Cornfields, wide open prairies & the CFL Rough Riders. Friday nite travel to Regina – Saskatchewan’s provincial capital. Geographically above North Dakota; skies that stretch forever. Great Plains SMILE 🙂
Nothing direct to Regina. Nada. Calgary on the way out, Vancouver on my return. Little dot on the prairie. Clean, tidy landscape. Neat yards, one large university, provincial dome mile from my hotel digs. Expo Saturday at the Conexus Arts Centre, early sleeps, chilly 39 degrees marathon morn. YES!
Redemption search. Huge mental fail last Saturday in Ohio. Air thick/humid/oven hot & an evening race (excuses come easy) – it’s the mental collapse, that’s always hardest to bounce back/recover from.
Hitched a ride with another runner to Sunday’s Start. Our far North cousins – super friendly. Lake along Lakeshore Drive completely masked in fog. [Wascana Lake] Near perfect run conditions.
Queued back-of-the-pack. Cap off, soaked up the country’s anthem. Almost 8000 of us. Held back first mile, steady even pace. 10K thick with Halfers. No tunes/earbuds quiet ‘til after the split. Easy, flat, forgiving course. Just enjoying the day. Museum, capitol dome. Lotta bike path, lotta parks.
Shed a layer, carried my gloves. Douglas Park, Rambler Park, Wilson Park.
Folks should give ‘the Queen City’ a little more love (Pile-of-Bones renamed in 1897, after Queen Victoria). Beautiful day, happy town. And my finish? Back on track. Completion 161, Canada medal #8.
Newfoundland to BC, Toronto to the Yukon. 2020: every Province, every Territory 🍁
Montréal in 2 short weeks. Parlez-vous français, eh?
GMS Queen City Marathon
2019-09-08 • GMS 42.2K Run
BIB 101 K R Haga 04:34:31.0
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- crop circles & prairie
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- Expo Saturday
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- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
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- lotta bike path, lotta parks
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- layered up & ready
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- O’ Canada ♫ ♬ ♭
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- SASKATCHEWAN
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- Canada #8 🍁
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- weird yet satisfying 🍕
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- every Province, every Territory
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- Colorado HOME ❤️
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- Sunday, September 8
Queen City Marathon, SK
Last sleeps at the Hotel Borg. Last morn of sweet pastries & Skyr.
Bags packed, clothes readied – it’s marathon day. Time flies when you’re hiking volcanos, mineral springs soaking, riding Icelandic ponies. Lamb dinner. B-I-G life 🙂
City Hall welcomed. Passed my bags to Michaela. Thousands of upbeat accents, stretching, ready to run Iceland’s capital city. Paparazzi camera blitz – M snapped lotta quality shots. Very much appreciated! Generally, I solo-travel with an iPhone lens. Thanks kiddo.
Runners queued, bunched closely together. Walked over the start line (literally). Soon after, a jog. More space/less congestion, on-pace a half-mile in. Cool temps, sunshiny skies. Beautiful North Atlantic day. City sights with the Halfers. Perfect run weather.
Easy flat course; windy ocean breeze. Race second-half: bike path, city park, suburbia roads. Downtown looped last 10k. Mile 20 burst of MUSIC, renewed energy/spirit. Two quick miles, then steady to the end. Push, PUSH, PUSH (I’ve got a plane a catch – HA!).
Moscow, Dublin, Milan, Reykjavík. sub-4:30 time, my 4th European FINISH. Not bad for a kid from the sticks.
Shower, bus transfer, clock-race to the airport. Life of a weekend marathoner. So many spots on the Globe – but I’ll be back.
Goodbye M. Miss your smile, your love of LIFE. See ya December, Christmas in Connecticut – no scary YULE CAT, please ❤️
Reykjavíkur Maraþon Íslandsbanka 2019
1430 Keenan Haga USA
00:27:48 (5 km) 00:55:09 (10 km) 01:31:55 (16,4 km) 02:02:50 (21,1 km)
02:58:46 (29,4 km) 04:00:27 (38 km) 04:29:02 +01:41:46 04:27:56
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- Hotel Borg ✔️
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- Iceland’s finest
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- queued & READY
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- Start Line walk (literally)
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- 4th European FINISH
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- Ísland Maraþon 🇮🇸
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- North Atlantic goodbye
Reykjavík Marathon
Day 3. Íslenski Hesturinn, the Icelandic horse.
Met M & Eli downtown (Bus Stop #3, across from City Hall). Destination: Hestar Stables. Shorter & stockier than their American cousins. Genetic relative to the Mongolian ‘Genghis Khan’ breed. Long way Mongolia to Iceland – how did that happen?
Jacket, pants, boots. Safety video & a helmet. Go, go, go! Probably not the best pre-race activity (saddle sore) but 100% wanted a try after Ash & Tom’s 2017 vacation pics. Beautiful day. Dug the lava-scape, view of Mount Hekla. And lucky for us – no RAIN!
Bib pickup at Laugardalshöll Sports Hall. Lamb dinner & Christmas shopping.
Learned of the 13 Lads who help Icelandic Santa & YULE CAT (Jólakötturinn), an evil Christmas MONSTER cat who eats kids that don’t get new clothes. Think I’ll stick with ‘cookies-n-milk’ American Santa & his high-flying reindeer. Yikes! 😲
Run day tomorrow: Reykjavíkur Maraþon 2019
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- Hestar Stables
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- pony PAIRING
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- ready, set, RIDE
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- Mt Hekla lava-scape
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- an Iceland MUST 🇮🇸
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- vacation WOW pic ❤️
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- Laugardalshöll Sports Hall
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- marathon bib pickup
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- pre-race DINNER
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- local LAMB & seafood 🍴
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- Christmas shopping
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- holiday Yule Cat? 😺
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- eats kids, yikes!
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- Icelandic Santa 🎅
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- Christmas gift or potato?
Íslenski Hesturinn
Icelandic Christmas folklore depicts mountain-dwelling characters and monsters who come to town during Christmas. The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behaviour. The folklore includes both mischievous pranksters who leave gifts during the night and monsters who eat disobedient children.
The figures are depicted as living together as a family in a cave and include:
Gryla and Leppaludi – Gryla is a giantess with an appetite for the flesh of mischievous children, who she cooks in a large pot. Her husband, Leppaludi, is lazy and mostly stays at home in their cave.
The Yule Cat is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time (Yule) and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.
The Yule Lads are the sons of Gryla and Leppaludi. They are a group of 13 mischievous pranksters who steal from or harass the population and all have descriptive names that convey their favorite way of harassing. They come to town one by one during the last 13 nights before Christmas (Yule). They leave small gifts in shoes that children have placed on window sills, but if the child has been disobedient, they instead leave a potato in the shoe.
