Day 114 August 28, 2011 Virden to Saskatchewan Border 61km - Guest Blog

Guest blog by Christopher Daum

Today’s wake up was an early one for me. Riley decided to hit the snooze button a half dozen times, which was okay with me. The morning felt cold and I needed to put on some layers. I was introduced to the morning routine for Riley and Mike and the day brought many lessons in how life in a motorhome is properly carried out.

Mike gave me the go-ahead to start the day running with Riley and I had no idea how far I could expect myself to run. Riley carries a nice, steady pace and being able to talk with him as we ran allowed me to take my mind off of how my legs began to feel as the morning carried on. We found many things to keep ourselves distracted such as guessing the type of road kill that was coming up and trying to determine the function of various pieces of farm equipment.

I’ve been keeping track of Riley’s progress from back home in Vancouver and I have to say it’s incredible to now be here and be able to witness the size and scope of Riley and Mike’s venture first hand. Just thinking about how I felt after only running a third of Riley’s route has me in total disbelief at what he is able to accomplish on a daily basis and it has been amazing to see how Mike supports Riley every step of the way. He’s like a one-man pit crew and he knows exactly what Riley needs to keep going. I’ve been trying to take notes of just exactly what he does so that I can relieve him of his duties and he can have some time to run with Riley. I don’t think I’ll have it down to the fine science that he does within the week that I have with these two.

Today I found it remarkable to witness the many different ways that people offer their support for Step Into Action. As we passed through Virden, a high-school physical education instructor named John caught up with Riley and spent some time running with him. We had a great experience stopping at the Saskatchewan / Manitoba border and meeting a couple from Quebec who were driving a motorhome (that we admired) that was a support vehicle for the Iris Challenge to Defeat Cancer (to learn more about it, check out: http://iris.ca/challenge/Home.html). We met another couple named Cam and Carolyn from Parry Sound, Ontario who mentioned that they had seen the news clip about Step into Action on The National. Both couples made a personal generous donation, which were greatly appreciated.

Within the short period of time that I have been with these two I have been touched by how frequently they have been approached by people who mention how they have been affected by prostate cancer. Some talk about how they have lost someone to it, others mention that they know someone who has been diagnosed, while others mention they have battled it or are currently battling it. I know that meeting these people is certainly motivating for these guys and brings them face-to-face with the people they are looking to support. I greatly admire their efforts and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week with Step Into Action.

Day 113 August 27, 2011 Brandon to Virden 61km

Hello Mr Daum, welcome to Step Into Action

As predicted I was late getting up this morning despite setting about 8 alarms. I was slow getting ready as well, so I missed the rain that started as I got up and stopped just before I finally managed to get out and start running.

There was no headwind at all today and the temperature was perfect, somewhere in the low 20s so running conditions were pretty much perfect. I’m currently listening to 1984 on my iPod and really enjoying it. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Atlas Shrugged, although not nearly as verbose.

Today’s theme for road kill was headless salamanders. I’m not sure where these little guys are coming from, as it seems pretty dry around here. I’ve also seen a number of porcupines on the side of the road and they are way bigger than I thought they would be, but unfortunately I haven’t seen any live porcupines.

Mike was stopped twice today on the road. The first time was by a gentleman who had seen us on the National and wanted to make a donation. The second time was by an off duty police officer who was angry that I was running facing oncoming traffic and wanted Mike to get me to run on the westbound side. Not a chance. There’s no way I’m running in such a way that I can’t anticipate when cars are going to pass me.

At around the 57km mark it was really dry and dusty and with the wind from the trucks I had tons of dirt on the roof of my mouth. At the 59^th km mark Chris Daum, a friend of mine from Vancouver arrived. He’s going to be with us for the next week.

We drove back to a campsite I had run past and were delighted to learn that they had a pool. After our swim and pasta dinner we discovered they had ice cream. I had a huge scoop of mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream. I’ve got to enjoy this while I can because once I stop running I’ll probably have to give it up.

Tomorrow I’ll make it to Saskatchewan!

Day 112 August 26, 2011 Middle of Nowhere to Brandon 61km

Why is WiFi so hard to find

It was cooler this morning, a nice change especially now that our A/C is gone. Shortly after I started running this morning (which happened to start at the bottom of a hill, so much for the prairies being flat) hay bales started appearing in the meridian dividing the highway. No longer guarded by fences Mike and I immediately started playing on the first few we saw, taking what we considered fairly artistic photos.

A little while later the same crop duster that I had seen yesterday appeared again and this time I could clearly see that it was crop dusting. It looks like a fairly fun job if you’re a pilot and like flying.

I’ve come up with a new game while I run to help me pass the time. Along this stretch of highway, well pretty much since I entered Manitoba, the fields are swarming with yellow/green butterflies. There are billions of them. My new game involves watching their attempts to cross the highway when vehicles approach. I’ve got the ratio pegged at around 20% of vehicles hit a butterfly as they pass me. That’s not that long a stretch, especially at the speed they’re going at, I only see them for a second or two as they pass. There are so many butterflies that every fifth car hits one. I’ve even figured out the different ways they emerge from collision. There’s the straight shot diagonally when they hit the corner bumper. There’s the straight up and over when they hit the windshield. There’s the straight down when the hit the front bumper. Finally there’s the ‘stick’, where they get caught in the grill.

I made it to Brandon around the 50km mark and finished about 10km West of town. As I was stretching on the side of the road my cousin Jessa came walking over from across the road. She had come to say hi after finishing work. It was fun catching up and answering her questions about the run, which were often focused around roadkill!

We spent much of the rest of the night looking for WiFi to update our sites. We started at Quizno’s but they didn’t have any Internet so we settled for subs instead. Our next stop was McDonalds but their WiFi wasn’t working. It wasn’t a complete loss as I left with a McFlurry. I’m trying to eat ice cream every day if I can. Our third attempt had us hiding in the back parking lot of the Motel 6 and using their Internet but it was patchy and unreliable, even when Mike walked into the lobby and sat down to upload photos. I managed to get the text of three of the blogs up but could only upload one photo. We continued to drive around to a number of other places but all their WiFi spots were password protected. The people of Brandon are so untrusting!

We spent the night at the truck stop in the Husky Station. We were on The National tonight on CBC and a number of people called and text us about it but we weren’t able to get it until just before we went to bed. I think it was really well done, I just wish they had shown our website at the end. It was pretty sweet though to be on national TV.

I didn’t get to sleep until 11pm, so it’s going to be difficult to wake up tomorrow.

Day 111 August 25, 2011 Portage La Prairie to Middle of Nowhere 61km

Heat Hills and Headwind

I had breakfast this morning at McDonalds after spending the night in their parking lot. I feel like it’s the least I could do. Plus I wanted a big breakfast and a sausage and egg McMuffin. After breakfast, while I was taping up my feet I discovered that I was out of blister supplies despite having been in Winnipeg for four days!! Well planned. So we had to wait until 8am for the pharmacy to open, which caused a bit of a late start. In the meantime I tried unsuccessfully to get out Internet working but the Bell support guy wasn’t able to fix it.

There was a pretty strong headwind but it had a more southerly origin so it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. It was however super hot. And dry. Holy cow is it dry. If I breathe through my mouth it doesn’t take long before my mouth gets really dry. My nose gets super dry and there is dust everywhere that gets kicked up by the trucks that pass by. And it’s so dry and windy that almost no sweat forms on me, it evaporates before it can cool me down. I put my shirt under the taps but it would only stay wet for about 5-10 minutes. Incredible.

Almost as soon as I started out I noticed a plane circling around what I thought was an airfield. I thought he was practicing take offs and landings but when I got closer it looked more like he was crop dusting. I didn’t know people still did that, it’s the first time I’ve seen it.

I continued along highway 1, which is divided and sometimes has a pretty wide space between me on my side and Mike on his side. So today he would just meet me at the side streets. Also, for those of you who think Manitoba is completely flat, I counted 3 hills today. So I had three “H”s today: heat, hills and headwinds.

We are currently parked in a random picnic spot. Not sure if we’re allowed to stay here overnight but there are no signs to say we can’t so I guess we’ll see what happens.

Tomorrow I should make it to Brandon.

Day 110 August 24, 2011 St Eustache to Portage La Prairie 51km

Holy headwind

There was a massive 70km/hr headwind to start the day. It was brutal and I was exhausted after only about 15km. My pace was super slow and I could stop and lean forward and not fall over. I so wished that I was running the other way, my pace would have been incredible.

I had to take so many breaks that we then decided that I should try running behind the MCC. I was a little worried about it seeing as it was less than a week ago that Ken smashed into the back of our RV, but the shoulder was so big that we could be entirely off the road with the rumble strip between us and the road. In order for it to work though I had to run within about 2 feet of the back of the bus. It made a huge difference though. There was absolutely no headwind at all back there, though I could still feel it on my legs. It was also way hotter now that there was no wind. The only real problem with it was that Mike controlled my pace and I just had to run at the speed he drove at.

As I was running behind the MCC a CBC car from The National pulled up and out came Reg Sherren along with Warren and Terry. They had come out to do a 3-4 minute feature on me for Friday’s edition of The National. They were planning on having a special edition mainly dedicated to cancer and Jack Layton whose funeral is on Saturday.

They spent over an hour with us interviewing Mike and me and taking lots of running footage. At the same time my dad was being interviewed in Vancouver. They spent over 10km filming me as I ran, including pretty much the whole run through Portage La Prairie. Once they were done is was 3:30pm and we hadn’t had lunch so we pulled into a school parking lot and after eating took a quick nap.

Once the run was done we drove to Canadian Tire to finally get a fly swatter after countless days of living with flies in the RV. I’ve been looking forward to getting one for weeks.

We spent the night in the McDonalds parking lot so we could hijack their free WiFi and get ice cream after dinner. It was also air conditioned inside, a nice change from our smoking hot RV.

I really hope it cools off otherwise it’s going to be a long night!

Day 109 August 23, 2011 Winnipeg to St Eustache 40km

Today was 37 degrees

I felt great after four days and only a 10km run. During the run today I was stopped twice by CBC. The first time CBC drove out to film me running and do a quick interview, mostly because of Jack Layton’s recent death. Then CBC radio called for a phone interview during their lunch program. I’m getting better at doing interviews these days, mostly because everybody always asks the same questions.

On the way back to Winnipeg after I had finished running we stopped of at a gas station to dump and we met a truck driver who says that he has already seen me twice on the road, both times in Ontario. I never really thought about it but I guess some of these long haul truckers are driving back and forth across Canada and so some of them must have seen me a couple of times. That might explain why some of the truckers honk and wave so enthusiastically while others try and run me off the road.

Once back I got to swim again and then managed to get a haircut to make me look more like I belong in the military. I also made my 2^nd trip to the Apple store in as many days, this time to replace my headphones.

Tonight is my last night in Winnipeg; tomorrow I leave my bed and shower behind for some more RV excitement sans A/C in this heat!

Day 108 August 13, 2011 Day off Winnipeg

Today wasn’t very exciting

I spent most of the day on my computer, and I was actually a little restless. I haven’t had more than two days off in a row since the start of my run and today was day four.

Mike spent a lot of the day sleeping. He’s been using these four days to catch up on his sleep. He’s kind of like a teenager; he eats and sleeps more than me.

After dinner Sarah and I drove back to the Forks. When we did the run yesterday I forgot to bring my watch and so wasn’t able to map my route to Assiniboine Park. We got ice cream and walked around the Forks before turning my watch on and driving back to the park. My average pace was less than 2 minutes per km. That’s one way to bring down my average pace!

Tomorrow I get back on the road!

Day 107 August 21, 2011 The Forks to Assiniboine Park 9.4km

We got tot the Forks at about 915am to get ready for our 10am run to Assiniboine Park. There were tons of familiar faces that showed up and it was great to see everyone after 3 months.

We started off in the parking lot across from the Human Rights museum and as we started we were escorted by a 5 police cars. As we came around and turned to run under the train overpass and out of the Forks I heard a huge scraping sound. I turned around in time to see our RV try to unsuccessfully sneak under the overpass. There was an equally loud scraping sound as the MCC was reversed out from under the overpass. That turned out to be the end of our A/C units!

The run to Assiniboine Park was a lot of fun and I got a chance to catch up with a number of people who had come out to run. It ended up being a little over 9km and we all made it there in under an hour which is pretty impressive! When we arrived at the park we were greeted by a number of other family and friends as well as water and oranges!

CTV and CBC had come out to film us and while CBC snuck around gathering footage of the event CTV interviewed me and then asked if we could all reenact our run into the park. So pretty much all of us gathered a short way down the path and ran back to the finish. We had to do it twice to get all the right angles.

Members of the Winnipeg prostate cancer support group as well as prostate paddles who race a dragon boat were there to say hi as well. I think I may try out dragon boating once I’m back in Winnipeg; it’s something I’ve always wanted to try.

After everyone had left we walked the short distance back to my house and I finally got to take a swim in my pool, something I’ve wanted to do since I’ve been home but haven’t had the chance yet.

I still had a number of errands to do, included switching my iPhone for one with a working home button, as well as stocking up on electrolyte replacements from the Running Room.

For dinner Sarah made my favourite meal of hers, lasagne. She makes it with a white sauce and puts it in its own individual dish. Delicious. I was planning on leaving tomorrow but it turns out based on my schedule I’m not actually scheduled to leave until Tuesday, which is news to me. Turns out I got to Winnipeg a day earlier than planned thanks to my increased mileage. So we’re going to take advantage of the extra day and I’m going to work on my research and try to catch up on my blogs.

An extra night in my own bed…awesome!

Day 106 August 20, 2011 Day off Winnipeg - Mike's View

I hadn't slept that late in a long time.

This morning was the first time I had been able to sleep in for a while.  Even though we weren't running yesterday, we were still up at 5am to be on Breakfast Television for 6am.  I took full advantage of this opportunity. 

The greatest part was not just waking up late, but being awake and just laying in bed for another hour, just relaxing, dreaming and checking emails, Facebook and Twitter.

I walked into the kitchen for breakfast at about 11:30am, where the rest of the Senft family met me.  After eating, I joined Rod, Jeannie and Derek for a walk through Assiniboine Park.  It was a hot, sunny and windy Saturday afternoon and the park was full of people.  With this being my first time in Winnipeg, Rod and Jeannie were excellent tour guides, making sure I didn't miss anything, including the beautiful new duck pond (which turns into a skating rink in the winter of course) and the natural kids playground.  I have never seen so many children in one place before!  Had I still been small enough to fit on the swings (and not looked at oddly by the parents for running around with their children) I would have been all over it.

After returning to Riley's house, I decided to go for a dip in his pool on this very hot day.  After splashing about, I lay down on the lawn chairs and quickly fell asleep for about an hour.  No sunburn as far as I can tell so far, but man, did I ever need it.  Even though I had slept in, I was still catching up on sleep.

My good friend from high school, Ben, moved to Winnipeg on the first of May and I was eager to reconnect with him.  He picked me up and took me out for dinner at a restaurant called Confusion Corner Bar and Grill. From there, we met up with a few of his nice co-worker friends and they took me to a bar that had an outdoor beach.  This was incredible!  A beach in Winnipeg, and it was still warm at night.  I loved it!  Thanks for a great time today guys.  Everyone.  Ben, the Senfts, you have changed my opinion of Winnipeg.  It really is a beautiful and fun city!

-Michael Downie

Day 105 August 19, 2011 Day off Winnipeg

Waking up early this morning was made worse by the fact that my bed was so comfortable I really hated rising.

We got the City TV building at the Forks at just before 6am and Courtney interviewed me at 6:15am during the health segment. It lasted about 2 or 3 minutes and was a lot of fun.

From there I had a number of errands to do today including getting a repeat echo of my heart. I had an echo of my heart before I started the run and now that I am back in Winnipeg I got another one to see if anything has changed. It was pretty interesting although not much had changed since my first echo, which is good for me but doesn’t give me much data to work with.

I also met up with Dean, who is my research advisor as well as the guy who helped train me for the run. We talked about the run and he restocked my supply of pedometers for the 2^nd leg of my trip.

The rest of the day we spent getting ready for the BBQ I hosted. When I say I hosted I mean my mother and Sarah hosted. I didn’t do much really besides eat tons of the great food we had.

By the time I got to bed it was late and I was exhausted but the good news is I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow, so I might sleep all day and wake up Sunday instead.

Day 104 August 18, 2011 Steinback to Winnipeg 75km

Welcome home and Happy Birthday Dad!

There isn’t much to write about today’s run other than to say it was long. I started where we left off last night and ran in front of the RV on the shoulder the entire way. I was a little wary throughout the day after Ken’s performance yesterday but we got through the day unscathed.

It was really hot, but the headwind wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been yesterday. The road was about as straight a road as I’ve ever been on. I’ve driven this road before but you don’t appreciate how endlessly straight and unchanging it is until you run it. Derek and Mike alternated running with me during the day like yesterday. Thanks to the late start two days ago when I only managed to run 60km I discovered that if I ran 70km today I would find myself almost exactly 5km from the Forks. I had two options, run 70km and then come out early on Sunday before the run to Assiniboine Park and run the 5km to the Forks, or run the extra 5km today. It wasn’t a hard decision, but it was a bit of a struggle making it to 75km.

Today also happens to be my Dad’s birthday so during one of my breaks Derek, Mike and I called him and sang Happy Birthday. Shortly after this I passed the longitudinal centre of Canada. While my halfway point for mileage was just outside of Marathon ON, I’ve now officially made it to the West and am more than halfway across as the crow flies!

I finally made it the city limits and saw the Welcome to Winnipeg sign. I was too tired to notice anything, but Mike was running with me and noticed a cardboard sign had been taped to the welcome sign. We walked over and saw that it was a giant blue hand with the index finger extended and the words Step into Action typed on it. On the back was a message from my cousin Joey who had driven out and put the sign up. It was awesome and helped motivate me to keep going. The run into Winnipeg was nice because pretty soon I recognized where we were and was able to run on the sidewalks towards the Forks.

As I crossed the Main Street bridge over to the Forks, Philip, a photographer from the Free Press was waiting at the end of the bridge to take my picture. Mike hopped into the RV because he didn’t want to be in the photo, but Phil got him when he hopped back out after the bridge for the run into the Forks and that was the photo that ended up in the paper.

I finished in the parking lot across from the Human Rights Museum. A couple of guys came over to chat with us and the three of us tried unsuccessfully to convince the two of them that I was running across Canada. They were convinced it was a joke!

Just as we pulled up to my house it started pouring with rain. Mike and Derek made a couple of trips back and forth from the RV to my house with stuff while I stayed inside packing everything up. The two of them got drenched, but when I finally stepped out it had stopped raining… hilarious!

As excited as I am to sleep in my bed tonight it’s not going to be for long as it’s getting late and I’m scheduled to be on Breakfast Television tomorrow at 6:15am!

Day 103 August 17, 2011 Falcon Lake to Steinbach 71km

Not quite the day I was expecting

When Derek and I started running at around 8am there was already a fierce headwind; welcome to the prairies. The headwind would continue for the entire day, my new nemesis now that I’ve left the hills behind.

I was running well, and my pace was good despite the heavy headwind. I had a quick break at around 11:30am when Mike and Derek changed spots, driver for runner. As I passed the 31km mark, Mike commented that while he was driving along the highway he noticed that despite the fact that the MCC is straddling half the shoulder and half the right hand lane, that cars and trucks seem to like to wait until the last possible second to switch from the right hand lane to the left hand lane to pass.

About 90 seconds after that comment we heard a screech followed by a loud bang and looked back to see a cloud of dust followed quickly by a black Nissan sedan, its side damaged, come hurtling out of control in an arc from the left hand lane across our path about 15 feet in front of us and into the grass ditch on our right where it came to a stop.

I looked back at Derek who so calmly pulled the MCC over fully onto the shoulder that I wasn’t sure if the car had hit the MCC or another vehicle behind us. The driver of the Nissan, a 41-year-old named Ken, emerged from the car uninjured. All told, it could have been a lot worse.

An ambulance and two RCMP vehicles arrived shortly thereafter. Ken’s car was severely damaged. To add insult to injury Ken had purchased his car new yesterday and was driving back from getting it insured to pick up his parents to take them for a ride. The MCC fared better. The scooter took most of the force of the impact and was damaged beyond use, along with the trailer hitch it sat on. The light board was damaged such that only the French display now works, and the rear left compartments were damaged preventing us from opening the hatch doors to our septic tank.

The whole process took about 3 hours, putting me nicely behind schedule. I used part of the time to eat lunch and do a phone interview with the Winnipeg Free Press. During the commotion my mother, sister and Sharon arrived on their way into Winnipeg. Lauren managed to lock the keys in the car after they stopped and it took the tow truck drivers a while to get the door open thanks to the cars security features.

We managed to give out buttons and the Steps to Ken, the RCMP officers, and the ambulance attendants so we were making the most of our down time.

A bit of a gong show but I finally managed to get running again around 3pm. Not long after I had started running again but I was joined by a group of fellow anesthesia residents from my program who had driven out to run with me. It was great to see them all after 3 months and we shared some stories of my time and theirs as we ran. As awesome as it was to see them all, it put me further behind schedule.

The rest of the day dragged on as I still had a lot of mileage left and didn’t make it to 70km until 9:15pm, as the sun was setting. I quickly stretched and we drove into Winnipeg. It was a bit strange to be back, but I took a long hot shower and after a quick dinner fell quickly to sleep in my own bed for the first time in 3 months!

Tomorrow I should make it to Winnipeg!