Day 136 September 19, 2011 Calgary to the foot of the Rockies 71km - Guest Blog Dave Bell

Riley has been on the road since May 7^th making this day 136 for him and Mike, day 8 for Russ and day 1 for me.  The anticipation of joining the team on the road has been growing since this adventure began.

I was dropped at the Calgary Zoo bright and early and found the MCC backed expertly in front of a locked parking gate where the run left off the previous day.  While Riley went through his pre-run routine we were informed by a security guard that “If the Police saw you parked in-front of a locked gate, they could issue a citation and if you would like to camp at the Zoo, you need to register at the North lot.” To which Mike responded “Oh, we’re not camping, we just arrived and are running across the country to raise money for Prostate Cancer.” While his response resulted in a warmer reception we still had to move along, as our runner was not ready to hit the rainy road.

Russ and Mike were both anxious to join Riley for the run along the paths of the Bow River, however 30 minutes into my tenure on the MCC, not being from Calgary and never having driven a vehicle larger than an SUV, I thought perhaps a tutorial was in order.  Mike graciously offered to mentor me for the first 10km while Russ and Riley braved the rain.

After 10km Russ switched off with Mike so he could finalize the logistics of meeting-up with the various Fire Departments he had contacted to provide Riley with an escort and additional runners to show their support.  With the uncertainty of emergency calls preventing our escorts from joining, Russ hedged his bets and had 3 separate departments (Rockyview, Redwood and Calgary) lined-up to join us and low and behold all three joined Riley outside of Canada Olympic Park.  At the pinnacle we had a parade led by the 50 Engine from Redwood, a bush buggy, 4 firemen running, Riley, the MCC, 3 more trucks and a second bush buggy.  It was quite a sight for the passing motorists and I was in my element at the helm of the MCC.

Slowly but surely the various departments left the caravan and we were back to the 4 of us; with Riley the runner as the constant.  If I was impressed by the thought of Riley running 71km/day before watching it happen, I gained a new appreciation when I laced-up my brand new runners and joined Riley.  The first KM felt good, the second was inaudible based on my heavy breathing and the third (my last for round 1 day 1) was pure agony. Having been incented with a $10 donation/km ran, minimum 30km in my week with the team, I completed 3km, knowing I would still need another 2 to be on pace to hit the minimum threshold.

On a side note, it is incredible to watch Riley run.  He has developed what can be described as a low impact shuffle and while it doesn’t seem as though he is going very fast when puttering down the highway in a vehicle, stride for stride, he is moving. 

With 2km remaining to hit 71km for the day, I once again was working to keep up with Riley and managed to make my 5km goal.  For the statisticians in the group I managed 7% of the distance run by Riley on the day.

The night was capped off with an incredible show of support from the Redwood Meadows Fire department.  They hosted us for an incredible BBQ dinner, desert, use of their showers and a spot to park and plug-in the MCC for the night.  After catching-up (or attempting to) on emails we called it a night.

Thank you to all the departments who came out, leaving Riley grinning ear-to-ear.  Thanks to Mike and Russ for welcoming me into the close quarters of the MCC and showing me the ropes of being on the support team.  And of course, the biggest thanks are for Riley, who through his determination, and drive to do something about Prostate Cancer has made this all possible.  I may not be able to walk when my week is up, but I will never forget my time here and the impact Riley is having on so many across the nation.

Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km

Officially in Calgary

After driving the 50km out to Strathmore Russ and I started running. It was a cold morning but the slowly rising sun gave a hint of the heat that would begin by midday. About 5km or so into the run the mountains started to come into view. Russ kept trying to convince me that they were clouds, but they were definitely the mountains. 135 days into this run and I’ve finally run to within view of the mountains.

As we were nearing Chestemere, Russ’ friend Chris, a firefighter, came out and ran with us. A short while later a fire truck from Chestemere met us. We continued running through Chestemere and were joined by Mike’s dad and sister. That made five of us. As we approached the Calgary city limits a man with a video camera stepped out of the bushes and began filming us. He didn’t saw anything, just kept running beside us filming.

Once at the city limits we were met by another fire truck, this one from the Calgary Fire Department and the two stations handed off to one another. All of this was caught on tape by the silent guy with the video camera, who, I’m guessing worked for Global, as there was a Global car near by. Global have come out to film me in a number of cities and every time they just hang around and shoot film. Not once have they asked any questions. They’re quite sneaky.

Our new fire escort was really excited to be escorting us and instead of following behind as every other fire truck has done, this one lead the way with us following behind. At each intersection he would drive right into the middle of the intersection, lights flashing, and block traffic for us to run through. I’ve never seen a fire escort block traffic before, and judging by some of the looks we got from motorists, I don’t think any of them had either.

We finished the day at the Calgary Zoo, where Dan MacLean made us delicious smokies. Russ, Mike and I took a quick trip through the zoo, pausing only at the big animals. The running joke has been that once I get to Calgary that Russ and I would go to the prehistoric park because it’s his favourite part of the park, but sadly we didn’t have time.

My cousins, the Propps as they’re called, came to the zoo, as did another friend and we spent a short amount of time catching up before we had to leave to go to dinner. Mike had dinner with his family for his sister’s birthday, while Russ and I went to his sister’s house for a huge feast. Russ’ brother in law made the most amazing ribs I think I’ve ever tasted, along with incredible corn bread and we stuffed ourselves while Russ’ nieces and nephew serenaded us with homemade instruments.

Tomorrow I should make it to the foot of the Rockies

Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km

Up Ireland!

The first thing I did this morning on waking up was check the score between the Ireland/Australia rugby match. The Rugby World Cup is currently on in New Zealand and this was a huge match for Ireland and they WON!! I was so excited I spent most of the 70km drive out to my starting point watching video highlights of the match on my phone.

It was really cold this morning for the first time since the Maritimes and I had to wear gloves and a jumper to stay warm. About 5 metres after Mike and I started running, a van filled with students and teachers from Strathcona Tweedsmuir School pulled up. The five students and two teachers had driven out to run with me. It was great fun having them with me for about 10km this morning and we talked about the run, their school and different running styles. They even gave me one of their running shirts at the end!

Despite the great start I didn’t feel much like running today, but Mike and Russ alternated a large portion of the day with me. I was lacking in motivation and I kept taking breaks and so I finished a little later than we had hoped. We were having a pub night at Dobson’s pub in Calgary and we ended up being late, and not having time for dinner.

The good news though is the food at the pub was incredible and no one seemed to notice our late arrival. There were a number of people there, including Mike’s dad, whom I’ve never met before. It was a great night and we ended up staying later than we probably should.

I didn’t end up getting close enough today to see the mountains but I will see them tomorrow for sure and I make my way into Calgary.

Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary

Welcome to Calgary

As is becoming the norm on rest days we were up early to be on Breakfast Television. While waiting for our turn we met some of the other guests that morning. The first was Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the CFL. He was on to talk about inducting people into the hall of fame. The second guest was Gerry Dee, a comedian that Mike instantly recognized. He is apparently the opening act for the hall of fame ceremony for the CFL.

When it was our turn to go on Ted Henley interviewed all three of us. It was fun having Mike and Russ up there with me, especially because we could all see the screen so could see what each other looked like on camera. Mike and Russ look a lot taller than me when we’re sitting down.

From BT we drove over to X92.9 radio and happened to see Gerry Dee being interviewed before us again. Mike made his standard pun of the day about Gerry being a hard act to follow (despite the fact that Russ and I are trying to decrease the number of puns Mike tells in a day). During our interview one of the radio hosts promised his co-host that for his birthday he would get a bunch of their friends to tie a bag over his head, kidnap him, and take him to his GP to get tested!

Immediately following we drove up to Rockyview hospital and met Pamela Heard at the Prostate Cancer Centre. It’s an incredible facility that consolidates all of the essential services for prostate cancer detection and management into one tremendously well built facility. We met with a number of the urologists at the centre and then had a tour of their “Man Van”, the mobile PSA testing unit. This coming Wednesday they are hoping to set a Guinness world record for most PSA tests done in a day.

A large part of the rest of the afternoon was spent doing research for me and other errands for Mike and Russ. I spent time at both Rockyview and Foothills hospitals gathering volunteers for my study while Mike and Russ got a number of things sorted out with the RV.

We all converged together at City Hall at 3pm where, along with the Hills, we met Calgary Mayor Nenshi. We had a quick chat and then Mayor Nenshi said that he had heard that the mayor of Thunder Bay had given me the key to the city and he didn’t want to get shown up. So he White Hatted me, Calgary’s version of the key to the city. He had me hold a white cowboy hat, raise my right hand, and after a quick oath and a loud “YAHOO” I was officially white hatted! Awesome!

Shortly after leaving city hall we met up with an old friend of ours, Amanda Shaw, who lives here in Calgary. We spent an hour catching up and comparing our local Kenyan tribal custom knowledge (she’s pretty much an expert).

We decided to drive back out tonight so that we wouldn’t have such a long drive in the morning. We made it 50km to Strathmore before deciding to spend the night at a gas station.

Tomorrow I might be able to see the mountains.

Day 132 September 15, 2011 Brooks to Bassano 58km

Distractions and emotional meetings

Today was one of those days where all sorts of small breaks combine to create a huge delay. It started with not having enough to eat for breakfast. We stopped off at McDonalds; our ubiquitous stand by and stuffed our faces (at least I did) with calorie packed breakfast sandwiches.

When I did finally manage to start running a number of things occurred to cause me to take breaks, not that I needed the motivation today. A reporter from the Calgary Herald came out to interview us. She had most of the information already from our press releases so she asked a whole bunch of more interesting and random questions and it was a lot of fun.

Later on during the day, while I was running with Russ, a car pulled over and a 47-year old man approached us. He asked emotionally if we were running across Canada, as he had heard about us on the radio. He was diagnosed only a month ago with prostate cancer that had already spread beyond the prostate. He told us about his children, his job as a teacher in Brooks, and asked if there was anything he could do to help.

Russ and Mike alternated running pretty much the entire day, and Russ’ ankle seems to be holding up well. Towards the end of the day the photographer from the Herald came out to meet us and took some photos of Russ and I.

Shortly after the photographer left, a huge headwind developed and my right hip began to hurt. I took this as a sign that I should stop running. So I didn’t get as far as I would have liked today, leaving more for me to run on Saturday and Sunday to ensure that I make it to Calgary by Sunday afternoon.

The drive to Calgary took a little over an hour, and after a quick dinner we dropped Russ off at home and Mike and I drove to the Hill’s condo.

Tomorrow is an action packed day in Calgary

Day 131 September 14, 2011 Suffield to Brooks 70km - Mike's View

I will be completely honest with you.  I am writing this a few days after this actual day, so this blog is written to the best of my memory.

As far I can remember, this day started like any other regular day, with nothing out of the ordinary happening that morning, just another warm sunny day on Highway 1.  That afternoon, however, was one of the greatest fire escorts in the history of the world!

As we were approaching the town of Brooks, Alberta, I started to notice 2 separate photographers.  Having photographers come out to film Riley is not unusual these days, however, these ones did not say hello to Riley or myself at all.  In fact, they were driving regular vehicles and looked like ordinary people.  Perhaps they were ordinary people just out to see the runner himself, as he runs across Canada to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer.  But even supporters would honk and wave.  In the end, it turned out that they were local media.

As we reached the far edge of town, there were 3 fire trucks waiting for us, as well as their FireFit team.  We drove into town, and the fire department really wanted to use this as a media opportunity for both of us.  The Fire department had their 2 small trucks in the lead, followed by Riley, Russ and the Fire Fit team, with the Mobile Command Centre behind the runners and their largest Fire Ladder Truck taking up the tail.  There are 2 reasons why this escort was so AMAZING.

1- Main Street is a five-lane road. Two lanes in each direction, and the centre lane is reserved for making left turns.  We went down the centre lane!

2- Not only did the fire trucks have their lights on, but also their Sirens blaring!  In fact, the driver of the large ladder truck at the back had his 2 5 year old twins with him, and he let them play with the sirens as much as they liked.  Let's just say that the siren did not sound the same for more than 20 seconds before changing to a new tone.  

As the driver of the MCC, I particularly started to enjoy this escort for 2 reasons.

1- I would watch all of the cars passing as they did not know what to do.  They could hear the sirens and see the lights as if they were racing to a fire, however, we were rolling at about 10 km/hr!  No one knew how to react!

2- As the large ladder truck behind me was blaring his horn, I decided to take part as well, so I began to honk the MCC's horn.  Russ, who was running with Riley and the others behind the first 2 trucks, turned around to laugh at me, just as the truck in front of him hit the brakes.  By the time he turned back around after mocking me, he had run into the back of that particular truck.  Made my day!

The rest of the night was spent in their station giving interviews to the media that was there, which included newspaper and television.  We were able to slide down the fire pole, however, Riley declined.  Something about his legs not being strong enough to stop him at the bottom or something…

Since it was a volunteer department, no one stayed overnight, so we had the run of the place.  The first thing we all did was use their warm showers.  After that, I made another one of my famous stir-frys, and we all ate it upstairs in the fire hall, while watching the Rugby World Cup on their huge projector TV!

To finish off the evening, I beat Russ at a game of Foosball, and then we all went to bed in the MCC, parked just outside.  What a fun evening!

A BIG THANKS to the Brooks Volunteer Fire Department for their huge show of support.  We appreciate it, and had a blast!

-Michael Downie

Day 130 September 13, 2011 Medicine Hatt to Suffield 62km

Playing with Tanks

The morning began with a radio interview. I was exhausted, a fact that the host commented about on air. We noticed last night that we had a hole in one of the four rear tires. When we arrived at the shop we discovered that we actually had two holes in the inside tire and one hole in the outside tire, all on the right side. It’s amazing we didn’t have a blowout while on the highway.

Thanks to the interview and tire patching we didn’t start running until just before 9:30am. Today was a nice day for running, maybe a little cold, but flat and no headwind. At some point during the morning an RCMP officer in a police pickup pulled us over and asked if we needed help. After talking with us he decided to escort us into town. Then he called his friends in town and got another squad car to meet us and they took us through town blocking traffic lights the whole way. Russ ran with me for most of the morning and ended up doing about 24km during the day.

They split up once outside the city but spelled each other off and actually took us for 45km today, our longest escort by far. The officer in the truck drove from where we parked at lunch to where my finishing point was going to be just to track it. He volunteered for it and so I didn’t tell him that I had a pretty good idea based on the GPS on my phone. His was more accurate though.

With about 10km left to run a friend of mine, Matt Green Armytage, showed up and ran with me. Matt is a captain in the British military and is over here for 6 weeks on a training exercise. After running he took us up to his military base and let us climb all over his Warriors, tanks and other cool military vehicles.

We joined Matt for dinner in the officer’s mess and met a number of other officers. The food was great and I managed to get garlic bread, pasta with beef stew, tacos, onion rings, potatoes, kool aid and yogurt. From there he took us to the officers bar and we had a couple of pints. Freaking awesome!

We couldn’t stay overnight on the base so we had to drive back down to the highway and stayed in a gas station parking lot.

Tomorrow we probably won’t get to play with tanks.