Just when you thought it would be a boring post...

Before I ran this morning, the post was going to read something like this...

I was waiting for something exciting to happen to me this week, but it never did. Pretty boring week of running. I ran 30 miles this week, and had two days off, mostly because I've been fairly busy at work. I have made my committee, and hope to take my qualifying exam (read get my masters) in mid-march. So two days this week I didn't have enough time to run. Today I planned on running 5 miles in the morning by myself, and then another 2 in the afternoon with my dog. I've been thinking about what running/canoeing races that I am going to do this year. Well, I don't really plan on doing a lot of running races, save the lilac 10k (which is right outside my door - so WHY NOT!) plus its a fun thing to do. But I've debated on doing the Rochester half marathon - which is 3 weeks or so before the wineglass - just as something to do. I'll consult coach Gillespie about that one later. Other than that, its been a fairly boring week. Bailey and I didn't get arrested...Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches for lunch...watching my buddy Zach Ellis wrestle at counties today, we are going to the finals (just got back from the semi's which he dominated). Too cold to paddle...

BUT...While I was running today, and thinking how I should probably write something on this, and how boring it was going to be to read... a man on a UNICYCLE passed me. It is 23 degrees, and a man (I'd say in his late 40's early 50's) in a wool sweater and a little beanie hat, road by me on a unicycle. How cool is that? Really cold I bet. It reminded me of when Gma and Gpa saw the guy playing an acccordian in his car while driving. He even went up and around the reservoir! Its sometimes kind of neat to live in the city.

It's time to take Bailey out for his little run. He's getting pretty fast, faster than me for sure! Maybe HE should run the marathon :)

Have a good rest of the weekend!

To google or not to google.

I've heard through the grapevine that perhaps people were a little upset that I put up pictures of where I run and my name etc. Never fear, I"m not stupid... This website is not available through any search engines etc. The only way someone could randomly end up here is if they for whatever reason typed the correct address by accident. Try it for yourself - even googling canoegalholly or canoegalholly.blogspot.com will not return it.

Not to make anyone scareder...but what would be much more worrysome, if one were want to be a worrier would be: the fact that I run at the same place, at the same time, everyday. But alas - i'm not stupid about it.

I'm not going to stay inside and be scared about things either, life's too short. Have a good few days - I'm sure I'll have more adventures soon.

Wanted Dead or Alive.

Yep, GG and Bailey are now criminals. Wanted suspects. Don't let the cute face fool you, that dog is really el diablo negro. As I said before, Bailey and I go for walks at Washington Grove every morning, which is actually on the east side of the reservoir that I took pictures of last week. On saturday we went for our walk as normal, but there are wooden steps that lead up to the park, they were all iced over. All the dogs walk in the park without leashes even though the sign says that all dogs must be leashed (you can see where this is going) and so does Bailey, you all know that Bailey isn't going to leave my side, he has this fear of being left alone, so he is never farther than a stones throw from me if he can help it. At any rate, I let him off his leash and we went for our little two mile walk. I was thinking to myself as I was walking, what would happen if we got caught. Well I was about to find out. I usually put him on his leash before the wooden steps, but they were super icy (even with my YakTrakkers on, the best 20 dollars I ever spent) So I thought that I would wait til I got to the bottom to put him back on his leash, so he didn't pull me down the ice.

...And of course, the animal control van drives by. I call Bailey and hurriedly put him on his leash, spilling my coffee all over the place. The woman "Ossifer" got out of her vehicle and said, "Ma'am at any time during your walk did your dog get aways from you" No ma'am. "Excuse me?" OK you got me now I'm scared "I know that he was off his leash, but was he away from you at any time during your walk?" No he was right by me the whole time. "Well we got a call from Hillside and there was a black dog on the loose and I'm pretty sure it was yours" Long story short, she read me the riot act, and told me that I COULD NOT DO THAT, and let me go with a warning.

GO FIGURE...this stuff only happens to me.

So, I'm not going to walk Bailey on a leash, I just don't think its necessary, if she gives me a ticket so be it, I'll just be sure to put his leash on him when we get closer to the road, I really don't think that she is going to hunt me down in the woods. HOWEVER, this does not stop me from being the biggest anxious nervous nellie while walking him now!

As for running, I didn't do too much this weekend, usually on the weekends I've been running with Bailey, he must have been shaken up by the police ossifer on saturday, he didn't want to go with me, but on Sunday, Bailey buckled down and ran 5 miles with me. He usually runs about 15-20 miles a week, and he's pretty silly about it, somedays he really wants to go. And when he sees that Marc or I are getting our running sneakers on he won't let us out of his sight. And other days, he will run to his bed and ignore us. So we only take him when he wants to go of course.

We all went paddling on Saturday in our warmest clothes, it wasn't TOO cold on saturday, but it was windy, so windy infact that Jason and I weren't thinking and we untied the canoes and then started taking one of them off and the other two (mine and marcs) flew off the other end. Mine got a few big dents in it, but its just my practice boat so it doesn't matter too much.

On a technical note, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to "respond to comments" so i just commented below your comment? I guess that's what I'm supposed to do.

BRRR its cold out today - keep warm... and Patriots - all the way :)

Cobbs Hill Reservoir

Today is pretty blustery, no lie. As a matter of fact, Bailey and I go for a walk every morning at Washington Grove (a very small "forest" in Rochester) and when we got there this morning, the trees were swaying ALOT and saying I dare you to come in here little girl, so Bailey and I went on our merry way, elsewhere.

I'm pretty tired, I've run a lot this week, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to bring the camera along and take a few pictures of where I run most of the time.

I normally run around Cobbs Hill Resevoir, which is about 1.3 miles from my apartment. Their is a walking trail that goes around the reservoir itself, and a one-way road that goes around that. When you turn out of my apartment there is the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School which is a beautiful building, from their I turn right on Highland down to the corner of Highland and Monroe and go up to the top of Cobbs Hill.

This is the path I take to get up to the top of it, and yes, it is as steep as it looks! Marc and the guys at the forge practice for canoeing portages here, because its a lot like running up the side of a dam. The view at the top is worth it (but of course you could just as easily take the road on the other side of the dam).




This is the building at the top. I'm not sure what it is used for presently, I think just storage.


If the mood strikes you, you can do a little Rocky movie antics up the stairs :)


















This is the reservoir, in the summer, they turn the fountain on. It is currently, I believe, Rochester's drinking water and the building on the other side is for communications.


This is said walking path that I run on, you can see on the other side, the other tall hill in Rochester, used for all the radio towers.




And this, is the view from the top, the Rochester skyline, if you look closely (my camera didn't capture it too good, but you can see the new "Freddy Sue Bridge"(Frederick Douglass, Susan B Anthony Memorial Bridge) and the Xerox building, it really is neat to see- almost makes you proud to be a Rochesterean!

I guess thats it for now! Have a great weekend - I'll be checking in again next week!!!

Blog - for me - NO!

Wow, who would have thought! Me, Holly, starting a web-log. But alas, I have given in, and decided that in my quest to do the wineglass marathon on October 5th, 2008, and hopefully turn in a respectable time, I'd start this blog to keep my family (especially Grandpa) up-to-date on my trials and tribulations! This all works out great, since Grandpa and Grandma got their new faster internet connection, they'll be able to keep track of me, and know that i'm working hard on this Christmas present that keeps on giving! More to come - once I've got this "blogging" thing figured out!