Note to self:  Don’t have similar expereince with security on way back home as on way here!

I have to admit I am new to this whole travelling thing.  The furthest I’ve gone away from home is to Cape Breton.  And since that is like my second home, I didn’t have any moments of panic.

The whole customs search thing was different for me.  As well as the passport thing.  And flying for seven hours?  Don’t even get me started.

So when I landed at Gatwick airport, I was a little unprepared for what was going to happen.  I knew I had to go and collect my bags.  I had to walk for miles to get to the almost out door.

And then it happened.  There was the little man.  With a big sign above him that said Declarations.

I’m sure that it meant me and the guilty secret I’ve been carrying around forever. 

I don’t know how to work out splits when it comes to my running time.  I can hear your gasps of shock and horror.  I am so saddened.

Determined to enter this country with a clear conscience.  I march over to the declaration man.  I look him straight in the eye and I say.

“I have something to declare.  Something which once I declare to you will make my trip here more enjoyable.”  Deep breath.  “I can’t do running splits.”

There I’ve declared it.  I feel so much lighter.  So much better.

With a confused look, he says to me.  “That’s really nice Lovey.  I can’t either.  But do you have anything important to declare?”

It was pretty important to me.  But I guess not.

So where was I?  Ah me and 60,000 of my close friends are getting ready to run on Sunday.

Let’s continue with the expo.  Just past the writing walls was an amazing display sponsored by Adidas.  Everything you could imagine and more.  But when you turned that corner.  Magic happened.  It was a mecca for runners.

There was an incredible display of Asics stuff.  Everything from shoes to socks.  And New Balance was well represented.  The lovely young man who came to my rescue and listened to me rambling on about Canadian marathons was very nice.  I was almost inclined to ask if I could take his picture, but was afraid he would think I was a cougar.  So I sighed an moved on.

There were people giving massages.  Ok, not giving them, you had to pay for the pleasure.  And right now, I would go back and pay for the pleasure, my feet are hurting a bit from all the walking I did today.  And that will be a whole other blog in itself.  Never get lost in London is all I’m going to say right now.

There were talks from elite runners in our sport.  Including the man who started the first running magazine.

The London marathon is a huge supporter of charities.  And there was no shortage.  I was blown away at how many charities there were.  And how amazing we runners are when it comes to supporting a great cause.

But the best part will come in a whole other post.  All by itself.  Because I was just so blown away by the goodie bags that they gave away to everyone.  Runner and non-runner.  Let me tell you I needed a whole other person just to carry the goodie bag.  Check back later for that!

Ok, so I am out east doing some training for my work and I figured it would be great to share with you how my runs are going in a new city.  I have never been to Halifax or Moncton before so I was really looking forward to getting out and running places that I have never been before!  After all it can get pretty tedious running the same routes all the time and being able to switch it up is great!   Or should I say would have been great!

I arrived on Tuesday night in a wind storm that made the landing a little tense!  And when I woke up Wednesday it was raining. I know I know, ‘what’s a little rain? Get out and run!’  Hey I’ve said before I don’t mind running in the rain, but this was a downpour that lasted all day long! So I ventured to the ‘fitness room’ at the hotel and jumped on the treadmill, something I hadn’t done in almost a year.  To make a long boring story short, this is what I think of the treadmill.

T edious

R eally Boring

E vey step is one closer to nowhere AND being done!

A lternative to getting soaked or freezing your butt off!

D o people really prefer these things?

M ath, treadmills are in miles us Canadians like Kilometres eh!

I ‘d rather be watching paint dry, oh wait I could do that while running on this!

L azy dogs owners would love one of these.

L ook at me I’m going nowhere!!

Can you tell I don’t like running on a treadmill???  Oh well it serves it purpose and hey it beats getting blown off the road and soaked to the bone!

I have to admit it.  I looked like a poor country bumpkin today at the Flora London Marathon expo.  I thought I was so cosmopolitan.  That crashing sound is me realising I am not.

I mentioned this morning that I was going to try and get to the expo.  The really nice concierge that I asked told me it would take about an hour to get there, he wasn’t kidding.  It also took two trains to get there.  But was it worth every minute of it.

It was held in this HUGE convention centre in the far end of London.  There was also some other sort of convention going on at the same time, but there was more than enough room for all of us.

It started with the parcel pickup.  Very cool and very organized.  For those of you who have run the Scotia Bank Waterfront Marathon in Toronto, it was very similar to what happened next there.  There were a couple of massive boards that you could write your reason for running on.  I was invited a couple times to  write my reasons. 

But I explained I would be flying back home instead.  A couple people told me that since the weather has been so lovely while I’ve been here I must stay.  They insist saying that my presence is required in London so that marathon day will be just as wonderful.

There is just so much to write about, I think I am going to have to post a second time tomorrow.

I am also going to attempt to post a couple pictures that I took this morning.  I hope they will work.  Technology hasn’t been very kind to me during my stay.  I’m not complaining.  It means I have to go in through the back door sometimes.

I ran today in the park at Kensington Palace.  I ran with a new friend.  Rachael.  She has been on the tour with her grandparents.  We met the first day.

I am going to make this post really short.  I am going to go back to the park and get some pictures.  I hope to be able to post them a littl later.

I am also hoping to be able to make it to the expo for the Flora London Marathon.  I am seeing runners everywhere in London.  And I saw some of the exhibitors this morning at breakfast.

I’ll try to take lots of pictures there.  And will post them later too.

In the meantime, I’ll talk to you very soon

Kensington Park. Where I hope to run tomorrow with my new running friend Rachael.

On our way back to London I’m struck by how lonely I am.  And how terrified.

My friends tell me how brave I am.

“For going to London by yourself.  I could never do that.” That is what they tell me.

Kind of like running for the first time. 

You have made the decision to run.  But you don’t really understand at the time that the decision will be life altering.

“Run a 5 km, 10 km half marathon or marathon yourself.  I could never do that.”

And yet you do it.  You find a running clinic.  Or you buy a book about running.  And you teach yourself to run.  Or you have a wonderful woman like Esther teaching you to run.  You learn things about yourself that you didn’t know.  You find out you have a strength you didn’t know you had.

There you are.  On your way to something that will change you forever.

You will be talking to your new friends, because you will make new friendships.  The merits of climatech versus wicking clothing will become hot topics amongst your new friends.  And your old friends will ask questions about the difference between stability shoes and trail shoes.

Without realizing it, you will develop a whole new vocabulary of cool words.  Like fartlek and splits and preregistration.

And you won’t be so lonely.  Or terrified because you find out that you CAN do it. A 5 km race or flying by yourself across a huge ocean.

Ok so in my last post I mentioned that I had a couple of encounters with some K-9 friends on my Sunday run.  Now the nice thing about getting out early in the morning, especially on the weekend is that there are very few cars on the road.  The not so nice thing, everyone is out walking their dogs.  Now don’t get me wrong I like dogs a lot, and according to my son I will be getting one very shortly! But sometimes some owners just don’t get it. What do I mean?? Well, here I was 4km or so into my run and feeling pretty good when I ran into the park in my neighbourhood and began to run around the path on the perimeter of the soccer fields. I could see that there was two people walking a couple of dogs on the other side and knew that I would have to pass by them shortly but didn’t think too much about it.  As I got closer I could see that there was actually 4 fairly large dogs being walked by two older guys and by being walked I mean they were walking beside the dogs and holding on to the leashes that should have been attached to the dogs.  Not good I thought.  As I approached the pack of dogs I was a little tentative but I figured my labouring breath would be enough to scare them away from me.  Wrong. When I was about 40 feet from them the owners were giving them treats, when I was 30 feet away they noticed me approaching, and when I was 15 feet away the largest one had a line on me and was running towards me with what I swear was a slobber filled smile!  Now anyone who has ever had a back problem knows sudden jolting movements are not good for you and can put your back out just as easily as putting on your boxers in the morning. 🙂 Needless to say I had to slow, almost stop rather quickly and wait until the owner called the dogs off and let me continue on my way. Nice eh?  So off I went, after mumbling something under my breath (something I can’t repeat here) and continued around the path.  Well wouldn’t you know it less that 800m later when I am getting ready to leave the park area and get back onto the road I hear the sound of dog tags coming up behind me.  Before I know it there is some yappy little fur ball not on a leash, running in front of me and almost taking my legs out from under me!  So again I slow and in fact I had to stop because the dog wasn’t leaving and the owner was taking his sweet time coming to get him!! Nothing more frustrating that having to lose your momentum because of a dog not on a leash or a lost motorist asking you for directions while you are in the middle of a run!

Now as I mentioned before I like dogs and will have one in my family some time in the future. But at that particular point in time I found myself thinking of the movie Anchorman and the scene when the character played by Jack Black punted Ron Burgundy’s dog Baxter off the bridge.  If I could have I would have substituted Baxter for the dogs owner and done some punting of my own.

Well, I think I may have turned a corner!  In the last few days I have been able to get out on a couple of runs and have felt good…..finally!!  Not only have I been out twice but I increased my mileage over 66% from one run to the next!!  Who says you should only increase mileage by 10% at a time??? Ha! In your face running coaches!! 🙂

The first run on Thursday was my first attempt at going beyond the 3km mark since my back injury.  Brutal I know to think that I am actually celebrating going beyond 3km but trust me the way I was feeling it is a big deal!  (I suppose that 60% increase in mileage isn’t really that big a deal after all)  Anyway, I went out and had it set in my mind to do 5km no matter what, even if I had to walk for 2km of it!  Thankfully I didn’t need to and I managed to get through the full 5km with only a small amount of discomfort in my back and knees. (God that makes me sound old)  Once I was done I resisted feeling too good about it until the next day to ensure that my back wasn’t going to take a turn on me but I was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t!  So then the decision, go again the next day or not??? How about not? 🙂 I figured that since I broke the rule about increasing mileage by only 10% at a time I should be careful. 

So I gave it two days and went out again on early Sunday morning.  Determined to go further yet again I set out cautiously optimistic that I would have no trouble getting past the 5km mark!  The result???  Well I made it past 5km’s; in fact I ended up going a total of 6.6km!  Another 13.8% increase in Mileage!  However it was not without a few bumps in the road, and by bumps I mean dogs.  (I will get into the details next time but lets just say that there was a couple of encounters with our K9 friends to add to the excitement of a Sunday run!) So overall the last two times out have been a success and I am feeling confident that I have turned the corner and am on my way to getting into some longer runs!

There was a discussion on the bus today about socks.  On the running calendar I have at home along with a nice picture of a runner is this saying … “Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a … good pair of socks.”

Who would have thought that socks could cause so much aggravation and so much joy.

As you know from previous blog posts, socks may or may not be important to me when it comes to running races.  In my more serious moments I have to admit that they are pretty important.  Otherwise I wouldn’t buy new socks almost each time I run in a race.  For the record I had the socks that I wore in the first Road2Hope race that I ran in.

But the reason for this post is what happens when you wear socks that don’t fit quite right.  A young girl whose acquaintance I made last year  ran this year’s Around the Bay Road Race.

Unfortunately her socks didn’t fit quite right.  And right from the beginning of her race, the socks slipped and shifted.  Until before the half way mark of the 5 km race, they had slid down completely on one foot.

Sadly I think you know what happened.  Her skin rubbed against her shoe until a blister started and moved on from there. 

I don’t usually give out advice, but today I break that tradition.  Go to your sock drawer now.  Get rid of those old socks before they stop your running career for you.

As I alluded to in the other post, I am a little out of sorts right now.  I have had a little bit of a technical difficulty.  Despite bringing a net book with me so that I can continue to post, I was unable to yesterday.  seems I am a victim of technology.

Right up there on the stress scale with regard to not being able to post was my inability to go for a run.  I missed one day and almost missed the second.  The Gazelle isn’t going to like that at all.  He has running plans for us both.  Which I was glad to join in.

As afraid of his disappointment in my not being able to run was, I was more worried about my own reaction.

While I was recovering from plantar fasciitis the first time around, I had to curtail my running.

My unhappy body was even more upset with me that it was missing its runners high – which I didn’t know at the time.   And it let me know.  Loudly.  On my normal running day, I would get antsy.  And when I missed the actual run.  Look out.  I got really crabby.  Snapping at people and then having to go back and apologize later.  After I had run.

Like I said, I was prepared to miss the tour and go for a run.  Now that I have done both.  Am I ever a happy camper.  It could be runner’s high, but I don’t think so.