….. and it was a great running and walking day

Last night we picked up our son from the train station. Well actually, we parked the car and waited for him in a pub near by. Union Station in downtown Toronto is currently undergoing renovation and it’s difficult to find a place to park and pick up people from the train station at the best of times.

Our son, B, has been living and working in the Netherlands for the last 9 months. He had an opportunity to attend a conference of sorts in Montreal for 3 days and he decided to extend his stay for an extra 4 days and come to Toronto to reconnect with family, friends and business associates.

I’ve really missed B and it’s great seeing him again, even if it is only for a short time. While he was sharing his plans for the next year or so I found myself feeling a little melancholy. His plans of course didn’t involve moving back to Canada anytime soon. When the plate of fries arrived at our table I found myself indulging way more than I had planned. Usually I’m satisfied with a taste or two and then I can stop. Last night I probably ate as many fries as my husband and my son. That darn emotional eating…. it got the better of me last night. Those were the first fries I’ve had in over 6 months and they weren’t that good.

Today was a  new day and I was determined to have a better food day. It was also the cross country city finals for all elementary schools in Toronto today. We had 33 students who qualified to go the city finals. It was my job to walk back and forth from the start line to the finish line for each race and take pictures and keep track of where the students finished. I did this for 5 races and walked over 6000 steps (according to my pedometer) before I had to return to school.

The ‘bunny’ that lead the kids through the cross country trail.

The students did really well. One of our grade 2 boys placed first, one grade five boy placed second and two of our grade 3 girls placed 4th and 8th.

Tonight I left work a little bit earlier than I normally do. When I got home my husband wasn’t back from a business meeting north of the city and it was still daylight so I decided to take Frances for a long walk. We started off on our normal route but I added a few extensions along the way. When we were about 3/4 of the way home it started to rain so I ran the last 1k. A year ago this wouldn’t have been possible. Today it felt perfectly normal and it didn’t hurt or leave me breathless.

I checked the distance on the computer when I got home. On top of the 6700 steps I had walked earlier in the day, our walk added another 4k. It felt pretty good even though I did get wet. I made a great salad for dinner and now I feel rejuvenated. So all in all it was a great running day for the kids and a great walking and running day for me. I need to do this more often.

Cheers!