I return from Canadia unscathed.

So I have returned from Toronto still in possession of my passport, MP3 player, camera, and credit cards (unlike last time). I consider it a success.

Oh yeah. And I ran a half marathon. Lisa, my running sidekick for this endeavour, has already given her recap on her blog. There, I just saved her the hassle of cross-posting here, unless she wants to.

Note to others: the Toronto Half Marathon course rocks the ass off the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon course. The course was nice, the weather pretty, nice Ottawans saved the day... Too bad my hamstring hurt most of the way and my back was all spasming up on me in the last two miles. But I pressed on and finished without walking, coming in at 2:15 (10:21 pace), so a 4 minute PR, w00t! At least I am not setting the bar too high to PR on my next half.

With the silver cape, tights, and all the silver on my Nikes (which you can't see here), I felt mildly superheroish. Even though I was massively shaking as I tried to stand on one leg for this photo and my foot is like 2 inches off the ground.

The weekend was topped off be being upgraded to first class for my entire trip back to Iowa. After going to Africa on Northwest/KLM, I got a shitload of miles and I got bumped into Silver Elite status so these upgrades happen every so often, but usually on 6 am flights where I just fall asleep before the flight attendant can even give me orange juice.

But this time, it was evening so I was free to partake in the free booze without feeling like a lush. Except that the stewardess (are they stewards if they are male?) just kept fillin' that wine glass. I think he was trying to get me drunk. Anyways, I figured I had two hours in Minneapolis and then the next flight to let it wear off before I got to Des Moines (which the freakin' lady in Minneapolis kept pronouncing "Des Moin-es" - those "s"s are silent people!).

I was one pathetic cookie at the Minneapolis airport. I believe I tried to call Kori to ask her if she was still running Chicago this weekend, and I think I spoke to her husband, but I actually fell off the chair at the airport while on the phone - it's all a blur. See! People like me have "classy" as their middle name. That's why I belong in first class.

Oh yeah, Teresa accompanied me on this little trip. She was supposed to run the half as well, but pulled her hip flexor and can't run at all. This fact was established early on as we sprinted to the airport because we checked in 25 minutes before our flight left. To all the people who let us cut them in line, there is good airport karma coming your way!

Anyways, she walked the 5k in jeans and mocassins from Target, then she and Mark cheered Lisa and I on at about the 12 mile marker. Then they did fun exciting Toronto things while Lisa and I crashed.

I found out today that Kori is not running Chicago, so I am no longer bound to my promise of running the second half with her, so the healing of the hamstring can begin. Some other day, I will ramble about what plans await, including something so scary to me that I hope it will scare me into training. Maybe I will save that for a Halloween post :-)