Walks: Sat-Wed, Oct. 27 to 31

The Shore Things motored in Motor City!

What an event. Ruth took third place overall amongst the Detroit full marathon walkers, with a blistering 5:31 chip finish. Most of us would have been thrilled to even have had her clock time of 6:01. In the half, our leader was Bob; 9th overall and on the leaderboard as 5th male with a chip finish of 2:31. We all placed in the first 50% of participants. Special thank-yous for the support of our cheering section, particularly Alexis and Barbara, who restocked the thirsting with water (we were told bottles weren't allowed to cross the border). Well done, Shore Things.

See you Saturday to talk it over on a companionable 8-10K, or the distance of your choice, at 8 am from Tim's. Newbies welcome! Monday evening from Loblaws (and a possible uptown location), for 6-8K, depending on how we feel. Wednesday evening is Hallowe'en – sign in if you'd prefer to walk on Thursday, Nov. 1 instead, from Shoppers.

There are daytime walks on weekdays for those available. Just sign in and show up for our regular locations. Or contact me for the other locations, and I'll hook you up with the organizers.

A few things upcoming:

For anyone considering the Dublin Half, rates go up by four euros after October 31st.

Please start looking for next year's races, to post your interest at our party on November 10th. Our Year-End Party is both a celebration of things past, and a kick-off for the year to come.

For example, I just stumbled on the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon on June 2, 2013. There's a bottle of VQA wine in every swag bag. Now it's not a cheap race, but earlybird rates are cheaper, and they jump after October 31, 2012. (Men can participate, but there are no prizes for males.)

Also, Bob and I are fulfilling a long-held wish to do the Cincinatti Flying Pig Half on May 5th, 2013. And I just noticed that they have a 3-Way set of combo races, like the Disney or Bermuda Triangle in January. I believe that Rainer and Margy are already signed up for the latter, as well as for the Chilly Half, and rates for that one go up October 30th.

So look around, see what you like and invite the Shore Things to join you in the races you want to do. I've updated all the updatable race links on the blog, but feel free to introduce us to new races.

Still taking orders for calendars: approx. $19.99 plus HST. However, if I hear from nobody else by end of day Saturday (emails only, please – it's the only way I can accurately keep track), I'll submit our order and with luck will have calendars ready for our party.

Now that we've completed our last big race, the yearbook is also almost finished – but send me your great photos by this weekend. FYI, Sharon got a preview Tuesday evening and immediately placed an order. Cost will be approx. $80 plus HST.

Happy birthday to Stacey! Wishing you nothing but loveliness for your day and your year. And also to Jeanny – we missed you in Detroit. Hope you're okay.

Walks: Mon-Wed, Oct. 20 to 24

Can you detect the added detail?

Well, this is it. Saturday's meet at Tim's will be smaller than usual, due to the horde of Shore Things in or on their way to Detroit to do the full or half marathons or to cheer on our team. I wish us all speedy border crossings and fine weather – neither too hot, nor too cold, nor too wet – and a great race.

Please sign in if you'll be at Tim's on Saturday. We hope to see you also on Monday at 7 pm (Loblaws) and Wednesday at 7 pm (Shoppers) for some victory laps. This is a great time for newcomers to join us, so please invite your friends!

Happy birthday to Pat – hope to see you now that the training is behind us. And belated happy birthday to Val. You see, I just knew there was an October birthday girl I was missing.

And I notice that Hallowe'en is a week from Wednesday. Do we want to walk that night anyway, or shift to another night? Let's discuss in the comments.

Walks: Sat-Wed, Oct. 13-17

Scary sights on our last night of hill training

We're winding down to the end of race season, with one last Saturday "long" walk (in relative terms) before Detroit. For the full marathoners, and those wishing to join them, it's 13K. Leverne requests a 7 am start, and if the weather's nice we'll do the Spit. The half marathoners are doing 8K, but Trish tells me that some will be walking on Sunday. Non-racers are invited to set their own time and distance. Everyone, please sign in to say when and where you'll be, and for which distance.

Monday, both sets of racers, it's 6K; Wednesday, it's 5K. Sign in, kids. It's no fun to show up and find no one to walk with.

This is where I introduce the concept of Knuckle-down Knovember (or Nuckle-down November, if you prefer) for anyone doing the 2012 in 2012 Challenge. We soon won't have race schedules to force us to take those extra steps, and less-clement weather and the holiday season in December will loom to drag us down. So I propose teaming up for extra walks in November – 5K here and there will make a huge difference, and all the better with company. If you're walking (morning, lunchtime, evening), let people know in the comments so we can be aware of local clusters.

I have no birthdays on my calendar for this week, but have a feeling I'm missing some of our newer Shore Things. If you haven't heard a birthday shout-out from me, please email me your birth date, and take pity on my sieve-like brain. We love you and wish you happy birthday, whenever it is!

Walks: Thanksgiving weekend & Wed. Oct. 10

Toad-ally ready for a long weekend!

Congratulations to Bob on his first-place male finish at the Toad trail race. He came in nearly a full hour faster than Jan and I! And Ruth "only" beat us by 40 minutes. We had perfect weather for it; unfortunately, we were dressed for imperfect weather. A good reminder for our upcoming Detroit races: dress for 10˚C warmer than the forecast. You will warm up.

I won't even tell the Detroit Full Marathoners what to do on Saturday, as they've already decided on 35K, starting at 6:30 am. The Detroit Half Marathoners have only 18K on their schedule. 7 am is the time Sharon told me, so I'll go with that.

Won't you all be glad when race season is over and we can get back to regular human-being distances and times? Some of you are already doing that, setting your own distance, starting at 8 am. Please sign in to tell us what it is.

Holiday Monday, we usually have a morning option, starting from Tim's 2 (Gerrard at Vic Park). The half marathoners have 10K to do; the full marathoners, 16K. Anyone else is welcome to join us for less. Shall we have a vote for starting time? I'll suggest 8:30 am, to give us at least the illusion of sleeping in. Feel free to overrule me, one way or another, by signing in.

With the Detroit races only two weeks away, on Wednesday, we'll do one last set of hills. Distances, technically are: Detroit full, 6K; Detroit half, 10K. Yes, I have that the right way around.

Happy birthday to our sometimes-walker Carole. Hope your concussion is healing after the Toad. It was a rooty course, with many opportunities to take a flyer.

To all of you, a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey and get stuffed with stuffing. Most of all, I hope we all continue to have much to be thankful for. I know I'm thankful for the Shore Things!