Running Update:
7/6/2016
|
6.5 mi
|
1:04:12
|
7/8/2016
|
5.0 mi
|
46:54
|
7/10/2016
|
13.2 mi
|
2:08:51
|
7/11/2016
|
3.2 mi
|
28:19
|
7/13/2016
|
7.2 mi
|
1:09:28
|
7/15/2016
|
5.0 mi
|
49:00
|
7/17/2016
|
9.0 mi
|
1:28:46
|
7/20/2016
|
7.6 mi
|
1:13:29
|
7/23/2016
|
12.4 mi
|
2:03:08
|
7/25/2016
|
3.2 mi
|
27:43
|
7/27/2016
|
7.2 mi
|
1:08:29
|
7/29/2016
|
5.0 mi
|
47:37
|
7/31/2016
|
10.1 mi
|
1:33:17
|
8/2/2016
|
8.6 mi
|
1:24:21
|
8/4/2016
|
6.1 mi
|
1:00:08
|
8/6/2016
|
17.3 mi
|
2:50:00
|
8/8/2016
|
6.0 mi
|
55:00
|
8/10/2016
|
8.5 mi
|
1:23:06
|
8/12/2016
|
10.0 mi
|
1:37:48
|
Whew! I guess I haven’t updated in a while. It looks like a lot of running when you put it
all together like that.
Last
month a dear patient stopped by my office to bring me this sketch she had made
for me. She was at the Boston Marathon
to watch her son race. (He also runs for
charity.) I was so touched! Isn’t it marvelous?
 |
| That's me! |
Jane and Family:
We’ve
had a wonderful summer so far. The kids
spent the month of July at Deer Lake, a nearby day camp which becomes like a
second family to us every summer. Then we just spent the past two weeks visiting
Todd’s family in Canada. They live in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, but we spend nearly all our time at Todd’s parent’s cottage
on the Lake of the Woods.
We arrived
at Echo Bay on the Lake of the Woods late on a Saturday, but early enough to
visit with Aunt Debbie and her son, Bobby, to meet our neighbor’s new baby (three-week
old Mark!) and for a quick swim.
From
this point on we lost track of the days!
They were filled with…
…Gorgeous Canadian weather. Bright, breezy and warm days and cool
nights. An occasional summer storm
passed quickly, and one left a beautiful rainbow behind. Several hot and sunny days we spent entirely
on the dock. We only had a couple of
overcast or rainy days in the whole two weeks we were at the Lake. (And we needed these days for resting—we kept
so busy!)
 |
| On the dock with Grandma |
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| Grandpa in for a swim |
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| Linda is like a member of our family! |
 |
| Echo Bay rainbow |
…Lots
of critter encounters (including watching a dock spider, who we named
Charlotte, hatch her egg sac), though none was quite as memorable as our
meeting with the local snapping turtles.
Charlie is an enormous, pre-historic-looking creature we figure to be decades
old who is often seen in our end of the Bay.
On the same day that Charlie came to visit our dock, our neighbors
showed us the baby snapping turtle (who they dubbed Speedy) they had discovered
in another part of the Lake. They both
caused quite a stir!
 |
| Alec with his catch, later released :) |
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| Helen decorating her hair with crayfish |
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| Jane holding Speedy, a baby snapping turtle |
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| Todd with Speedy, too :) |
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| Charlie, Speedy's great-great-grandparent (maybe) |
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| Kristy swimming with a friendly loon |
…Visiting
with loved ones is the best part of our visits to Canada. We got to spend time with Todd’s family, particularly
Grandma and Grandpa, who generously allowed us to invade their cottage for so
many weeks! We spent many afternoons visiting
with friends nearby, and even boated to the island of friends who live in
another part of the Lake. The neighbors
with whom Todd grew up now bring their own children to visit the Lake, so we
have multiple generations of friends on each dock in our end of the bay. All of the kids travelled together between
docks, enjoying the special features of each one (slide at the Stewart’s, rope
at the Rigby’s, diving board at the Fast’s…)
We
took walks together along the Lake road when the weather was cool, and every
night we had different combinations of friends and family with whom to play
Bananagrams (an Echo Bay tradition in recent years).
…Plenty
of training runs for me, many with my nephew, Bobby. I managed to keep up with him even though I'm
over 150% his age ;)
While
I was running, Todd was staying fit on his bike.
…Swimming,
swimming, and more swimming. The kids
were like fish, and were oblivious to temperature (or fatigue!) Watching the Olympics in the second week of
our trip only spurred them on further.
One day they arranged races between our dock and the neighbors (about 50
meters). Helen and Alec competed in a 200-meter
medley, in several freestyle races, and Jane even joined in for the 50-meter
breaststroke. I was exhausted just watching
them! Grandma treated them to hot
chocolate and popcorn afterward <3
Incidentally,
it was fun to watch the Olympics on the CBC, and to experience the games from
the Canadian athletes’ perspectives.
…Diving
(and other forms of plunging into the Lake), particularly from another neighbor’s
springboard. Here the kids branched out
from Olympic standards to compete in categories such as Best Cannonball and
Best Pencil-Dive. We also learned of the
perfect cliff from which to jump into the Lake.
Neighbors had previously investigated an area across the bay (and
confirmed adequate depth of the water!) and had even left a rope for mounting
the cliff. We had lots of fun trying to
synchronize our jumps for the camera.
The
cliff was not far from a shallow reef, which the kids could explore with
snorkels.
 |
| Cliff-jumping family |
 |
| Synchronized jumping |
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| Resting after snorkeling |
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| Jane! |
…Paddling
in the paddle boat, kayaks, and canoes (Grandma joined us in each of them!)
around the island in the bay, along the shore, and into the marsh behind the
cottages.
...Sailing! Our dear friend, Linda, shared with us her
small sailing trimarans. In the usual
sailing style, she took the kids for tandem sails and let Todd sail solo—but even
more fun was Linda’s pirate version of trimaran tag! Linda, Helen, Jane, and I (the No-Beards) boarded
one boat while Alec and Todd (the Potential-Beards) boarded the other. The object of the game was to hit the
opposing team’s craft with one of two “cannonballs” (Nerf-type balls). We sailed for hours, circling each other
while the kids jumped into the Lake to retrieve lost cannonballs as they
floated by, and then hauled themselves back onto the boats as they sailed past.
What fun!
 |
| Helen in a yoga pose while sailing |
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| Jane enjoying the splash |
...Boating. No visit to the Lake of the Woods is complete
without a boat ride (or two) to the Rockeries for ice cream and other
treats. This year Todd also started
giving me (and Helen, and even Alec) boating lessons so that he isn’t the only
one who knows how to drive the boat. And
for the first time in many, many years we took a boat ride all the way to Kenora—a
ride of just under an hour. Kenora is
the largest “city” on the Lake of the Woods, with a population of 15,000. We were tickled to pull up to the grocery store
by boat!
 |
| Devil's Gap |
 |
| Pulling into Safeway by boat |
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| Huskie the Muskie, a famous Kenora landmark |
 |
| Float plane parking |
...Wake
boarding, skiing, tubing. Alec in particular
caught the wake-boarding bug from his father, and was up behind the boat nearly
every day. Todd got in several runs on
the board and on skis, and I even put in my annual requisite turn :)
 |
| Alec making it look easy |
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| Jane and Alec on the tube |
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| Todd getting air! |
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| Kristy wakeboarding with a smile (or is it a grimace?) |
NF Update:
Now
that I’m back home (for work… Todd and the kids get to stay in Canada for another
week!) it’s time for me to get back to fund raising for the Children’s Tumor
Foundation. My first fall race is the
New Haven Half Marathon on Labor Day—only three weeks away! Shortly thereafter in October is the Hartford
Marathon—my TENTH marathon!! If I can
run ten marathons to help end NF, you can help by DONATING. Here’s our fund-raising link:
I hope everyone's having a great summer!
<3
