Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
I’m fairly certain that you’ll likely never come across someone who is more proud of where they are from. My parents left apartheid in South Africa and came to Canada from to provide their family with a better opportunity. I’m proud and grateful that they did as it has provided me with so many amazing opportunities.
Some final words from Jen and Nadim.
To my community:
I could have never predicted what saying yes to helping Andrew with November Project would bring into my life. July 2013, I’d just gotten engaged, finished my secondment at Alberta Education, and Andrew was moving back to Edmonton after having lived away from “home” for 19 years. He was returning after living in Boston, where during a period of time in the NHL lock out he began running Harvard Stadium stairs with a group called November Project. I knew nothing of this at the time but when he was coming into Edmonton for a week to look for a new house he shared with me that he wanted to see if there was an appetite in the city for a free fitness community similar to what he’d experienced in Boston. And so he sent a tweet inviting anyone who wanted to join to meet at Kinsmen Park on Monday, July 15 at 6 AM.
Hey everyone!
Firstly, I want to share my appreciation for all of you who either showed up on Saturday to our birthday party, or sent messages wishing us a happy 7th birthday. None of it would have been possible without all of you, so we were thrilled that so many of you could share in the celebration.
“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” – Anonymous
In the past few weeks I have engaged in a number of conversations with people across the world about racism. I’m going to delve into this a bit more, but this blog isn’t just about people of colour. It’s about every marginalized population. It’s about the black community. It’s about the LGBTQ2+ community. It’s about the Indigenous community. It’s about those who don’t feel seen and heard. I’m just going to share how this has played out to me. I’m not black and I don’t know what it’s like to walk in a black person’s shoes. I know anti-black racism is far worse than anything I’ve encountered in my life. I’m not trying to minimize their experiences or distract from the issue that’s facing us right now. But I can take my experiences and find ways of how I (and hopefully some of you) can show up for marginalized communities using the platform that I have and that we all share – November Project.
Hey!
It was so great to see so many of you last weekend at the button pickup. It was a good reminder of the energy that comes from being in the presence of others. For those that showed up thank you for showing up. I know I speak for Jen and Rob when I say that we truly appreciated seeing all of you. And we really can’t wait until we are able to do that more often.
We miss all of you so much and wanted to do a special workout together on the holiday. We’ll all find a way to connect virtually, and do the same workout, at the same time, in separate locations.
Date: Monday May 18th
Time: 7:00am -8:10am
Location: Anywhere outdoors
7:00am – On our Instagram Story, we’ll post a list of 10 things you’ll need to find on your run/ride/walk. Your starting point is wherever you are.
Wow. As cheesy as it sounds, I truly felt connected with so many of you this morning. And while I knew we were all suffering together on our own 6k journey, it’s the part after that I really missed. There are some days at NP where it was so great, that you get home, and want to spend the rest of the day on social media to relive the morning through everyone else’s perspective. I’ve been trying to see what everyone did on the socials and on strava and it truly was awesome. And again, with everyone sharing like they did today, I felt connected with you all once again. Whether you live in a different city now, or hadn’t been able to make it to a workout in awhile, seeing so many people suffer the same 6k was awesome. So, thank you all for your energy, your creativity and your hard work this morning. It truly was inspiring. I feel like meaning behind #NP_Continues has a new life for me. So keep bringing the energy, keep being creative and keep working hard. People need that right now, and you may not even realize it.
Well, it’s definitely official, I’m losing my mind, so here’s some interesting things since the last time I blogged.
As you all know, I’m a big fan of cookies. I spent a ton of time hinting to Dayle that I need more cookies and baking here. Well, she finally picked up on my hints and made a ton of sugar cookies for me… the day after we grabbed some ice cream from Made by Marcus. However, at the same time, we got a delivery of macarons AND more cookies! We went from no cookies and baking to almost exclusively cookies and baking. That was a few weeks ago, and we are still working through the last few things.
It has only been 6 workouts, but it feels like an eternity. I’m really curious as to how everyone’s dealing with this transition to being stuck inside our own homes.
Here’s what’s been happening on my end:
We made a frozen pizza for dinner, and when Dayle put the plate in my hand, her instructions were “don’t burn your face!” Well, I immediately tried to eat the pizza and a piece of cheese fell off onto my lip and burned it. Yup. I burned my face. This really shouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me, but I’m going to blame it on self-isolation. It has thrown everything way off.
It may have gone unnoticed this morning, but we haven’t done a workout at city hall in a few years. It actually had the same vibe as some of our earlier workouts – realizing lunge walks are pretty rough – making fun of the music playlist – and posing for a photo with the pyramid in the background. We were going to add some bicycle kicks into the workout, but there wasn’t a lane for it. I’m still not in love with the Squat/Deadlift combo. Mostly because I think it’s a hard transition and it compromises form. We just end up doing this weird reach over and touch your toes thing. Maybe it’s just me though, and my brain is not connected to my body properly. Either way, we went through another disappointing game of What’s in the Bag this morning. AND, while this may have been the darkest workout we’ve had in about a month, the photo is somehow the brightest.