Step Into Action

Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km

23 Sep

Officially in CalgaryAfter 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 int…

Comments Comments Off on Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km

23 Sep

Officially in CalgaryAfter 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 int…

Comments Comments Off on Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km

23 Sep

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

Comments Comments Off on Day 135 September 18, 2011 Strathmore to Calgary 50km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km

22 Sep

Up Ireland!The first thing I did this morning on waking up was check the score between the Ireland/Australia rugby match. The Rugby World Cup is currently on in New Zealand and this was a huge match for Ireland and they WON!! I was so excited I spent m…

Comments Comments Off on Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km

22 Sep

Up Ireland!The first thing I did this morning on waking up was check the score between the Ireland/Australia rugby match. The Rugby World Cup is currently on in New Zealand and this was a huge match for Ireland and they WON!! I was so excited I spent m…

Comments Comments Off on Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km

22 Sep

Up Ireland!

The first thing I did this morning on waking up was check the score between the Ireland/Australia rugby match. The Rugby World Cup is currently on in New Zealand and this was a huge match for Ireland and they WON!! I was so excited I spent most of the 70km drive out to my starting point watching video highlights of the match on my phone.

It was really cold this morning for the first time since the Maritimes and I had to wear gloves and a jumper to stay warm. About 5 metres after Mike and I started running, a van filled with students and teachers from Strathcona Tweedsmuir School pulled up. The five students and two teachers had driven out to run with me. It was great fun having them with me for about 10km this morning and we talked about the run, their school and different running styles. They even gave me one of their running shirts at the end!

Despite the great start I didn’t feel much like running today, but Mike and Russ alternated a large portion of the day with me. I was lacking in motivation and I kept taking breaks and so I finished a little later than we had hoped. We were having a pub night at Dobson’s pub in Calgary and we ended up being late, and not having time for dinner.

The good news though is the food at the pub was incredible and no one seemed to notice our late arrival. There were a number of people there, including Mike’s dad, whom I’ve never met before. It was a great night and we ended up staying later than we probably should.

I didn’t end up getting close enough today to see the mountains but I will see them tomorrow for sure and I make my way into Calgary.

Comments Comments Off on Day 134 September 17, 2011 Bassano to Strathmore 71km
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary

22 Sep

Welcome to CalgaryAs is becoming the norm on rest days we were up early to be on Breakfast Television. While waiting for our turn we met some of the other guests that morning. The first was Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the CFL. He was on to …

Comments Comments Off on Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary

22 Sep

Welcome to CalgaryAs is becoming the norm on rest days we were up early to be on Breakfast Television. While waiting for our turn we met some of the other guests that morning. The first was Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the CFL. He was on to …

Comments Comments Off on Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary

22 Sep

Welcome to CalgaryAs is becoming the norm on rest days we were up early to be on Breakfast Television. While waiting for our turn we met some of the other guests that morning. The first was Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the CFL. He was on to …

Comments Comments Off on Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary
Categories Blog
Author Riley Senft

Day 133 September 16, 2011 Research Day in Calgary

22 Sep

Welcome to Calgary

As is becoming the norm on rest days we were up early to be on Breakfast Television. While waiting for our turn we met some of the other guests that morning. The first was Mark Cohon, the commissioner of the CFL. He was on to talk about inducting people into the hall of fame. The second guest was Gerry Dee, a comedian that Mike instantly recognized. He is apparently the opening act for the hall of fame ceremony for the CFL.

When it was our turn to go on Ted Henley interviewed all three of us. It was fun having Mike and Russ up there with me, especially because we could all see the screen so could see what each other looked like on camera. Mike and Russ look a lot taller than me when we’re sitting down.

From BT we drove over to X92.9 radio and happened to see Gerry Dee being interviewed before us again. Mike made his standard pun of the day about Gerry being a hard act to follow (despite the fact that Russ and I are trying to decrease the number of puns Mike tells in a day). During our interview one of the radio hosts promised his co-host that for his birthday he would get a bunch of their friends to tie a bag over his head, kidnap him, and take him to his GP to get tested!

Immediately following we drove up to Rockyview hospital and met Pamela Heard at the Prostate Cancer Centre. It’s an incredible facility that consolidates all of the essential services for prostate cancer detection and management into one tremendously well built facility. We met with a number of the urologists at the centre and then had a tour of their “Man Van”, the mobile PSA testing unit. This coming Wednesday they are hoping to set a Guinness world record for most PSA tests done in a day.

A large part of the rest of the afternoon was spent doing research for me and other errands for Mike and Russ. I spent time at both Rockyview and Foothills hospitals gathering volunteers for my study while Mike and Russ got a number of things sorted out with the RV.

We all converged together at City Hall at 3pm where, along with the Hills, we met Calgary Mayor Nenshi. We had a quick chat and then Mayor Nenshi said that he had heard that the mayor of Thunder Bay had given me the key to the city and he didn’t want to get shown up. So he White Hatted me, Calgary’s version of the key to the city. He had me hold a white cowboy hat, raise my right hand, and after a quick oath and a loud “YAHOO” I was officially white hatted! Awesome!

Shortly after leaving city hall we met up with an old friend of ours, Amanda Shaw, who lives here in Calgary. We spent an hour catching up and comparing our local Kenyan tribal custom knowledge (she’s pretty much an expert).

We decided to drive back out tonight so that we wouldn’t have such a long drive in the morning. We made it 50km to Strathmore before deciding to spend the night at a gas station.

Tomorrow I might be able to see the mountains.