Archive - 2009

Hey gang. Thanks for tuning in. I'm going to write a quick blog post about the race that I just finished a couple hours ago. Normally, I'd drag my heels a bit, but given that I'm heading out of town soon, it's probably better that I just get this done right away, don't you think? Plus, it'll be a little shorter than my normal race stories :-) Of course, I'm talking about that venerable racing tradition, the Mad Trapper Snowshoe race series opener! Today was set to be the 'flatter' course; a test of strength over a course of 9.2km (two loops of 4.6km). Of course, 'flatter' by no means implies 'flat', it was a lot of slogging up and down minor hills. For the full quick dump, read on. You might also want to check out a few videos [update: There is now a huge gallery of shots from the race from the photographer up] from the day capture via Andrew Cameron's helmet cam. Pretty cool footage I must say!

Happy Holidays loyal readers! I know it's been a few weeks since an update from me, but I assure you, you haven't missed all that much from ActiveSteve. In all honesty, I've been sort of lying low, getting myself in the groove for the holidays. Of course, with the arrival of my new nephew, Jody and I have been spending a little extra time over at the Hill-Meyer Homestead. Also, there has obviously been a lot of preparations underway for the upcoming trip to Africa. Can you believe that we're heading out in less than a week!? Me neither. Which is why my spare time has been spend doing Christmas shopping, trip planning, working out, and getting my gear sorted out. Jody has been up to much the same. As part of those preparations, we've also managed to squeeze in a few extra hikes up in Gatineau Park. If you'd like to see some pics from those adventures, just mosey on over to flickr for a folder of pictures. Then, I can tell you just a little bit more about the preparations if you'd like.

Good day friends near and far. Although I've been waiting about a week to actually write up this post, I can assure you that the excitement has not died down one bit yet. On November 11th, 2009, at 11:31pm, the world welcomed Julien David Hill Meyer. And what a dramatic entrance this little fella made. Try these numbers on for size. First major contraction was at 10:20pm. Several more followed at 10:30, 10:38, and 10:42. At 11:15, it was decided they should head to the hospital. At 11:20, they were let into a room, and 11 short, amazing minutes later, out popped (quite literally I'd guess) Julien! How crazy is that? Read on for a few more thoughts on this special day. Unfortunately, at this point, I don't have too many pictures to share with you all, but I'm sure that will change over the coming months.

Howdy all. Just a quick little blog post to let you know what I got up to on my day off for Remembrance Day. Yup, I’m one of those lucky federal employees that gets to take the day off. Now, I realize that the main reason anyone would have the day off is to take the time to think about the sacrifices that the men and women of the armed forces have made to ensure I can continue to enjoy my freedoms. Well, rest assured, I did honour them in my way, and in fact had several moments of silence at 11am. However, I did also get to enjoy a beautiful summer-like day and spend over 4 hours biking in Gatineau park. This post will be short and sweet, just wanted to fill you in on the day. Read on.

Wow! I can't believe I'm finally writing this blog post. In truth, this one has been quite a while in the making. In fact, I'd say that it's been in the works since I first started running many years back. So what am I talking about here? How about a Boston-qualifying marathon time of 3 hours and 10 minutes? Although this post is mainly about my race, don't think for a moment that a marathon is limited to the 42.2km that you need to run. In truth, a marathon is a journey that starts long before the starting pistol is fired, and requires sacrifice, perseverance, and dedication. In the spirit of that, I'm going to have to ask your indulgence in my post as I'll probably wax a little poetic at times about how I got to this point. As my title implies, I had to complete this journey over the weekend on my own. That unfortunately meant that my usual race photographer wasn't with me :-) However, I did manage to take a few pictures on my own, but nothing from the race. I also had my GPS with me, so I put together a nice little map of the day that you can check out. Afterwards, wander on back and read the rest of my story.

Hey kids! Got another little race to write about for you all. On October 17th I got to take part in the 5 Peaks Trail Race taking place at the Ark, Mike Caldwell's property near Low, Quebec. I'm most used to racing on snowshoes out here, but any time of the year, this is a great place to get some of the lead out by pushing myself to the limits. This was my second trail race with 5 Peaks during this summer season, and I had my eyes on possibly trying for a podium finish. But then again, what else is new? If you're not shooting for podium, you're not really racing are you? Ha ha. Short of giving it all away, I'll let you know I finished just off the podium. Unfortunately, the other unfortunate part of this race is that I have no pictures from the event, or even a custom map to share. So all you have to do is read the next few paragraphs to get a sense of the event.

Good afternoon to you all! ActiveSteve here, writing a couple overdue blog posts. I don't know what it is lately, but I've sort of started to lose interest in writing lengthy posts about my every action. Maybe it's the evolution of networking, but I seem to be using my tweets as my updates more and more. Short and sweet, but it doesn't give you all the details, does it? So, in the spirit of playing a little catch up, I'll fill you all in on Thanksgiving Weekend. There were a few different activities in the works, including the wedding of Chris Foo and Agnes Kelly. The wedding and reception(s) kept us busy on both Saturday and Sunday. Then, on the vacation Monday, we had some quality family time by heading to my sister's place for Thanksgiving dinner. You can check out pictures from the wedding, as well as some from the Thanksgiving feast :-) After that, come on back and read a bit about the weekend.

Hey folks, just a quick little post to talk about a little fun that I had last weekend, as a break from training and work. Although I did end up working both Saturday and Sunday for a little bit, I did avoid doing too much and losing my brain. Good thing too, since I had a long training run in the works, as well as a trip to an Oktoberfest in Van Kleek Hill, and a bachelor party back in Ottawa later Saturday evening! See, I don't just do boring things all the time like train and race. I still know how to party. However, I sort of regretted it the next morning, and think I should probably lay off the drinks till after my marathon at the end of the month. Seems like the prudent thing to do. For a collection of the pictures from the Oktoberfest event, click on over to the folder on flickr.