I had originally planned to post something on this subject over the holidays, or early in the New Year, but between family time, renovating, training and studying…I’m only getting to it now.
2010 was a year filled with firsts for me and my family. I ran my first ½ marathon…Winterman – Feb., my first 30K…Around the Bay – Mar. and my first marathon…Ottawa – May. It was also the first time I had repeated participation in an event for the same distance…Ottawa Riverkeeper Canoe Triathlon with BERT42 – Jun., and the MADD Dash with Riana – Oct.
Elrik competed in and completed his first triathlon…he’s the first in our family to do a Tri…very proud moment!!
Sonia, Riana and I participated in our first family Triathlon relay and had a blast doing it!
The great thing about doing that first event at ANY distance is that no matter what goal you set, whether you’re overjoyed or even a little disappointed, you set a personal best and draw a line in the sand that you can measure your progress against should you choose to continue. I don’t feel the need to compete with the other runners out there, but I do like to compete with myself and keep raising the bar, trying to find new ways to improve.
Another first for me was joining Team in Training (Ottawa Marathon) and with your help I raised nearly $8000 to help further the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. Team in Training introduced me to some incredible people, coaches, mentors, survivors and fellow athletes who I am fortunate to call teammates and friends. People join Team in Training for many reasons…but there are two main reasons I keep coming back and raising funds:
1. One day…soon I hope, we will raise the last dollar ever needed to find a cure for cancer (I'm quoting from site of a Teammate I've never met in the USA but can no longer find the site or her name)
2. The people, they truly do make it the experience of a lifetime.
If you’re interested in finding out more, drop me a line or visit the website http://www.teamintraining.ca/
I promise you won’t regret it!
