Vancouver Historic Half (or 10km in my case) ...

It's been pretty tough finding the motivation to run outside lately given the chilly temperatures.  So, I thought that signing myself up for a race might provide the motivation I needed to get running.  I chose a 'destination' race in Vancouver since C and I were planning to be there for a weekend in November anyway.  I'd always wanted to run around Vancouver's beautiful sea wall and the Vancouver Historic Half (10km for me) provided just the opportunity.  Did it provide the motivation I needed?  Well, not really because I went for very few outdoor (and indoor come to think of it) runs in the weeks leading up to the race.  I flew to Vancouver knowing that I'd be (over) relying on the fact that I'd be running at sea level (as opposed to 1500m above sea level in Calgary) and hoping that I'd feel an extra spring in my step.  This was negated when we went out for dinner the night before with an old Tassie friend from my pony club days and had a couple of glasses of wine.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the 10km saunter around Vancouver's famous seawall, running the race in a fairly respectable time and enjoying the scenery and the fresh sea air ...

On my way to the start line

Near the start line

The start/finish at the beautiful Stanley Park Pavilion (I warmed up inside next to the open fire!)

The start

Looking towards downtown Vancouver

Along the sea wall

Snowy mountains (and a sulphur plant)

Heading back towards downtown

Old pony club friend, J, who also did the race

Leonard Cohen ...

One of the highlights of our month of music madness in November was getting to see two old Canadian rockers in the one week.  On the Monday night, we saw Neil Young perform with his band Crazy Horse and on the Friday night, we had third row seats at the Leonard Cohen concert (our seats were even in front of the mayor's seats!)  I was looking forward to the Neil Young concert because I love his folky music but alas, Crazy Horse are his rock band and song after song of screaming feedback was not what I needed nor wanted on a Monday evening.  C enjoyed the concert immensely though.  But Leonard, wow.  I've never seen such a polite, respectful musician on stage.  He was simply gorgeous to watch, the way he interacted with his band members and the beautiful back-up singers.  Rather than continue to describe the concert, which was absolutely mesmorising, I'll simply let you see for youself ...

 

I'm back ...

Wow, it sure has been a while.  The last month has been absolutely crazy.  Between hectic work weeks, super busy social weekends and the cold darkness of winter, I haven't had a moment to write.  Work has been busy with getting ready for and then running Student Led Conferences as well as putting out parental 'What do you mean you don't have report cards?' fires and I've been doing some tutoring on top of that to earn some extra cash.  Outside of work, C and I have been busy with music concerts and Christmas celebrations as well as a wonderful weekend in Vancouver.  When I haven't been busy working and socialising, I've been trying to sneak in gym sessions, start yoga again, do some reading (I'm struggling through the final Hunger Games at the moment ... Suzanne Collins should have stopped at one book, in my opinion) and becoming absolutely addicted to Downton Abbey.  So, while it's been some time, the blogging urge has returned and I look forward to filling you in on the last month of hard work and fun.