Late Friday nite flight. Midnite. Not always possible to office-scoot early Fridays 🙃 First red-eye cross-country trek in THREE years. Notta HUGE fan of overnight travel & sleep deprivation but mighty good to have options. Touchdown 9:30 Saturday morning: Welcome to Maine.
Toughest part? Staying awake during the 3-hour layover in Newark. Overslept a flight ONCE – my first marathon return from Alaska, 2013. Still remember the panic of waking in Anchorage, at my gate/all alone ‘xcept for the humming of vacuums tidying terminal carpets overnight. Yikes!
This trip, slept every opportunity/every flight. Whole lotta sightseeing planned, sunshiny New England day. AND FOOD of course. LOVER of all sea creatures. Lobstah, get in my belly! 🦞
Early hotel check-in, quick shower refresh, change of clothes, diner breakfast – Dutch’s.
Lotta diet change since Sunday’s gut wrenching DNS in Cheyenne. Consistent pill popping, abdominal pain down, mind again engaged. Not running this past week – that’s a fail – but food planning, big SUCCESS! No bread, no dairy, no sweets/sugar, minimal fat, no alcohol. SUPER restrictive me thinks; however month of October, all in. Doc went to med school, not me – gonna give it a try.
Eggs, lean protein on the good list. Diner fed. Ready, ready to roll.
Scenic walk downtown, Portland Harbour slow stroll. Did not disappoint. Race expo at Southern ME University. Bib pick-up, 50 Stater reunion site. Next up? Cape Elizabeth.
Think of Maine, ya think of lighthouses & rocky beaches. Short 20 minute drive, Portland Head Light on Cape Elizabeth. Gotta/hafta/must go. Day’s WOW spot – Maine expectation met. Bonus points? Dropped to shorts & partner-in-crime’d a scenic/HILLY 4-miler. Training miles for Stephen (half-marathon planned in Nashville), whoopie pie reward.
Hotel dash, ‘nother shower, dinner reservations at Grace. Former church. Stained glass, church organ, vaulted ceiling. STUNNING. What’s on the tonite’s menu? Roasted clams & Frogmore stew. Not exactly starving on October’s restrictive diet 😊
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- Monument Square
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- diner Breakfast
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- Portland Harbour
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- day’s WOW shot
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- Portland Head Light
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- scenic 4-mile training run
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- Cape Whoopies reward
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- clams & Frogmore Stew
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- stained glass, church organ, vaulted ceiling – STUNNING dining experience!
Step aboard… experience the WONDER. Witness the world’s largest concentration of humpback whales, as we cruise along our beautiful coastlines. Steam through the passageway of 12,000 year-old icebergs as they arrive after breaking off from the Greenland ice shelf and slowly melt into our frigid waters.
Book a tour on IcebergQuest.com, kinda think you’re gonna see – well, icebergs. Oops, wrong season. No icebergs, no puffins, no whales. No discount either. BUT still the BEST way to see St John’s, Newfy’s harbor-nestled capital on the North Atlantic.
Downtown walk, easy to locate: Water St to Pier 6 (street parallel to restaurant-littered George). Knowledgeable upbeat crew – ALL with the Newfoundland accent. LOVED it! Sailed thru the Narrows into the cold expansive Ocean. Can’t imagine how our Pilgrim ancestors stomached the voyage OR had the courage. Blank landscape/nothing but grey rocking waves. Looked back on the North American continent: Greenland north, Ireland due east. Cool/constant breeze kept me easy, stomach steady. 2 other tourists not as fortunate. Crew comforted with trash bags, exchanged ‘em often. Uck.
Cape Spear, Signal Hill, Cabot Tower, Fort Amherst. Capt’n spouted lotta Newfy facts, furthering my O’ Canada knowledgeable. Tuned in bit more than normal, dug his pseudo-Irish brogue. ‘Round the active lighthouse on Cape Spear, then circled back to town.
Marathon tomorrow but not before dinner. Ya’ll know I’m a foodie 😊 Seafood’s what’s cookin’ in St John’s. Tops here? Mussels & cod. Heard it, lived it: LOUD & CLEAR. Cod chowder starter. Cod tongues app. Steamed mussels dinner. GREAT local eats.
Transportation fail. Bowring Park, Monday’s Huffin’ Puffin start: FIVE miles away. Taxi to the airport, last-minute car rental. These boots are tired of walking ♫ ♬ ♭ ♮ Whew!
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- downtown St John’s
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- National War Memorial (WWI)
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- Jellybean Row
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- city tour on the North Atlantic
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- the Narrows
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- Signal Hill Historic Site
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- Fort Amherst
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- Bald Eagle
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- Cape Spear
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- North America’s easternmost point
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- GREAT local eats!
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- far far from Colorado
Newfoundland Island
I love a local marathon – today’s run, a local marathon.
Left Shelburne, arrived in Barrington Passage 10 minutes before race time. Timing a bit tight…but with less than 200 runners, no worries. Start: quarter-past 8, sun waking, rising UP above the ocean.
Cool breeze as we left town/passed Tim Horton’s & crossed the causeway to Cape Sable Island. Clouds deflected [sun] rays ‘til the Half Marathon turnout. Ran miles with a couple from Lunenberg NS. We talked ships & tourism, my 100 marathon goal & ‘bout the other American they met at the Start [fellow Maniac Dan Ruiz – hung around & congratulated his Finish; good guy/another 50 Stater].
Halfers peeled off near mile 12-ish (course marked only in kilometers). Sun beamed, temps warmed, luckily ocean winds gusted (keeping it cool) as we neared The Hawk (Nova Scotia’s southernmost point). Traded places back-n-forth with a foreign runner entering Clark’s Harbour (mile 18-ish). Friendly guy, tried communicating/offered his grapefruit…but I struggled to understand, so nodded & smiled politely. [Talked later. Syrian refugee, living local, running his first marathon.]
Barrington Passage, Clark’s Harbour, Cape Sable Island – small sparse populations. today’s Aid Stations? ALL manned (or wo-mann’d) with friendly upbeat individuals. THAT’s why I love a local marathon. LOVE the support they give to runners & the impression they leave of their community.
Water, energy drinks, gels, buckets of wet sponges. Used those sponges from mile 19 on. Emptied one overhead, wrung another ’round my neck. Next aid station: wash/wet & reapply. Plan worked 8 days ago in balmy Iowa. 10 degrees cooler in O’ Canada: felt even better.
All ’bout adjusting summer-month expectations. Not a sub-4 but finished & finished with a smile 🙂
4th province completed, second marathon of the month. Free showers provided at the Rec AND a hot bowl of lobster chowder – FAAANNNNTASTIC! LOVE LOVE local marathons. Barrington IS the ‘Lobster Capital of Canada’.
2 hours to Halifax, return flight home – but not ‘til Monday. Stephen & Sheila in one car/headed back to the States, sleeps in Fredericton NB. I with Lynne & family, destination: Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia’s iconic lighthouse. Best hosts ever, right?
Originally built in 1868, Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse is Nova Scotia’s busiest tourist attraction, an iconic Canadian image. Towering white with red trim, [the lighthouse] stands STRONG/majestic over the inlet’s craggy rock shoreline. Breathtaking. Just WOW!
To the Cavanaughs, Gillis’ & Schofields – I am indebted. Two weeks of vacation squeezed into a 4-day weekend. What an adventure!
Thanks from the bottom of my American heart ❤
47th Annual Nova Scotia Marathon Half Marathon and 10 Km – Results
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Barrington Passage, NS
42.2K
Place Bib Athlete From Gun Time
42 104 K R Haga Louisville, CO, US 4:26:05
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- Cape Sable Island out-n-back
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- Start Line anticipation
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- lanyard in Nova Scotian tartan
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- marathon KING
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- Nova Scotia’s busiest tourist attraction
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- breathtaking, just WOW!
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- Fishermen’s Monument
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- squeezed two weeks vacation into a 4-day weekend — what an adventure!
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- I ❤ Canada
Nova Scotia Marathon
