Good news my avid readers! I completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Full Marathon (42.2km)! Yipeeee!

My legs right now, though, feels like rubber! I had thought my long runs on all those Saturday training sessions were exhausting on my muscles, but boy, this is a whole new feeling. Despite the soreness, I have to say, I am very proud and happy to have made it through my first marathon! I'm now in the 1% of the world who can complete a marathon. A proud achievement for me :-)

Details on pre-run date: On Saturday I checked into my room at the Hilton Hotel, met up with my two room mates, had a pre-race jitter talk with them, had a most delicious pasta dinner with all my team mates, listened to 3 speeches that teared me up, and proceeded to sleep at 11pm in night ... only to have to wake up at 4:45am the next morning.

Had breakfast at 5:50am (Had to run around downtown toronto to look for the 24 hour Tim Hortons); successful, but I didn't end up getting the hashbrowns that I wanted :-( They were not serving it yet until 9am. Had a butter croissant and small double double. Tastey.

My two roomates and I rushed back to our hotel, to our rooms, got our water belts, jackets, (and luggage for me -- planned to use the baggage check-in at city hall), and proceeded downstairs to the lobby to meet the rest of the TNT group.

It was still dark when we began heading over to Nathan Phillips Square to our tent. The race did not start until 7:30am, so there was still lots time to be nervous, worried and having thoughts of of a number of possible, but rather unlikely events that could happen before and during the race. 42 km was a pretty long way. Stepping on a pothole, my knee injury coming back, headache, cramps, hip pain, rain, too much sun, wind... all of it was an unknown. Rain was probably the worse thought on my mind. A member of my team said that it was suppose to shower a little bit; and there was chance of a little sun between 8-9am. How comforting.

It was about 7:10am when we began to move towards our corals (our starting area). While we waited until the race started, I took the time to take in the excitement, the energy around me. I could hear the sound of music, laughter, friends and family cheering.. it was amazing.

The national anthem then started and we were all silent as we listened to it.

The gunshot sounded; the race was on!

To make it easiest to describe the run, I will list the few pivotal moments:

15km -- Felt so happy that it was not raining nor was it too sunny.
21km -- I felt this rush of pride, I passed the 21km mark @ 2:32 hours
27km -- I hit my mental wall, anxiety on not having enough time to finish hit me (my coach was thank god there, and talked me out of my fear - I had about 3 hours still and I was more than half way)
30km -- My right quad cramped up on me, and I devoured all the peanuts I had in my pouch (Thank you Lise for the idea and Lynette for the trail mix!)
33km -- My left and right quads cramped on me, coach offered me a salt tablet
34km -- Started to dislike drinking Gatorade and those little cubes meant to help me restore the balance of my electrolytes. There is only so much love for those supplements ...
36km -- The top of my left knee began to spasm on me, forced me to slow down a lot
40km -- My IT band began to hurt a little bit
41km -- Used an unknown stored energy to sprint to that finish line.
41.5km -- I thought about the cause I was running for and wished for the good health of my family, my relatives, my uncle, my friends, my supporters.
42.2 km -- A victorious feeling :-)

As I crossed the finish line, it felt amazing. First - I finished a marathon! I had run 26 miles! Second - Yes, I could now sit and eat. I was famished.

I hugged my parents and brother who were there to support me, and my three wonderful cousins who trekked all the way downtown to see me, from morning until I finished my race! My two friends Kai and Jeffrey who special delivered me food that I requested :-) (namely chinese buns and gatorade).

After having a brief lunch with my two friends, I headed home. At this point, my legs were tired, it was not until I got home and sat on the sofa, when I felt the soreness creep in. By the time my friend Madeline dropped by to congratulate me on my run, I could feel the stiffness in my legs. I was walking very oddly. lol. I definitely needed to do some light stretching.

This morning, when I woke up, my poor legs only got more sore. lol. Will be booking with a massage therapist this week! :-)

Well, so this ends my marathon journey for this year :-) Thank you all for following me and supporting me on my training for the marathon.

Next weekend I will be doing a short run/walk (let's see how my legs feel hehe), for the CIBC run for the cure - Breast Cancer. Wish me luck!

P.S. Thanks M for the kind donation!

First thing I have to say is, YAY! Thank you thank you wonderful supporters! Without you guys, I wouldn't have been able to reach my fundraising goal! =) You guys are the best!

Special thanks to my new sponsors: Bill Petruck, Marty Kobayashi, Lise Hansen, Richard Tanha, Diana Trac, and the anonymous people who kindly contributed to my little tincan :-)

Now to the running bit:
This weekend, :-( bad news came about with my knee again. Tricky little fella I have to say. It had not complained for the last two weeks of the long run training - 23km and 32km respectively, but on Saturday, having just run just a little past 10km, it faltered on me again. I was fortunate to be close to home (ironic since our new route passes my house), so I was able to head home straight away to to ice the knee. No sense in injuring it further since race day is literally at this point 14 days away.

The knee, as I iced it, was all red and inflammed. I applied some a535, did some stretching afterwards and it was not after I took a long nap that afternoon did it start feeling better. I was able to walk around and not exactly run, but trot about without any pain. This was a huge relief. Previously when I first had this happen to me, walking even hurt me. I took this as a good sign. This morning, did more stretching, and my knee feels good again - which means good news I can resume my training again! I am going to taper down with lower milages than the training schedule. My knee will be more happier, I'm sure. And a friendly visit to my doctor again for an assessment (just in case) of my knee too :-)

Tomorrow, I will do yoga ... 14 days ... in counting!

Today's theme: Peaches. That's what the food show Ricardo told me. And boy did I feel for peaches afterwards! I learned how to make peach soup, BBQ'd peach, peach drink, and of course, we can't forget peach crumble! And all this was while in front of a treadmill. Kinda liking this dual tasking *grin* =)

Honestly, my 10km never zoomed by so fast. I actually skipped my usual 10 and 1's. Went straight through my run. I think I should try to get to the gym around this same time, lol, got to watch two of my favourite cooking shows.

Mind you, lol, I like learning to cook, but I have yet to put those skills to practical use. That may change soon enough! A friend (thanks Laura!) suggested a new fundraising idea that I might just take up on...

Also, I have many special thanks to my most recent sponsors: Kimberley Bailey, Gina Cramarossa, Cindy Poon, Kim Nguyen, Ping Young, Rafeeza Khan, Patricia Denessidis, Ryan MacLachlan, and Jason Cheng! You guys are great!! Thanks so much for supporting my cause! Getting much much closer!

The Saturday that just passed, I did my longest run to date: 32km! Dear God, I really did not know if I could do it. Took me about 5 hours 25 min ... I will definitely need to pick up the pace just a tad ... though I do blame them hills for holding me back ;) The scotia run is relatively flat, so that will be something going towards my favour. Now if it were only all down hill ... ah such wishful thinking :-)

I woke up at 4am, ate 2 pieces of toast and 2 eggs (mmmm soo goooood), drank some leftover gatorade, 2 1/2 glasses of water (still shakened by the dyhdration scare from the previous week).

Speaking of hydration, I decided to try out gatorade instead of the regular elode discs to replenish lost electrolytes while running. Turns out, it was a good decision. I noticed I was able to keep a more consistant pace and was not as thirsty so often. Best of all, no adverse stomach cramps or nausea afterwards. I have heard that some people do not take in gatorade too well. Next week, I will be filling all my water bottles with gatorade. Let us see what 100% gatorade does... :) It will be my last week when I can truly experiment with the different sports drinks.


During my run, as I mentioned before, it was a 5 1/2 hour run, I did eventually run out of water/gatorade. There was a point where I had to refill with tap water from a sink. Not a big deal in many respects, but for those who know me well ... lol, kinda biggie for me =) But when it comes right down to it, if you need water, you need water.


On the first half of the five and a half hours, I chatted with fellow runners. Eventually, we all drifted apart, running our own pace. As I'm running along the beltline to finish my last 11km, I hummed a few tunes, I problem solved work stuff, thought about vacation and travel, poetry, books to read, mountains to climb ... and then I cross path with a rat.

Such a random event. I never knew there were rats in the woody forest. But then again, there were some residential areas... perhaps, I imagined then at the time, some kind hearted old lady saved the rat by releasing him into the wild instead of panning him down. No, I was not delarious ;-) just humble musings ... while some have the good fortune of having beautiful hymns come to them (Sid), I occassionally come up with backstories of things that I come across during my run.

Oh, good thing: I did not hit "the wall" during the run [for those curious for the detailed definition of what I mean by that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon]. Yay!

Next week, 23km. We're starting to taper down our long runs. Phew. lol.

-edit-

I had some really delicious vietnamese food after the run as a reward for my hardwork :P

P.S. Thank you Joyce Q. For the kind sponsorship! Getting closer!

:-) Yay! I managed to squeeze in 6km today in prep work for Saturday's long run. Following this, I had energy to go shopping :)

And then...

I had Kimchi tofu soon in Korean town and some delicious walnut cakes! So tastey! Ah, I have to admit, there are benefits to training this hard ;)

Tomorrow, I plan to do some easy hill training (ai...I loathe them hills...). Depending on the weather and how my allergies are, I may actually run outdoors :P

Also, Special thanks to Cecilia T. and Jeffrey L. for their recent sponsorship! :) Yay! Getting closer to my goal!

Thanks Hui also for the encouragement! I will need those prayers... :)

Saturday's run went well. I did not do my expected run - 29km - however, I did the recovery run, 23km (suggested by my coach since I was just returning from a knee strain injury). I think overall it was good effort in getting back into the training routine (0km to 23km!).

Sadly to say, there was nothing extraordinary that occured during the run... except I have to say, as we passed what was previously used as the emergency waste drop off area, the stench from whatever "toxins" cummulated from the garbage bags sitting there could still be smelled. ick.

After the run, however, something did happen. Not a good thing, but I guess considering that everything is fine now, I would consider it an interesting story. Or at least something I will remember NOT to repeat ever again.

I had completed my run, finished doing my stretches, and had hopped into the showers. A few minutes later, a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea washed over me. My vision changed slightly (I can't quite describe the change, it seemed sharper but dimmer?), it was suddenly for just a second, an outer body experience. I think my hands shook slightly...I felt a stomach cramp creep up on me ... I made it out of the showers and headed towards the locker area (at the time, I felt it better to well, if I did collapse, at least be somewhere where ppl were).

On my way there, I saw what I would never imagine to be something I'd ever crave for -- a protein bar; mind you, lol, it wasn't even my bar. A fellow runner had it on her -- Clare -- and all I could say to her the moment she looked up to greet me was, "Could I, if you don't mind, have just a little piece?". I honestly attempted to take a little piece off of it, but she would have none of it. Maybe it was ghastly pale complexion that worried her.... next thing I know I'm chewing away at the whole bar and having some water offered to me. Two other runners, Kate and Janine came to the rescue with an additional protein shake as well. Life savers. .. and because of them, crisis was averted.

The crisis had been... dehydration. Although I had a waterbelt on me and had been drinking water regularly every 10min, it did not help the fact that I was.. already slightly dehydrated. Having been out of the intense training schedule, I had - out of bad habit - drank less water.

After the incident, you betcha I drank a good 2L of H20 :-)

Sipping some right now...

P.S. Thank you Madeline A. and Laura A. for your support! =)

Also, Coach Helena sent us an interesting trailer for a movie about marathons. It's kind of inspiring =) See for yourself; the movie is called "The Spirit of the Marathon":