Grant:
I am WINTERMAN!
This weekend I was out at the Winterman Marathon in Ottawa. I did the 10K. What a great feeling to be out there with all the diehards. This is the first year I have run consistently through the winter. I’ve always been more of a fair weather runner and I always have to rebuild my fitness each spring.
This year was different. I got all decked out in my reflective gear. Toasty warm and I’m so bright that planes want to land on me.
You don’t want to hear a race report from the Winterman do you? Boring. So I’ll keep it short.
The night before I ate lasagne. I ate about 3 times as much as I should have. For dessert I ate about 100 jujubes. In the morning I woke up late and ate another 50 jujubes for breakfast. Parking was filled up. I had to park a few kilometres from the start line. By the time I had run to the start line I was bonking.
Look at how unhappy I look in this picture.
The night before I ate lasagne. I ate about 3 times as much as I should have. For dessert I ate about 100 jujubes. In the morning I woke up late and ate another 50 jujubes for breakfast. Parking was filled up. I had to park a few kilometres from the start line. By the time I had run to the start line I was bonking.
Look at how unhappy I look in this picture.
I have to keep my fitness up over the remaining winter months. It’s opening up other activities for me. I snow shoe, but my new big dream is “skijoring”. This is a Scandinavian sport in which you use cross country skiis and you have a dog or dogs attached in front with bunjee cords. So you ski and you have the dogs pull you in front.
It looks a bit like this…
I own a standard poodle. I am not ashamed. The standard poodle, contrary to popular belief, is a great outdoor hunting dog and they love the snow. So just imagine it… I will give my poodle one of those very funny hair cuts with poofy heads and feet and the tail. Then I will attach her to the bungee cord and I will fly around the Parc de la Gatineau in wild outfits. The pictures will be ridiculous.
This is Ébène. I am training her for both running and skijoring.
Vicky:
Wow! Really, I mean how am I supposed to follow THAT! My dog, Bambi, is a five pound Maltese…I’m pretty sure it would be considered animal cruelty if I tried that.
Actually, as it turns out, I barely ran this winter. I hate the cold. I’m one of those people who is ALWAYS cold. I am the total opposite of my friend and colleague Grant a.k.a. “Winterman”. Dude, you look totally hardcore…in fact, you look like you should be alongside the ice sculptures at Winterlude! Way to go Grant!
Personally, I’m afraid to freeze to death out there because I am new to this and I have absolutely no idea what to wear for running in this type of weather. I don’t know if I should layer some of the running clothes I already have or if I should buy super expensive winter running clothes with matching super toque and gloves.
So, I gave up trying to figure it out on my own and I decided to leave it to the experts. I went to the store where I buy my running gear and I simply told the sales representative: “I want to run in the winter. What do I need?” I trusted her judgement and voilà!
What matters the most to me is to get out there and run. I’ve already lost so much time worrying about silly stuff like what to wear but I guess that’s normal for a beginner like me!
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