Have you ever believed in something so completely, it was almost all consuming.  I don’t mean that in a negative way though, I mean it in a very positive and powerful way.

I wrote about volunteers yesterday.  And how important they are to making the difference between a great race and a bad one.  I said that I would tell you a bit about my motivation for volunteering.

When I got back into running after my injury, I joined Esther’s running clinic.  I think I may have alluded to the fact that she is enthusiastic about running.  And she is very motivational.  I consider myself lucky enough to be included in her running family.

I volunteered for one evening during the very first Road2Hope.  I got to help out at the registration pick up table.  What a hoot that was!  I got to meet really amazing people.  It was so much fun.

The next year, I got to know Esther a little bit more.  I caught her enthusisam.  I caught her love for, no her passion for running.  And somewhere along the line, I figured out something really important.  I was getting in on the ground floor of the most amazing thing I could ever do.

I was going to be able to help shape and mould a race from the bottom up.  I was being given the opportunity to grow along with a great race.  It was like being able to help mould and grow the Around the Bay Road Race when it was started one hundred some odd years ago.

I can’t think of a more incredible thing to do.  And to be able to be mentored by Esther along the way!  What more could I ask for?  Maybe a sub 30 5 km run?  Nah.

Shhhh.  Can I tell you a secret?  I am really good at keeping some secrets.    But some secrets are too good to keep.  This is one of them.

I have been running with a really nice lady named Roxanne for a couple months.  Roxanne had a secret of her own.  She owns a trophy making business.  Her award making business can provide things like trophies, giftware, resin figures.  But the most important thing she does is to make medals for events.  Doesn’t matter what kind of event, she can do it.  Go to her website,  www.aranawards.com you can see all kinds of information about what her business does.

The secret that isn’t a secret is the new medal for the Road2hope.  Roxanne has been given the task of getting the newly designed medals ready for November.  She promises the medals will be ready and a work of beauty.

I am so excited to be able to show you the new medal that Esther had commisioned.  The artist is Peter McCluskey of McCluskey Design.  The medal is just amazing. It is going to look just beautiful when it is presented to the finishers of the races.

I can’t wait for the first mock-up of the  medal Esther gets to show her runners.  There will be no holding back her enthusiasm for the sport or the city she loves so much.  And it definitely won’t be a secret.

So I did it.  I went out for a run tonight, just like I said I would. Was there ever any doubt?? 😉

After the first 500M I got a cramp that lasted the whole run!  Not as bad as it sounds considering the run only lasted 3km 🙂 At the 2.5km mark I had some lovely sharp shooting pain into my knee!  Apparently my muscles in my back are a little tight and this is their way of asking me what the heck I am doing??

Overall I would say it was a success as I managed to get out and run 1 week to the day after injuring my back. I will have to take it pretty slow and do a number of shorter runs before attempting anything to crazy! (and by crazy I mean anything over 5km at this point…sad isn’t it)

I am hoping to get out tomorrow or if not then, atleast a couple of times during easter weekend to burn off the extra calories I am sure to enduldge in.  I am sure my son will be getting lots of chocolate from the easter bunny and being the good dad that I am I will have to help him get through it 🙂

The Gazelle unknowingly is helping me to highlight another point in the safety tips post I started yesterday.

He was running during the daylight hours recently.  He usually runs on the road.  As a runner with a bad knee, he knows that running on ashphalt is better than running on concrete sidewalks.

He runs facing the traffic.  You can always see the cars that are coming toward you.  You can’t see the cars that are coming up behind you.  He also makes sure that he obeys the rules of the road.  You can’t run if you have been hit by a car after darting out in the road.

The Gazelle was crossing at an intersection.  Where unfortunately, the driver of a car decided that the stop sign didn’t apply to him.  “He missed me by this much,” said the Gazelle.  He held up his thumb and pointer finger about two inches apart.  The experience really shook him up.  And got him thinking a little harder about personal safety when running.

Which leads me to another point.  Make sure you wear some sort of reflective stripe somewhere.  It is a little easier for drivers to see a runner if there is something to catch their eye. And check with your local running store, they usually sell LED lights for the times when you run and the sunset comes a little faster than you think.

Also, invest in identification.  The Gazelle bought me an id holder for Christmas.  It is reflective and is also waterproof.  I can wear it around an ankle or my wrist.

Most of all, though use common sense when it comes to running.  When one person in this running family is hurt, it hurts us all.

To what you may ask????  Running again of course!  My back is beginning to feel normal again, well as normal as it can get for now.  Walking and moving around are good, it’s the sitting and lying down that hurt the most.  So I guess all I need to do is keep moving.  Hmmmm I seem to remember a blog entry not too long ago where I was in a constant state of motion doing laps around my house (when I had a house) with my daughter in my arms trying to get her to sleep. Ironic isn’t it, when I could use a crying fussy kid they are 5 hours away!

So there it is again, in writing that I will get out and run tomorrow.  But before I go I wanted to share with you what some of you said you do to cope with injuries.

1. Drink (not the last time you will see this suggestion)
2. be pregnant and eat a ton of crap. (Thanks Kel, you really know how to help out your brother 🙂)
3. shop – mainly for shoes as the rest of the body is not typically up to snuff. (no thanks)
4. Watch People running on TV (no problem, especially if it is Jack Bauer chasing a bad dude…or cousin Joe being a bad dude)
5. Sit in front of the TV with a snack (very doable)
6. spend the weekend in Cabo with a rare single malt scotch and a box of Cohiba Siglo’s (fun I am sure but unfortunately not possible)
7. drink. (familiar theme here, submitted by the same person no less)
8. Drink Light beer and don’t push yourself (have you been watching me for the last week??? long live the beer king 😉 )

 Thanks to all of you for your input and check back Thursday for my update on how my run went….hopefully it won’t be in the snow!

People have compared me to the class clown.  One of my college teachers suggested I give up training for the professional she taught and take up stand up comedy.   But today I am giving up the class clown for a serious topic.

I went to the CBC website today.  It is one of the few websites I can get at work.  Then to the news portion.  There as one of the top headlines was one that jumped out on the page at me.

“Mounties scour Vancouver park for clues in jogger’s killing. ”

I read the article.  A very nice lady in the Vancouver area was killed while  she was jogging.   The story explained how she went for a jog everyday in a park.  And how passionate she was about running.

It got me thinking about safety tips for joggers.  Both men and women. 

One of the first tips that came to mind is to always have a running partner.  Which is why I think joining a running clinic, like the Runner’s Den is such a great idea.  You not only get encouragement and support from people who enjoy the same activity as you, but you get the added bonus of a number of people running along the same course.

Another tip if you do have to run by yourself, is make sure someone knows where you are going and when you are going to be back. 

One safety rule which I sort of break, don’t wear earplugs or anything that is going to distract you from the sounds around you.  I wear my MP3 player when I run, but I try to keep one earbud out.  I hope that having one ear free will reduce my risk.

I’m going to think about other tips and post them.  If you have other tips, please feel free to pass them along.  And I’ll try to include them in the next blog.  In the meantime, in the immortal words of the Sargeant on Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there.”

My colleague Jackie walked past my desk today.  She usually stops by and asks how the blog is going.  “I really like” whatever my blog from the night before completes the comment.  But today when she walked past, she looked a bit down.

Sarah laughed and said that Jackie had just got bad news.  I looked puzzled and Sarah continued.  “Her boyfriend is a Trekie.”  I didn’t think that was such a bad thing, but I guess its all in the perspective.

So I laughed with her for a minute.  And then Earl threw down the gauntlet.  “Write a blog about that.”

I put on my serious blog writing face.  And thought whether to accept or decline the challenge.  I was going to decline, but then Earl continued and asked if I watched Boston Legal.  He explained how Denny and Allan were friends.  The only friend that each other had.

Ahh, I thought, I CAN relate that to running. 

I noticed a couple of races back that runners are a really cool breed.  We can sit down just about anywhere and make friends.

On the shuttle bus back from the Bay relay point, I sat down in a seat that I could see through the smear on my glasses.  There was a really nice lady sitting there too.  She moved over to make space for me.

At first the conversation was a little awkward.  We were both letting the adrenaline that was surging through our bodies settle down.  And I was trying to find something to snack on.

But by the time we left the bus about 15 minutes later, we had made a connection.  I looked around me and similar conversations were taking place all around us. 

No matter how hard I look, I can’t not find someone to chat to.  Don’t call me Denny Crane.