
Do Things Always
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I'm Susan, originally from Scotland now transplanted to beautiful Calgary, AB. Join me for adventures in running, fitness and the great outdoors. I'm sharing my journey from 5K to ultra and way out of my comfort zone.
Do Things Always
5h ago
After 6 years (!) we have another Jackpot Ultra in the books. Short version - it’s a magnificent race, incredible runners, great food, such friendly people. Aravaipa Running = awesome. It was very hard coming back to the 24hr after so long. I stopped at 66k. My fucking feet are ruined. (I’m wondering if I needed to train that hard to achieve mediocrity ..read more
Do Things Always
2d ago
So. I’ve been training and steadily building up mileage since Oct 1 (based on Heather Hart's plan). I have also lost 7 lbs. No, I haven't been posting about it anywhere. As usual I signed up for a race before this started (which is quite normal for ADHD me). It’s been a minute (umm 6 years) since I did something like this.
Strength training has been happening weekly with my workgroup, and I'm also running 5 or 6 days a week. I’m not sure I’m friends with my treadmill anymore and I’m sure as hell not friends with all the damn ice outside. I'm c ..read more
Do Things Always
1M ago
It appears I usually post a summary of the year we just had right about now. This is hard, hang on (checks files). What the hell did I do in 2024?
In February I decided we should go hiking for my birthday so we did Johnston Canyon. It was freezing and busy. Kev was very delighted with this choice. He got pizza after.
Since we were being all active again and whatnot, we trained for and ran the Calgary Half in May. It rained quite aggressively.
The Calgary Expo was a joy as always, highlights this year were Denis Lawson (Local Hero), Matt Lillard (lik ..read more
Do Things Always
3M ago
For our third straight year of Universal's glorious HHN, we 'just' went to Hollywood. No Orlando this year. Highlights of 2024 include A Quiet Place, Insidious, Ghostbusters, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Weeknd. Not too shabby. We got the frequent fear pass so we could do 4 nights and added unlimited express to Friday night because I enjoy trying to do 25 houses in one night.
Prior to the event we watched the first 2 Quiet Place movies, TCM (disturbing AF) and Ghostbusters Frozen Empire at the movies. It's great homework. Since coming back we're workin ..read more
Do Things Always
4M ago
I came over here to read my race report and apparently I haven't written one yet. Oh good. Please enjoy my forthcoming slightly short race report.
Canmore 1 was so excellent we signed up for Canmore 2. As you can see, blue skies and gorgeous sunshine seem to be a theme.
The course is completely different from the first one. Again, we are both doing the Sport distance.
Sunshine, trees, trails. What more could you need? I also enjoy being completely wrecked (and generally purple) at the end of an event. The hills are challenging for ..read more
Do Things Always
6M ago
Swiftcurrent Pass. 15.5 miles 867 m elevation gain (August long weekend 2024)
I’ve had this trail on my list for ages and of course when we were finally able to do it, the forecast was for rain and storms. We set out at 8:15 hoping we could reach the pass before the rain came in.
First port of call was Fishercap Lake, moments from the trailhead. We have seen many moose in this lake. Right now there are zero moose.
Red Rock Falls is a small detour but worth it. All the rock in this area is so colourful.
We had to spend some time watchi ..read more
Do Things Always
7M ago
Remember that time the Calgary Marathon ran out of medals? Well. They made it up to us with a fantastic event at Cold Garden. The smoke even cleared so we could have a sunny warm evening. Probably not so warm for RD Kirsten who ended up in cold water several times.
Drink ticket!
It’s a beautiful setting, I always enjoyed visiting with the Beer Run. Sigh, I miss that one.
Easiest finish line I ever crossed.
People were quite enthusiastic about dropping the RD in the tank.
She was in fact, attracting quite a large crowd.  ..read more
Do Things Always
8M ago
Last Saturday we went out to Canmore to run the second 5 Peaks race of 2024. They put on amazing events. Tony from Grizzly Chainsaw Carving was there with some of his creations so we added a couple to the yard.
The setting is pure mountain porn.
Photo from Body.inmotion
Everything is super easy as long as you turn up early enough to park at the Nordic Centre. Bear spray is compulsory for each runner. There were 800 runners in the event over 3 distances - Sport 7.1 km, Enduro 16.1 km, and Grit 22 km. I think it's fantastic to have that dis ..read more
Do Things Always
8M ago
Prairie Mountain 8.5 km 714 m elevation gain
We first did this trail in 2015, it's only 45 mins from the house so it's an easy win for great scenery and a good workout. Since we started paying fees for Kananaskis it got a big revamp, the new switchback route is in red over the previous blue steeper route. This has also added roughly half a km to the route.
Routes join from parking areas on both sides, and the first section is now switchbacks to reach the join. There's already a nice view.
Two of the previously steeper sections now have ..read more
Do Things Always
9M ago
I checked the weather forecast in the car before we walked over to the start and it had only a 30% chance of showers, this seems positive. (And all kinds of lies).
We had no issues parking (street parking is free on Sundays in Calgary), dropping off the bag and getting organized in the nice warm Stampede Grandstand. It would be awesome if the finish could return to the Grandstand as well, it's a glorious venue. Things seemed to get super busy about a half hour before the start and the baggage drop off lines were all over the place. There were 13600 runner ..read more