Joseph...

With the most recent road race completed and leaving me with two toenails hanging on for dear life, a blister on the bottom of my foot, and two nipples that make the shirt up against them feel like a cheese grater, one would have to question why it is we do this to ourselves. Luckily, the answer became quite clear during the event.

The Bluenose 10-K was an out and back course that brought participants across the MacDonald Bridge into Dartmouth and then across again back to Halifax. The neat thing about out and backs is that slower runners meet face-to-face with faster runners who have already turned around to complete the "back" portion of the race.

After completing the Dartmouth segment, I turned and headed down the hill to the bridge to take me back to the finishing side of the course. As I reached the bottom, I came face-to-face with the answer to why I do this. Coming up the hill with only one leg, two crutches, and a smile as wide as Halifax Harbour, was a 10-K racer. The look of determination on his face as he pounded his crutches into the pavement is something I will not soon forget. Joseph finished the event in a little over two hours, proving again, that the human spirit can bend, but can never be broken.

And that is why we do this to ourselves.

My favourite time of year...

Only in Canada's far east does the start of training for a 10-mile summertime race, and the removal of outdoor Christmas lights, fall on the same weekend. Regardless of the misery that is our weather this time of year, the start of Tely 10 training, is for me, almost as magical as Christmas is for most other people.

There's the hustle and bustle of runners, new and old, returning to the streets; red noses warn by those brave souls who venture out for a quick loop at sunrise; and the chance to catch up with running buddies who all but disappeared with the first snowfall last year.

If only there were presents.