Thought it might be time for an update on how the 12 halfs are going.
It's been a nice break between events this time, with my September one not until the 25th. In the meantime I've been trying to focus on the other aspect of this adventure (my doctorate) as well as continuing to incorporate Michael's diabetes into our lives.
Michael is back to school, and adapting well. Our school, Gray Elementary, has been wonderful. They have a couple other kids with diabetes within the school and are well versed with the potential issues for kids with diabetes. It is great that the school has been proactive and I feel confident that should an emergency arise they will know what to do. It also helps being off this year and knowing that most of the time I am only 10 minutes away. Michael has also started back with his swim club, first practice this week went well, both in terms of blood glucose levels and swimming :) Michael was thrilled that he was the fastest in his group on Monday, and is looking forward to seeing how his times come down at the first PASS meet of the year in October.
I am spending this week getting myself organized for comprehensive exams. Comps are one of the major hurdles to get over in doing a doctorate. In my program they consist of two major papers which will ultimately form the basis of two dissertation chapters. My questions will be emailed to me Friday morning and then I have two weeks to complete two 20 page academic papers. I already know the topic areas so I've been able to collect background materials (haven't read it all yet), and get things organized and ready to go. The next two weeks will be a lot of work but then a short break to recover and I'll be good to go moving forward with research.
On the running front, well I'm not running as much as I'd like :(
So I won't be expecting any PB's anytime soon :)
September's event is the Bellingham Bay half, looks to be a nice course with a beautiful finishing medal and shirt. Dave and I will be driving down for the day, this will be a good taper run for Dave in anticipation of the Victoria marathon a couple weeks later.
October will be Victoria, I'll be running the half and Dave will be running the full, his training has been going very well so I'm sure he'll have a successful run. I'll be out there enjoying the beautiful scenery and since the half starts well before the full marathon I'll be finished in lots of time to cheer on the Alma marathoners!
November has been a tough decision, the new Whistler 50 relay is the same weekend as the Boundary Bay half so that one is out, there are two other halfs in Vancouver the Fall Classic and a new one the Ginger Jar half both of which are double loops (ugh), another option is a new race in Victoria, the Bear Mountain half. The Bear Mountain 10 km race advertises itself as North America's hardest 10 km, due to the three hills nicknamed Baby Bear, Mama Bear and Papa Bear. This year they are adding a half marathon course (not a double loop). This could be a fun event and may turn into a girls weekend :)
That's it for now, I'll be back in a couple weeks with a race report and comp report, until then happy running and happy studying!
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
August - 4 down!
Well, the last month has been nothing if not eventful.
After getting home from our Oregon trip (and the boys' cross the US road trip adventure) it became apparent something wasn't quite right with Michael. He was getting more and more lethargic and drinking an unbelievable amount of water. A quick check with Grandma's glucometer showed blood glucose levels that were way too high. Off we went to Children's Hospital and since then we have been learning to live with a diagnosis of type 1 diagnosis. Can't say enough about the wonderful doctors, nurses, dieticians, nurse educators, residents, and others at Children's.
Needless to say training has changed a little, Dave is continuing with his goal of the Victoria Marathon, I have adjusted my October goal to a more realistic half and we are now splitting up our weekend running. I'm doing the North Shore trails on Saturday's (love those trails) and Dave is running with the clinic group on Sunday's. I'm sure it won't be long before we are back to both running on Sunday's but for now it is easier on all for one of us to be home.
The Delta Half on August 10th was my designated half for the month, in the week prior I checked the website for a reminder of where and when package pick-up was and saw a note about there being less than 200 registered runners. This struck fear in my heart, with so few runners, and not quite the training I had hoped for, this could be the race where I could come in........insert shudder here......last! So it was with trepidation that I headed out Sunday morning for a 7:30 am start. Now there are a few really good things about such a small race: there is no line up for the washrooms, and you get to use real washrooms not port-a-potties, you get to park at the start line (I literally drove over the start line to get into the rec centre parking lot), you get to wait in your warm car until just before the start (it is still chilly at 7:00'ish am).
The Delta half winds it's way from the Ladner recreation centre through the suburbs of scenic Ladner, past a little nine-hole executive golf course, along River Road and into the farmland of Ladner/South Delta, before returning to suburbia again and finishing up back at the rec centre. The good things about this course: no hills, it was well marked, the volunteers were numerous and supportive, the water stations were well spaced, well supplied and well staffed primarily with families. The not so great things about this course: no hills (I know who would ever have thought I'd say this was a negative, but all flat all the time can get a bit monotonous), it's not the most scenic of courses, and once into the farm land the roads are very crowned you had to run down the yellow line to find a relatively level part of the road and then dodge the occasional vehicle as the roads were not closed.
The end result: a time of 2:21:50 and not last! I am actually very happy with my time and how I felt during the race. The finish line featured a pancake breakfast put on by the local rotary club, and a good number of draw prizes including a grand prize of a bike donated by one of the sponsors, South Shore Cycles. (Sad to say no prizes came my way).
Would I do this race again, probably not, but if you are looking for a half marathon to run in August, there aren't many out there and the organization and volunteer support was certainly there for this one.
Next up - Bellingham at the end of September, this one will serve as a stress reliever as I will be in the middle of my comprehensive exams that weekend :)
Thanks for reading :)
After getting home from our Oregon trip (and the boys' cross the US road trip adventure) it became apparent something wasn't quite right with Michael. He was getting more and more lethargic and drinking an unbelievable amount of water. A quick check with Grandma's glucometer showed blood glucose levels that were way too high. Off we went to Children's Hospital and since then we have been learning to live with a diagnosis of type 1 diagnosis. Can't say enough about the wonderful doctors, nurses, dieticians, nurse educators, residents, and others at Children's.
Needless to say training has changed a little, Dave is continuing with his goal of the Victoria Marathon, I have adjusted my October goal to a more realistic half and we are now splitting up our weekend running. I'm doing the North Shore trails on Saturday's (love those trails) and Dave is running with the clinic group on Sunday's. I'm sure it won't be long before we are back to both running on Sunday's but for now it is easier on all for one of us to be home.
The Delta Half on August 10th was my designated half for the month, in the week prior I checked the website for a reminder of where and when package pick-up was and saw a note about there being less than 200 registered runners. This struck fear in my heart, with so few runners, and not quite the training I had hoped for, this could be the race where I could come in........insert shudder here......last! So it was with trepidation that I headed out Sunday morning for a 7:30 am start. Now there are a few really good things about such a small race: there is no line up for the washrooms, and you get to use real washrooms not port-a-potties, you get to park at the start line (I literally drove over the start line to get into the rec centre parking lot), you get to wait in your warm car until just before the start (it is still chilly at 7:00'ish am).
The Delta half winds it's way from the Ladner recreation centre through the suburbs of scenic Ladner, past a little nine-hole executive golf course, along River Road and into the farmland of Ladner/South Delta, before returning to suburbia again and finishing up back at the rec centre. The good things about this course: no hills, it was well marked, the volunteers were numerous and supportive, the water stations were well spaced, well supplied and well staffed primarily with families. The not so great things about this course: no hills (I know who would ever have thought I'd say this was a negative, but all flat all the time can get a bit monotonous), it's not the most scenic of courses, and once into the farm land the roads are very crowned you had to run down the yellow line to find a relatively level part of the road and then dodge the occasional vehicle as the roads were not closed.
The end result: a time of 2:21:50 and not last! I am actually very happy with my time and how I felt during the race. The finish line featured a pancake breakfast put on by the local rotary club, and a good number of draw prizes including a grand prize of a bike donated by one of the sponsors, South Shore Cycles. (Sad to say no prizes came my way).
Would I do this race again, probably not, but if you are looking for a half marathon to run in August, there aren't many out there and the organization and volunteer support was certainly there for this one.
Next up - Bellingham at the end of September, this one will serve as a stress reliever as I will be in the middle of my comprehensive exams that weekend :)
Thanks for reading :)
Monday, 11 July 2011
Fueled by Fine Wine
Number three is in the bag! And seeing as I am having a hard time going up and down stairs today I might as well update this.
Fueled by Fine Wine as an absolutely stunning course put on by the Dundee Vineyards Association in Dundee, Oregon in the Willamette Valley (now make sure you pronounce that correctly). The course covered a variety of terrain, from asphalt to gravel to farm paths through the vineyards. From descriptions of last year's course we knew we were in for something special and something challenging, these race organizers love their hills. I will never again complain about having to head up 8th Ave to UBC, at least with 8th there is a block or two of warm-up - not the case this weekend, over the start line out of a park and boom there's the first hill, that went on and on and on (or so it seemed), we climbed through the residential area of Dundee before venturing into the vineyards and heading back down again to Fox Farm Road, it was very challenging to not turn off and head straight back to bead as we ran right by our home for the weekend, Fox Farm Cottage. More hills were to follow, and more vineyards, and more hills, you get the picture. The most challenging hill took us for a loop around vineyards with some of the most spectacular views. Thank you to Newton for the Tuesday night training sessions - I know they helped, and thanks to Kate for the trail runs on the North Shore, they sure gave me the confidence to run downhill on farm tracks and to conserve energy by walking up the big ones. With one more hill at mile 12 the finish line was finally in sight, and not only a finish line but a fantastic medal and wine tasting with at least 20 local wineries, can you say pinot noir at 9:30 am?
The organizers were correct, you may not get your best time but you will have your best time - it was a fantastic experience. (Dave may disagree but perhaps he took the run a little too seriously :))
Here's a few pics, you'll note you don't see many people actually running up those hills, in fact I don't think I've ever seen such a large portion of the field walking the hills.
On the other thing that I am supposed to be working on while doing all these runs - well the last couple weeks have not been all that productive but...I have nailed down my research questions and am continuing to expand my background knowledge learning all about advocacy coalition theory, tenure and promotion policies and practices, and also exploring qualitative research techniques. I'm also exploring means of keeping my work organized, OneNote is looking promising but I've got to figure out what office 2010 has done to my laptop, they don't like each other. Another month of so of reading and processing and then it will be time for comprehensive exams in early fall - if I can figure out the paperwork that is.
Next up - the Delta Half sometime around August 14th.
Fueled by Fine Wine as an absolutely stunning course put on by the Dundee Vineyards Association in Dundee, Oregon in the Willamette Valley (now make sure you pronounce that correctly). The course covered a variety of terrain, from asphalt to gravel to farm paths through the vineyards. From descriptions of last year's course we knew we were in for something special and something challenging, these race organizers love their hills. I will never again complain about having to head up 8th Ave to UBC, at least with 8th there is a block or two of warm-up - not the case this weekend, over the start line out of a park and boom there's the first hill, that went on and on and on (or so it seemed), we climbed through the residential area of Dundee before venturing into the vineyards and heading back down again to Fox Farm Road, it was very challenging to not turn off and head straight back to bead as we ran right by our home for the weekend, Fox Farm Cottage. More hills were to follow, and more vineyards, and more hills, you get the picture. The most challenging hill took us for a loop around vineyards with some of the most spectacular views. Thank you to Newton for the Tuesday night training sessions - I know they helped, and thanks to Kate for the trail runs on the North Shore, they sure gave me the confidence to run downhill on farm tracks and to conserve energy by walking up the big ones. With one more hill at mile 12 the finish line was finally in sight, and not only a finish line but a fantastic medal and wine tasting with at least 20 local wineries, can you say pinot noir at 9:30 am?
The organizers were correct, you may not get your best time but you will have your best time - it was a fantastic experience. (Dave may disagree but perhaps he took the run a little too seriously :))
Here's a few pics, you'll note you don't see many people actually running up those hills, in fact I don't think I've ever seen such a large portion of the field walking the hills.
On the other thing that I am supposed to be working on while doing all these runs - well the last couple weeks have not been all that productive but...I have nailed down my research questions and am continuing to expand my background knowledge learning all about advocacy coalition theory, tenure and promotion policies and practices, and also exploring qualitative research techniques. I'm also exploring means of keeping my work organized, OneNote is looking promising but I've got to figure out what office 2010 has done to my laptop, they don't like each other. Another month of so of reading and processing and then it will be time for comprehensive exams in early fall - if I can figure out the paperwork that is.
Next up - the Delta Half sometime around August 14th.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Is it time already?
Yes it is - time for number three.
Later this week I will be hopping in the car for a drive to Portland, eventually ending up in Dundee, Oregon for the Fueled by Fine Wine Half Marathon. Plans for this trip have changed a little (well maybe a lot) since we first decided to venture to the Willamette Valley. What was initially going to be a family trip to the Oregon coast ending up in Dundee for a little wine and running, has become a father-son road trip across the US. Dave has been talking about getting a classic car for a while, and a little more than a week ago he found what he wanted - a 1966 El Camino. A day later and a few hours spent watching e-bay he was an owner - one small problem though, the car was located in Anna, Illinois (where?). After a busy weekend of planning I dropped Dave and Michael off at Seatac airport, they flew to St. Louis, got a ride to Anna and picked up the "kami" (as it is now affectionately known) on the morning of June 29th. Since then they have been making their way across the US: Sullivan, Missouri, Kansas City, Grand Island, Nebraska, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and currently in Evanston, Wyoming. We will be meeting up in Portland probably on Wednesday this week, and then will spend a few days exploring Portland - I think the boys may have had enough driving by then and a trip to the coast may have to wait for another year :)
When we do finally get to the half marathon location, we will get to enjoy running through and by a number of Willamette Valley wineries, and then get to sample the wines at a tasting after the run (no wines on course this time). Won't be looking for any PB's this time around, the route looks just a tad challenging (although they say the hills aren't quite so bad this year).
Stay tuned, I'll be back with a race report and restaurant reviews in a little over a week.
Later this week I will be hopping in the car for a drive to Portland, eventually ending up in Dundee, Oregon for the Fueled by Fine Wine Half Marathon. Plans for this trip have changed a little (well maybe a lot) since we first decided to venture to the Willamette Valley. What was initially going to be a family trip to the Oregon coast ending up in Dundee for a little wine and running, has become a father-son road trip across the US. Dave has been talking about getting a classic car for a while, and a little more than a week ago he found what he wanted - a 1966 El Camino. A day later and a few hours spent watching e-bay he was an owner - one small problem though, the car was located in Anna, Illinois (where?). After a busy weekend of planning I dropped Dave and Michael off at Seatac airport, they flew to St. Louis, got a ride to Anna and picked up the "kami" (as it is now affectionately known) on the morning of June 29th. Since then they have been making their way across the US: Sullivan, Missouri, Kansas City, Grand Island, Nebraska, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and currently in Evanston, Wyoming. We will be meeting up in Portland probably on Wednesday this week, and then will spend a few days exploring Portland - I think the boys may have had enough driving by then and a trip to the coast may have to wait for another year :)
When we do finally get to the half marathon location, we will get to enjoy running through and by a number of Willamette Valley wineries, and then get to sample the wines at a tasting after the run (no wines on course this time). Won't be looking for any PB's this time around, the route looks just a tad challenging (although they say the hills aren't quite so bad this year).
Stay tuned, I'll be back with a race report and restaurant reviews in a little over a week.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
A few more pics.
Here are a few more pics from the Whistler half.
Now since this endeavor has a second part to it - namely get a dissertation written I thought I should provide a short update on that front.
My work office is officially cleaned up and ready for my replacement to take over. That means I'm working from home or SFU from now on.
I am three weeks into a directed readings course and so far so good, 15 articles down, 35 (or more) to go. 2 funding and fellowship applications complete, next up is shrink the research proposal and finish off the literature search on Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework. So now it's off to find somewhere comfortable to read, read and read some more.
Now since this endeavor has a second part to it - namely get a dissertation written I thought I should provide a short update on that front.
My work office is officially cleaned up and ready for my replacement to take over. That means I'm working from home or SFU from now on.
I am three weeks into a directed readings course and so far so good, 15 articles down, 35 (or more) to go. 2 funding and fellowship applications complete, next up is shrink the research proposal and finish off the literature search on Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework. So now it's off to find somewhere comfortable to read, read and read some more.
Monday, 6 June 2011
2 down - 10 to go
2 down - 10 to go!
The second official event is now history! I'm very happy to have PB'd on the first one in May, because now I don't need to worry about my times :)
Saturday, June 4th was the inaugural Whistler Half Marathon and what a day it was. Our horrible Spring disappeared for a while leaving us with an absolutely glorious day, sunshine all the way.
Friday was a busy pre-race day, accompanied Michael's class on their big grade 5 field trip to Victoria, MP and I opted out of the parliament building tour in order to catch the 5:00 ferry to Tsawwassen and then make the trek to Whistler. Dave had gone up earlier in the afternoon so he could pick up our race packages. It was a beautiful drive with a total of 4 bears spotted on route.
Saturday morning came awfully early but the sun was out and there was a good crowd of Alma runners at the start line:
I had taken what I thought was a pretty good look at the route for the race but apparently I didn't look close enough, while I though we headed out to Rainbow park on the first part of the race we actually headed up Blueberry Hill. Blueberry is far too unassuming a name for that hill, it went on and on and on. I knew the Valley trail alongside the golf course was hilly but the road was even worse, thank goodness for the down hill stretch that followed. From the summit of Blueberry Hill we sailed down to Wayside park, good directing Jacquie, then some more up as we looped around and came back to Blueberry Hill this time to take the golf course route down. Now we headed off to Rainbow Park and the turn around point, another loop around a residential area then back to the golf course to run alongside the front nine. Along the way we saw lots of evidence of bears, the poop exhibit at the museum in Victoria on Friday proved useful to identify the piles o'poop at the side of the trail. Luckily we didn't see any of the poop depositors, although it sounds like some of the later runners and walkers did encounter at least one bear on the trail. From the golf course we crossed under the highway, took a jaunt through the Village, past the cheering throngs (Newton), and off to the Upper Village (at least I think that's where we went), a few more dipsy doodles and it was back to the Olympic plaza and the finish line.
It truly was a spectacular course and a spectacular day. Many thanks to Nicole for sticking with me through a not very energetic run, I really appreciated the company. Congratulations to those that managed to achieve PB's on a very challenging course; I know for sure that Dave and Christine did, and congrats to all the Alma runners that finished: Andy, Liz, Sebastien, Emma, Nicole, Bob, Phil, Anna, Lina, Susan, Andrew, Tony, and any one else that I may have missed :)
The course organization was wonderful, the volunteers were great and the spectators who came out along the route were fantastic, there was incredible community support for this inaugural race. The only thing missing was a medal for finishing, although the original print is lovely I'm not sure how I'll display it with my 11 other medals :)
The afternoon was spent scouring the Village for the best calamari in town (Carumba wins) and the sickest backpack we could find for Michael.
Then it was the Garibaldi Lift Company in time for the big game - Go Canucks Go!
What a goal Burrows, now that's the way to end an overtime period!
All in all a wonderful weekend!
Next up.....get some work done on that darn degree, get back into a good running routine, I have learned that I cannot run a good half marathon on one run a week, and prepare for the next event - Fueled by Fine Wine in Dundee, Oregon, anyone care to join us??????
The second official event is now history! I'm very happy to have PB'd on the first one in May, because now I don't need to worry about my times :)
Saturday, June 4th was the inaugural Whistler Half Marathon and what a day it was. Our horrible Spring disappeared for a while leaving us with an absolutely glorious day, sunshine all the way.
Friday was a busy pre-race day, accompanied Michael's class on their big grade 5 field trip to Victoria, MP and I opted out of the parliament building tour in order to catch the 5:00 ferry to Tsawwassen and then make the trek to Whistler. Dave had gone up earlier in the afternoon so he could pick up our race packages. It was a beautiful drive with a total of 4 bears spotted on route.
Saturday morning came awfully early but the sun was out and there was a good crowd of Alma runners at the start line:
The course organization was wonderful, the volunteers were great and the spectators who came out along the route were fantastic, there was incredible community support for this inaugural race. The only thing missing was a medal for finishing, although the original print is lovely I'm not sure how I'll display it with my 11 other medals :)
The afternoon was spent scouring the Village for the best calamari in town (Carumba wins) and the sickest backpack we could find for Michael.
Then it was the Garibaldi Lift Company in time for the big game - Go Canucks Go!
What a goal Burrows, now that's the way to end an overtime period!
All in all a wonderful weekend!
Next up.....get some work done on that darn degree, get back into a good running routine, I have learned that I cannot run a good half marathon on one run a week, and prepare for the next event - Fueled by Fine Wine in Dundee, Oregon, anyone care to join us??????
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Half-Corked
What could be better than a beautiful sunny morning and an 18.3 km run with 9 wineries along the way?
Hmmmm, I can't think of anything can you?
This past Sunday was the second annual Oliver Half Corked Marathon organized by the Oliver and Osoyoos Winery Association (formerly SOWA south okanagan winery association). Team Greased Lightening consisting of Danny, Kinnecki, Rizzo, Jan, Frenchie, Cookie, Marty and Sandy (bad version) was ready to go and fueled up with some Gerhinger Bros wines at 8:00 am.
Following the costume parade and judging we were off, with a quick stop to drop off the ghetto blaster (don't know why Ken didn't want to carry it the whole 18.3 km). After a short downhill jog and onto the farm roads we were in the midst of Tinhorn Creek vineyards - once again Tinhorn served up some lovely Sangria, white this year, and refreshing watermelon. If you are interested in the sangria recipe Tinhorn has posted it on their website - beware it serves 144, you may want to scale things down a little. Another short trek along the farm roads took us to Iniskillan but wait, there was Dave but what happened to Greased Lightening? Apparently it must have been a Ford for it was "found on roadside dead" - a fautly seatbelt bolt prevented Dave from carrying our transportation for the whole race. Erica did a great job at ensuring our beautiful vehicle made it's way to one of the support shuttles so it we could retrieve it at the end of the run. From there the wineries kept coming fast and furious, Road 13 and Rustico Cellars were up next - at this rate we were going to run out of wineries well before we ran out of distance. From Rustico we went down into the valley, crossed the highway and travelled along the canal, being careful to avoid the "drowning machine" and started our trek up the other side of the Golden Mile with a visit to Silver Sage - a beautiful setting, this is where the race ended last year, with some interesting wines. After Silver Sage there were some hills to climb to reach Church and State, followed by Stoneboat and Oliver Twist. Stoneboat wins for the most refreshing presentation of a wine, they turned their white blend, Chorus, into a delicous granita with grapefruit, lemon, lime and orange juices. Leah assures me we can easily make this treat. Leaving Oliver Twist we left the vineyards and continued our journey on Black Sage Road. If you've been counting you will notice we are already at 9 wineries, and the distance at this point was only around 12 km, the next 6 km were not looking too good. We had been warned so the rather long hill at 13 km was not a surprise but I think all would agree it was very long and some of that Tinhorn sangria would have been very welcome half way up. While there was no sangria to be had, there were apple fritters and fizzy fruit drinks to be had at the top, and then a short jaunt down the hill to La Quinta Ferria for the last winery stop, and then it was all downhill to the Oliver Community Centre.
Most of our group stuck together, finishing in just under 3:00, not the speediest of times but possible one of the funest times.
The finish line provided a lovely lunch, and guess what else? More wine, the association wineries that were not part of the route were present at the finish line to offer their selections.
Finally the morning finished off with presentations of awards, our hard work on costumes paid off and Greased Lightening won the best group costume award - a 3.0 L magnum of limited edition Half Corked Red wine. Every participant received a bottle of this wine in their race packages, a blend of reds from all 23 participating wineries. Team Greased Lightening thouroughly enjoyed their winnings that evening.
Here are a few pics of our day :)
And next up.....the Whistler half in one and a half days - stay tuned.
Hmmmm, I can't think of anything can you?
This past Sunday was the second annual Oliver Half Corked Marathon organized by the Oliver and Osoyoos Winery Association (formerly SOWA south okanagan winery association). Team Greased Lightening consisting of Danny, Kinnecki, Rizzo, Jan, Frenchie, Cookie, Marty and Sandy (bad version) was ready to go and fueled up with some Gerhinger Bros wines at 8:00 am.
Most of our group stuck together, finishing in just under 3:00, not the speediest of times but possible one of the funest times.
The finish line provided a lovely lunch, and guess what else? More wine, the association wineries that were not part of the route were present at the finish line to offer their selections.
Finally the morning finished off with presentations of awards, our hard work on costumes paid off and Greased Lightening won the best group costume award - a 3.0 L magnum of limited edition Half Corked Red wine. Every participant received a bottle of this wine in their race packages, a blend of reds from all 23 participating wineries. Team Greased Lightening thouroughly enjoyed their winnings that evening.
Here are a few pics of our day :)
And next up.....the Whistler half in one and a half days - stay tuned.
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