Team Diabetes

I am now a proud member of Team Diabetes! (Thanks Tammy for introducing me to TD!!)

Team Diabetes is organized by the Canadian Diabetes Association. The organizers choose a number of races each year (both in Canada and internationally) in which members can participate and raise money for the Association. My race for 2009 is the Blue Nose Half Marathon in Halifax on May 17. It will be my second half marathon and will no doubt be a challenge, as anyone who knows Halifax can imagine!

Both my family and the families of many of my friends have been affected by diabetes so this is an incredibly worthy cause.

If you would like to donate to my race, please go to:

https://ocp.diabetes.ca/Pledge/csSearch.asp?prId=td

Thank you in advance for any support you can give me. I promise to come back and post pictures of myself finishing the race so you can all see how miserable and pathetic I look!

Olympics

I never thought I'd enjoy watching things like the marathon or triathlon in the Olympics but I'm finding myself staying up later and later every night to see what's happening!

I've been doing well with my training... supposed to be running 5 days a week, probably actually getting in 4 days, which seems to be working for me. I'll try and pick it up to where I'm supposed to be in September, when it's actually cool enough to run.

Today was freakin' hot! Over 30 degrees, so there was no way I was going out today. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 23 so hopefully it'll be nice and cool in the morning and I can get a good run in.

Durham 1/4 Marathon

I've enjoyed every race I've been in. Until now.

I've heard from other runners about how every so often they just have a bad run but I hadn't experienced that in an actual race. Now I have.

To start with, it was hot. The race didn't start till 9:00am so I think it was already about 24 degrees when we started. And humid.

I managed to get a cramp about half a kilometre into the race that started in my right side then gradually progressed to my left side and then all the way around my back. Fun. That lasted till about the 3K mark.

Then there was the water situation. Who would ever have thought that in a race with 300 people, the organizers would somehow manage to run out of water? At the 2.5K mark, there was water. At the 5K mark, there was a water station that had water after we waited for 30 seconds. Of course, it tasted like it came from someone's swimming pool so I ended up using the last of my own water to rinse the awful taste out of my mouth. Then at the 7.5K mark, they were actually out of water and just had warm Gatorade. Yuck!

I finished it, but only because there were no taxis passing along the route. I swear that if there had been, I would have been flagging one!

Not my best run ever, but I guess we all have bad ones once in a while. On to the next!

Durham 1/4 Marathon results

Place: 298/330
Time: 1:20:15
Category: SF30-39
Category Place: 47/50
Gender Place: 138/165
Pace: 7:37

1/4 Marathon

My next race is this Saturday - a 1/4 marathon. It sounds really impressive until you realize it's only 1/2 a km more than I've done before!!

I'm looking forward to it though. Hopefully it won't be too hot that morning.

I went for an almost 6K run today. It was actually quite nice - only about 20 degrees, which is about 8 degrees cooler than it has been lately. It's supposed to be pretty nice tomorrow too, so I should manage to get out again.

I lost one of my bottles from my water belt... that sucked. I think I somehow put it in the belt wrong and it fell out while I was running. Guess I'll be buying some extras!

20 Minute Challenge

I participated in the Running Room's 20 Minute Challenge on July 17, for my first time. Unfortunately, it was almost unbearably hot so 20 minutes was about all I could manage!!

Yet another complaint about the heat

I just can't get myself motivated to get out there and run in the heat! It's 28 degrees today and the thought of running makes me feel ill.

I need to make myself get up in the morning early, when it's still relatively cool. But my bed always feels so nice.

Waiting for fall...

Nissan 5K

Silly silly me. Going to a Great Big Sea concert the night before a run probably wasn't the best idea I've ever had.

I got to bed around 1:15am, after having consumed a bit too much beer. When that alarm went off at 6:30, I just about smashed it. Then I looked out the windy and it was gloomy and gray and not the kind of weather that inspires you to get out of bed.

But I forced myself to get dressed and get out there. I've never bailed on a run and I wasn't going to start this morning.

It was a little chilly when I first got to the race site and it was drizzling so it wasn't exactly fun standing around waiting for the race to start. But once it did start, I was glad for the rain. It was pretty humid so the sprinkles kind of cooled things off.

I finished in 33:54.6, which was 2 seconds faster than my last 5K, so I guess that's a good thing! I had set myself a goal of doing it in under 30 but considering how I felt, that went out the window pretty quickly.

My next race is a 1/4 marathon, on July 26. Can't wait!

Nissan 5K Results

Place 279/406
Bib# 3085
Time 34:53.9
Chip 33:54.6
Pace 6:59
Category Women 35 - 39
CategoryPlace 17/36
GenderPlace 132/237

City Chase

So, I sort of forgot to post anything about the City Chase, because it wasn't exactly your typical running event but it certainly felt like it! I'm sure we ran 20K that day!

We finished with less than 3 minutes to spare, but WE FINISHED!! We ended up Team #201 out of over 500 teams. Only about 240 teams actually finished within the 6 hours with their 10 Chase Points so we were thrilled with our results.

Canada Day Run

My second 10K run is now behind me! I was aiming for 75 minutes and came in 7 minutes under that so I was happy. It was hot and not as flat as the Sporting Life race, so I wasn't even trying to beat that time.

Adam did it in 58 minutes so he was pretty thrilled with his time as well.

I have a 5K race next weekend (the 13th) and then I've signed up for a 1/4 marathon on the 26th.

I'm starting to think that a 1/2 marathon might actually be do-able!

HBC Run for Canada Results

Place 1333
Bib# 8012
Time 1:11:39.9
Chip 1:09:25.6
Pace 7:10
Category Women 30-39
CategoryPlace 223/272
GenderPlace 626/843

I love this weather!

What wonderful weather we're having! Everyone else is complaining about how cold it is but I'm LOVING it! It was 9 degrees when I got up yesterday and 11 degrees this morning. Perfect running weather! I actually managed 9 km bewteen the 2 days without feeling like I was about to drop dead.

Only 2 days till the City Chase! Woohoo!!

More importantly, only 1 day till SHOPPING!!!! Mel's arriving tomorrow around noon and we have a full day of running-related shopping planned. First stop is Robena in Hamilton where they have the cutest skirts and jerseys. They also have yarms, which we're both planning to buy.

Then it's off to the Runner's Shop for Fuel Belts. The Running Room doesn;t have 6- or 8- botttle belts but this place does. yay.

Then to Endurosport to look at running skirts and dresses.

I think I'm going to be spending lots of money tomorrow!

I never thought I'd say this but...

... I wish it was winter again.

It's just too hot to run! Yesterday, I ran 3K when it was 22 degrees and I thought I was going to die. All winter, I could easily do up to 5K without even bothering to take water with me. Now, I'm finished my 2 pathertically teeny bottles of water before I get 2K into a run.

The good news is that they make water belts that hold more than 2 bottles so that's going to be my next investment.

Melanie (my sister) and I have the City Chase coming up next weekend, which should be a lot of fun. It's not so much a running race as a scavenger hunt, but we figure being able to run can't hurt us!!

More later!

Being sick and running don't go well together...

Yeah, so I went almost a week and a half last week without getting out for a single run. I had this yucky cold that made me cough all the time and I just had absolutely no energy whatsoever to get out and run. I finally forced myself to go last Thursday and Friday and then have been so busy at work this week that I didn't get out again till today.

I did 5K today though, and it wasn't bad, considering how infrequently I've been getting out there!!!

My next race is next Saturday (the 7th). I'm doing the Campaign for Hope 5K in High Park. I think I need to sign up for more races - I tend to get bored if I don't always have one coming up!

Sporting Life 10K

Yay! I made it through my first ever 10K race this morning, and did it with a great time as well!

The Sporting Life 10K is supposedly the easiest 10K to run because it's almost all downhill (straight down Yonge Street) so I chose it as my first one. It was great! Over 10,000 people registered and it was so amazing to run down Yonge Street and just see a sea of people ahead of me! (yes, there were many more ahead of me than behind me...).

My goal was to finish in under an hour and 15 minutes and I did it in and hour and 6 minutes! Yay me!! And it honestly wasn't that bad. I wouldn't have wanted to turn around and run back or anything but it really wasn't all that hard.

Sporting Life 10K Results

Here are my results from this morning's 10K (my first ever 10K race)!!!


Place 6429
Bib# 596
Time 1:08:52.5
Chip 1:06:39.1
Pace 6:54
Category Women 35 - 39
CategoryPlace 512/739
GenderPlace 3059/4695

Ok, so I don't need a Garmin...

I found something just as good... my Nike+ iPod!! I bought it Saturday and it works great! It's not quite as accurate as a Garmin would be because it doesn't go by GPS (it uses stride length etc) but it seems to be pretty darn close (like .1 km off)!

My 10K run is coming up in 5 days and I'm very excited! I'm hoping to do it in under 75 minutes and since it's all downhill that might be possible, except that would be the second fastest pace I've ever had. But I'm going to try!

Ok... I officially NEED a Garmin!

I discovered today that not being able to keep track of distance during a run is a bad thing. The only thing worse that running a shorter distance than you’re supposed do, is running a longer distance than you’re supposed to! Today was 10K, the longest so far, and it didn’t seem like such a daunting number, since we did 9K last Sunday. Well, we did 12K today.

We decided to go run along the trail along the waterfront for a change, so I mapped it all out on RunningMap.com and figured out what 5K would be for our turnaround point. The problem with that is that RunningMap.com only shows roads and didn’t account for all the twists and turns along the trail.

We ran for an hour and 40 minutes and it felt like we were doing a fairly decent pace, so I knew it had to be more than 10K. When we got home, I found a satellite map and figured out that once you took all the twists and turns into account, our halfway point was just over 6K.

My legs are feeling like jelly and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk in the morning!!!

I need a Garmin!!! As soon as the Running Room has the Forerunner 405, I’m buying it!

I got lost today

It was quite frightening. I decided to drive to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery to run instead of running on the sidewalk like I usually do. Well, it's a large confusing place! I parked near a big building, thinking it would be easy to find when I was heading back but no! I was about 30 seconds away from having to ask one of the groundkeepers to help me out but then I spotted my car. Thank goodness... that would have been embarassing.

This Sunday is 10K... we're going to try the Waterfront Trail for a change. And then it's only 2 weeks till the Sporting Life 10k!!! Yay!!