You know what’s awesome, having parents, friends and family that support your hobbies. It’s really wonderful to be surrounded by encouraging people who want you to succeed.For Christmas my hubby got me a pair of trail running shoes, because I was complaining about Manchester’s streets being more like a trail than a sidewalk. My in-laws got me a wonderful winter sweater that has gotten me outside on days that were just bitter cold.

My parents like to get me gifts that are useful, yet splurges. Objects that I would have a hard time financially justifying to myself, but that would be helpful to my quest at the time.

Because they are so pleased with my progress with the running they decided that they would get me a GPS tracking watch for my birthday. They gave it to me when I was visiting St. Catharines to get my Passport renewed. I was so happy with it that the first day I got it, I ran 13.2 miles consecutive.

And I have been running with it since. I find it very encouraging, the distance measurement pushes me to got a little further (how bad is another .25 miles). The timer helps me be accurate with my pace. I can look at the graph after and see where my heartrate was at a given pace.

I find it to be a very handy gadget. If only it held Cooper’s poop bags so I didn’t have to stuff them in the only pocket I wear sometimes (love that sweater).

I still have a long way to go in this running journey, but I think I’m making good progress towards some lofty athletic and weight loss goals.

I’m taking a light week from training this week, I have a lot of races coming up and my knees were talking slightly. So it’s better to rest up now than be sorry later.

How are you doing on your goals for the year? Any special gadgets that keep you motivated?

One of my latest hobbies is called Waymarking. Waymarking is a little like geocaching except instead of finding a hidden container, waymarking leads you to interesting sites. These sites can be statues, plaques, parks, interesting historical buildings and more. The goal of finding these things is to help you learn more about the area you are visiting. The historical aspects of the place, or even just interesting parts of your community to visit that you may have overlooked.

I started Waymarking as research for a trivia scavenger hunt I’d like to do someday. And it was a great way to get Cooper the poodle puppy out and about, visiting parks and meeting people. Also the statues and plaques we find make great things to photograph.

Lets face it, I waymark more as an excuse to get outside with my dog and camera.

And sometimes we find very random items on our wandering travels that make for interesting pictures. Like this random piece of art found on the windowsill of a building in Manchester.

So there will be posts about things I find while waymarking (and possibly geocaching) on this site starting soon. Those of you who follow my flickr may have seen some of the pictures show up on occasion.  If you think of places worth the photography and history lessons in New Hampshire, let me know.