Is it possible to be too enthusiastic about running?

I don’t think so.  After all, I have the greatest mentor ever in Esther.  So when I get the chance to promote Road2Hope or Esther, I try not to miss the chance.   And since Esther is very much the kind of person who walks the walk and talks the talk, to be able to do the same is very important to me.

And I’ll tell you a secret, I like to run with Esther.  I love the way she motivates her runners to do more.  For themselves and for their community.  Any chance I get to run with Esther is one I jump at.

Except, she started to suggest recently that I go with the “big runners.”  Those of us, who can run a straight 5 km and shrug it off by casually mentioning … “oh I just ran a 5 last night.” While the non runner is shouting … “only a five?” in disbelief.

I was really happy that Esther needed an extra person to help with the beginners tonight.  And practically jumped up and down to get her attention when she was looking for someone.  I managed to keep myself from doing cartwheels when she agreed I could go with her.

My instructions were pretty simple.  Take the advanced group and run around the one mile track, rest for a minute and do it again for a total of three miles.  Oh and make sure you talk a lot and motivate the runners.

Pretty easy right?  Except I think I might have been too excited about my task.  Resulting in a group of really frightened beginners.  Runners who thought perhaps that I might be too enthusiastic about running.

Actually at the end, I got the highest compliment ever paid to a sort-of leader.  “Hey, you really know a lot of usefull stuff.”

Hmmm, how do I top that?  Just by showing up again ready to spread more useful information as well as enthusiasm for a sport that has stolen my heart.

I was on one of my drives to Parry Sound recently and to pass the time was listening to a Podcast of a comedian named Adam Corolla and one of the items he was ranting about made me think back to public school.  He was talking about how when he used to play football in high school and college the coaches used say that the water was ‘bad’ for them.  That they use to tell him and his teammates just to ‘wet their lips’ and ‘spit out the water, don’t swallow’.  It made me think of my gym teacher in public school because he use to say the same thing. We’d be running laps of the school going by the outdoor fountain and he would be there telling us: ‘Don’t swallow the water, just get your mouth wet and spit it out, or you’ll get cramps!’  Funny how times change, I am pretty sure that any teacher telling students that or even worse denying them water would have more than a few parents on their case!

Thinking of my old gym teacher and how we used to run laps also got me thinking about the Canada Fitness Test and how every year we had to complete these 5 or 6 fitness tasks to see how in or out of shape we were.  Oh what fun those days were!!  Who can forget doing crunches until you felt like you were going to puke?  Or sprinting the length of the gym to grab a 30yr old bean bag that was full of dust, then turning around and sprinting back again! Awesome!  I believe there was also a straight sprint of 50 meters or so and a long jump of sorts.  And who can forget everybody’s favourite, the Flexed Arm Hang!  What a great feeling to be hanging from a horizontal bar with your arms flexed at 90 degrees for as long as you could.  That had to be the most difficult of all the tests and probably the one that killed a lot of people’s dreams of getting the ‘Award of Excellence’.  🙂 The endurance run was also a dream killer.  We had to run around our school, mostly on the sidewalk (watch out for the old ladies walking)  but at one point it cut through the school yard (watch out for other kids) around a couple of corners and up a set of stairs (nice touch, as if it wasn’t hard enough.)

Ahh the memories….I went on line and searched for the better part of an hour trying to find the ‘standards’ that we had to meet to get the different awards and I could not find it anywhere.  What I did find out is that the program is not in effect anymore and I found a number of articles talking about how out of shape this generation of kids are and questioning whether or not something like the Canada Fitness Test should be reintroduced to our schools. If I remember correctly the Canada Fitness Test was not for everyone. As a matter of fact I am sure there are some people that hated every minute of it and couldn’t care less if they got Bronze, Gold or the Award of Excellence. And maybe we don’t need a structured fitness test to ‘rank’ the level of our kids. What we do need is to lead by example and show them how much fun you can have being active and fit and staying off the couch and away from the video games and other sedentary activities. And for god’s sake let them drink as much water as they need!!  

The Gazelle and I are going to be running the Subaru Niagara Running Series Confederation Park version on Saturday.

The Gazelle is going to go and try for a PB.  I might have mentioned before that his goal is to run in 25 minutes.  He definitely has the drive to do it.

I am a little more laid back about running.  I think I might really be in it for the social aspect.  Ask anyone at work and they will tell you I am a social butterfly.  I flit from group to group.  Talking about my trip to England, or my latest pair of shoes. 

But now, I have an extra reason to be not as laid back about running.  I was reading the CBC website, which I might have mentioned is the only news source for me.  I used to grumble about having to go to CBC, but now I really like it.  They have all kinds of interesting information.  And some really scary stuff too!

Like the recent article about office workers.  It was about a recent study done about to be published in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.  The study was conducted using 17,000 Canadian men and women.  And the concusion of the study is that the longer you sit at your job, the higher the mortality rate.  The really scary part was that it took into account other factors like body mass, smoking, drinking and the amoutn of physical exercise.

So maybe being a social butterfly is a good thing.  And maybe aiming for a 25 minute 5 km isn’t a bad thing either.

Happy Mother’s Day. 

The first words I told my mom this morning.  I gave her this amazing bouquet of flowers from the Farmer’s Market downtown.

I got to relive the most amazing Mother’s Day gift I got.  The joy of having my daughter run me across the line.

I had trained and trained for a race.  It was a 10 km race.  With hills and other stuff designed to make you sweat and work for the moment when you crossed the finish line. 

And two weeks before the race I started to get a bit ouchie on the right ankle.  I checked with my favourite person in the whole wide world (well when it comes to keeping me healthy to run!) and Donnie told me that I would be able to run the race.  I just might have to cut back on my running for a bit afterwards.

I could live with that.  So off I went to the race.  My parents were going to be there too.  And my daughter, who moved out to her dad’s house for a full time job said she was going to try and come in to watch me race.

I hit a wall on the way back to the finish line and had to talk myself through it.  “Donnie said I could do this” was my mantra all the way back. 

I hit the city  block before the finish line and focused on that little finish line dot. 

From my right came this person wearing a brown jacket and the funkiest coloured hat.  I bought that hat, so I knew it was pretty funky! 

My daughter fell into step beside me.  Talking me through to the end of the race and the finish line.  Encouraging me.  Telling me how proud she was of me!

My proudest moment.  Crossing the line with my daughter.  It’s a moment that I treasure always.

What a great day for a run…..that is if you were able to go out before 11:00 when the downpour started! 🙂 Thankfully I managed to coax myself into going as soon as I woke up and avoided all the rain. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a couple of things trying to deter me from going.  First off I got completely ready, went out side, turned on my Garmin and while I was waiting for it to start up turned on my Ipod only to discover that instead of where there should have been a steady green light indicating all was good, there was a green and a yellow light flashing and since no music would play I could only assume that it meant things were not good. (A quick look at Apple’s tech website today confirmed that everything is not right with my little shuffle.) So off I went without music and thinking that this was going to be a tough run without the extra motivation of hearing some good tunes!  My first 2km or so are down a road that use to be awesome to run. It use to be all farm land with a couple of little farm houses and the occasional cow but now it is built up with what looks like hundreds of houses and because of the rain we have had plenty of mud!  Once I made it through the mud and onto the next stretch of road where there are no houses the only people I saw where those passing in the occasional vehicle a large number of cyclist’s and one other runner!

Overall I completed 12km (yeah!) without too much discomfort.  Sure I could have used the music at a couple of points near the end but without it I had some time to think about a few things that I thought I would share:

1)      Cars – why is it that you can be running on a stretch of road where you can see for a KM in each direction, yet when you see a car approaching you from the front and quickly turn and see one coming from the back that they always pass right beside you?  It’s like the drivers of the cars speed up or slow down so they go flying by you and the other car at the exact same time!!

2)      Gel Packs – I learned something about Gel packs today, they have an expiry date!  I took mine at about the ½ way mark and thought it tasted a little funny so I checked the back and sure enough, exp Mar 3/09, was stamped on there very clearly!  Time to check my stash for good ones!

3)      Cyclists – Here’s a riddle for you. How do you pick a runner out of a group of cyclist’s?  Answer:  He/she is the only one that waves and says good morning. 

4)      Blog topics – hmmm can’t share those it may give the others some ideas.  (although from the look of how many entries they have done I don’t think they have any trouble coming up with things to write about, I’d like to know where they get the time!)

5)      Music – Maybe I don’t need it to have a good run, today’s run felt great, but there sure are times when you are getting close to the end where a good tune could help get you through that last km! 🙂

There are many inspirational quotes about running and about training. A quick search on the internet can did up scores of them.

I can’t remember where I found my favourite quote regarding the marathon. But I do know that it pretty much sums up what the distance is all about. “…twenty miles of hope, six miles of truth…”

At at race expo in Ottawa a few years ago I heard Olympic marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter remark that “the halfway mark of the marathon is not the 13 miles mark, it’s the 20 mile mark.” So true!

The longest run in some marathon training programs does not go beyond 32km. Come race day you put a lot of faith in your training to get you through the last 6 miles. The last six miles tells you about your fitness level, your training, and your mental toughness. In other words the final 10km will truthfully tell you what you’ve got. “…twenty miles of hope…six miles of truth…”

Two weeks on, and I’m still reliving the jaw dropping moment when I walked into the running expo in London.  I wish you could see my face right now.  My jaw is somewhere down around my shoulders when I think of the time I spent there.

I relive the moments when I walked into the Expo.  Well, heck, you can see it for yourself. 

One of my favourite moments is when I went to the Spinal Chord Injury booth, and there was my son’s favourite video game character.  Sonic the Hedgehog.  The nice lady asked me if I was going to run in the marathon, but I sadly had to tell her no.  I did explain how Sonic was my son’s favourite cartoon character.  She offered me a free shirt to take back with me.  For the record my son was thrilled with his gift.  Even more than his I Heart London shirt.  Go figure!

Another wonderful moment was at the very end when I asked the security guard about the goodie bags being given away.  I asked what they were for.  He told me to go and get my onw bag.  And, he said, bring it to me when you get it.

I was surprised by all the stuff that was in that bag.  Cranberries, and tea and a spray deodorant and beer.

I’ve heard of races that still give away beer at the end of the race.  Why you ask?  Because of the nutrients that are in the beer.  Believe it or not, but it does help with recovery.

I like to think that whether the expo is being held in London England, or London, Ontario the experience is the same for all.  A feeling of community.  And those surprising moments that you will remember for a very long time.