I have only been watching the live torch coverage for the past 45 minutes and right away it brought back memories of my day back on October 31st. The torch carries some strong emotions and I do admit to tearing up on and off. While it was awesome to run on Day 2 (it is now Day 106) of the relay, the crowds out in Chemainus were nothing like the crowds and excitement today. Mind you, Chemainus is a MUCH smaller town than Vancouver. Part of me wishes I had applied to run in Vancouver instead of on the island!

Carrying the torch was an amazing adventure and the ONLY thing I would change about the day is the fact that I was sick with the flu. The sickness kind of made me a bit out of it for the day and preferably I would have chosen to be fully conscious of what I was doing! IT was still fun don't get me wrong. This song also makes me tear up as they played this video before our adventure that day.

GO CANADA GO!!!

Unfortunately I will be working during the opening ceremonies this evening; however, I plan to visit a TV as often as possible. I wish I was my sister who is attending the festivities in person tonight! Then again I never applied for any tickets so it is my loss.

In other sad news, there has been a casualty at the games already, Olympic luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed during his trial run today and ended up passing away. He was 21. This course is apparently dangerously fast. I was able to view a video of the crash and it was pretty brutal. He was basically thrown off the track as a rag doll. The video was removed from You Tube a few minutes after I saw it. Thoughts and prayers to his family. Let's hope for no more accidnets throughout the remainder of the games.

** Edit. The video is posted here if you want to see it (if the video remains here). Warning: No blood or close ups, but you do see Nodar fly through the air and hit the post sideways.

A bunch of crap, literally

Many times while out training through various trails, I come across many dogs and their owners. Some are off leash, some are kept on leash, some are small, some are large. Some are well behaved and some are not so well behaved. I know and understand that when an off leash dog sees someone running towards them, they tend to think that person wants to play. When I am in the middle of a workout, that is not the case. Occasionally I find myself having to stop completely and try and keep a dog from jumping on me. This is okay when it is a little dog, not so much fun with a big dog, especially when they are muddy.

Occasionally dogs growl. I have met some who growl if I get too close to their owner. In a way that is cute as they are being protective. Of course it is always the little dogs that tend to be the ankle biters. I love animals, don't get me wrong, but if a dog comes at me and tries to bite me, chances are I will kick the dog. I haven't had to do that yet, but I came seriously close after one dog nipped the back of my knee and left a nice purple pinch mark. And of course after calling their owners (I reversed searched their address), they first denied having the dog and then after I said it nipped at me but didn't break the skin, they said "oh I will have to go find him" and then proceeded to hang up. Excuse me bitch? Where is the "I am sorry, are you okay?"

While dogs can be annoying, I must say that sometimes it comes down to their owners and how they raise them. Owners are funny too. Many times over the past few months I have been out for runs in the trails and come up to a dog taking a crap on the side of the path or simply in the middle. What makes me laugh is that I catch the owner look around first. Then when they see me, they begin to pull out a bag to pick it up. I always wonder "Would they have picked that up if I wasn't here?" I highly doubt it. You can almost see it in their eyes when they see me "oh shit, I have to pick it up now." Basically, if you own a dog and take it for a walk, pick up after it. I, along with every other person in the trails don't want to step in it.

Unfortunately on some trails, especially in Hemer, it is not just dog crap I have to deal with, it is also horse crap. Generally they do theirs right in the middle of the trail, which is also gross and annoying; however, at least horse crap is big enough to see and avoid. Dog crap you generally don't notice until you can smell it! Rant complete! =)

Crappy Feeling and Cedar Spectator Review!

After another big week, I was surprised to find out I was given an easier week this week. I am glad though as I have been feeling off all week. Not only off with regards to running, but completley off in general. I hope I am not coming down with something. Not only am I feeling off, the mysterious shoulder/arm pain that I had in my left arm back in September for nearly 2 months has once again returned. What the heck could it be? I have no idea. Hopefully nothing major. All I know is that I cannot wait to feel "on" again.

I did receive some ART from Abe this evening, this time on my hip flexors as I had a feeling they might be involved with the issues going on in my lower back and lower abdominals. Hopefully it helps. As I was coming out from my appointment, I saw Mike (who operates the Running Room in town) waiting for his appointment. There was a guy in between us and Mike and I ended up chatting the entire time the guy was in for his appointment.

I mentioned last time that the Cedar 12km was happening on Sunday. The weather was perfect for the runners and I found myself busy that day assisting with registration, then taking photos of the pre-race warm up, start and then weaving my way past the runners to get to the 3-4km mark (I think) to get mid race photos before waiting for the top 5 men to pass before speeding back to the finish to catch those activities. Then I assited with handing out the awards before helping clean up. Busy day for sure!

In the end, Jim Finlayson took the top spot finishing in 37:54. Chris Kelsall recently wrote a great Flotrack article about Jim which you can find here. Top woman for the day (by far) was none other than Lucy Smith in 44:17. Photos of the winners below

Winner Jim Finlayson



Womens winner Lucy Smith

While I am on the topic of Cedar, I want to give a few shout outs for some stellar performances. First off is Keith Mills, who took an amazing 3 minutes and 48 seconds (if my math is right) off his Cedar 12km time from last year going from 45:47 to 41: 59. Wow

Next up is one of my fellow Westwood Running Club/Bastion Running Club members Byron Trajan, who took off 2 minutes and 53 seconds going from 45:54 last year to 43:01 this year.

And lastly to Care Wakely who finally took first in the 25-29 age catgeory with a 2 minute and 48 second improvement going from 49:17 to 46:29. Way to go Care!

Congrats to everyone who ran on Sunday.

A bit of everything

I am so disgusted as I write this. Jason is watching Kenny vs Spenny and they are having a competition where they are wearing adult diapers (or briefs as we call them at work) and they have both crapped their pants basically. The competition is that whoever removes their diaper first or has their "crap" leave the diaper first, loses. The loser has to clean windows butt naked in public. I have no idea why this show is appealing as they do some pretty disgusting things. I hate to say it, but it's a Canadian Show.

Did I lose you yet? Sorry if I disgusted you, but I had to share.

I am nearly done another big week of training. I should have one more week to go before a down week. That stomach issue I spoke about before is still around. It comes and goes with it's good days and bad days. I had a doctor's appointment about something else today, so while I was there, I asked my doctor about my stomach pain. Once again he says that it is likely muscle related. Alright, "how long should I put up with the pain before I come back" I asked, in which I received "3 months." WTF, 3 months of pain before the doctors will look further into it. Why is it that Doctors are pretty much useless. They either just want to prescribe medicine or if they don't know the answer, they say "just wait on it." Crap. It's why I tend to not visit them if I don't have to.

Okay rant completed. =)

(excuse the corny cake. Jason asked for a cake so I figured I'd be nice and make one and then chose Pink to give him a special message )

Tonight I spent the early evening (2.5 hours approx) making cookies. In fact, I think the final tally was about 10 dozen cookies. 5 batches each of 2 dozen. I covered 3 different kinds, Oatmeal cinnamon raisin, regular chocolate chip and then chewy double chocolate chip. Why all the cookies you might ask? On Sunday it is the Cedar 12km, which is hosted by one of my clubs Bastion Running. It is on my home land as the course goes right by my house within the first km of the race. Club members were asked to make cookies as part of the after race feast. Home made cookies are better than store bought anyways, right?

(the route goes through the farm area of Cedar, hence the cows in the logo)

This is the one race I am a bit disappointed about not racing; however, I will keep myself busy volunteering with registration before hand, taking photos during and then likely with the awards afterward. So I will be busy and maybe that will help with the "I want to race" feelings. So far I am okay with it, but race day might be different. I am enjoying my training and am getting in some good quality workouts. I know that not racing is in my best interest, so I think I will be okay on Sunday.

Time for a kitty update via photos before I go.

The boys cuddling about a week ago





Socket has now taught Steve how to get up on the cupboards. We still have no idea how they get up there; however, I think it's cute how big brother Socket is watching over little brother Steve.

Beware of Steve!

I mentioned in a previous post that Steve tends to be protective of his toys and growls whenever Socket comes near him. Sometimes Socket isn't really that close to the toy or could be simply sleeping on the ground, yet Steve still growls. I finally captured video of it (you may have to turn your speakers up). The video is dark too, but the most important part is the sound.

An update on the aftermath of my fall on the weekend. My face is pretty good. The scratches are still there, but not as red as before. No discoloured bruises occurred; however, both my jaw and cheekbone in towards my ear are still sore. I have a nice sized bruise just blow my left hip, some bruises on the left knee, bruising on the front of the right ankle, scrapes and bruises on my right elbow and annoying scrapes on the top of the fingers of my right hand.

These are annoying as they reopen often due to washing hands or simply brushing them up against something. I tend to forget about the elbow and put it down on something, which quickly reminds me that its bruised. My left shoulder was a bit sore last night, but seems better today. Nothing bothered me on my run today except tight quads and hamstrings which isn't likely due to the fall. I got off lucky I think.

I did send an e-mail to the park though, notifying them of the hazardous bridge and suggested they add grip or maybe scuff up the wood so it is not so smooth. I also notified them of another bridge that is rotting and now has broke boards on it. We'll see if I get a response. For all I know it could be a dead end e-mail address from years ago, but no "unable to send" messages as of yet. I will update you all if I hear back!

Klutzy Saturday!

I went out for my usual long run today to finish off a tough week. I felt good during the run, but came home with some war wounds. About half way through my run, we came to a wooden bridge with a corner. I have slipped on this bridge before and slammed my hip and ankle into the rail. I tried to slow down for the bridge and right away I noticed it was slippery. I actually said, "I hate this bridge" and then just as I rounded the corner with my last step on the bridge, my foot slipped out from under me as I pushed off and down I went, right onto the cement patch at the end of the bridge.

Flat on my stomach, by co-runners stopped and pulled me back up (thanks to Mark, Trevor and Audrey). First question I asked was how bad my face was bleeding. I turned my head as I went down as I didn't want to once again take out my nose while running (been there done that). So I hit the ground with the left side of my face (cheekbone to jaw). Couple decent sized scrapes on my jaw, bruised thumb pad of the left hand, looks to be a bruise on the left hip, lump/bruise on the front of left ankle, nice scrapes on the right elbow, scrapes on the tops of the right hand fingers.

You see, I kind of got my left hand down, hence the sore thumb pad area; however, I was carrying a mini water bottle in my right hand and do you think I dropped it? Nope, I hung onto it, taking the fall with my elbow instead. Know what else I did as they were pulling me off the ground? I stopped my watch. Yep that is right, I made sure to stop the watch so it wouldn't continue adding up. Now that is a true runner! Or it is just a runner who is too addicted to the watch.

I did finish my run though. AND received some strange looks from people as I ran back through Westwood with a muddy/dirty shift, blood pooled on my elbow and a swollen bloody face. And guess what? I STILL hate that freaking bridge. Here are some photos to enjoy. If bruising occurs, which I think it will, I will post pictures later. Unfortunately I have to go to work in a few hours so its now nap time.

(wow that photo shows the nice blonde peach fuzz on my face that sticks out when I am cold, eww) I figure I may get a bruise on my cheekbone and possible jaw. Won't that look lovely!

Canucks vs Blues.... Again

I know I said over a week ago that I would blog about the Canucks Superskills, but I have yet again put that off and will hopefully get back to it (we'll see). Instead I am still going to talk about the Canucks, but I am going to take about a different event.

I was given the opportunity to attend another Canucks hockey game. My friend Kris was given tickets to the game and offered one of them to me. The game fell on day in which I was already off work so I couldn't resist. Who can say no to free tickets? The only down side? The Canucks were playing the St.Louis Blues, which is the same team that I saw back on December 20th (where the Canucks lost).

So an earlier workout than normal for a day off work and we were off to Vancouver on the 3pm ferry. For this game, we sat in the 23rd row. WAY up higher than I am used to and prefer to sit, but it was a free game. I think the highest I have sat in at least the 5-6 games I have been to was row 4. I find when I sit higher, I am highly distracted by people watching, compared to when I sit down lower.

Anyways, it was fun, we had some amusing guys from Victoria in front of us who had quite a few drinks in them. One of them spent $40 on 50/50 tickets (the pot was at just under $23,000) and claimed that if he won, he was taking his other 3 buddies and then me and Kris to Vegas. Needless to say, you guessed it, he didn't win. But he was amusing.

I have a lot of photos, mostly from the warm up as the game photos have the net in the way due to sitting behind the visitors goal. I have a project in mind to showcase most of the photos, but that will have to wait until next week when I have more free time. Here are a few teasers in the meantime.

Warm up photos!

Alex Burrows



Kyle Wellwood



Canuck Bums!!!

Ryan Kesler (yum)





"Special" Alex Burrows (this photo makes me laugh)



Henrik Sedin



Mason Raymond



Announcing the players of each team selected to the Olympics

Team USA Ryan Kesler (for all you Americano's)



And Better Yet!!! Team Canada Roberto Luongo!!!!!!!



View from our seats (too far up, but Free!)



FIGHT!!!



Boys on the bench



Fin banging on his drum next to our seats



Final Score!!

As you can see by the final photo, the Canucks won 3-2. Mason Raymond (watch out for him in future years) scored the first 2 and then Christian Ehrhoff scored the 3rd. It was a good game and I was glad we could end our home stand on a happy note. Now the Canucks are off for the longest road trip in NHL history (broken up by the 2 week Olympic break). 42 days before their next home game, 14 cities, 13 games (8 before the break and 6 after) and apparently over 12,000km travelled. Let's take these wins on the road boys!

When I was leaving Vancouver this morning, the city is gearing up for the Olympics. Many skyscrapers downtown now have HUGE advertisements on them. Here is a close up and then a far away photo for you to see just how big (and this wasn't the biggest one).

Lastly, I have had a tough week of training (in terms of how hard the workouts are), but it has gone surprisingly well. I love how feeling unmotivated due to feeling crappy going into a workout turns into a spectacular workout. That is what happened today, even though I was plenty tired from the events of this week already. Gotta love how that happens! Bring it on!