Day 104 August 18, 2011 Steinback to Winnipeg 75km

Welcome home and Happy Birthday Dad!

There isn’t much to write about today’s run other than to say it was long. I started where we left off last night and ran in front of the RV on the shoulder the entire way. I was a little wary throughout the day after Ken’s performance yesterday but we got through the day unscathed.

It was really hot, but the headwind wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been yesterday. The road was about as straight a road as I’ve ever been on. I’ve driven this road before but you don’t appreciate how endlessly straight and unchanging it is until you run it. Derek and Mike alternated running with me during the day like yesterday. Thanks to the late start two days ago when I only managed to run 60km I discovered that if I ran 70km today I would find myself almost exactly 5km from the Forks. I had two options, run 70km and then come out early on Sunday before the run to Assiniboine Park and run the 5km to the Forks, or run the extra 5km today. It wasn’t a hard decision, but it was a bit of a struggle making it to 75km.

Today also happens to be my Dad’s birthday so during one of my breaks Derek, Mike and I called him and sang Happy Birthday. Shortly after this I passed the longitudinal centre of Canada. While my halfway point for mileage was just outside of Marathon ON, I’ve now officially made it to the West and am more than halfway across as the crow flies!

I finally made it the city limits and saw the Welcome to Winnipeg sign. I was too tired to notice anything, but Mike was running with me and noticed a cardboard sign had been taped to the welcome sign. We walked over and saw that it was a giant blue hand with the index finger extended and the words Step into Action typed on it. On the back was a message from my cousin Joey who had driven out and put the sign up. It was awesome and helped motivate me to keep going. The run into Winnipeg was nice because pretty soon I recognized where we were and was able to run on the sidewalks towards the Forks.

As I crossed the Main Street bridge over to the Forks, Philip, a photographer from the Free Press was waiting at the end of the bridge to take my picture. Mike hopped into the RV because he didn’t want to be in the photo, but Phil got him when he hopped back out after the bridge for the run into the Forks and that was the photo that ended up in the paper.

I finished in the parking lot across from the Human Rights Museum. A couple of guys came over to chat with us and the three of us tried unsuccessfully to convince the two of them that I was running across Canada. They were convinced it was a joke!

Just as we pulled up to my house it started pouring with rain. Mike and Derek made a couple of trips back and forth from the RV to my house with stuff while I stayed inside packing everything up. The two of them got drenched, but when I finally stepped out it had stopped raining… hilarious!

As excited as I am to sleep in my bed tonight it’s not going to be for long as it’s getting late and I’m scheduled to be on Breakfast Television tomorrow at 6:15am!