Found a new route, lost my voice

Part of the fun of training for a marathon is that you have to run far. Like silly far. Like 30k some days far. That means that unless you have the ability to forget stuff right after you've seen it, running the same routes for miles and miles gets darn dull darn fast.

Granted we've gone off the beaten path and found everything from deer to train stations to places called the Hermitage...whatever that is...

Since we have to run back-to-back runs on the weekends, it's become a challenge to find places we've never seen and head out to cover the KMs with the distraction of new surroundings. Some places were winners, like the Dofasco Trail. Other routes like the daunting Bruce Trail will not soon be repeated.

This Saturday we filpped the runs, and did 28k Sat (14k Sun). Em chose the route, Niagara on the Lake, a lovely hamlet south of Hamilton. Did it take us 40min to drive somewhere to run 28k, yes. Was it 5:50 when Em pulled into my driveway and yanked me from my warm house? Yep.

The run was quite lovely, along the Niagara River from Fort George (whoever HE is) to the Isaac Brock Monument in Queenston. Luckily we have a rule that you can take a walk break if we have to stop and read historical markers....like the Dead House (cheerful).

We got to the Monument, and realized the darn thing was up like 300 rickety wooden stairs. Undaunted (and needing to pee), we climbed to the top.

For reasons known only to the locals, there was THIS sign in the women's washroom:

Had not occurred to me to partially disrobe after 14k and wash my feet until they told me I couldn't.

We took a couple more lovely photos of the view from the top and the monument, but I was wishing I had Google with me so I could research the good General.

By the time we got back to NOTL, I'd lost my voice and Lori had done some kind of horrid damage to her knee, which kept her in Emerg 'till 5am and off the road Sunday. We did, however, manage lunch and a trip through the Christmas Store. I'd run there again, just not on a wickedly windy November morning. The only bright side was my shift at Copps was cancelled for Saturday and my boss let me have Sunday night off because I still can't talk. My husband loves the silence....