Beautiful day NOT to run a 1/2 Marathon

I have run this race series twice and I love it. The course through Sunnybrook Park is lovely, the race is super well organized and I loved the necklace bling medal (you can wear it anywhere!).

This year my running buddies forbid me from doing the half marathon, 'cause I'd run Goodlife a couple weeks ago and am scheduled to run Niagara Falls next weekend. So instead I signed up to volunteer at the race. 

My super friend Trishia was registered to run her second half marathon, and not only was she featured as a Pace Setter for the race, she was interviewed by Rogers media too (can't wait to see it). It was a beautiful day NOT to run a half marathon (for me at least). The route had changed this year due to construction, and it took the runners out of the park and onto the street. I got to course marshal at the base of the first (and last) big hill. I've never volunteered on a course before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. My fellow volunteers were awesome (hats off to Chris who rode miles on his bike), and they gave me the lay of the land. I spent about 5 hours in the park, cheering, cajoling, and basically making sure everyone knew that they were awesome. Because I didn't know the new route, I didn't realize they'd stuck a HUGE hill at the 18k mark (mean mean mean). No wonder the women looked relieved that the hill at 20 was down!

After the race we took Trishia out for breakfast, and got to heckle her as she limped to the buffet. I realized partway through my (non) post-race eggs Benedict that I was sitting there in KT Tape and wearing compression socks and I hadn't run a step!

http://nfwhm.com/

Next stop, this race, for the first time! Let the games begin!

And guess what?
I am a WINNER!

Canadian Running Magazine picked my entry and I won a New Balance prize pack. Not just a shirt, not just shorts, not just shoes, not just a new bra....ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

I know, right....awesome sauce for sure! The contest was for the best bra story. If you've never heard the one about the Hot Wheels car, ask me on the next long run!

We all live in a yellow (and red and blue and green) submarine

We packed our best white clothes, our oldest shoes, and our passports, and headed to Ypsilanti Michigan for

Four hours in a car, with enough snacks to sustain us in the event of being stranded without access to food....the Goofy Girls were again driving South.

None of us has ever done a Color Run before (off topic, it is VERY hard for me as a Canadian to spell colour this way). We didn't really know what to expect, but the fact that it was fun, messy and not timed was just the break we needed from our training for 'serious' runs.

I was reading Runner's World magazine this month and they focused on 'fun' 5Ks, and I was hoping that I'd emerge from the Color run looking just like the woman on the cover.....

 This was us, before, after a pretty awful night sleep in a very nice hotel room. We scored the most awesome parking spot too, I will post a photo later. Lori's awesome kids (and mine) made us custom shirts to wear, which started out pristine and white, along with our nice new white headbands. 

What a lovely town, very pretty, SO easy to find our way around in. I was loving the EMU Eagles (but I never saw one).

The entire race was among the best organized I've ever run. They said that it was sold out with about 15,000 people running, and it was seamless. We ran in waves of 1000 runners, the course was well marked, people were cheering all over the streets, the volunteers and police and ambulance folks were visible and welcoming and fun.

Each Km marker (we think) had a different colour, with crazy happy people spraying you with huge bottles of powdered colour.  You could tell you were approaching a dye station because the herds of runners and walkers would slow down and bottleneck and the clouds of dye were visible for a block.

We ran along laughing (except when we were trying not to inhale the dye). The course was super wide (whole streets) so there was never an issue with the walkers (who stayed to the right), strollers, groups or runners. The fact that it wasn't timed was brilliant, nothing to worry about except getting as coloured as possible.  Near the finish line we dumped the dye packets we were given on each other....

Needless to say Lori has great aim ;-)

 

After the race there was a party in the park, which turned into a big dye party, and included awesome snacks (now addicted to Kind bars) and shopping (got us some new socks).

I may have mentioned what great sports the volunteers and police and fire and other folks were? The nice fireman even let us pose on his truck, we were pondering asking him to hose us down!

would I run this again? Totally! Matter of fact we are considering doing the Windsor one in a few months. It's a scream for 'runner's to let their hair down and leave their Garmins at home.

A trip to Michigan isn't complete without a stop at the Joe, to pay homage to my second favourite hockey team. Go Wings Go *unless you end up playing the Leafs.

Boston Pride

When my friend and coach Rick Hellard of Zone 3 Sports donated his Boston Marthon finisher's medal to Medals 4 Mettle I was speechless at the generosity. I spent a few moments just holding it, marveling at the fact that I'll never earn one.

Then the events of this week unfolded, and the medal took on an even greater signifigance. Knowing that so very many people- runners, spectators, first responders, and more- were forever changed leaves me shaken.

I wondered what to do with the medal, because it seemed so much greater than the sum of it's parts. Then Medals 4 Mettle sent out an email from our Boston Chapters:

All of us at Medals4Mettle are saddened by the unimaginable events at the 2013 Boston Marathon. This historic event celebrates the freedom we have to run through the streets of one of America's great cities on Patriot's Day. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those who must deal with the loss of life and the pain of injury. Medals4Mettle will humbly accept donations of 2013 Boston Marathon finishers' medals to be sent to our Boston area chapters. We will then place Medals4Mettle ribbons on them and award them to the courageous victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon and the first responders that raced to help them while respecting the privacy of all victims and family members. To donate, please send medals to our Boston Area chapters listed on our chapter page. 

 

So there it was, my answer. I have contacted Rick to see if he'd like to include a message with his medal, and I'll now return it to it's home in Boston, where hopefully it will serve as a small token of thanks to someone who deserves our support. The fact that our running family is so far flung yet so close just makes me all the prouder to be a member.

My first race since the tragedy in Boston will be as Digital Champion for the Toronto Yonge Street 10k. This Sunday I will proudly wear the bib above, along with my race bib, to support our running family. I'll also wear as much blue and yellow as I can find. 

As a final thought, I leave you with something that brought me to tears. The article sums it up far better than I ever could. I followed this story from the runner's first posts on FB, and am beyond happy that she succeeded in finding the man who's act of kindess was felt the world over.

I'm sensing a theme here

So I'm feeling like perhaps the gods have provided me with a message, and that if I'm only open to the delivery all will be explained.

iRun Magazine featured me in their February issue, reviewing the fears I had prior to my first Marathon.

STOKE A NEW PASSION

Carolyn Pleasance, of Hamilton, ON is another of iRun's “So you want to run a marathon, eh?” participants. The 43-year-old mother and avid runner for years also made the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon her first. “I figured, even if I have to speed walk, I can cross this craziness off my bucket list,” she says. 

Pleasance had a list of pre-marathon concerns: “Not being able to finish. Hitting that mythical wall and bonking and failing at it. Or not getting in the long training runs. Or being injured. Or letting my training partner down and having her run off without me.” The fact that Pleasance just ran her second marathon, Disney World's Goofy Challenge in January, speaks volumes about her newfound passion. TOP TIP: Stay positive. Ditch negative self-talk.

Then the awesome ladies at Another Mother Runner, SBS and Dimity, aired their latest podcast.  It was a Q&A with runners, and they picked my question to answer. My question was how to come to terms with the fact that I'm a bit heavy and surrounded by gazelles. Dimity and Sarah said that I should run for me, not for others. I should focus on my race, my pace, my accomplishments, not how fast/far/fit my runner friends are.

Now that's three people who've suggested that I should not be so hard on myself. I'm always harder on myself than I'd be on anyone else, I'd NEVER talk to a fellow runner that way, I'd never let a friend slag on themselves like that. Why do I do it to myself?

I'm going to work on this....keep my head up, my thoughts positive and try to make myself think of my abilites the same way my friends do.

On a totally unrelated note:

I work for a bus company, and we get lost and found from the busses to our office. The other day a black plastic garbage bag arrived. My coworker opened it, and let out this horrid noise and bolted across the office onto a counter.

Turns out someone had left Rocky the Raccoon on the bus. I can't wait 'till someone comes to claim it. How do you leave your home taxidermy project on a bus?