On Top of the World!

So I'm finally taking some time to blog about my fabulous weekend in Banff at the end of September. Spencer and I rolled our Anniversary celebrations and the Mellissa's Road Race into one weekend. I would like to thank my sponsor who made this trip possible....First my mom and dad, who came up to watch and chauffer my kids around thanks, Spencer for doing the race last year, and I had to watch the kids and all the other racers; I vowed that next year we would run it together and we did, lastly my sister joining us in our race adventure and helping to secure a great hotel for us.

The highlights of the trip include:

• Sight seeing:
  
  
  

  We rode the gondola up Sulphur Mountain and we're literally "on top of the world" or our portion of it.

Here is the resturant/gift shop/gondola at the top of the mountain. It is always breathtaking and humbling to be so high on a mountain and to view the beauty that surrounds us.

We did the jaunt up and around Bow Falls. It was a beautiful fall day. We bought toques to wear, since we both had colds and wore our warmer jackets and a light pair of mittens.


Our final touristy thing that we did was go on a boat cruise on Lake Minnewanka. It was very interesting and nice to be out and enjoying ourselves. It was once 3 separate lakes and has had 2 hydro dams built on it. When they decided to dam it up they flooded the area with 30 meters of water, resulting in the one lake and also burying the hydro dam and a small town that was built around the dam. Our guide said that there are a lot of scuba divers that dive there to see all of these things that are under the water.

• Running the Mellissa's Road Race:
  
  

Here we are after finding parking and walking to the starting line. We all ran the 10K. Spencer and I ran it in 1 hour and 7 minutes. I didn't walk the whole race, but the race course is very crowded and in some places very narrow so sometimes you got caught behind walkers and couldn't hardly move around them.

Our timing chips...


This is my best 10K result so far (it's my only 10K that I've done). The sun was shining, a bit of a wind to cool us down and great refreshments after the race. It is always an awesome feeling to complete a goal and do better than you thought. I might even be itching to do the 1/2 marathon next year.....any takers?

My other observations that resulted from this trip:

I forgot just how quite it can be without the kids in tow....no arguing, no crying, no responsibility, no little ones to look after and help it was nice and muchly needed for Spencer and I to just get away.

Why in the heck did it take us 8 years to do this? It think that it just may be a more regular occurance for us....a get away without the kids.

I need a hot tub....we used the hotel one every night....nice!

I should also have a maid that takes care of some of the house stuff....it was nice to have our garbages emptied, beds made and other things done, cause I didn't have to do it.

It made our kids miss us and realize just how much they do love us, and the same goes for us. We missed our kids in the end and were glad to be home.