Drumheller

Two weeks ago Kate and I went camping in Drumheller with the Smiths. We were going to try to get away in the late afternoon but Kate had had a crazy week putting in a lot of hours and we didn't get away until the early evening. We arrived in the dark and set up camp in the dark. Our air mattress had hole in it, which we only found after pumping it up, so we slept on the ground.

We went on a hike the next day in the badlands. There wasn't really a trail to follow so we kind of made it up as we went along which meant that we ended up doing a hike that was a little longer and technical than we probably should have considering we had a 3 year-old and a 1 year-old. Down in the valley where we hiked it was hotter than at the top. We ended up hiking for about 2 hours and Moses walked most of it but he let me carry him for the last part after he had played shy in the morning to me.

We ended up spending a lot of time at the splash park in town. It was a fun weekend and it was good to get together with good friends

Marathon

With classes finished for the year, I headed home with a brief stop in Calgary to run a race. In January I looked at my schedule and tried to find marathon that I could run in my time at home and the Calgary marathon fit. The only problem was that it was on the it was run only two days after my exams which meant that I had one day to travel and the the next day I'd run, but I decided that this was the year that I'd do my first marathon. So in January I put the bug in peoples ears to see if I could convince the other runners in the family to join me and they didn't disappoint; Christy and Dad signed up for the half and Trina and I signed up for the full.

The run was going pretty good considering that I trained at sea level and was running the race at elevation (the opposite of what you should do if you have that option). I was a little surprised that I had no joint, stomach, or muscle problem for over the first half of the run. Then at the 32 km mark my right quad tensed up and I had to slow down. That didn't help. By 36 km both my quads were throbbing and could only run 800m of every km they felt like they were going to explode. Those last couple of kilometers were killers.

I finished in just over 4 hours. Not the time I expected and I was a little disappointed that my legs gave out on me but I guess it gives me a time to beat next time.

You probably can't tell this from the picture but the medal that all the marathon runners got for finishing the race also doubles as a belt buckle. Looks like I'm getting a new belt.

The day after the race I'm a little sore and walking is a little uncomfortable. Kate's got me sighed up for another 17km race in the mountains with her firm.

One Down

I just finished my first year of dental school, only three more to go. I have to admit that at on the first day the end of the first year seemed like it would never come, but now looking back on the year it seems like it just flew by. With the first year having finished I have a short 5 week break which of course will be spent back in Edmonton. I started and finished my exams last Friday. I only had one day of exams, but it was 6 hours of tests covering five subjects spanning this whole semester. Needless to say it's good to have that over with. I flew out on Saturday afternoon to Calgary where Kate picked me up from the airport. My whole family was in Calgary this weekend for the Calgary marathon. It's good to be home.