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You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table

Training in Flagstaff

Before I get into a tale of a very epic dinner on the town I’ll give you a quick update on my training.  Recovery from the 30km went well, my hamstring feels much better although there are a few little niggles to straighten out (tight diaphragm, annoying rib head in my back and a wonky knee cap) .  Thankfully Ron O’hare came out here today (at least he should be in Flagstaff by now) and will offer his special physio skills to get the kinks out.  I had one good workout and one pretty good workout this week as well as a 45km long run.  The long run was actually my longest ever by time as I ran longer than 3 hours.

On Thursday we (Kyle Boorsma, Taylor Milne, Eric Gillis and myself) decided to go to Dara Thai restaurant in town (great place btw).  We also invited Dylan Wykes and the Belgians (Pieter Desmet, Jeroen D’Hoedt and Koen Naert). In 2008 we went to this same restaurant with Pieter, Jeroen and a couple other Belgians.  I think it was their first time to America, and a Thai restaurant, because all four of them ordered fried shrimp and didn’t know about tipping.

Anyways, back to 2012… the Belgians arrived at 7pm for our 6:30 dinner and within a couple of minutes Jeroen is talking smack about how fast he’s going to run this year in the 1500.  Milne is taken aback by the sheer cockiness and they enter a debate which ends with them making a bet on who will run faster this year over 1500m between the two of them.  The reason why this bet is consequential is because said bet is for $1000!  That is a lot of dinero for us runners!

I will put updates on this blog for both Milne’s and Jeroen’s races this season, stay tuned.  Note: Jeroen’s PB is 3:36.07 (2011) and Milne’s is 3:36.00 (2008). Interestingly Milne ran 3:36.71 in the same race as Jeroen’s PB.

Since we’re all in a betting mood by now it only makes sense to play credit card roulette.  There are 8 of us so we decide to pull two cards out of a touque to split the $142 bill (including tax and tip) two ways.  We get the waitress to pull out the cards one at a time. The first is a black Aeroplan card which both Gillis and I have so we both get out of our seats to take a closer look and sure enough it’s mine.  Then the second card is pulled and once again it’s a black card, Gillis doesn’t bother to read the name this time, he knows.

Yesterday we drove down to Phoenix for a track meet at ASU.  Good results from a lot of Canadians. Jason Dunkerly hit the paralympic standard in the 1500m running 4:08.  Malindi Elmore won the 1500m in 4:16, Dana Buchanan 4:21, Rachel Cliff 4:30.  Nate Brannen won the 1500 in 3:39, Martinson 3:41, Boorsma 3:43, Alex Genest 3:47, Chris Winter 3:50.  Lemlem won the 800m in 2:02 and Hilary Stellingwerff was right behind her in 2:02.92.

Gumby cacti on the way down to Phoenix

Graham Hood, Eric Gillis, Reid Coolsaet, Alex Genest, Taylor Milne, Kyle Boorsma, Chris Winter

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