1/2 Marathon to Work

What a day. I didn't even remember it's Memorial Day today until just now, but it certainly doesn't feel like a "holiday"!

I'm going to first write about my day today before I get into the last couple of busy days. I went to work like any normal day, and a co-worker,Jodi, and I decided to run out for a few minutes at lunch. We saw a few people sitting out in the front of the building at some tables and Jodi had asked me if I knew who they were since they kept going in and out of our division manager's office. She said something about maybe our group was going to have someone laid off. I had then remembered a hearing something about lay offs being done last week or this week so we kept our eyes and ears open and sat out at the front tables eating our lunch. I did recognize one of the people that was in my orientation group and looked him up in the phone book. Sure enough his title was employee relations specialist. We headed back to our desks and started work again and before long I heard one of my managers, not my direct boss, but another manager I work closely with come down the isle from the direction of our division manager's office. I heard him mumble something about keeping his calm and glanced out my cube as he went by and noticed he was with the woman that had been out at the tables in front. I didn't see any more, but a little while later, Jodi said she saw my manager and the woman leaving the building. Turns out we lost him and another trades supervisor to the round of layoffs today. It was a very unsettling afternoon, but our division finally gathered at the end of the day so everyone would hear the news before it became public. There had been many many rumors lately about layoffs since we've been struggling lately with finances and with the sale of our Toronto office and since NRU (the reactor supplying the medical isotopes) has been down due to leaks. Who knows if we'll have more layoffs or not, but I guess nothing is certain. We had all thought we were fairly safe in decommissioning since we have an outstanding amount of work and had wanted to hire about 13 people this year in our division, which is no longer going to happen.

On to better news... Jeremy had a successful trip to Montreal last week and gave his presentation, met some new people and talked to some others he had seen at some of the other conferences he had gone to. Looks like he got some nice meals out of it too. He got home early Thursday and was able to call the fire chief and he stopped by to inspect our fire pit (and smoke detector) and everything passed inspection. He turned in the paper work and Jeremy actually was able to pick up our permit this afternoon so we are now officially good to have recreational fires in our pit in the back yard!

Friday, we hit the gym after taking Hayde for a nice walk. It had finally cooled down just a bit. We had 90F temps and humidity all week! It was warm! We manged to get to bed at a semi decent time since we wanted to get up early enough to get out fishing Saturday morning. We got out about 9am and headed down river to the lighthouse. I had never been down river before, but it turned out to be pretty windy and wavy so we didn't stay at that place too long. We headed back up river to a spot between two islands across from the boat landing. We found a nice deep hole and thought we'd try that. I ended up pulling in a nice 15" walleye and Jeremy pulled in another walleye, smaller than mine, and two northerns. We came in after a bit since I wanted to get some things done before we had to leave for Ottawa.

We packed up, did a short run and got Hayde packed and headed over to Chelsea's. She was very nice to watch Hayde for the night while we were gone. We then hit the road for Ottawa so we could get there before the expo closed so I could pick up my race packet. We did it right this time and missed all the traffic by going in the back way. I got my stuff, found a race belt and almost bought a new pair of shoes(but they were out of my size). We then had time to kill before my ex-coworker, Kerry, made it to town. We were going to stay with her and her husband (he lives in Ottawa since he's posted there, but she still lives outside of Pembroke). We headed down one street and managed to find a big hockey store. Of course Jeremy wanted to check it out so we spent the next hour or so there looking around. By the time we were finishing up, Kerry called saying she had made it to her husband's apartment so we headed over there. She was running the 1/2 marathon as well. We hung out with them for a bit until we headed downtown to meet up with another friend of hers. Later we went out to eat. Turned out to be a fancy place and for some reason it took a really long time to get our orders and bring the food so we didn't end up eating until 9pm maybe. We finally made it back to the apartment and got to bed about 11:30.

We got up around 7am which is late for race morning. But, the 1/2 started much later than I'm used to at 9am. So we got ready and were out the door around 7:45, stopped to pick up a bagel for breakfast and headed towards the start. Turns out we did this right too. We hit the right road, however we thought we wanted to be one road over, but we ended up passing a block away from the start, so at the red light, Kerry and I jumped out and Jeremy headed off to park the car. He was able to find us before the race and we ended up having over an hour before the race started. Eventually we made our way to the start. They did the start a bit different this year and had two waves - one at 9:00 and the other at 9:15. I ended up in the second wave with Kerry, but she decided to start further back. Things started out ok, but I could tell my legs were a bit tight, but I was able to keep my normal pace. Eventually I decided to stop and stretch for a second after one of the water stops. I felt better so I decided to stop at the next few to stretch. Somehow, the miles passed by and before I knew it I was over half way. After a few stretches, I finally started feeling much better and was able to pick up my pace a bit. I knew there wasn't tooo much left(remember I'm used to the full marathon), so kept my quick pace since I was feeling so good. The miles flew by and I passed and passed more and more people. Eventually we hooked up with the full marathoners so I knew we were closing in on the finish. I cruised all the way in at a good pace feeling great! It was such a short run, I felt like I was cheating by not running very far. I eventually made my way out of the finishing area and found Jeremy. Later, we met Kerry and she had a simlar experience with a great race. We both thought it went by really fast and had felt pretty good. I managed a 1:56 and she finished in 2:22 and we couldn't have asked for weather that was much better. It was overcast and maybe around 70F with a very slight breeze.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35142656

We headed back to the car, but found a small Lebanese restaurant on the way and decided to stop and eat lunch. I had a really good falafel sandwhich. It was just the right thing. We finally got back to the car and made our way back to the aparmtent to stretch and shower. Kerry came back with us so her husband wouldn't have to drive her back and return to Ottawa. We had a good ride home chatting. I thought I'd have trouble getting out of the car, but I ended up feeling really good, almost like it was any other normal day. I am a bit stiff and sore today though, but Jeremy, Hayde and I went for a good slow 25 minute run maybe. We picked Hayde up at Chelsea's and then hit the grocery store. Jeremy ended up making a few dishes in the evening for the week. I guess he's off to Ottawa again Wednesday for another quick conference.

We have camping reservations this coming weekend at Lake Clear so we can try fishing. Hopefully the weather will be nice. I can now rest for a bit and take this week easy and have a few more hours in my day. I'm going to look for a fall full-marathon to do now that I've built a good base. We also need to pin down our plans to return to WI over the 4th. But for a few days, I hope to be able to sit down and relax for a little bit and maybe get the garden/lawn finished. I have to make a correction as I've called it, MY garden and Jeremy's made a point in telling me I need to call it OUR garden.

I'll post a few pictures later, however, I left my camera in my suitcase for my race so didn't get any pictures of that. I do have the medal at least.