Playing Blog Catch-up for 2012 Races

2012 was a rough year for me, ups and lots of downs, and I have to admit, I never looked forward to a new year as I had for 2013.  In the midst of everything, I found solace in doing some small races to keep myself occupied from all the less than happy stuff happening.  So.. hurray for the new year! :)  And now... let's backtrack to the events of 2012...

City Chase 2012

I was invited to join "Team Bunz" for City Chase (June 29, 2012), since Jeff thought it might be something different from my usual running gig.  Turned out he was right!  Much like the Amazing Race, City Chase Toronto was the local version of it.  My partner in crime was Grumpy, to whom I coaxed into joining with me.    The race started out with a sheet of paper filled with clues to where we needed to go to reach our "checkpoints".  When we reach the checkpoints, we would have to do the task at hand and then once completed, we would get a hole punched on on our bibs. 

Sad to say, but we had a tough time with figuring out the checkpoints.  Thankfully we merged up with another group and traded off some of our answers for ones we couldn't figure out.   After that, it was just a matter of getting to the locations in the most optimal route.  My friend, "Grumpy", was amazing for that.  Despite complaining about the reasons why we were doing this and that.., she was an amazing navigator.  A walking GPS so to speak.  Yay for me, since I'm terrible with directions :)

The most memorable checkpoint that I encountered during the race, was the firehouse checkpoint.  The task there started out with each of us having to strap on a fire extinguisher (empty one!), and one of us had to carry the fire hose (mind you, it wasn't even attached to anything, just the head of the hose), run up 3 flights of stairs and rescue a baby. Grumpy offered to carry it. That was a good call since she was the stronger one of the two of us. 

At the top of the stairs a person directed us to put on this mask, that pretty much simulated what it would be like for someone running inside a burning building: zero visibility.

Our mission, we were told, was to go inside this room, and find the baby. Both us had to enter, but one of us always had to be touching the wall, and we had to be a finger's length reach of each other. Makes sense because you wouldn't want to lose your partner inside a burning building. I stuck to the wall, and felt around the room for the baby. The person giving us the instructions suddenly couldn't hold back a laugh, because it seemed like I was more focused on searching for the baby on the wall, vs. on the ground, where most people would be looking  quite embarrassing  Guess not a fireman career for me! After that hint that baby would be on the ground (duh!), we found it right in the corner of the room.

Yay baby rescued! Now we had to head back down to the main floor, unstrap the extinguishers, and had to lift a dummy from one end of the room to the other. This dummy weighed about 200 pounds. Mind you also, we live in a country where people weigh far more than just 200, we're looking at 250-290! It was heavy. As dead weight, the dummy felt so much heavier; but the two of us managed it in the end. 1+ respect for these men and woman who are in this profession. 

We ended the final round of tasks with having to hammer something, I really don't remember what the purpose of it was, but I'm guessing it was to simulate breaking down a door or the like.

Although we didn't win (since we didn't complete the required amount of checkpoints), it was still a wonderful experience.  The best part of it was of course, being able to hang out with my friend, and just sort of touring the city with her.  However, if you ask her, she will give a completely different story (Grumpy:  Wendy, we could have just walked around the city instead!!).  haha.  Thankfully, this is my blog and not hers :)

After finishing off the City Chase event, Team Bunz and us (Team Happy and Grumpy) went for some Greek food on the danforth and had a delicious souvlaki dinner.

Next event...Spartan Race (June 30, 2012)...the day after City Chase.  To say I wasn't a little tired from yesterday's event would be fibbing a bit.  I met up again with Team Bunz and we drove down to Barrie, to Horseshoe Valley Resort where the event was taking place.  I was both excited and nervous since this was my first actual physically tiring event after surgery.  But I was "prepared", as I had on me some snowboarding goggles.  Yes, yes, its a strange thing to bring for a race, but I was determined to protect my eyes above all else.  

The past week I had been checking the Spart Race website, hoping to see or get an idea of what obstacles I would be undertaking.  I knew for a fact that there definitely would be a muddy area with barbed wire, and some walls, but how many of these I didn't know.  

When we arrived at the location, we gave them our bib numbers and our signed waivers (yep, another one of those that save event organizers from liabilities!).  Our bib number was written on our foreheads, and ironically, when I mentioned to to person writing on my forehead that I had a meeting the next day and it would be best not to have it smaller in print, she actually wrote it bigger!  haha, joke was on me for that one.

[Anyway, after checking in our baggage, we had some time to chill, so we just checked out what we could see of the course; haystacks?  rowing machines?  Hmmm.. strange to see rowing machines.. ]

After the 9:00am Heat started, we lined up and the first thing we encountered as we were running was an artificially induced smokey fog.  Down came those goggles (boy did I look ridiculous in them!).  Mind you, this was the only time in the ENTIRE race did I use them.  For the rest of the way, they sat nestled comfortably on my head, and with occasional comments from runners and organizers on how "cool" (er, not cool?) ;) those goggles were.  

Obstacle 1:  Smoke 

Obstacle 2:  crawl through a dark pipe

Obstacle 3:  Climb up cargo net

Obstacle 4:  Climb up rope ladder (girls), climb up rope (boys)

Obstacle 5:  pull up weights to top 

Obstacle 6:  crawl under barbed wire in mud x 2

Obstacle 7:  walk through mud pit

Obstacle 8:  carry heavy bean bag and run a short course

Obstacle 9:  Thrown wooden javelin at a post (if missed, 30 burpees, 1 try only)

Obstacle 10: Climb over wall

Obstacle 11:  Crawl under large wooden cover

Obstacle 12:  Climb over tall wall

Obstacle 13:  roll weights attached to string up and down twice

Obstacle 14:  Push wheel barrow with heavy bags of weight on both sides

Obstacle 15:  Balance on zigzag beam

Obstacle 16:  Run through tires

Obstacle 17:  Leap over fire

Obstacle 18:  Do 20 reps of rowing machine

Obstacle 19:  Crawl under ice with barbed wire

Obstacle 20:  Climb over hay stacks

Obstacle 21:  Run through and avoid gladiators!

Obstacle 22:  Climb up tall ramp - wall

Spartan Race 2012

I had some memorable portions of the race, namely the mudpit (gravity as my worse enemy!) and the final obstacle course where you would think going up a ramp would be easy,  but it was hard to get through this one.  If I hadn't been tired out from the rest of the race already, the final one took me out :) Thankfully I had met two friends (shout out to the care bears team :D) who tried to act as my stepping stones to get through it... though in the end, I did end up doing the burpies :P  This of course, was a last resort - there is only x number of times you can slip and slide back down a ramp before bruises starts to form on your elbows and knees.  

[Overall, it was an amazing experience, and lots of lessons learned:  TRAIN!! At least a minimum amount.  The next one would be... not to do it so soon after surgery. lol  With my vision still adjusting, it felt like my depth perception was still a bit off.  Bringing kneepads would be helpful.  Do not wear cotton shirts, they will weigh you down.  Just some things off the top of my head that I can remember thinking after the race.  Oh the memories :)]

Would I do it again?  Maybe ... wayyyy down the line.  At least until I build up some upperstrength.  Until then, probably will stick to my running.

Starting off the year of races was the Toronto Zoo Run (September 22, 2012).  It had been one of the runs that I had been looking into trying out for a while.  The morning of the run, I had a little debacle in terms of being dropped off at the wrong startline (at the 5k start) - epic fail on my part.  Fortunately, I had enough time and in the dark I ventured over to the 10k startline.  Sitting there and waiting for the start of the race was fairly uneventful...although I did see a mommy runner tell her kids not to pick up animal waste...  Once the race started it was pretty quiet - more quiet than I expected since I wanted to see the animals.  When I neared the end of my race, I finally did see some zebras milling about behind a fence.  Once I crossed the finish line, I spent sometime observing a hippo drinking water.  It was quite an amazing feat.  Never knew a hippo could open its mouth THAT wide.  As a nice bonus after the race, I was given a bag of free candy, wrethers!  So yummy.  What a delightful surprise.

CIBC Run for the Cure 2012

Next on the list of races was the CIBC Run for the Cure (September 30, 2012).  It was a nice follow-up race since I really warmed up with the Toronto Zoo one the week before.  This one I ran with my friends and it was really enjoyable.  The weather was remarkably nice too.  Not as muddy and icky as the previous year.  I had my face painted up as a proud supporter for the cause.  The crowd that day was quite large, and as usual, there was a funnelling that occurred at the beginning of the race and then again at the end of the race.  After the race, the four of us headed for dimsum at Spadina - what a treat :)   Overall experience was very inspiring, and having run with friends to support such a meaningful cause, made it more worth while.  I must humbly acknowledge my wonderful supporters for the run, raising a total of $150:  (Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy), Grumpy, Kaibar the Lost, Sarah, and Madeline!  Thanks again you guys!

My annual race of the year, this year I went for the 5k distance - and my first "official" 5k race.  The race was pleasant.  Rainy as usual in the morning, but it wasn't too cold.  But as a precaution, I wore my wool (alpaca?) running gear and my t-shirt overhead.  They re-organized this year to having waves go out, so I was quite happy with this since it really reduced the funnelling effect.  The race seemed over very quickly, but it was probably one of the more relaxing runs I've done for scotiabank.  Also my last one for the year!  The race was very enjoyable, and before I knew it, I was at the finish line.  Hurray!

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2012

Disney's Goofy Race and a Half - 39.3 Miles! (63.2km)

Goofy Race Medals January, 7th/8th, 2012

I have never thought at any point in my life that I would attempt to run both a half-marathon and a full-marathon back to back, and to do it while fighting a cold, a nearly impossible idea.

Nearly impossible, but however improbably, the impossible became probable on the weekend of January 7th/8th at the Wonderful World of Disney :-)

I signed up for the Goofy Run for the challenge of trying to do something new.  The past year, I had done several new events, Ride for Heart - 50km bike ride, Warrior Dash - 5km Obstacle course, and my first Duathlon at the Toronto Islands.  The "Goofy Race and a Half" was part of that phase of trying something new and challenging...  I think after the minute that I clicked on the confirmation, it hit me that I was committing myself to a winter training as well as a summer one.  No more lazy hibernation period after the Scotiabank marathon in October!

Training progressed at an even pace - some weeks weaker than others, but overall, I did 6 races throughout the year:  Warrior Dash 5km, Midsummer Run 30km, Toronto Island Duathlon 9km run, CIBC Run for the Cure 5km, Scotiabank Marathon 42.2km, Whitby Race 16km.  This was all a prelude and training for probably one of the biggest run I have ever done in my life:  63.2km.

Exciting. Yes.  Very. And nerve wrecking too.  Not only was I nervous about the challenge itself, but there was also the fundraising portion that I decided to participate in again with Team in Training.  I figured if I was going to go that far away to do a run, I should also do it on behalf of a charity.  Fundraising this time around, I was pretty lucky in having some really generous friends (and friends of friends) in sponsoring me to do the event.  [whispers:  fyi, I'm still collecting sponsorship $$ for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada! It's not too late to donate:  http://tinyurl.com/runforthecurewendy ].


Christmas holidays came and heavy hearted I was feeling, I desired to the run more than anything. A series of unhappy events all melded together, and running for me has always been a calming agent. Come boxing week, I caught a surprise cold.  That morphed into a bigger cold.  By New Years, I was seriously not doing well.  Unfortunately doctor's offices were not open.  I took some Tylenol, tried to get some rest (though sleep had evaded me for the most part of the holiday), and finally went in on the Tuesday.  This was January 3rd.  I was flying out on the morning of the 5th (7am flight!).  Not even 2 days away.  My cough had gotten worse by this point, I was starting to scare myself via Googling:  "should you run if you are sick", "should you run a marathon if you have a cough", etc.  Let's just say, many variations of the answers came as to "yes", "no", "maybe".  But the best choice really was to see my doctor.  I certainly wasn't going to take anyone's word on a random forum that it was ok to run in my condition.

It's time to visit the docs...

So off I went to see the docs.  Got myself checked out.  And I had a cold but I could still run.  However, he did say to take it easy.  Ha.  That was definitely what I was going to do.  My doctors said really, I didn't need any medicine, just drink lots of water and get lots of rest.  I asked him, however, for over-the-counter meds so I could stop disturbing everyone's sleep with my cough.  I took the advice of one of my colleagues and asked for Buckley's and Neo Citron.  Checked out with the Pharmicists that this was a good safe combo to take and for the next day I lived and breathed with those two meds.

And Halls too.

Work turned out to be really busy on the 4th, so I worked until nearly 1am.  I had to get up for 4am (taxi was coming to pick me up), so I had very little sleep... I addressed my lack of sleep by literally passing out once I was seated on my flight.  I did not wake up until I reached the Orlando airport.  I also missed my in-flight meal. lol

Jan 5th 2012 - Orlando Florida; 12:05pm.

Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando Florida

We landed, I met with my teammates Canada TNT Flex team, and we took the Disney Magical Express shuttle to get to our resort:  Coronado Springs Resort.  Once we arrived there, I checked in, found out that I  sadly was placed in a separate unit from the rest of my teammates - all the way in the 7B building while they were in building 5.  Mind you, it doesn't sound far, but the 7B building was quite the distance to and from the main lobby building.  At any rate, I parted with my teammates and went to look for my hotel room... got lost for a good 10-15 minutes (apparently I can't follow signs... I later found out I was not alone in my misguidance since my roommate encountered the same problem).

EXPO, picking up racekit

I met up with my team again, talked to my coach about my cold and what the doctor had said.  She was a little concerned (ok, very concerned, since I was coughing, stuffy nose and looked pretty pale).  She said to take it easy on the day of the course, just to see how I felt.  I completely agreed with her on that.

We made our way to take the shuttle to the ESPN expo to pick up our racekits.  We found out that the racekits were separated into two sections:  #1 You had to pick up your bib separately from your goodies bag.  They were in separate buildings.

Lunch outdoors on picnic table

Once we had picked up our individual kits, I parted ways again with my team, and decided to grab some lunch.  It was nearly 3pm now, I was famished.  I bought myself a nice "healthy" lunch, grilled chicken burger basket.  And popcorn.  It was really expensive is all I got to say.  Disney = expensive.  This meal [see to left], cost $11 USD.  That's not including the $2.50 water.

As I ate my lunch quietly outdoors on a picnic table.  I felt chilled, yet when I looked around me, an elderly couple in their mid-60s in tshirts, kids running around in tshirt and shorts... I figured that there was definitely something not so hot going on inside me.  I chewed on my no-frills chicken burger thoughtfully as I calculated how many hours I had left to recover to be well enough to at least run the half.  God I couldn't even imagine doing the full marathon at this point.  Chew chew, drink drink, mmm popcorn.. cough - not a good idea popcorn.  It was also a little stale.  French fries were good though.

Working on laptop in hotel room

After the meal, I made my way back to my hotel room.  On the way back to my resort, I of course, had to get lost again.  I boarded the wrong bus, ended up at another resort and had to double back.  This took time away from the stuff I needed to finish from work before I could head off for dinner with my Canada Flex Team.  Eventually, I did manage to turn on my laptop and work away....

I also decided I needed some "company" (my roommate had arrived but had left to pick up her racekit before I came back to my room), so I turned on the tv and watched introductions to all the different themeparks in Disney world.

Ideally, this should have been my day to go to the themeparks, but I was so low on energy that I couldn't bring myself to do anything.

Dinner with Canada Flex Team

5pm came around, and I left to meet my team for dinner at the Maya Grill.  Food at the place was ok..  I did not like what I got, some sort of fish called the Mahi Machi.  Dessert was good, Strawberry Cheesecake.  While I was at dinner, I had actually gotten a refillable souvineer cup and put some NeoCitran in it.  I was getting verrry sleepy during dinner time.  lol.  One of my teammates who sat beside me looked at me with concern:  Are you ok??  I had to grin sheepishly that I was kind of drowsey from medicine.  Made me a terrible conversationalist.  Although I always find myself usually very warm and welcoming, with a cold, and struggling to cough + being terribly drowsy, I must have given everyone the impression at the dinner table that I was very standoffish.  They were all there to run a good race - I didn't want to give them my cold too.

After dinner, I went back to my hotel immediately and there I met my roommate, Terri for the first time.  Best roommate ever :-)  We got along really well, and honestly, she made my experience at the run so much more fun and we hung out together all through out the 4 days we were there.

Terri was not only doing the Goofy Race and a half, but she was also doing an additional 5km run on the 6th.  So, 5km, 21km, 42.2km.  Craziness.  But amaaaazing.  She had to turn in early, since she had to wake up for 2am to catch a shuttle in the morning to get to the startline of her 5km run.  I too decide to turn in early, I wanted to catch breakfast with the entire Flex team.


Jan 6th 2012 - Orlando Florida; 9am.
I skipped the morning team in training flex group run and just joined them for the breakfast.  The food at breakfast was sadly lackluster.  We got muffins, coffee, bagel and fruit salad.  Mind you, to join this Meet and Greet breakfast was $36 I think.  Ouch.  I already met my team... I could have slept in. lol

After breakfast I headed back to the room, changed to something more comfortable, asked Terri about picking up my themepark tickets.  I had purchased them online (via a special group discount form), and it had said something about "Call Window" pickup.  She suggested maybe see the Concierge about it or maybe I would be able to pick it up at the themepark itself.  I decided it made more sense to be at the Themepark, so I headed to Epcot and ha! there it was in a big sign "Call Window".  I went there, showed them my ID and got my parkhopping ticket.  As I entered the park, I swiped my ticket and then got "fingerprinted" by the entry machine.

Epcot!!

Yay. Epcot.  Amazing.  I had always dreamed of Disney world as a kid.  Despite the heavy heartedness I'd felt all through the holidays, something about Disney World did lift a bit of the cloud away, maybe just tucked it away for a little bit, further away into the back of my mind; even for a moment.   I wandered around aimlessly, just drinking everything in.  I finally ventured into the "GLOBE" (spaceship Earth) and did some 'time travelling'.  It was a cool ride.  No screaming required :-)  Not like I had much of a voice to scream with!

I ended up doing two more "rides", one was flight simulator, and another was a storm weatherer one (4-D) - this one I got sprayed with water.  Sad to say, the flight simulator one kind of made me nauseous... motion sickness from a simulator!  goodbye dream of being an astronaut. haha.  And then...somehow I found myself drawn to the gift shop at Epcot.  Here I bought my mini-ears :-) to run with during my race and my little souvineers.

Pretzel and Cheese sauce

It was almost 4pm before I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day except for a muffin at breakfast.  So, I bought a giant pretzel and some cheese sauce on the side.  I realized about 2 bites into the pretzel that cheese probably wasn't the best idea since I was planning on racing tomorrow. So had to toss it. :-(

The pretzel was ok.  Not as big as the ones we got in NYC, but it did its job, filled my stomach with some food until the "Inspirational dinner" at 5pm.  I walked around a little bit more and finally at a quarter past 4pm decided to head back to the resort.  I wanted to see the other themeparks, but there really wasn't enough time.  And tomorrow was the half-marathon, I didn't want to tire myself out.

Ethan Zohn (from survivor) talks about his Leukemia

The inspirational dinner had some pretty amazing speakers:  Ethan Zohn (from Survivor and the Amazing Race), Bruce Cleland (founder of Team in Training), and the infamous John "The Penguin" Bingham.  All were very touching speeches.  The hall we dined in was huge.  There were 902 people, and all of us together raised 3.1million dollars.  That is an astounding amount of money to fundraise.  There were of course people who went way beyond their fundraising goals, one person raised $30,000+.  lol. No, that person wasn't me! (wishful thinking though...)

Me and my mini mouse ears

After I returned to my room, I decided to tryout my "outfit" for the next days half-marathon.  I attached my bib, shoe tag to my shoe, put on my team in training jersey, filled up my water bottles, packed my electrolytes to my water belt and readied up my body glide, IT bands, and my cap for the next days race.

As a finishing touch, I put on my mouse ears... oh they were so adorable!!  And fuzzy hehe.

My roommate came in not long after my crazy self-photoshoot ;-) only putting one of the many crazy shots I took of myself in full gear!  we chatted a bit and discussed what time we should get up for... and we determined it to be 1:45am

OMG. that was so early.  My roommate was so dilligent in making her honouree/in memory ribbons and attaching it to her jersey.  I lent a hand in the end, seeing that time was running short.  We went to bed at around 10:30ish.  There really wasn't much time to sleep!  We both set our alarms.  mine was set to go off at 1:30am, hers to 1:45am.

We both took a picture together as pre-half-marathon:

2:30am January 7th, 2012 - Terri and I pre-race (for half-marathon)

US Flex Team

And dear god, the most horrible thing happened... my calendar reminder alarm went off at 11:55am.  It jolted both of us awake.  Luckily we were able to both go back to "sleep", and promptly woke for the 1:45am alarm.  We freshened up and we were ready to leave our hotel by quarter before 3am.  Because I was situated so far away from my Canadian Flex Team, I was suggested by my coach to go with the US Flex team since it would be easier.  So I ended up taking my team photo with the US Flex team :) at the lobby before taking the shuttle out to the startline area.

For every marathon I have done, I have always worn something extra that would toss away during the actual run.  This was no different, despite it being in Florida and supposedly quite warm.  It was bloody cold!  So cold, I could see my breath.

Tony Horton, P90X guy telling us to ways to stretch

We were sitting at the checkin baggage area for about an hour or so.  While sitting there with Terri, we heard an announcer on stage say that Mr. Tony Horton, P90X guy was there!  Wow, famous people anyone??  He was calling out stretches, and people were hopping to it.  I was just too cold, tired, and miserable to move.

Finally we checked in our baggage (which I put my sweatshirt, extra water, and my ballerina shoes for post-race comfort shoes).  Once we checked in the luggage, we were funneled through as we walked for who knows how long... 15minutes? to our respective corals.  After the first wave (Coral A) started off, it was at least a half an hour wait before it got to our coral.  I later found out that there were about 22,000 half-marathoners!! Crazy!

running during half-marathon

The run turned out to be not as difficult as I predicted.  With my cold, I ate some halls, took it really easy and took my time, taking pictures whenever I could, but always made sure that I watched the time - since there were sweepers (people who come to pick you up if you don't get to certain mileage points).

Terri and I ran into each other at one point, took some pictures as we ran through the Magic Kingdom.  So amazing.  It was scenic, very entertaining, lots of characters were out there for us to pose with.  I got a picture with Launch Pad :) And donald and daisey duck.  One in front of the magic Kingdom, etc.

In general, the route was by far more interesting than any other route I had ever run in the past 5 years.

I finished the race feeling very strong and although still coughing a bit, the rest of me felt good; legs were not sore at all.

I crossed the finish line, got a medal, emergency blanket, and food and water to last me the next day :)

That evening, my roommate was kind enough to invite me to join her Indiana teammates for a pasta dinner.  The restaurant was located in downtown Disney, so it was a first time for me in going down there and I was excited to see what it was like.

It had a LEGO store!! woooo!!  unfortunately, no time to go in it... we went to this restaurant called TREX. It was very atmospheric let's just say... lots of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures... that roared and moved.  Surprisingly good food, however, when I tried their salmon dinner with rice.  I had originally wanted to order pasta, but all the items had cheese and extra cheese with different types of cheese.  No need to upset my stomach anymore than it was already.

Dinner at Trex, day before full marathon

Salmon was DE-LIC-IOUS!  so so good, I was just shocked how yummy it was.  After finishing dinner, we headed back to our rooms.  Terri and I were determined to sleep earlier.  1:45am, again, we awoke.  We headed to the lobby again after freshening up and gearing up for the run to take our team picture.

2:30am January 8th, 2012 - Terri and I pre-race (for full-marathon)

US Flex team

The marathon was a bit tougher.  Although my legs weren't all that sore, my cold was still pretty persistant.  I managed through, halls and pretzels and some banana's they gave us as fuel along the way.  Unlike the half-marathon, marathon day wasn't as cool, but it was still very cold while we sat there waiting.  I was fortunate to meet a person that gave me heat packs to grip on to :)  Lifesaver indeed.

Despite how cold it was while sitting around waiting, as soon as we started running, it warmed up quickly.  I dumped my giant sweater (you can't miss it in the picture), not even 3 miles in.  I did hold on to the heat packs until well into mile 16.

There was a few amusing moments through the race, and some tough ones.  Amusing was trying to outdo "Mr. Incredible".  He was a very consistant paced person, but in the end, I ran passed him.  Great costume though.

Again, took lots of pictures.  I got very teary eyed at one point of my race.  Got through it.  Rewarded with a free chocolate lol.  Ate 3 bananas.  Finished off all my pretzels in my pouch.  Finished 2 rows of cliff blok jellies.  and nearly ate all my stash of HALLS.

When I finally crossed the finish line, 2 medals on me, I was both relieved and quite astounded I made it through.  I remembered to check in at the TNT tent (that way my coach wouldn't hate me and have to look for me through all the 42.2km).  After that, I headed straight back to the hotel, showered and slept like a log until the Victory dinner.  So much for themepark hopping!

Photo taken in the dining hall with Chip N' Dale

The Victory dinner was really quite entertaining.  I sat with Terri and took pictures of my food (surprise surprise), and of the people around.  There were a lot of thanks going around, a lot of dancing on the stage, and both Terri and I agreed that the Black Eyed Pea's song "Tonight's gonna be a good night" should be the themesong for the entire weekend.  It was constantly played throughout the 4 days I was there.

I decided to turn in early since I had an early flight the next day (8am), and according to the Magical Express, pickup would be at 4am.  So yet again, I had to get up far too early for anyone on "vacation".  I noticed though as I left the dinner that my wallet was missing.  Trying not to panic, I returned to my room and found that it was not there.... it was time to panic.  My roommate helped me look around the room, and I decided to head back to the dining hall to retrace my steps.

Thank god.  I found it under the table in the dining hall. I went back to the lobby and did some gift shopping and finally returned to my room.  It was bed time alright.

At 3am I was up and I rolled my luggage out and all the way to lobby, checked out, and to the magical express.  As I waited for the bus to arrive, I met another friend I had huddled with in the cold, Kaylee.  She was an inspiration to talk to, being in the airforce and all :) I was super impressed.  She could fly a helicopter! Wow.

Breakfast at Orlando Airport

We talked for a while, and finally we arrived at Terminal A.  Kaylee was at Terminal B.  We parted ways.  Once inside, I was so hungry.  I got myself a croissant sandwich from Burger Kings.

Customs went smoothly, and while waiting for my flight, I finalized some things for work.  Was able to send it off, just before my flight arrived.  TO, here I come!

Again, I was fast asleep on the plane.  With neocitran in my system now.  When we arrived in Pearson, I realized what real cold was.  with my parka zipped up, extra hat, and runners, I jetted to get a taxi to go home.

What an adventure to Disney.  Most interesting course I had run in my life.  My legs felt fine though, a tiny bit sore, but nothing compared to how I felt at the Scotiabank marathon.  I guess it means my body is in good shape despite the cold? :)

Hurray!!

Until the next race :P  this would conclude the mileage of the year (until I get my next pair of runners :-) )!

Thank you again to all my wonderful sponsors:  Jeffrey Lam, Kaibar, Lucy Wong, Liana Li, Anna Do, Stephen Lavoie, Richard Tanha, Joyce Quan, Vina Ly, Lynette, Cousins, Michell Wong, Mildred Avendano, Susan Jong, Madeline Avendano, Cecilia Tsang, Kathy Tazumi, and Rafeeza Khan.

Without you guys, I would not have been able to do the race and in turn, help save lives with the funds.  So a big thanks to all of you!!  And to those who wanted to support me, but wasn't able to do so financially, thank you, I know your thoughts were with me as I ran my final mileage on the race course.  I also of course have to thank my Coach, Theresa, and TNT organizer Cheryl for making it a smooth transition to and from the Disney race and matching me up with an amazing roommate, Terri.  To my Canada Flex Team, you're awesome, great accomplishments everyone.  Hopefully we will all get a chance to meet again in another run in the future :-)

[edit] Adding the course maps :-)

Disney Half Marathon Course (21km)

Disney Full Marathon Race Course (42.2km)

** Note:  I didn't lose any toenails! :-)

Holidays are here!

After seemingly a very long week at work, and a heart breaking Friday afternoon, I woke up this morning strangely motivated to run - despite the temperature being below zero.

I think I almost ran faster just to take my mind off things.

I didn't end up setting up my usual gear for the 12km run (water belt and electrolytes), and instead opted for a simple water bottle in hand, no breakfast, running gloves, and a regular toque (could not find my merino one).

At the start of the run, it didn't seem too bad, although I could see my breath in front of me, in terms of level of chill, it wasn't half bad. On the way back home from the run was a different story. I could feel the wind slicing through my sweatshirt (yes, I never really got that windbreaker I needed). Luckily with my 260 icebreaker base layer, I was still nice and toasty. I definitely don't regret getting a warmer one.

During the course of the run, I saw a few runners, and most unexpectantly, I saw some people decorate trees that were lined along the boardwalk. Maybe it's because I used to rarely (if ever) go to the beaches in the winter time, but it was the first time I saw this and I thought it was really rather sweet.

Imagine walking down the boardwalk in the evening, and all the trees were nicely lit up. Not all of the trees had the special treatment, but I assume it's because it's a work in progress? There's still a good two weeks before Christmas.

As I headed home, I saw the blue French Fries truck. It almost like a sign. If anything can make me feel better, it's french fries from the best french fries truck in Toronto :)

Whitby Race 2011 - Canada Runs for Japan

On this past weekend, I completed my first running event during the November Month. A deliberate test of how it feels to be running in the cold... I was fortunate that the weather also chose to cooperate, it was forecasted to rain, but there was not a hint of it in the air that afternoon.

I left Toronto on Saturday evening (19th of November), met up with my friend Madeline in Scarboro and we headed up together to our friend, Cecilia's house up in Whitby. We had a little debauckle with where to get off... Sistine, Dixon, Thickson... lol, but we managed to meet up in the end.

Cecilia's parents cooked an amazing meal for us to feast on at dinner time, full of carbs, and homemade tomato sauce (that had a little kick!). The main course served with the spaghetti was a mouth-watering chicken casserole. The chicken was grilled to perfection, with such attention to balance of the spices (also from scratch!). A delightful miso soup starter, sprinkled with toasted seaweed. Yum!

After the delicious meal (and great technology through the times dinner talk - yep, we talked about the days where computers had 16MB harddrives...!), we made our way down to the basement lounge area and watched the Food TV network. :P Who would have thought "Dinner: Impossible" could be so addictive. There was some irony that the previous week we had also watched Robert Irvine sadly losing his spot to be America's next Iron Chef. Good chef though, and he really tried to help the restaurant owner get up to par with proper pricing as well as proper cooking of food. 33% Margin. There's something I learned.

Following that we watched a bit of "Chopped". Which was pretty intense because one of the competitors spilled boiling hot water over herself... ai! Potatoes and hot water. Then.. after that... it was Cup Cake Wars. By then I had showered and was ready for bed --- 10 miler (16km) challenge the next day!!

My alarm went off promptly at 8:00am, got up, freshened up, and had breakfast with my friends:
1 Banana, Water, Oatmeal Raisin Cereal. Yum. I was easy on the milk - even at 1%, my body never took too well with milk.




I geared up with my outdoor running gear: 260 Icebreaker layer, T-shirt on top of it, wool socks, icebreaker 200 tights, lululemon brisk running gloves, and my favorite white running cap. Made sure I had my iphone on me as well and some emergency electrolytes (a few raspberry bursts leftover from the scotiabank race).

We left Cecilia's house around 10:00am, and headed to the Whitby Yacht Club, by the waterfront. After parking on a side street, we went straight to the registration area, upstairs in a cottage-like building. I picked up my racekit there: A T-shirt and a Bib (timing chip was attached to the bib). I looked around to see where I could find a course map, but was unable to find one.. But as we neared the stairs to go back downstairs, we saw a hand drawn map.

we sat around and kinda of lounged a bit while waiting for the race to start (at 11am - unusually late time to start). The race actually started a bit later than 11am since we had to wait for the 1km to return from their race (a category for kids). It was quite cold since we waited nearly 15 minutes.

When the start horn finally sounded, all of us 5/10/16km runners couldn't wait to get started - it was so cold waiting around.

This however changed after the first km. I started to warm up, and at one point, I took off my gloves and tucked it away. The scenery on route was really nice, coupled with the cool air, (and no rain), it was not an unpleasant experience at all. I had feared the weather to be like the one we had at the Scotiabank Marathon that happened in the past month. Rainy, Cold, and Windy. It was cold and windy, but no clouds in the sky. Yay!

Near the end of the run, I had a little 'competition' with a more seasoned elder runner :P We were literally passing each other back and forth for over the span of 7km. Neither of us wanted to be defeated, although in the end, with some stored up energy, I did manage to pass the finish line first. Not soon after, when I returned to the cottage to find my friends, I was thanked by him personally for helping him keep going :D I returned the thanks as well, because he too, helped me push myself more.

I then texted my awesome support team Cecilia and Madeline to come find me back at the cottage. There was free chili upstairs, but I really just wanted to go back to the house and shower.

After showering and resting a bit (and more food TV and... the mummy 3), we headed out to have Wild Wings at Kennedy Commons. Yum, wings galore!

It was a fun event. Awesome company, good food, and a great race course. I would definitely do it again next year!

Running Outdoors in the Fall

In my last post I mentioned how I dreaded having to do my runs on a treadmill, and my indecisiveness of to run outdoors or to switch memberships to a gym that had an indoor track. This past weekend, I made my decision - I will run outdoors until its too cold/icy to do it.

I consulted with my virtual coach who offered me excellent advice about what I should wear and where I could get my gear from. It happened though, instead of landing in the Running Room as I thought I would be doing most of my shopping at, I was at Eatons, browsing Lululemon.

No, I unfortunately didn't end up buying lulu, but instead headed to Sports Chek, and got some tights, a long-sleeve base layer, a merino wool cap and a pair of wool socks. I also bought my brother a really nice gift... which we might be returning, but .. they are so nice Quiet Comfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones by Bose. I tried these on at Best Buy, and they were amazing. Hands down. But. Pricey :P The package remains unopened (for now!) and may go back, only to re materialize again come boxing day or something. We shall see.

Anyway, back on topic.. now that I've got my "winter" running gear, I shouldn't have any problem braving the cold (or so the people at sportschek told me). If anything I might a bit hot running in it, unless I am the type to get cold easily. Which, I am, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Today, I put the gear to the test. I left work a bit later than I expected, so the sun was already setting, I had very little time to change and rush outside. I admit, once I got home, I really felt the laziness kick in. I was home. tired. and hungry. And it was chilly outside. The house felt so warm and cozy. I could smell dinner brewing in the kitchen...

But no. I'm dedicated to training for the Goofy run. Not to mention I had one coming up in 2 weeks (Whitby 10 miler race). I had to keep up my cardio. After falling sick for nearly 2 weeks, it was only on the Saturday I managed to do a 10km run at the gym.


Oh. Yes, btw that felt like the longest 10km I ever had to run. I chose a treadmill that was closest to a tv view of the food network, but found that it was out of service. The only other one was facing a structural beam. So I would need to turn my head to watch my cooking shows. So not cool. And not fun. Time ticked by very slowly. I ended at about 10km, and made my way home. It was after this treadmill run tipped the scale in my decision to get outdoor running gear.

I rationalize now, (also then), the clothing invested for running can be cross-functional to my other winter sports that I do sometimes (snowboarding/skiing). Maybe we could even do some winter hikes... The possibilities were endless.

After taking a few quick sips of water, plugging in to my music, I finally left the house, and made my way to the park and did laps. Eventually I will need a better place to run, but it was the first route that came to mind. It grew dark quickly, so I tried to stay in the lit areas of the paths. It was such a beautiful evening. The air was nice and crisp. There was a slight chill, I could see my breath when I breathed out. Only a little though. Wasn't cold enough to see a full winters breath. Best part was that I was comfortably warm while running. It was pitch black when I finished my run so I was glad that I stayed just in the park area.

During my run, as I mentioned, I was comfortably warm. Everything was at a controlled warmth; the base layer did as it promised: kept me warm and at the same time, kept me dry and not sweaty. I had on 3 layers, a regular long-sleeve technical shirt, my merino wool base layer on top, and a simply sweatshirt over top of it all. I should have gotten a windbreaker too, maybe this weekend. The hat was great. my head felt warm and toasty. The socks, WOW. Loved them. When I first put them on, greatest feeling ever. They were..feeling rather fluffy. lol. I used the same gloves I purchased for my scotiabank marathon (the Lululemon ones).

Overall, I'm happy with the gears that I got. Now I have to be sure I'm on track with the training. As well as the fundraising! :)



Speaking of fundraising, my next post, I will tell you more about my partnership with a local artist, Tomori Nagamoto, in helping raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/runforthecurewendy if you want to make a donation today!

Tomori Nagamoto is not only an extremely talented artist (see above portraits for sample artwork) and musician, but a fellow runner who has a philanthropic mindset as well.