Running Commentary

Running September 22 2004

Well we’re about to go out for a run. My first since the race. I am looking forward to it in a lot of ways. But worried I am going to suck. You know how that is.

At this point, I hate NOT running, you know how that is too.

So we’ll run, no more than 8k. I doubt we will even do 8, some of my running mates are still hurting so they will want to take it easy and do only 5k. Really that’s fine with me.

Ok, to be REALLY honest with you, I am only going because we ‘re all having dinner together afterwards. And that is the only thing getting my butt out the door today.
But I do want to run…but not really.

NO.

I want to HAVE run…I want to ran…you know what I mean.
I want it to be 10pm tonight and i’ve already run.

Yeah..that’s it.
I know I’m mental..You don’t have to tell me.

I did the race in my old shoes…nicely broken in and on the verge of retirement. TOnight I think I’ll wear my new ones, just to break em in a bit.

GOOD LORD this is a boring post….ok…something to liven it up a bit

My hubby runs a home based business and hasn’t filed his txes in 2 years. His books are a mess and today I made him go and see a book keeper to get everything in order and file his taxes, it’s apparently going to be a long process since I refused to look after his books when she started this mess (I was already working full time and pregnant).

We might be selling our children to pay the evil Revenue Canada…any takers? Ben??

Uhm September 21 2004

“Imagine Jesus is on top of the hill, with his arms wide open waiting for you. And you’re running to him”

Doesn’t that mean you’re dead?

Recoverd?

I think I’ve recovered.

Sunday night, I could only get one of my legs over the baby gate by our stairs. COULD NOT. Hubby had to come and help me. Walking up and down stairs was SUCH a chore for me. I mean really.
Sunday night I lay on the couch like a squeezed orange all flat and and groggy.
Monday I was sore. My legs were tender to touch. That wasn’t fun. But by Monday night i was feeling a bit better. But completely exhausted, which is a good sign right?

I’ll go for a walk today (should’ve yesterday but didn’t get the chance) and see how I feel after that.

Definitely running tomorrow night.

For my next amazing adventure, I will lose 25lbs. Well even 20 would be awesome.
WHY is it sticking around? Do I need to run 1000kms a week to lose this spare tire?

Mark has said he will help me to set up a cross training program…so I will be bugging him for that discussion soon.

Blah….now that the race is over I have NOTHING interesting or mildy entertaining to share with you.

I put Noah down for a nap about an hour and a half ago, he’s been playing ever since.
Now he’s calling me. Do I leave him up there? He’s not crying and needs a nap.

Another question, when did your babies go into a big boy bed?
Noah will be two in November.
He seems big in his crib but his brother was in there until 2.5 or 3 I think.

Attention RBF September 20 2004

Janice has lost her running mojo as can be seen in the comment she posted for my post prior to this one.

We MUST help her find said mojo. Janice is an awesome runner and she was the one who initially convinced me that I COULD do a half.

Also, she’s hot.

And nothings worse than a hot runner who doesn’t run.

GO JANICE GO!!!!
Get your shoes on, grab molly and run! Anywhere. For anything distance for any length of time. You know you’ll feel great if you do!

No everyone…go to Janice’s and tell her why she should run.

Race Report

Ouch.

I’m a little sore today. I can only assume it’s cause we pushed ourselves yesterday cause it was a seriously easy route. Our routes here in town are much hillier.

Anyway, let’s start at the beginning….

I woke up before my alarm went off (I mistyped in my post of that morning) and was immediatley WIDE awake.

I went through my normal pre long run morning ritual. A bagel (which caught on fire and couldn’t be eaten) and black tea (so I won’t have to poop on the run…you all know what I mean.)

My ride was coming to get me at 5:40 am. I was ready at about 5:15am. Yeah that was brilliant. So I drank some water. Peed. Paced. Check the forecast (I have a slight weather obsession). Peed.Paced somemore.

Anyway, we finally got to St Catherines with about an hour to pick up race kits and get ready to run.
We found our numbers, found our club and had a group picture (I don’t have a copy yet).

We made our way to the start line with the marathoners SKIPPING and jumping up and down in excitement. I mean seriously! Asking us over and over if we have gels etc.

We started SLOW….which was our mission. However, before the first km mark there was NO ONE behind us…a little TOO slow I would say.

I was worried we would be dead last for the whole race (how humiliating). But after the first few KM people started to fall behind us like crazy. At one point I made my little group turn around and LOOK at the people behind us.

Anyway I couldn’t believe the number of water stations, having only done 10k races before this (and only 2 of those) I was used to only having one or two. But there were EIGHT on this course. I was so happy that I had not brought my water belt (forgot it) cause it was not needed. We did walk when we had a drink (not every aid station but we did stop at many) but it was quick cause we knew another one was only 2.5k away.

Still with the fingers in the water cups…kind of yucky…oh well.

By about km12 we turned out of town and ran past the vineyards, that was interesting. Especially since in the morning the shoot of some sort of canon to scare the birds off the grapes.
I scared the grapes out of me let me tell you. And when one of my running buddies went into a corn feild to pee I was slightly afraid for his life. These farmers mean business. Hillbillies in Canada? Who knew!

I felt great during this entire race.

At one point in the race the road comes to a T, you turn right…run down to the end, turn around and come back up. That’s where the hills are. They truly are smaller than the hills we are used to training on. So coming back up them was really not that big of deal, our pace literally did not change.
We passed at least 12 people on those hills. I mean really. The were stopped and walking.
One person as we passed him, said (after reading the back of our team shirts)”Oh yeah i ran your half last year! You guys are used to hills!”
So that was interesting. Passing people on hills. Us.

After that, I though, oh my god. I’m going to finish!
I couldn’t believe it was km15.
AND we had 1 hour to finish in the time we thought we would. Clearly we were going to do better than that.

Around km18 one of my running mates had some foot issues, mostly that the tops of her feet were killing her. She adjusted her shoes a few times, but really I think she only cost us about 1 minute or two. So I stopped with her when she needed to. Who wants to run the rest alone and in pain.
But she ran great and totally sucked it up. She’s pretty bruised today. Weird eh?

What I did find weird was the traffic! Cars weaving in and out of runners!
Totally coming into our lane. The only road that was even remotely closed was the one with the finish line on it.
That was VERY annoying. I didn’t think I would have to worry about cars really.

When we ran Around the Bay (I did the relay) the course was completely closed to cars the entire way.

Anyway, on the corner before the final turn to the finish line, there were at least 20 people from our group standing there, making the most noise I have ever heard a group of people make. It was SO amazing. It really gave us the kick we needed. And we finished feeling strong.

And then we had ice cream.

Next up, is a half marathon hosted by the store I run out of in November. I’ve run the course as a training run and it’s freaking hilly and hard.

thanks for all the encouragement. I kept thinking yesterday that I just wanted to come home and blog. I wanted to email an entry from my phone, but with my post-race labotomy I couldn’t figure it out.