Boxing Day 10 Miler

Hamilton ON

BIB # 275

Chip Time 1:30:20

Official Time 1:30:43

Pace 5:34/km

Place 373/726

Gender Place 97/310

Category Place 27/47

 



So I won't lie. The whole reason that I wanted to run this race is because I think that they have cute medals. If this is wrong I don't wanna be right! The only thing that was holding me back from registering was 1) I love shopping on Boxing Day and 2) Boxing Day is our Christmas at my dads. But then I realized that 1) the race didn't start until noon so I could fit it in along with shopping and my dads and 2) Patty was willing to run it with me. Merry Christmas! Sign me up!

Then came the weather report. Snowstorm. Christmas Balls!

I woke up Boxing Day feeling a little bit less than perfect. Busy shifts at work, a big Christmas dinner, sweets, booze and lack of sleep the past few days & nights were not perfect prerace form. I sent a text out to Sarah on my way to the Boxing Day sales that sh*tting my pants just may be in the cards during the race. Ah the good ol' race fear of mine; crapping my pants.

My shopping goal this day was to get to Factory Shoe's 50% off sale early enough for them to still have my size in Uggs. I thought that they opened at 9am so I was a little shocked when I arrived at 8:50 to find the place buzzing. Turns out they opened the doors at 7:20! Thankfully my wishes were granted and they did have my Uggs. Yay! I scooped those up along with 2 pairs of New Balance shoes size 7.5D AKA Flintstone Feet and did my best to find the end of the lineup to pay. One hour and 3 minutes later I was finally at the cash register. Yikes! Time was ticking away and I'd just spent over and hour on my feet. I had just enough time to head home, change and pick Patty up. Thankfully the predicted snow had not started yet but the crazy 45km winds had. And they were cold! What to wear? What to wear? I settled for my Lulu running pants, Smartwool socks, my long sleeved Lulu Swiftly and my Lulu Define jacket. You're welcome Lulu shareholders. I also brought along a water bottle that fits into my jacket pocket because Beth said that in the past she'd seen people filling up cups at the water stations with hoses from peoples yards! I didn't need creepy water adding to the crap my pants factor!

Patty & I arrived at about 11am and found some fairly close parking to the start/finish area. We walked over to the YMCA to pick up our race kits (a toque that I probably bitched about being too masculine far more than Patty wanted to hear, our bibs & a very small sized Cliff bar). Kind of lame but the registration fee was fairly low so I can't expect complete awesomeness. We hit the usual long bathroom line and snapped a quick picture.

Say Cheese!

I'm not quite sure what was up with this Y only having two bathroom stalls in the change room. Even my gym has about 10 and it's a fraction of the size of this Y. That smelled. Frickin terrible! Ah, the good ol' Hammer. We went back to the car, threw our manly hats into the back, gelled up and put on our gloves. I was starving at this point and feeling a bit of a tummy ache coming on. Not the way you want to feel right before a 16k run. We then made our way to the start line where we saw Paul & Mari, two daily mile friends. And then, quite uneventfully the race started. We hadn't even hit the start line yet when some dude who in my mind I named 'Gunther' decided he needed to elbow past me. RUDE! IT'S CHRISTMAS! We passed him a couple of minutes later. Good thing that you got ahead of me just so that you could run slowly in front of me! Wiener! There was a lot of congestion until we got to Bayshore Park but we were still able to keep the 5:30/km pace that we were aiming for. The goal of this race was sub 1:30. At Bayshore the wind really let its presence be known and it sucked! I think that out of all the directions that the wind was coming at us during the race, the sideways wind was the worst. Patty & I didn't talk much except to let out a 'certain letter bomb' every time a wind gust came up. As we were coming out of the park I noticed a guy come barreling out of the lone porta potty that was on the course and immediately was reminded that I just may crap my pants. Stupid porta potty! If you hadn't been there I would never have thought about it. Thankfully a nice long hill soon came up to take my mind off of things. We huffed our way up silently thanking the Gods for not sending us into a headwind at this point. Time was going by fairly quickly for me and I was recognizing a lot of points along the route from when we ran it as a long run a few weeks earlier. It's nice to know where you are on the route rather than just blindly running along I think. Shortly after 10k Patty felt that she couldn't keep up with the 5:30 pace that I was trying to keep us to (at some points she'd yell at me for going too fast...sorry!) so I went on ahead. I was still feeling pretty good, but soon the Chedoke Hill came along and I wasn't feeling so great any longer. I got about halfway up the hill and I stopped and walked and drank some of my fresh from home water. I made my way to the top, ran to the water station and took a Gatorade (see Kyle, longer races DO have it). Two sips and I was ready to get back at it. Now we were running on a muddy trail and the footing wasn't the best. Neither was the headwind. Once off the trail there was a nice downhill which I took advantage of WEEEEEEEEEEEEE. After this things kind of sucked. No matter what direction I ran from the point of the trail on it seemed that the wind was in my face. My legs were also getting tired and the stupid elf that I had been trailing for most of the race was getting away from me. A couple of cars had also somehow gotten onto the closed side street that we were running along and one kept trying to pass me. Seriously? Thankfully a turn came up and I was able to get away from him. And then couple of turns later I was passing my car! It was kind of bittersweet because while I knew that I was close to the finish I was also longing to just be finished and sitting inside of it. Soon enough I was crossing the finish line and receiving my coveted snowman medal! About a minute later Patty came through and we decided to just go straight home rather than going back into the stinky Y and getting some soup. On the way to the car I spotted Gunther taking a picture of an older couple who I assume were maybe his parents. If I didn't resemble the Joker with my red sweaty face and purple lips I'd have photobombed that guy! Elbow me will ya? We also saw a guy run by in a Christmas tree costume. At least someone had some Christmas spirit, unlike me & Gunther. All in all I had a fun time despite the nasty wind, and at least it waited until that evening to snow! And I didn't crap my pants! Yay!

Secret Santa's

What do you mean it's 6am on Christmas morning and my family won't be up for hours?! Being the only early riser in the house truly sucks some days. Oh well, it'll give me the chance to post something witty and meaningful here. Ok, it'll give me a chance to put some words up and make me feel better about my lack of blogging lately. With hockey season in full swing I still have no spare time to get on here, and when I can someone else is on the computer. You would think that with two laptops and two PC's in the house there would be enough for everyone but for some strange reason the computer in the living room is the only one people want to use around here. Not that you really care about that, but hey, it's 6am I'm allowed to ramble.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I took part in two online Secret Santa's this Christmas. I just missed signing up for Courtney's Sock Swap last year so I was happy to get in on that this year. I also did the Daily Mile Secret Santa. Hopefully both of the people who I played Santa to have received their gifts in time! With the price that I paid for postage that stuff should have arrived the next day! Yikes! I bought for Hannah for the sock swap and Leana bought for me. I received a really cute pair of Christmas socks, a Lulu headband, some soap, Gu and Nuun. Yay! Totally awesome gifts, thanks so much Leana! I'm hoping to wear the socks tomorrow at the Boxing Day 10 miler but they're calling for snow so I may have to stick with my Drymax wool socks. Thankfully every time I check, the forecasted accumulation goes down. First it said 30-40cm, then 20cm, then 15cm and now it says up to 10cm. Keep it up weather man!

From my Daily Mile Santa I received a really cool box of tea from David's Tea. I've never heard of this store but a lot of people commented on how great it was when I posted a photo of it on DM. I haven't tried any yet, but I will.

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope that you have a wonderful holiday and all the best for 2013!

Santa 5K



Burlington ON

BIB # 1179

Chip Time 28:11

Official Time 30:10

Pace 5:39

Place 553/2806

Gender Place 220/1757

Category Place 12/197

 



The Burlington Santa 5K is advertised as 'Canada's Largest All Santa Race'. There were 3500 people registered to run this event, all in a stinky Santa suit made entirely of felt in the backroom of a sweat shop somewhere. A few months ago I told my son Kyle that I had registered us for this event just to see what he'd say. "Ok" was his response. 'Really?!?! Right on! Retribution for the Warrior Dash'! er I mean 'Yay! A nice mother son activity' I thought. Over the weeks I gave him plenty of opportunity to back out, waiting until November 30 to register us and constantly asking him if he still wanted to do the run. He answered me 'Yes' every time with the typical exasperation of a 17 year old. Of course two nights before the race he told me that he had a hockey party to go to on the Friday night but not to worry, he'd still be running on Saturday morning with me. Perfect, I had also just checked the weather and they were calling for 90% chance of rain..... what better way to spend a Saturday morning then running in a felt suit with a hungover teenager in the rain with 3498 other people?!?! "Don't worry, babe" I told him. "We're just doing this for fun, it's not a race, we'll go at your pace".........

Don't worry, if we get split up I'll be able to find you......

Race day arrived with the rain that was promised. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to wear underneath the suit seeing as it wasn't going to breath at all. After a quick facebook chat with Patty I went with a tshirt + crops. Kyle wore his Under Armour pants (tights) that he wears under his hockey equipment and his Warrior Dash tshirt. I made us a breakfast of oatmeal and tea and gave Kyle an Advil chaser. He said that he felt fine, and although I noticed a little bit of a stink coming off of him from the night before it was nowhere near the one that his dad had going on so I figured we were good to go! (Without Kyle's headphones which he couldn't find. "Geez. That's too bad. I guess you'll just have to talk to me now.") So off we went, in the rain, to the race. "Don't worry buddy. I'm sure that these suits are pretty water resistant" I said. "Ugh! They're going to weigh 100lbs and I'm going to get sick and won't be able to go to Michigan next weekend for hockey!". "You'll be fine, it's a little rain. It's not even cold. And besides, at least now we don't have to worry about anyone lighting a match around us!!". *crickets* We arrived downtown with 15 minutes to spare.

You can almost see the stink coming off of these suits.....

I knew that with so many people participating in the event we should get as close to the start line as possible. Unfortunately that was not going to happen and we ended up pretty far back in the crowd. Right behind a lady with a jogging stroller and a 5 year old. Awesome!

I asked a guy standing behind us to take our picture. He made me ask the lady with him instead. What a douche!

I had brought along a bottle of water for Kyle to drink at the start line but he decided that he would like me to carry it for the whole race just in case. Oooookaaaaay, well at least I wasn't wearing my belt with 4 bottles full of water like some people. The gun eventually went off and two minutes later we were through the start. The course was so congested we were weaving and running up the back of people like crazy. I made Kyle go ahead of me just so that I didn't have to worry about losing him in the sea of red suits. As we got to the bottom of Brant St people started walking. Really? It's not even been 500 meters and you're walking? ARG! Kyle said that I was being a 'running snob' but come on. 500 meters?  As we were running along Lakeshore I started barking at Kyle to pass people. "What happened to 'Don't worry, babe. We're not going to race'?" "We're not racing, now pass these people would ya, they're going to slow?!?!". We turned up Maple and disaster struck. The string that was holding Kyle's pants up broke. Darn sweat shops! He tried running while holding his pants up but with only 1km or so behind us that wasn't going to work so I told him to get up on the sidewalk and I'd see if I could fix them. I quickly tried tying them back up and wrapping the string around a bit but after running another 200m we realized that wasn't going to work either. Back up onto the sidewalk we went. I suggested that he just take the pants off but with only his Under Armour pants (tights) underneath this was not a welcomed plan, so I just took off the highly flammable belt from my jacket and tied it around his waist over the pants. Thankfully this did the trick! Crisis averted!

I was really impressed with Kyle's ability to keep a 5:30/km pace and told him so numerous times. We were cruising along as best we could while weaving in and out of the people, chatting away commenting on the massive calves on one guy and laughing at the ripped pants of more than a few others. It was honestly a really great time. I kept asking him if he needed to walk and he kept saying no. We came to the water table and I spied Gatorade cups. "Gatorade will be at the front, water at the back" I told him. He took a cup of 'Gatorade' and drank it down. "Uh, yeah. That was water." Oops. Sorry buddy. I'm used to longer races I guess. I didn't take any water as I hadn't really been putting a lot of effort in at this point. We continued along the course, which was the exact same as The Moon in June, so we were able to hit the tangents pretty well seeing as I had a good memory of the loop course. At one point we came to a group of teenage marshalls obviously out for volunteer hours warning people to a curb. "Hey Jackman!" "Watch your step, Jackman!". Just what Kyle wanted to see this morning while out for a run in the rain with his mom wearing a Santa suit I'm sure. Oh well, it could have been worse. He could have been without pants! Count your blessings Kyle! Shortly after this he asked me how far we'd gone. I checked my Garmin and told him that we had another mile to go. "If we speed up a little bit we can get a decent time even with the stops we made with your pants, but don't speed up too much. We want to save some for the end so that we can pass any little kids ahead of us". I noticed that the guy running beside Kyle was listening to my advice. Smart! No one wants to get shown up by the 10 year olds on course, trust me! Kyle picked up the pace a bit here and then as soon as my watch beeped the 4th km he took off. What the hell? Where was this when I was bitching at him to get around the slow people?!?! I kept up for maybe 200m and then had to fall back. I saw him look over his shoulder at me and I waved him on. "Just go. If you can beat me then beat me". That was the last that I saw of him until I crossed the finish line. Gone were my visions of the finisher photos of us crossing the line together holding hands with big smiles on our faces. Instead I was left with the realization that a 17 year old boy with a high level of fitness but who never runs was outrunning me. Here I was saying that we'd be running at his pace when really we needed to be running at mine. But who cares? I was proud of him for being that amazing! After we got home (and Kyle went back to bed) I looked at my Garmin splits. I ran that last km in 4:20. Kyle beat me by 30 seconds which means that he ran that final km in 3:50. Holy crap! I don't think that I could ever run a km that fast. Damn youth! Once we met up at the finish line I proudly told him that I beat a little kid. "So did I" he said. Atta boy!

Where's your mom, kid?

Here she is carrying your stinkin' water! (That boy on my right belongs to a family
who comes in regularly to the restaurant. I can't wait to tell him that I beat him! AFTER
they tip of course!! LOL) 

First the worst........

Second the best

 PS....in case you're wondering, Noah has no interest in running a 5K any longer which is why he didn't join us. Considering he'll dog a 400m track tryout just so that he doesn't get selected to run it I'm surprised that he ever even considered it.

HBBC Weeks 1 & 2

So you'd think that with Kyle gone to Ottawa for a high school hockey tournament for the first half of last week that I would have had plenty of extra time to post about the first week of HBBC..... Please, I barely had time to go to the bathroom. I just don't know how my life gets so busy what with two jobs, two kids, a husband (who could also be included in the kid count), two nephews who's lives I try to play a large part in, and a dog. Any way work is fairly quiet this morning, so here's a run down of my last two weeks including workouts and life stories.

Monday Nov 19 - Day 1! Yes! I'm getting up and running 10k for sure! Unfortunately my bed felt too good this morning and that run did not happen. I did get in two dog walks for a total of 1.5miles, ate all my fruit & veggies & did the FB thang.

Tuesday Nov 20 - Ran for 4 miles with Patty around the Mountainside area and went to the gym with my lovely personal trainer Shira for an hour. Also took Gordo out for a total of 1.9 miles, did the F&V and FB.

Wednesday Nov 21 - Finally got that 10k run in and walked 1.5 miles. FB & F&V bitches!

Thursday Nov 22- Ran 5 miles with Patty that included the Kerns Rd hills (or what Patty refers to as the 'double bitch') and then up Cedar Springs hill. This was a hilly workout but I enjoyed it. I walked 1.5 miles, did the F&V & FB thing and took advantage of the Thanksgiving bonus points even though the real Thanksgiving was a month ago. :)

Friday Nov 23 - Did the WOW and walked 1.5 miles. Fruits & veggies were not my friends this day but FB was.

Saturday Nov 24 - Ran 17k out on part of the ATB route. Love that Valley Inn Rd hill! Jokes! LOL Patty calls this route the cemetery 8 as the usual route is 8 miles and you run past 5 cemeteries. This is one of my fav routes, very hilly and scenic. Obviously we added onto it by running down York Rd a bit. It was pretty cold & windy out and there were some tricky ice spots. I saved Patty's life by catching her as she fell once! Ok, maybe I didn't save her life but I saved her a fall. After that I walked Gordie for 2 miles ate my fruit & veggies & posted on the FB group.

Sunday Nov 25 - (hubby's bday today). I walked the dog for half a mile in the morning and then went and worked another lovely Sunday breakfast shift. Facebook was the only other point I got this day.

TOTAL : 44.1 points + 10 bonus points + 3 bonus points for tweeting and adding the challenge to my blog.

Monday Nov 26 - My Achilles was bothering me a bit from the two hilly routes so I took this day off to rest. I did the WOW, walked 1.5 miles, ate my fruit & veggies and posted in the FB group.

Tuesday Nov 27 - Ran 5 miles with Patty around my neighbourhood, walked .5 mile, ate my F&V & did the FB thing. This day also included my nephew's football championship game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto! This was the Ram's game to lose and unfortunately that is what they did. By one point with 10 seconds to go. Heartbreaking is an understatement. I can only imagine how badly these boys felt but they did amazing just to get to that game. MM Robinson has never made it to the Metro Bowl so that's a huge accomplishment. Also, Kyle's hockey team made it to the gold medal game at the Scotiabank Centre (where the Ottawa Senators play) this day. Unfortunately they lost also. It was a day for losing in my family I guess. LOL After all of this I attended a funeral visitation for a guy who played on one of our sponsored hockey teams (God bless you Ty) and went into work. LONGEST DAY EVER!

Wednesday Nov 28- Ran 5 miles around my neighbourhood, walked 1.5 miles with Gordo, spent an hour at the gym with Shira, ate my fruit & vegetables and posted on FB.

Thursday Nov 29 - Ran for time with Patty on Lakeshore. Our goal was 1 hour. At that point we were still a fair ways away from our cars so we ran for 10k instead. I also walked 1.5 miles, ate my F&V & posted on FB.

Friday Nov 30- I walked for a total of 1 mile, did some upper body weights for 30 min at home and posted on FB. Fruit & veg were a fail for me this day.

Saturday Dec 1 - It had snowed the night before and was pretty cold. I met up with Patty & Beth and ran the Boxing Day 10 miler route (or a modified version). The ice was crazy on this run so I had to spend most of my time watching the ground. It's too bad because this is a nice route. The Chedoke hill wasn't the greatest, but I got through it. Probably Patty & I are going to run this event this year. I covet the medal. Afterwards I walked the dog and spent the afternoon walking around the mall with my family. Too bad that there were no bonus points for this!

Sunday Dec 2 - The usual half mile walk summed up my day. Half a lousy point. How sad.

TOTAL: 45 points + 6 bonus

SQUAT CHALLENGE------ I saw this posted on Run With Jess FB page and thought I'd take a crack at it because I loves me some squats. Probably 100 on boxing day is not going to happen.

 



13 IN 13 --------- I'm also going to give this a go. Run 13 races in 2013. Varying distances. Thirteen medals?! Yes please!

HBBC Start up!

Once again I'm participating in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge held by Amanda at Run to the Finish. I really enjoyed the challenge last year, so I was very happy to see that she was doing it again! Essentially it's a way to keep you on a healthy track during the  holidays of American Thanksgiving (or as those of us in Canada like to call it, Thursday) and the Christmas holidays. It runs from Nov 19 - Jan 5 so at least it'll give me something to blog about so that I can keep Ali off my back! LOL I will be tracking my normal running & gym workouts on dailymile and my dog walks with Gordie on Runkeeper. Damn straight I'll be logging my walks for this thing. Every mile counts for points! :o) I stopped using Runkeeper when I got my Garmin last June because whenever I tried to sync the two it would make my computer freeze but I'm just going to use the app on my phone.

Today is the first day of the challenge and I planned on starting it off right with a 10K run this morning. Unfortunately I slept in and that didn't happen. My house is too much of a mess for me to even think about running this aft (yes I am blogging at work this morning) and I'm working tonight so I'll have to begin my workouts tomorrow.


This is just the front hall! Nightmare!

Snacks for work; apple, banana, clementine, grapes & strawberries. HBBC last year got me on the right track to getting my proper servings of fruits & veggies!

At least I'll be able to record my 5-7 servings of fruits & veggies and my dog walk. Maybe even my house cleaning seeing as it's such a pig sty in there. The weekend was so busy, we were barely home except to make a mess and not clean it up. On Friday morning I worked, cleared out 10 mins early to hit up the 12:15 spin class. Rushed home to walk Gordo, wrangled Kyle's hockey equipment into the car and sped to the school to pick him up and drop him off to the arena where he had a game vs some Michigan prep school at 3pm. Then I headed over to Nelson Stadium where I watched the first half of my nephew Jonathon's GHAC Championship game, then I picked up Noah from school, dropped him home and went to catch the last half of Kyle's hockey game. He played AMAZING but they lost 3-1. This Michigan team was FAST! After that we headed back to the stadium to congratulate Jonathon on his teams victory and his THREE touchdowns!

My nephew is #2 on the right. Handsome AND talented!

Then off we went home to eat dinner and then go to Kyle's house league game where he once again played AMAZING and won 5-1. Next stop. Bed! Saturday morning I awoke at 5am headed out for a 12k run and then came home to get my family out the door to another (and thankfully our last) university tour. This time we were at Western. Kyle really liked it, but my feelings are that it is too big of a school. Thankfully Queen's is still his first choice. *fingers crossed that he gets accepted* He has decided to apply to 4 schools, Queen's, Western, UofT, and Ottawa. It's such a bittersweet time for me as a mom right now. I'm so proud of him to be able to apply to university but so sad that he is at this stage of his life. Next year he will be living away from home and that makes me misty eyed to even think about. Look out Noah, mommy won't even let you out of her sight next year! Sunday I worked, and if you know me at all you know that Sunday's at work are such a gong show I have no energy to do anything but make dinner when I get home from work, and yesterday was no different. So those are my excuses as to why my house is a mess and I can't run today. Onwards and upwards I always sometimes say! This week I plan to run 4 times, workout with my personal trainer & hit a spin class. I think taking today off probably won't kill me. :o) Happy Monday!

Randomness

Blah, I have been so busy lately! Barely enough free time to read any one's blog and sure as heck no time to post on my own! To be honest, I'm only doing it today because I got called out by Ali last week for having a boring blog. LMAO I've been racking my brain and can't think of anything that I even want to write about so I'm just going to put up some random crap and Ali is going to like it! Ha!

On one of the few times that I did have the opportunity to read any one's blog last week I randomly found the pacer at Scotia that I followed for the first 8k! It was this dude, Beaches Runner.

Noah had the unfortunate luck to sit beside me while I was inspecting my disgusting runners toes the other night. I don't think that he's had a fitful night's sleep since. I seriously thought that he was going to puke. LMAO

I started training with a personal trainer 2 days after running Scotia to work on my strength. I'm really enjoying it except my glutes are on fire about 3 days a week now. We're mainly using kettle bells, as per my request, although I tried out the TRX last week. I honestly didn't like it. My trainer (Shira) pointed out that I seem to dislike any exercise that requires me to use my body weight. I'm such a picky bitch.

I've signed up for two races in March. Burlington's own Chilly Half Marathon and then 'Older than Boston' Around The Bay 30K! I'm excited that I got accepted into a corral for ATB. Yay! I'm still on the fence about what I want to run for my first full marathon in May. It'll either be Mississauga or Ottawa. Either way I will run the full at one and the half at the other. Also, I will be running my full with Patty. As of now she wants to do Ottawa. As of now I want to do Mississauga. We'll see who wins. It'll probably be her. She secretly scares me. LOL Jokes.

Today is November 12 and I was overdressed in crops and a tshirt for my 10K run this morning. WUWT?!

I went on a Daily Mile meet up run a couple of weekends ago and loved it. It was great to meet so many people that I've built online friendships with. Fortunately the next one is in Burlington. Unfortunately it is the same day as the Santa 5k that Kyle has agreed to run with me. I asked him if we are racing. He said no. Guaranteed that my non running 17yo son will still kick my ass. Brat!

I didn't get a long run last week because we went out to Queen's University for their open house. We really liked it there and it seemed like a good fit for Kyle. There is so much school spirit, it's a perfect place for him. And really, John A MacDonald went there! This Saturday I will be missing my long run again so that we can head out to Western University to see how they compare. I miss my long runs but I'll miss my boy more......

ME: What does the Q stand for?
KYLE: Queens, mom!
ME: Oh! LOL I thought we were at Guelph.

Liebster Blog Award

A few weeks ago Darlene from My first 5K & more nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award. Darlene's was the first blog that I started reading when I began running and one that I have stayed loyal to over time. She always has amazing pictures included and I like her posts a lot. Unfortunately she is injured AGAIN right now! Get well soon Darlene! Any way, since life has been super busy lately and today is a rainy do nothing type of day I am finally able to post about it. This award is a way for bloggers with less than 200 followers who deserve some recognition and support to keep on blogging.The rules are as follows:

11 THINGS ABOUT MYSELF
1) I was born in Chessington Surrey England and moved to Canada when I was 4.

2) I became a Canadian citizen when I was 19 and gave up my British citizenship.

3) I love hockey and I am a Buffalo Sabres fan. It's way cheaper to be a Sabres fan than a Leafs fan and they also get into the playoffs way more. :oP

4) I don't put up with crap and I don't sugar coat much. I think people call that 'being an asshole'. LOL I always stick up for the little guy and what I believe in. I am a bully's bully. :oP

5) I have a schnoodle named Gordie who my husband says I love more than him. Some days that may be true.

6) I like to laugh and try to find the humour in most situations. I'm very sarcastic and have a dry sense of humour. A lot of people don't get it.

7) I'll read anything, but I like corny Highland love novels the best. Put a kilt on the front cover and I'm sold. I try to read these on my kindle so that my family doesn't know because they would tease me.

8) I've never met a dessert that I don't like.

9) I've worked in the restaurant industry for 20+ years. I rarely go out to dinner. It's kind of like the carpenter who has a house that's falling down.

10) I never have more than 3 drinks when I'm out. I like beer but not hangovers.

11) I'm a picky eater. Like, the worst! Don't invite me over for dinner because I'll probably turn my nose up at what you serve. LOL

ANSWERS TO DARLENE'S 11 QUESTIONS

1. Running, Biking, Swimming or Other? ..... I like to do all 3 but running is what I like best.
2. Dog or Cats? ....... I am a dog person. I don't like cats much at all. They tend to give off that superiority vibe.
3. Favorite Racing Distance? ........ Half marathons are my favourite.
4. One Goal for 2012 that you have accomplished? ........ My goal race for 2012 was the Midsummer Night's Run 30k which I completed in August.
5. Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?........ Being lactose intolerant takes ice cream out of my life, but I liked Laura Secords French Crisp the best when I could eat it.
6. Favorite Race? ....... To date it is the Mississauga Half Marathon. It was my very first half and I have nothing but good memories from it.
7. Marathon: Done It, Someday or Never? ........ In the spring, baby!
8. Favorite Book?........ I have no retention of the thousands of books that I have read over the years. Seriously, a week later and it's gone.
9. Favorite Movie?........ see above
10. If you won the lottery, what would you buy first? I'd probably take a trip to Lulu Lemon and get everything on my wish list. It's pretty big.
11. Worst Fear? ....... probably the same as every parent; something happening to my kids.

11 QUESTIONS THAT MY NOMINEES NEED TO ANSWER

1) Are you a folder or a crumpler? (This is always a funny conversation in my house. Oddly it comes up often)
2) What is your favourite type of fiction?
3) What is your favourite thing for dinner, either at home or when you go out to eat?
4) Have you ever gone to the bathroom in the bushes on a run?
5) Coffee or tea
6) What month do you wish it was all year round?
7) Do you dress up at Halloween?
8) Do you cross train?
9) Do you still live in the same city as where you were born?
10) What did you want to be when you 'grew up'?
11) What is your fav brand of running gear?

BLOGS THAT I AM NOMINATING FOR A LIEBSTER AWARD

1) I've always been a joiner
2) Yo Mama Runs
3) Perpetually Moving Target
4) Laura - Running, Living, Laughing
5) It's life Max it out
6) Robin's Blog
7) Slow is the New Fast
8) Third Time's a Charm Runner
9) Paul Radcliff
10) Half Marathoner Sarah
11) Anyone else that wants to

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon recap

Toronto ON

BIB # 9740

Chip Time 1:56:24

Official Time 2:02:28

Pace 5:32
10K split 53:50

Corral #2 - Yellow

Place 3008/9690

Gender Place 931/5088

Category Place 123/620

 

 

Sometimes when I'm racing I think "This is awesome. I love this". Other times I think "This sucks. What the F**k am I even doing out here?". Unfortunately STWM was the latter.

On Friday Sarah and I drove out to the "free" race expo (with $14 parking!) to pick up our kits. Thankfully we got there early and it wasn't overly busy. We got to meet John Stanton (founder of the Running Room) in all his botox glory and hear him speak.

I don't even know what is going on with my head here. Or why John Stanton
looks like one of those carboard cut outs!

He gave a lot of good tips so I'm happy that we sat through his segment. We also sat in on Lanni Marchant & Krista DuChene speak about womens marathon running. It was boring, I've read their same statements in various running magazine articles. Boo. Then we sat in on Reid Coolsaet, Eric Gillis, and two other past marathoners. Sorry dudes, I'm like a kid of today who loves hockey. I'm all about the Sidney Crosby's not the Lanni MacDonald's. I think we lasted about 5 mins here. It was also boring and we were hungry. Sorry Reid, you'll have to meet me another day.

Myself, Sarah, Maggie & Sharon.
Yellow bibs=half Blue = full

Sunday morning rolled around and I woke with a start. At 4am. Guess my mind didn't want me sleeping in again? I lay in bed solving the worlds problems until close to 5am and then got up and got myself together. I took the dog for a walk at about 5:30am and it was very mild out. No rain. No wind. Yay! Suck it weatherman! I guess constantly checking the Weather Network app on my phone this last week finally brought me the weather that I wanted! Things are looking good! At 6:15 I left to go and meet the girls (Sarah, Maggie & Sharon). It was pouring out. *sigh* The rain stayed fairly heavy the whole drive into Toronto. We found a parking garage right by the start and got ourselves together. The girls put on their sexy garbage bags to stay dry. I selected not to put one on. Not sure why but I figured that my throw away sweater (You're welcome homeless person who now owns my old wet stained white Lulu Remix hoodie) would keep me dry enough and would also help me look way better than the bag ladies. On the way to the bag check we popped into a hotel and hit the bathroom. Poor Sarah had the unfortunate luck to get a stall where someone had just had a very stinky BM. I honestly wish that I had a photo of her face as she was closing the door. LOL Eventually we made our way down to University Ave and scoped out where our corrals were ( I was in yellow, the girls in purple) and went and tried to meet some Daily Mile friends in the pouring rain. Unfortunately the only one we were able to find was Richard. He was super nice, or as Maggie described him "lovely". I guess everyone else was hiding from the rain like we were. Before I knew it, it was time to make our way down to the corrals. I gave the girls a hug, wished them luck and slowly made my way to the start all while trying to make sure that I didn't get any umbrellas in the face. My plan was to find the 1:50 pacer and stay with him for as long as I could. To do this I was going to have to sneak into the red corral. Good thing that I had on my trusty white stained throw away hoodie because about 5 different people checked me for a bib! I just unzipped a little to show my number, but not enough to show my corral. Ha. I'm so sneaky. I found the pacer fairly easily, but he wasn't the same person that Scotia had on their website. I never actually spoke to this guy so I have no idea who he was. The gun for our corral finally went off as the man on the loud speaker shouted "Good luck yellow corral!". WTF?! Yellow corral?! I went through all that sneaking around to end up in the yellow corral?!?! Talk about karma! The rain was still going for about 5 minutes into the run but thankfully let up after that! The streets were lined with spectators cheering us on which made things much more fun! The buildings in the downtown area really reaped havoc on my Garmin during the first part of the run. It kept auto pausing which kind of sucked because when I eventually lost the pacer around 8km and was pacing myself (with the pace band that I couldn't read while running ARG) I thought that I was good for time. It never even dawned on me until I saw my chip time versus my Garmin Connect time that the auto pause screwed me. Mental note to self, turn off auto pause next time I race in Toronto! My main goal coming into this race was to get my 1:52 that Oakville's long course burned me for, but I quickly realized that this wasn't going to happen. My arch began hurting right at the start (which has never happened before) and I was wet from the rain and feeling like garbage, so I turned to my second goal; sub 1:55. As we turned onto Lakeshore the elites ran by (obviously going the other way) and we all cheered them on. Of course the usual "where's the white guy" jokes were spoken. Har har. I kept an eye out for Reid Coolsaet to go by and wasn't left waiting long. For some reason I don't think that he saw me though. Too bad Reid. Your loss. Again. As we made our way down Lakeshore I was starting to feel a bit tired and my foot was really starting to bother me so I took a couple of quick walk breaks. Not something that I usually do in a race but I didn't care. I wasn't in the mood to fight with my body and I was ok for time. Along the way I passed some bands which was a nice distraction. I think that I heard someone with a microphone say "Go Sammy" at one of them so I gave a wave and kept going. I gave a "what what" to the guys that were asking for them on a bridge over Lakeshore and stared at the girl running in front of me's VPL for awhile. I don't know how many times I have to say this. Don't wear underwear with yoga/running pants. They have a gusset for a reason! At 18K I heard a girl yelling encouragement to everyone and realized that it was Nicole from DM. I yelled out to her and waved and kept at it. I was frickin exhausted at this point and my foot was screaming and there were just no more distractions to find. I just wanted to finish up. Or sit down for a few minutes. Or cry.  Whichever. It was just me and my mind against my body now. Just three more kilometers, come on you can do it! Don't stop for anything. You're tough, no more walking! Ok, two more kilometers. Don't look at the crowd. The struggle on your face has to be so obvious, you'll only see those same looks of pity on their faces as you saw on that guy in the labour & delivery ward after you gave birth drug free. Shit. Still one more kilometer. Can't stop now. Not in front of all of these people lining the streets cheering everyone on. Just keep it up, don't worry that people are passing you. Just. Keep. Moving. Great. A photographer. Smile. Crap. That was a grimace wasn't it? Oh, what does that sign say? 800 meters to go? Is that supposed to be motivating. I don't want to go another 8 steps let alone 800 meters. Oh great, that one says ONLY another 600 meters to go.. Oh? What's that? 400 meters to go? Who's big idea were these signs? They are as helpful as that person who yelled out "ONLY 1.5 KM TO GO". Shut up! That is not an ONLY. Sure in the grand scheme of things it's an only but I'm tired and my foot is really hurting. I don't even know where I found the energy to pull out my fastest km out of the last 13 but I picked it up and made it to the finish in one piece. I went through the motions of going through the finish area and getting my medal & food and could feel tears threatening. I'm not quite sure why other than I was sore, tired and disappointed (and about to get my period LOL). It wasn't that I didn't meet my goal, they can't all be personal best times and really 1:56 is an awesome time, but I did not enjoy my experience. The course was great, except for that one little hill towards the end. The spectators were amazing, except for the stoners who yelled "Get a life, people" out of their above a store apartment window. The event was well organized, except for the bag check that was too far away for my sore foot at the end. I can't give you a definite reason, just I didn't have much fun. I didn't even want my picture taken with my medal at the end! I think that I will have to come back next year and run this again just so that I can have a better memory. I'm just glad that Sarah & Maggie had a better day with their full marathons! Way to go girls! I'm super proud of you. :o)

I was so tired my face was melting! EEK!

The guy beside me makes me laugh. And feel like maybe my
pain wasn't near that bad.....

Race week & Race controversy

Looks like I've grown an inch!!

This Sunday is my final race of the year (boohoo), the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon. Obviously I've been watching the weather like a hawk. Not looking good. *sigh* My real life DM friends Sarah & Maggie will be running their very first full marathons at this event. I'm so pumped for them!! Good luck girls! If anyone reading this is also attending, please hook up with us for the prerace meet up!

Seeing as I've already reached my goal time for qualifying for a corral at Around the Bay in March I wasn't really going to go into this with any real goals. That was until the Oakville Half Marathon decided to have their course remeasured after all of the bitching that they're received (yes, I was one of the bitchers! LOL) It would appear that the bitchers were correct and this course was long. My real 21.1 time was 1:52:06, but it will forever read 1:54:13 on Sportstats. I've been totally gyped and obviously I'm looking for redemption. I want a 1:52 time on Sportstats for real or someone belonging to the Oakville Half is going to get a throat punch! So now I'm looking to Charley Moses to bring me my 1:52! Come on Charley, we can do it, those 35km/hr winds be damned!

Happy 17th birthday Caramilk Cake! Yum!

No photographic evidence that I was on this hayride please!

Happy October!

Buh bye September

Yay fall is here! I'm a lover of all things autumn. The smell in the air, the shorter days, the weather, the colourful landscapes, thanksgiving, Kyle's birthday. You name it, I love it. Just looking at the mums and pumpkins all lined up outside of the grocery store gets me happy, and I'm not easily impressed. Just ask my husband or the guys in the kitchen at work! On Friday the boys and I will take our annual trip up to Springridge Farm to get our pumpkins and play on the haystacks(..........yes my kids are teenagers.........you got something to say?) and I will pull out all of my gardens and put out our Halloween decorations.

Last year at Springridge. I'm pretty sure that it's pretty safe to assume that Kyle was
trying to push Noah off here.....

But in order to welcome my favourite month, October with open arms I need to say goodbye to September. Goodbye first day of school, 6am sunrise, the 203km that I ran and the Oakville half marathon where I ran my new personal best. Goodbye university fair, although I'm afraid that won't be the last that I see of you as Kyle gets ready to fill out his university applications and starts to dream of days where he doesn't have to listen to me tell him to pick up his socks and get to bed. Goodbye 27km run in sideways rain. Probably you I won't miss so much. And saddest of all.......goodbye tank tops. I love each and every one of you. Until we meet again next spring. Now bring on the long sleeves, hockey games and morning runs in the dark! And the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon too!

Oakville Half Marathon

 

Oakville ON

BIB # 365

Chip Time 1:54:13

Official Time 1:54:49

Pace 5:19 (course was 400m long)

Place 331/736

Gender Place 84/321

Category Place 27/103

 

 

 

Race start time: 7:45am. Time that I woke up: 7:05am. Holy. Shit. "Derek. My race starts in 40 minutes. I slept in! Hurry up I need you to drive me" I yelled as I flew into the bathroom to wash my teeth and brush my face. Or vice versa, it was all a blur. Thank God I had laid out all of my stuff the night before! "Maybe it would be better if you drove yourself and I'll just meet you there?" "WHAT?! NO! I don't have time for that. I'll never find parking now, you have to drop me off!". I scarfed down a banana and a drink of water while I yelled out commands with my heart beating out of my chest and was out the door. Thank God again that we only live about 10 minutes from the starting line. "Oh no, I didn't go poo! This is gonna be trouble! Running makes you poo. I'm going to shit my pants in this race!" "Relax. You always get so stressed when you're late. I'm sure you're not gonna shit yourself. Geez, I've never seen you sleep in for anything. Ever.". Yeah, not helping. Probably you need to be quiet now I thought to myself as I stared out the window while visions of that guy crapping himself in a race ran through my head. Lakeshore was closed off at Third Line so I hopped out of the car and quickly made my way to Coronation Park. I saw a construction porta potty on my way but remembered seeing a lot of porta potties at the race site  when I went to pick up my race kit (along with the free bag of grass seed?!) so I skipped it. I got to the start just as the 10K was starting at 7:30am. Then I saw the porta potty line up. The line up was soooooooo lonnnnnnnng, there was no way a pit stop there was going to work. *fingers crossed*

 

I easily found the 1:55 pacer and then somehow my parents found me. I chatted with them for a few minutes, assuring my dad that running in a skirt with bare legs wasn't going to be the end of me and no, I didn't need his jacket. God love him. I gave them a quick hug and made my way to the start. And we're off. I had decided that I was going to use the bib holders on my belt rather than pins for the first time ever which turned out to be a bad decision as my bib fell off about 2km in. I was able to grab it and catch back up to my pacer Darryl thankfully. I didn't bother trying to secure it again, I just carried it in my hand the whole way. *eye roll* I asked Darryl if he realized that the course was long and he said that he didn't but had noticed that his garmin was about 300m ahead of the route markers. Darryl is training for a 3:45 in the Chicago marathon and was telling me about running a marathon in the Mojave Desert this past summer. It was 115*! Holy crap! Around 5k I realized that Darryl was not running a pace that was going to bring me in for a sub 1:55 so I ditched him. Sorry Darryl. Shortly after this I saw a girl running ahead of me with her bib pinned to her back. The name on the bib was Jeff. This made me laugh so I reached out and said "Hey Jeff!". Wouldn't it turn out that "Jeff" was actually a DM friend Mari. I didn't even recognize her! I guess that's what happens when your DM photo is you in cycling gear! LOL Around the 9k mark I took my only gel and then saw my parents cheering me on! Yay! My stepmom took a picture of me which was nice seeing as race photos of me will be pretty hard to find with no visible bib.

Dude, get out of my picture!



Shortly after this I picked up a runner who commented on my bib, or lack there of. His name was Bruce and also from Burlington. He's training for Niagara and was using this as a training run. I asked him what his goal time was, he said 1:45. Obvs he's doing the half. We chatted for a few km but then he started choking on his GU so I ditched him. Hope you were ok and didn't need assistance, Bruce! I had a time goal! LOL

Hmmmm. That person ahead of me must have dropped a quarter. Surely my form isn't THAT terrible!

Now I was on Rebecca and running into the wind. I didn't like this much. The wind and the loads of roadkill were the only downsides to this race. Well, other than the obvious sleeping in, having no breakfast and not getting to poo. At 16km I started to do the math and figured that while I was going to be able to PB I didn't see my sub 1:55 happening. Once again I feared that a long course was going to screw me.  I also saw my parents again which was a nice surprise. No pictures this time, but them cheering me on was really cool. Apparently for some reason my husband has never realized that he could come out on the route and see me and was really surprised to hear that I saw my parents twice! Finally we turned down Jones St and there was only 3k left. Opps! There went my water bottle flying off my belt. *eye roll* Can anything else happen to me this morning? I bet there's bird crap on my hat again! At 20k I looked at my garmin and realized that if I picked it up I may just reach my 1:55 after all so I gave it all I had left. It was also at this point while running behind a man who smelled TERRIBLE that I realized I had forgotten to put deodorant on  (and Body Glide I later realized while in the shower. Ouch.). I just hoped that I wasn't making other people as sick to their stomachs as this guy was making me. I booked it around him and came up back to Lakeshore. 21km. Yes! And then I heard the voice of angels........ok maybe not angels, but the voice of a runner who had already finished the race. "The finish is right around the corner. You have about 1 minute left to go!". I looked at my watch and it said 1:53 so I put every last ounce of energy into things and came around the corner. I held up my bib and heard the announcer say my name while the clock ticked off the seconds.....1:54:45......46......47.....48.....49. I did it! Even with the 400m long course I beat my goal time and did it without crapping my pants! Yes!

Outta my way Aaron, I've got a time to beat!

 



"Are you running your marathon this weekend?!"

I suppose that I should be happy that one of my coworkers actually gave a crap enough to listen to me rattle on about my upcoming HALF marathon this weekend, rather than stare at me with glazed over eyes like the rest of them, but come on. Huge difference, girlfriend! Although...... I have been watching the weather reports like a hawk this week, it may just feel like I've run a marathon by the time it's over. Cool, 40% chance of rain and 30km/hr winds.

Last night at work I started to not feel very well. I had a headache, was super tired and had a sore throat. I drank a couple of cups of green tea with lemon (we didn't have any chamomile ----or chamoshit as my oldest son calls it----- which is my go to tea when I'm feeling something coming on) and took some Cold FX when I got home and while I'm still really tired and feeling a little bit stuffed up this morning, the sore throat is gone. Hopefully if I keep pumping the Cold FX and rest up I'll feel fine by Sunday morning. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what to wear. I think that I may just go out and buy arm warmers today. And maybe a new tshirt? I'm sick of all my tops and a trip to Lulu HAS to make me feel better right?  Hopefully I can still wear my pink skirt just because I love it so much.

As of now my plan is to start out with the 1:55 pacer and see how things go from there. I wish that they had a 1:50 but they don't. Boo. With any luck the stars will align and I will be able to dump the pacer around 10k and achieve my goal of sub 1:55. If not I had better come in under 2 hours. While I won't cry like one of the guys on one of our Monday night hockey team's wife did when she missed her goal at ATB last year I'll probably be disappointed, even if I am running in wind and not feeling 100%. Also my parents are coming out to watch. I'd hate to miss my goal in front of them. Mind you, I did get my 5k PB the last time that they came out so maybe they're like my lucky rabbit's feet?

Yesterday was my inlaws 50th anniversary so tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate. At Christmas time we had a family shot taken at my brother in laws house, unfortunately during Noah's 'make a stupid face for photos' phase. My sister in law had the picture blown up and that is what we are giving as a gift. A giant picture of my son looking like an idiot. Just what my inlaws always wanted.....

Stuff

So it's been a few weeks since I've written anything. I hate when life gets in the way like that, well life and my youngest son's Minecraft addiction. I can't even get anywhere near the computer during his waking hours and God forbid I be allowed to use his laptop. I might see some of his top secret 13 year old plans. Hmmmmm, 13? Probably a good idea NOT to know what he's doing on there. Yikes. Right now I'm sneaking on at work. I know that my boss likes me to actually work while I'm here, but considering lately he keeps giving me crap for stuff that he's doing and I don't call him out on it I think that paying me to blog is the least that he can do. Ha!

First day of grade 12!

First day of grade 8! (Not sure why he looks so short
here....he's taller than me!)

So my half training is winding down right now for Oakville on the 23rd. Of course now I'm at the point where I'm thinking that I didn't train well enough and I'm going to miss my 1:55 goal. I haven't run less than 20km for my LSD's all summer and I've done my tempos and track work, and I've even run the course (which is about 300m long GRRRRRR), but it's hard not to let your mind play tricks on you and cast a negative light on things. I suppose all I can do is go out there and do my best, and then bitch about it when it's over. Oh, and now I'm realizing that my (other) bosses sister who works Sundays with me is going to be away during Scotia on the 14th. I got her permission to take the day off last month but we only have one other girl who can work a Sunday breakfast shift so I know that I'm going to get into a fight with her when I bring it up tonight. Life! Ahhhhh!

I've signed up to train with a trainer at the gym and learn how to use the kettle bells once I finish Scotia next month. I paid for 8 sessions so that should hopefully be more than enough for me to figure things out and get a workout plan that I can remember. I'm planning on looking like Linda Hamilton by the spring so look out. Ok, that's obviously a joke but I really need to build up my legs and I'm not to keen on machines so this is my plan. On a side note, who the hell can afford a trainer full time?! They are expensive!!!

On Sunday I participated in the Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope with my stepmom who is a survivor. We both raised over $1,200 so I'm proud of us for that. This is such a deadly cancer because there is no prescreening for it and it gets misdiagnosed a lot of the time. I have known of 4 ladies who have had it. My stepmom is the only one who is a survivor. Please take the time to learn the symptoms and remember them always. They may just save your life.

My stepmom made us speed walk this thing. I did a 27km LSD with hills the day before. Nice!

New Plan

So it's been a little over a week since the Midsummer Night's Run 30K, and just like childbirth the memories of pain and fatigue are slowly fading away leaving behind a night that I'll always remember. Well, until I'm super old and have to rely on the tattoo on my wrist to remind me that I have two sons.

K is for Kyle. N is for Noah. My sister stole my idea and now has JC on her wrist after her
son Jesus Christ. Ha, just kidding. It's Jonathon and Christian.

 

On Saturday I met up with Patty for my 24k long run. Patty's been around the proverbial marathon block a few times so when I told her that I absolutely ran out of gas the last 5k of MSNR she told me that it was probably because my weekday mileage isn't high enough. Oddly, I had just been reading an article the day before that pretty much said the same thing. Patty said that if I want to do Around the Bay in March I should follow a marathon plan rather than just doing a half plan and bumping up the long runs like I did for Midsummer. In her defense, she did tell me to follow a marathon plan when I signed up for MSNR but of course because I've been running for a whole year I know what I'm doing and didn't take her advice. Hindsight. Boo. So Patty sent me 3 marathon plans Saturday afternoon and I've now picked one. I've also decided that if I'm going to train for a marathon I may as well just do one. So that's my goal race in the spring. Obviously like childbirth, I didn't learn my lesson the first time and am going back for more. Wish me luck!

 

I've also decided to see if bumping up my weekday mileage will help me with my 2 halfs that I have coming up. Oakville Half Marathon on Sept 23 and Scotia Waterfront Half on October 14. My goal is to run 1:55 or less at one of these. If I can get that time then I will qualify for the final corral at ATB in March and won't have to deal with the mass start. ATB has 9000 participants (including 500 relay teams) and this is the first year that they are introducing corrals. This race has been around since 1894 and this is the first year that they are bringing in corrals? CRAZY! I am more than comfortable running 21.1K but I'll take anything that might help me reach my goal.

Midsummer Night's Run 30K Recap

Toronto ON

BIB # 326

Chip Time 3:01:39

Official Time 3:02:05

Pace 6:00/km

Place 432/699

Gender Place 188/361

Category Place 63/120

 Alternate titles for this post could be I thought that bird crap was supposed to be lucky! or I want those 320 meters back! So we all know that this was my biggest race for the year. Thirty kilometers! Yowza. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?! This race was long and it was hard. Can you even imagine that while riding the shuttle bus on the way to the race I was actually thinking that I may just change up my half marathon entry at Scotia this fall to the full! F********K!

The race didn't start until 5:30pm which kind of sucked because I couldn't do anything all day. I was also a bit worried about running at night because I'm a morning runner. I didn't really know when to eat and I felt like I couldn't do much because I didn't want to tire myself out. So I walked the dog, watched tv and napped. Real productive! Around 3:30 I went and picked up Sarah and Maggie who were driving out with me and we hopped onto the highway. Then we quickly hopped off. Hello traffic! Thankfully the congestion didn't last too long so by the time we ended up getting to the parking lot and boarding the shuttle bus it was 4:30. Plenty of time to hit the porta potties, check our bags and get ourselves together. We sat in the grass and had a banana and I hummed and hawed over whether I should wear my Bondi Band or a hat. I eventually went with hat so that I wouldn't have to wear sunglasses and thank God I did! At the end of the race Sarah kindly informed me that I had bird crap on my hat! GROSSSSSSS!

Prerace smiles. Look how cute we are, so happy and unaware. And yes, I do know that I look like a total wiener here! LOL

At about 5:15 we split up to find our pacers, the girls going out with the 3:15 and me in search of the 3:00. First I found the walk/run pacer but turned around to find the continuous. I eventually found him gossiping with some friends and Nicole who I had been keeping an eye out for since we got there. The pacers name was Paul and according to him he was super fast and not happy to be running such a slow race. Awesome! I will say that he was super funny and really helped the time go by even if he did keep going on about how much this race sucked,  how going this slow sucked, he was sick of people passing us, and remember everyone, the race is won in the first kilometer. LOL Being the nosey girl that I am I totally looked him up on Sportstats. Yeah, he's alright. :oP

The first 21 kilometers of the night flew by and I was feeling great, even if a large portion of it was spent running around the 15k walkers, or in a couple of cases, right up the back of them. This was a big sore spot for me. Stay to the sides, don't walk 3 abreast in the middle of the path! Gah! It didn't take long for us to realize that this race was not marked properly either. The km markers seemed to be about 150 meters ahead of where they should have been which was really screwing up the pacer. He kept thinking that we were ahead of pace and slowing us down. Around 18K I saw a photographer up ahead! Finally, my chance for a decent race shot! I quickly wiped the sweat from my face, smoothed my bib and looked up to see 3 15k walkers stopped and posing for the camera! These walkers were getting on my nerves so bad, they're lucky that I didn't photobomb them with a punch to the throat! Finally around the 21.1 mark (2:06:13 was my time.....better than my Toronto Women's Half time!) we broke off from the 15Kers and were off to do our last 9K. Unfortunately this was also around the time that the battery on our pacers Garmin died and the run started to go downhill. He announced that we were going to be pushing the pace to 5:50 and sped up. Too bad he was speeding up to a 5:30 pace! At the 23kish water station I decided to have a gel and walk for some water. This was where I lost the pacer and Nicole. My legs were really heavy but I just worked to keep a 5:55-6:00 pace and finish strong. John Stanton facebook posts pretty much got me through the last part of this run. LOL Races define your discipline or regret, with you as the author......your most valuable asset will be the willingness to persist when you feel like stopping!.......Be the runner you dream you be..........Arriving at the finish is often accomplished by runners who kept on trying when there seemed no possible way at all, how precious their finish. As it was now just me & John Stanton my watch beeped 26k. Yay 4 more to go, I could do this. Then about 500 meters later I passed the 26k marker. Same again at 27K. And 28K. What? First the markers were short, now they're long?! Just when I didn't think that things could get any worse! I could quickly see my 3:00 time goal slipping away with this extra distance and was so pissed at this race for screwing me over! At least my phone ringing took my mind of things around 28k. Seriously, Noah? Again?! This is now the third race that he has called me in the middle of! (Just in case you are interested, no I didn't answer.) At 29k I passed one of the guys that was with our pace group. He was walking. I reached out and touched his shoulder and said "Come on, we started together, let's finish together". Unfortunately he had a cramp and couldn't do it. Then a girl yelled out to me "Way to finish strong 30" (I guess I was in a group of 15ks) so I gave her a thumbs up and ran all the way to the finish line with my hands in the air. I did it, 30.32 kilometers. Thank God that's over was all I could think!!!

Kill me now! I'm dead tired and I have bird crap on my hat! What a mess. Is that boob sweat? Geez!

At the end of the day I didn't officially make my time goal, but when my watch beeped 30K I was at 3:00 so I'll take it. I probably wouldn't run this again.....well maybe the 15k but I doubt the 30k. I hate out and backs and the terrain pretty much sucked. The walkers were annoying and the time of day wasn't good for me. The medal was cool, and I liked the water bottles that they gave out at the end, but the shirt was kind of yucky. I like black, pink or white. Not green. I loved running with Nicole and the laughs that I shared with Sarah and Maggie at the end. The pacer made me laugh and that was cool. As I explained to Sarah this race was kind of like childbirth. LOL I will try the 30k Around the Bay in March and see if I can do better at this distance. Maybe at least finish without wanting to cry. LOL Oh, and I checked on my pacers finish time. It was 2:58:46. I'm curious to know how many of the group were able to keep up with him until the end. I have stalked the pacers photos and I don't see anyone running along side him at the finish. Hmmmmm.