And so begins our adventure east (and north)
Often, I find it hard to know where to pick up after months of crickets – where do I start? How do I address this update? After some pondering, I chose to use May 2026 as this update’s starting point because that’s when our life really kicked into high gear!
Indeed, May brought of flurry of excitement, disappointment, tough decisions, relief and stress.
Cody and I started the month camping in Powell River. He had an Island Cup race, the first marathon-style race of the series, hosted by the Boomtown Bike Shop and the Qathet Regional Cycling Association. He planned a long-weekend trip to camp on a beachside site and ride bikes. I tagged along, taking advantage of any opportunity to visit the beautiful Sunshine Coast. The running and riding in the area are amazing, though I wasn’t sure how much running I’d be able to do.
Context: if we take a step back to the previous weekend, I raced the TC10k in a personal best time of 33:17 earning second place. We didn’t know it at the time, but an ultrasound later showed I strained my soleus at some point during the race. I like to think it was around 6-7km since that’s
when my pace started to falter a bit.
After a week of minimal running and persistent pain in my calf, I headed to Powell River with my mountain bike to offload the tissue and still get in some aerobic training. That area is so beautiful with hundreds of kilometres of trails, and we had a great weekend of warm temperatures, golden
sunsets and a fun race!
On the training front, my team knew it was going to be tight to recover and sharpen up before the 10k Championships in Ottawa on May 23. But it was my key race of the season, so we decided to go for it. When I landed in Ontario, I did many sessions on the bike with some ill-fated runs sprinkled in to try and salvage some turnover. Obviously, the lead into 10k Champs was far from ideal, but it’s one of my favourite races of the year and I had nothing to lose. The race went about as well as expected – I had one gear and it was not a fast one. I ended up finishing 14th in 34:48, well off what I had set out to do when we began planning for the season in January. But I was able to cross the finish line (which was an unknown heading into race week), I drove through some gorgeous Canadian shield country and visited with family and a good friend I hadn’t seen in years. At this point, my body and mind were
screaming for a break, so we decided to call the season.
That brings us to the last full week of May. We had our condo listed for sale since February and had prepared for over 30 showings. We were well over the process of keeping the apartment tidy and “un-lived” in. We also grew quite tired of people telling us we had construction in our backyard
(yes, we knew about it!) but stayed the course. After months of lots of interest but no bites, we decided with our realtor to take the apartment off the market at the end of the month, with plans of relisting in 2027 when the construction was closer to being finished. Then, seemingly out of thin air, we got an offer. Of course, I was in Ontario and Cody was on route to the famous seven-day monstrosity that is BC Bike Race. Thank goodness for Docusign! A three-week closing window triggered a fast and furious frenzy to get fully moved out with no place to go.
Well, sort of, and that brings me to the next update. We are bucking the east to west trend and are heading back to Ontario. We absolutely adore Vancouver Island but want to be closer to family – home has been tugging at us for a while now. It wasn’t an easy decision; we originally intended to stay around Victoria for a few more years when we first listed our condo, but after much deliberation, the timing now just seemed right. We’re not heading straight to Ontario though! Because we are completely uprooting our lives and Cody’s career, paired with the luxury to do so, we are embarking on a multi-month RV trip across Canada.
Since we moved to BC at the start of 2020, I have been dedicated exclusively to training and Cody has always held down a full-time job. While we’ve tried to make good use of our free time, we’ve not really seen much of this beautiful province. We are touring the Island for July and then will start slowly heading east (via some northly route) in August, making lots of stops along the way.
Everyone we’ve met in Victoria, including colleagues, friends, practitioners and coaches have been so supportive of this big move, which has made it all slightly less daunting. Already, it’s been quite the transition to trailer life – living in all of 150 square feet – but it has everything we need, and we are finally out of the city. Right now, we’re going with the flow without training calendars or racing schedules.
So far, we’ve been to Island View Beach Regional Park, just up the peninsula in Central Saanich, and Pedder Bay RV Resort and Marina, just west of Greater Victoria in Metchosin. Island View doesn’t have any hook ups, which is reflected in the per night rate. However, porta-potties and a potable water tank are provided for use, and the RV sites are a 30-second walk to the beach, with beautiful sunrises if you’re up at 5 a.m.
Pedder Bay is fully serviced, which is also reflected in the cost. We had water, electricity and sewer connections as well as Wi-Fi. The site is private and a decent size. Also, the property sits just south of the Galloping Goose, a major recreation corridor for walking, running and cycling. Trails lead from the campground to the Goose, so no road running is required. That’s a big perk for us!
Next, we’re heading further west before heading north. Stay tuned!
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