Cross Country Championships

I headed back to my old neighbourhood this morning to watch some friends race in the Canadian Cross Country Championships at Jericho. I didn't get any good pictures of runners so I'm posting one of the kayakers I could see while watching the race (in case you're confused).

Andrew was running in the masters race and Erin was in the senior womens, I intended to catch Andrew's race then head out and get the rest of my errands and chores done for the weekend. When formulating this plan I forgot to take into account the fact that I get caught up in events and have to put in a great effort to drag myself away. Once I got out to Jericho the choice between watching the race or doing laundry was an easy one to make (a hint - I currently don't have any clean socks).

Watching Andrew race was great - we don't usually get a chance to see the coach compete so watching him with his game face on and fighting in a race was pretty neat. He wasn't happy with his time (21st overall) but the conditions were pretty terrible as the snow added an extra level of difficulty to the cross country challenge.

I was in the process of leaving after chatting with Andrew at the end of his race but then the junior women's race was on so I thought I might as well catch the start, and then having seen the start I really had to stick it out for the rest of the race. Then I got to chatting again and whadya know, the junior men's race was on and had to catch the start of that. Of course Erin's race was up next and it would be rude to leave just before she raced. I got heckled into watching the senior men's race (I had to cheer for Simon Whitfield) and ended up leaving sometime well after 3.

The races themselves were great to see but watching them with experienced, competitive runners really enriched the experience. I may not have clean laundry but I had a great time watching.