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Monday, October 7, 2024
Blog Page 135

Making the Connection: Yorkville 5K Recap

By
Ravi Singh
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With my training wheels taken away, I actually experienced a race where I had to trust my body and found that against all the doubts my mind could present, it did what it was supposed to.

One very special feature of the B&O Yorkville 5K is how much it emphasizes its charitable component. Runners don’t just fundraise or donate as part of their registration, but wear the name of their chosen local charity on their bib. At pickup, your kit was handed to you by representatives from your charity, who also kept you in the loop of race details via email.

As someone who works for a charity,  I know it’s not unusual to have to explore new avenues to build support for your cause. Seeing so many representatives step up to be a part of the race experience was not only impressive but brought the race’s theme of connections to life.

Failure to Connect

The connections theme even inspired the finisher’s medal, with a design based on a circuit board highlighting the local charities participating and a USB cable in place of a ribbon. It seems the only element of the race where the connections theme didn’t apply was to my GPS.

Coach said it wouldn’t be too long before I could lose my “training wheels,” referring to the GPS to keep pace. With enough practice, I’d be able to get to a start line and run my race by feel. The stopwatch function on my Garmin would allow me to gauge my pace at each course marker and adjust accordingly.

Knowing GPS can be volatile, it’s a very practical way to attack a race. If you’ve trained well, you’ve run the pace you plan to deploy on the course and know what that feels like.

Still, and I know I’m not alone in this, watching the pace calculator on my watch is a habit that’s refused to die but slowly and grudgingly.

I understood the idea of running by feel, but wasn’t quite ready to drop the training wheels yet. On this day, they were yanked from under me. With a start line situated in the thick of massive skyscrapers, my GPS had not connected as City Councillor Kristin Wong-Tam announced, “One minute to go!”

Back of the medal, highlighting the charities supported by the Yorkville 5K.

We took off down Bay Street, mostly flat with a little downhill on which it was easy to get excited and push the pace. My watch signalled the first kilometre. I ignored it because we already passed a course marshall holding a 1KM sign.

Taking a right on Dundas, we passed the next marker. In my mind, I panicked, thinking I hammered way too hard and set myself up to bonk. Even as my mind went dark, my body kept moving like clockwork.

The stretch across Dundas is quite short before runners head north on University Avenue. This is where the course gets interesting with an ever so gradual climb that lasts for a kilometre and a half or so. Out of towners who come to Toronto for this race should be aware of this. You’ll feel it, making it all the more important to maintain a “comfortably hard” pace for the first 2K before you enter the pain cave.

Again, I worried, but the fact that I wasn’t passed at any point and wasn’t fading meant my body was still working when I passed the one cheer/water station on course led by the Red Door Family Shelter.

Past the 4K mark and over the climb, I tuned out of my surroundings and ran with whatever I could give until the race ended with a 52 second PB. It’s possible I didn’t look at my watch at all, or was just too delirious to remember.

The Finish

You can’t do much better than a finishing area where you’re actually served by attendants carrying trays of snacks. Bagels found their way to me when I plopped myself on the side of the track at Jesse Ketchum School.

I also had the honour of cooling down on the track at the same time as newly crowned Canadian 5K champion Cam Levins.

Of course our most important takeaway from a race is growth. We’re always told as runners to trust the training. With my training wheels taken away, I actually experienced a race where I had to trust my body and found that against all the doubts my mind could present, it did what it was supposed to. Granted, this is a work in progress and it’s taken years to make even this glimmer of progress.

There’s nothing so wonderful as a mind and body in sync, but when they fail to do so as my GPS did – I’m really pushing this analogy, aren’t I? – your body is capable of carrying you through on all the work that led to race day. Your mind just has to tag along until it’s convinced, and at this race my mind might be a little closer to that connection.

  • Ravi Singh

iRun Radio – September 10th Broadcast

By
Rob Eady
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iRun Radio

The iRun podcast, hosted by Mark Sutcliffe, airs Sunday mornings in Ottawa on 1310 NEWS. Tune in weekly for inspiring stories from runners across the country and tips, inspiration and news you can use from both elites and the everyday runners who make up the heart and soul of our sport. This week’s episode features a guide to the Canada Army Run, news on the RBC Race for the Kids and an in-depth interview with Wesley Korir, the 2012 Boston Marathon winner who left competitive running to join Kenya’s Parliament. All in all, it’s a running show you won’t find anywhere else.

Canadian rocking playlist from the keyboardist from Moist

By
Ben Kaplan
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Kevin Young isn’t running the Marathon Oasis de Montreal on September 23 and 24, because his band, Moist, is performing at the after-party.

“There’s no way I could do both on the same day,” says Young. “I’ve never run a marathon—not yet anyway. And, on top of that, there’s just too much going on to make sure the gig runs smoothly to focus on anything else.”

So, since Kevin can’t run beside you, he did want to select some of his favourite tunes for you to listen to during your race.

“I’m a creature of habit when I run—I want to hear songs I know and know well that propel me forward and I often switch tunes during a run according to my mood. All of these, however, have been in heavy rotation on my runs for years.”

Here’s Kevin’s favourite Canadian tunes. . .

Self Serve Gas Station – Rheostatics – Whale Music

“I listened to this tune, this entire record, every night before going to sleep in a tour bus while touring the US in the mid 90s—a few years later, it became the starting point for every run on tour or at home.”

Brother Rat/What Slayde Says – No Means No – Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed. “Relentless, angry, basic—the perfect way to go from ‘I’m running because I have to’ to ‘I’m running because I love it.’

Happiness By the Kilowatt – Alexisonfire – Watch Out – “Really an extension of the last track—keeps me moving.”

The Shape I’m In – The Band – Stage Fright – “Right, The Band aren’t strictly Canadian, but they’re close enough for me. Anyone who runs reaches that point where it’s not about distance, speed, or anything but sheer pleasure. This, for me, is a tune that I play when I get to that point.”

Who’s Got It – Illscarlet – All Day With It –

“Pure middle of my run fun.”

All the Heat is in the Whiskey – Ridley Bent – Rabbit on my Wheel “This is a Christmas song—the best ever in my opinion. Given I travel overseas for sheer pleasure often at Christmas, this tune is a go-to to start a run: whether it’s through a dormant Christmas market in Prague or while running past blood stained pavement following Eid in Morocco.”

The Darkest of Discos – Slow Coaster – The Darkest of Discos – “My youth, misspent, in words and music. Basically a cautionary tale I love to hear when my heart’s pounding.”

Nashville Bound – The Road Hammers – The Road Hammers – “It’s not a story I can relate to in terms of content, but every time I listen to it—mid or late run—it drives me to go faster and harder.”

Have Not Been the Same – Slow – “So this is a longer story: when I was in university a housemate of mine introduced me to the band and the song. He called me ‘the hippy,’ with good reason. My playlist at the time was heavily-weighted in terms of the 60s. This tune is still a staple when I need to suck it up and burn rubber.”

The Northern – Alexisonfire – Old Crows Young Cardinals – “Really, anything by Alexisonfire drives me, but this tune—for no good reason—is the one I go to when I’m hurting, but don’t want to stop running.”

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Peace, pure and simple. “Can’t say why, but it compels me.”

 

Straight Outta Quispamsis! Dr. Shelley Doucet Saves Lives and Breaks Records

By
Ravi Singh
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Dr. Doucet at the 2017 Boston Marathon, where she set the New Brunswick provincial marathon record.

Dr. Shelley Doucet of Quispamsis, New Brunswick considers the 2017 Boston Marathon the “highlight of my running career to date.” It’s not terribly unusual for any runner who’s taken the pilgrimage to the world’s most famous marathon to feel that way.

Dr. Doucet, however, has a wide array of achievements to choose from in making that call. Her finishing time of 2:45 also secured the New Brunswick provincial marathon record. Just in the months following Boston, Doucet took gold in the women’s marathon at the Francophone Games in Cote D’Ivoire (finishing time of 2:51) and represented Canada at the Mountain Distance Running Championships in Italy, finishing 9th.

The undisputed queen of New Brunswick distance running, Dr. Doucet has demolished several provincial records in her wake and crossed the border in 2015 for a win at Maine’s Sugarloaf Marathon.

20 metres to go in the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships!

“I’m busy!” is a common refrain among anyone these days, but Dr. Doucet is busy. As a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick, she heads up a research team with a focus on making health care more collaborative and patient centred and supervises 20 graduate students and post-doctoral trainees.

For Dr. Doucet, her work supports a perfect balance.“My work allows me to meet new people, enjoy the camaraderie of my colleagues, tackle interesting challenges, and earn an income so that I can travel and run around the world!”

“Natural” is the easiest label to put on an athlete like Shelley Doucet, the kind that seems to be in overdrive in both career and running, but she rejects the label. “While there’s certainly an element of natural ability that has led to my progress,” Dr. Doucet says, “I believe it’s largely that I’m naturally a hard worker and have a tendency to put 110% into everything I do.”

What she calls her greatest asset also proved her greatest flaw at the outset. “When I first started running, I set ambitious goals and thought the best way to achieve these goals fast was to train harder and a lot. It comes as no surprise that I experienced injury after injury when I trained with this mindset.”

At the 2017 Mount Washington Road Race, where Dr. Doucet was third among the women.

Learning patience has been her greatest challenge, but Dr. Doucet has learned, “If you get injured, you lose consistency in your training, which I believe is the most critical aspect to improving as a runner.”

That patience was perhaps partly learned on the trails and mountains for which Dr. Doucet has a special affection, in particular for the more patient type of running such terrain demands.

On the trails, “the focus is more on looking out for the course markers, staying on my two feet, and occasionally watching out for snakes and bears. I love a challenging race that’s so tough that I don’t have the ability to check my watch to see how fast I’m running.” None of this prevented her from finishing third among the women at the iconic Mount Washington Road Race this year.

“I love a challenging race that’s so tough that I don’t have the ability to check my watch to see how fast I’m running.”

If she does have to dial back the intensity in training, Dr. Doucet finds no challenge in channelling that extra energy. She and her husband are co-organizers of the Quispamsis Swim and Run, a children’s race which raises funds for PRO Kids St. John, an organization that supports opportunities for underprivileged youth to participate in sports and recreation programs. Every Christmas, the Doucets also organize the Fill the Stocking 4K in support of families in need.

And still, Dr. Doucet leads a weekly trail run group on Mondays and serves as the Atlantic Director for the Association of Canadian Ultramarathoners.

“The biggest change that has happened over the past few years since I started running is that it’s really brought our family closer together,” Dr. Doucet says. She and her husband often train together and the kilometres they log are a chance to connect without distractions and even make major life decisions.

And we are off! With Salomon and Canadian teammate Marianne Hogan.

Five year old Ava and seven year old Myles often take part in many of the runs Dr. Doucet organizes. Mom’s racing career has also allowed the family to grow closer together while travelling and experiencing the local culture wherever they go. Running is a family affair, not something that takes away from it.

With a list of accomplishments any athlete would be happy to achieve a fraction of, Dr. Doucet still has her eyes on all World Marathon Majors and on a top ten finish at the Western States 100. Such mammoth goals sound like the stuff of pipe dreams, but with her track record, Dr. Doucet might be the rare runner who makes them seem like manageable expectations.

  • Ravi Singh

Trail shoe review: Saucony Xodus ISO 2

By
Ben Kaplan
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As someone who runs the trails not nearly enough, it’s always a singularly exhilarating experience to take off into the woods. Wearing the Xodus ISO 2 trail shoes from Saucony is a little like taking an SUV on the 401: it’s more shoe than I probably need, but it’s a fun ride nevertheless.

I’m in the back woods of High Park swashbuckling through tree stumps and mud and the terrain feels like the track I don’t run on nearly enough at Central Tech Academy. It’s a soft landing in a neutral shoe with padding enough to take me over a live volcano, and yet the ride doesn’t feel heavy or restrictive. Will I run over fire, through streams, across hot lava in my trail running career? Time will tell, though it doesn’t seem likely. But if I do, I will now have the shoes.

When I started my running, I was enamoured with trails, and competed often in the Five Peaks series, in my heyday arriving alone and stashing my keys behind my back tire. I like not running with a watch, not eating gels, not listening to music, and just going like a dinosaur was behind me, trying to make me its lunch. Something about that appeals to my nature.

This evening’s run—in the waning hours of sunlight beside the great Alex Flint and Ravi Singh—feels like it could go on forever, take me anywhere, and I’d be up for the challenge. It’s a review of a sneaker that’s being worn for the first time straight out of the box, so even though the fit feels good and the laces stay tied, I suspect, after taking the Xodus ISO 2 into several more battles, despite its sturdy composition, the Saucony trail shoe will mold more closely to my foot. As a rule, street or trail shoes don’t need to be broken in. But they’re like a horse or a car, and it helps to know each other’s idiosyncrasies.

In the end, the trail run finishes up at a bar with great Vegan food and tons of hip people, and I’m pleased to say the dark blue-and-red sneaker doesn’t embarrass me or my friends. Even though we’re sweating into our French fries, my sneakers remain mellow and cool. It’s good when a shoe, even a trail shoe, doesn’t scream to be noticed by the world. So, to reiterate, the Saucony Xodus ISO 2 has a rubber outsole and medium-thick treading, designed to repel rocks, muds and snakes. The upper, which is synthetic, wraps snugly to the ankle like an old flame. The shoe’s as sturdy as a tank, lighter than my wisp of a 3-year-old son.

It’s a great trail shoe. Now to incorporate trail running into my marathon build-up for fall.

Trail Newbie Puts Saucony’s New Trail Shoes to the Test

By
Ravi Singh
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Saucony gave us the chance to review their newest series of trail shoes this week, so three of us hit the trails at Toronto’s High Park.

Shoe reviews are a tricky beast. For most readers, the drop and support and any other technology is probably meaningless to all but the most sophisticated gearheads. Even the reviewer has to acknowledge that every runner is different, so all they can really offer is their own experience of a shoe. That’s all I’ll offer here. If you must know the technical specs of the Saucony Perigrine 7’s, check them out here.

Saucony offered Ben Kaplan and myself a chance to take their new series of trail shoes out for a test. Both Ben and I being city slicking road runners, there was only one place to look for guidance and that was our pal and  trail king Alex Flint. We knew we made the right choice when Alex responded that we’d have to wait a few days, as he was off in the woods of Jasper, Alberta.

When we finally got together, we jaunted over to Toronto’s High Park in the city’s west end, which boasts a short but gorgeous trail network that’s well defined and manageable for beginners. It also boasts patches of Poison Ivy. Future trail shoe developers should consider a shoe that detects poisonous plants through a sensor of some kind and protects oblivious Toronto morons like myself who aren’t quite adept at the current technology of giant signs providing clear warning of Poison Ivy ahead.

Naturally, the first thing that jumps out at one entirely new to trail shoes is the very thick tread system as compared to your typical road shoe. I wondered if they would feel clunky and awkward to run in. As we stood in the High Park parking lot lacing up, I did feel that “walking in heels for the first time” sensation.

Plodding along the concrete, I still felt shaky, like there was too much going on under my foot. I reminded myself that I was using the shoe for something other than its intended purpose. Like any shoe, concrete will wear it down faster than the softer surface of the trails, so it’s best to keep these shoes on the surface they were made to be on as much as possible.

Once we were on the trails, the story was different. Learning to adjust pace and form in accordance with the terrain, the shoe didn’t feel like a big awkward pair of hiking boots. I was flowing down long descents without fear of going face first in the dirt and trusting my shoes, which handled the conditions brilliantly. I know for a fact that my road shoes would have seen me eating rocks. Now I was feeling a trail shoe work the way it was supposed to.

The grip was excellent while feeling natural and that’s really the most important thing you can ask from a trail shoe. Our trail expert Alex informed us that the different styles of treads made each pair suited to different conditions. Mine, with smaller treads, were ideally suited to trails like those in High Park which were less muddy and gravelly. This particular model is not waterproof, nor did I test that, so it may not be best for your Barkley 100, but are nonetheless capable of taking a road warrior on to softer ground.

For a trail shoe to feel so quickly comfortable for a complete rookie and and it make unfamiliar surroundings feel manageable is about the best endorsement I can give. I must disclose that I have only run once so far and they still need to be broken in a bit more, but knowing that I have a pair of shoes that can handle tougher terrain makes me excited to get out and do some more exploring.

  • Ravi Singh

Seven Tips for Planning Your Race Goals

By
AttheRaces
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Building a well-thought out training schedule gives you time to work towards your goals and stay consistent. But how do you adapt and what should you consider if you’re running a specific race?

By: Eric Bang

Set The Date

Regardless of whether this is your first marathon or tenth, make your program specific to your goal race. If you are going to do a 16-week program or 12-week program, make sure that the timing of your race works out with your chosen schedule, so that you can get the full program of training complete.

Be Flexible

In an ideal situation you won’t have to adapt your schedule too much and you will have a smooth Marathon build. That being said, it is very rare in life that anything goes exactly according to plan, so allow some flexibility with your program. If you find that you are sidelined by a minor injury or that work/life/etc. has thrown off your training a little bit, don’t panic! Keep in mind that you can’t make up for lost training or mileage, so don’t try to cram in what you may have missed. That’s where further injury can come into play. Focus on working yourself slowly back on track and into your training. Remember that you don’t gain fitness overnight, and you don’t lose it overnight either.

Keep Track

It can be extremely helpful to have a training log. Keep track of your workouts and results from each day. Look at the progress that you have made so far. Have you improved your paces since you started? Are workouts going easier? How much mileage have you increased since you started? Not only will this help you see how far you’ve come but you’ll also get a boost of confidence from seeing your progress of working towards your goal. Be proud of your efforts!

Home Advantage

Do you live in the city where you will be racing? If so, take this into account in your training. The biggest advantage you’ll have is that you can run portions of the race course in advance. Take a look at the course map and become familiar with it. I have done Scotiabank twice now, and since I call Toronto home, race day is always that much more exciting! If you live in Toronto and are doing Scotiabank this year, I would highly recommend running the East End portion of the route on one of your long runs. Being familiar with the course will make you feel that much more prepared and mentally strong come race day.

Buddy Up

Two major marathons this Fall are the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Since they are only two weeks apart, the training schedules should be similar. This means you may be more likely to find a crew that you can train with. While your peak weeks and some larger workouts might be different, for the most part you will be doing very similar things. Find a friend or running pack to make your training that much more enjoyable, while also keeping you accountable.

Looking to Chicago

I am in the midst of training for Chicago, which means I just passed the halfway mark in my 16-week program. If you’re in the same boat, congrats and high five! Chicago will be a completely new experience for me so I’ve been taking that into consideration for my physical and mental training. I’ve found it so inspiring to watch clips of Paula Radcliffe running the 2002 Chicago marathon where she set the World Record (she went on to lower her record in 2003 at the London Marathon). Everyone that has ever been to Chicago talks about how great the course and crowds are. Since this will be the first World Major Marathon that I have ever run, I am very excited to get to the start line.

If you are planning on running either Scotiabank or Chicago this Fall, you should hopefully by this point, have strung together several weeks of consistent training and built up your mileage. Workouts might still be feeling hard but that’s okay, they are supposed to! You are working hard and your body is tired. Everything will feel so much easier once you have tapered. Even though you are demanding a lot out of your body right now, make sure you’re taking care of yourself and that you get yourself to the race start line, healthy.

Bonus Training Tip

When you want to attempt a new distance on your long run, how should you best prepare?

If you look at the first long run of your training plan vs. the long run during the peak week of your training plan, you should notice that the distance has increased significantly. For example, the first long run of my build is normally around 19 km, and my longest run ends up being around 36 km. After your first cycle, you’ll probably think to yourself, how will I possibly reach my peak? The answer is to do the best you can to consistently get in every long run so that your body can adapt over time, as your runs get longer and longer. And remember, you’re only in week 1!

I will normally increase my long runs by 5-10 minutes each week, which converts to about 2-3 km more each week. Week-to-week this isn’t a very big increase. But after a couple of weeks my long runs will be significantly longer than when I first started. I.e.) 19 km – 22 km – 25 km – 28 km – 31 km. As you can see, the increase week-to-week isn’t a lot, but the increase over time is rather significant. By the time you get to your peak week you will have put in a lot of work, given your body time to adapt and grow strong, and by association, feel confident that you will make it through.

 

 

 

Happy Trails: Testing Saucony’s Koa ST’s in Toronto’s High Park

By
Ravi Singh
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Saucony's Koa ST. Good for the trails and also suited to post-run eats and drinks.

Saucony gave us the chance to review their newest series of trail shoes this week, so three of us hit the trails at Toronto’s High Park. Here’s Alex Flint on the Koa ST.

Trail running is often half soothing-bliss and half perilous-adventure. My experience with Saucony’s new Koa ST trail shoes made the adventure feel blissful and more soothing. These heavy duty kicks are designed for the toughest trail surfaces, with 8mm lugs and a moisture shedding upper. Traction was certainly never an issue, and the shoes know it; they proudly have “MUD” printed right on the side of them.

As a minimalist shoe fan, I felt right at home with the Koa ST’s 4mm toe-to-heel drop and neutral pronation. As always, Saucony’s EVERUN topsole is a comfortable ride and the toe box fit my wide feet perfectly.

Perhaps my favourite feature of these shoes was the triathlon style toggle lacing system. They’re quick to pull on and tighten around your foot just right. Almost as importantly, they’re easy to loosen and take off when your run is done.

Although the Koa ST’s aren’t the smallest or lightest trail shoes available, the impressive tread, handy lacing system and comfortable ride make it worthwhile. Whether you’re new to the trails and want to protect your feet from rocks and mud, or you’re a seasoned ultra runner with a foot long beard, I recommend giving these new Sauconys a try.
– Alex Flint

Life lessons from a lifetime of running

By
Ben Kaplan
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Ottawa Marathon May 24 2015 © Photo by Francois Laplante / Rémi Theriault

I’m still amazed I can run for two-and-half hours without stopping. If you rewound to my passive youth and young adulthood, it would seem unfathomable that I could keep moving for even half an hour, let alone 150 minutes straight. And enjoy the experience, relish it? Never.

And that, to me, is the most powerful lesson of running. You don’t just travel from Point A to Point B on any given day, you also move from here to there as an individual. You become someone you weren’t.

It doesn’t happen quickly. None of us flips a switch and becomes a long-distance runner. The journey of a thousand miles, in this case literally, begins with a single step, or maybe a slow, painful jog around the block. From there, it’s a long, slow process of incrementalism. There are big milestones, like your first 5k or half-marathon, but it’s largely like any other progress you achieve in life: slow, steady and unglamorous.

Over time, though, like compound interest, the advancement accumulates and one day you discover you can do the remarkable, something you never could before.

Too often, we want and expect instant results. We’re hard-wired for immediate survival, not the long game. And when we don’t make significant advancement, we quit. Bill Gates is quoted as saying, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Some novices are disappointed if they can’t run 10k on their first try, or complete a marathon within a few months of their first outing. Instead of sticking with it, they give up too soon, disappointed with the early results and failing to imagine how much progress they can achieve if they persisted over a long period of time.

It’s a lesson I try to apply to everything in life. You want to be something different five years from now? Start with the first step and build from there. Running teaches us that when apply ourselves every day, when we resolve to get a little better or go a little farther every week, we can travel a long way.

Krista DuChene: the Future That May Come

By
Ben Kaplan
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From left: Krista Duchene, Ed Whitlock, Eric Gillis, Rachel Hannah, Leslie Sexton, and Robert MacDonald.

With less than eight weeks to go until the October 22, Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, I am cautiously optimistic that I will get to the start line for a decent race. What I mean by decent, I have no idea at this point. I have been consistently cross- training, six days per week at an average of 2.5 hours/day. Coach Dave has given me a thorough program, including workouts that I do on the bike or elliptical. I’ve gradually increased the amount of weight-bearing time by being more on the elliptical, and in a standing position on the bike. Pool running remains a staple, but I am giving more of an effort than when I am logging my normal running mileage. I started walk-jogging a few weeks ago and have now successfully completed two 10 km runs. One was on the track and the other on the treadmill as I will be sticking to soft surfaces for a while until I am ready to hit the pavement.

It won’t be one of my best marathon builds but I am simply happy to be back at it, hoping to complete my fifteen marathons in fifteen years: #15in15.

I am really excited to be participating in the Canada Army Run as both an athlete, in either the 10 km or half marathon, and speaker at the pasta dinner. By recently adjusting my expectations and race goals, I’ve been able to launch my new www.kristaduchene.com website and transition to the next phase of my career, including public speaking, and broadcasting and event promotion. I am really looking forward to sharing my story about the many trials and blessings I’ve had over the course of my career. I think many can relate to setting goals and experiencing set-backs no matter what path of life they are on. Additionally, being in Ottawa for this September 15-17 event will allow me to broaden my race weekend experience with less of a focus on an elite field, and more on an entirely different community.

Running brings so many incredible people together and I am thrilled to learn more about and meet people who have served for our wonderful country. The Canada Army Run uses a cannon to start the races, and runners receive dog-tag medals at the finish line! I think the best part of this weekend is found in the description on the website, “Canada Army Run is about Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces—Air Force, Army, and Navy— joining together in the spirit of camaraderie and community.”

We’ve had a wonderful summer with much time spent with my sister and her kids at the cabin. I’ve particularly enjoyed returning home from the gym to have my trusty oatmeal and green smoothie while my 9-year-old son makes crepes that he, his brother and sister enjoy while I’m sipping my second or third coffee. They will soon be back to school so I am going to savour this last week of the summer before we get into the busyness of packing lunches, completing homework, piano practices, and participating in swimming, hockey, and gymnastics.

Onward!

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