Notes from Bastion Ross.....in August

Dear Bastion

The steady diet of burgers and beer maybe getting the better of some of us but we’re almost through the summer and now is not the time to throw in the towel. Dig deep, fire up the barbeque, and spend as much time outdoors as you can until the fall arrives. People are gradually beginning to trickle back into town from vacation. Even Captain Cook had to take a break from the daily grind of retirement to land in port for a while. In order to build up some more summer memories while we can, we head to Upper Lantzville next Saturday morning for a run from Janet Wright’s place at 6863 Eastwind Drive. Then it’s back to her pool for food and fun. All you have to bring is a towel. There are directions on the Events page of the website and I’ll send them out again next week. Speaking of the website, there is some new photos on page 12 of the Photo Gallery I had to get from Mr. Peabody and the Way Back Machine. It takes about two or three minutes to download the photos but it’s all worth it. Just hit the buttons every once and a while.
Some people have been picking up the slack for the rest of us lately. Codie Ward took the whole enchilada this last Sunday at the Diva tri, beating all her older but not wiser competitors. Meanwhile at the Sri Chinmoy Tri/Du there were a number of people placing in the top five in their division. John and Kathy Grabher and Janet Oxler in the tri, and Kent Williamson, Doris Frank and Gord Witham in the Du. At last report Norm and Stefen had taken a wrong turn with the pack and were headed towards Dawson City. I wouldn’t worry too much. Somebody’s bound to tell them where to go. They always do for me.
This weeks Cadboro Bay tri is cancelled, leaving three events for August left, all of them next weekend. They range from the mercifully short but still competitive if you want Sound and Silence 10 K run/5 K walk in Victoria, to the fairly non-competitive but difficult Log Train Marathon/Half Marathon in Port Alberni, to the monumentally difficult 50 K Full Monty/25 K Half Monty trail race in Victoria. Any event hosted by Carlos Castillo is not for the faint of heart. Details in the Events page.
The Nanaimo Daily News Harbour City Half/10 K is a month away now on Sept. 10th, so I hope everyone’s training schedule is on pace who plans on doing the half and then Victoria. I keep hearing tall stories about how many hills or track sessions people have to do during the week. There is some nice prizes for the top three male and female finishers in both the half and the 10 K this year. If you are not planning on racing and would like to volunteer in order to get a good vantage point to see others suffer then contact Kim Coulthard at kimcoulthard@shaw.ca . There will be a great volunteer party right after the race at the Howard Johnson with plenty of good food.
The 17th is the Terry Fox Run at Beban. I will send out some information about the new corporate team challenge next week. Then on the 24th a fund raising run/walk at 10:00 am at Westwood to help pay off the debt for the purchase of the top of Mt. Benson. Since nobody wants to look at a bald Mt. Benson, we owe it to NALT to do whatever we can.

Have fun in the sun,
Ross