C town

My hometown is Canal Fulton, OH.  It is an adorably quaint place that boasts great pizza shops and cute ice cream parlors all over town.  I have some wonderful memories of Canal Fulton and I met some of the most amazing people in my life there.  If you find yourself in Canal Fulton you may end up at the famous Ohio & Erie Canal.  The town was obviously named for this small piece of history and us Canal Fultoners are pretty proud of it.  My little brothers even worked on the St. Helena III (or IV I can't remember if III sank) and dressed with straw hats and cut off capris.  Their attire was much like what I imagine Huck Finn would have worn.  I'm telling you, this place is adorable.

Here's a short history lesson on canals if you are unfamiliar with them.  Canals are man made and are about four feet deep.  They were built to transport goods and passengers throughout the state.  Along the canal is what is called a towpath where the horses pulled the canal boat.  With the invention of trains there really wasn't a need for canal boats anymore.  This is why when my brothers worked on the St. Helena they would shout "Death to the iron horse!" whenever they heard a train passing.

The people of Canal Fulton now use these paths for running, biking and walking.  As kids we used to spend a lot of time playing on the towpath and the parks it connected.  While we were training for Delaware, Sam and I ran it with my dad.  It was just before Easter and the signs of spring were showing on the banks of the canal.  It was a truly beautiful place to run.  As we run in between the canal and the Tuscarawas River we were greeted with the sounds and sights of all types of wildlife.  It was hot that day but it was nicely shaded and the surface was soft under our feet.  I remember talking to Sam after the race about how that run was the turning point in our training.  It really gave us a lot of momentum and strength to continue on.  Even though the scernery was beautiful it was the support of our mentor that made the difference that day.  Thanks dad!

My dad did much of his training on the towpath.  He adopted the out and back approach to his runs.  He would start in the middle, where he would leave his Gatorade, and run a mile out and back.  Then he would grab a drink and head the other direction, out a mile and back a mile.  This way he always knew a drink was only two miles away at the most.  When I started training for the Delaware marathon he advised me to adopt a similar approach.  I found two parks where I did the majority of my training, both had a one mile loop that I ran over and over and over and over...  It wasn't as bad as you may think.  I was able to do most of my training with my husband so I never really got bored with the parks.

Now that I am doing most of my training by myself the one mile loop is starting to get to me.  It started to get to the point that I was considering quitting my training.  But then I got the little push I needed from my mom.  She's really good at giving me a kick in the butt when I need it.  She offered to let me use my dad's old fuel belt. 

Now, I know that I've said in the past that all a runner needs to run is shoes and Vaseline or some sort of lube (seriously, the lube is sooo important when you are doing really long runs), but there are certainly things that make a runners life a lot easier like moisture wicking clothes, a running app on your iPhone, and let's not forget the fuel belt.  A fuel belt is a belt you wear that has water bottles attached to it.  It's kind of like a fanny pack on steroids.  Of all the running gear you could buy it is by far the dorkiest.  I remember when my dad first started using it.  He used to crack jokes about how nerdy he looked in it, but then he'd smile and put it on.  Sure it's dorky but it totally rocks.  I can run anywhere I want with this thing on.  I did a seven mile run on Saturday and I didn't even know where I was going to run when I headed out.  I ended up running downtown, along the river and back to Olde Towne and it was beautiful.  I don't care how dorky I look I love the fuel belt and I don't care who knows it!!!

You might be thinking to yourself that it's not fair of me to embrace the dorkiness of the fuel belt but berate my brother for his nerdy five finger foolishness shoes.  Ehhh...  Big sisters do a lot of unfair things to their little brothers.

The St. Helena III.  I can't guarantee that the guys in this photo are my brothers, but they definitely dressed just as adorable as the workers in this photo.  I love the suspenders Markie!