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MEC Victoria Race THREE 2018
In front of the Hatley Castle on Royal Roads University Campus after I completed 10K with MEC Victoria Race THREE. This morning was my third 10K race and first time running without kids/running stroller. It turns out I can run nine minutes quicker without all the distractions from my kids. My last 10K race, 2018 Blueshore Financial Mothers Day Run took 1:12:37, probably because I stopped every couple kilometers to check on my kids. My goal for this run was +/-1:05:00 and I surprised myself when I completed the run in 1:03:44 (chipped time).
Okay guys, you should probably stop reading here because you might not want to hear what I have to say next. I totally leaked on the run. That’s right, I had a nice wet stain on my navy blue shorts and thank goodness I was wearing a longer shirt. But you know what? I don’t care, I’m going to own it because I’m a mother who gave birth to two children in less than two and a half years. So, yeah, I’m totally going to leak because things are not what they use to be down there and I’m terrible for doing my Kegels. Others ran past me with sweaty backs and soaked shorts from swass (sweaty ass) which made me feel better. Absolutely nothing wrong with that right?!
The 10K race route from my Garmin Vívoactive 3 Smartwatch. MEC Victoria Race THREE 2018 took place at Royal Roads in Colwood, BC (Greater Victoria). The area is known for the Hatley Castle and the Royal Roads University. If you want to read more about the Hatley Castle, click here. Movies such as Deadpool, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men 2 and many more have been filmed at the castle so it’s kind of a big deal. The race started along the lagoon which was such a nice spot other than how chilly it was. I didn’t want to take off my long-sleeved shirt and many other runners looked cold. I sucked it up and left my long-sleeved shirt in the car and ran in shorts and a tank. It didn’t take long for my body to warm up and the first half of the the run was sheltered from the breeze. Each kilometer was marked out along the way. The route was a mix of trail and road with 116m elevation gain (according to my Gamin Vívoactive 3 Smartwatch). There were aid stations every 2.5-3.0K through the race providing water and electrolytes.
There was plenty of parking when I arrived at 8:15AM (10K race started at 9:00AM) with $1.00/hour parking (except we were all lucky and received free parking because the machines weren’t working). The volunteers for the race were awesome and so were the pre-race and post-race snack and drinks provided by sponsors.
I paid $15 for the race which included a bib and 10% off all regular-priced MEC purchases (excludes clearance, markdown and Blundstone items) during in-store bib pick-up times. All you needed to do was show the cashier your bib to receive the discount. I was really impressed with the MEC race and I would highly recommend trying it out if you haven’t already. It was my first race with MEC and I plan on registering for more in the future!
Race Day Timing results from my last two races. Note: the 2018 Blueshore Financial Mothers Day Run – 10K was with a running stroller. -
Baby jail, baby jail, baby jail!
The baby jail! Also known as the North State Super Yard purchased from Amazon.ca. Our baby jail— I mean, North State Super Yard Gate has arrived! My friend, Sophie has one and after I saw it, I knew we needed one for Blake. I bought our Super Yard from Amazon.ca for $120 (original price of $150 at the time of purchase on September 24, 2016). I recently looked on Amazon to see how much it’s going for today and it’s $200! Wow! I usually shop around and look at prices for a while before I purchase an item and the Super Yard has always been around $150.
Blake has been army crawling around everywhere. She’s been pulling papers from the coffee table, going after the dog’s toys and water dish… basically getting herself into places I don’t want her to be. I needed something to keep her in a safe place while I was doing little things like going to the washroom for more than three minutes, getting myself dressed, laundry, making meals, the list goes on. It’s been a challenge prepping dinner in two minute intervals— Here I am, slicing raw chicken and I have my baby army crawling turbo speed to the dog’s water dish. Judging her speed and distance, I have 10 seconds to power wash my hands with soap and run over before there is water all over the place. Place her back on her play mat and do it again two minutes later. Now do this about five more times before the cooking begins.
Initially, when I was setting up the Super Yard, I felt really bad that she wasn’t going to be able to crawl freely around our place. Once I placed her in with all her toys, that feeling went away. She loved it! She went from army crawling to sitting and playing with all her toys. She has always been able to sit unassisted for a period of time but it seemed the second I placed her into the Super Yard, she was more interested in sitting than army crawling. Also, in the time we’ve had it, she has gone from sitting to crawl position and back to sitting position. Pretty exciting mom moment. I love this baby jail already! Milestones!
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BreathableBaby Breathable Mesh Crib Liner
When you go into your baby’s room and see this…
Finding Blake asleep in her crib with her limbs stuck. You end up spending all night researching and reading reviews on the best crib bumpers there are and run to the store the next day to prevent the same thing from happening the following night. The crib bumpers/liners with the best reviews that satisfied what I wanted was BreathableBaby Breathable Mesh Crib Liner. I was able to find them at Babies “R” Us for $30. Initially, I wanted the Grey Safari with cute animal prints on it, but unfortunately (or fortunately!), they didn’t have any at the store, so I settled for White. I was telling my friend Maisy about my White colour purchase instead of the Grey Safari and she made a great point— it’s good to get white because the prints will distract baby from sleeping. I’m really glad I bought these crib liners to keep Blake’s limbs from hanging out of the crib; however, it isn’t very compatible my IKEA SUNDVIK crib.
BreathableBaby Breathable Mesh Crib Liners on our IKEA SUNDVIK crib with solid ends It appears BreathableBaby Breathable Mesh Crib Liners were designed to fit cribs without solid ends. If you want to see an installation video on the crib liners and what they are suppose to look like on a crib without solid ends, click here. There are three places on the liner where you tie a string around a crib rail so the liner doesn’t fall into the crib. We were only able to use one of three ties on each liner because the ties were behind the solid pieces (see photos). Okay! So I read reviews on Amazon and Babies “R” Us and thought… there must be a better way to wrap this liner around the crib (that other reviewers hadn’t tried) and I’m totally going to buy the liner and try it anyways (knowing the cribs with solid ends didn’t have very good reviews with this liner). Well, after I bought them myself and tried it, there is absolutely no way to hack this crib liner to make it work well! I tried so many different ways to make it work and you can’t win with this.
Note the ties on the liners are useless as they are hidden behind both solid ends. - I tried to wrap the liner along the inside instead of the outside and it shortened the length of the crib way too much. Now when Blake squirms up to the end, her head bumps the solid ends.
- It didn’t matter where I started the crib liner, two gaps were going to be there and no matter what, Blake ended up finding it. I chose to start it on the end she doesn’t sleep at often and went from there. If you have a crib without solid ends, you shouldn’t get the open gaps like the two I have.
- Due to the lack of strings to tie down the liner, Blake has hacked it and can push the liner down with her hands and feet to see out.
Blake finds her way to one of two openings in the crib… in her sleep. In the end, it turns out it doesn’t matter what I do to help prevent her limbs from finding the gaps in the crib rails. It appears she’ll always find a way. Even if she’s asleep.
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Baby jail, baby jail, baby jail!
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Chariot Cougar 2
The Chariot Cougar 2 with the strolling kit (two smaller wheels in front) In April, we bought a used Chariot Cougar 2 (a stroller used for jogging, cycling, skiing, and hiking) off Craigslist for $585 (included a bike attachment). In hindsight, I should’ve negotiated a lower price for a used stroller. Sometimes I’m so nice, I forget to negotiate the price because I think I’m already getting a good deal. I really hope I didn’t overpay for a used stroller but as long as I use it enough, it shouldn’t matter how much I paid. On top of the $585 we spent on the stroller, I had to buy a jogging wheel at MEC for $130. The Chariot Cougar 2 fits two children, or one child and a dog (in my case) which is why I got the Chariot Cougar 2 instead of Chariot Cougar 1. It’s in fairly good condition and I’m excited to use it. Unfortunately for me, my friend Karly has the same one and they only paid $180 for it… she mentioned it’s in rough shape but $180!? What a deal! It’s $800 new and after GST and PST it works out to be $896 excluding the bike and jogging attachment. Add a bike attachment $100 (+GST/PST $112) and jogging wheel $130 (+PST/GST $146), a new stroller would cost $1,154. Calculating everything out, I feel a bit better knowing I paid half the price of a new one.
The Chariot Cougar 2 taking up our walkway entrance in our tiny condominum. However, this stroller is a bit too large for our 750 sq ft condo. I’m going to have to fold it up every time I go through the door frame and I feel like it’s a bit too wide for sidewalks by our place. My husband, Miles is going to be very disappointed with me if I don’t use this! I thought storing it in the bike locker in our parkade was a good idea except it’s a bit too big and I can’t find a good place on the stroller to put a lock on. I think these strollers were made for people with garages and backyards. In addition to buying a jogging wheel, I had to purchase an infant sling (fits 1-10 months). They retail for $100 new and I bought one off Craigslist for $50 used.