May 9, 2025

02: Race Days, Oatcakes, Save Lorneville

Introduction

It was 5:15 am and I was half-asleep, mind whirring, hours before my alarm was set to wake me for the Hanwell Hammering 10km trail race. I wasn’t thinking about the race, but about the choices we’ve been making in our lives: money, work, time, family, friends, priorities, values, justice, resistance, etc. I slid quietly out of bed, lifted a small notebook from the shelf outside our bedroom, and padded downstairs to the kitchen. I made a pot of tea, watched the sunrise, and spent the rest of the pre-race morning letting my thoughts drift onto the page. I slowed down, time got bigger, and I began to notice a gentle buzz rippling through my body. The worries that had woken me were there, but so was a morning-chorus of gentle whispers that enveloped me in this season of our lives. — AF

Race Updates

The 2025 spring/summer running season launched into action with two races: Hanwell Hammering 10km for Adam and the Grand Digue 5km for Kelsey. These two races aligned with our focus on building speed. We hope that the speed we’re building helps us later in the year when we’re focusing more on trails and climbing.   

Hanwell Hammering: 

Hanwell Hammering is a Dutch Viking Events race at the Hanwell Community Park, just “up the Hanwell” from downtown Fredericton. It’s a ~5km looped course and features race distances from 5km-50km. I ran the 10km race as a trail tune up before the Fredericton Marathon and finished 1st overall in a time of 51:43. It was my first time winning a race, something that certainly wasn’t ever guaranteed to happen. It was exciting and surreal to run at the front of a race and to have the confidence to stay there. I was proud of myself because I was mindful during the race, taking in the sights, sounds, and inner whispers of what could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. What remains with me from the race will make me a better runner, race director, crew member, and coach. Kelsey put in an entire day volunteering as a race timekeeper and volunteer. Her headline contribution was a second consecutive appearance as the hotdog in the kids Hotdog Run. I had the honour of leading a hotdog-themed warm up before the race started. — AF

Grand Digue 5km:

Wait, what?! A 5km…are you missing a zero there? Nope! Earlier this year, the Fredericton Marathon announced a new Athletics Canada Road Race Label Elite 5km event for May 10th. The qualifying time for women was 19:30, and I knew that the paces I was doing in my speed workouts put me in the running (haha) to make the standard. Variety is fun, and building spring speed is a great foundation for bigger races later this season. I set out, with a mix of curiosity and excitement, to race a chip-timed 5K and see if I could get a spot on the Fredericton start line. Enter Grand Digue! This year was the 18th edition of the 15km de Grand Digue, a race with a reputation in the road running community for its great atmosphere and post-race spaghetti dinner served by local volunteers. I wanted to make the qualifying time, and remind myself what running short and fast felt like. I ran steady and smooth and crossed the finish line in 19:02 (2nd place – the top three women were also top three overall!). The prizes were local pottery mugs — my favourite! I enjoyed the post-race meal while celebrating friends’ personal bests, age group winners, and stories from the day. – KH

Crew Appreciations 

• James Hoyt for driving Kelsey to Grand Digue and to Jos Eijkelestam for making sure that they left early enough to make as many bathroom stops as needed. 

• To the students from the Eastern College Massage Therapy program who provided massages after the Hanwell Hammering.

• Ralph for supporting the Hot Dog kids run and giving out finish line high-fives to all the runners and volunteers at the Hanwell Hammering.

Coming Up Next

10.05.25 | Fredericton Elite 5K: I’m excited to line up this Saturday and see how much time I can shave off of my 19:02 5K time from two weeks ago. Compared to what I’m used to running, a 5K feels like a sprint from start to finish. Rather than focus on “pacing” I’m going to be running pretty close to an all-out effort. I’ll be channeling, “fun is fast, fast is fun.” - KH

11.05.25 | Fredericton Marathon: This Sunday will be my first road marathon, having skipped the distance because of Kelsey’s invitation to start running ultras. I love the efficiency and clear markers of progress that come with marathon training (compared to training for trail races). I have layers of goals for this race, but let’s start by saying that a 4:30/km pace (3:10:00 for the race) sits right in the “B” category. I believe I can go faster, but we’ll see how the day plays out. I’m currently working through my mental response to a typically-Adam possible-error in my week-of-marathon preparation — I donated blood yesterday. I might not do that again if I had a choice, but I didn’t connect the dots until long after I’d left the clinic. — AF

17.05.25 | Wharfbound Trail Run | Saint Andrews, NB: Kelsey signed up to race the 19K course (because it goes out into the tidal area and running on rocks and seaweed is fun!) and Adam is leaning towards the 10K (because it’s the weekend after the marathon and not running on rocks and seaweed is fun!). 

25.05.25 | Rompin’ Rockwood | Saint John, NB: This is always a special race for us. It was started by Bryan and Sadie Gagner who also organize the Herring Run trail race. It’s now hosted by Saint John Trail Running. Rockwood Park was designed by Calvert Vaux (one of the designers of Central Park in NYC) and is one of the largest urban parks in Canada. Kelsey is running the 50K because she’s itching to get out on the trails for a longer effort. Adam is running the 25K.  

IRL (In Real Life)

📽️ We hosted a screening of the Trails in Motion Film Festival on May 1st at the NB Sports Hall of Fame in Fredericton. It was a sold out event and we heard great feedback from everyone about the films. Thank you to our presenting sponsor BackTrails by the Radical Edge and host venue the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame as well as door prize contributors Fenix Lighting, norda, Canadian Running Magazine, Milda’s Pizzas and More, Cedd’s Catering, and Dutch Viking Events for their support of this event. 

🧠 Kelsey and Lori Dithurbide teamed up to offer a series of mental performance workshops for trail and ultrarunners throughout May and June, and the first one kicked off this week. Registration is still open for the remaining four workshops (you can also register for all five and receive the recording from this week). Newsletter subscribers can get 15% off with the discount code INSIDER15.

🎞️🐟 Adam is headed to BackTrails by the Radical Edge in downtown Fredericton on May 15th for a screening of Scale of Change, a documentary about “how small actions can create big waves for Atlantic salmon conservation.” There are still a few tickets available. 

⚙️ We’ve heard a rumour that there’s going to be an outdoor gear swap in Fredericton on May 25th. Details are still emerging, but if you want to know more, hit reply and let us know. We’ll tell you when we get confirmation. 

Sharing Some Links

🫖If you like the sound of an apple oatcake with your tea, swap butter for shortening (or don’t), add 2 diced apples, a dash of cinnamon (nutmeg too if you like), and a few drops of vanilla to this recipe (we served these and chocolate chip banana muffins at the film festival). 

🎸We’re headed to see Kellie Loder perform at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre on June 7th. We had shivers up and down our necks during Kellie’s last concert — an opening gig for Donovan Woods — and can’t wait to see/hear them play again. 

📚We have Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World on our night table. She mentions James Vukelich, an Anishinaabe linguist who teaches that plant gifts are “a manifestation of unconditional love that plants have for people.” Next time that I eat a berry, chomp on a carrot, or slurp an energy gel we’ll consider another of Vukelich’s teachings, shared by Kimmerer, “plants offer whatever they have, to whoever needs it, saint and sinner, alike.” 

Sharing Some Love 

We’re into a season of running-related travel and soon we’ll be running in Rockwood Park in Menahqesk (Saint John, NB). We don’t know all of the local dynamics at play in the two campaigns listed below, but we’re inspired by people who gather together to raise questions about the balance in our relationships with the residents of our communities: Deer, Moose, Orioles, Sandpipers, plant relatives, and human people too (to name a few).   

🌳 Save Lorneville: The city of Saint John plans to redesignate 1500+ acres of forest and 200+ acres of wetlands along the Bay of Fundy from “rural resource” to “heavy industry,” as part of its proposed Spruce Lake Industrial Park Expansion. If you’re interested in getting involved in the campaign to resist this action or in offering your support, join the Save Lorneville FB group here. 

🤟Save Rockwood Park From Development: In February of 2024, Saint John City Council voted to designate a portion of Rockwood Park as “surplus land.” This inspired a community response against opening this portion of the park up for development. Community members, including Friends of Rockwood Park, continue to advocate for the Council to rescind its motion and to consider options for the land that ensure it remains part of the park in the long term. Join them in their FB group here. 

We’d love to hear your reactions to this email and to know more about what’s happening in your lives. Even if it’s just one sentence, please always feel free to reply, we love to read them!