Swiss Jura Day 4

Well you can't blame me for trying. I desperately tried today to make it to the end but I was still 10 minutes to late. I feel great about it, is rare since anybody that knows me, can tell you I am not the best looser.

Feel good for two reasons, I gave it all I got and I was still running strong. As usual we got up at 4am, breakfast at 5, pack your belongings and start at 7. I awoke around 1am to a thunderstorms, we were sleeping at a tennis complex and the sound of rain on the tin roof woke me up, it rained solid until the just before the start of the race, not a good sign if you are hoping to better you previous time, I remember thinking, if that's not a sign that its all over I don't know what it is. It was worth it if only to see competitor Joerg Schreiber from Germany running on his speedo, nothing rare if you were in Iron Man but not here in the mountains and he also tucked his wallet, and mp3 player on it.

Today's stage was 47K long with +2020 total ascend and -1770 total descend. I run very well the first 14k, not far from second and third female, it looked very promising, the second checkpoint was a bit harder to get to on time because of the climbing and the incredibly slippery conditions. My lungs burned trying to get enough oxygen like an asthmatic at a smoky bar. I missed the checkpoint by 10 minutes. I was disappointed but I am still glad that I am still healthy to finish the seventh continent if for a shorter distance. Now for Rob Fransen's followers, he is still running strong after four days, and i stand corrected he said is not a blister that is bothering him but a swollen toe, I saw him finish today and he is sure looking strong and having fun, he is going to make Canada proud.

I wanted to try hard, I wanted everybody to know I didn't take things for granted. My fundraising has been extremely successful, not entirely by me, Mr. Brett Wilson's famous garden party did a record fundraising of $110,000 dollars for 777 Run For Sight. I think that his celebrity status and the fact that his beautiful and talented girlfriend, singer and song writer Sarah McLachlan who performed at the party where a mayor factor of why people were so generous but the reason doesn't matter, I am glad we successfully passed our fundraising goal, cnib, Foundation Fighting Blindness and Operation Eyesight do amazing work and deserve every penny. I saw my series sponsor Bolt Supply's President Mr John McCann at the party, now here is an amazing story, Bolt Supply sponsored my series not because they want to convince people to buy their fancy shoes or anything, but for the simple reason they believe in investing in the community.

I now move to the 175K distance, I am still feeling healthy so I am expected to finish the race and accomplish my record on time. At this moment I haven't really had time to think about what it all means, at this point I am still taking it one day at a time. As usual we gather around the diner table talking about how our day was, like we are one big family, we become close event though we are complete strangers because we rely on each other so much. All of a sudden the world seems a lot smaller now that I have a much larger family.