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