Now what?

So I did the Marathon. Yaay, woot woot, done! I finished a bunch of physiotherapy courses and resigned from some heavy duty volunteer work. Now what??? It has only been a week of recovery and I have my house cleaned, my garden planted and my holidays planned. Even Jim is a bit blah on running. We did decide to do less frequent races and focus on more "quality" races as he is working 7 days/week. There is a 50 K in Manning that looks beautiful- but it is way in September!

At least this weekend I can look foreward to a 5K Mothers day race in port moody. My 12 yo daughter decided it should be a 'tradition' every year- even if she has to push me in a wheelchair! Trust me, after the marathon, I thought the wheelchair may be needed.

what to do, what to do.......

VANCOUVER MARATHON

MY FIRST MARATHON

I had so much to say-cuz I was so excited about the marathon, it took several edits to cut this down! But then I kept having great flashbacks as to what happened so... its kinda long.

What an interesting race the marathon is. Instead of trail races where I go hard wherever I can, the whole point of the marathon seemed to be to hold myself back the entire race just so I can finish it. So this made it a lovely cruise around Vancouver, breathing comfortably, visiting people along the way.

IN THE BEGINNING:

I had a plan. Follow the 3:30 'bunny' for the first 30 kms.That went out the window as soon as the 'bunny' started WALKING! I couldn't believe that anyone could do the walk/run thing and finish in 3:30. So, I passed him at the 3 km mark- so much for the plan. My husband Jim was totally hyper, chatting away like a girl the entire first 10K. "this is so easy, I could do this pace forever" etc etc.

CRUISING THRU VANCOUVER

What a blast running down the middle of the streets through False creek, downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park, and Kitsilano on a beautiful cool sunny morning. I am usually a camel on long runs and finish a bit fuzzy, but this time I followed strict advise from running friends and drank, ate Gels every hour and took my thermolytes. I was remarkably lucid and full of energy the entire run!

The kilometers flew by 10, 15, 20,25K, people watching along the way. Some weird running styles out there. Some of my favorites were:
- the limp wrist runner ,- the foot slapper( that dude must have had very sore feet at the end)
- the grunter -the butt protruder that looked like he had to go to the bathroom
And what people wore!
- One girl wore a garbage bag- for at least 21 kms (and It was not raining)-a full on gangsta style track suit, (I'm thinking he's gonna have some chaffing.)

Jim's chattyness reduced to just breathing by 25 kms. I asked him how he was. He replied
"I'm having a moment"... whatever that meant. It still makes me laugh.

AND NOW I UNDERSTAND

I have heard that a marathon is a 20 mile run then a 6 mile run. Now I get it! By 30 kms I was no longer cruising, I had to push a bit, and started to slow on the hills. By 35 kms, I was running about 40 seconds/km slower. By 37 kms I swear they put the kilometer markers farther apart.

The last two kms were the best.

This is us trying to hold our heads high and push thru to the finish.

At 40 kms I decided to tell Jim that "I don't think I'm going to sprint to the finish line."
It was hilarious at the time because it took all we had to just keep running, let alone sprint!
By now the tables were turned.I was picking up the crowds energy, chatting away, totally hyper that I was going to finish!

By 41 kms I felt like I was pushing hard, running as fast as I can...but then I looked at my legs and they were going in slooooowww moootiooon. Kinda like those old Steve Austin "Bionic Man" shows. It was a bit trippy.

THE FINISH LINE

Yaaay!! we finished together!! in a respectable 3:34:04. I was cool with that, being our first marathon and all. I did wonder why the 3:30 bunny never passed me though- maybe it meant finishing 3:30 ish?? I'm happy I finished 9th in my old lady 40-44 age group.

So we stopped, bent over to get our medals then... tried to walk. WTF ! why won't my legs move? I had to Frankenstein walk over to the sidelines to have a rest, then laughed my head off at all the other finishers who were walking the same way! It was like March of the penguins! . For the rest of the day I was flying high with adrenaline.

Highlights:

Harvey Nelson-I was pleased to chat with the 75 yr old Icon as he ran/walked the marathon. He will probably be at the 5 peaks Golden Ears run next weekend too.

Paul Slaymaker- a local Port Moody runner from Runners Den who did it in 2:40.

Aaron Heidt- who I only know from his impressive trail running did it in 2:34 ! an HOUR faster than me! holy macaroni!

Regrets: Jim asked me if we should 'hold hands across the finish line'. I answered "pfft, NO!" ...Now, its not that I'm a cold hearted B$#&h, but it just seemed too difficult to keep running AND get close to each other AND hold hands, WHILE still running, after 42 kms.

JIM RECOVERING

TWO HAPPY FINISHERS

Would I do it again? probably, but I missed the technicality with all the speed variations and ups and downs that trail running offers. So thats my next goal: to finish a 50 K trail race...maybe??but now I know at least there is hope.

Heather

Taper week

I am not sure if I like this taper thing. First, the beautiful sunny days beckon me out for a long run every day but I'm supposed to do short ones or rest. Thankfully,I squeezed in a longish run on Sunday. 2 hrs on the trails with a great group of runners I found in my area who are training for Marathon de Sables. I can't wait to run with them again!

Second, I'm bored, which means its easy to enjoy a bottle of wine with my husband for 'entertainment'. Apparently this hinders perfomance which makes the whole damn tapering thing counterproductive!!

And finally, after increasing my training for 3 years, I finally mellow out, and I get sick!! Just a cold/flu- not of the swine type thank god. I actually had a client Monday who just flew in from Mexico city- but he got tested and it was negative. Whew! At least being ill makes me slow down a bit. With this weather I would normally be building fences, landscaping, or renovating my house.

One more day to get better and then... the BMO MARATHON! At this point, I may have to settle for just being happy to finish. It should be interesting to see how things unfold...It will be annoying if my husband finishes faster than me again.

Vancouver Sun Run 2009

VANCOUVER SUN RUN 2009

I will start with saying I ran a bit slower this year (5 seconds to be exact), but I had much more fun!!

The Warmup:

I HAD to go to the Sun Run because I was lucky enough to get "seeded" with the "blue bibs". What an experience! I felt like someone at the Emmy's... "I'm just happy to be here". Not only did we get lots of room to warm up, but we also got our own 'porta potties' for our small group- no line ups. Bonus! AND I think I found my picture on the front cover of the Vancouver Sun. A little blue dot in the middle... I think.

I was honored to even be in the same group as Lisa Harvey, and a physio colleague of mine, Norm Tinkham. Not to mention the Kenyans and Ethiopians. I actually ran beside the Ethiopian woman as she was warming up with a light jog. I ran a little faster than her for a bit as I giggled to myself "I am running faster than the Ethiopian" . I'm OK with the self delusion.

The Run:
With a great warmup in hand, off I go. I don't know if it was my adrenaline, or the downhill, but My Garmin was telling me I was running 5:50 min miles! So I pulled back a bit to a 6:15-6:30 min mile with the fear I might blow up at the end. My goal was to do this run in 41-42 mins. Is I was pulling back the reins, my husband catches up to me and tapps me on my shoulder as he passes me. He was smiling ear to ear. I think it was a bigger smile than the one he had the day we were married! Damn, he loves passing me. But, I hold my pace.

Only 3 kms in my left tensor facia lata siezed up. I know I'm a Physio and I should listen to my pain. But I am also a runner, who does the opposite. The runner in me won so I kept running and running, making a mental note to stretch my ITB more and work on glut med strength. This year I really enjoyed the bands along the way and took in the sights, trying not to analyze other runners weird running styles. I did have to push a bit at the end to maintain my pace, but was suprised I could sprint the last km. I crossed the finish line, looked at my watch and it said 44:14 AND that I had run 13 kms !!

Oops:
I love my Garmin watch and I am overly impressed with their top notch service. I got my watch back from them totally refurbished, free of charge, just before the run. However, I forgot to 'calibrate it'... which explains why it looked like I was running so fast, but it felt easy. Oh well, I diddn't expect to crush last yrs time anyway because I have been working on endurance for the marathon and not speed.



Speaking of speed...now this is impressive:

The times the winning runners did the run in was mindboggling impressive. My friend Norm did it in less than 35 minutes! and he is in his 40's !!



But what is really impressive, is that I started at 9 am crossed the finish line at 9:44 , grabbed a water, found my husband, we both raced to the skytrain, which took us to our car where we changed, the sped to the Gillnetter Pub to meet friends. By 11 am we had drink in had and food on our plate.. as others were still crossing the finish line. Now thats a race!


I can't wait to get back on the trails.

Thank you Thermolytes!

Wow, not only did I feel GREAT after a 22 mile run, but I woke up this mornining with NO muscle soreness! The only thing I changed was that I took a few Thermolytes on my run- what a difference!

Ha, I recall running my first flat 20 miles last yr. taking in only 500 ml water and 1 power bar...and wondering why I was so wiped at the end! Thanks to some self education and great trail runners blogs (I will learn how to put them on here later), I have improved my performance simply through what I take in! I'm thinking, that if they made the camelback waterpack, they just have to add an intravenous glucose injection and I'm set!

My first 60 mile WEEK!

Yaaay, I finally broke the 50's and made a 60 mile week!! Soo much easier without filling spare time with studying or volunteering. I can run far... but I fear not fast, as the Sun run 10k approaches... I feel slower, and slower!

I am beginning to wonder if DIEZ VISTA would have been a better choice- always next yr. This yr I will just cheer on the participants. As opposed to a marathon where you are cheered in by hundreds and get a medal at the end. These poor souls run 50 K and the finish line is just a chalkmark on the ground with a handfull of people clapping. They must love what they do!

Aah, but it was a beautiful trail run Buntzen to Sasamat, to Belcarra/Woodhaven lake then around Buntzen again. 3:45( including pee breaks, eating breaks, stretching, my husbands bathroom breaks,and tying up his run pants that are falling down due to the rain- if he could just swallow his ego and wear the tight spandex it would be much easier! aaah, the male ego, such a fragile thing)Not to mention we were out last night to the giggle dam. It was inspiring to see a running colleague who is going to the 'marathon de sables'. Rain smain, I would do it again.

The blog thing is new to me, but is interesting. Found a GREAT friends cooking site, I look forward to adding some 'healthy' recipes.

I found my blog !

I totally forgot I even had a 'blog site' ! Apparently I set this one up 2 years ago, which is about right because I have been very busy the last 2 years.

I have been busy acting as the registrar for our figure skating club which involves managing over 300 skaters. I have also been busy studying in any spare minute I had so I can challenge some advanced physiotherapy exams. Not to mention working, and continuing to work on my running! Well, the exams are done and I have stepped down after volunteering for 5 years. As I get back into my life, I find it funny I find my blog!

As for running, Jim and I have continued to train and enjoy the progress. It is like a neat experiment to see how much better we can get. I have improved my 1/2 marathon time to 1:36 (albeit a net downhill scotiabank-but I'll take it). We have spent most of our time on the trails. I beat my previous times in the 5 peaks series- but diddn't do as well as I planned as there are so many talented runners hitting the trails. Those tall long legged women are hard to keep up to!

This year its all about endurance. We can now trail run for 4 1/2 hours. I had hoped to do the Diez vista 50 K, but it lands the same weekend as the Sun Run (which I actually got seeded for,which may never happen again cuz I am only getting older). The Vancouver Marathon will have to do. Its enough to put some fear into me. I just need to work out my fluids and fuel-its like a science and an art, very cool !