Edmonton - Canada (Canadian Derby Edmonton Half Marathon)

Well, it's day 2 here in Edmonton and it's been a pretty pleasant ride. There hasn't been too much to talk about after being here for about 24 hours, but it's definitely a nice place. The flights here were fine without incident, and getting a ride to the hotel could be the only adventurous event that occurred since I had no idea which hotel I was going to, and no one was there to pick me up. But, other than that it has been fine compared to the other Americans getting here. My roommate, Joesph Chrilee is another story. His flight arrived at midnight and had no one to get him. Fortunately, he bummed a ride to the hotel, but had to pay for his night. I met up with him at around 11am when he knocked on my hotel door. After I heard about his late night experience of Canada, we went for an easy run on some grass fields. A much different run, from what I experienced yesterday. This was a nice and easy 30 minute pre-race day run with some strides, as oppose to the scavenger hunt run I went on yesterday.

Yesterday, I planned on running by some quintessential Edmontonian landmarks and a few other general spots I might find useful, such as a grocery store and a restaurant. The path I plotted out on google maps seemed simple on the computer screen, but once out on the roads, it was a little more hillier than I'd prefer. Nevertheless, I found what I was looking for and ended up out of the town, across a river and onto some nice rolling trials through the forest. One thing I didn't expect was the abundance of mosquitoes here in Edmonton, and neither did the locals. On the last two runs, which totaled less than 90minutes, I've been bitten 6 times. I figure they haven't had some American blood in a long time...

Well, tomorrow is race day and I'm feeling good, we'll just have to see how good I'm feeling once the gun goes off.