1 year ago today

One year ago today, I woke up and immediately hugged the toilet bowl! haha. Well that is part of the memory yes, but the main reason for this post is because one year ago today, I found myself becoming a part of Olympic history. It's 4pm, so in just over an hour, it will be 1 year ago exactly that I found myself here:

Yes that is right, you might remember that last Halloween I ran with the Olympic torch down in Chemainus. I can still feel the emotions from that day. Every time I hear the song "Fix You" by Coldplay it brings back memories and emotions. It's pretty amazing to be honest. I thought I would take a moment and remember how special this day was. Fever or no fever, it was amazing!

Stay tuned, race report still to come! 

The Final Countdown!

Race day tomorrow! 6km of presumably muddy trail racing! I race at 2:30 PT so think of me wherever you are and whatever you are doing! In the meantime, I must get some things ready as I am on the 7:45am ferry in the morning to the mainland! Race Report to come.

Some High School Success!

High School Cross Country is in full swing. We started practice around the beginning of September and we have just over 1 week left until the season is over. So far the kids have attended 5 meets and have done quite well. Back in the beginning of October, we took them over to Surrey for the day to race. It was a lot of fun, but definitely exhausting by the time I got home!

Then on the 18th, we headed off on the big yellow school bus down to Victoria for the Island Age Group Championships. This is the last opportunity for the Grade 8-10's to compete in their own age groups. We moved our Grade 8's up to the 9-10 category to increase their distance to 4km (rather than 2km) and we walked away with the Girls Team Championship. Woo hoo! Go girls. Not enough boys or girls in the Senior 11-12 races unfortunately, but they all ran their hearts out and had some pretty stellar performances. 

Yesterday was the big one. The Island Senior High School Championships. This is where kids must place in the top individual 20 or the top 4 teams to make the BC Championships on November 6th. Unlike some schools, we took all of our kids (I think we only had 15 total, 8 girls 7 boys). So we had our tiny little grade 8's racing as well and I might add that some of them are small. They all did well. We had a good feeling that our girls team would qualify, but were unsure about the boys team. We knew 2 of our Grade 12's had a good chance as they qualified last year too. In the end, we were right. Our girls qualified by taking 2nd place (sucks that you can only take 7 when you have 8 girls total) and so did our 2 senior guys (Forrest and Brock). Our guys team came 7th, so 3 spots out of qualifying. We did a reverse flip from last year where our boys team qualified and no girls qualified (the flu took out 3/4 of our girls team). 

7 members of our girls team

 

A shout out to one of our grade 8's Jacob. On the 3rd and final lap, disaster stuck and he had a little mishap. I could not help but laugh as I saw him come out of the trails covered in mud. Poor kid. He had a nice cold swim in the lake to wash off afterward!

So that takes us to now! Saturday November 6th, we will head back to Victoria (for the 3rd time) for the BC Championships! One of our girls has a chance to possibly podium or be close to it! Hopefully I'll get it off work! 

4 days till I go back to 1999

Go Canucks Go! Sorry for the outburst. The Canucks are playing Colorado as we speak so I had to send out a cheer. Oh I love hockey season, though the Canucks are less than impressive so far this season. Most of that is our over paid goalie who isn't living up to his salary. At one point someone posted a Craigslist ad advertising him for sale. Unfortunately the post was flagged so I cannot share it. Pretty amusing though!

Most people assumed that maybe I would have some downtime after the Half Marathon just over 2 weeks ago, but in fact, I had a few rest days and then jumped back into workouts as I recovered pretty fast. Focus shifted to Cross Country. Yep that is right, (dang Colorado scored) this Saturday I will race my first BC XC Championships since 1999. The last time I raced BC's was the fall after I graduated high school, just before I quit the local track and field club after about 9-10 years. That race was my worst ever. Very bad memories.

This time however, I will have good memories. I am going to run and I am going to have fun. While I am nervous to step back into the championships, I am also excited. I am going to go and simply have fun running through the muddy trails. I assume they'll be muddy considering the rain we have had lately which is supposed to continue. I will admit that the caliber at the BC Championships is nowhere near what it used to be though. I remember being a kid and watching people such as Leah Pells or Angela Chalmers. Plenty of Olympians out there. This year, we'll have one Olympian, Malindi Elmore. It definitely should be interesting. 

In the meantime, I have been busy coaching the high school kids. They have run 3 meets already, though I missed one due to being sick. They have their Vancouver Island Senior Championships tomorrow in Victoria. This is where they will qualify for BC high school's on Nov 6th and I hope that some of them do. The girls race will be interesting for sure. The quality on the island for girls has dropped this past year as a lot of the faster girls graduated last year. We'll see what happens. 

PS. it's 1-1 now! 

Can I get a re-do?

First off, a few pictures from the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon just over 2 weeks ago.

Boy I look thrilled to run, hah

The start! I'm behind the guy in bright yellow.

Just before the 10km point, feeling strong

Coming up to the finish

 

Finished!

  
Up next, the weekend of Oct 15-17th. A few Sunday's ago (October 17th), I turned the big 2-9. I had the weekend off work and had nothing planned. I attended a speech by the great Lucy Smith on the Friday night up at the local university and then was talked into attending her workshop on the Saturday morning. Lucy is very motivational so I had a good time at both the speech and workshop. 

Speech

 

Workshop

  

So Sunday was my birthday. As I said, the big 2-9. I had wonderful facebook messages for my birthday and I appreciate them all. If it wasn't for the facebook messages and the few cards I got, I wouldn't have known it was my birthday. Jason was busy working on stuff nearly all done, which made him out and about. Other than a happy birthday in the morning, I didn't see him until nearly 7pm. I spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. My dinner, was pizza pops because I didn't feel like making myself dinner. No dinner, no cake. I was wishing for time to go faster to end my day and I was thankful when October 18th came around. I have heard birthday's get worse as you get older.... hard to imagine because this one sucked

 

My co-workers all heard that my day sucked, so they planned a surprise birthday pot luck behind my back and surprised me at work on Friday night. They even bought me my Dairy Queen Cake, with Canucks logo, that I missed out on. So in the end, I got my dinner and cake. =)

Mad Meanderings Of A Confused Mumbaikar

So I keep getting hits on my blog, yet it has been 9 days since my last post. I have things to say, but have been busy with working and pure laziness when it comes to blogging. I owe you a post or two. Might even have enough to say for 3 posts. In the meantime, I am procrastinating yet again. Time for a run, so I will blog later! ;) Stay tuned....

Ideal race report

My recovery is going well after last Sunday. Already back doing workouts, smaller scale of course, but still back at it. I had sore hamstrings and calves for the first 2 days, but received some treatment from Abe on the Tuesday which helped. Plus in general, just getting back out running helps as well. I was even interviewed for the news the other day. I was near a local high school and parked to do my warm up in the surrounding area. I saw A News getting out of their car and the guy went to interview some people walking through the parking lot. I figured it had to do with the fact that the local baseball field wanted to make that lot pay parking considering a lot of students from the local university park in the lot as it is free and then walk the 5 minutes or so to the university. 

The guy ran over to me to catch me before I took off. He asked me if he could ask a question. I said that depends, what about. And of course, before he answers or even tells me anything, he starts recording. It turns out he was asking about a bear sighting that happened in that area the day before. Apparently a momma bear and her 2 cubs were seen right on the trail where I was standing. In fact, I saw bear poop on the trail later. 

He simply asked me if I had heard, which I said I had heard rumors and explained I had heard my NDSS track team had their practice canceled the day before because of it, but I hadn't heard much else (I was at work, hence why I wasn't there at the practice). He asked me if I was worried, to which I said no, and that people just needed to be cautious and pay attention rather than walking around with music blaring in their ears. They only ended up showing the part about the team practice being canceled and they also proceeded to show me running up the trail. Ugh. I hate watching myself run or even hearing my own voice. Lovely. If I get a clip, I'll post it.... maybe. 

Anyways, I read a clever race report for the Goodlife Fitness Half Marathon. At least I thought it was funny. Here is part of it (taken from mid way through the article)

"Part of the half-marathon route was hairpin loop. So, after a time, we encountered elite half-marathoners sprinting down the other side of the road. Seeing them lapping us like this was humiliating. 

What's worse, instead of making rude gestures at the pack leaders, the runners around me starting cheering and clapping. 

I don't want to come off as the Half-Marathon Grinch, but even the spectators cheering us on got on my nerves. Some rang giant cow bells. One guy blew a conch. They sat in lawn chairs, snuggled underneath cosy blankets. Where was my cosy blanket? Why wasn't I sitting and watching, cradling a Starbucks latté, instead of running around like a knob?"


Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/life/therapeutic+effect+well+done/3669978/story.html#ixzz12a3rbO1O

Goodlife Fitness Victoria Half Marathon

As you all know, I have certainly had my ups and downs of training over this past summer. Things were great mid August and then went downhill from there. Workouts began feeling harder and paces seemed harder to hit. A less than ideal 10km race lead into getting sick approximately 2 weeks before this half marathon and then the unfortunate incident of rolling my ankle. A horrid workout less with 1.5 weeks before the race made me start to consider dropping out. 

Many people told me "Don't you dare" "race and have fun" "who cares about time, just run and don't worry." What is funny is that some of these comments come from people who I know for a fact would care deeply if it was them in this situation and would be very upset if they were to run 1-2 minutes slower than their best time. I put that all aside and tried to stay positive. It was hard. I am a very determined person. I am extremely hard on myself. I think it comes from my past as a child hood track star. I had a lot of pressure on myself when I was setting records and winning championships. Then when I got older and went through puberty and struggled, I couldn't deal with how things went from good to bad. 

I debated dropping out and also debated maybe racing the 8km. I figured if I couldn't hold half pace, then I had no chance of holding 8km pace. I decided to ultimately race the half and to re-set my goals. My goal going into the race became to run faster than last year (1:24:15) and hopefully no slower than 1:25. In August I was sure I was destined to run a PB and beat my Eugene time of 1:21:55. After the last month of training, I wasn't sure this was possible. So with the new goals set and after being told that it was okay to drop out if things are going horrible, to which I responded, I couldn't do that with my parents attending the race, I committed myself to racing. 

I had Wednesday and Thursday off work last week and then worked Friday before taking Saturday (pre-race) and Sunday (race day) off. I opted to stay away from all sick people on Friday at work. 1st floor was short staffed and unfortunately since I work in Assisted Living I always get asked to help on other floors when they are short. Since it was so close to my race, I unfortunately decided to be selfish and told them that "no I would not help." I had heard rumors of people feeling sick down stairs, even the nurse working that night, so I opted to stay away. I felt bad for saying no, but I had to do what was in my best interest that day. Sorry. 

Saturday I got up and did my usual day before a race routine. After that, I coached the high school kids while they did a nasty hill workout and then I headed home for a warm shower and to pack. I finally made it out the door just prior to 2pm for my drive to Victoria. I got 3 minutes away and I realized I forgot my jacket. Last year was cold after the race, so I wanted my winter jacket. I turned around and came back to get it. Of course it turns out I didn't need it, go figure. Again, I was off to Victoria just after 2pm.

The drive was horrible. I swear my heart rate was at race pace while driving over the Malahat. A summit drive just before going into Victoria. Not only was the traffic horrid the whole way down (likely due to the race and also the long Thanksgiving weekend), but it was raining and the fog on the Malahat was SO incredibly thick it was hard to see the car in front of you. I hate driving in that. The drive was definitely slow and the heart rate was high. I was glad to arrive in downtown Victoria just after 3:30pm. 

By the time I found a parking spot it was 3:45. I was staying in a hotel downtown with my dad and step mom, but I had no clue where it was. 2 circles of the block, I didn't see it, so I parked and headed in the area to look around. I spotted the hotel (I drove right by it) and then decided to head across the street to the Race Expo to get my race package before going back to my car to get my stuff. 

I picked up my race number and said quick hello's to Bob and Sylvan. I then did a quick circle of the race expo. A lot of advertising for upcoming races and a few products. Tons of people so I didn't hang around too long. Not to mention I had to use the washroom due to all the water I drank on the way down. I ditched the expo, picked up my stuff from the car and headed to the hotel. 

I went from expecting to sleep on a foam mattress on the floor of their room, to finding out I had my own bed and practically my own room (it was a 2 bedroom hotel room). Much better! 

The rest of the evening was spent catching up with my dad, watching my step mom try to feed a seagull in our room, having dinner (which wasn't actually that good and had my stomach turning) and then watching part of the Canuck vs Kings game. 

I think I had the lights out by 8:45 as I was dead tired and was asleep by 9pm. I went to sleep when it was 1-0 Canucks, woke up when it was 1-1 with 3 something left in OT and then shut off the game and went back to sleep. I woke up a few more times throughout the night, such as when the bars let out around 2:30am and people were yelling on the street, but each time I went back to sleep. I finally got up at 5:10 feeling well rested. 

 

I brought a bagel and cream cheese with me for breakfast as I generally cannot eat much prior to a race. I think I only got half the bagel in, it was dry even with the cream cheese and I could not shove anymore in. I relaxed and checked the weather channel, which said 13 degrees and calm winds. Funny, when I looked outside the flags were blowing. Interesting. I got dressed and then a little before 6:30 I headed out the door towards the start line to find my mom. She hung onto my stuff while I did my warm up and drills. 

I attempted to use the outhouses prior to the race, but saw the line ups were WAY too long. I decided to opt out of that figuring I'd just go after the race, but then a buddy Mike told me to go into a local hotel and use their facilities as that is what they just did. I quickly did that, jogged back to my mom, stripped down, put some tiger balm on my quads and calves and then ran off to the start. I got there and did a few strides and then Bob advised all the elites that the race start was going to be delayed by 5 minutes. A few more strides and good lucks around and we were on the start line. 

Lots of fast ladies around me today. My original goal was top 5, but I also re-set that goal after this past month and after seeing the start lists. The race went off fast and some of the women took off. I went out fast too, but held myself back. I covered the first km in 3:43. Oops. It did have a slight downhill though. A group of 3 women passed me around 3km (I think), which included Shauna Skinner. I tried to go with them and hung on for a bit, but then I decided to run my own race and that maybe I could pull them in later in the race. I passed Gary Duncan a few km later, which surprised me. He is generally a very consistent runner and I debated hanging back as he always has good pacing. Instead I went on my way as I was feeling good. 

I hit 10km at 38:38, uhh did I not just race a 10km in September in 38:41 which was hard? The 38:38 felt easy and in control though. A bit faster than I was looking for, but in no way was it too fast. Things were still good up a few hills, I took my gel as I knew a water stop was coming around. I couldn't remember what gel I used in Eugene, but it worked easily. I thought I bought the same one today, but for some reason today, the one I had was horrid. So thick I had trouble getting it down. Thank goodness for water. 

I caught one girl around this point and pressed on. I had people (kids who were volunteering) yell out that they liked my pink shoes (Kinvara's) and pink sunglasses. Many people yelling that I was looking strong. I felt strong still. On the way back, I had many cheers from people I knew still heading towards the turn around. I headed down along Dallas Road when wham... a headwind. Where did this come from? I totally did not realize before this that the wind was apparently at my back. I ran on my own most of the way back, fighting some pretty strong gusts. I saw my km's slow down (I only checked the random split along the way, running mostly by feel). I pushed through the wind and eventually caught another female (Magali Tisseyre) which surprised me. She was either training through this race or having a bad day. 

With about 2km left, a pack of 3-4 guys caught me. I swore it was Mark (my occasional training buddy), but it wasn't. They drafted behind me. I moved over, so did they. I muttered to myself "you've got to be kidding me." I let them get to me, I slowed on a hill and then passed me. I wanted them to pass me, but when they did, I couldn't go with them. I had a female about 25m in front of me, I never put in the effort to pass her until it was too late. I figured I wouldn't catch her, then when I realized I was getting closer, it was too late. I ended up finishing 6 seconds behind her in a time of 1:22:46, which was good for 8th female and 50th overall. 51 seconds behind my PB.

About 400m from the finish. My form has obviously fallen apart by now. 

My lower back was aching when I finished. I found my coach (Matt) in the VIP tent. I found Mark who also happened to finish 58 seconds behind his best time. A quick chat to a few other buddies, some water and then Matt and I headed out of the finish area. I went to find my mom for my clothes and by the time I found her I was freezing. I then eventually found Matt and we did a cool down and chatted about the race where he told me "see, you had no reason to freak out" to which I said, yes I did, that felt WAY worse than Eugene and was better than I thought it would go. It was good to chat with him in person as I haven't been able to do that much. By the way, congrats to Matt on his 2nd place finish in 1:08:02, a new PB for him and 6 seconds behind the winner Jim Finlayson. Matt worked hard in the wind and unfortunately just couldn't hang on for the win..... this time ;)
 
Overall I am neither happy nor disappointed with the race. I am simply satisfied. Happy would have been a PB. Disappointed would have been slower than 1:24:15. Satisfied is where I sit and motivated for 2011. 

I am recovering quite well, sore hamstrings and calves, but not too bad. Thank you so much to everyone who has given me support. I know I can be a headcase sometimes, but honestly I truly felt "off" going into this race. No other way to explain it. I am not making it up, things just felt wrong. 

Thank you SO much to Abe Avender at Island Optimal for his super duper special treatment on Thursday. You not only keep me healthy but your positive encouragement also help. 

Thanks to Jane as well and congrats on your 3:23 PB. Jane is so supportive and always has the kindest words to say. 

To my sister Heather for wishing me well and for the best weather. 

To Jason for somewhat putting up with my training schedule. 

To Mike for all his OCD talk about numbers and paces. 

To Mark for helping me on many workouts. 

To Marilyn for her support even when she is unable to run. 

To Byron for his lovely well wishes to his queen. Made me laugh before the start.

To my Mom and Step Dad for coming to watch, taking photos and holding my stuff while I ran. 

To my Dad and Step Mom for the hotel room and for also coming to watch. 

To Julie for her lovely count down reminding me how fast time was running down. 

To Dave for trying his best to change my doubts to positive thoughts right up until the day before the race. 

To Craig and Melisa for their support.


To the Bastion Runners, Dave, John, Zlatko, Bill, Anne, Bob etc all giving me support and encouragement when I was struggling to find it. 


To Westwood Running Club, Shelby, Phil, Byron, Mark etc for your well wishes. 


To my co-workers for giving me their colds 2 weeks before the race rather than right before the race, I appreciate it ;)

To Sam for reminding me to concentrate on other aspects of training other than pace sometimes. 

To D for her awesome attitude. She keeps things real. 


To all my blogger friends, Molly (thanks for the many shipments) and Todd for your wacky facebook comments.


And lastly, to Matt. Thank you for all you do for me. I love to ask questions, I love the ups and hate the downs. Thank you for sticking with me and supporting me through the good and the bad. You have taken me a long way with my training and I can't wait to see what the future holds. 

I think I have most people. If I forgot, I am sorry, but thank you as well!

A glimpse!

Alright I survived the race. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would go, but also not as good as it could have been! That is all I am going to say for now. Those who are on my facebook know my time/place etc. Those who are not, stay tuned. Race report to come tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow is the day. Time has run out. What will be will be. Stay tuned for a race report at some point.

T minus 6 days

In 6 days at this exact time, I will be done my half marathon. I have mixed feelings about this upcoming race. I will also admit that part of me is afraid to even go into the reasons as to why I am not looking forward to this race. I have received some comments from people that I have apparently "offended" by being unhappy with recent races and training due to them not being on par to where they should be. Apparently, I am not allowed to be unhappy with times that are a minute or two off my best. No idea why I cannot be unhappy, other than since my time is faster than theirs, I don't seem to have the right =) So to that, I just say that time is relative, what is fast for me is also slow for a lot of ladies. And what is slow for me is fast for other ladies. 

Anyways, rant done. Basically as I stated, I have mixed feelings. I have decided to let go of any goals I had for this race based on the way I have been feeling over this past month. Yesterday I did my final 90 minute run, which included me blowing snot rockets all over the place. Yep, that cold I had a few weeks ago, seems to still be around. I am not 100% healthy yet, which might explain why the simplest runs are leaving me tired. I hope in 5 days I have kicked this cold, but if I haven't, I will do the best I can on the day. Even going into the race with no goals, I will say if I am too far off my best time, I will be disappointed. I think that is natural. 

I know I know...be positive and trust me, I am trying my best. Who knows what will happen. All I can do is run and see right? Hopefully this blog won't be taken the wrong way. These are my thoughts and I am not picking on anyone else. I am grateful for the times I run, but of course I want to run to my potential and I have not yet done that this fall. 

Sorry that this post is all over the place. I wanted to give you all an update and fyi, I am not making pre-race excuses in case it goes bad. I am honest in the fact that I have felt completely off for the last month. 

Update on Marilyn: She is out of the hospital as of Friday, after spending 12 days in the hospital. Welcome home Marilyn! Keep healing!

Lastly, please vote for me here. Help me win a Wii from a local gas station. I have to stay in first until Oct 31st. Vote daily (might be every 24 hours from when you vote as I haven't figured out the timing yet)! Thanks. 

Vote!

Okay guys, I know this may seem silly, but a local gas station is having a contest where the winner (most votes) gets a Wii. Please take 2 seconds out of your day each and every day (or at least most days) until October 31st and vote for me! Please please please?! Go here! Thanks you!!