Oh my aching body....I feel old today :p

My dh and I were in a race on the weekend, not a Marathon (although it felt like one to me), it was our churches annual "Amazing Race". The race isn't around our province (although it would be fun), but it is around our city (that is big enough for me) :)! Family and friends looked after our 3 children, so we could do this race together which was great for us to do as a couple even though I thought I would be holding my dh back.
The race started at our church at 9:00 a.m. in the pouring rain, *Clue#1* we had to run off down the hill from our church to a malls parking lot to find our drivers... *Clue #2*then we had to goto a local beach (First Lake in Sackville)to do a challenge. When we got there it turned out that the challenge was in the sand, one team member had to dig in a 2 foot by 2 feet square (each team had their own square) to find 3 marbles. We were the second team done, we got our clue (read it outloud) and then we went to a warf where a familiar fisherman was (Dewolfe park in bedford) and there we got our next clue.
It is still raining, Clue#3 was to goto the mapped out area on the map provided in our clue and to go door to door collecting food (50 lbs) for the local foodbank...we were in the rain for about an hour or two doing this challenge. I got people not at home, or people claiming the don't have any cans of food in their homes ( I nearly demanded to see their cupboards in their kitchens). My dh got LOADS of food, I got like 6 cans of food which I thought was kinda sad if you ask me :(!! Once we got what we thought was 50 lbs we had to drive to the local food bank to weigh in, if you were under 50 lbs you could either take a time penalty or go back to your subdivision and get more food (most areas were 15-20 min from the bank). Ours was under 50lbs, we were about to accept the time penalty, when one of the workers at the food bank noticed our box was part on the lip of the counter and when he moved it off we had 52 lbs of food :).
We got clue #4, which was to goto the local well known womans institute in Metro (Mount Saint Vincent University) and go into the main building to find an inspiring student walking the halls. Clue #5 was to head to the only train station in the city (downtown Halifax) to have a manditory pitstop (lunch break), we were the first one's there and will be the first to leave but we had 1 team hot on our tails. We were the first to leave at 11:50 a.m. from the train station, we had to figure out Henry Thornton's (the President of CN Rail years and years ago) age when he died from a plaque in the train station and also from information online. We had to go find a internet room in the hotel that was connected to the station, once we got the info from online we had to log into Facebook with the e-mail addy provided and use the guys age when he died for the password. We had a bit of trouble with that, because after 3 tries the Facebook shuts down and you have to re- enter the password...plus, we weren't told that we had to type out his age (sixty two, not 62) all the other teams caught up with us. We finally got into the site, watched a video of this building in downtown Halifax...it was Pete's Fruitique...where we had to go find the Sushi bar there. My dh lovingly did this challenge but was complaining about it for the rest of the day...lol, he had to eat 3 sushi roll things and just as he was starting to do that the other team showed up. We finnished first! Drizzling, not raining at this point!
Clue #6, was for us to find the Beavertail building to sell some beaver tails (yummy pastry, wishing that we could have eaten some of those myself) to some tourists walking by during "Busker festival" (it is where performers come from all over the world and perform for people on the waterfront). Anywho, it took us not even 4 minutes to sell 3 beaver tails to tourists...I was worried there since I knew the other team was hot on our trail!! stopped raining and drizzling!
Clue #7, was for us to find a monument that had pieces of both the Great wall of China and the Berlin wall somewhere on the waterfront. We had to take the ferry over to Dartmouth, and this is where 2 other teams caught up with us. While on the ferry this lady and her hubby kept looking at me...walking by and whispering etc. Lol, it turns out that she thought I was the spitting image of her best friend...and she wanted a picture of me to show her best friend...so she took a picture of me with her cell phone (weird, I have twins running around the city again). Well, that is on the Dartmouth side of the waterfront where the "Peace Pavillion" is located to get our next clue. Not raining
Clue #7, stated we had to goto a local park to the Fairbank center and find some people on a trail that intersects the Canada trail. We were given a vague map, but there is a great huge sign at the enterance to this park that has a map of it and will show you exactly where to go. We ran past the sign because we sort of knew where to go, plus we met a lovely couple on the trail walking their dog who helped us get to our destination. We got our clue from them, on our way back to our driver we passed that other team running quickly...by the time we were pulling away from the parking lot the other team was right there getting into their car. It was raining through this challenge!
Clue #8, we were to goto the local place in Dartmouth that has entertainment for families and we are to play the "Cat and Mouse" game. When we pulled up to the movie theatre in Dartmouth Crossings (it is a new business park), employees of the theatre came to our cars and escorted us into the theatre with umbrellas because it was pouring. Lol, felt like we were getting the royal treatment which was kinda nice! Once we got 20 tickets from the "Cat and Mouse" game (it is one of those games where you have to bop a mouse on the head when it pops up out of a hole), we got our next clue at the counter.
Clue #9 we had to goto a furniture place that has a mans name as the store name (Leons in Burnside business park), and do a challenge. When we got there it was a test of how well we knew our partners, my dh got into a car to answer 3 questions and then I had to get in to answer them how he would. Let's just say that took a bit to do too, finally I got the right answer combo and we were off with our final clue. Still pouring!!
Clue #10 Still raining, goto the church basically but stated in a fancy way :p! So we drove back to the church as fast as we could, pulled into the parking lot and sure enough we were TEAM #1...the other team would have been there sooner but they had to stop due to a train going by. They were 5 min behind us! We don't win anything big, what we do win is to have our name put on a plaque that will be hung up somewhere in the church...and the title of course of winning the "Amazing Race".
Let me give you some background info here...I used to play LOTS of sports when I was in High school, and 2 almost 3 years ago I did run in the "Run for the Cure" run in Halifax. Lol, but I haven't run since then...the only running I do is after my children :p! So, I am NOT a fast runner or a good long distance runner either...so this race was hard for me to do but I pushed myself to do it. So when I woke up the next day, I couldn't walk hardly at all without shooting pains running down my legs and hips...I looked like I should have been 89 not 29 :p!
Yesterday afternoon we went for a hike (I was totally against this idea, since I could barely move let a lone lift my legs up high to get up hills), but my dh told me that he knew I could do it and it would work out kinks in my legs. I fell for that part about the working out of kinks, when I knew full well that it would infact make me worse today...well, we went on a nice long hike...2k hike with kind of rough terrain. We had a snack at the end of our hike in, then 3 of us had a swim in the lake we hiked into and then we hiked back out.
This morning, I am worse...I can hardly move...I am walking like I need a walker to aid me...but I must say I did have a blast in the race and on the hike even though I am in this pain now and am going to do the race again next year :D!