Bluenose weekend will be a family event

This weekend is the Bluenose Marathon Weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia and once again, I'm going to run something.  This year, I am tapering for a marathon in Ottawa so for Bluenose I'm going to run the 5k race.  I have two other sisters, Debbie and Ronda, and Ronda's daughter, Lindsey, that are also running Ottawa with me so they are running the 5k too as part of our taper program.  Then I had the big idea to get my whole family involved.  My oldest sister, Martha, had done the 5k walk a few years back so I knew I could get her involved again.  Now just to get her to run, rather than walk.  And Martha's daughter, Emma, will be around and I think she's planning to run. 

Martha relunctantly said yes but that she is very busy, at which she is, but I said that we needed to get some of our nieces involved.  Rachel, Debbie's granddaughter, has taken up the challenge.  She is now 13 and she has participated in the Doctors Youth Run a few times so she's capable of 4k for sure.  I don't know if they've ever done any training together but Martha has mentioned a couple of times that she's gotten out for a run once in awhile. 

Debbie had emailed a bit ago and asked if we were all going to run together or run our own race (she's the competitive one of the bunch, especially when it comes to Martha beating her at something).  Kidding, Debbie!! if you happen to read this.  I responded that I would run with Martha..."I'm planning to run it with Martha so I'm expecting another PB if she's actually running this time.  Her walking pace was crazy fast a couple years ago when we did it, so I'm expecting that since she's never run with us to pace herself, she's probably expecting to beat every old person, stroller-pusher, wheelchair, and whoever else might be in her sites.  :)"

So here we are, a week before the race, hotels are booked, race registrations paid, pasta dinner tickets, check, now just to get there.  I am headed over to the mainland from Prince Edward Island with Ronda.  There are also a great group of women that I run with in PEI that are coming too.  We call ourselves the Island Girls and we've got our new shirts and carpool schedule planned.  There are even a few newbies that are going to be running their first 10k race, so the excitement is building.  We have birthdays among our group to celebrate this weekend, so for those runners staying for the Molson Canadian 67 post-race party, lookout, it's going to be awesome. 

I'm excited to be running with my three sisters, two nieces, and a grand-niece this year.  Maybe I need to make some sort of SISTERS are SPECIAL signs for our shirts, or I'M WITH STUPID SISTER with an arrow left and right so that when we cross the finish line, others will know that we did this as a family.  Next year, I'll work harder at convincing our one and only brother and his twins to join us too.