We're with Bob! Your help is needed

As many of you know Nancy's father, Bob, was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer (actually two types of Lymphoma) early this year. Since his diagnosis, Bob has been undergoing a regime that includes an experimental chemotherapy cocktail. This cocktail literally didn’t exist a few months ago – so we can attest that medical research is producing advancements that benefit current and future patients.

So it only seems fitting that Nancy and myself contribute to this ongoing research into lymphoma. Accordingly, a small group of us, including Bob, will be participating in the Light-the-Night fundraising 5km walk in Victoria, Vancouver Island on 24th October.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation and sponsor my participation, please make a secure online donation using your credit card by clicking the following link:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=697185

If you would like any further information please let me know. Thank you for your support.

Stroll round Fort Rodd Hill

With the great summer weather continuing over last weekend, we ceased the advantage and went for a local walk on the Island to visit Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse. This is a National Historic Site which is a coast artillery fort built in the late 1890s to defend Victoria and the Esquimalt Naval Base. The Fort includes three gun batteries, underground magazines, command posts, guardhouses, barracks and searchlight emplacements.

The waterfront sites at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse are extremely photogenic, especially with the scenic backdrop of the Olympic Mountains in neighbouring Washington state. The Strait of Juan de Fuca offered a wide variety of ships, from small sailing vessels, to enormous cargo ships, and close proximity to the Canadian Navy base with military craft of several different nations at close range.

Grouse Grind - 2830 steps!

My challenge training took an interesting twist today, as I completed the Grouse Grind. You are probably wondering what the Grouse Grind is....

Often referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster,” the Grouse Grind is a trail that winds it's way up the side of Grouse Mountain. This is the mountain that is directly opposite our apartment and makes up a large proportion of the view from our sofa. More than 100-thousand hikers a year take on the challenge of the rugged terrain and steep climb, up an approximate 56 per cent slope (30°), which starts at the Valley Station of Grouse Mountain and finishes at the Peak’s plateau. In length the Grind is 2.9 KMs or 1.8 miles, the elevation gain is 853 metres or 2,800 feet and the summit is 1,127 metres above sea level.

On average this hike takes up to an hour and a half, however, the official record to date for men is 26.19 held by Michael Simpson, set in 2007. I was happy in simply completing, but managed a respectable time of 1 hour 11mins for the total of 2,830 steps. Although I was spurred on by a couple of young kids passing me on the way up!

The Challenge is On!

Following the successful Anthony and Scott weight loss challenge (combined loss of 42 pounds) prior to the wedding of the year, it has been agreed that the next challenge is the fastest 10KM run before 1st May 2010.

The group of contenders includes, Nancy, Scott M, Ross, Emily, Kris, me and of course Anthony.

The rules are simple:
- Need to complete an official, timed 10KM run before the 1st May 2010.
- The timed result needs to be on offical paperwork from an organised run or from the organisers website.
- The FASTEST TIME wins the challenge!

A handicap system is available to those who want to use it and is based on their BMI score. Enclosed is a link to a BMI calculating website http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. This is purely optional.

Eyes of the prize - major bragging rights are awarded to the winner! Also a few people are asking for a betting book to be run on the winning time, so we may look into this at a later date and donate any winnings to a cancer charity. An embarrassing punishment for the loser has also been mentioned in passing and so we will see how that develops over the next few weeks.

So if there is anyone else you wants to join in the challenge then please let me know, however, if you just want to watch our progress keep an eye on the blog for updates. Furthermore, you can track our run training via the blog through the Nike widgets on the right-hand menu bar. These track the distances run in training and related timings.

Anyway, enough of the talk for now and down to the training (minus the ice cream). See you all at the finish line! Good luck and eat my dust.

Friday Night - Keane Concert

After a busy week at work and the Vegas trip, Friday night saw us taking in a concert with the English band Keane. This was Keane's third concert from their tour of North America and it was a privilege to see them in such a great venue. The Centre for Performing Arts was high quality in its seating, accoustics and view of the stage and we felt really part of the atmosphere. It also helped that the lead singer, Tom, was on fire - full of energy and adrenalin for the occasion and really got the audience going.

Keane tracks were on our wedding reception playlist, so it seemed apt that the concert tickets were one of my wedding anniversary presents to Nancy earlier in the year. Turned out to be an enjoyable gift with both of us coming away looking to rediscover albums by Keane. Although, this was the first of two concerts for Nancy this weekend as on Saturday she went to see Neil Young, Sheryl Crow and various other artists at Ambleside on the North Shore.

Sin City Trip

It has now been a few days since our return from Las Vegas, aka Sin City, and we had a great visit with the clear highlight spending time with the new Mr and Mrs King. We enjoyed Vegas to its maximum including shows, bars, gambling, swimming, beaches, dining-out and M&Ms. The newly married couple are certainly enjoying their honeymoon travels across California and we heard all about San Fransisco, Yosemite Park, drive through Death Valley and Grand Canyon.

Once we met up with Emily and Kris, we all headed for the -5 degree ice bar, which could have proved a trauma for someone with small finger syndrome! Despite this, we had a real laugh in rented coats, drinking vodka cocktails from ice glasses and even a quick drink from an ice statue of a lady's chest (not quite sure what that was doing there). On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a gospel brunch with was as much food as we could eat at the House of Blues, but the real entertainment was from the gossip band which got the crowd on their feet and even on the stage. This set us up for the day with lots of energy and we then toured the strip, including the M&M brand store - I think the colourful pictures tell their own story.

That evening the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show called Love, was simply spectacular! The show combined the best of the Beatles songs with amazing acrobatic displays. There is no easy way of describing the content of the show, but suffice to say that everyone thought it was a fantastic highlight of Vegas. This was followed by us walking back to the hotel and admiring the Bellagio Hotel dancing water fountains - check out the video for the full experience, shot by my video assistant Emily.

The next day saw us relaxing at the lazy river and wave pool at the Hotel, followed by a late brunch and Kris discovering the joy of maple syrup on pancakes and bacon. Sweeeet....! We then popped along to the Little White Wedding Chapel which seemed to be in honour of Elvis, with the realization that you could get married at the chapel drive-thru. We all decided that it wasn't the best place to renew our wedding vows on this particular occasion. Dinner later that night was at a Rainforest restaurant, which involved sitting very close to a noisy elephant (I will leave the rest to your imagination). The remainder of the trip was spent drinking, eating, gambling and swimming until we said our farewells in the hotel lobby - with Emily and Kris heading onto LA and us returning to Vancouver. Good times!

Sitting at Vancouver Airport... Next stop Vegas

Well, not quite... we have a stop over in Seattle on the way through to Las Vegas. However, the important thing is that we have cleared US customs and currently sitting in Vancouver Airport awaiting our flight. Exciting times ahead and really looking forward to see the new Mr and Mrs King for some fun and gambling.