Looking Ahead

I am now 9 days post marathon so obviously I have been thinking furiously about what my race plans are for the fall. I hummed and hawed over whether I wanted to do another marathon or if I should just stick to halfs. If I did the marathon I'd have to run it alone which I am not too crazy about. Those last 10k were tough and I really needed the push of a friend to help me stick with them. Had Patty not have been with me I may have ended up sitting on a park bench and calling Derek to come and pick me up. I could always go with a pacer but that's a lot of distance to cover with small talk. Nicole suggested we run together but her goal of 3:40 makes my legs hurt just thinking about, and she's not doing a full any longer any way. Looks like sticking to halfs it is! So my goal is to run 3 halfs and hope that at least one of them I can run sub 1:50. I'm going to train with goal paces for a 1:45 finish and see what happens. Nicole is also going for a 1:45 half and her plan looks pretty interesting so I may be stealing hers.

Upcoming races are as follows. I am only actually registered for a few because I am a woman and reserve the right to change my mind!

May 25 Sulphur Springs 25K trail race. This is my first ever trail run (other than Bronte creek trails) let alone trail race. I'm running it with my friend Marina so I'm planning on it being super fun! Oh, the Altra trail shoes that I won on Ali's blog arrived last week so hopefully I can include some trail runs into my routine this summer. I will not be wearing these new shoes for S.S though. My old NB's will be getting the call up for this race and then more than likely retired.

June 8 Moon in June 5K. According to McMillan if I want to run a 1:45 half then I should be able to run a 22:41 5K. My PB is 23:something (remember I'm not anal like some people LOL) from the same race last year. Let's see what happens....

July 1 Canada Day 5K. This is a maybe. I told a girl at work that I would run it with her. And by run it with her I mean drive there, run, wait for her at the finish line and drive home. She has yet to commit though so we'll see. I do however have the perfect outfit so I may go just so I can wear it.

August 17 Midsummer Night's Run 15K. That's right. 15K. I will not be running 1 meter farther than 15K at this Godforsaken race. LOL The 30K race for me last year is what nightmares are made from. :oP

Sept 21 or 22 Mighty Niagara Half is super appealing to me because it is a Saturday which means I don't have to take a day off of work for it. Really I wanted to run the Springbank Half in London (where Kyle will be attending university) on September 8 but it is the same day as the Ovarian Cancer walk that I have already committed to doing again this year with my stepmother who is a survivor. If I don't do the Mighty Niagara I will do the Oakville Half again this year. I enjoyed it last year other than the sleeping in and extra distance bits. Those I could have done without.

October 20 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half. I will be looking for redemption from my fail there last year. I'm hoping to be able to run this with Nicole and be able to walk away with a smile on my face and not in near tears like last year. The part I love about this race is being able to see the elites go by on Lakeshore. Obviously in the other direction.

November 3 Road 2 Hope Half. If I can't get my sub 1:50 at either of the other races I should be able to do it hear. It's a bit of a cheat because it's a downhill course but desperate times could call for desperate measures.

December 26 Boxing Day 10 miler. Surely I'll be able to convince someone to run this with me again this year. The snowman medal is enough to make me come back. Hopefully the wind decides to not make an appearance this time.

Mississauga Marathon

Mississauga ON

BIB # 370

Chip Time 4:10:25

Official Time 4:11:55

Pace 5:57

Place 454/851

Gender Place 152/352

Category Place 55/132

 

 

I've officially entered a new status as a runner.......marathoner. How exciting! Too bad no one gives a crap but me and my running friends but that's ok. It's still something I can brag about even if the person that I am telling is internally rolling their eyes. And I'm gonna stick a 42.2 decal on my car too! Take that non-runners!

 

On Friday I headed over to the expo and picked up my & Patty's race kits. I also ran into Sarah which was a nice surprise. I haven't seen her since ATB in March. I didn't really pick up a whole lot at the expo because I wasn't all that into it. I did however sign up for the Midsummer Night's Run 15K in August. I've sworn that I won't do the 30K there again and I'm happy to stick with that choice. I still get all of the goodies without having to expire on the nighttime race course. Win!

 

Sunday I awoke to my two alarms, a text from Patty and a bunch of Facebook messages asking if I was awake. I sure hope someone has a race fail soon and takes over being the butt of the race day jokes! LOL My inability to properly set my race day alarm and poor prerace fueling choices are becoming legendary. Maybe I need to channel my inner Usain Bolt so that I can become a legendary runner in a different way. Yeah, I'm pretty much stuck with my nacho fame. Oh well.

 

Emma, Patty & Amy came and picked me up shortly before 6am and we headed out to Square One where we hooked up with a group of Daily Milers.

Robin, Nicole, Laurie, Patty, Amy, Me, Richard, Emma, Alan, Roxanne & Henry. The others are Laurie's friends.

 

Phil was supposed to run with us but we were unable to find him amongst the mass of marathon & half marathon runners. I guess he must have gotten there late? His loss for missing out on our titillating race conversation. "Oh I like that girls skirt". "Ew, look at that girls butt in those striped crops." "Holy crap, buddy must be hot in all those clothes." Yes, we pretty much critiqued every one's outfit so be warned next time you decide to wear man shorts to a race, ladies. Of course we received lots of compliments on our outfits. As Hal Higdon says "Color coordination is the key. It doesn't matter how fast you run. More important is how good you look doing it." The best lesson that Patty has taught me! LOL

 

We headed out into the corral and placed ourselves a little behind the 4:15 pace bunny. This was a run/walk bunny so not someone that we would be able to use but figured we should start around him any way. The announcer did the usual spiel and had a moment of silence for Boston as well. Shortly after this the gun went off and so did we. We were able to stick to our paces really well in the first stretch, having to dodge people but not really all that many. We chatted like usual and the time flew by quickly. The first 10K were pretty uneventful other than us passing the 4:15 pacer. Just gotta keep that guy behind us!

SPLITS 5:48 5:55 5:50 5:37 5:39 5:46 5:37 5:44 5:33 5:41

 

Around the 10K mark we were running close to the 2:00 half pace bunny. I'd love to know how she did because at the rate she was going she was not going to bring those people in on time unless her goal was to negative split which probably isn't what a pace bunny is supposed to do? The worst was hearing her say 'We're halfway there'. Really? I'm a quarter of the way there. Not fair! Thankfully the split came up soon after this and we didn't have to listen to the cheerful half marathoners who only had another 6k to go. Right at the split we saw Paul out cheering on his running peeps. Originally he was supposed to have been a pacer at the race but had to drop out due to injury. We gave a wave and made the turn. I was a little worried about making the split because I've always heard that the full course can get a little lonely and there are times when you won't see another runner. Thankfully this never happened to us. There were always people around which was nice. Once again this 10K was uneventful other than it started to get pretty hot and I was beginning to get a headache. I had to loosen the strap on my hat and try to keep myself hydrated or else things could get ugly.

SPLITS 6:01 5:47 5:51 5:49 5:50 5:53 5:58 5:54 6:00 5:54

 

The following 10K started to get interesting. We were still feeling good but the sun was really beginning to beat down. There was an out and back portion along Southdown Rd and Lakeshore and we amused ourselves with trying to find people that we knew in the group that was on the back half as we were on the out portion. Guess who we saw? Phil! "Hey" he yelled. "What are you doing?!?!" I yelled back. He was pretty far ahead of us so there was no way that we would be able to catch him. Oh well, his loss. Again. He was missing out hearing about Patty's SIL's wedding and my troubles with National Home Services. BTW, DO NOT switch water heater companies to them. The worst! We made our way out to the turn around and then headed back into a park section which was new to us as it wasn't on the map that Nicole gave us when we did our training run out here. I had been watching a corner cutter for the last little while and when I pointed him out to Patty cutting yet another corner she yelled out to him "Hey, douche bag!". We then made jokes about how he should take the bus to the finish line and pour some water on himself to make it look like sweat. Around 27K Patty had to take a bathroom stop so I walk/jogged along a little bit waiting for her. To be honest I was starting to get tired so the break was welcomed. She quickly caught back up and we made our way back to Southdown Rd where the sun was insane! I was so hot and starting to feel lethargic and my head was feeling like it was pulsating. "We're not acclimated to this heat". Patty said. No doubt, with this horrible spring we've had. Boo Mother Nature! Around 29K we saw Paul again which was a nice surprise.

Paul took this picture and posted it to FB where I immediately stole it.

 

"Just get me to 30K" I said. "I need to get out of the 20s". "That's where the fun begins" Patty said to me. How right she was......

SPLITS 5:46 5:50 5:58 5:54 6:05 5:52 5:55 6:27 6:07 5:53

 

Just past 30K is where the rollers began. I didn't realize that I had signed up for Around The Bay again! EEK! The ones in the residential area were the worst for me and I actually had to walk up one. "Just go ahead, I'll catch up" I said to Patty. I was tired and hot and mentally starting to break down. Just as I caught up to her another hill came. As we got to the top of it a man on a bike road by and said to us "Good job girls. You've got a lot more hills ahead of you". DUDE! Really? Is that what you think that I need to hear right now? Get lost! We made our way out onto Lakeshore and began tackling those hills. I was so tired at this point I couldn't even keep up my end of the conversation but with the help of a water station walk break and gel I got through it. By this point I had taken 5 gels (I had one at the start) and my belly was not feeling good. I try to take as few gels as possible because they are pretty hard on my stomach but I really needed the energy to get through this. By the time that we got to Jack Darling park I was done. "It's taking everything in me not to walk right now" I said to Patty. "Do you think I don't know that?!?!" she yelled back to me. All around me people were walking so I stopped and walked about 10 steps. "Don't start walking now! You have to keep running!" Patty said to me. I stopped and walked about 5 steps again and that was it. I realized that she was right. If I began walking I may as well pack it in so I gathered up my wherewithal and ran. I had one last moment to let myself wonder just what the hell I was doing out here and then that was it. I started my countdown. 5 more miles. 7 more km. 6 more km. We grabbed water from a water station and I dumped two cups down my back which made me feel a lot better. When we got to JC Saddington park there were people walking everywhere. "We are going to march over these Death Marchers!" Patty said to me. Ok! With my head down so that I couldn't see them (monkey see monkey do) I marched right past those people who were walking. Shortly after this we saw a photographer. I have no idea where the hell we pulled out smiles from but we were faking it like champs!

Weeee look at us having a great time! I'll probably buy this picture. Maybe one day I won't remember how much this part sucked.

 

I was now in familiar territory and still had my inner countdown going. "4K! Easy! Even Greg can run 4K!" Patty said to me. 2 miles. 2k. 1 MORE MILE! We gutted it out and made our way to Lakefront Promenade Park where Patty started to suffer from a calf cramp. I asked her if she wanted to stop and rub it out but she said no. Tough as nails! "I'll be able to turn it up for the chute but I've got nothing left to give this last km" I said to Patty as we came out of the forest into the park. "It's ok." she said "we're gonna beat our time no matter what". Up ahead I saw a familiar back. "PHIL!" I yelled. "Come on" Patty said to Phil "Let's finish together!". Phil said that he had gotten a bad stomach cramp but he was going to gut it out with us. The three of us made our way down the home stretch and crossed the finish line! Big sweaty hugs all around! Yay us!

SPLITS 6:09 5:56 6:02 5:51 6:28 5:53 6:05 5:58 6:15 6:11 6:05 5:55

 

Get. Me. To. The. Finish!

Yeah we just ran 4 hours. No big deal. What do you mean we have to walk 2k to the shuttle buses?

 

 

So there you have it. I'm offically a marathoner. Will I run another one? Yes. Do I like it more than the half? No. The half is the distance that I love so I'm up in the air as to when I will run another. I'll either focus on bettering my half time in the fall or gut it out and do Scotia by myself. 42.2km is a long way to run on your own though.....

 

Marathon Week

So after 16 weeks of training my marathon is almost here. One more measly 4k run stands between me & Mississauga! Training began January 14th and in that time I have run 844km through snow storms, rain, hail, wind & slush all before 7am. I've run a half marathon which rewarded me with a new personal best time and a 30K race which did the same. I trained through an injury and put aside weight training at the gym all so that I can say 'I've run a marathon. I've endured 42.2km. I am badass'.

I don't know if I really suffered 'taper madness' at all during the last week or so but I have had phantom pains and random bouts of panic whenever I thought of the marathon so perhaps I did. I'm feeling pretty good about things right now though. Talking to my dad helped. He told me as long as I didn't crap my pants I'd be fine. See, I obviously get my genius from somewhere. I finally went out and bought my race skirt today. I've been waiting, hoping that Lulu would come out with something super cute but nothing really jumped out at me. Of course next week the most amazing skirt ever will come out. As of now this is what I'm going with.....

I already own a pace setter so I know I'll be fine in it but I will wear it for Thursdays run just to be sure. Running 4K and 42.2k are pretty much the same when it comes to chaffing right? Mental note to self *Remember Body Glide*.

Sundays time goal is sub 4:15. This is Patty's goal. Mine is just to get over the finish line without crying because things are sucking so badly. That's my #1 fear to break down and cry. I'm usually pretty focused in my races. You'll hardly ever see a photo of me smiling, they're all with my eyes on the finish line. I'd hate to see my race pictures for my first marathon have me with puffy eyes!! As Runners World tweeted recently "The race is 1 day, but training lasts month & is laden with roadblocks. If you can make it to the start you can make it to the finish". See you at the finish line, Mississauga!

Mercedes-Benz 10K

Oakville ON

BIB # 2607

Chip Time 54:08:5 (Kyle 53:56)

Official Time 55:38:4

Pace 5:25

Place 362/954

Gender Place 124/507

Category Place 40/171

 

 Here we are again. Another 10K race on my birthday weekend. Do I know how to celebrate or what?! Last year I ran the Yonge St 10K, this year it was the Mercedes 10K. With my marathon 2 weeks away, racing this event would not be a smart idea. What would be a smart idea would be asking my son Kyle to run it with me. At the beginning of the year Kyle had shown interest in running a half marathon. I told him that he could do a 10K and see how he felt after that. There were two 10K's being held on my birthday, Yonge St & Mercedes and if he would like to run with me he could choose which one. Purely for the medal Kyle selected Mercedes. That's my boy. All about the swag. Last week I asked Kyle if he'd been training at all. The answer was no but apparently he got a 12 on the beep test at school, so according to him he's pretty much elite status and doesn't need to train. Seventeen year olds. Gotta love 'em. Oh well. He kicked my ass with no training for the Santa 5K, he's at such a level of youth and fitness he'll probably kick my butt here as well.

 

Race morning arrived and much like last year it was chilly. Thankfully it wasn't damp though and the sun was shining. We arrived to the race with about 15 minutes to spare. Just enough time for us to hit the porta potty line up. After covering the toilet seat with paper, Kyle officially became a runner. With 5 minutes left to the scheduled start time we made our way over to the corrals. Truly, I should have looked around and noticed that we were WAY too far back. We honestly spent the ENTIRE race passing people. As soon as the gun went off I realized my mistake in where I had placed us, and even Kyle was getting frustrated with the speed that the people ahead of us were moving. We bobbed and weaved around people the best that we could and finally after getting yelled at by an old guy for obviously being in the wrong corral I grabbed Kyle and we ran up onto the sidewalk. Soon after the verbal assault by grandad we passed the first KM marker and then the second. Kyle had his headphones in (do teenagers ever take these things out?!?) so I'm not really sure if he was listening to me chattering away but I didn't care. There's something to be said for running a race for fun! We came across a water table and stopped for Kyle to have a drink and then got back at it. There was a slight downhill after this which I told him to ride for momentum. Then after that there was an amazing downhill that I just had fun with and rode all the way down not even checking to see if my boy was with me. I slowed up and let him catch me and then realized what goes down must come up. I honestly never took into consideration that there may be hills on this course. After training with Patty for so long her words started to come out of my mouth. "Even effort. Let the hill come up to meet you". Kyle was definitely listening to me now because he responded with a "Yes, Sensei" He did listen to my words though because as the weaker runners that we were around started walking this hill, he ran all the way up it. Atta boy! Even one of the volunteers cheered him on for it. After we reached the 5K point I kept asking how he was doing and he kept saying fine. I was afraid that he might run out of gas but that never seemed to be the case. We stopped once for him to tie his shoes and then walked another water table and then that was it. There was a fire in this kids belly to get this race done. We passed the final water table and he didn't want to stop there. Around 8K I noticed that his shoe was untied again and I told him to pull off and tie it up. Nope. It's fine. I think telling him that if he kept the pace up that he would definitely get a sub one hour finish gave him some encouragement. The runners around us now were beginning to die a slow and painful death and Kyle was just getting started. The 5Kers joined the course adding to the congestion but he kept going, weaving around everyone in his way. His pace really began to pick up and around 9K he got ahead of me. Pushing it at this point was pointless so I just kept him in my sights and kept my pace. I did notice that he never once looked back to see where I was. Brat! I was still passing people and to be perfectly honest other than the times that we slowed for water and to tie Kyle's shoes no one ever passed us. As Kyle turned onto the driveway I lost sight of him so I just picked people off that were ahead of me. Now I turned into the driveway toward the finish and put on my final push. I heard my parents call my name and waved to them and then it was all over. My birthday 10K race for fun was finished for another year and it was great. I'm so proud of Kyle for finishing this 10K race at an even faster pace than at the Santa 5K, even with two water station stops and to tie his shoes. Whether or not he decides to do a half marathon remains to be seen but I do know one thing. If this kid actually decides to train he could be amazing. Way to go babe!

 

SPLITS - Why yes, we did negative split this baby!

5:39 CONGESTION!!!

5:19

5:38 WATER TABLE

5:54 TYING SHOES

5:25 (5K split 27:55)

5:41 WATER TABLE

5:30

5:12

5:06

4:36 FOR ME 4:24 FOR KYLE

 

Boo disappointed in the race photos. Super small and not many at all.

 

 

 

Marathon Training week # I've lost count

I had a pretty good week last week for my training. As I think about it I feel like I've been training for this marathon forever. I've run in snowstorms, wind, ice, freezing temps, warm temps, you name it. Finally the weather is starting to turn around and the sun is starting to rise while I am out on my morning runs making things way more enjoyable! Winter be gone! With that being said I am much happier doing all of this training now than I would be while doing it in the +30* temps for a fall marathon!

Last week Patty & I got back to the track doing 8 sets of 800m repeats with 400m rest. I felt really great doing these as my splits will tell you. 3:29 3:35 3:27 3:34 3:43 3:40 3:30 3:29. I was pretty happy with the fact that my first and last splits were the exact same so obviously I had enough gas in the tank to finish these off strong! We also did an easy 4 mile run and a 10 mile marathon pace run to start off the week. I squeezed in a 4 miler before driving Kyle to lacrosse on Friday morning before school and then Patty & I drove out to Mississauga and ran the last 33k of the marathon course on Saturday which Nicole was nice enough to get us directions for. It was a beauty day out there and we were able to kick up the pace for the final 6k to marathon pace or less. While we were out there we saw the road closure signs being put up so that was pretty exciting. A whole month of warning for the city of Mississauga? Way to go! We also saw these really cool carvings on old tree stumps all around the route. Patty looked it up when we got home, it appears to be a beautification project that the city has put on. Very cool city of Mississauga!  And one last thing that we ran by was a job site that my morning work is working on. We do concrete forming if you didn't know ( basement foundation walls on new homes). It was kind of cool to actually see our work in progress. I'm not allowed out to the job sites. I'm just the pretty one in the office who bills people for the work that we do. LOL

In other news..... I am writing this on the blogger app on my phone that I just downloaded and I have no idea how to work it so if my photos didn't go where they should have I'm sorry. Also, mother bird is still sitting on those eggs on our front porch. I can't help but think how bored she must be! The dad doesn't stick around any more but I do see him come and take his turn on the nest in the mornings so that mom can go and do her thing so I guess he's not a total deadbeat. ;) Lastly, I signed up for Sulphur Springs 25k yesterday. Now to get out onto a trail to practice. Hopefully I can find someone to come out with me or else Gordie is going to have to suck it up and come and run with me.

Looking back at March and looking forward

As I was walking the dog today (in my toque and mittens!!! Hello April 2??!!) I thought back to all of the things that I did with my fitness in March and tried to think ahead as to what I want to do once my spring races are done.

March was a kick ass month for me! I had my highest mileage ever (255KM!) and got two new PB's! Go me.

I've been sticking to my training plan through thick & thin; injury, fatigue, & general laziness be damned! Probably not so much because I'm committed but I'm scared of what Patty would say if I did miss a workout! LOL Just kidding. I've let my gym time fall off mainly so that I can stay focused on my marathon training, especially now as the next two weeks will be our peak weeks, but I will get back to it once things start to wind down and definitely once the marathon is over. My goal is to get my own set of Jillian Michaels shoulders.

Ok, probably I don't have the discipline nor genes to have shoulders just like that but I want better ones than I have. And I want to be able to yell at people like she does too. Oh, ha, I already do! I'm halfway there! Woohoo!

I have two races left that I have signed up for. The Mercedes 10K that I will be running with Kyle on my birthday in a few weeks, and the Mississauga Marathon that I will be running with Patty in 5 weeks. EEK! FYI, we plan on running the back part of the course for our 20 miler this Saturday. Fingers crossed that we don't get lost! Now I'm left wondering what to sign up for after this. I'm thinking that I will probably do the Sulfur Springs 25K trail race at the end of May with Marina because a) it's a Saturday and b) it's with Marina, whom I love. She's really talked up these trail races so it better be good! After that the Moon in June 5K will more than likely be on my list. My plan for that is to just run my ass off and see what happens. I'm toying with the Bills 50 yard line Half Marathon in June because it's a Saturday and seems kind of cool finishing off in the stadium, but it's obviously in Buffalo so we'll see about that one. Nicole wagged the Midsummer Night's Run in my face the other day too but we all now how well that race went for me last year so I'm not to eager to run the 30K again. With that being said there is a 15K where you get the same shirt and same medal for finishing and it is a Saturday, so I may just suck out and do that. Nighttime is just not a good time for me to run such a long distance. Scotia will more than likely be in there seeing as I want redemption from last year, whether its the half or the full remains to be seen. Patty is not planning on doing a full marathon this fall so I'll more than likely follow suit. Who knows if I'll even like running a marathon when all's said and done?! I also plan on running a race in whatever city Kyle ends up going to school in. He has accepted his Western offer but he still hasn't heard back from Queen's yet *fingers really really crossed* so it'll either be London or Kingston where you'll see my running skirt this fall. Hmmmmm, does Kingston even have races? LOL Guess I should check into that. The Oakville Half is on my maybe list too seeing as it looks like they've fixed up that whole extra 300 metres issue but I am not totally committed if something better comes along. Any other suggestions??

Around The Bay 30K

Hamilton ON

BIB # 2559

Chip Time 2:48:56

Official Time 2:52:04

Pace 5:38/km

Place 2654/6850

Gender Place 836/3331

Category Place 152/600

 

****MENTAL NOTE TO SELF**** Do Not Eat Nachos the Night Before a Race.

The Around The Bay 30K is a race that I had been waiting in anticipation for a whole year to run. That's 365 days of excitement building! To say that I was eager for Sunday to arrive would be an understatement!

Sarah had been nice enough to organise a dinner on Saturday night so myself, Patty (and her fam), Emma (and her daughter), Marina & Maggie joined Sarah at the Royal Coachman. The trouble with being a vegetarian and going out to eat is that there's not a lot of options. There was not a whole lot of anything that appealed to me on the menu so I decided to go with the nachos. They're carbs right? How bad could it be? Fast forward to a few hours later in the evening when the nachos started repeating on me and I was starting to get my answer.....

I went to bed on Saturday night, set my alarm for 6am and went to sleep. Obviously I didn't have the most fitful sleep from being sick with a cold and excited for the run, and when I awoke hours later and saw that my clock read 6:30am I realized that I had once again forgotten to actually turn my alarm ON for a race! You would think that after Oakville I would have learned my lesson! Thankfully once again I had all of my stuff laid out and ready to go so all I had to do was get dressed, eat my breakfast, brush my teeth and go to the bathroom. It only took one trip to the loo to have my 'Nacho's are good prerace food' theory go out the window. Things just got interesting........

Around 7:30am Derek dropped me off to Sarah's house to catch a ride into the Hammer (which was a little different from the plan that Patty and I had come up with at the Expo to make Emma drive us, but this worked too) with the girls from last night. We quickly made it into Hamilton and found parking (which nobody thought to bring money for - thanks Emma!) and made our way to Copps to try to meet up with some DMers and my runkeeper friend Irina. Shortly before race time we hit the bathroom lineup once more and then joined the thousands trying to make their way out to the corrals. Patty & I walked along like a couple of lemmings following the crowd until Patty realized that we were in a sea of white bibs. Crap! It was now 9:27 and there was no way that we'd make it over to the closed corrals in time so we pushed our way into the open corral just as the gun went off. SHIT! I've still got on my sexy throw away track pants (I know that these pants were dead sexy because I saw people keep looking at them in envy!). I quickly kicked off my shoes, tore off my sexy throw away sweats and threw my shoes back on. Too bad that I didn't take the time to rub any of the nasty Hamilton street debris off of the bottoms of my socks because every now and then throughout the race a new stone would make itself known. This day is just getting better and better!

The race made it's way throughout the downtown area and I suggested to Patty that we should try running a little quicker for the first 10K or so just to try to bank some time in case we have troubles with the hills at the back end of the course. Patty agreed and we sped up. Through the entirety of the race the two of us girls seemed to be getting a lot of attention in our skirts. Spectators were pointing, runners were commenting (two ladies had  a whole conversation about each of our outfits), and dirtbags were taking photos. I don't even want to know....
Around 6K my tummy started feeling a little queasy but I tried not to think about it. Around 8k Patty suggested we gel but I told her that my stomach was not feeling good and I was going to try to wait a bit. Right away she asked if it was the nachos. I knew that was an eyeroll that I saw from her when I ordered them! Shortly after, Patty spotted her friend Beth in the crowd and almost took some random guy out trying to get over to her to pass off her water bottle. I had forgotten to ditch the small pack of kleenex that I had brought with me but after almost spitting on Patty twice (I'm sure that you don't need me to spell out that conversation to you) I figured that it was probably a good thing that I still had them and blew my nose. Now Patty had a new job on this run. To be my official booger checker. Sorry, but I didn't want to be like the guy that Derek saw running down York with a giant snot bubble hanging from his face!

Just after the 9K point there was a set of railroad tracks in the distance. How did I know that they were railroad tracks? Because all of a sudden red lights started flashing, bells starting dinging and the crossing arms started to go down. At that same moment the loudest collective NO! in the history of the universe was shouted as everyone started to haul ass to make it over the tracks in time. Patty looked at me and asked what we should do. RUN LIKE HELL! I yelled to her over my shoulder! The train was still off in the distance so we were pretty safe. The police officer who I refused to look at (in case he told me to stop) was apparently waving people through so we weren't in that much danger. A man who was running alongside us said that he's run this race the last 10 years and never seen that happen before. Just my luck! Not long after this I was able to take a gel. Unfortunately this was going to be the only one that I would be able to stomach for the rest of the race.

Things were pretty uneventful running down the Beach Strip towards Northshore. I saw my friend Bill out in the crowds with his dog which was a nice surprise. Not soon before we hit the lift bridge I decided that I would try to spit again because I was getting tired of stuffing snotty kleenex into my skirt pocket. This time I made sure to do it in front rather than to the side so that I wouldn't hit Patty. Obviously I have terrible aim because the guy running ahead of me missed getting a giant gob on his left ass check by a mere inch! Thank God he was wearing headphones and couldn't hear the nervous laughter coming from behind him!

Running with an upset stomach and a cold was starting to take it's toll on me. I was almost out of water and the stations seemed to be few and far between. As we neared Northshore I was getting desperate and thankfully took an orange slice from some unofficial random strangers. They had runner club jackets on so I figured I was safe. Surely they weren't part of some strange body trafficking ring that drugs runners under the disguise of kindness and comes along the course at the end of the race in a van and collects their victims??!! Now Patty had a new job. To make sure that nobody stole me! Probably that would be better than checking for boogers anyway. As we came up to the rollers on Northshore Patty reminded me to keep an even effort. Check. Up and down and up and down we went and I was getting really thirsty again but didn't want to have to drink the small amount of water that I had left. "Where the F are the drink stations?!?" I yelled. Patty agreed and I could see that she was in real need of water too. I offered her some of mine and realized just how desperate she was when she actually went to take a sip, cold cooties and all. Lucky for her just as she was raising the bottle to her mouth a water table came into sight. Cooties averted! I was starting to get light headed so I grabbed two cups of Gatorade and gulped them down. Soon after we were at the bottom of the first crappy hill. A random woman said to her friend "Who is it that hates this hill again?". "EVERYONE!" was Patty's response. We made it to LaSalle Park and I started looking for my sister and her family who I knew would be up here. I spotted them before they saw me and I ran over to give them high fives. Too bad that my little nephew didn't see me and my big nephew was way to cool to be giving his snotty nosed aunt a high five but my sister & her bf were happy to smack my hand. Yay! Off I went again to tackle the next hill with a little spring in my step. Too bad that it didn't last and I could feel myself starting to drag. I got quiet and only responded to Patty's conversation with one word answers or grunts. We got up onto Plains Rd and Patty had to walk for a minute to get her gel out of her pocket. I gladly told her that was fine and took a little more water. This was the hardest part for me to start running again....the lowest of the low. Almost as if it were a sign we noticed the Priest of the church across the street with the Palms blessing all of the runners. I said a little prayer inside my head and took strength. Thank you God. :o)

Soon enough we came to the spot where the famed 'little person' was. I could hear the We Will Rock You blaring from his ghetto blaster (does he seriously listen to that for 3-4 hours straight?!). I watched people high five him as we ran by but all of my high five energy had been given to my sister. Down the valley we ran and made our way over the bridge to the Valley Inn Rd Hill. "Here we go" Patty said. I decided that the best way for me to make it up this hill would be to get behind her, put my head down and watch her feet. Up up up up we went. Around the corner we went. Up up up we went. Some buffoon yelled out "Look up! You're almost there!" Of course I looked up and guess what?! I wasn't almost there! F*cker! Down my head went again and up I went. We finally made it to the top and I knew that Patty would keep going but I needed to drink the last of my water. Mouth breathing for the last 2+ hours had made it feel like sandpaper. I slowed to a walk, took the last few sips and watched Patty move off in the distance. I had a quick flashback of watching Nicole move away from me at the Midsummer Night's Run and that was all that I needed to get my legs moving and catch back up to Patty. I saw her look over her shoulder for me and yelled "I'm coming!". It didn't take that long to get back to her side and soon enough we had made it to the Grim Reaper.

I would totally buy this picture if that weird looking guy in the red wasn't there. I can't take my eyes off of his hat.

It was at this point that I thought to myself 'Please don't let her pick up the pace anymore, I don't think that I can go any faster". I did a body check and realized that I wasn't hurting anywhere other than my tummy but I had simply run out of gas. Only having nachos for dinner and one gel on the course was catching up to me. Now it was time for the whining to start. "I hope I don't puke on the course, please let it happen at the end"...."I'm TIRED!"...."I'm SOOOO thirsty"..... "Ugh, I have nothing left in the tank"..... "OMG I'm TIRED!". Only once did Patty tell me to suck it up that we were almost there so I shut up. At that point all that I could focus on was my all consuming thirst anyway. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, dreaming of the water that I knew would be at the finish line. With 1K left to go I said to myself "We got this". With my eyes on Copps the whole time it seemed almost like a bad dream, the one where you're running and running down a hall but the end just never comes! After an eternity we made it to the turn into the arena and I saw Patty give a burst of speed and from God knows where I was able to put one on too and crossed the finish line.

 

Thank God that's over! 30K in the books and no bird crap on my hat!

 

In the end we had both done what we came out to do. Patty got her sub 2:50 and I had a better experience than at Midsummer. Sure it would have been way better had I not been feeling sick but I was able to dig deep and keep my pace through this entire run. I didn't have to walk those last few km's or have bad feelings about the race. Probably if I didn't have Patty to run with I wouldn't be saying these things but that's what friends are for. To help you get through the tough times. I have learned a few lessons from this race obviously

1) don't eat nachos the night before a race
2) turn the alarm clock ON
3) use kleenex rather than spitting
4) the cadets in the food line really take their job seriously (I was begging the boy for 2 juice boxes but he would only give me one)
5) shut up and run!