Santa Jingle 5k Report

On Saturday a bunch of running friends and I ran the largest Santa race in all of Canada. There was just under 4000 people dressed as Santa running and walking this course.

I had to get up at 6am to make sure I was up and ready to meet up with friends at 7am for the 1 hour drive to the race. Thankfully we met at Starbucks so I was able to grab a coffee and wake up. The drive over  was super fun with lots of joking and running mishap stories. Once we found a parking spot we got into our Santa suits. We then went off and met up with the other car of friends to head to the start.

Pre Race Group Pic I'm front and center

Once we got the start line it felt like forever before we got going. Thankfully there was no winds but it was still -2C(28F) and we were dressed for running not standing out in the cold. The suit did ok at keeping warm but even with my wool socks on my feet were frozen. They didn't warm up till the race was practically done and by that point, my toes just hurt from stinging every time they touched the ground from the warming up, that is how cold I was.

Finally we got to take off and it was crowded. It was insane trying to get around people and of course there was so many people not seeded correctly but we were just doing this for fun so I tried to not let it get to me. A couple of us managed to stay near each other and we kept picking up speed to get away from the craziness. Around the 2.5k mark where there was a water station I realized that it was possible (if I was willing to hurt for the rest) I could get close to PB. Well of course I went for it.

1km:6:13

2km: 5:50

3km: 5:41

4km: 5:07

5km: 4:55 (no wonder it was hurting)

It was hard to not slow down as it got closer to the end. I just kept having to tell myself that it just had to hurt for less than 10 minutes when I got to that last KM. Thankfully I ran (haha) into Bill and he helped pull me in.

Us sprinting to the finish

It was a great race and the whole group has plans to come back and even fancy up our outfits for next year. It took a while for everyone to get back together again and we headed back to Toronto. Of course we had to hit up a coffee shop and refuel with warm goodness, dressed in our suits still. We got lots of smiles and compliments from others getting their coffees.

Gun Time: 28:53

Chip Time:27.53 (52 seconds off PR)

Average Pace: 5:35

Overall: 494/3054

F25-20: 29/281

Gender: 158/1930

And check out my line!





Look at how frigging flat my running was! Normally I'm all over the place. I was smooth and I'm totally impressed. It took me an hour after seeing this to realize it wasn't elevation of the course but me.

Seriously if your in the area next year, definitely come do this one with us. It was crazy fun.



Happy Birthday Trouble!

Today my baby turned 5!

Guess hes not such a baby anymore huh?

Dear Trouble

5 years ago you decided that you had to make a grand entrance and out do your older brother. He was early and little, well I'll be earlier and smaller! Coming into the world 6 weeks early and scaring the crap out of your parents with your 3lb 14oz little size and a hole in your heart, you've definitely proven that you are a tough one.

That you like to throw caution to the wind is an understatement. You're convinced that your older and bigger than you are and are always trying to push your limits. While I love this about you, I'm not loving the panic attacks and grey hair its giving me. 

Your the only 5 year old that I know with more hospital bracelets than you are years. (I believe our tally is at 7) Yet you amaze me with all the things that go on in your little head.

You are determined and strong willed.

You always know how the perfect time for hugs.  Of course you know how to work that adorable face of yours and twist my arm.

You love trying new things even if I'm not ready for you to take those steps, so you help me grow and push my boundaries as well.

So today is your day my little man.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful risk taking boy.

Happy Birthday to my boy who's not a baby anymore.

Who's growing up to be a fantastic person and I can't wait to see what you accomplish with what you've been give.

In the words of Dr Seuss

"Congratulations!
Today is your day,
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Hope Endures Virtual 5k Report

Courtney at A so Called Runner hosted a virtual 5k on behalf of her daughter Ashlyn who was stillborn in 2008.

I jumped at the chance to honour a little girl missed. I decided to run my "race" during my long run of 10k with friends. I mentioned that I would probably get quiet for a while and why. 

We took off and I decided I would do a warm up, push it for Ashlyn and then cool down. The weather started off nice for December and we had hopes of sun. It ended up raining on us for a last half so clearly our hopes were dashed.

It was also a new route for me so it was definitely an interesting way to see more of the neighbourhood we run in.

Of course at the point where my warm up finished and the "race" started it was the dreaded Falling brook hill. Its a long gradual hill that is a pain but I figured the least I could do was power up this hill. I had lots of thoughts of what I know of Ashlyn during the run. How she inspired her mom to take control and take care of herself.  There was quite a few times when I felt like walking or that I should cut the run short and forgo the cool down since its been over a week since I last ran at all. That it would be OK but it kept coming back to "Nope, being tired isn't enough of a reason for stopping".

I managed to get the 5k done in 29.32

1km: 6:16
2km: 6:18
3km :5:55
4km: 6.02
5km: 5:41

You can see where I was starting to push it and even where I wanted to give it up and stop but managed to keep it up.

I'm defintely glad I decided to join in on this run. It was great way to support Courtney and her family even though we live in different countries.

Figuring it out.

Well I haven't really been posting but that's also because I haven't been running. Opps Bad me.

Thought I haven't been running since my stomach was feeling horrible. Totally TMI but it was horrible in a I'm wasn't sure if I could reach a bathroom in time kind of way. I went and look online (I know I'm not supposed to listen to Dr. Google) and found that a lot of my symptoms were similar to a dairy intolerance. Funny enough I had one when I was  baby/toddler but grew out of it. I'm guessing it came back. Talked to Doctor at the walk in clinic and he suggested I try going dairy free first for about two weeks and if it doesn't improve at all in that time frame that then we'd run tests for other stuff.

So today was day 1.
Its been great actually. Its the first day all week that I'm pain free. I picked up some soy milk at the grocery store and I'll be careful this week to watch what I'm eating.

I'm going to miss my lattes though. We have a Tassimo machine and I drink those lattes and I muchly prefer them to regular coffees. So that's going to be sad and its going to a take a while to get over.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes and I'll decide from there what I do for the long term but today has me nicely optimistic.

In good news since figuring this out I decided to try a run today since I was less concerned with finding a bathroom and I managed to get in an almost 10k run with friends. It was great. It felt harder at the end but its been over  a week of no running I'm really happy with how it went.

Me? a Speaker?

So I've been for the most part enjoying my freedom. But I had something exciting to share with you all.

Last night I went to the other side of the city and did a motivational talk with the Learn To Run and Fitness Walking Clinics at the High Park Running Room. One of my friends is the leader of the FW and I guess she thought it would be nice to share my story and show off my bling. I figured "Sure, why not?" So I basically told them how I started right where they are and worked my way up. I think I did scare a few when we talked about the higher clinics and what they entail (the hill training, speed work, longer distances)

It was also great to see how encouraged some were from my I want to do that! story. I was nervous but it was great being able to tell others that I was where you are and if you want to further it is totally possible. That they should be proud of what they are doing now because as that saying goes...

Afterwards I joined the walkers for their workout. I helped my friend out and got the slower one in the back moving a bit by keeping her talking. We did 6k (4miles) in an hour and it was great. I even got to find out how the walking clinics work and help give them advice on where to get cheap tech clothes and my tips for being active outside in the winter. I would have loved to join the LTR but I was more eager to hang out with my friend (who BTW made me an awesome dinner).

Seriously some of the talks alone are one of the reasons I like the Running Room's clinics so much. There are some more technical talks about clothing and nutrition and stretches/phyiso and its always great to be able to get information straight from someone who knows it rather than searching online and in books that will usually have conflicting advice. So it was great to be able to share the (limited) information that I know with others and encourage them on the great effort they are doing.

Winter... Its a coming!

For the past couple weeks when I run I've moved on to pants instead of capris or shorts. Long sleeve shirts from tanks and t-shirts. Today I've also added my windbreaker running jacket. While I'm thrilled that I have pockets for mitts when my hands over heat and a place to hold my tissues. I'm sad that I have to start bundling up more.

Honestly its pretty much because more clothes worn while running = more clothes to wash. I can handle the cold once I'm out there. Its the whole getting ready thing that shows my wimpy side.

I would like a new running jacket though.
I currently wear this

in the light pink. Had there been a brighter pink available when I got mine I would have gotten it for sure.
It NEEDS vents. That's the main reason I haven't changed it up yet. The one above has great vents. and it needs to NOT be black. I've been looking online but its hard to judge when your not touching it. I over heat easily and therefore don't go crazy on layers.

Maybe Santa will be nice and get me a new jacket. (I'd be doing a hint hint thing here but HandyMan doesn't read my blog I don't think.....But my parents do......)

Virtual Run! (hosted by a friend)

An online friend of mine is hosting a Virtual 5k. Her name is Courtney and she posts over at
A So-Called Runner. Her Daughter Ashlyn passed away on Dec 2 2008 and she wants to honour her daughter with this run. So head over to her post HERE to read about the run and sign up! Let me know if you do so I can keep my eyes open for your post about the run.

Getting it off my chest.

Its about my Marathon.
I need to move on. So I'm sharing this finally. I hadn't planned to honestly.

Handy Man tries to be supportive and I really appreciate him letting me complain (still) about this.

First off let me mention that I am VERY proud of what I accomplished. I did something I set out two years ago to do. I did something that many people won't even attempt.

But I am not happy with my results.

I know I know!

My main goal was to finish. But really even for your first time you kinda have time goals in your head as to what you think you are capable of and what you are training at.

I trained for a 4:30. Actually all my training runs were using the paces for that time goal. Lots of runs I was doing a time for closer to 4:15 but I kept 4:30 in my mind. Even my long slow runs were all done at a sub 4:30 pace. I was ready and I was going to nail my race.

Then my legs were achy from the start.
I was sooooo not ready for the pain that last 10k.
My stomach was done in that last 5k.
It was hard even more so because my running buddy was also in pain and we were so quick to take walk breaks for the last couple K. I'm also so happy I had her there since I needed someone to talk to and remember why we were putting ourselves through so much pain.

But I'm not happy. I was on target for around 4:30 for most of the race. It really Sucked watching that time slip away. The stars did not align the way they were in my training runs. Not every day is going to be perfect. There are way to many factors that need to be counted and it was a rough day. Even that first day I was more happy to be done than happy about what I accomplished once I got back home.

I'm pretty convinced that's why I'm even been thinking of doing this marathon thing again.
I want that 4:30.
I am more than capable of that time.

There! It is now out there and I can take the steps to make sure that when I attempt this again I will be ready.

Quiet on the Homefront

I've gotten two runs in this week so far. I had to miss out on Wednesday since Bug had a dental cleaning in hte morning and then we have Beavers in the evening. I already have plans to meet up with friends this weekend so I'll get at least 3 runs in. I'd head out this morning but I'm finishing my cookie exchange stuff for tomorrow.




I'm making these babies.



















Chocolate Caramel Shortbread. Yummy.

I've even signed up for my Santa 5k and Around the Bay. Now I can't complain like last year that I missed out on ATB because I took to long to sign up. I've even been thinking of seeing if we could make a weekend out of it sans children.... We'll see.

Maybe I'll start taking more pictures. I gotta find something to keep me blogging more until my next training cycle starts.

New Week, New Start

Well the party was a success. Everyone had fun. I didn't realize how tiring the day was until after everyone left. Once I didn't have to be "on" I was exhausted.

Even thought I know I didn't hydrate enough (bad bad me) last week I still headed out this morning. It was hard and took some effort to keep going but I did it. It didn't suck but with some goals I have in mind it made me realize that theres some work ahead for me. Its all going to start with getting back to running regularly. I'd like to keep up with my 4 days a week.

 Definitely talking with some of Handy Man's friends at the party helped. They're not runners but this one was amazed that two years I couldn't run down the street and as of now I've done a Marathon. What made it interesting to me was that I just kept repeating that I set a goal and I did the work to get me to that goal. I didn't do anything I consider speical. I started eating better(for the most part, if I'm being honest), I drank more water. I put in the miles. I took care of myself.

And I'm going to continue taking care of myself and putting in some distance, for no other reason then I like running and I like how it makes me feel.

Three Things Thrusday

1.
 I'm still around. Obviously.
This week has basically been a total write off. With Monday being a major write off and Tuesday being a catch up and yesterday being a birthday, today was the first chance I had to get a run in really.

But I only got just over 1.5k. I'm not even putting it in daily mile. I fought myself going out. It was more about the "I Should"s. I should run today. It wasn't a "I Need". There are a bunch of excuses I could use and some of them would actually be legitimate but in reality its was just that I didn't want to. I couldn't imagine going any further and having a whole run suck. So I stopped and walked home.

I knew better. This week was busy and I knew my runs would suffer, but there is always next week and a chance to be more into my running again.

2.
Speaking of Birthdays, Yesterday was Handy Man's birthday. He is now in a whole new decade. At 30 I made sure that he knew if he was a runner he'd be in a new age group and have a better chance at placing higher. He laughed at that one. We didn't do to much since we had a Beaver meeting after dinner but he got some yummy cake that Trouble and I made for him. This weekend is his birthday party. My house will be taken over for a fun night of family and friends.

3.
On Sunday I went out with some friends from the marathon group. We did just under 12k and it was great. While we were running we were talking about races we were thinking of signing up for. If I were to do a clinic again, the Half on started this week and would get me to Around the Bay but after that race the other half clinic and the full clinic would be half way done. So I'd have to pay for an extra clinic but miss most of it. A couple of them were mentioning that I should sign up for the Marathon Clinic again(in Jan) for my Around the Bay race in March. That way the training will get me back up to that distance(and I'd be running with friends) before the race and then if I wanted to I could knock out an awesome half in May or I could stay and work on my full.

The worst part about that was I was actually considering it! Seriously?!!!
People told me this would happen. One is never enough. I should know better since of how my personality is, but come on Jess!

Regardless neither May race I'm looking at sells out come end of March (or usually at all) so I could do Around the Bay and then decide my May race.

Man while #1 shows that running can be rough #3 shows that its still addicting. BTW Handy Man laughed at me and said "I told you so" after I mentioned the talk me and my friends had on Sunday.

Friday Funny!

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Race Pics!

Finishline! I told ya I was ballin' like a baby

Highs and Lows

First the High.

Last night I went for my first run since the race!
It was fantastic. I kept expecting it to hurt so when it never did I was up on cloud 9. It was also speedy. I did one of my 6k routes and decided to just let my legs go. Apparently they were antsy since we did it in just under 34 minutes. My 6k runs are usually 36 minutes. I will even admit to stopping for about a minute at the turn around point. I wore a cheap hairband and it wasn't staying put so I needed to fix it. That will teach me.

Then the Low.

I got the post marathon blues.

Its was even so textbook. Great race, runners high and crash the next day. Life went back to normal, I sent Handy Man off to work and the boys to school and that was it. Other than doing my race report there was nothing to really keep the high going. Sure there was the meet up with clinic Tuesday night. But the fact that there was really no one else to talk to about it was a let down. Most people didn't even know or care that a race had happened in our city. And even those that did I could have told them that it took me 10 hours to finish and the answer would have been "Wow that great. right?"

I'm not surprised at all though. The same thing happened after our wedding. I have a habit of giving a lot of myself to a goal. I worked my ass off prepping for my race. I made sure I was taking care of my body and I wasn't risking injury and then the focus of almost 5 months work was done. It just shows that there is a continued mental aspect of running even afterwards.

It probably doesn't help that I had no real plans after the race. Everything for the winter was going to be based on how I felt after the Marathon. Do I want to keep up my distance or go for speed. I mean I know I can technically do both. I'm debating Around the Bay in March. I'm signing up for the Santa Jingle 5k where you do the race in a Santa suit. You're not allowed to be out of the suit at all otherwise the site says they'll pull you out. Should definitely be interesting.

BTW- once I figure things out I have some really interesting race pictures coming. Think of your worst and these will put them to shame. Really.

Pain Free!

Yeap today, 3 days (who's counting) after my race I'm officially pain free.
Monday was interesting to say the least and stairs were horrible. I did find that if I changed my position at least every 10-15 minutes I would stay unstiff. The worst was the hip and knee pain. Thankfully by yesterday it was just a ache on the back of my hamstrings and today there is still some stiffness if I stay to long in one position but otherwise nothing hurts!

Last night the majority of the clinic people meet up and we talked about the race and it was fantastic hearing all the stories. I even found a great use for my running shoe cookie cutter! and the cookies were a hit!

 Some of other runners are apparently also trying to convince me to stay with (crazy)long distance. A lot of us are thinking Around the Bay and someone mentioned that with doing that race I could go either way towards a half or a full for the spring. A couple of the girls want to do Chicago next year as a girls weekend thing. Yeah at this point I'm waiting till I feel the itch for the marathon again. I think I'll need more pain free days before I can remember why a marathon sounded fun the first time.

Though I am excited about this weekend. I'm sleeping in on Sunday and am in charge of breakfast! For the whole of marathon training Handy Man has taken over pancake Sunday. It seems weird but I missed getting to do that. So I'm happy I get to this weekend. I'll see how I feel on Monday and might try an easy 5k. We'll see what the fall brings.

Marathon Recap!

This in insanely long. Definitely make sure you are comfy before reading.

*********

How to put yesterday into words?

The night before I laid out all my stuff. Which included 3 possible outfits. The weather was horrible on Saturday and thankfully the winds calmed down a bit for Sunday morning. I decided to not force myself to go to bed earlier and it worked well. I had a fantastic solid sleep. Of course my stomach started feeling the nerves once I was up at 6am. I checked my facebook and twitter as I ate breakfast. The outpouring of “Good Lucks” I had received had me crying a bit. I then got dressed and took a picture of my chosen outfit so people would know what I looked like.  I got a ride down with a friend (IR) at 7am and actually felt pretty calm. There was an OMG moment when we down at the race start and saw the amount of people and the set up. Bag check was a bit late but we found some of our other clinic friends and chatted away. Once we checked our bags we went off to the Hilton and met up with more of our clinic friends. It was great to see everyone in such good spirits.

Around 8:30 we went to our corrals. It was a mad house. I think weren’t big enough to hold their people or something because there were tons of blue corral people standing outside and blocking the sidewalks.  IR and I managed to get seeded in our corral but we lost pretty much everyone else from our group. At 9am the gun went off and we waited for our turn to move up. It was basically a walk up to the starting line and then we were off!

Note: I don’t have any splits since I forgot to set the laps on my watch.

The goal for the first 5k was to take it easy and just allow my body to warm up. It was busy and I was getting annoyed with the 2:15 pacer group that was doing 10 and 1s. While most would go off to the side not everyone did so there was more weaving than I would have liked. IR and I were doing great and it was hard to make ourselves take our walk breaks since we felt fantastic but knew we had to take it easy so we wouldn’t blow up later.

It was about 6k when we saw the leaders and I yelled and cheered for our Canadian guys. They were looking great! After that I put my music on to keep me in the zone. I saw Marlene and whooped for her but she couldn’t hear me with the band playing next to her.  I was feeling great and just worked on not letting myself get to speedy. We hit the 10k mats at 1:04:26. Then we hit the 12k turnaround and headed up for the division of half and full. I told IR around 16k that I was feeling great and it didn’t feel like we had been running that far at all. We were on target for a 4:30 with a tiny buffer.

Around 20k we hit the divide where the half marathoners head up to the finish and I got all teary eyed as I went under the Marathon arch. I even made the comment that we were really doing a marathon once we turned down to Front Street.

21.1k split - 2:14:23

It was around here that my legs stared to feel sore. Nothing bad but in a “we’ve been doing this a while now” kind of way. My stomach felt off and so I stopped at a porta potty. It added 5 minutes to my time since there was only 1! Just before 25k I saw my first support group and it really made my day.

 As you can tell I got teary eyed again and was trying not to cry.

 The winds on the east side of the city seemed to be worse than the west side. I’m not sure if that was just because I was getting tired as well. On the Lakeshore towards Coxwell I was having to stop and walk a bit more than planned because the winds were making it hard to catch my breath even though I know I was at a comfortable pace. I was so happy to be in the Beaches since to me it was home court. Seeing everyone cheering was great. But the real highlight was getting to see my parents and my boys.

30k split: 3:18:14

I saw them around the Neville Park turnaround. I actually went off course technically and past some traffic cones so I could hug them all. I SO NEEDED that.

I was crying a bit again after my quick 30 second hug break. I got to see and hug them again as I headed towards the finish. On my way out of the Beaches I saw my Clinic Leader and waved. She jumped in and ran with me in her boots for a couple minutes and we talked. I told her my original goal was out the window but I for the most part felt great and that I hadn’t hit the wall yet. She told me that I looked strong and she was so proud of me.

35k split: 3:54:08

 Then we were headed to Eastern and by that point we were running into the winds and it hard. My legs were so sore and tired. IR was feeling it a lot now too and we ended up taking longer walk breaks and kept checking in with each other. The Don Valley flyover was a bitch and I complained about it. I ended up doing most of my slowing down here. It was literally just to finish with my legs and the crazy head wind.

40k split: 4:30:44

 I saw my friends from 25k again around 41k and I ended up giving them my fuel belt. I couldn’t stomach anything from about 37k on. I would take water if there was some at station but I was worried my stomach was going to revolt.

IR and I took one last walk break and I kept repeating to her that her family was waiting. “Your daughter is at the finish” She had pulled me through some rough patches earlier and I wasn’t letting her go down now. We were so close!

At 500m to go all of sudden my pain went away! It was like I was on cloud 9 and my legs were on their own and just wanted to go. At 400m I realized that IR was behind me but I couldn’t stop. I knew that while my endorphins had kicked in and I couldn’t feel the pain I knew it was there. If I stopped it would be hard to start again.  The tears started coming and it was hard to push them away.

My husband and step-daughter were at the last turn before the finish and the tears couldn’t be held back as I waved to them. I cried and held my hands up as I crossed the finish with a time of 4:44:59(chip).

I stopped and looked for IR and she wasn’t far behind at all and we hugged and fought back more tears. Of course once we stopped all the pain came rushing back and I thought I was going to throw up. I got my medal and space blanket and got my bag. I found my husband and stepdaughter easily and we went straight for home. The idea of food grossed me out and I knew if I stopped for anything at this point I wasn’t starting again.

Having given birth twice med free I can honestly say that to me this was harder. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done and it’s also one of my proudest. Yesterday ranks right up there with the birth of my children and my wedding day.

Gun Time: 4:55:52

Chip Time: 4:45:59

W25-29: 172/231

Gender: 971/1400

I'm a Marathoner!!

Just a quick pop in to let everyone know that I finished my race and I'm now a Marathoner!!

I did 42.4k in 4:45:58 according to my chip time.

Thank you so much for the support, from here, Twitter, Facebook, emails. It met so much to me knowing I had people from all over cheering me on.

A race report will be done in the next couple days as I come off my runners high. Its truly been a roller coaster of emotions and I can't wait to share all about it with you.

I want to do that!

Most would think that the path that has taken me to my first Marathon started August 1 2009(That would be the first day of my Learn to Run Clinic)

Nope. That day I went into it thinking that if I could do 5k a couple times a week then that would definitely help me stay healthy.

The date that I believe led me to here was September 27 2009. Just a couple weeks later. I know I've mentioned this before but humour me. The Learn to Run clinic had finished our run and I don't even remember the intervals that we did that day. What I do remember is that when we went back to the store a staff member was at the door telling us that the leaders of the Marathon would be coming through here in about 30 minutes. It was the first time Scotia would bring the Marathon through our part of the city so it was exciting so of course I stayed.

The lead car came by and the runners weren't far behind at all but I watched them speed past me. I got teary eyed and cheered them on. It was amazing to see the speed they had and that they were so far into a race and clearly pushing it but they looked so fresh still.  I was awed. Simple as that.

I talked with some people around me about what we all just saw and slowly more runners were running past us. They were fast too and as time went on they were less fast, more of a pace I thought I was doing (though with far less distance). But

They were regular people!

They weren't going for prizes and cash. They were running and had trained for months just to run a route and get a medal at the end. I cheered harder for them than I did the leaders. I tried to encourage those that were taking walk breaks. I high fived a couple people. I saw Marlene in there at some point and was excited that I "knew" someone in there.

Though the sore hands from clapping, the getting sore throat from cheering, I realized something.

I wanted to run the Scotia Full. I wanted to run the Marathon down in the Beaches like I saw others do that day just over 2 years ago.

I want to do that!

Tomorrow morning, I'll be wearing a Marathon bib and at the starting line ready to take the first steps to being a Marathoner.

Track Me!

So as we all know I've got plans on Sunday. You know just a little thing called the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Last night bib numbers went out. I had already set the post about Trouble to go up for today and was going to leave this till tomorrow but really? I'm just too excited and want to share!

I'm bib # 3818.
If you are not in the area and want to cheer me on, live results will be up on the SportsStats website during the race.
If you are in the area you should really come down and support all the runners.

Invested!

So last night was a pretty important night in our Beaver Colony. It was Investiture night. All the new kids officially became Beavers with the #115 Seton Group. Trouble was one of them.

At this meeting they got their scarfs and woggles(that would be the little blue thing that holds the scarf).
He was so excited that he even did a break dance.

Now we fully have a Scouting family. and we'll even be able to get a good picture of it all since this weekend is Apple Day! Shorty will be with us and shes going to help us sell some apples. So if you see anyone from Scouts and their apple baskets please PLEASE donate. 100% of the apple day donations go right to the Colonies.

The Irony

So I currently sit here impatiently waiting for my bib number to be emailed to me.

Laundry and other cleaning isn't very distracting, Neither really is playing games with Trouble where he makes the rules up as we go and I seem to always get it wrong.

It brings to mind that I'm not a patient person. Believe I'm fully aware of this. I am an instant gratification kind of gal. Which brings me to the irony. I'm running a Marathon in 4 days. A Marathon isn't an instant gratification kind of thing. Neither is the training for it. Yet I've done one and an in a couple days time about to do the other. huh.

So like I said I'm currently waiting for an email that might not be here till later on tonight (when you think end of day is? That's what FB said, emails should be received by the end of the day). So I guess I could use this as practice for Sunday right?

Thanksgiving and running

First off

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend with friends and family.
Yesterday we went to my parents and enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner. But first we had to make some room. We hit the local pumpkin patch for their karting, hay rides, corn maze and pumpkins of course

Because after dinner there was lots of lazing around. I had made two pies (apple and pumpkin) neither of which I remember to take a picture of and I doubt either one will last the day today.  Later today we're hitting up a Chinese buffet with some of HandyMan's side of the family. What? Chicken balls and rice totally go with Thanksgiving......

So about my running this weekend. The plan called for 16k on Saturday with 6k on Sunday. The original plan was to head to the store with some others for 8am. But my bed was too comfy and Saturday is my usual sleep in day so I slept in till 8 instead. I did manage to be out the door by 9:30 and I'm glad I changed my plans. It was  a wonderful run. You know those ones where you only feel like you ran as far as you did because you listen to lots of songs on your Ipod and your watch shows that you were out for a hour and a bit? Yeah it was one of those. By the end I knew I had done 16 but honestly it felt like I had just did 5.

Then before we hit up Guelph, I did 6k with some friends. One of them was coming back from a  hip flexor issue and was going crazy. So since it was supposed to be long run pace and 10 and 1s we decided to do just a slow continuous pace and see how her hip takes it. She did great and we ran the whole thing just chatting it up. She feels good about the race now.

Which is currently

6 days away!!!!

So the plan for this week is to hydrate, eat well, organize my play list, and get me my shot bloks (our store is out of my favourite flavour) and oh yeah get some rest in there.

BTW- Huge Congrats to Cindy who did her first Marathon yesterday in 4:40:56!!!!!

Good Luck Friday!!!!

Cindy at Foodie at the Finish Line will be running her first Marathon at the Victoria Marathon! She got sidelined last year attempting her first due to an injury and we've been talking throughout our training cycle about our races. I'm super crazy excited for her to do this race on Sunday. Lots of fun and Lots of Luck!

A couple friends from my clinic will be running the Chicago Marathon and I want to wish them lots of luck and fun, espeically for Maureen who be doing her first!

You will all Rock it! and I can't wait to hear all about the races!

Three Things Thrusday

1.
Well my Wednesdays are going to get interesting. I volunteered to work with Group with Scouts. The levels I believe are
-National
-Provincial
-Regional
-Area
-Group
-Section(where the kids actually are)
(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, btw)

Handy Manny is already a Leader with the boy's section and kinda volunteered himself for Area. I then was talking to the Section Leader and they needed help with more of the administrative stuff and an additional leader since Beavers enrollment really jumped up this year. Yeah so I volunteered for that. So now our whole family will be at Beavers Wednesday nights.

We are definitely an Scouting family.

2.
Its our last clinic night tonight. Its hard to believe we are so close to done. I think our guest speaker will be talking about recovery stuff. Then we'll do 10k recovery. Its also hard to believe there's only

10 Days!

left before the race. Tomorrow its single digits. Eeee.....

3.
You'd think that once I'm done training for a Marathon my schedule would open up more right? Apparently not. Its actually getting busier. I don't mind at all but it just feels that people weren't inviting or asking me about things while I was training. The closer I get to race the more the calendar seems to be exploding with activities and coffee dates, volunteer stuff for afterwards.

Solo Sucks

I'm starting to think running with my clinic has somewhat wreaked my solo running.

I've noticed that if I have a bad run, its generally when I'm running on my own. Apparently I do well or at least I'm don't wimp out when I have others with me. Yesterday I had a 6k tempo to do and my Ipod was dead but I figured it was 6k and doable without. My legs felt heavy the whole time and it took a bit of distractions to keep me from wimping out. So for today's 10k tempo I made sure my Ipod was ready to go. My legs felt ok but today it was mentally challenging.

I figure a good chunk of that was because I usually run Wednesday evenings with my clinic group. I planned to run this morning on my own since I would be helping out at Beavers with the boys tonight. Was it because I switched up my routine? Or maybe that I kept thinking of other things I needed to do today? It was just hard. I ended up cutting it short at 7.5k and walked the rest of the way home. I was literally with the thought process of...

Get to the next light and you can walk a bit
Get to the next street......
Get to the next pole.....
Finally when the get to the next.... was things that were 10 feet apart, I just accepted that mentally I was done and it was ok to stop.

Hopefully tomorrows run WITH my clinic group will go better.

Spirit

Well after a week of taking it easy for the most part, my legs wanted to keep going. Last night was supposed to be a recovery run and I decided that I would just go. My watch wasn't keep tabs properly as it didn't find the satalites fully before we took off. So I had the time and I knew when I generally hit certain distances so I figured I'd just go with it.

I managed to keep a good pace that was going but wasn't hard. Its been interesting to see how the whole group is taking it easier. We're all being less risky. Like Wednesdays run, we had two options: speed or tempo. I think 3 guys picked speed. The rest of us picked tempo and even then some of us were being careful since injuries so we warmed up to a tempo pace for the last couple km instead of mostly tempo.

A good chunk of our group is doing Chicago next week!!!! and it was really exciting to see that they got their bib numbers after our run last night and see that its really setting in for them. I kinda can't wait till I'm in that spot next week!

But what makes me still excited is that this morning instead of cleaning I watched this.

It was amazing.  I cheered the runners on and I got emotional at parts (I'm sure no one is surprised at that one). Even though it was for the Chicago Marathon in 2005, it was still wonderful and uplifting to watch others that have gone through the training, know what its like to get to race day. I can't wait till I get to the starting line at Scotia.

I already get emotional when I think of the fact that I'm going to run my first Marathon in 16 days. Its still a bit away but its still so close. I fully believe the tagline above

"When you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever"

Regardless of how my race goes, I know I've won and that I'm better for all the training I've put in. That the hardest times of my training where I felt like giving up and switching to the half (btw its too late now Half is sold out so no changing for me now) will be worth the chance to cross that starting line, seeing my family and friend cheer me on and crossing that finish line and being a Marathoner.

Best Before

Check out the best before date on my yogurt!
Hahahaha. Good thing I don't plan on eating any on race day.

Marathon Challenge

Some friends of mine from my running group were talking about this program the other day.
It's called Marathon Challenge (duh) and its aired on NOVA in 2007. Its about a group that takes 13 people who want to run Boston but don't run at all and see if in 9 months they can go from couch to Marathon.

So of course I had to check it out. I cried at points in it but really is that surprise to anyone? It was just amazing to see the effort and hard work these people put in. Just how important their goal was to them. As I'm getting ready to embark on my first marathon as well its really just so motaivating to watch. Its about 1 hour long but well worth it.

I can't link the video right on here but here is the link (below) to the page with the story and video on it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/marathon-challenge.html

Let me know what you think!

Last Long Run

Yesterday we did the last offical long run. 32k. Now taper will start.

BTW- 20 days to go!

Yesterday's run wasn't the great. We did loose verison of a chunk of the Marathon route. Link HERE. The reason the run sucked? My calf started acting up around 22k. I was constantly stopping to stretch and had to take it easy so I could finish. As soon as I got back home I stretched more, rolled, iced, and today its more of the same.

Thankfully my new CEP compression sleeves came in the mail today. I ordered them so I'd have them for after the Marathon. Well one is currently in use on my calf and I must say having to go up and down the stairs doesn't hurt a bit now. I've decided to cut out speedwork this week. I'm not about to risk months of effort and hard work. The plan this week is to take every run easy.

Three Things Thrusday

1.It's Curriculum Night at the boy's school. We'll get to go and hear the teacher talk about whats going on for the year. We'll get to see classrooms and see where they sit. The boys are really excited. Handy Manny is excited since we're going to his favourite sushi place for dinner before hand.

2.
So we did our second round of speed work last night. I took off the auto lap thing and remembered to hit the lap button as I finished each interval. My numbers were somewhat not really consistent but since it was raining and dark out, I was trying to see my interval numbers by the street lamps and to me it looked like I was going slow for the last 2 speed intervals and I couldn't really figure out why I felt like throwing up after that 3rd one. Well I plugged in my watch after I came home and saw this

Warm up  5:59
Speed #1 4:39
Recover   5:55
Speed #2 5:02
Recover  6:05
Speed #3 5:01
Recover  6:07
Speed #4 5:10
Recover 6:14
Speed #5 5:16
Recover 6:28 (had to fix shoelace at one point)
Cool down back to store 6:24

Yeah what I thought I saw out there was so not what was above. I'm guessing its because I kept the average pace window up so I couldn't see how fast I was actually going. I'm slowly figuring this stuff out.

3. Saturday we're off to the Farm! We get our beef from a friend of ours who obviously owns a farm and we're going to see it today. The boys will get to ride a tractor and we'll go play in the woods, Maybe the barn too if the cows are out of it. We'll do a nice lunch and hang out with some great friends. I'll definitely have some pictures to show you aftewards.

Getting Closer!

Today was my second last long run. Eeek. Shit is getting real.
I think I'll actually lose it for a couple minutes when I get my bib number.

So today's run went really Really well.
Seriously.

It took up back up to Edward's Gardens. There's lots of shade from trees in the parks. There's a couple bathrooms if pits stops are needed and of course a good couple water fountains. Honestly the only thing I don't like about this run is that around 5-6k and 23-34k we run basically next to my house. Its so close and its hard to have to run away from it on the way back to the store.

Today was also Terry Fox Run day. So we got caught in one and ended up walking a bit more than normal but it was good. The weather was great. It did get hot in the end with the sun but it was to be expected it was around noon by then.

My main goal for the long run was to try and keep it around race pace again like I did last week. I did a 6:22 and I need a 6:24 to get my top goal time. So its looking doable. Granted 10k will be brand new on race day so imagine I will end up slowly down a bit in that last while.

Next week we're doing our last long run 32k. We'll be doing the Lakeshore and covering some of the actual race route or as close as we can to it. Then we taper.

Eekkk. Its getting real!

Speedy Me!

Who needs a Three Things Thursday when you can talk about speed!

Last night was the clinics first night of speed work. There was actually an option of doing 5 x 1km speed intervals or doing a 10k tempo. I double check what my speed pace was and gulped when I saw the 5:37 pace. Yeah I don't know how to convert that for any American readers. I actually spent a good chunk of my day internally debating with myself.

-Speed work, it'll help with lactic threshold
-Tempo, what if I get injured during speed
-Speed work, it'll be useful come race day
-Tempo, but that pace is fast
.......

Seriously that debate went on for what felt like forever.
But of course when it came down to it. I choose the speed work. And not just because the cool kids were doing it. Actually more people opted for tempo that speed. I talked to the B and she said to just do what I can. If its 2 intervals then great, all 5 great. That if it hurts in a way it shouldn't to stop. Simple as that.

So I set out a goal of at least 3 intervals. Now I'm not sure exactly what I did interval at. I know it was the area of my goal pace since the average pace number on my watch was are around it. But I forgot to take the auto lap off. So while it was marking every KM, It took us over 2km to get to where we were doing the workout and I didn't reset it. I think twice my watch lined up with the start of either a speed part or the recovery part. and it showed my paces where I wanted them to be. Mostly I went on feel.

Some of the faster runners in the group doing speed decided to do 800s with 300 recovery. (and I love that I kinda sound like I know what I'm talking about) so they finished when I was finishing my 3rd set. So I stopped and talked to them for a couple mins. B was nursing a tender foot so she was running our route but not doing speed work and I mentioned to her and M that I was debating doing a 4th interval. They both said that they'd do it with me, otherwise they were going to stop too. So I said fine lets go and while that was the hardest one since they are both a bit speedier than me and I didn't want to let them get to far ahead, it felt great knowing that I could keep up with them for that bit. M actually thanked me for pushing her to get that last one in, because she wasn't going to without the peer pressure and she was glad she did it.

My legs actually don't feel bad this morning. I know after some long run and the hill workout my legs feel a bit heavy the next day and today I'm not noticing that. I am noticing a black toenail developing on my left foot.But that I think is more of a sock issue.

So next week I'll set a goal of 4 intervals.
I'll take the auto lap off my watch so I can get a better idea of what I'm doing out there.
Am I weird in that while the workout sucks in the moment, afterwards I think that it (I'm) awesome? Wait don't answer that.

Look at me go!

My long run yesterday got me to 1006.24 kms for this year so far. That is the distance from Toronto to Duluth, Georgia. (thanks Google)
Marathon training does really ramp up the distance. Last year I was under 900km for the whole year. I still have months of running to go and I'm excited to see how far I'll get.

Why Hello there,

Well the first week back to school was busy. Whew.

I still managed to get all my runs in.
Wednesday was the grand hill finale the Marathon clinic dubs "Tour de Hills". We did the 10 hills that I posted other day. You know it was hard but it was good. Some of the hills were steep, others were just long gradual ones(I hate those ones the most). But afterwards I always feel great. You were supposed to pick a estimated finish time and one of the guys from the store was keeping track. I figured it would take 1:30 to finish. I actually did it in 1:21. So that was nice. I got a running hat and some deodorant samples.

On clinic night we had a talk from an area runner who has run Boston a couple times, who has done Iron mans. Hes also a realist. He'll be honest with you if he thinks your goals are too lofty. But he was also great for race prep. It was just a couple small things that made you think "oh yeah, that makes sense". The only issue we had with his talk was that he can talk forever about this stuff and by time we got out for our run it was getting dark and I didn't really realize how quickly it was getting dark till I was in the peanut running and since it doesn't get lit at night it was woah getting dark. So my recovery run was less so of one since we had to get out of the unlit paths.

But even with that I still felt great with Sundays long run. It was a fall back week with 23k. I actually did just about that but we did a water station break and I stopped my watch and it took me over half a KM to realize I forgot to turn it back on. But I did manage to keep my entire run above my marathon goal pace by a bit and match my half time with my fastest half so that caused a happy dance at one point.

Now I'm getting set for the new week. I must say I'm looking forward to the couple hours of freedom in the mornings now.

WW: 10 Hill Edition.

Most wonderful Time of the year!

Its the first day of school. The boys were excited to see everyone again and check out their new classrooms.

Bug is now in Grade 1. Hes full day now. Its going to be weird not having him around in the afternoon.

Trouble is in SK.

Really?

Ok I get. Not everyone likes running.
Those who don't get it, don't have to.
But some that don't also don't have to ridicule those of us who do love running.

I was going to post about my hitting the wall in my long run this weekend but since a conversation I had on Sunday brought up these feelings again I knew I had to post about this instead.

Someone who has no desire to run told me that she sees running as a form of punishment. That those that run like to torture themselves since there is noting good about running. I should point out here that she knows I'm a runner. That I'm training for a marathon right now. I found myself getting defensive and after a bit some of the comments from those that thought of running differently than me was getting laughs so I let it go and just kinda laughed along with everyone.

But in all honestly it pissed me off. I don't ask that those in my life love running or know what the hell I'm talking about when I'm getting into it.
My parents have a motorcycle, couldn't tell a thing about it other than that its a Harley and its red. Handy Manny has a room full of tools for his woodworking that I have no clue what they do. And quite honestly I don't really care. I still am supportive.

I just want to be supported in what I do. I know I have people I can turn to for that support. I shouldn't have to explain that running is somewhat cheaper than therapy and that it is my therapy. That my weight has been within two pounds for the past two years and my clothes size is getting smaller because I'm fitter and eating well. I have more energy and stamina for lots of things now. I know that I've kinda lost friends in part because of running. I'm not one to go out for drinks on weekend because I'm training. I can't get together last minute because this training thing is tiring so I do very few late nights now.

There is really no need at all to put down someone else's activities. It doesn't make you look better to insult what someone else works hard at. It actually makes you look jealous and petty. If its not for you that's fine, it doesn't have to be.

Oh and I for sure asked for a BIG piece of cake since I ran 30k the day before and was eating well this week. I could afford a good piece of cake rather than having a sliver of cake cause they were watching their weight. Neener Neener!

Three Things Thrusday!

1.
Last night was hill again. It was our second last night so we did 9 of the suckers. I hate them but I get the why of doing them and apparently I'm strong on hills. I'm usually in the back when we start off but as we progress through them I get faster(which I think we're supposed to be doing) or others are getting slower. Usually I've noticed that if I pass someone from the group usually they don't get the chance to pass me back. Occasionally I'll play back and forth with one or two people but for the most part I usually end up in the middle of the group by the end. I kinda love that.

2.
Speaking of last nights run.....My segue are awesome I know. Anyways that run obviously finished off the month and brought me to a new distance PR! In August I ran a total of  205.21 km. My last highest month was 150 in May. Yeah Marathon training really puts the distance in. Also right now I'm about 90km short from hitting 1000km for the year so far. How freaking amazing is that!!!!? Last year I got to just under 900km total and I've already passed that and there is still 4 months worth of running to add.  I've seen other bloggers post a end of the month thing, I should really start doing that.

3.
Other than just running a lot I've been canning!
We bough 3 bushels of tomatoes this year. So far I've made tomato sauce out of 1.5 bushels and I have 13(was supposed to be 14 but 1 broke) wonderful jars of homemade deliciousness. Last year on a whim we saw that our grocery store was selling bushels so we figured "hey why not grab one and make some sauce, we've talked about wanting to do stuff like that before" so we grabbed one and made about 8 1 litre jars of sauce and it was great. Honestly we were sad when we finished the last jar so this year we planned to get 2. Handy Mandy decided at the last minute to grab a 3rd for salsa and soup. I promise there will be pictures of all this craziness.

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Redemption!

That's whats today was.

We did our second 30km(18.6miles) run yesterday. I did take all that I learnt from Midsummer and did so much better this time.

I kept my pace manageable the whole time.
I didn't start out to fast so therefore on the way back I still felt great.
I took my Shot Bloks at regular intervals.
Thankfully the weather was amazing for running this morning and I didn't feel the need to gulp large amounts of water/Gatorade.

There was no I feel sick.

No I just want to sit down. Ok there was that, but it was just to give my legs a rest since I had been moving for 3+ hours.

Yesterdays run while tiring really helped restore my confidence that I can finish the Marathon and finish well. I'm not nervous about 32k next week anymore.

50

50 days till I run my first marathon.
50 days till I propel myself the further I've ever been on foot.

I've been working towards this goal since mid June. Its hard to believe that its been such a long time frame that I've devoted to training. It doesn't even really feel like it at all though. I know I've been putting in the time and the distances but in all honesty it doesn't feel like its been months of this. Which I guess would be a good thing since that means I'm obliviously enjoying running.

In the clinic people are talking more and more about goals, what they're thinking of wearing on race day, what they plan on gorging on after race day. I'm really excited that my finish time at Midsummer aligning nicely with my approximate goal time for Scotia. It shows that my training is working and I'm pushing myself properly. I never thought that would be something that would excite me, but I've learnt that it doesn't have to take much to make me happy most days. I'm still working on race day clothes but believe me I'm dreaming about lots of ice cream and crappy TV or old movies to enjoy as I partake in the rest days after the marathon.

50 days till my first marathon
51 days till relaxation mode.

Three Things Thrusday

1.

Less than two weeks till the school year starts back up. Trouble will be in SK and Bug will be in the big change of Grade 1. They are both really excited for the year. Bug a bit more so since now he gets recess and can do the pizza days that he's heard about. I'll admit to being a touch sad that he'll be in school all day so I'll get less time with him but this way I'll get more one on one time with Trouble. We have to finish clothes shopping for the boys since their school moved to "dress code" this year. It just means everything has to be white or navy blue. No writing, pictures, logos, or holes/tears. Its something that's being put in place across the whole TCDSB so thankfully finding clothes has been really easy.

2.

After my 30k race I felt good. The next day I ate like crazy. I could not believe how hungry I was.

Though after sitting down and doing some figuring it out, I am MORE than happy with my results. I'm going to take the lessons I've learnt from that race and apply them to my marathon. My finishing time for Midsummer line up in the range of what I'm training for with Scotia. So I'm thrilled that it showed that my training is working and the effort I've been doing is good. There are a couple things I need to work on more, like more water and being better with my vitamins.

(I have some pics coming, I ordered two, a finish line one even!)

3.

I picked up The Athlete's Palate at the library last week. You know this one.

and I've really only tried 1 recipe out of it so far but I have a couple others bookmarked. It was a chicken carbonara and it was really good, and definitely healthier than the one I've usually made before. My Father in Law even looked through it and copied out a couple recipes. I really liked how they marked the different recipes whether they'd be best in training or recovery. My only issue from just looking through it is that some of the recipes are what I'd call fancy and take things that not everyone keeps in their home or lots of pots.

3 Years of Bliss.....

Today marks our 3rd Anniversary. We got married after being together for 8.5 years.

Oh sure there have been upset moments and some fighting in there but that's what make the sweet and happy moments all the better. I couldn't ask for a better partner in life. My husband is a wonderful father to his children. He is always willing to go with most of my crazy ideas(running a Marathon for example). His laid back attitude is much needed to balance me out. I can honestly say that I can't imagine not sharing all of this with him. I'm looking forward to seeing our lives continue together on this wonderful path we've set out.

My legs kept no Pace with my Desire

You might want to sit for a while and grab a coffee for this one. I get its fitting that its so long since the race was so long. :)

************
A Midsummer Night’s Run
August 20, 2011

I met up with a friend at the Running Room and we took the street car over together to the start/finish area. After we checked out bags we met up with a bunch of people from our group. It was funny when we realized we “knew” pretty much all the pace fairies. I got some advice from those who’ve ran this before since it was going to my first 30k ever. Like not just my first 30k race but my first time hitting that distance. Most of us were planning on doing 10 and 1’s and I decided to settle in with Ann. She was the pacer for 3:15 run/walk. The plan was to stay near her for the most of it and definitely use her when it started to get hard.

Finally it was time to start and we all settled into where we wanted to be. I had a quick hello and good luck with Marlene when she passed us to get to a faster start. We started off a bit ahead of our pacer but we knew the path would get really narrow around 5k. In all honesty I don’t remember much for the first 10k. I remember seeing a friend that none of us were sure was going to make it out, getting weird looks from the drivers we passed down on Cherry St.

By 12k we entered the Spit (or better known as Tommy Thompson Park). Before we hit the next water station there was a bridge to cross. It was downhill towards it on gravel. A friend of mine who was running next to me stumbled or something on some loose gravel and it looked like she was going down head first but then she rolled to her side. She was banged up and bloody so another girl and I stayed with her and helped for about 5 minutes. When we started again we had lost our pace group and decided to run together and estimate our 10 and 1’s since neither of us at set our watches for those because planned on running with the pacer. We went around the lighthouse and hopefully got some pictures. I commented that we probably wouldn’t have gotten any from there if we were with the group. LOL.

I had to hit the port o potty for the first time during a race around the 21k water station. I was still feeling good at this point. By 23k I was feeling really hot and tired. I had realized that I was off my nutrition plan and that kind of threw me. The last bit of turnaround had changed since part of the route in Ashbridge’s Bay was fenced up so we had to run along the boardwalk for a touch. By this point it was dark. And by 26k I was feeling really done. I was taking lots of walk breaks from here one and I kept telling the girl I was with to go on ahead. She had us running a bit more than half a km and then we could walk some more. By the end we were going 3 and 1’s to just get to the finish because I was holding back tears and wanted to walk off around 28k. We got the finish and I really don’t want to see that picture because I was trying to not bawl my eye out so I’m sure it’s bad.

Ann (our pacer) was actually waiting for us at the finish line. She wanted to make sure that we and my friend that we helped made it in. Some of my other friends found me and I literally felt like crap. I wanted nothing more than to just sit on the ground and not move for a bit. No one would let me and honestly if this happens again I’ll tell them to piss off since once I did get to sit for awhile in the car ride home I was feeling better.

It was a rough night but I learnt some things about letting things roll and adapting when plans change. I learnt that if I need to stop for a minute or two and set up a new plan in my head it’s ok. I need to work a bit more on mental toughness since I will need that to get through adding another 12k to this new distance.

Garmin Time: 3:13:30
Official Time: 3:18:16
Chip Time: 3:17:28
Place: 605/834
Category (Women 20-29): 61/86
Gender Place: 272/432

Pictures to follow(well maybe not the finish line one)

Three Things Thrusday!

1.
We did hills last night. 7 of them actually. We did the route that's called the 4 fingers. I think I mentioned it here last year. I'm not a huge fan of them. They're longer than the Fallingbrooke ones were doing but they are less steep. I kinda prefer the steeper ones. Its harder but you're pushing for less since they are a touch shorter. Plus I find I go up better when I can't quite see how much farther I have to go. Fallingbrooke you pulled your hat down and stared straight ahead and it was manageable. These ones you can't help but see a plateau since there is a road that crosses most of them around the halfway mark. It drives me crazy with that there.

2.
This weekend is the A Midsummer Night Run I'll be doing the 30k race with most of my clinic. It just happens to fall on the weekend that we hit 30 for the first time so we all figured we should sign up.
A long run with bling?
A Saturday night run and getting to sleep in Sunday?

YES PLEASE.

3.
60 days till Scotia!
The freaking out about it has apparently started and its still easy to calm myself back down. I imagine it'll get harder to do so as it gets closer. Its one of those things where my head knows really that I'll be fine but my emotions are all over the place.

Pictures from Algonquin

Better later than never right?

From the starting point. The Portage Store


Our Canoe and two packs


One of two beaver dams we had to cross


Me with the food pack, Like my jugs?


Rocking the race shirt even on the canoe!


I love this picture.


Horrible terrible place to swim


Seriously! Who wants to spend 4 days with this as their view?


Rocking the lifejacket!