National Capital Race Weekend

So, one of Gilles' favourite weekends was finally here, and for the first time in two years, he was ready to race! We've run in the races for the past four years together, but the past two were fairly tame as Gilles was injured, I was pregnant, and then in last years, we were pushing a stroller through the crowds. Our friends Andrew and Lena came up with their baby, Steve, and my parents also arrived on the last part of their Ontario tour. We had a full house, a dog and a baby and we were ready to rock. So was my Mom based on the fact that she had inadvertently scheduled their trip to coincide with the biggest and best annual garage sale in the Glebe.

The weekend was great. Weather, stellar! We shopped all morning on Saturday and all managed to find some good deals; the Glebe is a rather large area in Ottawa and everyone participates in this sale, so it's of a magnitude that's hard to imagine until you see it. Mom would still be walking around right now if we had let her take off as I know she wanted to! We all made out with some good buys and capped it off with some Starbuck's breakfast sandwiches, frosty beverages and the purchase of a new trike for Isabelle. It's the first one that we've found that has everything we wanted and thankfully, Isabelle deemed it road worthy and was happy to ride it all the way from Bank Street down the canal home. Unbelievable since it took about 35-40 minutes and I don't think she's ever sat still that long!

Mommy and Belle - Ready to Rock!



Later that afternoon, we took off for the race start and Isabelle enjoyed the kids zone. I ran the 5km race and both Gilles and Andrew did the 10km. This was the first time I had run in a year since the last race with Isabelle in the stroller. I work out, but I was worried about how the run was going to go - cardio at the gym is not the same as a race with 8000 other people! Meg and I talked via e-mail the week before and she told me I could always feign injury should I be a complete disgrace! Turns out I didn't need to. About a kilometre and a half into the race, a young 12-14 year old completely cut me off and I flew over his feet and into the curb. Tore both knees out of my running tights and bruised my ribs. I finished the race anyway. 7th woman in out of 400 in my age category. Mom, Dad, Lena and Isabelle and I took off so that we could watch the boys race across the bottom of our street, and the over the Bronson bridge. It was amazing - and it was really special to have some of our closest friends and Mom and Dad share in it. We cheered the boys on and they raced their hearts out. Gilles made it in right around his target time, and another one of us hit the medical tent! Lena got a call on her BB from a weird number while we waited for them to come home, and when she called it back, it turned out it was the medical staff calling to tell her that Andrew had "hit the wall", so to speak and was going to be all right, just a bit longer than we thought. A big celebration dinner ensued with lots of pizza for everyone. It was great!

Auntie Lena takes Isabelle to swim class....



Sunday was a little calmer! We watched the Marathoner's and cheered them on, went to Isabelle's swimming class (she definitely had a big fan base on the sides) and then went to brunch. When we got home, we blew up Isabelle's new "obstacle bouncy course" and Renee and Shawn brought over Logan to have some fun. Pretty soon there were neighbourhood kids coming to check it out and the party was on again. All in all, a really low key weekend for everyone!

Isabelle's Mom has seriously underestimated the size of her new toy!



Isabelle spies the new toy :)














C'mon in and play guys!















Mom and Dad left, but we let them go without any emotional break downs because in just a few days, Isabelle and I were going to follow them to Halifax to celebrate Meg's birthday!

Bedtime reading with Gran.......