Time for an update

Well, Christmas is right around the corner and I think it's about time I update my blog.  I have been remiss on my blogging, but you blog followers will be happy to know that I am going to start blogging more regularly.  This is going to be the best Christmas ever, for two reasons:  1:  The new man in my life, Arrigo, and 2) I just bought myself a really nice Christmas present - a Quintana Roo tri bike, in my signature colour - well d'ah, what other colour would I choose???  It's on the boat right now being shipped to Tennessee.  Life has new meaning ha ha!

It's going to be a great race season in 2012.  I'll be at the bottom of my age group, so maybe I'll be faster than a lot of my competitors.  I can only hope.  My first race will be Coronation Triathlon in May.  That's a good start to the season because it's in town and it's a fun race.  I think Arrigo might even give it a shot.  The Great White North Half Ironman Triathlon in Stony Plain is on Canada Day and of course, I'm doing Ironman in August.  The ITU race at Hawrelak Park is a must-do as well.  The ATA race calendar hasn't been published yet, so I don't know for sure when the races are scheduled, but I plan on being busy this coming summer.  Ahh, the life of a triathlete...planning far in advance.

My training officially started on November 7 and it wasn't going very well for the first little while.  I have a foot injury and wasn't able to run, but my swimming has been going well and I ride twice a week.  I'm just now able to run, but not very far because I'm being cautious with my foot.  Can't wait to get on my new bike though and fly like the wind, but that won't be until at least April.

That's about it for now.  Stay tuned!

Holy Expensive!

Ironman is getting so expensive.  I dropped $702 to race next year, but what the hell - it's only money and it is what I do afterall!

I forgot to mention in my earlier entry that there were over 2,800 athletes starting the race yesterday, and there was quite a bit of carnage on the road with all the cyclists.  How they can have a drafting rule with that many bikes on the road is beyond my comprehension.  If you are in a cyclist's draft zone you have 20 seconds to pass, and with that many bikes on the road, it's pretty difficult to stay five metres behind the bike ahead of you, and then as soon as you pass that bike there's another bike to pass.  It's a good thing the drafting marshalls aren't always around, but if they catch someone drafting, it's a four minute penalty in the sin bin.  With next year being the 30th anniversary of Ironman Canada, there will likely be more athletes than this year.  They almost didn't have enough room for all the bikes in transition this year.  I think it's about time they put a cap on the number of athletes.  It's becoming dangerous.

It was just announced recently that there is a new Ironman in Canada to add to the list of Ironmans around the world - in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.  Now us triathletes will have two Canadian venues to choose from and it's about time. Well, 2012 is already spoken for, 2013 is Italy, so Mont-Tremblant will have to wait until 2014!

Today has been a pretty boring day.  We went to Tickleberry's for ice cream.  I had a single waffle cone, which is actually three scoops of ice cream.  I love ice cream, but by the end of the third scoop, I wasn't enjoying it too much.

We leave homebound early tomorrow morning, but not before we stop by and pick up our pre-ordered fruit - peaches, grapes, plums, and blueberries.

It has been a whirlwind trip, but I had a lot of fun volunteering and connecting with some of my friends that I don't see much at home.

Warm and Sunny Penticton

Here I am in sunny Penticton. I came down here to watch Ironman Canada and volunteer. I love the energy of Penticton during Ironman Week. Of course, the main reason I'm here is to register for next year's race. After taking this summer off of triathlon, I'm looking forward to getting back into training. Watching the race is so inspiring.

My volunteer duty started out in the nutrition tent. We were preparing food for the entire race - volunteers and athletes alike. Sandwiches, bagels with cream cheese, muffins, cookies, pretzels and fruit. Every two hours Dominos Pizza delivered about 30 pizzas to feed us hungry volunteers, and by the time the last delivery was made, there were over 800 extra large pizzas to feed us and the athletes when they were finished their gruelling day.

I was making sandwiches when I heard Paul Tichelaar's name announced when he was coming in from the bike. I dropped everything and ran over to see him come out on the run. It was so good to see him out there. I saw alot of other friends as well.

After about two hours in the nutrition tent, the bike transition captain came over and asked if he could borrow a few volunteers to help out in his area. I immediately put my hand up. It sounded like so much more fun than preparing food. When the triathletes finish their 180 km ride, they hand their bikes over to us to re-rack them. It was a flurry of activity because sometimes there were 12 bikes or more that would come in at one time. It was quite an assembly line. Other than wetsuit peeling, I think it is the busiest area. There were about 60 of us running around transition re-racking bikes while working up a sweat. It was 34 degrees on race day. I felt sorry for the athletes. I certainly got my exercise running all over the place. Brian Gerbrandt from the bike club was in transition too. Nice to see a friendly face, not that they weren't all friendly. I met a lot of new friends. Maaan, there were some nice bikes. I was in bike heaven. I must have had my hands on about $200,000 worth of carbon fibre ha.

When my shift was over I went back to the hotel to watch more action. Super 8 is on Main Street, so I didn't have to go very far to see the action.

Some people say they don't understand why I do this and that I'm crazy. When they ask me, I always have the same answer - because I enjoy the training, being able to eat endlessly, and of course the bragging rights - well, I already have bragging rights six times over. It's a healthy way of life and I love working towards a goal. Oh, and I'm never bored! Why do you do what you do????

Today is a relaxation day, but first thing's first - registration at 9 a.m. and then to Peach City Sports to look at wet suits. Mine has a few tears in it so I think it's high time I get a new one.

I also want to check out helmets at the Bike Barn. I figure some helmets may be on sale now that Ironman is over. After that, the only thing I'll need is a new bike - yikes. I guess now that I've said it out loud, I'll have to get one.

Well, I better sign off now and start my day. Stay tuned.

P.S. Paul Tichelaar's time and overall placing:
Overall: 10:34:08
Swim: 53:20
Bike: 5:33:35
Run: 4:03:19
T1: 1:29
T2: 2:29

A much needed break

In May I decided I was going to take the summer off of triathlon.  After 10 years of  training I needed a mental, as well as a physical break. I was just going through the motions of training, but my heart wasn't in it.  I've stayed true to my decision, that is until I decided I needed a goal so I could maintain some level of fitness.  I registered for the Kelowna half marathon on the Thanksgiving Day long week-end.  I need a goal for training; I can't just run for the sake of running - that's boring.

I still ride at least once per week - when I want to - and it feels good to not feel obligated to put in so many hours on the bike.

I wanted to stay somewhat involved in triathlon, and once a triathlete always a triathlete, so I registered for two back-to-back sprint triathlons... Lake Chaparral on August 7 in Calgary and St. Albert on August 14.  After all, they are short triathlons and I figured I have enough of a base that I can get through a couple of short races with no training.

As the day of Lake Chapparal was approaching, I started getting nervous that I may not race too well, but I wasn't overly concerned.  I have nothing to prove to anyone.

Race day is here and I'm ready to toe the line.  My swim is going well and I'm not going off course, well not a lot anyway.  My time was 17:49 - decent, considering I haven't swam since Ironman last August.   At 47:53 the bike took longer than usual for a 20 km ride, but I later found out that the course was long, so that made me feel much better.  Oh maan!  Am I going to be able to get through a 5 km run after all that.  I guess we'll see.  Good news; I got through it with a time of 32:16.  My overall time was 1:37:57, 9th out of 27 women is pretty respectable - the top third.  Check out my results here.  Oh, and just so you know; triathlons are easier to get through if you train!

That was last week-end; now onto this week-end.

I didn't have to wake up quite as early this morning since I only live three minutes away from the race site.  My swim was slower today than last week-end.  I guess wet suits really do improve a person's swim time.  The swim took 18:13; bike 45:05 and run 28:51.  Fourth out of 13 in my age category is very decent, and considering I'm at the top of my age group and the majority of my competitors are younger than me, that's even more of a well-deserved pat-on-the-back.  Each of my three disciplines are OK; it's my transitions that need work - they are so slow.  Here are my results.

What a week-end

I went cycling in the BC interior with a group of 14 other people on the May long week-end. This is my story.

The week-end started off innocently enough, but it didn't take me long to declare it "dirty text week-end". Please allow me to clarify. For those of you who know Crash and Mars from NOW Radio, you know that every Tuesday morning, they have a contest dubbed "Dirty Text Tuesday", where people are supposed to text in with a sexual innuendo that, of course, can be read on the air. We laughed all week-end when something was said that could somehow become a sexual inuendo. I had already come up with my first dirty text from the night before as a couple of young guys at the local bike shop were attempting to put my saddle on my seat post (that sounds dirty in and of itself). They couldn't figure out how to do it and then one of the guys just simply thought outside the box and put the seat post on from the back of the seat - "Well," I said, "I never thought of entering it from behind!". First dirty text of the week-end! I digress. Back to the Silver Triangle - that's what this ride was called.

When seven people - Ernie, Bernie, Angela, Irene, Wayne, me, along with our trusty driver, Scotty, pile into a van for a road trip, there is bound to be a lot of fun along the way, and indeed there was! The other eight cyclists - Larry, Bob, Ed, Barb, Glenn, Pete, Justin and Euna - who we were to meet in Nakusp, don't know what they missed. We stopped at a beautiful water fall along the way and as somebody was trying to get the entire waterfall into view for a picture, Bernie said "Can you get it all in?" Yikes! Second dirty text. Time flew by and before we knew it, we were there...and the weather? A lot nicer than in Edmonton.

After we checked into our motel in Nakusp, some of us surveyed this quaint little town and later we all met and went out for dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant on the lake - the restaurant with a million dollar view. Time for some shut-eye...tomorrow is a long day.

Day 1—Nakusp to Kaslo - 92 km, climbing 1,030 metres

We awoke to a sunny morning. First thing's first - breakfast. Glenn and Pete treated us to a wholesome meal of bagels, cream cheese and fruit. During breakfast, Glenn was being true to form while he was thinking of me and the contest I would enter, when he showed me a pine cone from his back yard. "Nice cone!" - oops, was that out loud? Third text, and we hadn't even started our first day of riding yet! I was storing all my dirty ideas in drafts on my phone so as to quickly be able to submit them when the time came.

After breakfast we packed up our lunches and departed for our first day of cycling, bound for Kaslo.

Who mapped out this ride anyway??? Bob!!!! Within two minutes, we were climbing a hill. What the hell? At the first rest stop - 16 km into the ride, we were at Summit Lake Provincial Park and we all wondered what happened to Irene; she wasn't there. Did she miss the stop? Did she have a flat tire? We didn't know. Scotty drove ahead to see if he could find her. There she was. She did miss the stop, so we all told her to read her map more carefully.

Onwards and upwards to the next rest stop - lunch at New Denver Campground. So far, so good. Bob has planned nice rest stops, but what's with the climbs as soon as we start riding?
After lunch we started an 18 km climb followed by a 28 km down hill. It was cold up top, as you can see by the snow in the picture. It was beautiful though. The downhill was so long that I was actually getting tired of it. Since there was a head wind, it wasn't a very speedy ride either, which added to the boredom. I love speed. Entering Kaslo I felt like I was riding into a scene from Gunsmoke, and our hotel looked like a saloon. Whoever was responsible for booking our rooms deserves a medal. Well done! We stayed in condominiums with a huge veranda overlooking the lake - another million dollar view.

Everybody split up and did their own thing. Some went for a leisurely stroll, some went to dinner. May Days was on in Kaslo, and there were plenty of activities going on throughout town, including a lumberjack contest - "nice pole.!" D'oh fourth text.

Day 2—Kaslo to Nelson - 69 km, climbing 830 metres

Breakfast in Kaslo was fabulous because we had kitchens and real tables and chairs. The only downfall was the weather. It was raining. I guess this means we have to wear our rain gear instead of sunscreen.

Leave it to Angela to say "I'm wet already!" - Fifth text.



Within a couple of minutes of our start to the day, we started climbing. Again, Bob? Really? We haven't even had time to warm up yet. The rain subsided and turned to drizzle. In fact, it was actually warming up. About an hour after we started our ride, we were at Ainsworth Hotsprings. We opted to not go to the springs because we would have been too rushed.

Our next rest stop was at Kokanee Creek Provincial Campground, but not before I made an unscheduled pitstop at a small bakery at the Balfour ferry. While I was eating a very sinful cinnamon bun at the picnic table outside, suddenly Bob appeared, and then as Irene rode by, I yelled at her to come and join us in bakery heaven. Since one cinnamon bun wasn't enough, I had two because they were so delicious. I could have justified it by the amount of cycling I was doing, but I didn't feel like justifying it. Not long after that, as Angela and Barb rode by, I beckoned them to join us. It was a small party as we ate baked goods in the rain.

As we climbed on our trusty steeds, the rain really started coming down. It wasn't a full downpour, but enough to make me put on my waterproof gloves. We talked about the fires in Slave Lake, which led to further discussions about sexy fire men, and I said "Can I hold onto your hose!", as if I was talking to one of them - sixth text.

By the time we got to the lunch stop, the rain subsided. I wasn't the only person who thought this was a good time to change into some dry socks. If you've ever ridden a bike in the rain, you know that you will do anything to stay warm. I put ziplock bags around my feet inside my cycling shoes. You gotta do what you gotta do.

As we rode into Nelson, the sun was shining. We came upon some steep climbs, and at one point when I had to stop on a hill, I couldn't get going fast enough to clip both shoes in, and as I started to fall, I couldn't unclip so went over with my bike. My hip and head smashed into the pavement. Good thing I was wearing a helmet. I know a person who says he doesn't wear a helmet because he rides slow. I don't think you can get much slower than I was - at an almost standstill - when I was glad I was wearing a helmet - you don't need to be going fast to hurt yourself.

We checked into the Dancing Bear Inn hostel, showered and met up to go out for pizza. Pete's role was playing the waiter. After dinner some of us walked around the hippie town.

Day 3—Nelson to New Denver - 100 km, climbing 830 metres

The next morning we awoke to a much nicer day than the previous day. It wasn't really sunny, but at least it was relatively warm with no signs of rain on the horizon. Angela and I cooked breakfast - pancakes, strawberries and bacon - and it went over well and now that our tummies were full, we were ready to take on the last leg of this fabulous trip.

Again, like the other two days, we had a climb within a couple of minutes. My neck was beginning to get sore by this point, so the ride wasn't as enjoyable for me as it had been up to now. We eventually had a tail wind and we were all drafting each other. It was nice to be riding fast. There‘s nothing sweeter than the sound of tires rolling on pavement!



Next stop - lunch, and guess what? It was across the road from a bakery, so guess what a few of us did? You got it. We went to the bakery to get baked goods or coffee. After we finished our lunch, we carried on our journey, all except Angela and me. We were now in the sag wagon as support. By the time we got to the top of the last climb, I had wished I kept riding. The downhill from the top was fantastic, or at least it seemed like it would have been.



When we arrived in New Denver, the ride was over. We checked into our lovely domed motel and several of us took advantage of the hot tub. The hot tub was getting mighty steamy, what with the conversation and all, but we didn't make any part of it into a dirty text. It wasn't that kind of hot tub.

Drive back to Edmonton

The van was a bit cramped driving back to Edmonton because Bob joined us. Originally he met us in BC and his wife drove home. I had a ton of fun riding, joking, talking dirty texts, and just plain being silly. Oh, and the winner for the dirty text contest: "Keep pumping; it'll eventually get hard", for a whopping total of seven dirty texts. Maaan, was that ever a fun week-end.

Last day

Today is our last day in California. We fly back to cold Edmonton tomorrow. We have had such nice weather here. I hope Alberta gets spring soon. I need proper weather to wear my new clothes.

After our breakfast at a place called Red Apple, we continued our drive north to San Francisco. On the way, just outside of Santa Cruz proper, we stopped at a mall to do what? You guessed it, SHOP. More Victoria's Secret, a necklace and cute summer dress.

OK, I think I've shopped enough. Let's go. We continued our drive towards San Francisco, all the while stopping along the way at various beaches and points of interest. At one beach there were a bunch of sail boarders, and we stopped to watch for awhile. The next stop was a place called Half Moon Bay. What a place to call home.

We're getting close to San Francisco now, so we are diligently watching road signs to take the correct exit. There were no signs that directed us to the airport so we ended up lost somewhere, and the gas tank was almost on empty. Talk about a stressful situation ... so many roads, so much honking. What do I do? Where do I go? First thing's first...we need to find a gas station. People were very helpful and directed us to a Shell. I never thought to ask if they have air miles (smile).

Now, to find the airport. I asked the attendant at the gas station to direct us in the right direction. We were far away from the airport, but it was easy to get there, or at least I thought it was. We got on the right freeway, but the signs weren't clear to me, so we ended up in South San Francisco. I was getting a little frustrated by that point. We stopped and asked for directions again. We finally got to the car rental return area of the airport. We checked in the car and an attendant asked us if we would like a ride to a hotel. Oh, yes please! It wasn't part of their regular service, but they offered to take us anyway. The hotel was nicer than the one in Monterey and it was a lot cheaper and had better service. I guess that's what you get in a tourist town like Monterey.

We're almost home, but there was a glitch when we went through Security. I forgot to put a bottle of chocolate/red wine in my checked luggage and I had to throw it out before I went through the pearly gates AKA Security.

The day after

This is our last day in Monterey and we were very creative in packing, what with all the clothes I bought. Thanks to the Victoria's Secret tote I got free because I spent more than $75, I had an extra carry-on bag.

We picked up Beryl and Alissa at their hotel and proceeded to drive towards the 17-Mile Drive exit. The 17-Mile Drive is a beautiful scenic drive on a toll-road that twists and turns through neighbourhoods of the extremely wealthy and even the rich and famous. The mansions, no wait, palaces, were unbelievably huge and talk about location, location, location. The views were spectacular, not that I got their view first hand, but I used my imagination. This exclusive area is also home to Pebble Beach Golf Course, where we had lunch. I'd like to say we hobnobbed with the rich and famous, but I don't think we were in the right area of the neighbourhood. Rumour has it that Clint Eastwood lives in this neck of the woods. While we were driving, and when I would see an extraordinarily large palace, I would say "I wonder if this is where Clint lives". We're on a first-name basis ha ha. Then we would tell my Mom to go knock on the door and ask "Is Clint in?" She's around the same age as him, so maybe the butler/maid/cabana boy would think she is a friend of his. The worst that could happen is that they might tell her "You've got the wrong house; he lives over there".

We came to a community that had much smaller homes and Beryl said "the poppers must live here". Again, location, location, location.

When we finished our scenic drive, we went to Carmel and did some more shopping. I was surprised I only bought some socks. I didn't see anything that struck my fancy too much. I did see a nice leather belt for $790, and that didn't include the buckle. I think it must have been alligator, but still, $790. Really???

After our day of adventure, we drove Beryl and Alissa to their hotel in Monterey and we drove north towards San Francisco, but not without stopping in a place called Watsonville for the night. I paid $3 to get WIFI, but it didn't work very well. I kept getting disconnected from the Internet. So much for posting a blog that day.

You want hills? I'll give you hills!

I crossed the finish line; albeit, not quite as quickly as I had hoped. My goal was four and a half hours; but my official time is here. Click on "Overall" at the left of the screen, and my results are on page 31. You will see there are two times; net time and gun time. The gun time was when the race started. My wave started three minutes later, so the net time is my official time. It was a glorious day; the weather was perfect and the scenery was spectacular. There is only one day a year that this portion of Highway 1 is closed to traffic. I could hear the surf and the seals barking because there were no motor bikes, motor homes, or yahoos taking away from the glorious sounds of nature. I can see why this race is so popular. It is a very tough course though - only a couple of flat sections. The rest is either an uphill or downhill, and not only that, but long hills. I don't think I slept much last night. The hotel was to call and wake me up at 4 am, I set the room's alarm clock for 4 am and I set my watch alarm for 4 am. I don't know why I always worry that I'm going to sleep through all these methods of technology! Pre-race jitters I guess. After I got on the bus that took us to the race start, I felt at ease. I don't have to worry about anything anymore, other than running the race. The gun went off at 6:48 am and I was running well - right on pace - a 10 minute mile. The objective was to hold back my enthusiasm and not pass anyone so eventually I will be able to run a negative split - where the second half of the marathon is faster than the first half. The mile markers were funny, so I'm going to share some of them with you. Mile Marker 1:
11 minutes, jeez, I better speed up abit. Later I would find out that mile marker 1 wasn't quite in the correct location. Mile Marker 2:
20 minutes - spot on; just where I want to be. Mile Marker 3:
30 minutes - this is turning out to be a great day. Oh wait, it's onlys 30 minutes into the race. I had a huge smile on my face taking in all the scenery. I was getting warm, so off came my T-shirt. Ah, this is better. There were mansions right on the water front. Maan, it would be nice to live on the ocean front. Mile Marker 4 Just as the mile marker suggests, thank God for porta-potties. So far, so good; I'm still on pace - yippee. Now, if only the next four hours goes as well as the first 40 minutes, I'll be in marathon heaven. Here's a video of the piano player on the course. Not a nicer setting to hear beautiful music.
And now...the Japanese drummers:
At about mile 14, my legs were starting to get sore. The hills were too much for my legs to take. I persevered until my legs were so sore I couldn't persevere anymore. I started to do the walk-run thing and my walking eventually got to be longer, so much longer that I was hardly running anymore. This is going to be a long walk to the finish line. I was so far over my goal time of 4:30 that I really didn't care anymore. As long as I crossed the finish line before the cut-off and got the medal, any time was OK with me.


Mile marker 21 eventually came along,
and then shortly after that I saw mile marker 25 in the distance. How can that be? Did I miss 22-24 somehow? Did I fall asleep? Then I came to the Point Lobos State Reserve turn-off. Really...? Are you serious? I have to go three miles that way - an out-and-back? I thought it was too good to be true to have missed those mile markers. That walk seemed to take forever.

When I finished that portion of the run and about another half mile down the road, there was a table of fresh strawberries that was awaiting me. They were cold too.

I can see the finish line in the distance. Maan, my legs hurt. I usually have enough gas in the tank to sprint to the finish, but energy wasn't the problem that day. Sore legs was the problem. It was about 30 seconds to the six hour point and the announcer was encouraging us near-finishers to finish under that time. Every part of my lower body was sore, but I dug deep and pressed through the pain for a few seconds, just so I could cross the finish line in under six hours since the start of the race. I finished with a second or two to spare. I didn't actually start until three minutes after the start of the race because the start was divided into waves, and I was in the second wave. There were too many people to start all at once, so I actually finished a little more than three minutes before the six-hour point, but I was in the moment so I indulged the announcer.

The first thing that hurt when I crossed the finish line were my toes. Coming to a sudden stop - thank GAWD my exercising was done for the day - made my toes slam into the front of my shoes - Ouch! How much more pain can I endure today? Let's find out by walking around, trying to stretch, trying to sit down to go to the bathroom, and any other regular daily activity that will cause pain. Forget about the Runner's World Challenge...these were the challenging activities (ha ha).

Food, where's the food? I had to go into the peon's food tent because the Runner's World Challenge tent didn't have any food left. That's what happens when you're too slow. I also missed out on my massage because by the time I finished eating, they weren't accepting any more people for massages. Another flaw on the organizers part. After finishing my first Ironman with a time of 16 and a half hours, there was still a full tent of massage therapists and lots of food left. There is no better organized race than an Ironman.

When I got back to the the hotel room, I went for a hot tub and then an ice bath, in hopes of my legs getting some relief tomorrow. I felt like an old lady when I moved - very slow. I even walked backwards down the stairs.

Mom and I went for burgers at a place called t.g. Burgers. Apparently, 't.g.' stands for 'too good'. Oh, look, a store. Mom laughed as I said that. She got a kick out of watching me get excited about shopping. While we waited for our burgers, I went shopping at the boutique just beside the restaurant... I digress; back to the burgers. I agree with the analogy of 't.g.' meaning 'too good' because they were the juiciest, best tasting burgers ever. The milkshakes were also served the old fashioned way... in those metal milkshake tumblers.

After dinner I just wanted to head back to the hotel to relax, blog and go to bed. Tomorrow we go to Carmel-by-the-Sea, take a drive along 17-Mile Drive, and more shopping. Beryl and Alissa are going to join us.

Day of Relaxation

It is supposed to be a day of staying off of my feet as much as possible. First things first though. Early morning rise and shine to go for a shake-out run of about 2 or 3 miles that some of the Runner's World Challenge participants got together to do. I paid about $150 extra to enter this race as a Runner's World Challenge competitor. The extra money is worth it though, considering what I get - personalized coaching where a training schedule is e-mailed to me every week; access to the coaches to ask any questions (no matter how stupid); Runner's World Challenge technical T-shirt; a running book titled Going Long; personalized package pick-up; special race strategy sessions; meet and greet; special bus transportation to the race start; a heated tent to stay warm and relax before and après-race; free post-race party; and of course the Finisher's medal - all participants get that, not just the challenge runners.

What a gorgeous day. It's a shame that I am supposed to stay off my feet as much as possible, or at least that is the smart thing to do. I would love to be out and about. Well, I didn't exactly stay off my feet for most of the morning. After my shake-out run, we drove to Carmel so Mom would know how to get there tomorrow. It was easy to get there, and once we did, we stayed for awhile. We went to a cozy coffee shop and while Mom waited, I went to check out the local shops. This trip should be called the "Shop-til-I-drop" trip because that's what I'm doing. I bought a pair of rubber cowboy boots - very funky. You know...for the wet weather we get back home. I also bought some colourful sandals that will go nicely with the new dress I bought yesterday.

I haven't thought about retiring yet, but when I do I think I would like to spend some time in this part of the world. Carmel is very charming, or at least the small part I saw is. Nice boutiques with a country feeling, but expensive.

Hey, I forgot to mention how small the world is. At the shake-out run I saw a lady who looked an awful lot like Beryl, a lady who works in my office. I approached her, and sure enough, it was Beryl and a friend of hers. She is running in this marathon as well. I was flabbergasted. It's so funny how you run into people from your corner of the world when you're on holidays in another corner of the world. It's actually not as surprising as you'd think. When you're a serious athlete and enjoy doing destination races, it's not hard to understand why anybody would like to run in one of the most beautiful marathons in the world.

When we got back to the hotel, I had an ice bath to prepare my legs for the long day ahead. Ten agonizing minutes in the bath tub; actually, it wasn't agonizing just uncomfortably uncomfortable. It seems that perhaps my legs have gotten used to ice baths because I used to only be able to stand it for 50 seconds. Hopefully it will be worth the while. My legs were as red as a lobster when I got out of the tub, but there was a reward after the ice bath - a hot shower. I will have another ice bath tomorrow after the race or my legs will be too sore in the days ahead to sight see the way I want to and contribute to California's economy. Is she crazy? Ice baths? Well, maybe, but my legs will recover much quicker and inflammation will be kept under control.

The next item on the agenda is the pasta party. It wasn't too exciting, but I met some nice people. Now, it's time to go back to the hotel for much needed rest. Tomorrow is a long day. I'll have another medal to add to my collection. I'll post my results when I can.

Shop til I drop

Yesterday I told you that I probably won't be watching the Royal Wedding. I turned on the TV at about 1:30 am, but it wasn't being televised yet, I turned it on again at 4:00 and I missed the actual ceremony, but saw the couple after they were married. Catherine, as we now are to call her, was beautiful. The wedding dress was absolutely spectacular and it was nice that she looked like herself. Of course Wills looks OK too. It's nice to see a Royal couple who are happy. It was sad how Charles treated Diana because I believed she truly loved him, but he didn't love her. I have seen the ceremony several times over since then and I can't get enough. I'm actually watching a replay right now.

Today was a shopping day. The first thing I did after I got up was go grocery shopping, yes, grocery shopping. The local grocery store that I have frequented a couple of times now is fantastic. There is a coffee bar, where I had a chai latte. I loaded up on the salad bar too. I bought fruit, milk and bottled water to put in our hotel fridge. It's healthier than eating restaurant food.

After unloading the groceries, we went to the Conference Center so I could pick up my race package at the Health and Fitness Expo. I ran into a friend from Edmonton. I ran into a lot of people from Edmonton when I was in Australia too and it is nice to see a friendly face amongst the chaos of a strange city.

I visited a lot of little shops - White House Black Market, Lucy, and Victoria's Secret. WHBM and Lucy are great stores that I wish we had in Edmonton. As a matter of fact, I bought a dress and skirt at WHBM and a pair of capris at Lucy. Many years ago on the TV show Friends, Phoebe mentioned a store called Pottery Barn. I thought it was just a fictitious store, but today found out that it is indeed real. It is a home decorating store, kind of like Pier Imports, but there wasn't anything noteworthy; nothing Edmonton doesn't have. Victoria's Secret was on hand too, so I went shopping there as well, but I was kind of disappointed in the store. West Edmonton Mall has a bigger Victoria's Secret. Oh, I also bought a pair of funky socks - my signature colours...lime green and yellow with sparkly giraffes on them.

Oh, by the way, my Mom hasn't been forgotten. She's been with me all the way, but at a distance. She doesn't like walking too far, so she lets me go and do my thing while she keeps herself busy people watching. She also manages to meet new people. When I arrived at our meeting spot, she was sitting at her table with a couple of locals, all the while chatting to her heart's content. She told them that I was running the Big Sur Marathon on Sunday and a guy at a neighbouring table heard us, so he jumped in and we started talking about training and everything else involved in preparing for this race. He was surprised that I hadn't ran any half marathons this past winter. Well, he's from Georgia, where it doesn't snow and get cold. Guess where I'm from - yes folks, the deep freeze of the north, where we get very frigid temperatures and tons of snow. Lots of races during the winter months aren't something that Edmontonians do. I have a lot of base though to get me through the race. My friend at the Expo said I picked a hard marathon for my first one and to that I said "If I can do six Ironmans, I can do this", not that it'll be easy.

Time to head back to the hotel. I want to rest and get a good night sleep tonight because I won't get a good sleep tomorrow. I also have to psyche myself up for the ice bath I plan on taking tomorrow night to prepare my legs for a 42.2 km run. I will have to get up at around 4:00 am on Sunday and make my way to the conference center to get on the bus to be driven out to the race start.

I better get going now. I'm supposed to do a short run before the day's over - have to keep my muscles limber.

Ciao for now.

The countdown is on

Well, here we are, in the Edmonton International Airport. The first order of business is to check in. United Airlines charges $25 to check baggage, so my Mom and I are sharing a suitcase, but of course I am bringing two carry-ons to bring back the loot I will buy in California.

Security was quite the experience. I forgot to take my laptop out of its case and take off my watch, so of course off went the metal detector. The security guard told me I've been randomly chosen to be a participant in either a pat-down by a female security officer (wanna-be police officer) or a body scan. Of course I chose the pat-down. I don't want to expose myself to unnecessary radiation. It wasn't a big deal; it was a woman afterall. What I've got, she's got too, but I can see some people getting offended.

Mom breezed through security without incident. She doesn't have complications, like a laptop, to slow her down.

Oh, look, there's a Starbucks. I think I should go and get a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, don't you? On second thought, let's go for a Caramel Macchiato. Mmmmmm! I prefer the independent coffee shops to Starbucks or Second Cup, but you have to deal with the cards that you're dealt.

Hey, our flight is supposed to have already boarded. There's only 15 minutes left to take-off. Are we at the wrong gate? Panic is beginning to set in. Nope, we're in the right place. What's up? Alas, the flight has been delayed by 45 minutes. I guess I'll go over to that book store and read up on the Royal couple. I don't think I'll be watching the Royal Wedding, but I'm sure I'll see lots of it on the news. I just want to see the procession, the moment Kate steps out of the Rolls Royce for everyone to see, the walk down the aisle and the expression on Prince William's face when he sees her for the first time in her wedding gown. Oh, who am I kidding... I want to see it all; that's why I have programmed the PVR to record the wedding on Friday morning. When I get home I can see it all, but I'm sure I'll see it al on the news over the next week.

The lady is now calling passengers to board the plane. More later.

Now, we're on our way to San Francisco where it is a balmy 69 degrees - 20 degrees Celcius for those of you who don't know how to calculate the American version of temperature to the rest-of-the-world version of temperature. I won't pretend to know the conversion, because I had to use the unit converter tool on my phone. Why can't those Americans join the rest of the world and use metric? No matter how you look at it though, it'll be nice to be somewhere warmer than Edmonton where the grass is green.

Right about now I am thinking of all those "Mayday" TV shows I have been watching - a series where investigations occur regarding planes that have crashed. Undoubtedly, not a good thing to think about while sitting in a plane, packed in like sardines. However, I can say I have been somewhat educated about the workings of planes.

We've arrived in San Francisco and we promptly went to pick up our rental car. We just wanted to get on our way to Monterey. Oh my GAWD! So many lanes, so much honking, so many places to turn. What do I do? Oh no! We finally got on the right freeway, just purely by luck. The drive to Monterey along Highway 1 was beautiful. When we arrived in Monterey, the first stop was a MacDonald's to ask directions to the hotel. Holy wind! I almost got blown over when I got out of the car. Maaan, I hope it's not like this for the next five days. I'm tired now. Time for bed. I'll keep you posted.

Confidence Builder

Today I raced the St. Albert 10 Miler. I wasn't sure that I would perform very well because my training has been inconsistent and I have an injury as well. I haven't had much motivation lately; likely the weather and injuries speaking.

I woke up at 7:00 am and had my pre-race meal. It's always the same - rolled oats. It may be difficult to get out of bed early on a Sunday morning, but it's worth it because I was relaxed and didn't feel rushed at all. I hate feeling rushed. That's nothing compared to how early I'll have to get up on race morning when I do the Big Sur Marathon in two weeks. I have to be bussed out to Carmel at 3:45 am, which means I will have to get up at about 2:45 to give myself plenty of time to eat, dress and walk to the host hotel to get on the bus. Maaaan, that's earlier than getting up for Ironman!

I had a warm bath so I could warm up my leg muscles and stretch a bit. I watched a bit of Coronation Street - what a difference from American soaps - and started to get ready for the trek down the hill to the race start.

Minus 3 degrees - what!! I knew it wouldn't be spring weather, but I thought it would be at least -1 degree. Okay, mitts and hoodie it is! I generate a lot of heat when I run so I'll probably be overdressed, but no worries - I'll just wrap my hoodie around my waist and tuck my mitts into my race belt when I get too warm.

45 minutes to race start. I better get going. Just as I predicted... I was overdressed. I stopped at Father Jan School to ditch my hoodie and mitts under a spruce tree. No one would see them there. I'll just pick them up later.

The strategy was to run hard for the first seven miles and then back off a bit for the remaining three miles. The speed pod on my shoe wasn't very accurate because there was no way I was running at an 8:15 minute/mile pace, but when I arrived at the one mile marker, I knew I was right on the pace I was supposed to be at - a 9:15 minute/mile pace. I worked with gravity and took advantage of the down hills.

My Mom is a huge supporter of all my athletic endeavours and was up at the same corner that she's at every year, ringing her cow bell, supporting all the runners. They all really appreciate her being there and I've been told that they all remember her each year. One runner even gave her a high five. She's great!

When I got to the seven mile marker, I downed a GU Roctane gel. This is the point where I'm supposed to back off a bit. It was difficult because I wanted to beat my time from last year, but I followed my orders from my coach and backed off. He is preparing me for a marathon - 26.2 miles - in two weeks after all, and he knows what he's doing. So, I obeyed until the last quarter mile of the race; it was all down hill. I justified it by saying to myself "Self, gravity is your friend, and you feel good after all. What's it gonna hurt?"

I was very pleased with my time. I was about a minute and a half slower than last year, but considering I haven't been training as much as I should be, and I backed off for the last 3 miles, I was happy. This was a real confidence builder leading up to my marathon.

Time for an Update

Perhaps it's time for an update for my followers out there. For those of you who listen to NOW Radio, you know that there was a contest a couple of weeks ago where the contestants had to carry around a cardboard cutout of the morning DJs, Crash and Mars. Well, I won $100 for seeing and getting a picture taken with Angela and the cutout. I've never won money before.. well, not more than $10. Now, all I have to do is win $10,000 playing 'Stop the Clock' on their sister station, Up 99.3. I can't get through on the phone line though.

Way back at the end of November I registered for the Big Sur International Marathon in Big Sur, California. Here's the website. There are a lot of beautiful pictures of the race course and videos of the route, so check it out. The race starts and finishes in Carmel (yes, the town where Clint Eastwood was mayor). It's along Highway One on the coast and I think I may take my camera for the photo ops along the way, but that may weigh me down and affect my running efficiency - wait, what efficiency!!!

Apparently, the first mile is fast and furious. Giant redwoods line both sides of the roadway and sparkles of light from the rising sun dance in the canopy of branches overhead. I'll take advantage of gravity working with me. Carmel is a very beautiful, quaint town, and I'm looking forward to spending my money there - after my legs recover!

On March 16th a 40 foot section of Highway One collapsed making the road impassable between Carmel and Big Sur, and as a result, the route has been revised. Fortunately, the most difficult hill, Hurricane Point, is no longer part of the race...yippee.


This will be my first marathon-only race. By marathon-only I mean a marathon that isn't part of an Ironman. I've done plenty of those, but a marathon is different. I may be in for a world of hurt, not that an Ironman doesn't hurt, but I can run faster in a marathon because there won't be a swim and bike to warm me up ha ha. The result of running faster is probably going to be really sore legs. No worries though... my legs will do a lot of walking and shopping to aid in recovery. With that $100 I won, I will be able to walk that much further.

I have been training since January, but got injured in March so had to take about three weeks away from running, which was bad timing because the marathon is on May 1. My injury is gone, but I feel under trained and fat. Oh well...it is what it is. I'll have fun in California anyway. My goal of four and a half hours may not be reached, but I'm going to try my damndest. It may be easier without that beast of a hill.

My Mom and I leave for San Francisco three weeks from tomorrow and we'll be gone for a week. It'll be nice to be somewhere that doesn't have snow.

Stay tuned.