here i am... for my monthly check in!

the summer is just flying by, and the first race of Fall season is now just three weeks away.

Saturday was our 12 mile run... the last LONG long run before Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon. it was lovely, cool and overcast... and the icing on the cake was that my sweetheart got up at 5:30 on his day off to come out and support us on the course.  it was his first time volunteering as "water stop guy"... handing out water and gatorade and pretzels and such, and more importantly cheering as the runners came in to see him.

what a trooper! and he had such a good time that i'm SURE he's going to volunteer to do it again.
doesn't hurt that i had rounded up a few other guys to keep him company :)

it has been a challenging season for a lot of our runners.... the heat has been oppressive. there have been a number of injuries, loved ones have become ill... but these are the things that draw us together and turn us into a Team.

oh, i'm a slacker!!

you see, i've been meaning to write...

in other news, it's been crazy hot and humid... which makes training (and all other things that take place outside of my air-conditioned walls) unpleasant and rather miserable.

we hosted a big yard sale fundraiser this weekend... lots of former TNT teammates donated stuff for the sale (thank you!) and a colleague of my husband donated his driveway and yard (because he lives in a good yard sale-ing neighbourhood)... and we raised almost $350.

unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whether or not you're standing in my kitchen) there was a lot of donated stuff left over... so i'm now at a loss about where to store it (other than my kitchen) until such time as we can throw another yard sale.


the team is rapidly approaching it's first double digits run... Saturday will be a 10 mile run, and the majority of the team has never run that far. in fact, many of them started saying "this is the furthest i've ever run" once they hit the 4 mile mark.... and every week thereafter!

one of our teammates has yet to come to a group training run... and i was telling him that he might really enjoy the group runs now that the mileage is getting up there. saying things like "20 miles is a really long distance to run by yourself"

and then, my little brother called to tell me he and his fiancee have finally set a date to get married... and it is Oct 9th of this year... which just happens to be the day we're scheduled to run our 20 miler.

so it looks like i will be running 20 miles on my own... at high altitude (well, significantly higher altitude that Virginia).... possibly with a touch of jet-lag... and possibly the morning before the wedding.

which means i'll probably sleep through the whole ceremony. every wedding movie shows an elderly relative who nods off... i'll do the honours this time 'round.

if they're lucky, i won't snore.

hot hot hot

if i knew any of the lyrics to that song (beyond "hmm hmm hmm hmm... hot, hot, hot...") i'd sing it for you.

but what i really want to do is talk about the weather. (ha!)

it has been excruciatingly hot and humid these last couple of weeks.  it is a struggle to get out into it, even if i get up early in the morning to try to beat the heat. i was asking myself a few days ago how on earth i managed to train last summer, and then realised that aside from the group runs, i did most of my training in the air-conditioned gym.

too bad we don't have one of those at the new house!

i think that this will be my last season of training in the summer... even though i'd really love to run Nike Marathon in San Francisco some day. maybe someday when we move to a more temperate climate!!

in the mean time though, the miles keep going up. we ran 7 miles last Saturday, starting at 7 am to get at least an hour of running done before it got too hot.

there was a race going on on the same trail... so it lifted our spirits to read the signs of support along the way....

Honoured teammate picnic

Saturday was our honoured teammate picnic for the season.
The morning started out with a very hot hills run... and finished with a spread of snacks and drinks and some inspirational messages from our team and personal honoured teammates.

There were people speaking who have been in remission for years, thanks to the advances in treatment that the LLS has supported over the years. There were people speaking who had lost loved ones. There were people speaking who were currently in treatment... or their children or parents or friends are in treatment. And everyone ended their speech with something along the lines of "from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for what you're doing... for me, and people like me."

this is me with our team's honoured teammate... David's been
involved with TNT since he first started treatment 11 years ago.
he's now in his last semester of university... and is not only
healthy and happy, but has run a marathon with TNT, done a century bike ride with TNT...
and aims to do a triathlon with TNT next year.

a little note of explanation...

so, i was just reading back through some old posts on this blog, and marveling at how different things feel in my fourth season of marathon training than they did in the first. now i know i can gut it out, even if i'm not totally prepared for it. so i'm unafraid.

i know there will be a lot of work over the next five months, but... in the end, i'll enjoy the time with my teammates, and i'll enjoy the races. even if i'm not particularly fast.


herein comes the note of explanation...

i wrote several times through the course of the winter that i was really struggling. struggling with fatigue, mostly... but also with the feeling that i was not only not improving, but getting worse at running as the weeks went by.

there is a reason. and it's not the unkind one that i had been telling myself (mutter mutter, fat and lazy, mutter mutter...)

i've been diagnosed with Lupus.

and now, it all makes sense.


so i'm kinder to myself now. a little more forgiving on the bad days.... a little more delighted on the good days. i'm still a runner... just one who listens to her body more, and is okay with the fact that she'll never be a fast runner.

running, running...

last Saturday was a "hills clinic" for the team.... which essentially means we ran up and down hills for three miles while the coaches watched and gave us tips on how to be more efficient both going up and down.

fun stuff!

but i got to meet some of my mentees, which was great... and got some positive feedback on my Mission messages, as well as a tentative offer to volunteer at the Life With Cancer Family Center event on the 28th.


then later that afternoon, i drove to Annapolis with my former TNT mentor Ronda, as we had signed up to run the Zooma Half Marathon on Sunday morning.

it was already over 80 degrees F/ 27 degrees C when we left the hotel at 6am... and humid.
ugh!!!

upon arrival we met up with another former teammates, Laura... chatted with a bunch of TNT peeps, decked out in their purple singlets... and then made our way to the enormous line ups for the port-a-johns. where we stood for the next 20 minutes. and where we were still standing when the starting gun when off.

fortunately there were enough runners that we were still well in the thick of things when we finally did join the runners.

by mile 1 we were already, as Laura called it, glisteny...

by mile 3 we were all beat red and over-heating.

by mile 5 we started to hear the wail of the ambulance sirens.

around mile 8 we were held up because the road was blocked by the paramedics and their vehicle trying to get an iv into the arm of a runner who had passed out from heat and dehydration.

i was about ready to kiss the little boy around mile 11.5 who was standing out on the sidewalk with his hose, spraying the runners as they struggled by.

and when we made our way past the finish line to collect our finishers necklaces, we were all dismayed to find that there were no more bottles of water or bananas... just some dry bits of bagel.

however, once into the finishers expo, there was shade, a cool breeze, a cool boxed lunch and cold water and we were happy.


no more half marathons for a while, just regular training...  as i've run a ten miler, 4 half marathons and a marathon in the last 11 weeks.

Blue Nose Half Marathon

I went back to Canada for a few days... to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, and to run the Blue Nose Half Marathon.

Not exactly part of my Team In Training training.... but a good long run in part of the overall training scheme of things.






I missed my TNT buddies the morning of the race. It is amazing how much psychological and emotional support one gets from participating in a team. Even if you never say the words out loud, it is reassuring to have people you know standing beside you, giggling with nervous excitement.... reminding you to pin your bib on right side up, etc.



Still, it was wonderful to run in a city that I am familiar with.... running past places that already hold memories for me. It was not my fastest race time, but probably my most enjoyable race ever.

As I ran past an old friend's house, I knocked on the door... gave my very surprised friend a sweaty hug, chatted for a few minutes, and carried on my way.






When I reached the corner where my mom and brother were directing runners, I stopped to have a chat and  a laugh with them...

As I ran along the waterfront, I passed my dad's office.... passed the Thai restaurant where I used to work... passed the train station where I first met my youngest (adopted) brother.... through the park where my mom and I ran our first 5km race together....

Coming out of the park I was delighted to see some TNT purple.... even though I never saw the TNT runners themselves, it was great to know they were on the course.


My dad called just as I was passing the 19 km mark to tell me the whole family had come in to see me finish.... my grandad, my aunt and cousin, my sister and her kids, my foster sister and her boyfriend.

My nephew was waiting for me a couple hundred feet from the finish line. As I reached him, he grabbed my hand and ran with me to the finish line. I hung my finishers medal around his neck and he nodded as he held it in his hand and said "i AM pretty fit for a six year old...."





I love that my family is all proud of me and supports my running, even though I will never truly "compete".... I will always be a long distance plodder, and they think that is great.

Every race holds its own special memories, and I have loved (and sometimes hated) them all. But I think this one will hold a special place in my heart for a long long time...