Dad called on the phone last Sunday, realizing he probably should back out of a half marathon he’s registered for at the end of the month in Calgary. That means there is an open spot to run in the race. I’m currently assessing whether or not I can actually do that without embarrassing myself. It looks like, based on today’s run, that I should be in OK shape and will probably give it a try. Managed quite easily 7min50sec miles for an hour. I’d like to try ten miles tomorrow and then make the final call on whether or not I’ll try for the full 21.1km in two weeks.

Finding time to get on the bike outside has been rough. I was forced to skip out on the Triathlon club’s first ride of the year… boohoo. I decided to write the accreditation exam to practice engineering in the United States (at some point in my career way down the road). That meant 10 hours were holed up in an exam room on day. That meant the next day when everyone else was out enjoying the beautiful weather I needed to put together a presentation about my research project for the semester. So as the rays beat down and some people managed their first sunburn of the year on their pasty thighs, I was only absorbing the radiation coming out of the LCDisplay in front of my face.

Cross Country racing starts this Wednesday evening, that’s always a highlight of my September and October so I’m going to give it a try this week. It’s short so I can probably manage OK but I’m sure Pat will once again destroy me. That does mean however that it will probably be a few more days yet until I get outside on that bike.

This morning McKernan Baptist, the church I’ve been attending in Edmonton for the past 4 years has a commissioning for all of the people doing “kingdom related work” this summer. 17 people were sent out from just that community to go make a positive impact on the world for Christ in the next 4 months. God’s abundance seemed to be so evident.

It was a really good experience to be blessed by that congregation before I departed Edmonton, Pst. Sam prayed specifically for guidance in preparation, something that’s been tricky in recent weeks. I am quite aware that I’m leaving Edmonton soon, have I really asked all of the people for support that I should have asked before I split from town?

We also prayed that God would pour into us an extra measure of courage and clarity with regards to opportunities to share the gospel. That’s also something that’s been going through lots of cyclists heads in recent weeks. There has been a discussion going on with regards to why in the world we’re going on a bike ride along with this fundraising. The ultra-brief answer in my mind boils down to being a witness to our world. If through cycling there are opportunities to communicate the importance of caring for the poor then by all means it’s not a pointless endevour. Does that make it a worthwhile endevour? Well I guess I’d like to chalk up some quantifiable level of awareness at which I think this becomes worthwhile. If I can communicate well to one completely different person each day the reasoning behind my biking then I by all means am on the right track. Is one person enough? I think that if I start down that road I’m going on a bit of an adventure in completely missing the point, but here’s what I do know. It requires a good dose of courage and a clear mind to be making that conscious effort from day to day.

Video Log #4

The inaugural outdoor ride with Triathlon club was scheduled to occur today. I was going to bring the summer bike out onto the road for the first time this year and the plan was to do a bakery run south of Edmonton towards Calmar. It’s around a 100 km round trip and I was excited, some of the other guys and girls from triathlon club were also rather excited. When it started to snow last night and the forecast started to shift from +7^oC to -2^oC for the daytime high the plans got postponed till sunday. When we woke up to 10 cm of snow they basically got canceled. This isn’t the way to get outside onto the road, boo!

I just got my hands on photos from the reading week ski trips.

Day 1

Departed Banff rather late in the morning after Neil and I patiently obeyed the timeline of all the females [see first picture] and eventually headed out to RedEarth creek. It’s a rather uphill route which meant that we made our way slowly up to the top (we turned around at the ranger station) and then absolutely flew on the way down. I managed to make it down the hill without much snowplowing at all but the kamikazee attitude to descending that trail wasn’t quite universal. I took my 85 liter pack along and filled it right up and it turned out to be heavier than the overnight the next day; that extra weight combined with the fact that I was the only person not on waxless skis meant that I didn’t have a lot of competition in the downhill race!

Day 2-3

Neil Vicki and I escaped Calgary and made our way out to Spray Lakes and then exited civilization overnight to spend the evening of the lunar eclipse out under the stars. The weather certainly held out as we had blue skies both days. Excess would be the way to describe the 24 hours that ensued as we proceeded to gorge ourselves on ridiculous amounts of food and return having only been able to eat half. There aren’t really any stories in particular that are worthy of sharing but one bit that sticks out in my mind is being perched waiting on the side of the trail having come flying down one stretch completely out of control. I ended up getting about 10 minutes ahead somehow because when I eventually started to be able to hear Neil coming I then got to listen to him sing Simon and Garfunkle tunes for the next 5 minutes as he approached through the forest.

This is really only a small selection of the photos, follow this link to see all the photos I have from these 3 days.