THANK YOU!!

To my wonderful, supportive wife Sonia who has been so patient and understanding of all of my training runs, my absent mindedness (causing many a scheduling conflict) and for keeping me grounded throughout this journey, I LOVE YOU and cannot thank you enough!

To my son Elrik, my apologies for missed activities and my often very short fuse as I let my self-induced panic and fatigue get the best of me at times, I'm looking forwards to a less rigorous training schedule for the next few months, to our canoe triathlon relay and especially to our boys weekend and just hanging out together. And also for being at the race with Sonia for over 5 hours, taking photos of all the purple people, and for your encouragement, bell ringing and super home-made sign at the race.

To my daughter Riana, for understanding why I chose the marathon and couldn't run with her this race weekend, for being there to cheer me on with high fives and one "Kick Ass" sign and for being late for an equally important social event so that she could be there for my finish and to give me that great post-race hug.

To my brother-in-law and coach, thank you for all the encouragement, support, plans, advice and flexibility and for helping me to understand what all those odd running terms mean and how to deal with all the side effects of long distance training and tapering.

To my many experienced marathon and 1/2 marathon friends for your encouragement and advice and for sharing your race and training experiences to help put my mind at ease.

To so many of you who showed up at different spots around the course to cheer me one, offer high fives and take photos, those were the spots where I found renewed energy and focus to pull me through.

To my friend Rod for jumping on his bike and following me around to be at a few spots to cheer me on...sucks that you ended up with a flat...free change service as soon as I can bend my knees again.

To my running mate Jane M. for your wonderful banter in those 29km that we were able to do together...my apologies for not being able to stay with you and leaving you to do oh so many more km alone...I hope that we can race together again and that I can be better prepared to run a sub 4:30 with you.

To the woman with the HUGE free high fives sign who moved around to different spots along the route...I think I managed to get one every time I saw you.

To all my wonderful Team in Training Team Mates for teaching and sharing with me how to Train Endure Achieve and Matter, you are truly a special breed and no matter your result yesterday, you should all be proud of everything you have achieved!!

To all of you no matter how you offered your support, through your generosity and encouragement, I personally raised over $7200. Team in Training for this event alone raised over $200,000 and in their 22 years, they have raised over 1 Billion dollars to fund research to find a cure for blood cancers and offer patient support to those fighting blood cancers.

And finally, to my friend, honouree and inspiration...Derek, thank you for all of that and for reaffirming in those last 7km that we ran together exactly why I was out there...that it wasn't really about getting that sub 4:3o time, for reminding me where you were a year ago and what the efforts of Team in Training and the Leukemia Society of Canada have done for you and others living with and fighting blood cancers.

This was my first marathon, but it will not be my last. Although I did not achieve the sub 4:30 goal I set out for myself I think we as a collective achieved something much more meaningful.

I will be back to take a shot at that goal again and you have all shown me that I will have the support I need to meet that goal as well as the fundraising goals that I set along the way.

THANK YOU!!

RACE DAY…THIS IS IT!!

It’s been six months since I decided I was going to run a marathon to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, and it all comes down to race day TODAY.

Through your support, we raised over $7200.00!! Through your encouragement, advice and belief in me, I have managed to put in all the hours and Kilometers (over 1500 since Oct.) and somehow survived my hardest taper ever and at 7:00 a.m. today, I will line up with friends, strangers, team mates and elite athletes from across the globe to compete in my first marathon.

I am so excited!!!

I can’t wait to get running to see the parts of the course I didn’t get a chance to train on, to get to those spots I have trained so I can settle in and clam my nerves…but most importantly, to finish what I started and celebrate what all of you have helped me to achieve.

To those of you who are planning to come down and watch the marathon or half marathon, thank you, your cheers, bells, signs and presence really do carry us through the rough bits!

If you are coming down and you’re looking for me, I’ll be wearing my dark purple Team In Training shirt and a white cap, my timing should be between 6:00 and 6:30/km if all goes well.

No matter who you’re coming down to see, please cheer for everyone, runners and walkers, but maybe save a little extra umph for anyone in a purple jersey, they’re my team mates and have all raised money to fight blood cancers as a part of their journey to get to either the half or the full.

Oh and if you happen to see me walking, don’t worry it’s part of the race day plan…30min run, 1 min walk.

I hope to see and hear you out there

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…actually it was Taper time…

First of all, for those of you who do not know, tapering is the practice of reducing the volume and or intensity of your workouts before a key race. The goal of any tapering program (and there are a few variations), is to ensure that you are fully recovered from previous workouts and at the same time, completely rested for the big event.

The reaction to tapering is different for each person, but usually falls into one of two categories, it is either dreaded or embraced…personally, I have always enjoyed the taper, looking at it as an opportunity to relax, refuel and bank some energy for my goal race.

This time around, my experience has been a little of both, at times relaxing and a welcome break from the long distances and time consuming workouts, and at times…unsettling and downright bothersome!

I’m used to that antsy feeling from last year’s DU season and the multiple races and tapers, but this experience has been quite different. Maybe it has to do with the reduced race schedule, maybe because training for the marathon has been going on for so long, or maybe because this is such a public goal with so many people supporting me in so many ways over the last few months as I have been training and fundraising.

Whatever the cause the effects have been odd, the runs I am doing have felt good, but times have been much slower, odd aches and pains have been noticed and I ALWAYS feel like I have ate too much, in spite of reducing the amount I’m eating and paying close attention to what exactly I am taking in. I’m getting 8+ hours of sleep per night (more than usual), but still wake up feeling I could sleep another 2-4.

I have been doing some reading and I know that none of this is uncommon, but it is still one of the more challenging aspects so far. I’ve been trying to focus on the race plan, and all the logistics for the race (race kit, meeting places, TNT commitments, etc) to keep my mind off of the more worrisome aspects, hence this blog entry…the good news I guess is that we’re less than a week from race day, and I’ll have to trust that all these months of preparation and all of the great folks who have and continue to be so supportive, will get me through this and that come race day…all I’ll have to do is just show up and run…maybe that’s the thing…focus on the KISS principle and forget all the other outside influences.

One thing for sure…this preparation, taper period and no doubt the marathon itself…have been like no other I have experienced so far.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on race day…and hopefully hearing you too.

The worst is over and the best is yet to come

Yesterday my teammate Jane M. and I did our last long run before the Ottawa Marathon, 32Km from Kanata to Bank Street. I am grateful that I didn’t have to do this one alone...although we got distracted and ran above our target pace a few times, one of us seemed to eventually notice and we were able to stay mostly on pace. I was especially glad to have Jane with me as we tackled the last 2Km...things were starting to tighten up and my calves were starting to feel a lot like they did in Hamilton. Thanks for being there Jane and for keeping me going to that virtual 32Km marker.

We weren’t the only “purple people” out for a long run that day, we ran into another of our teammates, Kailena out for a post training jaunt with her “puppy” Faeryn, there really is strength in numbers!

Which leads me to my next point...over the last few months as I bombarded people with requests for donations, status updates about my progress (both fundraising and training) and blog entries, I have been overwhelmed by the generosity, support and encouragement that I have received from so many. Each of these people has found their own way to give, some financially, some through support and encouragement, some through sharing their experience and advice, and some by all of the above, but each person has in some way contributed to my ability to come this far...and each of you will have played a part in getting me to the starting line for my first marathon...here at home...and I cannot wait.

For the next few weeks, I will be following the sage advice of my experienced friends...enjoying the taper, the rest and recovery and I am looking forward to running the longest race of my life (so far) on fresh legs, injury free!!

To those of you who will be watching the marathon, I’ll be looking for your faces in the crowd, I hope to see you or at least hear you, or your cowbell ;-)

P.S. If you’re planning on heading down to watch the marathon, I would love it if you would inflate a purple balloon...you may not see me in the thousands of people running...and I may not see your face in the crowd, but I will be watching for those balloons, hopefully that will allow me to see you and at the very least, I will know you were there to cheer me on and that may just be what it takes to keep me going and get me across that finish line.