Not my usual blog tonight...

So a good start, day one of traveling and being away from the Seattle crew and I'm still on PLAN. Ok, so today's plan was to travel, rest and take a hot bath... but I'll add the checkmark just to say that I got off to a good start. :)

I got up today at 4 am and was really hoping I could be making my way to the gym to meet the girls. Instead I got ready and made my way to the airport. I love SeaTac airport because it's never chaotic compared to other airports. This morning was very smooth and I slept through most of the flights to Toronto (connected in Minneapolis/St. Paul). My favorite travel tradition is listening to Eddie Murphy Raw and Delirious on my iPod. It totally passes the time, but I tend to get funny looks from people when I laugh out loud. I shouldn't find it funny anymore and to those that haven't seen the stand up act, you should rent it! Scrap that, we may have to have a night when I get back where we all sit down and watch it together because it's the funniest thing I have ever heard... a little R rated so we have to wait for the kids to go to bed. For those of you that have seen it... "ice cream maaaaaaan... ice cream maaaaaaan". :)

Anyways, I am getting much better at eating while traveling because I pack all of my own food. The one downside is that you can't take water on flights these days so I couldn't get enough water today. I normally pack two 1.5 liter bottles of water for each flight. Since I slept a lot, I missed the "beverage service" and only got in one little glass of water on each flight. Can we say dehydrated?!?!?

So the second I touched down in Toronto I called my parents to let them know I had arrived. The second call I made (this time from customs which is a NO CELL PHONE AREA) was to Jess to find out how she did on the race! Read the full race report here, but the girl kicked ass! It was the same course that she did earlier this year, and she beat her time by 10 minutes (unheard of). But the real deal, is that she placed 2nd... you read it right, 2nd in her age group!

I finally made it through the insanity at Pearson (over one hour after I got off the plane) and rushed to see my adorable parents at the gate. My mom looked great as usual and my dad was wearing the dress shirt I bought him for his birthday cause he's cute like that. :) I really do miss them when I'm gone, but I miss them more when I'm home. I haven't really lived at home since I left for University in 1999... so when I come home, I really think, there is no place like home. Maybe it's the familiarity of the house I grew up in, being somewhere completely safe... it could also be the home cookin' and my parents going out of their way to make sure I feel like I never left home. Whatever it is, I love it. :)

On our way home we stopped at our good friends' house for a "going away to University" party for their daughter. I remember when this girl was born, and now she is this beautiful young woman going away to school... and I'm scared! I know she will be ok (we have all survived some big jump in our lives) but all I can think about is some boy taking advantage of her. I found myself in the kitchen with her, her best friend (and roommate this upcoming year) and her guy friend, dishing out advice on how to survive first year and the dreaded freshman 15. They just seem so young and naive, were we all like that at 18? Were our parents scared to death that we would drink too much, fail out or get mixed up with the wrong crowd? They must have been, but they dealt with it so well... especially battling that terrible empty nest syndrome too! I hope that I can be that strong when I have to go through this myself, or when we watch the Princesses' kids take on the big challenges in their lives. I have a feeling we'll be sharing quite a few of these experiences over the coming years.

Back to the day, the party was amazing... I was thinking about the big run tomorrow and how much it mattered to me. I didn't drink an ounce of alcohol and tried to catch up on my water intake. I also ate... and ate, and ate. Lots and lots of amazing different salads, fish, veggies, bar-b-qued meats... and yes, homemade desert. It had been a long time since I had some "parent quality" home cooking and I took advantage of it. We all sat outside on the patio and caught up. I love the community of friends that my parents have around them. They have been around for most of my life and are all so supportive of everything that I do.

As usual, they were all so interested in the long run that is planned for tomorrow (14 miles, or to these Polish Canadians, 22.5 km). The plan was that my mom would drop me off 14 miles from home and that I would run back to town. Tonight, they all seemed to want to follow me home in the morning. :) Either by bike or by car, volunteers were popping up all over the place... mind you, volunteering when you've been drinking is different from showing up at 7:30 am on a hangover. No doubt that my mom will certainly be there, she's the number 1 fan. So now, not only do I have the blog readers to report to... but also the people at the party tonight.

Alright, I apologize for the long and somewhat sobby commentary tonight... I have begun to map the route out and decided that a circle would be better just to keep me on familiar country roads and close enough to home in case I needed to use my cell phone in an emergency. I am starting to stress a little because this is the first time I have been out this long on my own before, and the route is a little boring to say the least. A bunch of rollers on country roads and one lane highways. I think there are a couple of steep little climbs in there too and I'm just thinking about which direction I want to run in. Still TBD... I can't wait to report tomorrow. I know that the support of my friends and wanting to come home and blog "I DID IT" will push me through finishing the run tomorrow. Ater all, I have done this before right?!?!?

Ok, goodnight friends... it's 11:12 pm here in Peterborough Ontario. Chat with you soon! :)