2nd annual Alton Caledon half - report

The 2nd annual is in the books, and not without a few curveballs thrown. A couple days out we were notified (ALL IN CAPS TO REPRESENT SHOUTING!!!) that the 2nd annual was cancelled, due to the untimely illness of the founding father. At this point divine providence stepped in. Gary volunteered to set up the bike zone and map out the run route from his command centre deep in Caledon. Thus, the event went on.





7:00 a.m. Arrive at pool. Meet Gary for the first time.


7:02 a.m. Phone rings. Cliff has just woken up. He'll be skipping the swim and joining us for the bike portion of the event (making history - the first Alton Caledon duathlon).



7:05 a.m. Aaron and Gary hit the pool for an easy warmup and a 40 minute timed swim. Gary passes me several times.





7:50 a.m. Out of the water, heading up the road to the bike command centre.





8:05 a.m. Bike setup in the under renovation, garage-turned-bathroom-and-unidentified-family-type-room in the house





8:15 a.m. Bike portion begins. On tap - 2008 IM Kona, 2007 Muskoka chase, 2005 IM St. Croix.




8:45 a.m. Gary's family - wife and two daughters - vacate the house. I don't blame them. It was pretty loud in there, and the smell was only going to get worse. (Side note: three women in the house explain the need for the renovation and creation of second bathroom as noted above.)

11:30 a.m. Bike portion finishes. On we go to the run.

Allow me to digress here for just one moment to state the obvious. We are in a gear-heavy sport, beyond just shorts, goggles, bikes and bike shoes and shorts (hopefully) and run shoes. This is never made more obvious than when one tries to pack all the required stuff up and move it to another location for a mega-training day, especially if it's done after dark when the family is all sleeping. Three trips to the car, and it was inevitable that something was going to be forgotten. However, when it's -8C with a -18C windchill and that one something is the winter running jacket, that could be a problem. Gary saved the day again. Not only did he come up with a spare jacket, but after the first lap he pulled out scarves, balaclavas, dickies and extra toques. He probably could have come up with a dead Taun-taun to hide in, if asked.

The run course was here. Three laps of a moderately hilly track (I don't think there's a flat one anywhere in Caledon) for a total of just a shade over 19km. The course map doesn't show the wind that blew enough snow over the road in a couple of spots to erase the pavement.

Just after 1:00 p.m. The run portion of the day finishes and we're all happy to get inside. After having promised the kids a toboggan run later in the afternoon I have to leave before the pasta portion of the day's festivities.

Again, big props to Gary for keeping the dream alive and to Cliff for joining in as well. The 2nd annual Oakville Half follows in the spring, date TBD.

One last big cheer for the founding father, still recuperating at home and probably just p##^&* that he had to miss this one.

Peace.