Stupid Thing #8 - Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon

Unfortunately, our August stupid thing required a little modification. Ashifa had a scheduling conflict, so sadly we missed the Flying Chicken Run. :-( I think we'll definitely have to try to do that one next year. So instead, for our August event, we did the Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon.

When we originally made up the list of stupid things, we added this event as a possible bonus "stupid thing" if we happened to possibly maybe be in good enough shape by August. Of course, at the time, we were thinking that meant if we were in good enough shape for each of us to do the whole duathlon (or triathlon) by ourselves. So, uh, yeah.... We have improved a lot since January, but, uh, yeah, not that much. Fortunately, though, you can do the event as a team! So we recruited a third person and - there you go, we were a duathlon team! We had originally thought about doing the triathlon (750 m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) but Shif, the swimmer, thought twice after hearing stories of the chilly summer they've had in Sioux Lookout. In the best of summers, the water there isn't very warm. This summer it's really chilly and there were actually several people that switched from the tri to the du for that very reason.

It was an overcast, chilly holiday Monday morning (Happy Civic Day!) for the race. Perfect weather for a race (seriously - I hate sun)! The event is part of a whole week of Blueberry Festival activities and there was a nice crowd there to cheer us on, despite the dreary weather (and lack of blueberries this year).

I (Jen) started off with the 2.5k running leg, which replaces the swim for the duathlon. The run was a pretty simple out-and-back run on the main street into Sioux Lookout. Out-and-back courses are fun because you can see just how much better real runners are than you. :-) Inspiration, this is called.

Lining up at the start of the duathlon

Me cruising into the transition area to hand of
to Fahreen, our cyclist

Me, sucking wind after my run. Dead last runner, but my
fastest race pace ever! I wonder what this triathlon volunteer
would do if I passed out.

Fahreen heading out on the bike leg, 20k on the road
leading to the Sioux Lookout airport

Shif, keeping a lookout for Fahreen

Fahreen cheerfully heading into the transition area

Fahreen handing off to Ashifa. Shif seems to be
explaining the process of removing the timing
chip from Fahreen's ankle

Our anchor! Shif heads out for the final run.

Up the hill for a tour of Sioux Lookout
(I love the fully slickered family in the foreground)

Team 353 after the race!

Mission accomplished - we finished the race in a respectable fashion. We were the slowest team, but we were all very happy with how we did. Shif set yet another personal best for the 5k! There were lots of snacks afterward and friends there to root us on. Hopefully we can try this one again individually in a year or two!

Stupid Thing #7 - Sweet Corn Challenge

We've managed to get all of our stupid things in so far this year, with only a slight alteration or two. Our July stupid thing, however, was almost a no-go due to a special guest interruption by Jen's gall bladder! We were driving down to Ohio Friday night when I was beset with intense abdominal pain. We thought it was only reflux resulting from a poor (in hindsight) decision to have nachos for my birthday dinner that night. By 5:00 a.m. I could hardly stand the pain, so Shif drove me to the ER and we spent most of the rest of the day doing a comparison study of the American vs Canadian health care systems. It was a bit surreal because, after hours of intense pain, within an hour of being given some magic pharmaceuticals, I felt completely fine. It looked for a bit like I was going to become a temporary resident of Akron, Ohio, while I had gall bladder surgery, but the doctors determined the evil gall stone had moved and I was fine to head back home and have surgery in the land of socialized medicine.

This put us in a bit of a quandary regarding the July stupid thing, which was the reason we had traveled to Ohio in the first place. I felt fine by bike-ride time Sunday morning and the doctors said I couldn't really make the situation worse by exercising. I was fairly tired from lack of sleep and a wee bit of stress, and more than a little gun-shy about the whole thing, so we decided that we'd skip the hilly 25-mile route we were supposed to do and just do the much more relaxed family 10-mile ride. We even got a police escort.

Us, our friend Missy, and some of her friends before the ride.
They did the serious ride while we were pedaling
with the 6-year-olds. There were four route choices - 10, 25, 50,
and 100 miles. The century ride also featured 'optional
horrendous hills.' I think we made the right choice.

Lining up for the start of the 10-mile ride. We heard that the
Sweet Corn Challenge is the biggest one-day bike ride
in Ohio, with around 2500 riders.

On the road.

The photographer is obviously trying to make another
trip to the emergency room.

Woo hoo!

Some other highlights of the trip. Who says
rural Ohio is all cornfields and white bread? Above, a
Serbian Orthodox monastery. Below, a Sikh temple.

The best part of the Sweet Corn Challenge - lunch! Pulled pork,
fresh sweet corn, and more. And you get more sweet corn
to take home. Sadly, the gall bladder diet meant I
wasn't allowed to eat the cookie and I could only nibble
on the pulled pork.

Thankfully, the gall bladder still hasn't caused any trouble. I probably won't have surgery for a few months yet, but I'm feeling fine. In fact, we've already finished our August stupid thing.... pics soon!