Today I heard some devastating news. One of my friends and beloved member of the Running Room community suffered an unexpected and rather traumatic medical condition. Please note I'm being intentionally vague for the sake of his privacy. Thankfully, he's stable and recovering at one of our local hospitals. Paul provided me permission to write about our visit today. Before I continue, I just wanted to write a few things about Paul (aka Technical RunNerd). I met him at RR last year. I didn't know him as well as some of my friends, but I quickly learned why he's so likeable. He taught a session at one of our clinics about the biomechanics of running. He's run plenty of races and likely earned his weight in medals. He also blogs at PaulRadcliffe.ca. When he came out for Sunday runs, he was always smiling. In fact, for last year's Mississauga Marathon, he ran in that Superman costume with hopes to give racers a reason to smile. Paul also "keeps it real" when talking about running in fitness. While many of us (myself included) will mostly put "highlight reels" of running onto our social media accounts, Paul refreshingly writes honest reflections and possibly the "ugly" side of running and exercising. Because of this, I think he's one of the most authentic athletes I've had the pleasure to meet. He's also a new dad, an engineer, a giving fundraiser for the community and an all-around fun and wholesome guy who you want to be your friend :) So when I heard of the news, I wanted to make sure that I was part of any efforts to put a smile on his face. Monika told us he's at the point in his recovery where visitors are welcome. Lax, Amar, Drew, Monika and I rallied to meet him. We also met two of his friends , Theo and Alice, from previous clinic seasons. When you walk into Paul's room, you see a true testament of how many people love and support him. You see all sorts of supportive decor, greeting cards, and photos. Paul of course greets us with a smile on his face. Can I just say how amazing my friends are? They shared their own stories about their loved ones. We inspired each other to believe in miracles and to stay hopeful. Paul shares his story and from the sounds of it, he's a true survivor of the whole 9 yards. He reminds us of his sense of humour when he says, "I compare myself to my 4 month old daughter" with reference to moving extremities and "relearning to walk". Hey, from an SLP perspective, at least you've got a one-up in the speech and language milestones ;) I won't say more about the visit because I'm sure this is deeply personal to Paul and his family. But I will share this - the support and the togetherness of this community doesn't fail to inspire me. Paul, you embody everything I admire as a runner and now, as a fighter. Your resilience and ability to get through any tough race/distance inspires me. I hope we lifted your spirits and in the same way you lifted us. I hope you'll harness the same energy and strength from marathons in the "marathon of recovery" and rehabilitation. We will be here for you and perhaps offer you a figurative "running gel" or "electrolyte" that you need when the going gets tough. get well soon, technical runnerd!
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Happy International Women's Day!
Today, we celebrate womanhood. I raise a glass to all strong, resilient, leading women in my life. Cheers to the strong women and matriarchs in my family. I celebrate my girlfriends - from grade school to graduate school and beyond. You all continue to inspire me. Thank you all for lifting me up with love, support, and friendship. I commend the women at work, providing phenomenal services to all our patients and advancing health care in innovative ways. I salute strong women runners - both in my training groups and professional runners who I admire from afar. Some days, you truly push me to become the best version of myself. Finally, I honour women around the world who may not be as fortunate to celebrate this day freely. I am your ally. I hope to help pave the way for equality and women's rights like many bold and strong women before us. It looks like I'll be taking a week off running since Sunday's race.
Monday was gloriously spent sleeping in, treating myself to a carb-heavy lunch (Korean gam-jatang) and a relaxing 1-hour massage. My body actually didn't feel too beat up Monday morning, which can only be attributed to an effective training season :) Thanks again to my team/coach who really highlighted the importance of cross-training and tapering! Still, it felt incredible to have my RMT focus on my lower back, quads, and hamstrings. I almost felt him kneading the lactic acid out of each muscle cell/fibre. I napped well again that afternoon. Monday evening, I went to a court volleyball pick-up but decided to take it easy for the sake of rest. I had initially only planned to skip Tuesday's run then get back into the routine yesterday. On Wednesdays, I usually play 3 hours of rec volleyball pickup and Thursdays usually consist of a quick tempo run and then a strength class at Goodlife. Unfortunately, my body planned otherwise. Despite having a restful Monday, my body somehow picked up a bug. I started feeling a "tickle" in my throat with no other respiratory symptoms yesterday morning. I actually suspect I picked it up at work (exposure with suspected sick colleagues, +/- exposure to patients with aspiration pneumonias/influenza/other likely infectious diseases). Today, this tickle started to become more irritating, now accompanied by some congestion. I decided to spend the evening napping and then eating some chicken noodle soup. So in short, nothing much to reflect on this week. I do have a case of "running envy", seeing some friends get back into the routine today. I have to remember to stay off Strava on my off days. Whenever I'm at home, I can't help but feel "lazy" and a bit antsy. I have this irrational fear that all the fitness that I've built over the past few weeks will suddenly evaporate as soon as I decide to take a few days off. I guess it doesn't help that I indulged in too many takeout meals this week. I seriously need to work on this. I remediated this feeling of "unproductivity" by doing laundry :) Finally, I saw a post that someone shared on one of my social media accounts and it really spoke to me, so I'll end off this blog post with this image.. Image via: instagram.com/heyamberrae Today I've retired my Nike Airzoom Vomeros (13), after 824 kms logged. They carried me through this summer, through Toronto Scotia Half and through most of the harsh salts and snow from winter training.
I'm feeling only slightly nostalgic because they've been with me through some of my hardest runs this season. However, it was definitely time. You can see they're ripping at the seams. They've served their purpose and have truly supported me well. Onto the next pair! Looks like fourth time is the charm! With my last PB at a painstaking 2:00:16, I knew breaking the two-hour barrier was at my fingertips. Chilly Half, thank you for the flat course, the perfect weather conditions (-2'C), lack of wind, and many water/Nuun stations. All the elements came together and brewed perfect racing conditions for me :) This race didn't record my official splits, but according to Strava, I was at ~50 minutes and 3 seconds at the halfway mark. Unlike previous races, I found my Garmin was more in-sync with the km markers in this race. The Prep: The race didn't start until 10:05 am but the team and I had arranged to meet at Panera around 8:00. Before every long run, I fuel with an everything bagel, peanut butter, and black coffee. This morning, I decided to replace the coffee with electrolytes, with caffeine for that extra added boost. I personally LOVE the Nuun tablets. They're not as sweet as the usual Gatorade/Powerade drinks and have less calories per serving. Lax, Maggie, Drew, Monika, and Antonio arrived and we decided to convoy on the way to Burlington. I drove Maggie and Drew who so gracefully endured 30 minutes of my ghetto ratchet playlist. Fun fact: I feel most pumped up listening to the classics from early 2000s hip/hop and R&B. Doesn't everyone get energized pretending that they're Kanye 2.0?! We met more runners at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. I took a picture with the beloved Chilly mascot (his name was Mark) and here, we stretched, pumped each other up, "anxious pee'd", and I tried to get in my "zone" before making our way to the starting line-up. I stood just at the front of the 2-hour corral knowing I needed to have a slow start and save my energy for later. The temperature at the starting line was a perfect -2'C. I actually panicked on the way to the start line because I only brought my thick insulated waterproof mitts (used mostly when snowboarding). I quickly realized that they were definitely too hot for the weather conditions. Thankfully, Maggie had a pair of thinner gloves to lend me. Thank you Maggie!!!! The Canadian anthem played, the crowd counted down to start, and the gun fired. It took about 3 minutes for my corral to reach the starting line where my chip activated and the clock was officially on. My corral was less crowded than I anticipated and it seemed everyone took off with a sprint. The adrenaline surge was indescribable. I thought "My moment is finally here". I had to remind myself to take the first 5 kms easy. It was tempting to show off the results of my speedwork at the starting line. I learned this hard lesson the hard way before. The 1/2 marathon (and any longer distance, I suppose) is a mental game of pacing and energy conservation. I stayed between the 5:40-5:30/km range (knowing a 1:55 time means averaging 5:27/km). Most importantly, I made sure breathing was smooth and easy. I took in the beautiful views of the Lakeshore waterfront in the winter, admired other runners' outfits, and accepted every high-five offered by the cheering crowd at the roadside. At 5 km, I slightly picked the pace. There was nothing remarkable between 5-11 km. I took 30 second walk breaks at the 5 km and 10 km mark to have my gummy and a honey stinger gel. At around 11.5 km, the course led to Shell Park where the turnaround point stood after a gradual incline. Noticeably, the pylons and pavement space felt a little bit too crowded for my liking. I caught a glimpse of Georgie, and Sarah (who was the 2-hour pace bunny) on the opposite side of the turnaround. I also briefly saw Antonio and said hello! I realized my pace was slowing in the crowd of people so I had to remind myself to pick up the pace (5:20-5:30 min/km). At 13 km, fatigue started to hit. I was surprised by this. I didn't expect it to come so early during the race (I usually fatigue around 16-17 km). I definitely tried to fight this haaaaard. In Deena Kastor's Let Your Mind Run , she described fatigue and fighting the urge to stop during the London Marathon: "Organizers had painted a blue line down the road marking the straightest path to the finish. I followed it as if it were a train track, and saw myself move across it, trying to feel like I was gliding on a rail". For some reason, this part of the book really stuck out to me during times of fatigue. So, for the remainder of the race, I basically tunnel visioned around the yellow lines in the centre-lane of the road and imagined them propelling me forward like a streetcar. My breathing was obviously straining around 15 km. I will forever be grateful for one of the runners who pulled up beside me and said "good work, keep going" (or something along those lines). She must've noticed my laboured breathing. It absolutely blew my mind that she "wasted" her breath and voice to encourage me. At the time, I really couldn't muster the same. I hope she saw my miniscule nod of gratitude before she sped off. At ~18 km, some pastors and church volunteers were handing out slices of banana and orange halves. The bananas reminded me of honey and I almost cried biting into that juicy orange. Thank you to the sweet members of the Holy Cross Lutheran Church! You gave me the boost that I needed at that moment. I also noted some foot cramping at this point, but I'm pretty sure the oranges drove them away :) Maggie was our unofficial group photographer and I saw she snapped these pics of me around the 19 km mark. Thank goodness you couldn't see my face ;) I like to think these pictures are blurry only because I was going so fast, ha! (Just kidding obviously). At 20 km, I discovered the best strategy that works for me was counting. I don't know how/why, but counting 1-8 in rhythm of my steps and breathing completely distracted me from the urge to stop and from the growing panic that the two hour mark was getting closer. Thank you to Maggie, Lucas, and Keri who were cheering around 20-21 km. I heard your cheers and felt the love pushing me forward. I crossed the finish line with a new personal best 1:56:17. I think I almost cried at my surprise crossing the finish line (in fact, Marathon-Photos captured the not-so-pretty moment). I had a flood of emotions - mostly excitement, disbelief, and astonishment that I actually did it. Nothing matches the feeling of reaching your goal after 14 weeks of training. Keri greeted me at the finish line where I was still somewhat delirious (it took a solid 15 minutes for me to go back to my baseline neurological status hahaha). We made our way back to the Performing Arts Centre where we met Melissa, and I had a chance to change out of wet clothes and snap a few victory pics with my team and our medals. I also met Charlie , an elite runner whose training I've followed on Strava for the past year but haven't actually met in real life! Yay to real-life kudos!
Keri , Mel and I had lunch at Pane Fresco on Locust St. Out of sheer coincidence, Hufsa, Diana, Nav, Doug, and Janina were also enjoying their lunch there and we exchanged congratulatory hugs :) Off the menu, I ordered a square slice of margherita pizza, which almost melted in my mouth (the staff made sure I received a slice fresh from the oven). I wasn't too crazy about their roasted tomato soup but I suppose my insatiable hunger + 21 kms make anything taste delicious to some degree. After catching up over brunch, Keri, Mel and I walked over to the Sunshine Doughnut Co where I enjoyed half a "samoas" doughnut. From what I recall, it had dark chocolate, toasted coconut, and salted caramel. I paired it with a glass of milk and I'm pretty sure it replenished (and likely overcompensated) the carbs I burned that morning. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. I had a cold -shower, bandaged my toenail casualty, and made sure my legs were elevated :) Thanks again to everybody who helped me train and made this race happen. I am so grateful for friends, teammates, volunteers, and good health and look forward to many more races upcoming. Mississauga Half , you're next! |