For two weeks I have been quite adamant on staying with my training schedule, some easy runs in throughout the week, some cross-training on my bike (sadly, just my stationary one), and the Saturday that just passed, it was no different - despite that I had an 11km scheduled hike in the evening. Do note at the time, I had it in my schedule to be a 6km hike. Silly things that don't get recorded right...
The Saturday morning started off quite well. I was actually well awake for 6am (much better than the previous week), I dawdled a little in the kitchen, frying up yet again my two sunny side up eggs and toasted whole wheat bread. As I chewed on my food offhandedly I filled up my water bottles with fruit punch flavoured Gatorade. I decided I didn't much like the orange one - tasted too much like vitamin c (like the chewable Flintstones one I used to have as a kid).
Geared up with the usual, IT band - check, ipod - check, hat - check, keys and phone - check, emergency $5 - check, ...
And out the door, I went and discovered...
it was raining.
hmm. unexpected.
For a moment, I thought about heading back inside - only a second though - and banished the thought. Here I was in full running gear and I was going to quit because of a little drizzle? :P I've been through much worse - thinking back to last year when I ran with Team In Training while literally pouring rain, lightning and thunder, with all that jazz.
I started running, headed straight to the boardwalk. Surprisingly - though I know I shouldn't have been, there was a good turnout of runners that I saw; not only runners, but some pretty hardcore volley ball players! With light rain peeter patting on and off, I did my 16km run. Saw some cute dogs along the way, bumped into an avid walker 3 times (Still been putting off figuring out a more interesting route). I finished the run in 2 hours, which wasn't too bad. I had to keep in mind though, it was the boardwalk I had been training on -- I have yet to try running on concrete. Have been thinking maybe to warm up a bit before trying it.
After my run, I headed home, freshened up, finished packing, and off I went to meet my friends so I could go with them up to Barrie for the hike.
Oh, I have to say, while I was waiting at the mall to meet with them, I saw this most disturbing commercial about magic goo. Yes. Magic goo that apparently starts off as liquid, but you can add some substance and it turns into goo. And get this, cool as it is if you're just stirring it around in a container, but if you show a commercial with kids bathing in this stuff, it's just plain weird. My opinion of course.
Met up with my friends, did a little shopping, went to Vaughan Mills -- ah, wonderful mall, endless supply of shops... went to Bass Pro shops to get some items we still needed for the hike; got sucked into Lululemon...,and ended off all the shopping with a pasta dinner in the food court.
We checked in to our hotel, geared up and took our first official team picture! lol this is in fact, the first time all four of us were able to get together to do a hike. The event is only what, 4 weeks way?! :PWe headed up to horseshoe Resort to meet with our Oxfam group. Signing our lives away (the waiver), we were transported via a bus to CP4.
11.3km later, we congratulated each other on managing to finish the trail well within our expected finish time. During the hike, I introduced my friends to the cliffbloks that I used/am using when I do my runs; they kept saying it tasted so good! lol surprisingly, I thought they tasted quite good too. I guess having not eaten them for nearly half a year has brought back my love for them. Let's hope it keeps up haha. We also all used our hydration packs. Ok, not all of us - I hadn't filled mine with water... so water breaks for me entailed sliding my bag down, swinging it forward, unzipping the bottom compartment, pulling out my water bottle, unscrewing the lid, and then finally drinking it. My friends just uncorked the water tube and drank. Hydration pack envy. And irony was I HAD a hydration pack - just... unused. This would change the following day.
After doing a couple of stretches, we drove back to the hotel, freshened up and had instant noodles. We talked about our plan for the next day - our own little familiarization hike. We wanted to do a hike from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2, that alone in one direction was about 17km. That meant to get back to our car, it would be 34km. The idea was vetoed, and instead, we opted to go from checkpoint 1 to the rest area, approx. 11km one direction, making it only to be 22km hike cumulatively.Sounded like a good plan.
Sunday morning, we all woke up - some more refreshed than others - ready to hike! We had instant noodles for breakfast and decided to drop in for the complimentary breakfast. Had a second breakfast (we felt like hobbits!!) and stocked up for lunch :) Made peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hadn't had that for a long time.
We began the hike at Forrest Hill Public school, following a printed map provided by Cecilia (good thing she printed it out, otherwise, hiking would have been interesting while lost..)
Hiking at a steady pace, I had them try out the edisks -- which as Cecilia pointed out, tasted like concentrated Gatorade. I don't contest that. It does. Lol
For the first 5-6km, we were mostly still enjoying the scenery. The weather was also keeping good with us, drizzling on and off, keep us cool. I noticed though there was a dull ache in my left ankle. Of course, I ignored it, hoping that it would stretch out eventually as we hiked.
The path along the way wasn't always clear. There was a good point where we lost the white marker we were trying to follow and had to do backtracking. And hills. Lots of hills. Have I mentioned that I loathe hills with a passion? We decided as a group that we would run up those hills - better to get them over with. Worked out pretty good at the beginning ... but after 15km of hiking uneven ground, running up a hill becomes ever more difficult.
When we finally reached the midpoint of our hike (the 11km), we rested and had a 10min quick lunch. I don't think a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever tasted so good. My friends who made their own variations for sandwiches - one just had a bagel with butter - even loved it. Funny how we all gain a new appreciation for the simple food sometimes.
After finishing up our lunch and having some snacks(trail mix, sandwiches,chocolates, etc) we headed off again, back to the same direction we came from -- to where our park would be parked at the end of the hike. Our speed at this point had dropped a bit, although we attempted our best to keep the pace up. My ankle by the 14km mark had began to complain a lot, but we needed to keep moving, none of us wanted to be out there in the dark.
By the 16/17km mark, we began realizing that we were running low on water. Lol. Our estimations were a little bit off - but we still had some extra Gatorade set aside in a water bottle. I was actually the first to discover that my hydration pack was clear of water. The Tremblant hiking incident flashed through my mind ... I will tell that story another time :)
At any rate, let us just say, it was not a good feeling. For the remaining km, we all began conserving our water, drinking as needed and of course we all agreed, anyone who needs any water, who ever can provide, shares :P Fantastic team eh? I guess deep down inside none of us wants to have to carry a fallen team member. hahaha Joking of course! :D
When we finally arrived at our destination, I wanted to hug the car. I never realized that walking could be so strenuous - coming from a person who ran a marathon. But then again, when you're running a marathon, you don't carry about 2L worth of water on your back, plus extra other gears in the backpack.
Before we could sit down or do anything else, we took our after the hike photo. I think we hid our exhaustion quite well :)In total, we did 33km hiking that weekend.
Tomorrow our team will be getting together to do another practice hike, about 9km :)
Piece of cake! But wish us luck any way ;)
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