Looking back at September

So I've really had nothing to say on here lately in case you haven't noticed. Life gets busy and I find a lot of the time I'd rather just blend in with the woodwork in my down time. Right now my boss is away and seeing as a good chunk of my mornings are spent on the phone with him, while he's gone I have time on my hands. I really like when he's gone. I get to catch up on things going on in my own life rather than my work life. Ha.

September was a bit of a rough month for me. Kyle left for university and it has taken me a while to learn to deal with the void it has left. When Kyle is home he takes up a lot of my time. If it were socially acceptable I'm sure I'd still be wiping his butt for him, that's how much I baby him. We both know it and I feel sorry for his future wife for the monster that I have created. Thankfully I realized quickly the error of my ways and Noah doesn't have it quite so easy. Any way, maybe it was post university depression (haha) but I was finding it really hard to get up for my runs in the mornings which is weird because I'd dream about running for the rest of the day. Luckily I've been able to bounce back, just look at my 18k run before 7 am yesterday on 3 hours of sleep! ;o) Monday night football has also returned turning my Monday night shifts into late ones, which has made my Tuesday runs turn my Wednesday runs into sucky ones because I'm so tired. I'll be happy once football is over. Hockey can stay though. I loves me some hockey!

I only ran 211km for September which doesn't seem like much does it? Considering it's the month before my goal race I probably should have run more but like I said, some of those days were tough to get up for. I also decided to give my legs a break from time to time. I like to think that I'm about quality rather than quantity. LOL Give me fresh legs that don't have tight calves or achy hamstrings any day of the week! I'm not going to preform well like that any way so may as well make sure things are in good shape. That's what I'm telling myself any way so don't you dare contradict me! :o) Considering I was able to blast out a 1:47:17 PB half in September so I think that I did alright. Now if I can just keep it up for October I'll be great. Two days after running the Oakville Half I thought that my 1:45 goal at Scotia was definitely doable and of course today I am doubting myself again. I suppose I'll just have to go out there and see where the chips fall. So bring on October! Cooler temps, Run for the Toad relay and Scotia are all in my sights. It's also my baby's 18th birthday and Thanksgiving. I loves me some Thanksgiving.....

Oakville Half Marathon

Oakville ON

Bib # 381

Chip time: 1:47:17

Official time 1:47:48

Pace 5:01

Place 263/811

Gender Place 67/383

Category Place 21/117

 

Apart from the LOOOOOOONG course last year, I really enjoyed the Oakville Half so when I realized that they had corrected the course to a proper 21.1 this year I decided to sign back up. And considering it's 10 minutes from my house, even if you sleep in you can still get there in time! Trust me I know.

I'm not going to lie. I was a little nervous coming into this race. Like any good runner I was starting to doubt myself. Last week my main speed workout was a fail. With a capitol F. Having your last speed work before a race not go so well is not confidence building let me tell you, even if I had been nailing every single previous one. I have also gotten used to running the tough ones with Nicole. How was I going to grit this one out without anyone there to hold me accountable. What if I shit the bed?! Or myself?! So many what ifs?!?!

Race morning arrived and I was able to get up on time. Already winning! I was able to eat all of my oatmeal. Woohoo! I was able to have a poo. Things are looking way up from last year! Then the girls (Amy, Patty and Emma) arrived to pick me up 10 minutes early and I had to scramble. EEK! I got in the car and muttered that I hoped that I had everything. "Chip?" someone asked. "Yep". "Bib?" asked another. "Nope!". *sigh* Welcome to my life. I ran back in, grabbed it and hurried out. Amy drove us to her friends house who lived right around the corner from the park and we walked over and hit the porta potties while the lines were still small. Then we milled around for a bit until Emma and Amy's 10K race began. (FYI there is a photo of us at the start but it's a hideous shot of me as was agreed upon by one of my hockey guys last night who is also a FB friend so it won't be shared) We ran into Pierre from Daily Mile and I was starting to ask myself what the hell I was doing here. Did I really want to do this? Wouldn't I rather be at work slinging eggs and pouring coffee right now? WTF? Hating a race BEFORE the race actually begins is a new one for me. I'll be alright I thought to myself. Just make it to the 16k mark where Nicole has agreed to meet and run me in. I had downloaded a couple of podcasts and borrowed Noah's headphones (after a long pleading session where he made me clean my ears - anal kids are the worst!) to keep my mind off of the boredom. Another friend from Daily Mile, Richard came up to chat and he asked what my goal was. 1:50 I told him. He said that would probably be around his finishing time too as his training hasn't been great due to work this summer. "Want to run together then?!" I begged asked him. He agreed! Someone to run with now?!?! Pfft I've got this!

The race started and we chatted about our sons who are both in first year university while we dodged a few people, but not many. Richard spoke about how he is traveling so much with work right now and I told him that I recognised a lot of the streets that we were passing from blueprints that come across my desk at my morning job. I told him that I like to walk the water stations and he said that he did that with Nicole at Mississauga and he thought that it worked well so he agreed to this part of my plan. The first 5k were easy peasy lemon squeezy even if Lakeshore did get a lot hillier from the last time I ran it.
5:12 4:58 5:03 5:06 5:03

The next 5k had their challenges. There is a bit of a hill around 8k that absolutely gassed me. No idea why but my breathing was crazy and I felt like I was running on empty once we got to the top of the incline. I told Richard that I would have to gel at the next water station and he said that was fine, he was getting a foot cramp so he was going to loosen his shoe while we were there. I suggested that he get some Gatorade at the water station to help with the cramp. We hit the station, did what we had to do and were off. Not sure if it was psychosomatic but I felt a ton better once I had that gel in me. Richard asked me if we were on pace and I told him that I had no idea. I go into races only knowing what pace I'm supposed to be running. I can't dissect it. That doesn't work for me. I wanted to be running 5:10/km or better and it seemed to me that we had been so everything looked good.
5:05 5:05 5:12 *hill* 5:18 *gel break* 5:01

Halfway there! I knew that I could finish this even if it was getting tough. Conversation on my end dropped off a little bit and with his gimpy foot Richard kept asking how I was doing. Doing alright. We were in residential areas for a bit here so Richard interacted a lot with the spectators to keep himself occupied seeing as I wasn't holding up my end of the running partner bargain. I thought it was funny that he asked if he was embarrassing me. Obviously Richard has a teenage daughter at home! We soon saw another Daily Miler, Kim on the sidelines cheering and she snapped our picture and came and ran with us for about 500m.

Peace! Oh look, someone with the same shirt as me. EEK!

Heeheehee look how happy we are with our foot cramps and tired legs

I introduced Kim and Richard and told Kim how excited I was for the Run For The Toad relay that I am doing with her, Emma and Phil in a few weeks. Then Kim wished us well and turned off to finish her run and let us get on with ours. Richard was getting a little concerned that he would have to stop and stretch out his foot as the cramping was getting quite bad, but at my suggestion of more Gatorade the cramping soon gave up and went away. Yes! We encountered a little bit of a headwind down Rebecca but it didn't seem to last long thankfully. We hit the 15k water station (I had been noticing that the volunteers kept talking about how they liked how I will make eye contact with the person holding the cup that I want and will point to them so they are ready for me. Doesn't everyone do this?) and set our sights on pushing on and meeting up with Nicole at Rebecca St. Renewed energy to add to our team? Yes please! Richard again asked me if I thought that we were on pace. I think so I said, Nicole can probably tell us when we get there. She knows that stuff! 
4:54 5:10 5:03 5:03 5:11

Right on schedule there was Nicole in all her purple glory waiting to jump in with us. She had a bottle of water and right away offered me some (I guess just by looking at me you could tell I was working hard) but I told her we just had some. Thanks anyway. I was pretty tired here and not talking a whole lot. I did take the time to notice that Nicole had worn her running skirt to come run with us, although I didn't mention it. That would take up too much energy. She did point it out at the end of the race to which I told her that I had noticed it right away. I worked at the mall all through high school, I always notice this stuff! Richard asked Nicole if she thought we were on pace and she asked how she was supposed to know?! Uh oh! I guess only time will tell because I have no idea. I'm trying to do the math but its not making sense. I think we'll come in way under 1:50 and I feel like crap so that can't be right. "You guy's are doing great!! Only 5K to go. We don't even run 5K anymore!" Nicole said to try and put my head in a different space. Don't worry I thought to myself, I know that I've got this. Nicole spotted a few race photogs as we turned down Jones and did a few poses for them. Guess we'll have to look under the 'Unknown Runner' section for those. There was a race volunteer who told us to run all the way down the street. "Right into the lake?" Richard asked him for a joke. Turns out the joke was on Richard because as we turned onto Marine Dr he kept going straight! "Not right into the lake, Richard" I laughed at him. My legs were dead but I knew that the end was near so I just kept moving to stay with Nicole and Richard who seemed to be getting more energy with every step that he took. Obviously he had way more gas in the tank than I did at this point. "It's your race too" I said to Richard "Go on. Don' t let me hold you back! I've got Nicole, I'll be fine". I could see the inner struggle but we were finally able to convince him to take off.....only to turn the corner and find him waiting for us. "What happened we asked?!". I had visions of his foot cramp flaring up again. "I started this race with you so I'm going to finish this race with you!". He said. What a great guy Richard is! We soon passed the 20K sign and then Nicole waved us on with instructions to smile for the camera. "Come on Samantha! Show me that finishing kick!" Richard said to me. "Alright, but let me win ok??!!". We came flying down Lakeshore and saw Emma and Amy cheering us on (who both ran awesome PB's at their races!).

See Nicole behind us.....in her SKIRT!

Richard's all smiles loving life. I'm thinking just get me to that damn finish line!

Just as we were turning the corner into Coronation Park one of the guys on one of my Wednesday night hockey teams yelled out to me (his name is Trevor and he finished in 1:39!) "Hey Rich......." I stuttered. Not his name. Brain isn't working. Just run! Richard and I flew down the finishing chute, I heard the announcer say my name as Richard told me to look at the clock. 1:47:xx?! I smiled in elation and high fived Richard as we crossed the finish line! I can't believe we did it! Thank goodness for running friends again this day, they truly help you stick through the tough parts! I only hope that I am there for someone as much as they have been for me someday!
5:04 5:02 5:09 4:56 5:05 4:58 4:05 *final 170 meters

I'm so disappointed that they cut Richard out of this picture! Such a great moment!
FYI I did purchase this photo just so you know. I don't
feel badly for swiping it. :o)

 Happy post race smiles.

 Say "Jack Daniel's". Thanks for the 4 1/2 minute PB!! Next up
STWM where we'll really put JD up to the test!




 

Midsummer Night's Run 15K





 

Toronto ON

Bib # 1691

Chip time: 1:19:39

Official time 1:19:49

Pace 5:19

Place 224/1314

Gender Place 73/860

Category Place 18/185

 

 

 

Rewind 1 year ago to this race..... My worst race experience ever! Obviously I had to go back for redemption, but half assed redemption because I may be crazy but I'm not stupid. I opted for the 15K distance this time around. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice yada yada yada.

 

Same as last year I had no idea what to do with the day leading up to the 5:45pm race time. I took the dog for a long walk, cleaned the bathroom, did some laundry and watched tv. I didn't have a nap this time around because I had to leave so early to catch the ferry in time. Fast forward to 4pm and I was really regretting not squeezing one in. Zzzzzzzz. I wasn't really all that hungry during the day either so I didn't eat a whole lot, something else to have regrets about. Midsummer. The race of regrets.

I met Emma and Nicole at the Bronte Go Station slightly later than the planned 2pm meet time. As the girls found out, if it's not in Burlington, assume I don't know where it is. Obviously I got lost but eventually made my way over there. We all hopped into Emma's car and headed into the Big City. The drive in didn't take long and we were able to find parking fairly easily and then made our way over to the Toronto Island ferry dock. Thank goodness we had Nicole with us because obviously with the dock not being in Burlington I had no idea how to get to it. I was really surprised at the amount of people waiting for the ferry! The only ferry that I know is the one to get to Bell Island by my in laws house in Newfoundland and the only time it sees more than 20 people on it is for crazy coming home gatherings! Mind you they seem to have those every other week, but I digress....

Did I mention it's a car carrier? Slightly bigger than the Toronto Island ferry but still has the same musty life jacket stink

 

We got onto the ferry and made our way over to the island. Toot toot. It was around this point when I realized that I was hungry. Like ready for dinner hungry. Emma was nice enough to give me a granola bar but that didn't really cut it. *sigh* We then made our way over to the designated DM meeting spot but unfortunately only saw Heather and Roxane. It would seem everyone else was waiting for a ferry on the other side. As we sat amongst piles of goose crap and ant hills we chatted amicably and I found myself trying to make the same decision as last year. Hat or headband. It was hot out which made me want to choose the band, but it was also sunny. Then I remembered how I got crapped on by a bird last year so choice was made! Hat it was. I also couldn't decide if I wanted to go with long socks or short. I decided to go with long because they look cuter and I was sitting in the shade so they wouldn't be too hot at all right?! Midsummer. The race of regrets. We then made our way over to the bag check linnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeee. Yeah, this line was long. We finally got our bags checked, hit the porta potties, got our prerace photo taken (which doesn't seem to be posted anywhere! Boo!) and then made our way to the start line for Nicole to begin her 30K race. Hey! Where the hell is the start line?!?! As we wandered around looking for the start thoughts of the ghetto Georgina 10 miler came into my head. I wondered if we would also be doing any prerace Zumba. We finally found the start and wished Nicole luck. "Keep an eye out for Mari" I said to Emma. Then I turned around and there she was. I guess she must have read the word bubble over my head. We wished Mari luck and I went to hit the porta potties one last time as I chugged back a Vega preworkout energizer hoping that would help me out in the empty belly department. By the time I got back Emma was nowhere to be seen so I went looking for the 1:15 pacer. I found him with a few minutes to spare so I pushed my way into the crowd as best I could and waited for the gun to go off. At least I had the random late 30k arrivals to keep my attention. People kept pushing up and before I knew it the pacer was pretty far ahead of me so I tried to keep him in my sights as the race started. Thankfully I was far enough up front that the race congestion didn't really affect me all that much. I would assume that the same could not be said for people behind me mixed in with the walkers. Less than 500m into the race there was a water table which I thought was really strange. What was even stranger was that people were actually taking the water! It didn't dawn on me until later why there was a water table at this location. Obviously the hand drawn course map didn't make much of an impression on me. The first km clicked by and I was feeling good. But hot. Good'n'hot. Kilometer number 2 came along as did the sand! WTF? Sand? Ok, I got this. I can run on sand. Pfffft no problemo! Just feeling a little hot is all. And thirsty. So thirsty. Why the hell did I wear this stupid hat? And long socks? What was I thinking?! OMG I'm sooooooooo thirsty. I need a drink. Where's my gum? Why aren't I chewing gum?! If I was chewing gum I wouldn't be so thirsty. But God I'm so hot. What am I doing out here? Didn't I vow not to return to this race again?! Hey?! What's going on? Isn't this the start? Why are we back at the start? Oh wait, there was a drinks station by the start! I'm beginning to really regret signing up for this stupid race. Maybe I should just give up racing. Races are stupid. This race is stupid. I'm stupid. Hot'n'stupid.  Finally the water station appeared and I'm able to get my sanity back. I made the decision here to drop my pace and adjust my goal. 1:20 time is still respectable right? I should have asked that guy on the boat who told Nicole that pacing 3hrs was 'respectable'. Probably I shouldn't ask the lady who told us she had the worst marathon ever last year and ran 4 hours. Good Lord! Why would you even admit to that?! Things are not going the way I had hoped but hey, it's 12 hours later than I'm used to running in the day, I haven't had dinner, I'm hot as balls and this route is weird! Alright, feeling better about things already. I'm still hot though. Really hot. I still can't make heads or tails of the route, but somewhere around here I saw Nicole with her pacer group who I gave a quick thumbs down to, and then Mari who I gave a wave to.

My first 5K paces were

4:54

4:49

5:02

5:25 drink break with a little sanity collection

5:09

I stopped for Gatorade at the 6K water station because I was really starting to feel depleted of energy and saw Henry. I chugged back the Gatorade, waved at Henry and declined the water that he was offering me. I quickly wondered if I looked as brutally hot as I felt but looking around I noticed everyone else covered in sweat, although probably not as red faced as me, and put it out of my mind. Shortly after this I saw Emma, Pierre and Laura. I gave them all a wave and started to feel my energy returning. Yeah! I got this! Yay Gatorade! I'm still hot though. My face feels like it's going to spontaneously combust! I really wish I could take off my hat! Why did I decide to wear this thing anyway?! I'm starting to notice a lot of random people wandering on the walkway now, and those weird bike things that people are riding? I'm really loving dodging those. I hit a pot hole and rolled my ankle a little but was able to recover quickly, thank goodness. I soon passed the 9k sign only to look at my Garmin to find it reading 8.5k. Amazing. I am now going to run the longest km ever. Lucky me!
Next 5K paces

5:32 drinking the Gatorade Koolaid

5:23

5:26

5:20

5:21

Around the 10K mark the lovely boardwalk came into play as did a stomach cramp. As I ran along here I reveled in the breeze coming off the lake all while trying to keep my footing on the rickety boards that were not very securely attached. I passed a lady who obviously  had tripped and fallen, getting medical attention. The boardwalk seemed to go on forever and as I passed the 30K markers I realized that those poor people had to run out here more than once! Suuuuucccckkkks! After about 2kms we were finally finished with this part of the route. Yeah! I played leap frog with a guy in a blue shirt for a little while and thought to myself that my splits have got to be all over the place right now. Boy I was right on the money with that one. We eventually came upon a grassy area to run on......of course we did, we've run on everything but tile flooring tonight!, and were directed to run through two trees in the middle of a field. I laughed to myself and wondered who the hell made up this course. Just as we came up to a bridge a lady caught up to my shoulder and said 'Good job girl. You've got this. I've been pacing off you for a while now'. Oh. Really? Well pace this! And off I went. I sped up with each footstep until I rounded the corner and had the finish line in my sights. My legs moved so fast, I was full on sprinting and everyone on the sidelines cheered me on. I saw Patty out of the corner of my eye, waved (or apparently thumbs upped her as the picture she sent me says) and then picked off everyone in front of me until I crossed that finish line. B goal accomplished! Yay!



I wonder if this is Thumbs up I got this or Thumbs back, trip this chick behind me?

Final paces

5:40  no idea what happened here other than my stomach cramp.

5:17

5:31

5:22

5:13

3:17

Consistency. Thy name is Sam.

 

Will I come back and test the Third Time's a Charm theory? Maybe. I have a crazy habit of forgetting how much something sucks until I'm back in that situation again. I have two kids don't I?

 

My new favourite race picture thanks to buddy in the tank.

 Kenny suggested I do this. Obviously it just shows that buddy is having a rough time and not as pissed at being
passed by me as I'd like to think.

 

 



Look how happy we are. Things will change in about 5 minutes when
we see the line up for the ferry

 

The city looks so nice. Where the hell is the ferry?!

 

I WANNA GO HOME!!! It took about as long to run the race

as it did to wait in line for the ferry.


 

Training, Goals & Podcasts

Looking on the Scotia website just now tells me that there are 67 days left for me to train to achieve my 1:45 half time goal. Some days I think yep, no problem. Others, not so much. Right now I'm feeling a little meh about it, maybe I can, maybe I can't. Hopefully Saturday's Midsummer 15K will give me a little peek into whether I can do it or not. Nicole tells me that my pace should be around 4:58/km (remember I never know this stuff) which should give me a finishing time of 1:14:30 so we'll see what happens. I do know that I have been hitting all of my paces during my training runs so that helps me feel a little more confident. Soon I will see an end to the shorter intervals and saying hello to crappy long tempo runs. I haven't quite decided how I feel about that yet. Nailing the 1000m intervals has been making me feel strong. It remains to be seen how running a 10K tempo will make me feel..... One thing that I do know for sure is that I need to get new shoes. Stat! I've gone to my go to running shoe store a couple of times but they haven't gotten the new NB stock in yet and what they do have does not come in 7.5D. Damn my Flintstone feet! My feet were quite sore during Saturdays 24K run and talking with Patty about it made me realize that I haven't gotten new shoes since just before Chilly. In March! I probably have close to 1000kms on these shoes! EEK! No wonder my feet were hurting. And my calves, hamstrings and knees. Please Factory Shoe, get some size 7.5D in immediately! I also need new shoes for work because I log a lot of miles there too so my lower body is getting a double whammy of suck from my inability to find shoes in my correct width. Update: I bought a pair of shoes today. Not my usual 1080s because they don't have the V3s in yet so I went with these 870s and will switch them over to work shoes once they get the 1080s in. Hopefully they're ok. I hate trying new shoes, why fix what isn't broken.....


At least they've got pink in them!

Since their podcast first came out, the Jay & Dan Podcast has been my go to for solo runs where I want to listen to something other than the voices in my head. I love these guys and was so upset when I learned that they were leaving TSN and moving to Fox Sports in California. Their departure left me clamouring for something new to listen to so I posted on Daily Mile & Twitter asking for some suggestions and was given some good ones. Coincidentally I also saw a tweet from I can't remember who with a link to a post on podcasts based on what you like which I found quite good. Funny enough, some of the suggestions that were made to me were also on this list. So far I've tried out:

Ben Greenfield Fitness which was pretty informative but I do tend to tune out of what I am listening to so I missed a lot of stuff. The one episode that I downloaded spoke about introducing meat back into a vegetarian diet which I found interesting because I have thought about it over the years from time to time. From the sounds of it it's a total pain in the ass having to take hydrochloric acid for a few months to help your body break down the meat in your belly. Seems to me I'll stick to my lacto-ovo pescatarian diet for the time being.

NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour. I liked this one, and because it was just entertainment fluff it didn't really matter if I tuned out or not.

This American Life. I've listened to about 3 minutes of the podcast that I downloaded. Not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because it would come on when the others ended as I was coming up my street so I've only heard one of the stories on the episode. Hopefully I can finish it on tomorrow's 10K.

Also on cue I have Tim & Sid & Runner Academy. I also want to try out The Toblowsky Files and WTF with Marc Maron. Hopefully you can find something that you like on that link as well!

And with that I count down the days until Noah comes home...3....until Midsummer....4.....and until Kyle goes to university......don't ask me because I don't think about it! ;o)



View from York Blvd across the bay from our run the other week

Shade covered Spruce Rd

I wonder if my boss knows he pays me to goof off at work...

♥ my Gordie

July recap

Holy crow! Where have I been? This blog is collecting dust like the desk in my office! (We have no cleaning service) The summer is flying by yet I feel like I've not accomplished a whole lot. The story of my life I suppose. I'm already into week 7 of my fall training plan and the days are ticking closer to Kyle's departure to university. I try not to think about that too much though because it makes me sad! Wah!

I won't bore you with mundane details regarding every single run that I've had the last four weeks (besides, more than likely you are my friend on Daily Mile and already know every run I've had the last four weeks!), but I will let you know that for a time it was hot as balls and making things more difficult. Right now we are having amazing temps that more than make up for the heat. If every morning was 15* I would be a very happy running girl! I had to resort to doing some of my speed sessions on the treadmill at the gym because it was just too hot for me outside. I was born in England, my body was not created for 40*+ temps!!

This week our training paces have increased by 6 seconds. I'm really curious to see what my 5K time could be by the end of this training cycle. I've been feeling very strong the last week or so, I honestly think that I can crush beat my current 5K PB, 23:whatever the heck it is. :oP Yesterday I ran my 14K tempo run with 2x10min at Tpace (4:46) and hit 10K around the 52 minute mark. Seeing as my 10K PB is 51:somethinsomethin I think that I also need to see if I can improve on that!

With my final run of July completed this morning, I'm taking the time to look back and notice that this month is my second highest mileage month EVER, only 2K behind my marathon peak month in April. My weekdays runs have been a lot longer this cycle, averaging about 10K so I think that this has been what has pushed me over. I've been picking up shifts here and there at work lately to make some extra money for the university money pit so I've been feeling a bit stretched thin with going to bed late and getting up early, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do. One day Kyle will thank me for it. If he knows what's good for him any way. ;o)

So time to bring on August, with faster paces and the Midsummer Night's Run 15K where I will see how I am looking for my fall1:45 half time goal. All the perks, half the suck because that's how I roll......

 

JULY IN PICTURES



Who hasn't seen a million baby bunnies on their runs this summer?



More babies were hatched on our coach light.

 

 

Canada Day 5K AG winners!

 Canada Day bar losers. I'm talking about me having to work this snoozefest not the Lone Wolf
at the bar.

Noah & his friend Adam on the way to board the plane to St John's. I miss him but it's nice to get to use the computer!

 Sunrise at the corner of Burloak and Lakeshore. Getting up super early has a few advantages.

The view of Bronte Creek from the bridge on Rebacca St. This is the same place that Patty and
I found the frozen dildo this past winter. I still look down everytime I run on this bridge!

Bronte Harbour. What do you mean you can't see the boats in my photo taken
with my high-tech HTC Desire phone's camera?!

That says Cudmores which is the name of the nursery. Plant art amuses me.

This picture makes me laugh. Not even sure what I'm trying to do here. Me in front
of Shell Park. Yes THE Shell Park. Obvs I'm not by the bathrooms though. Please note last nights makeup.

This isn't July related, it's from the Moon in June but Patty found it on the Burlington Lulu's facebook

page last week so it sort of counts. See if you can find me, :o)

Canada Day 5K

Burlington ON

Bib # 1212

Chip time: 23:57

Official time 23:49

Pace 4:45

Place 75/274

Gender Place 17/?

Category Place 2/25

 

 

I'll be honest. The entire reason that I ran this race was because I had the perfect outfit for it (red Scotia half shirt, white Lulu Pace Setter skirt & red and white stripped socks that Leana gave me in Courtney's sock swap at Christmas) and I really wanted the Canada Flag medal. 5K's are the work of the devil and after running one a few short weeks ago I was not really into racing another one quite so soon. TBH I was perfectly ok with running it easy, just for fun. Then Nicole told me that if I raced it I wouldn't have to do speed work during the week this week. Sold! My main goal going into this was to run sub 25 minutes.

 

I arrived downtown shortly after 7:45am and was easily able to find free parking. Plus! I then made my way to the race kit pickup area. There were two lines with no real direction as to which one we were supposed to be in so I took my chances in the first one and waited. A little while later a lady came up and said that the line that I was in was for last names A-H. Really?!?! Is it that hard to post a sign? *sigh* I then went to the back of the other line and stewed and waited. I saw Amy & Nicole while I waited in line and eventually got to the front where I got my bib and then timing chip along with a couple of garbage bag twist ties to attach it to my shoe with. Fail! After making a man in his Team Canada Tri Onsie show me what was in the swag bag I decided against taking that and the tshirt. I hate to take things that I will never use and the shirts were over sized and ugly and we have more than enough shoe bags and race pamphlets. I'm actually surprised that all of this was included with a medal and post race food for such a cheap price! Plus! Could have been an A+ if the shirts were decent VRPro! ;o)

 

Nicole and I strolled down to the start line (making a bathroom stop along the way) and met up with Amy, Emma & Patty (Patty wasn't racing but her son was doing the kids 1K). We chatted for a little bit and then Amy and I went for a quick warm up along the 1K route. Coming back we realized that there was a headwind that wouldn't be that great at the end of the race. Boo. The kids 1K race started and we cheered for all the children as they raced. We saw Bella's daughter come in second overall (atta girl!) and Patty's son finish with a look of utter confusion on his face. It was pretty darned cute! After the final child crossed the finish line we were called to the start. I still had no real plan at this point and I was really not looking forward to racing. Too late now I thought as the gun went off. The beginning was pretty congested and some people (like usual) didn't heed the rules to not start at the front if you are slower. Or walking!!!! After almost taking some old girl out who was out for a stroll I was able to finally move up and around people. I lost all of the girls fairly quickly and wondered through most of the first half of the race how far they were behind me. I made an effort to not let myself go faster than 4:30/km, really just to see how it would help me feel at the end. Usually my first km in a 5K is around 4:15-4:20/km and I'm dead at the end so I was hoping that if I went slower I'd have more gas in the tank for the finish. Guess what. It makes no difference. Balls to the wall from now on it is! LOL We followed the waterfront trail out of Spencer Smith and onto the beach strip and I was feeling pretty good. There was a man pushing a woman in a suped up racing wheelchair that was covered in running stickers. The 26.2 one caught my eye and I wondered if he actually pushed this lady through a marathon?! I felt bad for him when the sandy part of the course came along. For as many times as I've run this route in the past I have never paid attention to how long the sand trail is until trying to run a race in it. Yowza that sucked! Good on him though, he kept pace and we pretty much ran side by side until I decided to stop for water at the turn around. As I was drinking the water I saw Nicole and gave her a wave. Shortly after I saw Amy & Emma. They looked to all be having great races. The 2.5k back was pretty uneventful. It was as it is in every 5K, just trying to convince your legs to keep moving. The faces of the runners coming the other way kept me occupied for a little while until I passed by the last runner but by then I just had about a 1.5km to go. Thankfully I didn't sound as terrible as the man who was trying to pass me did and I knew that while I wouldn't be getting a new PB I would be hitting my sub 25 min goal so I was happy with how things were going. Coming back through Spencer Smith a young boy ran past and a lady yelled out to me "You're not going to let a kid beat you are you?!?!". Pfft. Obviously this woman has never tried to outrun a child. Frickin' right I was going to let that kid beat me! As I was coming down the home stretch I saw Patty and her family cheering everyone on..... If you can consider yelling out to me "Puke. Puke. Puke." cheering. LOL I turned the corner to see that the clock had not turned to 24 minutes yet so I turned on the jets and got in just under. Yay! Not long after Nicole, Emma & Amy crossed the finish line, all 3 of them getting new Personal Best's! Awesome! We got our medals and posed for a picture then went and checked out the results. I had come second in my age group winning a free dinner for two and Nicole came third in her age group winning her a Running Room hat. Yay us!

Emma, Me, Nicole & Amy. Too bad you can't see my socks.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 2 Fall Training

As I try to write this (shhhh, at work) the man installing new cameras keeps coming in and out of my office and it's really annoying. Hopefully he's not focusing anything onto my computer monitor. EEK! Week 2 of the training plan went well and even with 2 graduations and a university orientation day I was able to fit all five runs in. No gym time though, but I'm going to go today so hopefully I can stick with it now. *Fingers crossed*


Monday - 10K easy. It was super muggy out this day. Blah.
Tuesday - 10.15k run with 4x4 min Tpace (4:52) w/ 3 min recoveries. I did the same thing as last week because it worked really well for me. Run to the gym, bang out my intervals on the treadmill and then run home. This was also Noah's graduation day from grade 8. No more elementary school students for our family. *sniff*
Wednesday -  8.05 easy peasy lemon squeezy. This was Kyle's graduation day from grade 12. He graduated as an Ontario Scholar, earning honours every year that he attended.
Thursday -9.5K easy pace with Patty. Was supposed to be 8K but I had the bright idea to turn the route into a loop after we misjudged our out & back route. Oh well, what's 1.5K between friends?
Friday - rest. We spent the day in London at Western University where Kyle will be attending in the fall for an orientation day. They really do so much to get the kids ready nowadays. It's reassuring to see for us.
Saturday - 20K run with Nicole & Phil. This was our first week with tempo included in the long run. We did 20 min easy and then 20 min at 4:52 tempo pace. The last few minutes were pretty sucky but we got through it and the rest of the run was a breeze.
Sunday - rest

Hope you all had a great Canada Day yesterday! And happy 4th of July for anyone else reading this. I love being Canadian!

Mother son dance at the graduation. Noah feels that he looks like the tallest man in the world next to me.

High school graduates!

Me & my Ontario Scholar