Yes, at one time the West Edmonton Mall was a draw for a family with a young boy, who loved swimming with his dad in the wave pool.  But for a Torontonian who dislikes crowds and has never been to the Canadian National Exhibition for this reason, this white-elphantish mall is on my try-to-avoid list.  I do appreciate the sentiment involved in creating large winter-proof indoor venues for one-stop-everything as the weather here is a force.  Although, I just checked the temperature in Whitehorse to find -36C, twelve degrees colder than Edmonton at this time.

My Whitehorse brother has a friend who lives across the river from Dawson City in a log cabin with no running water and electricity.  I’m told that the traditional log cabin retains heat very well.  Some people are born with the gene for high adventure, the Call of the Wild. Apparently, the friend’s Blackberry works at her cabin.  Well that’s a comfort.

Marathoning is about as tame as it gets, with the risk of say, a stress fracture, incurred slowly over many months of running, an injury brought to fruition so gradually that it can take a lot of medical detective work to find out the wherefores and whys.

We arrived at Servus Place, our pick for Top Tourist Attraction in Edmonton just before sunrise to beat the rush.  It was snowing and the roads had worsened since yesterday, narrower still and more slippery.  Once again, my husband remarked that they did not ask him to prove he is eligible for the senior rate.

I ran on the treadmill while my husband ran on the indoor track.  Last month, my sister asked me if treadmills have a built in gradual-stop mechanism should the power go off.  Today I found out that on the model I was running on, no if the power goes off, the treadmill stops suddenly.  This happened twice, a loose wire I guess.  On the topic of danger and challenge, well this could be hazardous if running at high speed.

I was watching the Outdoor Life Network while running and was captivated by the travel show, Word Travels. When I say watch, while running it usually means literally watching with no sound as I prefer to listen to music. I tried to plug into the sound but unfortunately the earphone outlet did did not match my earphone plug.

There was coverage of what appeared to be a kind of urban-cross country racing, alley cat bike racing which has its roots in Toronto bike messenger culture and then unbelievably, the two hosts did a jump off the Macau Tower.  Unbelievable, to me at least, for whom the excitement of driving in Edmonton is all I need to make me feel like I’m living on the edge.

Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling,
calling. . . let us go.

Robert Service