O Victoria!

It has been very much a hurry up and wait kind of last couple of weeks. The waiting was hard. It always is. Sometimes, it can be a sweet anticipation, but not this time. It was a series of daily tortures. Originally, when we put an offer together for our new house, we had a JUly 20th closing date. This worked well because it gave us time to pack and get ready after school finished while allowing time for Sonja to finish her thesis. The counter included an August 1st close, which we agreed to because we did have some flexibility. However, those 11 days between closing dates were hard. We (read: Sonja) were essentially done packing by July 21st, so it was doing little bits of finishing things off each day - necessary but not enough to fill the day. But with the heat wave (sorry ontario!), going outside really wasn't an enticing option as any movement caused me to sweat. The final week was difficult because of the heat, the lack of things to do and I had lost motivation to run (1. because of the heat and 2. because of the frustrating race performances). I guess it is way better to have too much time to pack than too little, and the result was that we were well organized in boxes. So it was with great anticipation that we awoke early yesterday morning to a break in the heat and a day full of moving.

I'll spare you the details of the move save that our friends our incredible. Damien and Leanne on the mainland side were at our house early and let me tell you, I would never want to play Damien in Tetris after seeing the way he was able to get all our stuff into the truck. There was room left for maybe one more golf club and that was it! And on the island side, David and Cindy not only met us with a balloon on the door and fresh squeezed orange juice, they were heroes in unloading the truck (Dave is half man, half ox, half horse - yes, I know, three halves, but you should have seen him). To top it off, they then had us over for an incredible dinner! Truly an amazing send off from our old home and a welcome to our new home! I cannot express how amazing they were and how it really made the trip successful.

So, I back on the island and feeling ready to run. My last VFAC workout was great as the most of the boys were out (Driver?) and we ran well in the heat. It was 1k, 2k, 2k, 1k at Beaver Lake and, after a four day heat/motivation break, I cam back and ran that workout faster than I have before, ending with a final 1k of 2:54 (a PB for that loop). It felt good but what felt better was being doused in cold water at the Stanley Park kiddie water park! That was amazing after a good workout! I will miss the weekly meet up with the boys, but I am going to continue with Coach John for the next three months via email and see how that works out. I am also excited to meet up with Liam and Hicham and Kelly and the whole island running crew and get reacquainted with Beacon Hill and Thetis and Mt. Doug and a much less intimidating Mt. Finlayson.

In the end, we made it home. And now the race is on to see how long it will take to get out of the boxes!