I guess it’s about time I share the Ottawa Post-Race Report!  I keep talking about the weekend and forget to write about it.  Well, here it goes…

We left on Friday morning after getting or kids off to school and picking up coffees.  We were all happy for Shelley’s cookies and world famous lemon loaves for the car trip.  We made good time to Ottawa with a couple of ON Route stops for bathroom breaks and regular feedings for some of us;)  Made the mandatory stop at LCBO to pick up a few things and then onwards to the hotel – we figured out Tania drives like Mario Andretti and does NOT do traffic!

We settled in to the Residence Inn and then walked to the Race Expo to pick up our race kits and do a little running related shopping.  We left our mark!

Back to the hotel to clean up, have pre-dinner drinks and surprised Joanne for her 50th!.

 We walked to Sidedoor (Southeast Asian) for a late supper where we all shared dishes.  Funny Gary and his wife from Newfoundland obliged us and took some group pics.

After some brave souls had their shot of tequila we wandered back to our hotel, made friends with some local art and relaxed with a nightcap…seeing a theme here?!

Saturday brought beautiful weather and after breakfast we wandered to the Byward Market for some shopping, ate amazing brick oven pizza at Vitoria Trattoria, and did more shopping. Shelley found some hats – continuing her “thing” from the PEI trip! And Joanne got “picked up” by some young thing!

We split up in the early afternoon with some of us taking a windy double decker bus tour of Ottawa and others kept walking about.

Back at the hotel we changed clothes and walked to Town for an early supper.

Another great meal with lots of conversation and laughs!  We returned to the hotel to prep our race gear for the next morning – only some forgotten water bottles and headphones to throw us off!  We lounged in our jammies with foam rollers, spiky foot balls and massage roller sticks out in full force for last minute treatments!  We woke early on Sunday having plenty of time to eat our oatmeal, hydrate and apply our tattoos.

The weather was clear and cool but expected to warm up as the day went on.  We met up and began the walk to the starting chute.  Took some group pics in our fantastic new shirts prior to dividing up – faster girls in the yellow corral and slower girls in green.

The temps did indeed heat up as the race progressed.  24 degrees feeling like 27 by the end! Thankfully there were many water/Nuun stations, mist sprayers, wet sponges and generous Ottawans with garden hoses to keep us cool. Our race plans had to be adjusted for the heat – slower paces and more walk breaks when needed to get us through.  We all finished with smiles – except for Tania and her WTF face! Our times ranged between 1:58 and 2:29 – although Lisa apparently didn’t run the race as her bib didn’t activate when she ran.  We shuffled back to our rooms to clean/pack up and were grateful to housekeeping for giving us more time:)  After stowing our luggage in our vehicles we walked to Darcy Magee’s for a fat/calorie filled celebratory lunch – except for Joanne and her healthy dish!

 We hit the road around 3 and headed for home.  Had a few stops for munchies, bathroom breaks and yack sacks – thank goodness Christine G had the foresight;)

Arrived back in Oakville around 8ish and said our goodbyes.  Another amazing girls’ race weekend – it is truly a pleasure to spend time with these ladies.  So many laughs, smiles, stories and “abuse”!!  Looking forward to the next adventure…Phoenix here we come!!