Day 59 July 4, 2011 Hastings to Port Hope 51km – Mike’s View
4 Jul
We woke up by the side of the beautiful river in quaint Hastings. Riley was hoping to beat the heat and so started running at 8:30 am, which was exactly 12 hours after he had stopped running the night before! He runs 50kms, takes a 12 break and then runs another 50kms! How crazy is that?!?
The route for most of the day was pretty straightforward. In fact, it was pretty much just straight. Now, for me, the driver, this is slightly boring. Ok, very boring. But it is great for Riley, as he can see when cars are coming towards him, what hills are ahead, etc.
When Riley starts running, he doesn't know the route. Guiding Riley is up to me. When we are approaching a junction, I will drive ahead, and turn in the direction of our route, pull over and wait, pointed in the correct direction. Riley will simply follow along. However, today being straight, I had one less thing to do.
A mailman, driving along collecting mail from mailboxes with flags in the “up” position questioned Riley on this method earlier today. I had fallen behind slightly to answer a few emails, and Riley had a conversation that I was told went a little like this.
"Where are you headed?"
"Vancouver."
"No, I mean today."
"Uhh, about another 30km down the road."
“Where will that take you?”
“Not sure”
"What happens when you get to the stop sign up ahead?"
"Umm.. I go straight. Or left or right. Which ever way my driver tells me to go."
"So you don't know where you're going?"
"I guess not."
On a side note, Riley had been waiting to mail a letter for ages, but due to the postal strike, we were not able to drop it into any mailboxes. Recently, we hadn't been able to find any (since we are in rural Ontario), and so Riley simply asked the Postman if he could take it and mail it for Riley. We weren't sure if he was supposed to do this, but apparently there aren't any mailboxes out here, and if you have a letter to mail, you leave it in your mailbox, put the little flag up, and then he will come around and pick it up. Huh, I guess you really do learn something everyday!
The rest of the road was long and straight, with a few hills, some quite large. It was also another very hot and sunny day, which really slows Riley down, even after having gotten an early start. However, getting an early start meant that Riley also got less sleep. So the early start was good, but made for a tired Riley, which is not good. By mid-afternoon, it was too hot to continue, and Riley came in to cool down in the Air-Conditioned Mobile Command Centre. Since we had started early, Riley only had 10km left. So, instead of waiting a while to cool down, then pushing through the heat, I suggested we turn off the highway and head towards the lake for a dip to cool down, and then finish up a little later when it is cooler. Riley loved this idea!
We found the lake just down the road, but had trouble finding a nice spot to swim. The water was very murky and full of junk and seaweed. After a short drive around looking for a good dock, we ended up parking in the liquor store parking lot, and walking to the little beach next to it. It was nice sand until about knee depth, at which point Riley and I stopped at the thick seaweed forest in front of us. We looked at each other, sighed, then just sat down and floated in the shallow water for a while.
The last 10km were Riley's fastest and included a very long and steep uphill. As I was rolling slowly behind him at the bottom of the hill, I saw a kid walking up behind me. He and his dad had driven past us earlier, and then saw Riley run past them just a minute ago, so he came out and ran me down to donate $20. I briefly felt like an ice cream truck driver, with the kids running behind me waving their money in hand. This MCC sure is getting a lot of positive attention with this new wrap! At the top of the hill and the end of Riley's run, we were stopped by a local fire fighter who just wanted to shake Riley's hand and thank him!
We are finally spreading awareness, and Riley and I are getting very excited for Toronto!
To end the day, we parked next to a water reservoir, which was beautiful, and I made a steak with mushrooms and pineapple on rice stir-fry. Riley loved it! Now, it is early to bed to finally get a full night sleep again before we reach Canada's largest city!
-Michael Downie
