The Three-Generations-Run

            I have been waiting, and hoping, for years for a three-generation-run. Sunday, September 20, 2015 was the day. Fleur-Ange and I drove up to Kingston, where my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter live last Friday in preparation for the Sunday run. Sunday was the Terry Fox Run in Canada and we had, as I remember, 5 different Terry Fox Runs in the Kingston area to choose from with distances of 2,3,5, and 10 kilometres to choose from. Rosalee, my granddaughter, made the choice of a 5 kilometre run. That run was on Howe Island.

            Howe Island is the fourth largest of the "Thousand Islands" group that is at the end of Lake Ontario and the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. The island is almost 13 km long and 5 km wide.  At the western end of the island is Spithead Road with a loop at the  end. It is almost exactly 5 km to run to the end of the loop and back to the start. (It's in yellow on the map below.)

            

                                Danielle, Eric, Rosalee, Dean before the run.

            My granddaughter, Rosalee, and I left Danielle and Eric behind early in the run but Danielle was determined to catch up.

            Danielle caught up with us just where Fleur-Ange was taking photos at about the 3.5 km point in the run. Danielle stayed with us for about a kilometre but dropped back as Rosalee put on a burst of speed at the end of the run. I was just able to keep up with Rosalee until the last ten metres when she put on a final spurt that left me a bit behind her. (Actually, we had passed the 5 km point according to my Garmin but she did not know that.) My Garmin sports watch recorded us as finishing the 5 km at 35:37.0 in a pace of 7:07/km. I think that is an excellent run for a 7 year old and not too bad for a 72 year old either. Danielle came in about 45 seconds behind us.