November so far

15 of this month’s 30 days are now complete, which means now would be a pretty good time to review this month’s goals!

Blogging!

So far this is going quite well. I have accomplished my goal of posting something every day. One day my post was at 11:59 pm, and a few posts have been pretty short, but overall it’s been really good. I’ve really enjoyed spending more time writing again. Apparently a few people have actually been reading, which is nice to hear, but even if no one read it, I’m glad to have it all written down as kind of an archive! I’m glad I finally wrote race recaps for my last three half marathons, because  those details won’t last forever.

Running!

I owe so many of my runs this month to Solana and her crazy beast streak. November is always a busy month – combine that with the dark and somewhat dreary weather and you’re left with a lot of excuses and not a lot of runs. I have dragged my butt off the couch (or out of bed) for runs I never would have otherwise attempted if not for this 3k-a-day streak. On days where fitting in a run seemed impossible, I knew there was a spreadsheet of people who were fitting in longer runs with more impossible schedules and I just figured out how to make it work.

I was worried about not taking any rest days during the streak, but my body seems to be holding up okay. I’ve been really good about taking most of them slowly. I’ve had a few sore spots, but nothing that lingered longer than a day. So far so good.

And in other news…

I registered for my second half marathon of 2014: the inaugural Vancouver Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon (in October)! First 500 entries are $65, so I couldn’t pass it up.

A very belated race recap: Disneyland Half Marathon 2013

I wrote about the beginning and the end of the trip here if you’re so inclined.

Sunday, September 1 – RACE DAY

3:45 came really early, but I can honestly say I’ve never been so excited to wake up that early. Three of the four of us put on our costumes: Tinkerbell, Peter Pan and Mike Wazowski. We were laughing about the fact that we’d all picked characters that involved green outfits when Mirae emerged from the bathroom in her green t-shirt – totally unplanned!

Tinkerbell is ready to rock!

We left the hotel at 4:30 for the short walk to the start area. There were runners everywhere! So many awesome costumes! So much energy ALREADY! We found a nice spot in the crowded corrals and tried not to think about how warm we already were (it was about 20C if I recall correctly). Before we knew it, it was 5:30, the fireworks had gone off and we were crossing the start line.

We ran down Disneyland Drive, turned onto Katella (“Hey, there’s our hotel!”) and onto Harbor Blvd. At Disney Way, we turned in towards the back of California Adventure. The road was lined with Disney staff cheering for us and some neat props. We left Mirae at some point around here. She had told us that she wanted to run most of the race on her own. We assured her that she wouldn’t slow us down, but she said she preferred to do her own thing. Tommy, Alastair and I wanted to run together, and we weren’t sure how that would go, but we figured we’d give it a shot.

We entered California Adventure from Paradise Pier and they had all the lights and fountains on. Lots of people stopped to take photos. I snapped some blurry ones while running. We ran through Cars Land, which looked super cool with all the neon, and then back across by Soarin’ Over California. Tommy called a bathroom stop, so the boys used the bathroom while I fixed my hair. I had grossly underestimated how tightly I needed to secure my Tinkerbell bun situation. I’m glad I got a chance to fix it though.

Then we left CA and ran through the plaza and into Disneyland. As cool as it was to run through California Adventure all lit up, coming down Main Street USA was the part that felt the most magical. After that, we hung a left into Frontierland and took Big Thunder Trial around Thunder Mountain. At one point there is an ever-so-slight incline on this part and we laughed hysterically when one woman said to her running partner, “The hill I trained on is, like, four times this big.” What?

We waved to lots of characters as we ran through Fantasyland (including Peter Pan!) and pretty soon we were approaching the back of the castle. As expected, the traffic went kind of wonky at this point as everyone slowed down or pulled over to get their photo taken in front of the castle. We just kept moving. We ran through Tomorrowland and past It’s a Small World – I slowed down to snap a blurry photo of Merida as I ran by her. At this point we knew we were heading out of the parks pretty soon and tried our best to soak in as much Disney atmosphere as we could.

As we came up into Toon Town, a shirtless dude with a GIANT camera asked me if he could take my photo for Team Sparkle. Sure!

Thanks Team Sparkle guy

We ran out the back of Toon Town and along a lane. More Disney cast members cheering, more neat props to look at, and even some horses! Then we headed north on Disneyland Drive and turned left on Ball Rd, which took us up and over the I-5 (about 7 km in). The sky was starting to get brighter and it was slowly starting to get warmer. (My handana was already drenched, but I’m so glad I had it.)

The next 5 km were the toughest for me. The heat was definitely affecting me. Alastair’s knees started to really hurt (which was not a surprise, he has terrible knees and knew it was going to be brutally painful). We started walking through all the water stations (and a little bit longer afterwards). At just past 10k we celebrated Tommy and Alastair’s farthest runs ever.

To make up for the super boring Anaheim streets you run through at this stretch, they have lots of folks out there to entertain you. I remember seeing some tiny and adorable Mexican dancers. I think there were high school bands and cheerleaders along this part. But the coolest bit was where they had the classic cars lined up along both sides of the road and their owners are all out there cheering you on. Lots of them were offering candy and snacks, but the best thing I saw was the woman with a roll of paper towel she was sharing with sweaty runners. (We were so sweaty.)

We were also running due east for a lot of this part, just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. I had decided against sunglasses, because when I sweat a lot I find that they slide around or fog up or both. I stared at the pavement a lot.

Things started to get interesting again as we approached the Honda Centre (home of the Ducks). Then we turned and ran about a kilometer on a gravel trail along the Santa Ana “River” – I’m pretty sure it was totally dry. This was a really nice change of scenery. When we turned up away from the river again, we had arrived at Angel Stadium! I’m not a baseball fan at all, but I’d heard really cool things about this part of the race.

From the moment we entered the parking lot, the course was lined by people. People with signs, snacks, noisemakers of all kinds. It was really cool. And then we ran into the stadium. WOW. They invite local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to sit in the stadium and they spend hours just cheering for runners! The feeling of running into a stadium of people cheering was REALLY cool. It totally surprised me how much I enjoyed it.

Coming out of the stadium there were a whole bunch of cheerleading teams and bands again. Pretty neat. Then we ran back towards the I-5 and along sort of a frontage road. Not the most interesting stretch. At this point I had to walk a little bit more frequently than we had been. Poor Alastair though was actually in more pain walking, so I tried to keep it to a minimum. Tommy seemed to be doing okay, just very quiet. I still can’t believe how well he did for his first half marathon with his longest ever previous run being a 10k, and his “training” totaling about 10-15k per week. (Stupid boys.)

Finally we crossed under the freeway (thank goodness we didn’t have to go up over an overpass at this point) and were back on Disney Way heading right for the park. At about 19.5k crossed Harbor Boulevard and ran back into the Disney grounds where we’d run already on our way into California Adventure. (“Hey, we’ve run here before!”) This time we stayed outside of the park and made our way back to Downtown Disney toward the finish line.

Another one from Team Sparkle

As discussed, we crossed the finish line holding hands triumphantly. (Which doesn’t show up in the race photos. Tommy and I are there, but Alastair’s arm is cut off.) We got our medals and water and cold towels (my goodness was this ever amazing) and took a few photos. Then it was straight to the medical area to get some ice for Alastair’s broken knees. They had bags upon bags upon bags of ice, plus rolls of tape to affix them to your aching body. It was pretty cool.

I stood watch over the crowd going by and managed to somehow miraculously spot Mirae as she came in, only a few minutes behind us. We wrangled our gimp and went back to get a group photo with all of us (not facing the sun this time!) We found some space (by the porta-potties) and stood/sat around for a while eating snacks, stretching, etc. Then it was time to wander back to the hotel for breakfast, ice baths and other such recovery.

Alastair was captain of team ice bath. We discovered that the runDisney bags they give you for gear check are the perfect ice transporting devices. I think he made 3 or 4 trips to the ice machine with that bag. Watching someone take their first ice bath is priceless. Both Alastair and Tommy braved the bath for 8 minutes. I was planning to take an ice bath too, but I didn’t last longer than about a minute. I don’t know if I got in too fast or if it was just the shock of going from being so warm to being so cold, but I kind of panicked as I got in, and then was hyperventilating? It wasn’t a good scene. I got out.

Bag of ice!

After we all showered and had some breakfast and coffee, we packed up our beach stuff and walked (very slowly) 15 minutes down the road to Budget to pick up our rental car. We picked up some lunch (my first In’N’Out burger!) and drove to Huntington Beach, where we had a lovely afternoon sitting on the beach and playing in the waves. (Spending half an hour in the ocean is way more my speed when it comes to ice baths!)

Rocking our race shirts at the beach

We wandered around Downtown Disney in our medals that evening, and then had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory again. Our intention was to order cheesecake for dessert this time, but we were all so full by that point that we didn’t.

My stats for half marathon #5 (the slowest one yet!)

Finish time: 2:20:44
10k split: 1:08:52
Overall Place: 3567/15872
Gender Place: 1517/10017
Division Place: 142/837

(You can see my fun race results page here)

Also…

November 14

Blog: The other half of the Disneyland story
Run: Evening 4.4k with the run clinic

November 15

Blog: You’re looking at it
Run: Early morning (!) 3k. In the rain. Yuck.

Three things Thursday: pre-Sparks camp edition

This weekend is our annual Spark and Mom Camp, which is one of my absolute favourite things we do during the year, but every year it just about kills us all in the week before while we’re trying to get everything ready to go. This year is no exception. (This will be the make-or-break weekend for my running streak and blogging streak this month. It’s not going to be easy to find 18 minutes to myself for a 3k run on Saturday, but I swear I’m going to make it happen.)

Here are three things I’m thinking about on this pre-camp Thursday.

1. I really, really, really, really wish I had in-suite laundry. Some weeks not being able to do laundry after 10 pm makes doing laundry extremely difficult. I desperately need to do a load or two of key things before camp, and it somehow has to dry before I pack it. I’m trying really hard not to think about the fact that the laundry situation will be WORSE after the weekend. (To any of you who do laundry for a whole household: I’m impressed. And terrified for the day when that will become my reality. How old do kids have to be to do laundry??)
2. I’m already looking forward to going to bed on Sunday night. Pre-camp I’m always busy with last-minute details, and no matter how much sleep you get at camp, it’s never quite enough. (Thank goodness at camps with moms we’re not the first ones woken up when the first kid inevitably wakes up at 6.)
3. Did I mention that I really love being a Sparks Guider? I might complain sometimes about the time and energy that goes into it, but I love it so much. I love introducing girls to new experiences, taking them to camp, teaching them things, and getting to be a 5-year-old for at least an hour a week. We have an insane amount of fun, and it’s worth every bit of effort we put in.

My first runDisney experience, of many I’m sure (preamble to the race recap)

Next up in my series of belated race recaps is an event I had been looking forward to for AGES: the Disneyland Half Marathon. I have way too much to say about the trip, so this will be a two part-er. This post is the everything-but-the-race recap.

Disneyland Half Marathon Bling

When I found out that Disney puts on races, I knew immediately that I would be running some. I have been a huge fan of Disney parks since my first visit to Disneyland at age 7. I got to go again at ages 12, 14 and 22, plus a trip to Disney World earlier this year. Tommy and a group of his friends are also Disney enthusiasts, so when I heard about the Disneyland Half Marathon, I thought I might FINALLY have a way to convince Tommy to run a race with me.

Tommy seemed pretty keen on the idea, and so did his good friend Alastair. But Alastair was writing a huge professional exam in September 2012, and asked if we’d wait until the next year so that he could run with us. So we did. We’re such good friends.

In January 2013 we were on the ball and registered the day registration opened – good thing, it sold out that day! One of Alastair’s coworkers had decided to join us, so all of a sudden we had a solid foursome. We had a team meeting over pizza to discuss dates, flights, hotels and how many Disney days we could fit in to this trip. Unlike a lot of people who see this event as a half marathon that happens to be at Disneyland, we definitely saw it as a trip to Disneyland that happened to have a half marathon in the middle.

Thursday, August 29

Evening flight to LA! We thought about trying to save money by going through Bellingham, but the consensus was that we’d all rather fit in a full work day and then fly from YVR. Arrived at our hotel at 1am and got sent to the wrong room TWICE. They’d messed up the room assignments, but we finally ended up in a room with one king sized bed and twin bunk beds. For a foursome with one couple, it worked out pretty well!

Friday, August 30

First Disney day! We were up early to be at Disneyland when it opened and got in a very full day. We left the parks in the afternoon to head to the expo to pick up our stuff. I was pretty impressed with how smoothly it all ran, considering how many people were there! I could have stayed at the expo for hours, but my less running-focused group members were happy to just get some free food samples and then find a spot to sit while they waited for me to purchase a shirt and beer glass. Dinner at the hotel restaurant (not our best choice), then back to the parks for the evening. We watched World of Color and discovered our new favourite ride: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

SPLASH MOUNTAIN!!

Saturday, August 31

Second Disney day! We decided that we hadn’t had nearly enough water the day before, so the theme of this day was hydration. And bathroom breaks. We rode Radiator Springs Racers for the first time (after a lengthy delay when the ride closed down for a bit while we were in line) and LOVED IT. We had soup in bread bowls for lunch – best pre-race carb loading meal ever. We took it easy in the afternoon – saw the Aladdin show to rest our legs for a bit. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (no cheesecake though) and went back to the hotel to try to get as much sleep as possible before our 3:45 alarm.

Mmmmm, sourdough bread bowl

Sunday, September 1 – RACE DAY

Race recap to come in a separate post!

Monday, September 2

Third Disney day! Our original plan was to drive up to Universal Studios this day, but we realized that Disneyland’s hours were much shorter on Tuesday than on Monday, so we decided we’d just pay to extend our rental car another day and save Universal until Tuesday.

Unfortunately, we spent a huge amount of time while in Disneyland trying to get through to Budget on the (pay)phone and were ultimately unsuccessful. (The one time we reached a real person we got hung up on.) The automated rental extension service didn’t work for that location, so we had to leave the park to go to Budget to talk to them. The guy at the desk’s explanation: “I’m the only one working today, and it’s been really busy all day.” (There’s no one else in there at this point.) “It should have put you through to the automated service.” “Well we finally found that number, but they said this location doesn’t participate.” “Oh.”  Thanks buddy.

So anyway, rental car sorted out, we went back to the hotel for a swim in the pool and some pizza and beer. We went back to the parks and planned to make a full evening of it. On our way, we discovered that they hadn’t yet moved the 12 mile marker. It was in a spot where you clearly weren’t supposed to drive to, but there was no fence between us and the sign, so we just hopped over a short shrub to take pictures with it. We each got a photo before we heard the “Excuse me, please return to the sidewalk!” from down the way. “Sorry sir!”

Look what we found!

Our next order of business was to get some drinks. We headed to “Lunch Island” (aka Paradise Pier) in California Adventure, only to discover that they don’t accept Canadian drivers licenses as ID, and I was the only one with my passport on me. Alastair decided that he needed a beer, so he RAN back to the park entrance and took a cab to the hotel to retrieve the other passports. (Meanwhile I bought myself margarita and then went over to the beer stand and bought beers for Tommy and Mirae.)

But Alastair finally made it back and we had an AWESOME evening in the parks. We may have watched World of Color again.

Tuesday, September 3

Universal! We had our first experience driving in LA traffic, which was exactly how we expected it to be. We didn’t get suckered into paying twice the price for the “close” parking and then enjoyed that our “long walk” was less than 10 minutes from the car to the park entrance.

As much as there are some really awesome things about Universal Studios, it always feels like such a letdown after several days of the Disney experience. We definitely enjoyed riding Jurassic Park many, many times. (They have more water on in the summer than they do in May! We got DRENCHED every time, it was great.) And the studio tour is always AWESOME. (We didn’t see any celebrities, but we did see Mindy Kaling’s car!)

So much water!

When we finally got tired of Universal, we drove back to the hotel. Faced with the decision of where to have dinner, we said screw it and went right back to the Cheesecake Factory. And this time we finally got cheesecake (to go).

Wednesday, September 4

Our last Disney day! We knew we had to leave the park about 3:30 to get back to the hotel and get to the airport, so we decided to use our Magic Morning to make our day longer. Only we didn’t check that they were actually doing Magic Morning, and they weren’t. So we spent our extra hour waiting in line outside the park. Oops.

We had a fabulous day, riding all of our favourite rides one last time and doing our last minute shopping. We said a final goodbye to the parks and went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff. Our shuttle was not just on time, but early! Seemed like a pretty great sign.

Then we got to the airport (early!) and tried to check in. The computer couldn’t find our flight. Not a great sign. Went to talk to a person – our flight didn’t exist. They’d changed the schedule months ago and the flight we’d originally booked on no longer flies on Wednesdays. Not only that, but Alaska Airlines didn’t have any more flights to Vancouver that evening, and couldn’t connect us through anywhere either. They said our only option was to rebook on the 9am flight.

On hold at the airport!

We’d booked through Orbitz, so the agent suggested we call them to see what they could do. After 3 hours on the phone with Orbitz, we learned that the only option was to stay the night and fly out in the morning. Alastair and I were none too pleased, as both of us were supposed to work in the morning, but what were we going to do. We’d talked Orbitz into paying for our hotel for the night and were expecting something really crummy, but were pleasantly surprised by the place we ended up!

The woman who checked us in was WONDERFUL and felt sorry for us. She upgraded our room for free, gave us each a voucher for a free beer at the bar and gave us detailed directions for finding pizza and beer. We had a lovely bonus evening on vacation watching the Mentalist in bed (and trying not to think about the fun we could be having at Disneyland instead).

Thursday, September 5

Finally made it home!

 

November 13

Blog post: A long one!
Run: A steady 3.4k run at lunch.

A birthday post

Today is my 25th birthday.

Last night I did something fittingly childish and stayed up until 4 am reading (it was an accident). Then I somehow turned off my alarm without noticing and didn’t wake up until 8:15. Late for work on my birthday! Luckily with my gold Starbucks card I get a free birthday drink of any size, so I had a venti caramel macchiato to start the day off right! Work was pretty standard, after I got that caffeine in me.

After work I took my new birthday headlamp and my outrageous yellow leggings for a run in the dark.

I’m so goodlooking

Then I had me some soup and hit the road for soccer practice. Shannon brought cupcakes (she’s a teacher).

And that was my day. Nothing out of the ordinary, but all in all pretty special. Thanks to everyone who sent a text, a tweet, a facebook message or a carrier pigeon. (If you sent a carrier pigeon it must be lost, because it hasn’t arrived yet.) Here’s hoping my 26th year on this planet is as awesome as the last!

A really awesome weekend

I’m writing this in bed on Monday night, with Hart of Dixie (which I’ve been binge-watching on Netflix) on in the background. My body is that wonderful kind of tired after a busy weekend. I’m pretty happy right now, so I thought I’d tell you about the wonderful weekend that led to this end-of-weekend happy state! (Sorry, there are zero photos in this post. I have been too busy having fun to take any this weekend.)

Friday after work I made a quick stop at home to drop my stuff off and change, and headed out to Tommy’s place. He had picked up Thai food for dinner before we headed out to the bar to celebrate my birthday with some friends. I had a fabulous night of singing, dancing and catching up with friends.

Saturday morning I didn’t see. I stayed in bed until 1:30pm and it was one of the birthday presents I could have asked for. I got up, had my favourite breakfast after a late night out (cold leftover pasta) and a big cup of coffee and hung out on the couch for another while before finally getting on with my day. I did some laundry, went for a run, picked up groceries, made roasted tomato and garlic soup, and then finally got ready for another evening out.

My sister and her housemates threw a black light party, which was a lot of fun! Got to hang out with both of my sisters and some other cool people. We also stopped for pizza on the way home, which was a delicious and delightful treat. (It’s probably a good thing I’m lactose-intolerant and generally avoid pizza most of the time, because it’s damn delicious and I would probably try to eat it waaaay too often.)

Sunday my original plan was to make it to the Running Room for 8:30 for my scheduled 7k run, but I changed my mind when the alarm went off at 7 (and then again at 7:30). I set another alarm for 9, which  I also ignored. Wound up spending another relaxing morning in bed (which I’ll probably regret in the next few days when I have SO MUCH TO DO). My “morning run” started around 12:45pm, when I finally left for a nice 7k around False Creek.

Late Sunday afternoon I met up with a coworker to go check out some really cool construction progress on the Evergreen Line! This weekend they closed Barnet Highway between Dewdney Trunk and Ioco so that they could push a tunnel into place under the road. I won’t bore you with the details here, but if you’d like to check out a time lapse video of the construction (I promise it’s pretty cool), you can do so here. (Select the “Inlet Station” camera, select “Gallery” view mode, and then play the photos from about 8pm on November 8th onwards to see the pre-built tunnel get pushed into place under the road.) They wound up completing the push about 24 hours early, so we actually missed seeing the action, but it was still really cool getting to check out the site!

I had a quick Subway sandwich for dinner with my dad and sister (my parents are in the middle of a kitchen renovation, so it’s slim pickings for dinner!) before heading out for my soccer game. We won 4-1, which is especially exciting because the team we beat had previously beaten us 6-1 and assumed they were in for another easy victory. Showed them! A bunch of us took advantage of the long weekend and went to the pub for a drink afterwards, which we used to do all the time but haven’t as much lately. I stayed at my parents’ place Sunday night, which is always kind of nice. The bed in my/the guest room is super comfortable, and it’s nice sometimes to have a night away from all my usual distractions.

This morning we (Dad, sisters, Tommy and Pippa) attended the Remembrance Day parade and ceremony in Port Moody, as is tradition, and then followed it up with brunch at the Boathouse in celebration of my birthday. The service was slow and surprisingly they weren’t serving the full weekend brunch menu on a holiday Monday, but it was still fantastic! A crab cake benny makes up for pretty much anything in my books. I got to open a few presents, including a new flashlight and headlamp, a pair of knee-high peacock socks and a pair of YELLOW Wunder Under crops. (I wore them for my run tonight and felt ridiculous in a fun way!) Apparently there are more gifts to come when some mail arrives, when my Mom returns from Mexico, and on my actual birthday tomorrow! My people spoil me.

After we eventually finished brunch (so slow!), Pippa and I set off on an afternoon of errands. This included:

• Ikea! Pippa wanted a shelf for her room, and I wanted a new set of sheets, so naturally we left with the shelf (and some accessories), my sheets, a new pot, some drawer organizers for me, baskets for our shelf in the hallway, and a $28 coffee table from the as-is section! (The coffee table was pre-assembled, which made for some fun car tetris in a Civic hatchback.)
• Dollarama! We picked up some craft supplies for Sparks camp this weekend.
• SFU! Pippa had stuff to pick up.
• Staples! I bought a laminator. Oh the fun I’m going to have…
• Safeway! Dinner groceries, plus Starbucks. First gingerbread latte of the season was delicious.

After we unpacked our bounty, I made potato, kale and sausage soup (a modified version of this recipe), did some laundry, and eventually set off on a run. I’m not sure if it was the 7k plus soccer game yesterday, the fact that I forgot my orthotics in my soccer cleats and had to wear old runners tonight, or probably some combination of both, but my achilles was really bugging me tonight. I took it really easy, walked the uphills (which are what bugs me the most) and wasn’t feeling any worse by the time I got home, so hopefully I didn’t do any damage.

Okay, it’s late, I need to hit publish and get to sleep. Lots to do in this crazy week leading up to Sparks camp!

November 11

Blog post: It’s got no photos and is kind of rambly, but here it is!
Run: Sore evening 3k, but I got it done!

A very belated race recap: Dublin Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon

Alternate title: The onions in Dublin are making me cry

Here’s another race recap that I’m only getting around to posting now!

On race morning we woke up, got dressed and were downstairs waiting when they opened breakfast. I had some toast with Nutella and some water. (Not too much of a departure from my normal pre-race breakfast. Would have loved to have a banana too, but that’s okay.) Our hostel was only a few blocks from the start, so it took us less than 10 minutes to walk there. The buses were on strike that weekend, so most people were turning up on foot.

We hung out in the start area for quite a while, went to the bathroom, took some pictures, and I began to worry about how little I’d been running in the last little while. I started doubting my clothing choice (shorts vs the capris I usually wear), my food consumption the day before, my choice not to bring my Garmin watch, and many other details that it was way too late to worry about. I tried not to let my worry show too much because I didn’t want to freak Pippa out.

Pre-race at St Stephen’s Green

Eventually we got all settled into our corral and before we knew it we were off. After we crossed the start line, I said goodbye and good luck to Pippa and told her I’d see her at the finish. (And I think I almost cried.)

The course left from St Stephen’s Green and we quickly made our way down to the River Liffey. We ran along past St James’s Gate (aka where the Guinness comes from!) and then crossed the river as we made our way into Phoenix Park. We ran along a road with a wide grassy median that went gradually uphill. As we made it to the crest of the hill, we turned to the left and came down a winding road out of the park. The views at this part were amazing! Somewhere on our way down the hill we passed the 10k mark and timing mat.

Still looking pretty happy at this point!

My plan had been to do 10-and-1s for this race to make up for the fact that I would probably attempt to run at a pace that was faster than I was fit enough to run. Somewhere around 10k that turned into 9-and-2s. After a few of those, there started to be more walk breaks. My lack of training (or really any recent running at all) was starting to catch up with me.

I can’t really describe where the rest of the race went, and I can’t seem to access the map on the website anymore. The second half wasn’t as scenic as the first half, but it was still really cool to be exploring a new city on foot.

As the race wound back into the main part of the city, there were more and more spectators out, which was awesome. But I was getting more and more tired and really not feeling motivated to finish strong. I think part of the problem was that the race was never really about me. I was excited to be there, and to be part of it, and to get the medal at the end, but mostly I was so excited that Pippa was doing it. I was so focused on Pippa’s race that I kind of forgot about my race.

The last part of the race was full of all kinds of twists and turns as we approached the finish. Over and over spectators would yell, “You’re almost there!” I usually know exactly where I am on the course and can avoid listening to that advice (because what do spectators know), but because I was without my Garmin and there were so many turns and I was so ready to be done, I kept believing them! I would turn a corner all ready to see the finish line, just to see more runners heading around another bend ahead.

When I finally came around the last corner and saw the finish line, I was so relieved. I was very happy to cross the finish line and receive my sparkly medal.

I love that it sparkles

I grabbed some water, chocolate milk, a banana and all that usual stuff and went to see what was happening at the post-race “party” because I knew I had about an hour until I was expecting to see Pippa. It turned out to just be a band playing on the stage and a few places to buy coffee and snacks, so I decided to walk back to the finish line to watch other runners.

This is when the onions got me. I am assuming there was some sort of well-known Dublin onion factory right near the finish line, because I spent most of the next hour crying. First I had a little moment because I was exhausted and it was over and I was kind of disappointed in myself. You know, typical post-race emotion. (I mean onions!)

The clock was at about 2:40 when I started watching finishers come in, and as more and more spectators saw their runners finish and went off to greet them, the crowd on the sidelines started to shrink. But I think we all made up for it by getting louder and louder. And the finishers made up for it by being more and more awesome.

One of the first guys I saw come in got to about 20 m before the finish line, pulled over to the side, and stopped. The two announcers saw him and commented that he wasn’t done yet. The guy gave them a wave to let them know he was okay, and continued standing there. The announcers said he must be waiting for someone and carried on announcing other runners coming through the finish line.

I tried to keep clapping the whole time, stopping only when my hands needed a break. I cheered extra loud for people in costumes, people who got really excited about the finish, people I could tell were Canadian, and anyone who looked like they needed the extra boost. There was another guy and his young son standing right near me (I still have no idea if they were waiting for someone in particular or just there to cheer) and we cheered like crazy for quite a while.

At some point after the 3:00 mark, a couple (probably in their 60s) came running in, and you could tell the man was struggling. Suddenly he took a funny step and then stopped dead in his tracks. His wife stopped with him. You could see him holding his knee and moving his leg gingerly as if to test whether or not he could handle moving it. They stood there for probably a minute or two before they put their arms around each other and started walking again. The man was walking with a very serious limp, and it didn’t look too good. The man next to me obviously didn’t think so either, because as soon as they started trying to walk, he leapt over the fence to help. He got as far as putting his shoulder under the man before he was waved away. This man was going to finish this race, and finish it under his own steam. The pair of them hobbled towards the finish line and the crowd started going nuts. And with about 15 m to go, that man picked up his pace and crossed the line at a run. It was amazing. (The onions were definitely in the air again at that point.)

You may recall the guy who pulled over at the finish line earlier – he’s still there. He’s been there for 25 or 30 minutes by now. Whenever there’s a lull the announcers have been talking about him, wondering who he’s waiting for and where they are. And then finally he sees who he’s looking for. Two women (I would guess his wife and her friend or sister?) with HUGE grins on their faces spot him waiting for them and speed up to get to him. The three of them crossed the finish line holding hands. So cute. More onions, more crying.

Actually from this point on, I was a mess. I’d barely get myself together when someone else would do something triumphant and the waterworks would start again. Between the tears I was scanning the horizon for Pippa coming around the corner. I’m glad we wore red, because with the green race shirts, and the trend towards neon right now, red was both uncommon and easy to spot. After several false alarms, I spotted a red shirt that was Pippa-shaped! Cue the onions!

As she got closer I started cheering harder and harder. Then she ran over to the fence where I was standing and gave me a huge hug. I could tell the onions were affecting her too. The crowd had cleared enough that there was space for me to run alongside her on the outside of the fence, so I did! I found my way back into the finish area so I could give her another big hug and we could get a photo taken together.

Kirky and Pippa post-race

Getting to see Pippa cross the finish line of her first half marathon was so amazing. I saw how hard she trained to get there, and I was so glad to be there when she finished it! I’m so glad that I suggested the half marathon and that she was game. It was a really cool experience, and so much more cool to do it together.

Okay, let’s wrap this puppy up before the onions get me again.

My Stats for Half Marathon #4

Finish time: 2:16:43
10k split: 1:03:04
Female 18-24: 71/154
All women: 1357/2730
Overall place: 3621/5467

November 10

Blog post: here it is!
Run: a lovely “long” slow mid-day 7.2k run

Dublin race recap: the pre-amble

When Pippa and I rolled into Dublin on Sunday, August 4, we were on day 11 of our trip and we’d already had so much fun, but one of the most exciting parts of our trip was just ahead of us.

We returned our rental car to the airport, and having heard about the bus strike on the radio, figured out how to take a private bus into the city. We found our hostel without too much trouble and checked in. Our little private double room was pretty much perfect – cheaper than a hotel, but we’d have our own space for pre-race prep and post-race relaxation.

I wonder if this is where the expo is?

We walked to the race expo, which was about 25 minutes away. That part of the city seemed to be filled with runners! The expo wasn’t huge, and things were moving pretty smoothly, so it didn’t take us long to get through. We were disappointed not to get our requested shirt sizes, but not much you can do about that on day 2 of the expo. We figured since the expo was in a hotel, it might be a good place for us to get a late lunch of something carbalicious. But the fancy restaurant wasn’t open, and the bar didn’t have any pasta on the menu. The concierge wouldn’t give us any ideas, so we started walking and figured we’d find something eventually.

Fun fact: at 2:30pm on a Sunday, just about everywhere in Dublin is serving brunch (if they’re open). While I’m sure a Dublin Sunday brunch would have been DELICIOUS, we really just wanted something simple. After probably an hour of hangry wandering, we found a place that had spaghetti on the menu! The place was full of families with kids, which is a good sign when you’re looking for simple food.

Mmmm, spaghetti!

We had a lovely and leisurely plate of spaghetti each and a whole bunch of water. I also had a beer. After our meal we headed slowly back to the hostel, wandered around Trinity College on the way. We spent most of the rest of the evening reading in bed and went to sleep super early. After a huge late lunch, we didn’t really have a proper dinner, just snacked, which I think wound up hurting me.

All ready to go

Next post will be the race recap, I promise!

November 8

Blog post: I posted the story of how Pippa and I found ourselves running a half marathon in Dublin. Read it here!
Run: A lunchtime 3.5k (and a trip to lululemon)

November 9

Blog post: This is it!
Run: Quick 3k  run this evening. I spent all afternoon on the couch instead of getting out in the daylight, but whatever. I got it done.

England & Ireland trip – the planning

I ran my first race overseas this summer. This is the story of how that came to be.

My wonderful friend, co-Guider, roommate and partner-in-crime Pippa did something awesome when she was in first year: she went to school in a castle. Queen’s University owns Herstmonceux Castle in the south of England and runs a first year program out of the Bader International Study Centre that, at the time, a number of Canadian universities participated in.

See, a castle!

For the 20th year of the program, they had an all-year reunion. Pippa decided she wanted to go, and since she was going to be in the UK anyway, she decided there should be more adventures. I said I would be happy to tag along for some adventure. Neither of us had been to Ireland, so it seemed like the place to go.

We had the dates of the reunion (July 26-28), and knew we would spend a couple of days following that in London with Pippa’s cousin, and that I needed to fly home on August 11^th. That left us with just over a week to explore Ireland. We thought maybe renting a car would be the way to go. On one of the tourism websites we looked at, we found the following phrase: “There are no wrong turns in Ireland.” We adopted that as our motto and settled on a driving adventure.

The inspiration for our trip

At some point early in the process, I was chatting with some folks at the Running Room about local half marathons and I lamented that I would again be away from Vancouver for the Sea Wheeze. One woman asked where I would be and I told her about our idea to travel Ireland. I’m not sure how she knew the date of the inaugural Dublin Rock’N’Roll half marathon off the top of her head, but boy am I glad she did.

I was excited to rush home and confirm the date, August 5^th. I checked the vague trip outline that we had put together, and while we hadn’t planned to be in Dublin on that exact date, there were certainly ways to make it happen. I proposed it as a long shot crazy idea, and assured Pippa that it was totally okay if she wanted to do other things. But she agreed that it was a really cool opportunity (the inaugural Dublin Rock’N’Roll Half Marathon) and that we should think about how to incorporate it into our trip.

At this point (mid-March), we hadn’t yet booked flights or made any arrangements, as Pippa was still waiting to hear about her funding for her grad program, which would determine whether she would be able to take the time off to travel in the summer. Over the next few weeks we talked with cautious excitement about lots of details of our trip, including how cool it would be to be part of the half marathon in Dublin.

We booked our flights on April 8^th, and that same night, two weeks before Pippa’s first 10k, we both registered for the inaugural Dublin Rock’N’Roll Half Marathon. HOW COOL!

With our Dublin dates decided, we planned a loose outline for the rest of our time in Ireland and booked our rental car. We booked a few key nights of accommodation and spent lots of time looking at google maps.

Pippa’s preparations also included lots of half marathon training! Mine, not so much. In the month between the Scotiabank half marathon (recap here) and us leaving on our trip, I did very little running. Stay tuned to find out how that goes…

Three things Thursday – streaking, birthdays and a frustration

1: One week of streaking

Today marks the end of week 1 of Solana’s November 3k-a-day #beaststreak. I technically missed day 4, but I was home sick from work that day, so I’m calling that a legitimate excuse. And I made up for it by running the extra 3 the following day. Good enough for me. So far it’s been really enjoyable. I’m already at three runs I would not have attempted if not for the streak, which I think is totally the point! I’m really glad the distance is 3k though. I think I might be having a harder time if I were trying to run 5 every day.

The next week should actually be a little bit easier than this past week as far as getting the runs in. It’s the third week I’m really worried about. (But no sense worrying about it now!)

2: Birthday fun!

My birthday is coming up on Tuesday, so I’m looking forward to celebrating this (long!) weekend. Friday night I am getting together with a whole bunch of friends, which should be fun. Saturday my sister and her housemates are throwing a party in the evening (not for me, just a good old fashioned house party). Sunday morning I plan to be at the Running Room for Run Club and then I have no plans until my soccer game in the evening. Monday is Remembrance Day, and my family always goes to the Legion. (The other part of the tradition is dropping someone brave off at the nearby Starbucks, which is always PACKED, to get our first Christmas drinks of the season.) Afterwards is birthday brunch with my dad, sisters, Tommy and Pippa. The afternoon will be spent FRANTICALLY getting things together for Spark and Mom Camp next weekend. Should be a fantastic weekend.

3: Running clinic frustration

After having such a great experience in my running clinic last winter/spring, I knew I wanted to sign up for another one when I would actually be able to run the race at the end. The clinic group for the BMO half was pretty large, which makes sense, because the goal race is a huge one, it starts right after Christmas (when everyone is thinking about resolutions and starting new things) and the weather is pretty good through most of it. Our clinic group this time is way smaller. Which is fine, and pretty cool in some respects, because it makes for a tighter-knit group. But in our third week, I still haven’t figured out who my peeps will be.

In the BMO clinic, I didn’t make any friends for life or anything, but there was a group of us with similar goal times who ran together pretty consistently. We chatted and challenged each other (and sometimes slowed each other down when we tried to go too fast) and it was great. I’m not sensing that it’ll happen for me this time. I haven’t actually made it out to a Sunday long run yet, so I’m hoping I just have yet to meet the awesome people whose pace is close to mine. But for now I will say that I have been frustrated so far on Wednesdays and Thursdays. (There is one guy who has been keeping up with me, but I’m not sure he should be. I think he’s pushing himself too hard for a “steady” run, and I think he’ll realize that in a few weeks when the runs start to get longer. Also he’s really irritating, so I’m hoping he drops back soon!!)

November 7:

Run: 3.2k with my running clinic
Blog post: yup!
Movember ‘stache: patiently awaiting my mo’ Schwings!