September Half-marathon

You must all think I fell off the edge of the planet, but I am still here and I'm still running. I joined the Running Room half-marathon clinic and have been training like a maniac since June. I've been running 5 times a week: 3 of them with the group and 2 on my own. I did 7 weeks of hill repeat training, culminating in a 9 hill repeat run (appr. 10 km in total) that damn near killed me on the last hill. But I felt great the next day. The half-marathon is September 27th and I am ready ready ready. Oh...I have one minor setback. I have a head cold from H.E.Double Hockey Sticks. (Hell). I'm misreable and conventional cold medication is making me feel worse instead of better. So I went to a naturopath today and got some "Deep Immunity" tincture. I have to kick this cold to curb and FAST. The tincture is based on Asparugula...or something equally giggle worthy.

Wish me a speedy recovery for a speedy race.

Finally, reporting the half-marathon

I ran the much anticipated half-marathon on May 10th. Sorry I didn't report on it sooner, but I think I needed some perspective first. It didn't go too bad. I had some fun with some great friends and about 80% of the run was enjoyable.


However...


I didn't do as good as I had hoped.



The weather totally wasn't on my side. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.



I got up at 6 am and ate my good, healthy breakfast. I snuck out of the house while Bill and the kids were sleeping. Great thing to do on Mother's day. He he. I met up with Amer, Karen, and Sandy at Officer's Square. We had a great warm-up. At 8 am, off we went. We ran two laps around Queen Street/Ste Anne's Point drive. That was the first 5 km. Karen and Sandy shot ahead. Amer and I were keeping a pretty good pace so we stuck together.




Then we crossed over to the green, ran across the train bridge, and then out the Marysville trail. At the 7 km mark, I hit a teeny tiny wall. The problem was that I was running with Amer, and his pace is faster than mine...so I started way too fast. When I told him I needed to pace myself, he said nonsense...you'll push through it. So for 2 km, I tried to keep up with a 26-year-old man/boy, and it wasn't helping. I told him to go ahead. At first he didn't want to leave, because he is a gentleman and didn't want to leave me behind. That is very considerate, but his fast pace was hurting my lungs. So at the 9 km mark, I ordered him to go and so he went. So then I had a really enjoyable run from the 9 km mark to the 18 km mark. It was sublime. I found a great pace bunny. A man about my age or older who passed me, and then I'd pass him, and so on....we chuckled about it.



At the18 km mark, all hell broke loose. See, it had been drizzing for most of the run. I love drizzle. Keeps the temperature down. You don't get hot and sweaty. Love it. At 18 km, it started to pour buckets and buckets of rain. Sometimes, it rained sideways. I never stopped, I slugged through the rain soaked completely to the core. The train bridge was the worst. It was like running through a very thick (.5 km) wall of rain. It was even hard to see. I never wanted to quit. I was too close to the finish for that. But I knew I was going to suffer for it.



When I rounded the bend, Sage and Corena were waiting at the finish line. Bill and Jackson had to leave because of the rain. Amer was waiting for me with just 200 yards left to go. He yelled at me to sprint...and I sprinted. He was a great support. By the way, Amer has lost 100 pounds in the last year, and the half-marathon was his way of celebrating him. He did amazing.



I crossed the finish line, got my finisher's medal. Hugged Sage and Corena and then kept motoring. I had to keep moving so I wouldn't plummet my heart rate. Amer tried to hand me a hypothermia blanket, but I just walked away to do a round of officer's square. By the time I came back, I forgot all about the blanket. Still soaked to the core, and now cooling off rapidly, my fingers went completely numb.







I got a post-race leg massage. I had to sign a release form, but my fingers wouldn't wrap around the pen, so Corena filled it out for me. While I had my massage, Sage laid on the ground under my face and talked to me. It was cute.

While driving home with Sage, I started to shake. I mean shake. Not just a little shudder. I was shaking from the very core of my being and I was cold beyond belief. Sage called Bill at home and asked him to get some blankets and hot chocolate ready. I got home, pealed off the wet clothes, and climbed under the blankets. It took nearly two hours for the shaking to completely stop. When I got the feeling in my fingers back, I reached for my laptop and wikipedia'd "hypothermia". I'm pretty sure I had stage one Hypothermia. Bill and the kids took great care of me. They took turns snuggling with me to warm me up. Jackson thought it was funny, because I was shaking so much, he was shaking too.

My time was 2 hours 26 minutes, which is exactly the time I ran my last half-marathon in 2003. I had expected to do much better (at least 2:15, so I was disappointed.) Amer did 2:09, Karen did 2:07, and Sandy came in under 2 hours. No pics of Sandy or Karen, because Sandy was a hypothermic too, so they went home immediately. Now, all of us work together, so we were a funny sight to see on Monday in the office. We were all walking very slowly and with a LOT of pain.

After a week of post-race recovery, I registered for the St John Marathon, which is in September. Even if it rains, it surely can't be that cold. I also registered for a Running Room half-marathon 16-week training clinic. It starts on June 1st. Last week, I ran a 5 km run for Brain Tumor research, with Corena, in 32 minutes. I have a race this Sunday coming. I'm going to try to do it in 30 minutes. I also went back to my weight-training class. My lesson learned is that I need more strength training, in order to get a longer stride. Hey, what can I say? I'm a work in progress. :-)

Taper week :-(

Taper week sucks. It's so hard to down-shift after such a gruelling weekly load of mileage, blood, sweat, and tears. I went for a 10 km today (my usual long run day) and it nearly broke my heart to turn around at the 5km mark. I could have gone for another 5 km before I'd long for home and big glass of chocolate milk. Anyhoo, I came home. As I was stretching on the front deck, Sage was putting Parker (our dog) out on the back deck. She slammed her finger in the patio doors. I heard her screaming. I ran inside and Bill already had her in the bathroom. She was in rough shape. Her finger is mangled. It broke the skin. She'll lose her fingernail. From the last knuckle down, her finger is a mangled mess. It took over an hour for the worst of the hurt to go away. She is feeling much better now. But what a crazy time!

One more week!

I seriously don't post enough on this blog. The problem is that I keep forgetting my passwords. This has to be forgiveable because I have about a dozen passwords I have to maintain in my head, mostly for work. Ug.

One week, three days until the Half Marathon and hell ya, I'm ready. I did my last training long run with my friend, Amer, last Sunday. We ran 18.5 KM along the Marysville Trail. It was very pretty along the river. Amer recently lost 100 pounds over a year period. He is very proud of himself and he's a great runner. Faster than me, I'm sad to say, so I usually slow him down. Though today, I ran 9 km with Amer and JS and tried to keep up with them and found it wasn't too hard. Men are just naturally faster than women. We did an average 6 min per KM pace, though that includes a small walk at the turnaround. Without the walk, we would have been 5.3 min per KM, I'm sure.

My iliacus is sore. No, that's nothing obscene. It's one of my hip flexor muscles. I just stretch it out with some yoga. Three weeks ago, I donated blood. Big MISTAKE. It made me really sick with low iron and high blood pressure. I thought I was going to die, so I went to the hospital and then got me on an ECG machine fast! My BP was 160 over 105. No worries about long term effect. Today, I am 117 over 77. Healthy as a horse, except my aching iliacus.

So I have three, maybe four, short and easy runs left before the big day. Saturday, Tuesday, Wedsnday, and Friday I'll go no longer than 5 km and probably run at half-M pace. Just to keep it light. There are plenty of people from my office registered for the race. Karen, Sandy, Amer, and I are doing the half. Some guys put together a team for the Marathon Relay (each team member does 7 km relay segments for a total of 42 km), and a few registered for the 5 and 10 Km. My workplace is full of active people. I LOVE it.

I might not get the chance to post again until after the race. I will post my results and pictures for you to see. :-)

Knees and Toes

Not long to go now! May 10 is zooming up fast. I'm up to 16 Km on my Sunday run. So far, I've had very few muscle or joint problems, aside from my pedestrian accident in my driveway. That injury is gone, but the lingering after effect is that I can't fully pull my right foot up to my ass. This is a very important running stretch. So I do it slow and careful, and pull it as far as it feels comfortable. It doesn't hurt any other time, so it's all good.

I typed much more than this, and then it disappeared. I have no time to write it again. :-) All is going well. My pace is improving. My endurance rocks. I feel great. Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty. That be all ye need to know. (Yeats)

Lincoln 5 KM

It was a great day for a run! Our team, Hot S-Tough, came in third place in the all-girl team category. It was my first time standing on a podium! Thank heavens for Pam, because without her time of 26 minutes, we wouldn't have placed. I did 31 minutes (with a bad knee!! :-)) and Dianne did 32 minutes, which was her personal best. My personal best is 29 minutes, which occured about 6 years ago, I think! The course was VERY hilly. The field was big for a winter race. I think there were over 100 people. There were only 9 teams though. Sage ran too. She placed third place overall in the 800 metre event. Her friend Sophie placed fourth. Here are a handful of race photos. Enjoy!!

Good news, bad news, good news, bad news

Good news: Lincoln 5 KM road race is this weekend.
Bad news: I tore my PCL ligament on Tuesday, when I fell in my driveway.
Good news: It feels much better, may be able to run with a knee brace and Advil.
Bad news: I can get through the 5 KM, but I may have to avoid next week's long run.
Good news: My long run is up to 13 km.
Bad news: My dog has been diagnosed with food allergies (not related to training, but the vet bill and the special food costs have totally bummed my day)
Good news: My speed (before the injury) has improved greatly.
Good news: It's Friday.
Good news: Spring is coming and I might see my driveway and lawn soon. It may take another month of melting, but I KNOW Spring must come soon.