Home again, home again jigety jig!

There's been a fair bit of travel over the past week, all worthwhile but I'll be happy not to do any road trips in the near future!

I bussed out to Chilliwack, drove from there to Penticton with my parents and then did the reverse six days later. Greyhound was chaos, bad in Vancouver and absolutely nuts in Chilliwack, so the busing wasn't so fun. I guess it isn't really the holidays unless you have some crazy travel stories.

A great time was had by all: my nephews were so much fun and were very good at letting their aunt play with their toys, my parents were in heaven hanging out the grandkids, and my sister and I had a great time despite the fact that we didn't managed to break the cribbage tie (one win each this visit). I kept my Boggle crown despite grossly unsportsmanlike conduct from the other competitors, it was good thing the boys weren't around to see!

It was interesting being back in Penticton. When we drove through Keremeos I realized that this was my first time on the IMC course since I did the race. I found it quite emotional and was surprised by this. On boxing Day I went for a run along South Main - again it was a very odd feeling, everything was obviously very different (less people, more snow) but I felt I could hear echos of race day. The biggest mental wallop came when we were heading out and I could see the slash of Highway 97 alongside Skaha lake and I remembered what it felt like riding down it and knowing I was so close to the end of the bike course. I know that having just said goodbye to my sister and the boys left me susceptible but again this was unexpected.

On a training note, I managed to get in two good runs of just under an hour each. I'm finally feeling good running for the first time since I came down with the flu. I'm pretty far behind as far as fitness is concerned but Alan promised he'd go easy on me for January (probably means I should be very, very afraid come February!) so I don't feel the need to cram in training sessions to prep for the season starting.