Day 17 6 mths in the making

And a big surprise to end the day....
Annie has spent 6 mths training to compete with her daughter in the Banff Half Marathon, unfortunately Mariah did her ACL snowboarding so she could only watch her mum. There were 3300 entries with people from 25 countries entered. Chilly start at 6 C with the start delayed 38 min so that 2 huge freight trains could clear a crossing on the course. Not an ideal start standing in the cold, but the day warmed up later on the 20s

We had completed a reconnaissance on bikes of the 21 klm course and it had a number of hills which in the thin air here at 1400m above see level would make it challenging for non locals. Annie found it hard going but completed the course in 2hrs 54min and was so proud of having completed it. The winning lady was 36 yrs old and she set a new record of 1hr 17 min and her time was only 2min more than the male winner a 20yr old.

Annie said the competitors and officals were super friendly and very encouraging along the way. The winning lady on her return leg was giving all the runners going the other way words of encouragement

We headed back to our our apartment for a glass of champagne and a jump in the exterior hot tub. We all then headed out for an evening picnic near a lake. Some friends of Mariah and Chris also turned up. Chris had pre warmed us about what was going to happen and told us there was going to be group shot. Then the photographer was going to say 1, 2, 3 at which time we were all going to move apart leaving Chris on his knee holding a ring and asking Mariah for her hand.

A lovely scene and she duly said yes......Read more