Day 163 – 41.5 km (total – 3507.7 km)

Pretty attractive eh?!

Well, I guess no one said this would all be fun and games!

I’m not going to lie… I feel in rough shape.

My left leg is having some issues, which has caused me to have to walk/run a bit in the last few days.  My new(ish) shoes have felt good for running but they don’t seem to enjoy the walking part of it… I have wicked blisters on the back of my heels.  I have choice words for the slope of the TCH in this part of Ontario.  My right foot can’t plant itself flatly.  As a result (in my opinion!), I have a nice little blister on my baby toe.  Covering myself in sunscreen doesn’t seem to be doing much… I still feel roasted by the sun.  Mentally, I’m tired.  And today, to avoid hitchhiking twice, I ran (and walked) 41 km in one go.  Not super fun!  You might be thinking… “haven’t you been doing this for 5 months?!?”  Yep!  But after 6 weeks of visiting schools and not running very much, my body is readjusting to the grind.  I hope.

Poor little baby toe!

Forgive me if it seems like I’m whining… there are some good things happening too!  I’ve been looking forward to turning west on H17 for awhile and today it came.  I have Lake Superior in my sight (metaphorically of course!) and seeing the open water of Nipissing was just a small taste of what’s to come.

A beautiful park I ran through this morning in the north end of North Bay.

At the end of today, I was bagged.  I got picked up within about 10 minutes.  Claude seemed to have other priorities on the go – so I kept quiet for a bit.  After a phone call, he asked what I was doing.  I told him and he looked at me in disbelief.  He went to make another call, and before I knew it, he was telling the person on the other line that they needed to interview me.  Long story short, he works for the Ministry of Tourism, whose focus right now is getting youth outside.  When I arrive in Sault Ste. Marie, we will connect!