Walk: Mon. June 8 @ Loblaws

First, let me quickly invite you out for 6K on Monday night, starting at 7 pm. It's the start of a new race calendar, which I'll post later this week. Hope to see you there.

Now, let me introduce the first-place female and male finishers – and the 2nd- and 1st-place walkers overall – in the RunWalk 4Patrick Half Marathon in North Bay on Sunday. Mind you, they were the only two walkers in the race! Imagine that. Well done, anyway, Bob, with a 2:35-ish finish.

It was a small, friendly race, rather like Alfie Shrubb. The organizers were Christian and Christine Fortin, who went to high school with Bob in Kapuskasing. At age 7, their son Patrick, who had severe hemophilia, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. Before he died at age 23 he did a lot to raise HIV/AIDS awareness in his community. His family organized this race in his honour.

A bit about the medals: they were created by an entire village in Africa, whose citizens made each one by hand over a period of three months. Each medal is different. The village was paid what it would have cost for standard finishers' medallions, which earned the village the equivalent of three years of income. These are very neat medals.

This week, we're going to be thinking of Frances (come out and join us for a walk, birthday girl). Have a happy one.

We'll also be sending bon voyage and god speed to Debbie, who is doing the amazing Tofino Edge-to-Edge Half on Vancouver Island next weekend. Enjoy yourself out there, and watch out for sea monsters.