The End is Only the Beginning

By

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June 13, 2009

VICKY and GRANT:
Will Rogers once said:”We can’t all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” Dear runners, let us all gather at the curb and clap as our new Running Blog Idol, Karen Karnis, goes by and crosses the finish line! Congratulations Karen!

Also, congratulations to all the contestants. All of you were wonderful bloggers and brought your own unique perspective on the sport of running to the iRun blog family. We wish you all the best in your future adventures!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our guests on the Vicky and Grant blog. Your humour and sometimes bizarre answers have allowed many of our readers to find motivation, inspiration and humour in your words. Thanks again to all our interviewees whom we’ve listed below in order of blog posts:

-Simon Whitfield
-Lauren Groves
-Alexandra Kosteniuk
-Terry McKinty
-Geordie McConnell
-Evélia Manac’h
-Julianne Chai
-Laura Hood
-Heather Beauchesne
-Yuen Yee Ho
-Tim Scapillato

Thank you to iRun Magazine and the whole iRun family for allowing us the creative freedom to truly show our blogging and running personality. We had tons of fun coming up with blog ideas and even more fun writing and photoshopping for our readers’ pleasure. Although we will truly miss blogging for iRun, we will be leaving with many lessons and new ambitions as we each pursue the craft of writing on our own path.

Finally, thank you to our friends and our family and to those of you who visited. It’s been our pleasure to try to entertain and enlighten you. We really appreciate that you took the time. It’s a wonderful feeling to feel supported when you go out on a limb and try to do something creative. Thanks for the feedback and the good wishes. It means a lot.

Have a safe journey everyone and remember…keep on running!

Oh Yeah, You Just Watch Me Have fun

By

Terri McGillivray

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June 11, 2009

There are some words when you hear they make you cringe. Other words make you dig in your heels and say, “Oh yeah, you just watch me!”

The Gazelle asked me how I did at the Ancaster Old Mill race on Tuesday. I was torn about how to answer. I didn’t run a PB. The hill made sure about that. On the other hand, I witnessed a fresh group of runners become seasoned pro’s.

The pre-race pep talk. It included a promise for a joke

My dad’s advice, go out and have a good run was still in my head. And I did. Wasn’t my best, but I had a good time. And the ice cream was incredible!

Then came the words that made me cringe. “I told you you should have trained on hills.”

Then “You better start training on hills now, cuz we are going to be doing Benchbury in the summer.”

After running tonight, I stuck around the Den talking to the other runners. We talked about how they felt they did on Tuesday. They all had smiles on their faces, they have been bitten by the running bug for good.

I was talking to Jim and Dave. Dave is back after having surgery, it was nice seeing him again.

I told Jim what the Gazelle said about training more on hills. Jim said those dreaded words, “The Gazelle is right you know. You should have trained more on the hills.”

He told me how he had really trained one year doing all kinds of hill work. When he did the Old Mill, he knocked a good three to four minutes off his time from the year before.

Oh yeah, you just watch me! I will run another race and I will have fun.

The Hundred Push Ups Program

By

Vicky and Grant

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June 11, 2009

GRANT:
Hey Vicky have you ever heard about this hundred pushup program?

VICKY:
No what’s that?

GRANT:
It’s this website. It’s also a book now. They take you from wherever you are at up to 100 push ups.

VICKY:
Cool. How many can you do?

GRANT:
Count ’em out!

VICKY:
Okay go! One… two… three… hmmm struggling a bit… four [….] nineteen. Good job!

GRANT:
Ug. What a girly-man.

VICKY:
Now according to the website based on how you did on the test it shows you where to start on the program. You can even log your progress. Good luck! Oh I see they also have a two hundred sit up program. Maybe I can find my six pack abs again.

GRANT:
Recapturing form is a great inspiration, but my inspiration is Terry Fox. Want to know why he looks so awesome and ripped in the photos? Before he took off for any run he got down on the pavement and knocked off some pushups. Studly eh! He’s my hero.

What sets us apart?

By

Karen Karnis

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June 10, 2009

Chatting with runners and non-runners alike, a debate that comes up from time to time is the so-called “runner personality”. Is there a particular personality that sets runners apart from non-runners? Do you have to be a “certain type of person”?

I don’t know if there is such a thing as a runner personality, but there are some traits that you could argue a lot of runners share. You might find runners to be goal-oriented, determined (stubborn?), competitive, self-critical while encouraging of others. But overall, I would have to say that runners are as diverse a bunch as the general population.

The only thing that all runners have in common, which also happens to be the thing to set them apart from non-runners is this:

One day, they didn’t say “I can’t.”

Some of them might have said “I wonder….”

All of them, at some point, said “I can,” and they did.

That’s it.

I Pick You to be on My Team

By

Terri McGillivray

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June 10, 2009

We’ve all had the awful sinking feeling. We are in gym class … er physical education class … and we are being picked for teams. We watch as the popular kids get picked first. And with any luck, we will have had a friend who is a cool sports kid, so we don’t have to wait to get picked. But we all have had that moment when the captain of the teams are fighting over who is gonna get stuck with you.

I'm so happy Esther picked me for her team — I

I was talking with a couple of run walkers this week. And they were telling me their motivation for running.

They were the last one picked for the baseball team, the volleyball team … the fill in the blank team. And when you are young and impressionable, you feel the horror, the embarassment of being picked last.

With any luck you outgrow that embarassment and you go on. You get into the career you dreamed of. And it is not work anymore. Sometimes though, people aren’t so lucky and they end up with a job that they hate.

And they still end up being the last kid picked for the baseball team.

My friend Kelly and her son Derek. Part of the running family and my Mom

Some folks are lucky enough to stumble onto this running thing. They find themselves with a place that they absolutely fit in. They look forward to the times when they can go and hang out with like minded people. They have a second family. They can laugh. They can cheer each other on.

They can also cry.

In the moment when they hear “their” name being called as they struggle to cross the finish line. And they know that someone is there, on the other side waiting. Waiting to make sure that they pick them first for their team.

Does Anyone Know Any Really, Really Good Jokes?

By

Terri McGillivray

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June 9, 2009

the-runners — Some of the runners before the race

Like Julius Caesar said, “We came, we saw, we had lots of fun.”

Ok, he really didn’t say that. We could probably have said the last part about conquering. But to me that sounds negative. There isn’t any negativity attached to running a great race. Setting a goal to finish the race and then doing it.

We ran the Ancaster Old Mill tonight. It was great. Like a family reunion. I got to see old friends I haven’t seen in … three days. Not since the Moon in June.

More importantly, I got to see the newest bunch of runners coming up through the running ranks at the Runners Den run their very first race.

I had promised them a joke at the four kilometre mark. But as I always say, run your own race. And we had all decided that was what we were going to do.

At the top of the hill heading down we got separated.

So I owe them all a joke. Which I promise I will share with them on Thursday night at the Den.

What I won’t wait to tell them is how I proud I was of all of them. We chatted before the race and I asked them if they had a time in mind to do the race. They looked at me and laughed. Just finishing is a great start they said.

Doesn’t it feel great to be able to cross at least one thing off your to do list? Congrats on a great race! See you Thursday night!

Did I Mention the Food?

By

Terri McGillivray

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June 8, 2009

I am excited about the Old Mill Race in Ancaster tomorrow night. But with that excitement comes the inevitable worry.

We'll be looking at a greener view tomorrow — We

What to wear? I had everything planned. I have been wearing my shorts lately. The first year I started running, I couldn’t understand why people were showing up to run in March in shorts. In shorts!!!! Now I know why. After having gone through an entire winter of being all bundled up the first sign of nice weather, off come the layers!

But the weather has taken a turn for the cold. Shorts aren’t an option anymore. Long pants? Nope. Capri’s? Potential. My old stand by long sleeved shirt Around the Bay. I love being able to proclaim that I am older than Boston!

If I have enough time, I think I will stop in at the Den to grab a new pair of socks. I should have done that today. Since I am not at all superstitious about running, I’ll wait until tomorrow.

So many socks to choose from. But I'm not superstitious — So many socks to choose from. But I

Headgear? Maybe. I have a really nice pink running hat. The one I bought for the Around the Bay race. It managed to survive the downpour of rain. And it came out intact.

I told my mom I have to decide what to listen to. Maybe Madonna. Maybe Mobile. Maybe Audioslave.

But the most important thing to bring. A great attitude. My dad summed it all up tonight. Perfectly. “Just go out there and have fun Tess. Just do the best you can. You don’t have to compete with anyone.”

So off I go to have a whole lot of fun. Stay tuned!

It’s about time

By

Karen Karnis

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June 8, 2009

“I don’t have enough time!”

Anecdotally, that’s got to be the number one reason people give me for not running. Well, here are some very good reasons why that one just doesn’t fly.

3. You’re not taking time away from your family by taking care of yourself. You are investing. You know how on an airplane, you’re supposed to put on your own oxygen mask before you help someone else with theirs? The idea is that you are better able to take care of others if you care for yourself first. If you have more energy, more ability to cope with stress, and are generally happier, the time spent with your family will be more enjoyable. Bonus: you are being a good role model for your children, both in caring for themselves, and engaging in an active lifestyle!

2. Running is less efficient than less-vigorous exercise. That’s a good thing! It means you don’t need to do it as long to burn the same number of calories!

According to Public Health:

“Scientists say accumulate 60 minutes of physical activity every day to stay healthy or improve your health. Time needed depends on effort – as you progress to moderate activities, you can cut down to 30 minutes, 4 days a week.”

1. It’s just not that much time.

You don’t have to commit to a gruelling training plan that will take several hours per week. You just need to commit about 30 minutes, most days of the week to getting healthy. Half an hour. For about the price of a cup of coffee a day you can save a child…hang on, let me try that again: for about the length of time it takes to watch an episode of The Simpsons, you can save your health.

Don’t waste another minute thinking up excuses! Just go do it! Go on! What are you waiting for?

Extreme Inspiration

By

Tyler Chase

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June 7, 2009

If anyone out there ever needs some inspiration I know exactly where you can go. This weekend I watch my wife along with a hundreds of other complete the 60km walk that is the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. This is the second year out of the last 3 that my wife has completed this event. (She took last year off as she was a week overdue with our second child…..lame excuse I know 🙂 )

Watching this event is quite the experience. Much like a race you see people of all ages, abilities and fitness levels. Today I saw my wife finish, 1 year after having our daughter. I saw a Women with her daughter and granddaughter (The grandmother was 81 years old!!), a women who was due to have her 4^th baby in 2 weeks, no that is not a typo, and many others who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference, take some initiative and raise some serious money for cancer. (In case you were wondering everyone who walks in the race has to raise at least $2000.) For others there were different reasons for taking part in the event. Two that I can think of really stand out.

First off there is the guy who was the last to cross the line today. Not because he was the slowest but because he has become the unofficial face of the event. This guy (not sure of his name) has taken part in 30 of these events all across the country. Think about that for a second, he has raised over $2000 for each of these events and travelled, I assume on his own dollar to walk the 60km in each of the cities that host the event in Canada. Today he walked across the finish line last holding a pair of shoes that from what I heard from my wife, belonged to a woman that has completed the walk before but recently within the last year passed away from breast cancer. I almost cried when I saw that but not quite.

The second group that stood out was the survivors. These are women who have battled cancer, won, and have found it in themselves to do something about it! I am not sure how many of them took part this weekend but they sure looked great in their pink survivor shirts! (Again, tears were close but I managed to not cry.) And talk about inspiration! How can you even think about complaining that it is too cold, hot or rainy to go out for a run when there are people out there with the determination that these survivors have?

Overall it was a very motivating weekend for me one which I will remember and use during my training.

It was a weekend that also made me very proud of my wife for completing this event for the second time. An event which I know is very close to her heart. Seeing my son hand her a small bouquet of roses on the finishing mat was pretty amazing. (In case you didn’t notice Andrea, I had my sunglasses on when you were finishing even though it was cloudy out.) Did I shed a tear or two…..maybe but I’m good with that. 🙂

They started it!

By

Karen Karnis

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June 7, 2009

It’s funny how talk of running seems to bring out the guilt in people.

While it can happen anywhere, at any time, this usually has a habit of happening in the lunchroom at work. I don’t know if this is related to people looking at what they’re eating at that moment, or thinking about their habits as a whole; maybe it is simply that the lunchroom is the one place where you can bump into anyone. Anyway, it usually starts with a Future-Runner asking me how far I ran last weekend, or something like that. I’ll answer with the distance of my last long run, then wait. Maybe I am a bit of an instigator, but I always enjoy those moments. It is a bit like handing someone a lit stick of dynamite; everyone stares at it for a moment, then the chaos begins while they try to figure out what to do with it.

First, there is one or more comments of shock. Then, you’d think I walked in there and said “Alright you lazy schlubs! Those of you who haven’t participated in any physical activity today, what is going on?!”

“Well I could never do that, my joints won’t take it.”

“Yeah, but you have to remember, this is Karen and she likes to run.”

“I don’t have time.”

“I would just die.”

“I run errands, does that count?”

One after the other, the excuses fly, and each person agrees with the last, and they all work together to assuage their self-imposed guilt. All I did was give a 3-word answer to a direct question!

The woman who goes to the gym every day doesn’t say anything at all; like me I think she’s secretly amused. I think, like me, she can remember what it was like to be was almost completely sedentary. When someone else did something that seemed amazing, I’d feel the need to figure out how I was different, why I could never be like that.

Anyone who recognizes themselves in the above dialogue, remember, I don’t judge. You crack me up, but I don’t think any less of you. What I can say is that you can be like that. Seriously, if I can, anyone can.