This was the most fun I've ever had at a race, and I've run Disney (including the Goofy Challenge)
Part of the reason (I think) is that the road trip there and back was a crazy few hours of trying and failing to purchase a Steak and Cheese Panini from Tim Hortons while singing along with every song on the radio, regardless of whether we knew the words or not. 
I've had the Army Run on my bucket list for years. Each September I'd think about doing it, each September it would sell out, the drive to Ottawa was too far, stuff would get in the way.
Finally the conditions were (almost) right. We managed to register in time, Em had a son with a place in Kanata and room for us, I was off that weekend, we'd actually sort of not really trained. I've never been to Ottawa when it wasn't snowing, so I was looking forward to it not being grey and blecky. For the record, these are 'official' race photos of the city, it WAS grey and blecky...rained for two days off and on.
The rain, however, was NOT going to stop me from attending the exhibit of awesome military gear (and soldiers) that was arrayed at the expo. It was only a matter of time before I found a flak jacket, helmet, belt, jeep and group of men who'd let me scramble up on top (of the vehicle) for a photo. There were tanks, trucks, netting and weaponry and wonderful members of the Canadian Military who were happy to answer questions and pose for photos.
We managed to break for lunch, walking a million miles through the rain (okay, just felt like it) to this adorable restaurant called the Scone Witch. I still drool when I remember the scones...darn glad I bought some jam to take home with me.
The awesome people at Sparkle Skirts made us amazing Go Canada skirts which we rocked with pride during the race along with our Robena yarms. Hats, bibs, shoes, skirts. Off to sleep to prep for a day of fun in the Nation's capital.
I was amused as heck that we ran into Hull Quebec and I was pretty sure I could become bilingual before we got there. Lori seemed convinced that her background in University in Montreal wasn't going to help (and it was pretty amazing how many words she DIDN'T know). SO I enlisted the help of the wonderful Francophone runners and learned useful phrases like:
"Mes mamelons sont si froids qu'ils pouvaient couper le verre"Of course, yelling that loudly on a peaceful Sunday street in Hull shows you exactly how many of your fellow runners speak French ;-). In my defence it was REALLY cold out and I needed a distraction (and apparently my accent is better than I thought it was).
This is us managing to escape from Hull without being arrested or fined for yelling indecent things in French.
I may have mentioned we found lots of reasons to stop for photos, with the volunteers at the water stations (the awesome firefighters and mototcyclists),
sometimes we just switched it up each time we saw an official photgrapher:
The best part (and it's amazing when you consider how much fun this was) is that I got to see my friend Kaylee cross the finish line at her first half marathon. At just 13 she's twice the runner I'll ever be, and I think she's so cool (and fast) and it's been so awesome training with her. That's her in the middle in the blue skirt. (Oh, and check THIS, the photo above was featured in Women's Running Tutu's Rock online gallery)
After we finished the race, collected our (super freaking mega awesome) dog tag medals, and celebrated by jumping around a little bit more, we posed for a few more photos, because everone in matching outfits should pose together as much as possible.
As we were making our escape we discoverd one more place to pose, the back of the truck used to move the military vehicles from the expo area. Yep, up we went. Funny how my leg doesn't go up nearly as far today as it did yesterday BEFORE I ran 21.1k.
I wish we'd stayed longer, there's so much of Ottawa I'd love to see on the inside, and since we didnt get arrested, I bet they'd even have us back.
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