A bunch of us had signed up for "On Deck for the Cure" -- a non-competitive 5K walk on deck. For $15 you got a shirt, a wristband, and made a donation to Komen. Win win win. So we all met at the appointed time with a bunch of other folk.. and starting doing our laps. We quickly realized that most people weren't doing all nine laps. :) But Javi and Wil and I strolled around together, chatting with others. And when I say strolled, perhaps I mean sprinted:
Yes, that's right -- 26.21 miles in 55:16. (Hooray for capturing a "Garmin at Sea"!)
That afternoon was the final reception and award ceremony. After some chatter (and a bit of drinking...), we all received our medals to much whooping and hollering. Then John and Jenny gave out the awards.
The overall awards (for closest to their predicted times) went to Page and Roy (or was it Bill? sorry!) We were sitting next to Becky (Roy's wife) when he was announced, and she said, "I don't think he knew that!" Nice!
Then the four "special" awards. First came Inspiration, which went to Merle. With 104 (109?) marathons under her belt, her years of coaching, and the fact that she really was a pioneer for women's running. She received an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Next came Perspiration, when went to Stella. Always energetic, right down to running several extra miles in Ketchikan.
Then Dedication, which went to.... WIL! John praised Wil for sticking with it, doing more and more each day despite his burned foot. People laughed and cheered. Mike leapt to his feet and led a standing ovation. Lovely.
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| photo by Jenny Hadfield |
The final award was for Celebration, which for the first time was awarded to two people: Mike and Corinne, in honor of their engagement at the top of the Perseverance Trail in Juneau.
Then we all settled in to watch a slideshow Jenny put together -- so many fantastic photos from our week! We laughed and we cheered and we grinned. Marvellous.
All too soon we had to go. We had been asked to go into dinner early so everyone had to hustle. I felt sorry not to be able to say goodbye to more people, but we traipsed off to dinner.
We tried unsuccessfully to join John and Jenny for dinner (which we unfortunately never managed!), but there was no room at their table. Instead we got to sit with some folks he hadn't yet met, so it was still a successful evening.
We had decided not to get off the boat in Victoria (we prefer to cross as few borders as possible), so after dinner we went to our cabin to pack. Then we spent the lovely, sunshiny evening wandering around, drinking wine with Bill and Char and then cocktails with the "singlets" in the Crow's Nest. Eventually a group returned from the Victoria pub crawl, and we sat with them, too. All in all, it felt like we spent a little time with a lot of people we liked.
We got back to the cabin after midnight, packed a few last things, and then put the bags in the hallway before 1 am.
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