridge or a proper post race meal planned.

 Maybe not as blingy as a Run Disney medal but still pretty spiffy

In other news I finally got to put the Star Wars decal on my SUV.

Oh yes my birthday was on Tuesday but it was super low key as I felt blechy.

The week pretty much flew by as I fought the cold and I didn't go to WI this week as I was a coughing mess and thought I better lay low.

Today I ventured out for Church and a great visit with my friend T. Later it was a belated birthday celebration and off to Maleficient with my other great friend L. The movie was good but I wouldn't say great. It was a little slow in pace but Angelina Jolie is perfect as Maleficient.

When I got home it started to hit me that next weekend is the 1st anniversary of my Dad passing away. I guess it's technically next Monday but last year he died on Father's Day so that holiday is permanently linked to that even for me. Of course Father's Day ads have been around and I'm thinking they'll pick up over the week.

A part of me can't believe a year has already passed and how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same. This week I'll be more conscious of feelings and probably be a bit more reflective.

The last thing I need to do is deal with his house and property so that will be the focus for now on as I finally feel as ready as I can to deal with that.

Be kind to yourself this week my friends, we all deserve that.