Vancouver Colour Run

I have been waiting to do this since I first got to Canada. There was one in Seattle shortly after we arrived but it sold out in seconds. I think the novelty has worn off a little since it started, as this one wasn't hard to get tickets for. YES!

We didn't make an Australia on purpose, but it's cool!

The Gold and Green Machine was our team, and there was 12 of us that ran/walked on the team. The Colour Run was held at the PnE in Vancouver which isn't the best location. I think Colour Me Rad (just another version) is held at UBC which would be a bit nicer. We were following witches hats around a big concrete area for a lot of the run, which meant we just cut across. It was kinda silly.

The colour part through was awesome. Just running through doesn't really get you super colourful, but we worked out pretty quickly you can just pick up handfuls of the colour powder and use that to throw/smear at each other. There was a big group of us which meant a lot of people throwing colour at you... which meant we looked pretty amazing by the end. We had perfect weather for it, not raining and not so hot you were a sweaty brown slime by the end.

I think this run has got a fair bit of negative press recently, as it's clearly more of a money making scheme disguised as a charity run. This is obvious, but it doesn't make it any less fun! If you realise you're just paying $45 for a fun day and some awesome photos, it doesn't seem so bad.

Below are some videos we made, posted here for the parentals who don't have Instagram :) - side note: does anyone else hate it when people take blurry photos for you? You touch the screen to focus?! Not hard.

Taco Twerk for the Labour Day Long Weekend

This weekend seems like ages ago, and really it's been a while. While O'Hara was busy training for another Mine Rescue competition, I decided to take a mini-break to LA for a long weekend. I only just discovered that I can fly directly from Kelowna (a 2hr drive away) for the same as it costs from Vancouver or even Seattle! Huge fail taking so long to work that out. It also means we can go during winter and not need to brave the Coq.

This was a last minute decision trip, as Rachel had just told me her family was having a Taco Party for Labour Day. It doesn't take much to convince me to take a trip to visit Rachel, so the promise of a beach weekend with a taco party meant I only needed to briefly check flights to work out it would be a good time.

LA put on some awesome weather for us while I was there, I tried once again to use a standup paddle board but failed even worse than in the lake. I can't quite work out my centre of balance, which should really be surprising considering the giant nature of my body. On the Sunday morning in preparation from the taco party, Rachel's dad hosted a cross fit class for the 10 people who were keen to work out. It ended up being a competition between 2 teams of 5, where each person had to get to 250 points by doing various exercises. I thrive under competition (shock!), so didn't really feel like I was working out super hard. That turned out to be a huge understatement as I struggled to walk, and lift things for the next 5 days. As they say, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

One of my favourite things about living in Canada, is being able to see American friends more than once every 3 years. I love that I can visit Rachel and her family for a weekend, you don't know what being hosted is like until you've spent time with this family! I now recognise US Customs workers at Vancouver airport, so I think that's a sign I am utilising my living arrangements perfectly (except that we STILL haven't been to GA!).