Day 49 June 24, 2011 Montreal to Lachute 51km

Again I get new people to run with!

We woke up early in the hotel and I used the shower for the last time. I got up at 5:15am but Lauren got up at 4:45 and walked to Tim Horton’s to pick up some breakfast for all of us. She’s awesome!

I taped my feet while Lauren and Mike took the scooter to go pick up the RV. My blisters are not bad at all today; the two days off have given them a chance to heal. I hope they stay that way.

We had a longer drive out to my start point along route 158 than normal. It started pouring rain on the drive out and only got heavier when I started running. I got about 5km into it before Alex, a friend of my brother’s from London School of Business and his friend Mo showed up to run with me.

Alex ran first and we talked about his experiences at LBS and what his plans were now that he’d graduated. Then they switched and Mo ran with me for a while. We talked mostly about the run and what it was like. The two of them had a wedding to go to so they left around 10am, both of them soaking wet!

It continued to lash rain all morning and my feet were soaked. I had to change my shirt because I wasn’t visible enough according to Lauren and Mike. So I put on an HBC jersey from 1999, which was fluorescent yellow. It was a little small but very bright. Lauren spent the morning cleaning the MCC because she thought it would be therapeutic, and because it’s pretty dirty.

By 30km my feet were starting to get a bit sore thanks to running in wet shoes, but otherwise I felt good after having 2 days off. I had to change my shoes and re-tape my feet a number of times during the day because it was so wet outside. I stuffed newspaper in the two pairs of shoes in the MCC to dry while I wore the third, and continued rotating.

Lauren made two of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time for lunch! Then I got back out and ran the last 20km. I am now listening to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and so far it seems pretty interesting.

The day ended in Lachute, a small town seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  There wasn’t much to the town, and we ended up sleeping in the back of a gas station parking lot.

Tomorrow I finish with Quebec and enter Ontario!

Day 47 and 48 June 22-23, 2011 Two days off in Montreal

We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Montreal.

Both mornings we had a huge buffet at the Delta Hotel. Well Lauren and I did. Mike missed out on the first morning as he took the RV in to get serviced while Lauren and I stuffed our faces.

Our RV needed to get serviced and to have one of the side hatch doors repaired after an un-named driver drove off with it open and it smacked into a tree. There have also been some odd problems with our windshield wipers, some other electrical malfunctions, and it has been 10,000km so far so we felt it could do with a service.

I haven’t been to Montreal in about 10 years and it was nice to be back. Lauren and I walked around Montreal a bit and we did odd jobs that we either haven’t had the time to do or couldn’t do in the smaller towns.

The three of us went shopping for running gear and Mike tried to buy running shoes at the Running Room but it turns out his feet are too wide for normal shoes. His feet are actually really wide. There was only one pair of shoes that fit the width of his foot but they didn’t have his size. It's like he's got hobbit feet, which is weird because he's not short like a hobbit.

I spent a lot of time during those two days working on my research. While I was doing that Lauren and Mike drove around Montreal on our scooter exploring the city. I also tried to get caught up on my blog (clearly it didn’t happen).

The Delta has a saltwater pool and the three of us spent one morning swimming, which was great. The Delta also had a spa and I was able to get a deep tissue massage on my legs. My calves are really tender and when she dug into them with her elbow, it hurt. They felt so much better after that it might have been worth it, though I’m still trying to decide if I would get another one.

On Wednesday night we had dinner at Guido Angelina, an Italian restaurant directly beside Club Supersexe. Our table was right next to the window so all the strippers were smoking in the alcove right next to us. Mike and Lauren were checking them out all night.

Thursday night we had a late dinner in the hotel surrounded by kids from one of the local school’s prom.

Tomorrow I head towards Ottawa.

Day 46 June 21, 2011 Joliette to Montreal 50km

My sister arrives today!

Once again, Paul was up before anyone and had breakfast sausages, eggs and bagels made before we woke up.

Before leaving Mike and I tried to dump our septic tank, but the connection wasn’t completely flush with the tube and so our dirty septic contents poured all over Mike’s hands. There was a moment, when he realized that the connection wasn’t going to fully work, that he had a panicked look, like he was going to drop it and run. This would have caused a full disconnect and our septic contents to pour all over the grass. It was just a split second but I saw it and I was instantly halfway down the RV to avoid it a whipping septic hose! After that split second Mike realized he couldn’t let go and a look of utter defeat washed over him. I tried so hard not to laugh but…

We tried to find a post office or a mailbox so I could mail off a letter. We did manage to find a post office with a mailbox out front but it was guarded by a picket line and I didn’t feel like having postal workers hurl abuse at me in French. We drove around until we found another mailbox but it was locked. Good think I didn’t walk though the picket line to get to the mailbox in front of the post office.

Mike decided that he was going to run a marathon today. He managed to pick the hottest day I’ve had so far. My feet were still really sore thanks to all my new blisters so after bandaging up pretty much all of each foot I put on two pairs of socks. Later on during the day I think I decided that perhaps the new tape I was using was actually causing more blisters because my socks would stick to the bandage and create new friction points. Next time I tape my feet I’m using different tape.

Paul handed lunch out to us at 30km and we continued on a bit while eating. It was now way too hot and we were consuming enormous amounts of fluid. We were also developing pretty awesome looking salt lines all over our shirts.

My sister Lauren and her friend Kevin showed up towards the end of the run. Kevin joined us but we only had 2.5km left by that point so he didn’t get to run for that long. Mike had initially planned on only doing 42.2km, a marathon, but despite looking like, to use his words, like a puppet whose puppeteer has gotten lazy, he decided to keep going for the full 50km. Awesome!

The arrival of Lauren meant it was Paul’s last day with us. It was great having him with us, and his breakfasts were great! Despite telling us (incorrectly as he informed us today) that Sorel boots were made in the Quebec town of Sorel, which we passed through a couple of days ago (now he says they are made in Kitchener), we’d have him back any time.

We are spending the next three nights at the Delta hotel in downtown Montreal and that means SHOWERS!!! It also means that there isn’t room to park our RV as there is no way it is going to fit in underground parking. Turns out the best place we could find was at the greyhound bus station next to all the other buses.

Once we got to the hotel Lauren brought out a huge bag of stuff that Dave had given her before she left Vancouver. OGIO Canada had sent a ton of shirts, POW had given us a few pairs of gloves, and MyPakage sent along a bunch of underwear. It was like Christmas!

The night ended with dinner on St Catherine’s St.

Tomorrow... I'm not running!

Day 45 June 20, 2011 Yamaska to Joliette QC 51km

Happy Birthday Sarah!

So last night I woke up at 1:30am and Paul was asleep. Shocking. Maybe he’s not really a robot. Of course he was up before us and had made breakfast sandwiches!

I again have a lot of new blisters on my feet and I’m not sure why, I don’t think that my running style has changed, but this morning I had to tape almost all of my toes on both feet. I don’t think it’s because I’ve started running all at once.

I ran 17km into the town of Sorel where Paul says they make the snow boots.

We took the ferry across the river to the North side where I continued running.  Somehow I missed the turn off to the road I wanted and continued on the 138 along the river. It was a more scenic route but longer and when we realised our mistake we were close to a road that could take us back so I continued on instead of turning around.

Today at lunch Mike and Paul handed me out grilled cheese sandwiches while I continued. I didn’t manage to completely do it break free though because I had to come in and try and figure out how we are going to get the RV wrapped in Montreal. Turns out we’re going to get it done in Ottawa.

When I started running again my feet were really sore and I could feel new blisters forming on my big toes. By the time I was done running, I had two large blisters on the exact same spot on both toes. I can’t figure out why they just appeared today. It’s really frustrating because my legs feel good and I want to try and increase mileage but I can’t with all these blisters.

Mike met a middle-aged man in town while I was showering and talked to him about prostate cancer. He said he had never had a rectal exam but gets a blood test every 3 years. Mike told him to get the finger.

We went to yet another RV park where people have lived permanently, one old lady for 40 years! Amazing. When we arrived people came up to us and asked how long we were staying. They seemed a little disappointed when we told them just one night.

Today is June 20^th, which means my beautiful girlfriend Sarah O’Connor turns 28! Happy birthday Sarah!

Day 44 June 19, 2011 Trois Rivieres to Yamaska 52km

What do I think about while I run?

Paul doesn’t sleep. Seriously, he’s awake when I go to bed and he’s awake when I get up in the morning. When I wake up he’s either cooking breakfast or studying his surgery book. I’m pretty sure he’s a robot.

I decided again to run straight through with no breaks. I felt pretty good this morning and Mike ran the first 20km with me. It was hot out again and really sunny so I had to run with sunglasses, which I don’t usually like to do, but my face was getting tired of continuously squinting.

Someone asked what I think about while I run. I guess it depends on what part of the run I’m at. Often I don’t think of anything at all, I just run. There have been a couple of times that I’ve felt like I could fall asleep while I’m running. When I have my iPod I just listen. In the morning at the start of my run I spend the first couple of km trying to figure out how my body’s going to react to the day, whether I’ll be fast or slow. At the end of most of the days I end up playing mind games with myself to keep going so that I think I have less to run than I actually do, or to distract myself from whatever’s bugging me, usually my feet. Otherwise, I find it pretty relaxing, I just run.

At 30km I had lunch while walking. Mike and Paul passed out a banana, apple, tortellini, and Gatorade. I was walking down the country road eating tortellini out of a Tupperware container and I got some strange looks. As soon as I was done eating I stopped quickly to put on more sunscreen and then kept running.

The road wasn’t that great. There was a steeply slanted gravel shoulder that I was continually forced on to by the busy traffic. This was towards the end of my run and it was really aggravating my blisters. I felt like I could have kept going but my feet hurt too much so I had to stop at 52km.

We pulled into our 3^rd consecutive RV Park, although this time our luck had run out and we had to pay. I called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day and then we explored the trailer park. We used the pool, guarded by two teenaged lifeguards, and were delighted to find the bottom of the pool littered with Band-Aids.

I made Mike and Paul watch No Country For Old Men as neither had seen it.

Tomorrow I’ll run through the town they make Sorel snow boots.

Day 43 June 18, 2011 Les Bricailles to Trois Rivieres 51km

No breaks!

I swear Paul doesn’t sleep. He’s wide awake when I go to sleep at night and he’s wide awake when Mike yells at me to get out of bed in the morning. And, he’s a cooking machine! Yesterday he made eggs; this morning he made eggs and pancakes!

After talking with Gwen yesterday, the guy who’s running across Canada the other way, I decided to try and run all at once today. He started out at the same distance as me, 50km/day and now he’s up in the mid 70s. And he doesn’t stop much. He gets water/food every 8km and breaks for about 10mins for lunch, otherwise he just keeps moving. So that was what I was going to do today.

I started off slowly, about a minute slower per km in order to keep to my plan. I felt pretty good until around the 25km mark when it started to get really warm. At 30km Mike handed me a sandwich and some chocolate milk out the window for my lunch and I kept going. I had to stop to put on sunscreen though and once inside the MCC I got sucked in to listening to Tucker Max for about 20 mins. I also decided to change my shirt, as the black one I was wearing was way too hot.

I started up again slowly, my pace well below what it usually is, but I kept plugging away and but the end of the run, at 51km, it was only 4:15pm. Awesome!

My feet hurt more than usual today though, and I’ve got a lot of new blisters. I’m not sure at the moment why that is, the only thing I seemed to have changed is that I’m taking fewer breaks.

Mike and Paul chatted all day in the RV save for the few times they took turns coming out to run for a bit. I’m not sure what they talked about, but every time I passed by and looked inside the two of them were laughing.

I finished listening to The Host today. It was kind of slow so I’ve decided to listen to something with a little more action: SEAL Team Six – Story of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper. I passed through a number of small towns, a lot of countryside and by some enormous hydrogen plant. I finished at a gas station that seemed to be the centre of activity. In the short time I was there stretching and filling up with gas we saw a Harley Davidson, Mustang, and Hot Rod convention of sorts. I don’t know if they were all together or three separate functions.

We found another RV site and again they let us stay for free. These RV campgrounds are pretty sweet, definitely better than random parking lots. With all this extra time in the evening from finishing earlier perhaps I’ll be able to catch up on my blog…

I’ll try going without a break again tomorrow.

Day 42 June 17, 2011 Quebec City to Les Bricailles 53km

I met a fellow cross-country runner!

The drive out of Quebec City this morning from the Holt Renfrew parking lot to my previous end point took us across a very narrow iron bridge. I barely avoided scraping both the side of the bridge on my right and other vehicles on my left. The lanes were narrow and at one point on the three lane bridge two transit buses were coming at me side by side and there was no way that all three of us would fit. Luckily the bus drivers must be well used to this as the one in the middle fell back to allow us all room.

My start point where I had finished running the other day was about a 25km drive and by the time I started running it was already very hot. Mike ran the morning 30km with me while Paul did a great job of driving.

As Mike and I were running along a stretch of road with only farmland or forest on either side, we spotted a guy wearing an orange construction vest standing by an RV on the side of the road. We were joking around wondering what he could possibly be doing just standing there. As we approached we stopped to talk to him and it turns out he was the support for a 39 year old guy from Marseilles, France named Gwen who was also running across Canada. Gwen was running from Vancouver to Halifax and had started on the 31^st of March.

Mike and I continued running and soon met up with Gwen. He told us that in 7km he was going to reach 5,000km, which means I only have 4,993km left! We stood for a while and traded stories. Gwen had started much earlier than I and so while I had a lot of cold weather and rain at the start in the Maritimes, he had run through a lot of snow through the Rockies. Despite running from West to East he said he experienced a headwind more often than a tailwind, which gives me some hope that headwinds won’t be that bad in this direction. He was initially running for multiple sclerosis but they didn’t want to take him on so he was now just running for himself. He took donations but mostly to help him get across. He had raised a total of $186 so far.

I asked him about his socks, which were yellow soccer socks that were cut and pulled down over his shoes. It was so that gravel didn’t get into his shoes (which it does with mine). He says that he runs 60-70km a day with only a 10min break for lunch in the middle. Every 8km he gets some water and eats a bit while he walks and then continues. When he started he was doing the same distance as me, so perhaps I’ll be able to work up to these distances too. He was taller and skinner, much skinnier than me. He definitely looks more like a runner. I bet he doesn’t have nearly as many people telling him he doesn’t look like a runner as I do.

We continued to compare stories, animals we had seen, distances run, routes, roads to take, etc and then were on our way. It was great seeing someone who was almost done and made my goal seem a little easier.

We stopped for lunch at a nearby viewpoint, this time taking a much shorter break than usual, having been inspired by Gwen and his lack of breaks during his run.

After lunch I ran 23km straight to make 53. Gwen has inspired me and I might try and run everything at once now and see what that’s like. I’ll have to run slower though.

Having taken a shorter break at lunch I finished running earlier than normal and so we decided to go to an RV campground to see what it was like. After talking to the owners there they let us stay for free. The campsite was right on the water along the St Lawrence, which we went swimming in after we got settled in. The current was pretty strong and so we couldn’t venture that far out from the shore.

The best part about being in a campground is hooking up to their water supply, which meant nice long showers!

Tomorrow I’m going to try and run the whole day all at once, Gwen style! Turns out he ran 76km today!

Day 41 June 16, 2011 Quebec City - Day Off

It was our first day with Paul Manuel, our new volunteer driver.  He didn’t get much driving in though because I didn’t do any running.

Our day began at the Geant Motorise shop, the dealer for our RV, to try and fix a number of things that weren’t working with the MCC. It turns out though that the guy we met there couldn’t fix any of them or didn’t have the part so really, it was a waste of the morning. He just kept saying “oh that’s electrical” or “manufacturers’ defect” etc.

From there we went to find a Laundromat and while getting our laundry done Mike and I went to get haircuts. Mike spoke to my lady in French and quickly so I didn’t really know what kind of a haircut I was going to get but it turned out ok. Well it sort of turned out ok, I had to cut the front of it myself after I got back to the MCC because it was still pretty long in front.  Mike told me later that my hairdresser was saying that she almost never cuts boys hair and she really wasn’t used to it. Next time I’m getting my haircut in English.

I worked on my research until 4pm when it was time for physio. Bert Belanger, our physio from Edmunston, had recommended the place we went to. I met David LaPerriere there and he stretched out all the muscles in my legs but told me that I should get massages in the future as opposed to just physio, unless I get another injury. My legs felt pretty good afterwards.

We drove around Quebec City for the rest of the afternoon; saw the Plains of Abraham and old Quebec. I couldn’t remember much about the Plains of Abraham other than who fought and who won, but Paul gave us a much more detailed history lesson. Quebec City is beautiful. Old Quebec reminds me of a European city and the views of the St Lawrence are great.

Back in the Holt Renfrew parking lot, Mike and Paul made dinner while I worked on my blog. I had wanted to use today to catch up but I was only able to get one day done so I am now 5 days behind still. I may have to start combining days.

Tomorrow I start toward Montreal! Quebec is passing by quickly!

Day 40 June 15, 2011 Beaumont QC to Quebec City 51km

New friends to run with!

We had no food for breakfast when we woke up so we had to drive to the local grocery store to pick up some food.  Today is June 15^th, the chocolate milk we bought expired on June 4^th. We wouldn’t discover this until later.

I had no running shorts left so I was stuck wearing a pair of rugby shorts, which meant I had no pocket to listen to my iPod. It was already super hot when I started running even though it was only 8:30am.

I began running along route 132 and after 5km I saw two people in yellow jerseys waving at me. They were the parents of a friend of mine from Winnipeg, Sara Theberge. Her dad Jean-Pierre, mum Marie, and her brother Gabriel had shown up. Jean-Pierre and Marie had come to run with me. Marie ran for 5km and Jean-Pierre ran for 10km showing me all the sights as we ran towards Quebec City. The pace was nice and fast too.

When I tried to have some of the chocolate milk after 30km it came out almost clear.  Liquid on top, solid on the bottom, and the smell was incredible!

We had lunch in an empty drive in movie theatre lot. We finally figured out how to turn the air conditioning on which was nice because it was 27 degrees out and there was no shade.

The last 20km took forever. It was hot, I was tired, and my pace was slow. I frequently had to come to the RV to get water to drink and pour over my head. Despite all the SPF 60 sunscreen I repeatedly put on, my face was getting pretty red. Mike described the end of my run as though I was a puppet whose puppet master had gotten lazy and was just jerking me along the road.

We drove into Quebec, parked our RV and took a cab to an Irish pub that was showing the game in ENGLISH!!! I was actually going to be able to watch game 7 on CBC instead of RDS! Paul Manuel, a friend of mine from Winnipeg showed up halfway through the game. Paul is with us for about a week to help drive. We met some other Canucks fans in the bar including Brooke, Laura, and Meghan. Brooke had just done the Ride to Conquer Cancer from Toronto to Niagara Falls and the whole thing had raised $17.5 million according to her. Amazing! We told them about the run and they all made a donation and offered to help us find laundry as we passed by Kelowna.

The Canucks didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory, and apparently neither did Vancouver with the ensuing riot.

We took a cab back to the Holt Renfrew parking lot next to Laval University, our home for the night.

Tomorrow I get a chance to rest my legs!

Day 38 and 39 June 13 - 14, 2011 La Pocatiere to Montmagny 51km and Montmagny to Beaumont 52km

I spent the next two days running along the St Lawrence River on route 132. On the 13^th it was raining, so much so that I had to change my shoes and socks after 15km.

While I was busy running, Majid and Mike stopped off at a local dairy farm and tried some unpasteurized milk, pretty much straight from a cow. They also managed to pick up some local beef and potatoes for lunch.

That night we watched the Canucks game 6 at Hagar Bar Sportif. There weren’t many people around and the pizza was more like stir-fry on bread. Both Majid and I felt sick afterwards but that could also have been secondary to the Canucks terrible performance.

We left after the first period.

That night I had a dream that we lost 9-0 and I was so angry when I woke up. I was actually delighted to see that we had only lost 5-2. Not good but at least we scored 2 goals.

The milk in my cereal that morning was well past due and I couldn’t drink it so we had to go to McDonalds where I ordered two breakfasts. Majid called a cab while we were in McDonalds to take him to Quebec City. And thus ended our time with Majid. He was great fun to have with us!

I started running and unlike the day before it was warm and sunny but my pace was much slower than the previous few days. My feet are starting to hurt a bit again. I’ve been listening to The Host for the past few days, and it’s starting to get kind of slow. It’s unabridged though so it’s 23 hours, which is good for about 4-5 days of running.

Just before we stopped for lunch, Mike turned into an angled driveway to turn around only to completely bury the trailer hitch in the road when he backed up. When I say bury I mean that the hitch disappeared beneath the concrete and completely carved up the road. Not sure what we were supposed to do about that. The hitch sticks out so far that there was actually no other way to get back out of the driveway. I was surprised though that in a battle between hitch and road that the hitch won.

W had lunch at a viewpoint that was quite nice and I was able to dry my morning running gear in the sun, which is good because I only have enough for tomorrow and there is no Laundromat in sight.

It was late when I finished running that night so we pulled into a random gravel parking lot and Mike made Kraft Dinner. This time he put extra cheese in it and didn’t cook it as long…. it was pretty good! I did find time to drain the huge blister that has been developing between my toes. I’m getting new blisters daily it seems, but this one is really bugging me so I decided it had to go.

Tomorrow I’ll reach Quebec City!

Day 37 June 12, 2011 St Andre QC to La Pocatiere QC 50km

Defeated by packaging straps

I was tempted to take another shower before heading off for my run but it seemed pointless, so instead I headed down for breakfast, which was again delicious.  The only other person having breakfast in the B&B that morning was Senator Murray who kindly made a donation to us. Majid had taken the scooter off the MCC yesterday to explore St Andre but we were unable to get it back on thanks to jammed packaging straps.

I started running and Mike followed behind in the MCC while Majid took the straps to the church and had everyone, even the pastor working to get them undone. He finally managed with the help of pliers and by 7km we were putting the scooter back on.

It was a perfect day for running, cloudy and 14 degrees as I ran along the St Lawrence. I ran my fastest pace so far this trip, a recurring theme lately as my legs are getting used to running. I felt good and so did my legs and feet. Hopefully I can keep this up.

We went up to one of the local farmers and told him about our run and he let us park and have lunch in his driveway next to a grave from 1706! We also parked next to some of his animals, which included deer. I guess this is where venison comes from.

I ran through a number of small towns after lunch, finally ending up on Hwy 20, which apparently you’re not allowed to run on. I found this out when the Quebec police stopped me. The officer told me that I had to get in her car and she would drive me to where I could run, but just then Mike and Majid showed up, robbing me of my chance to get driven around in a French police car!

This was pretty much at the end of my run so it didn’t add that much on. My watch died at 50.06km, which marked the end of my day.

Majid got us burgers from McDonalds as I stretched and then we had dinner and spent the night in the nearby visitor information centre.

Canucks game 6 tomorrow night!

Day 36 June 11, 2011 St Andre - Day off

Flying penguins?

The shower I had this morning was the best I’ve had since the trip began. Or maybe it’s just been so long since I’ve had a proper shower.

Majid awoke long before me and by the time I made it down for breakfast he had already walked around St Andre, found the local church, helped paint the side of the church, and had one of the church workers offer him the use of his ATV, and all this before 9:30am.

Breakfast, like last nights dinner, was delicious. I had two.

I tried to update my blog but soon Majid had us walking to the local church where one of the parishioners gave us a tour and then gave us his ATV to drive out to where they baptise people. It wasn’t a long drive, but it was fun, and it was nestled at the base of a waterfall with the altar carved into the rock face.

Kamouraska was a short 7-minute drive from St Andre and the town where we met Pierre, our whale watching guide. He told us that while he couldn’t promise that we would see any beluga whales, as he had yet to see them this year, that we were for sure going to see penguins on one of the nearby islands.  It was really windy out on the water as we set off towards some of the local islands. We quickly found the penguins that Pierre was talking about, and while they certainly looked like penguins, they were flying. I don’t think penguins can fly. I don’t know what kind of birds we saw. What we did see was beluga whales. Lots of them, both adults and calves. They were curious and came close to the boat to check us out.

The tides in this area are so large that at low tide, a number of the islands are connected to the mainland and so those who live on the island can drive back and forth.

After lunch at a local café in Kamouraska I finally managed to make it in to Riviere-du-Loup to photocopy the rest of the documents I needed for my research study. The difference between a colour photocopy and black and white at the French equivalent of Staples is absurd. I almost considered opening my own photocopying shop it was such a racket.

Again I tried to find time to work on my blog but what started as a 10 min skype with Sarah, her sister Kate, and mum Pat, turned into about an hour. By that time it was dinner and time for Majid and I to once again heckle Mike. Genevieve had driven in from Dejelis to visit Mike and have dinner with us again. Majid was as subtle as ever and dinner, like every meal at the B&B was delicious. In fact, like breakfast, I had two dinners.

The patron of the B&B had done our laundry and had even folded it, something that my running gear doesn’t deserve, and managed to get it all smelling better than it has since this trip began.

The night again ended with Majid and I leaving Mike and Genevieve to themselves but not before I said my awkward goodnight to Genevieve. She went to do the standard French double cheek kiss greeting, but I didn’t know what she was doing and instinctively went to make sure she wasn’t on my deaf side.

The result, I head butted her face.

Day 35 June 10, 2011 Courturier to Riviere de Loup/St Andre 51.2km

New people to run with!

We had spent the night before in a small field by the side of the road where I stopped. We were cold overnight because we haven’t really been able to figure out how the heating in the MCC works. Sometimes the generator has to be on, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it comes on by itself, rarely does it work when we need it to. So we were cold and it was nice to get up and get warm.

After listening to I Am Number 4 I downloaded another audiobook entitled The Host. Mike ran with me for part of the morning. I felt good and the weather again was great. Our pace was the fastest so far this trip. My legs are starting to get used to all this running…. finally. By 30km we had entered Riviere-du-Loup and stopped just under an overpass.

We drove to a diner for lunch and encountered a woman whose French was completely incomprehensible to any of us because of her accent. We weren’t really sure what we were getting for lunch other than poutine. At first it didn’t look like Majid got the burger he had ordered, but then we found it submerged in a pool of gravy. He refused to tell us if it was good or not because we made so much fun of him eating it.

Bert, my physio from Edmunston arrived at the diner and told us of a better route that I could be running, one that went along the water. So we drove back to the underpass I had stopped at and Bert led us off the highway and onto route 132, my home until Quebec City. He ran with me for 10km and told me about how he was helping to spread the word in Edmunston. The route along the water was beautiful and the houses huge.

After Bert left Mike began running with me. Mike had run a lot of the way today. Majid had run 6km himself during the morning (the most he's ever run he says!) but other than that and the 3km he spent in the MCC taking pictures while I ran with Bert, he had run the rest of the way with me. As we ran along the river we decided to run to 51.2km so that Mike would have run 42.2km, a full marathon distance; his first marathon. Next, I’m going to get him to run it all at once and maybe I’ll have him converted to long distance running!

We had the next day off and Mike and I had been planning to drive back to Riviere-du-Loup to find a parking lot to spend the night in but Majid had other ideas. While we were running he was calling hotels in the area and decided to put us up in a B&B in St. Andre, the town we had finished running in. That means a real shower!!!!!

Dinner was delicious, although I’m not sure exactly what it was; some sort of meat I think. We were the only ones at the B&B that night and so we pulled one of the other tables close to us and watched the Canucks win game 5 on my laptop during dinner. My mother would not have been impressed I don’t think!

Tomorrow I was planning to spend time working on catching up on my blog and photocopying documents for my research study but I think Majid may have other ideas.

One of those ideas… whale watching!

Day 34 June 9, 2011 Dejelis to Courturier - 50km

Hills and midget tossing

Before we had left last night the owner of hotel 1212 told us to come back and he would give us all a free breakfast and we could do laundry there. So after a huge breakfast, and wearing clean clothes, I started off running and immediately encountered the first of many hills.

For some reason I didn’t feel all that energetic when I started running at 11:30 and the hills didn’t do anything to encourage me. I ran very slowly up them and was exhausted when I stopped for a break and food after 15km.  I felt a bit better for the second 15km but I was still pretty tired.

I have has some trouble keeping up with 60km. I’ve often found myself doing 60km, 40km, 60km, 45km, 60km etc. I had decided that instead of doing 60km one day and then struggling the next and only being able to do 40km that I would try and do just 50km instead, see how I got on with that and then slowly build back up to 60km. So I was planning to do 30km in the morning and 20km in the afternoon.

After the morning 30km, when I came in for lunch, I saw that Majid had his mattress out in the middle of the RV drying. His window had been open during yesterday’s storm of the century and his bed had gotten soaked.

We drove into the nearby town of Cabano for lunch. We met some people at the RV park down by the water. They told us that they only pay $1,000 a year to live in the trailer park, and it was very nice and right on the water. The only catch was you had to have a boat parked at the marina in order to stay there. Still seemed like a pretty good deal to me.

They let us dump out all the water we had recently filled up as we only discovered after filling that it was well water and we couldn’t drink it.

I started running again later on around 6pm. I felt great that last 20km. My legs didn’t hurt, my feet felt good, I didn’t feel tired, I wasn’t thirsty, there was no headwind, the temperature was perfect, the sun was setting and the scenery was beautiful.

Over dinner that night Majid told us about his experience midget tossing. I’m not kidding, he described the harnesses they wore, the mats he threw them on, and how the midgets would help by giving them a running start. I didn’t believe him until he showed us a video of them doing it. Only $5 on Thursday nights in Vancouver!!!!

Tomorrow I enter Riviere-du-Loup and Bert is planning to come run 10km with me!

Day 33 June 8, 2011 Riviere Verte NB to Dejelis QC 46km

Time zones, physio, hailstorms, Quebec, 1,000km

As seems to be a recurring pattern, the morning after I run 60km I am slow to wake up, slow to get ready, and my pace is much slower. These mornings it feels like the last thing that I want to do is go for a run.

I had a physio appointment in Edmunston at around 11:30-12pm and so I started running until my appointment. It was hot outside and I was running slowly so I only managed to get 23km done, but by that time I was almost through the town of Edmunston.

I met Bertrand Belanger at Clinique de Physiotherapie d’Edmunston, and thanks to someone else not showing up he stretched me out for over an hour and a half. He showed me a number of new stretches, let me take a shower, and gave me some 2^nd skin, tape, and cold packs. When I tried to pay for the appointment he wouldn’t let me. He was really interested in helping me raise money and awareness too and said he was going to call some of his friends to get the word out. He also said he wanted to run with me on Friday when I entered Riviere-de-Loup.

About halfway through my physio a reporter from the local newspaper showed up, Bert having called him, and interviewed me while Bert stretched my legs. While I’d like to take credit for the multi-tasking, it was all Bert.

We also met Genevieve Levasseur, a physio student from Dejelis QC who was doing an internship over the summer at Bert’s clinic. She told us that she left for work at 7am and arrived at work at 8:30am and that when she went home she left work at 5pm and got home from work at 4:30pm. This was the first time we realised we were approaching our new time zone! Either that or she’s a time traveller.

Genevieve is very cute, a fact that did not escape Mike, and the two of them chatted a bit while I stretched. My French isn’t great but I think she might have been laughing a little too hard at his jokes…or maybe he’s just funnier in French? …

After physio I set off running again, with a plan to run another 30km to total 53km for the day. I still felt exhausted and my marathon physio session only served to relax me and make me want to sleep.

After almost exactly 10km I passed into Quebec at km 33. We took some pictures at the Quebec sign and spoke to some of the truckers at the nearby truck stop.  I was now thoroughly exhausted and didn’t feel like running much further but I had a sandwich and some chocolate milk while Majid kept shoving fruit at me. As Mike and I started running again huge black clouds formed overhead. We started off on the trans-Canada Trail, which ran parallel to the highway. The humidity soon turned to drizzle, then rain, then, and I’m not exaggerating, the heaviest downpour I’ve ever seen. Within a minute there were rivers of water on the sides of the trail and we couldn’t see the highway anymore so, after passing through a tunnel that provided momentary relief and a cool video opportunity we ran back up the embankment to the highway. It wasn’t much better on the road; there were still literally rivers of water on both sides. All the trucks were driving slowly with their hazard lights on. We continued for a while before we decided that despite the better footing, the visibility was terrible and with big trailers passing us and spraying walls of water on us the trail would be safer.

It lasted much longer than I thought it could at that intensity but eventually slowed. So now not only was I exhausted but everything was soaked, including my shoes. Needless to say my pace was not awe-inspiring.  By 46km I entered the town of Dejelis and decided that was far enough. I stopped at Hotel 1212, which was where we had been recommended to go for dinner and to watch the game.

I got to use the outdoor shower on the RV for the first time, thanks to being covered in mud, and got a few odd looks as I was washed my legs off in the parking lot.

At dinner that night at Hotel 1212, the ribs were great but the Canucks were not. Genevieve had been driving home when she spotted our RV in the parking lot and so stopped by. The second she sat down Majid started trying to set her and Mike up, and if you’ve ever met Majid, he was not subtle. I only wish the conversation was in English so I could have enjoyed it more.

By the time the second period was over, I could barely keep my eyes open and the Canucks weren’t doing anything to encourage my staying up. It also looked like Mike and Genevieve could use some time alone after all our heckling (read: Majid’s heckling! I can’t heckle effectively in French)

So Majid and I left them alone and drove to the nearby Esso parking lot. As for what happened with the two of them…who knows, I fell quickly asleep.


Lost in all the madness of the day is that fact that somewhere along the run today, I reached 1,000km total!