Taking Advantage of the Strong US Dollar

There's no getting out of it now, I guess. Back in October when I signed up for this damn race I was pretty sure that something would happen so that I wouldn't be able to race. I mean, chances were pretty high that:

• Bush would so thoroughly alienate every other country in the world that we wouldn't be welcome in Canada
• Enough Americans would flee to Vancouver to escape the Bush regime that there simply wouldn't be room for us to visit
• The US dollar would crash so far that my entry fee would double and we wouldn't be able to afford the pre-race pasta feed.

To be fair, all three almost happened.

But now here I am, healthy (no broken bones or torn muscles), trained (400 miles so far this year), and rested (funny how less stressful this year of my life has been. Hmmmm.)

So The Colleague and I are off to meet Cap'n Ron and Mrs. Cap'n Ron in Vancouver. The Colleague can visit some of the money she left there last time she visited. Cap'n and I will lace up the racing flats and join 5,000 some other idiots at the starting line of the 37th Vancouver Marathon. We'll be somewhere in Stanley Park when the Kenyans waltz across the finish line, but we'll get there.Here's a marathon course in context.

4,216,481.28 centimeters
1,660,032 inches
138,336 feet
46,112 yards
42,164 meters
42.164 kilometers
26.2 miles

The piece I can't figure out is how the course officials get away with making the first 18 miles actual miles, while the last 8.2 miles are actually 15 miles long. Weird, that.

I hope the "Your Are Not Kenyan" sign guy is there. He's my favorite. I am NOT Kenyan. True that.

Now, where did I put my Loonies.