Goderich - Waterloo - Toronto

On Halloween we skinned out of Goderich for a month of adventuring.  4 people, a bunch of clothes, and a tonne of baby food and diapers.  The ultimate destination would be to the Caribbean island of Virgin Gorda.  Stop #1 would be to the Columbia Icefields at the University of Waterloo to check out the OUA XC running championships.

I would guess this is a very, very happy 2nd place team - It was a close race with Guelph have the lowest score at 53 points, Windsor at 54, and MacMaster with 64.  And as Don Cherry would say, they are a bucn of good looking guys as well.  Congratulations coach Gary Malloy.  Keep up the good work.

Packed up, we headed out by nine and we were well within the starting time of eleven.  I last ran at the Columbia Icefield OUAA race, as it was know at that time, in 1996 maybe.  It was memorable for 2 reasons as I remember very clearly.  One, we won the team race, and I know I finished in the low teens.  Secondly I remember very clearly after the races we went into the hockey change rooms to shower and get cleaned up.  We shared a dressing room with the York runners.  I remember very clearly that they showered in their underwear.  All I know is that is quite odd for guys to do - and evidently memorable.
The Windsor Women’s team did okay.  They had to very strong runners in the top 10, and the rest filed in filling the halfway positions.  The men did very good.  The finished a good second place in the team result, also having 2 in the top 10, and all their runners in by the 30th athlete.

I was really happy to see a former Brookside student take part in the women's race.  Not only does she take part, but is a former CIAU XC individual champion from 2 years ago - she is no slouch.  Congrats Julie on your 2nd place finish representing Queen's.  Good luck at the Canadian University Champions in Guelph in another 2 weeks.

We met up with Drew Barisdale, had some lunch with him, and then pushed off to the final destination of the day which was a hotel by the Toronto Airport.  We settled in there, geared up for a quick sleep, and then eagerly awaited the next day’s journey and plane rides south into the Caribbean.