2008 Okanagan International Marathon

2008 Okanangan International Marathon--my final goal.

So I started weight loss as of May 2007, and as of January 8th, 2008, I started training for a half marathon. There are pictures in another posting of the half marathon. As a result of my training, I was encouraged to attempt a full marathon. Here's the distinction, a 1/2 marathon is 21.1Km long, and a full marathon is 42.2Km long...yes double the distance and you have yourself a full one! I have to-date lost a 106lbs and I officially have finished the full marathon. My chip time was 5:01, and I've posted a link at the bottom so you can check it out for yourself!


So it's 7:15am in the morning, the race starts at 8am and Terrie (running partner) and I attempting to get warm in the expo tent...it was cold and dark outside! We did bring our smiles!

I do appreciate the luck of drawing the number "1234" I almost felt like I was being given a message...something like: It's as easy as 1...2...3...4!!

This is me at the start, waving, smiling and ready for what's to come! There was a tonne of people there, so it took a while for all of us to get out of the gate. Once we were out it was quite surreal, because in my training group there was about 9 of us training to do the full marathon, so very often my runs consisted of just me out on the road, sometimes Terrie was with me and sometimes not...so quite a quiet time of training. Then here I find myself in amongst a gaggle of people and there was lots of them until we split up at the turn around point...then people dwindled, but even at the end there was still runners visible to me or around me! I got a real charge out of it and I think that is why I was able to do the marathon in the time that I did...I was thinking it would take me 5 and half hours, so 5hrs is pretty impressive! My goal is try and do it within four hours...a couple more years of training I would venture? The race was amazing and I did it with a head cold to boot! The weather threatened to rain, but then backed off and the sun came out. The whole run was cool, and my nose never warmed up the whole race! I had some great friends come out and cheer me on and I am hoping to get their pictures soon!

So, this is me coming to the final stretch to the finish line. At the 37Km mark tears were already streaming down my face and I had to pull them in because it is hard to breath when crying. I couldn't believe that I ran the furthest distance I had ever run in my life and that the finish line was so close...every kilometre I passed, I could feel the success growing in me! I was going finish and I was going to finish feeling relatively good. What do I mean by relatively good? Nothing was broken, dislocated, no crashing because of lack of nutrition, hydrated quite well...my muscles were damn freaking tired and my right foot was taking a serious beating, all in all I was in great shape!

Not only was I in great shape, but I was smiling and waving coming in! HOORAY!! However...the tears I was biting back needed to come out...

I had a sweet crowd of friends around me...not so well represented in these pictures, but there was a nice turnout, which made me happy. I saw all of their faces eagerly watching and cheering me to the finish line and then they rounded the corner to meet me on the otherside and I began bawling! Sobbing! Crying! I was and am so happy that I did it, and I had witnesses! I cried! I ran 42.2km! I learned I can put self-doubt on the shelf and get 'er done!

So once again, I owe Kasondra...can't believe that this time last year she suggested training for a 1/2 marathon, telling me it would help with weight loss, which it did tremendously! I entertained the idea and also embarked on the adventure that led me to loving running! I don't know how long I will love running for as I am thinking I would like to try my hand at boxing or mixed martial arts...for now, though I love it and I have Kasondra to thank for leading me to the trough so-to-speak! Seeing her made me weep even harder! The gratitude in my heart was overwhelming!

So here we are, Terrie and I, at the finish, both of us having run our first marathon and coming in strong, happy and well within our own personal goals! I am proud, I am ready for the next challenge and finally I am grateful! I am lucky to be alive and to be cherished by so many wonderful and multi-faceted people. Including those who read this! Thank you for your support!

http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=3273 This is the main page for the event
http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=3273&eventId=12203&vrindex=4 This link is for the Marathon results, I can be searched by name (Ctrl + F) or by race number "1234"

ScarAss and Family

It has recently been brought to my attention that some people do read this blog and that my absences don't help in the process of knowing what I am up to these days. Last month, I met some of my family which for a long time had been quite unknown to me! I also was able to couple the meeting with a road trip with a lovely friend, Colleen. I would like to say about Colleen, she is living the life I hope to live when I grow up...single, condo, learned and consistently enjoying life with arms wide open!

Here are some pictures and my details of how the event went!

This is Colleen and I. We are fresh faced and well groomed before we left...this is important because we left in a soft top jeep...the top came off and the grooming flew out the window, much to our delight!



What is any roadtrip without at least a couple goofy faces? Can you tell we're having fun yet? Really, we got stuck behind a hay bail truck, and if any one has been behind these kind of transport vehicles, you know what that means...snoringly long time until you can get past them!




This is part of Nicola Lake. We took the back road to my family's home and it was stunning. Lakes and rolling hills around every bend, was simply beautiful scenery.



So just to help put the whole "jeep hair" discussion into perspective, this is what happens when you take the top off of a jeep...*GRIN*



These are some shots of my cousin Barry's property and his lovely "Dizzy" Great Dane, which I was schooled on why it isn't wise to own a Great Dane, but I am not sure if I will listen, because they are gorgeous and amazingly well tempered!






I know who cares about a packed tent laying on the ground, but there is a seriously cute story here. So, I am not the biggest fan of camping...I like it up to a point and then I am done with it. What can I say, I like hot showers! Anyways, I was quite happy to camp at my cousins place, but my dear friend Colleen forgot the tent poles...which worked out nicely for me, cause I got to sleep in a real bed, inside the house for the weekend...WOOT for pole gremlins!



So, now I have proof I am not making this up. My cousin has begun hosting this annual bike ride, which he and his wife have dubbed "ScarAss". This ride has been going on for several years, but had been hosted by someone else, but the amount of people who show up had outgrown the friends property. Turns out my cousin has ALOT of property and now he hosts the event.




This is me mugging it up with my cousin Barry and his lovely wife Susan. They have a fantastically fun relationship and have been together FOREVER! I really enjoy these two and I constantly look forward to hearing from them.




So these next few pictures are pictures of my cousins that were at the ScarAss. The top one is Cousin Barry. Next is Leo with his partner. After that is Veronica (Ronnie) with her partner. And finally Butch and Wilf (might be Wilf, can't remember yikes). Butch is sweet, even though he is older and retired, he still acts like a kid and loves catching "critters" and hunting and traveling to see different family members. Very endearing!

Peach City 1/2 Marathon!

First, there is no rhyme or reason for the placement of the photos, "blogger" isn't photo friendly in terms of making it easy to put up photos and arrange them with some coherency. I will add captions for all of them so there is a sense of where they are and what's going on.

So, four months of training have come to this. Kas, Ash, and me all signed up for the 1/2 marathon training clinic January 8th, 2008. We did it through Running Room, which is something I recommend to ANYONE no matter what your fitness level is. In fact there are several different programs through the Running Room that one could take, walking, learn to run, 5k, 10k, 1/2 Marathon, and Full Marathon (the one I am doing next).
The training program brought us up gradually to the 21.1 distance we needed to be able to complete. We in fact hit a 22k distance in the program, which was really rewarding because we were told we were only going to run 20km and the extra two was bonus...and when I say bonus, I mean bonus that we learned we could run that far, truthfully no one wants to run that far, just for the hell of it! We trained in ALL conditions but heat (note that is important) we ran in snow, in rain, in wind, over HUGE hills across rivers, on ice and the list goes on!
We managed to make a friend through the running group, her name is Erin. She had previously run a 1/2 before and enjoyed it and wanted to train again. She ended up being an incredibly valuable resource, since she was a huge proponent of eating right and making your own snacks and also very conscious of how training should work!
Eventually, Rob joined in the training...didn't take too much convincing actually! He had previously run the Penticton 1/2, so it was great having his knowledge added to ours!
I completed in 2:44!!! WOOT!! The day was blistering hot! Normally for May long weekend there is rain or at least cooler temperatures, however, on this particular day May 18th, it was 30 degrees in Penticton!! Freakishly hot! And none of us were ready for it. Erin couldn't run for health reasons, which was sad because she had been with us all that time. Rob didn't bring a water belt and had a cold (can we say pure misery?). The aid stations that promised water, sports drink and ice, only had water and sports drink and were space every 3km apart, except for two which were 4km apart. Consider how far apart that is, and how long that would take you to run it...sucks being that long without refreshment TRUST ME! At the turn around point which was at kilometre 13, the aid stations ran out of water...they ran out ALL THE WAY TO THE END!!! 30 degree weather and no water...my water belt got me to the turn around, but I didn't expect to not be able to fill it up with water...I took advantage of the sports drink but it was far from thirst quenching and no matter what sports drink it is, drink too much of it and it will rip up your gut!!
In the end, the moral of the story is that I, and my fellow runners, completed the marathon, we were upright and for the most part we were smiling! CONGRATULATIONS!!! And now on to the pictures!



Ashley is an inspiration. She went from absolutely NO RUNNING, NO EXERCISE to running in January and 1/2 marathon in May! She is most definitely a woman who should never be underestimated...at yet people continue to underestimate her! Their folly!

We both had no previous training, no experience with running long distances and I would add that we were certainly underdogs in many different ways, but we slogged it out and kicked that roads ass!


This is a picture of our group that ran. Me on your left, Ashley, Rob and Kasondra. We are basking in our glory and stories of how gruelling the run had been for all of us!

Ashley bringing it home lady style! Always with a smile that girl...she makes running look fun!

Of course everything is better when it is over! Time for some cold water and some foot massages...sadly only got water!

This is me with Erin, the girl who couldn't run because of health problems. This is the beginning of the race, when I was completely naive about what lay before me. I really had no idea what to look forward to. I don't know Penticton well and definitely couldn't even begin to imagine what the course would be like (nothing like I imagined). I even had myself turned around at this point, since I was convinced that Skaha was where Okanagan lake is...sadly, not the case! Almost cried when I put it together and realized I would have to run across the city before I even saw the lake that I was meant to run beside!!! GUH!

This picture is after I came in and across the line. We were waiting for Ashley and I was babying my poor left foot that had some tendon irritation OUCH!


some more pictures of us after finish.

Kasondra coming to the finish. She is the reason I took up the training in the first place. I think in October she asked me if would like to train with her for the 1/2, to which I responded with laughter, LOTS OF LAUGHTER. You see up to this point I hadn't ever run! Aside from running in highschool, there has never been a desire in me to run. I thought it was boring and cruel punishment. I had up to this point getting up and cycling and working out with weights and losing weight. But I had no inclination to be a runner at any point. She left for Ontario in December and I decided to give it a try to run. I ran for 45minutes straight for my first time and I didn't mind it and I didn't hurt...so I kept it up. I decided to give the training a try and incorporate running a 1/2 marathon in to my goal! WOW, thankyou Kasondra! I discovered I LOVE running and I am going to go even further and try and run a full marathon!!




Okay, these series of photos are very important. The woman running beside me and pretty much in front of me, is the reason why I sprinted over the finish line, rather than doing a nice slow jog that demonstrated how much pain I was in!! She had walked a large part of the last portion of the race and her and I kept playing a game of passing eachother. On the last kilometre I had pulled ahead of her, but she caught up at the half way point to the finish line. She was running beside me for a bit and then she decided to go faster, so I went faster and then she went faster so I went faster and so forth, eventually it got treacherous if my legs could possibly go faster so I had to let her go ahead of me!! GRRR!! NEXT YEAR LADY...NEXT YEAR!!
But really I am grateful to her, I would have totally snailed my way because of the pain I was feeling and she made me push beyond my muscle fatigue and dig in and really have a nice photo finish!


And here is Rob! You wouldn't know that he hadn't trained for more than a month and that he was suffering from a cold and seriously HUGE blisters UNDER his feet?? Oh and possibly dehydration since he didn't run with a water belt! Yeesh! If only I was in that good of physical shape! Seriously the guy is a machine and he has no idea!

here we are, crowded and waiting for the gun to go off and start the journey...I decided to chill myself out and roll back into my head and not think about what was before me, but rather day dream about anything random!

At last! A finish I enjoy! I will never forget this, I will always cherish it and remember it at every finish line I meet!

Arbitrarily devining...

...sometimes I have echoes of a philosopher dancing around in my membraneous skull...but that's all it is--echoes

I don't know, I just got to thinking, there are these things I am doing, these things I am attached and these words I use to identify and none of them are based on anything more than what my culture has dictated. Then I got to thinking how all of us are linked by the need to breath oxygen, digest food and at some point be part of a community and it's what drives us all, and yet on every piece of land on this globe, we manifest how we do that differently and consequently separate ourselves, based on arbitrary decisions on how best to survive....

And that would probably be why I was cranky pants yesterday, because I sunk into the crevices of my skull, the places where my soft spot fused together and yet leaves room for vulnerability...

Heh, and I haven't done anything creative for a while and I long to...so it eeks out of me, leaky, drip, drip, drip...like chinese water torture, but the release of each drip is so exquisite that I could liken it to one of my best sexual experiences...

I want to write a book...a rumination, a walking through and digestion of experience...I once went to a reading by Robert Kroestche and there was a poem he recited and I can't remember the aim of the poem, but there was a brief line that spoke to me, it was about walking and I started to day dream about how I have to this day, experienced my life on my feet, through my ability to stand and to walk and that some of my best experiences have happened because I walk....

Okay....

Canada's Genocide

"Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide" http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133&q=unrepentant&total=204&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

This is a documentary ALL Canadians should see! I am often confronted with people who feel like what happened in the past is the past and why are we still paying for it today? However, that position is wrong and uninformed! First off, the blatant disregard and attempts to dismember First Nations people is not something of the past, it is very much part of the Canadian present! What is even worse is we, Canadians, continue to prosper off the continual suffering of First Nations people. And I have heard the typical responses about prominent historians and about how average white men are no more privileged than an Aboriginal man, and I call bullshit! I say get off your apathetic backside white privileged backside, put down the remote control, stop playing the fantasy games and start asking some questions, start reading material from the other side of the argument...what do you have to lose? and how much do you have to gain?
Watch this video, respond if you will, spend some time asking questions.

Ignorance and denial has served Canada well...NO MORE!

A puppets exploration of D(d)eath

Last night, some friends and I went to the Rotary Arts Centre to see a show titled, "Famous Puppet Death Scenes". I have heard about the show, on CBC, and was intrigued by the possibility that imagination has to roam on such a topic. Puppetry has a long history, globally. There are some accounts that the art form predates actors and goes back as far as 3,000 years! Here is a link to Wikipedia (not the most reliable, but a good place to start) about puppetry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet

The performance lasted an hour and was hosted by a puppet named, Nathanial Tweak. I found Nathanial to be the most compelling character of the show, primarily because of his poised words surrounding the concept of death and our (humans) ultimate fear of death. There was a certainty that through Puppet Theatre there would be a cure for the fear of death. Personally, I am not afraid of death...that is not me saying I want to die, I just have finally reconciled that death happens, there is no predicting it, planning for it or denying it, so why not get to the business of living and let death be what it is. I've digressed. Nathanial touched me in a couple of places, one that we all do die and that there is a distinct possibility that our lives could come to an end by the end of the play. The other place that Nathanial went is to the place of Love and the impulse some of us have to state our love for one another, immediately. He was good at positioning this sentiment as not so much a need to love or be loved, but a recognition that our time living is, in fact, short and that length in of itself can't be measured or predicted. I know, for myself, I espouse a continual vocal reinforcement of how important others are in your life, that in the event I do die, none of my friends (or family) will doubt how I feel about them. And he asked to be loved for he was lonely behind the stage. Nathanials quick note of lonlieness intrigued me, because death and being close to death is a lonely place, and isolating space. Perhaps I read too much into his narration and hosting duties, but I found his articulation of death to be superb and to speak to the places where I've experienced death of a loved one and am keenly aware of how suddenly life extinguishes.
The play was certainly entertaining and required a suspension from reality...mostly because you could see the puppeteers and well you're watching puppets die! "...dying for us so we would no longer be afraid of death". For me some scenes were a struggle to understand, either because of a language barrier or complete confusion as to what the scene is trying to impart. Overall though, I understood the stories, enjoyed the creativity and marvelled at the strength of the artform of puppetry. I found myself imagining this ancient art and all the various forms it has taken throughout the centuries and in different countries and cultures. The power of storytelling has always held me captive and the use of art and imagination only furthers the captivation!
There is a website for the company that has created this play: http://theoldtrouts.org/index.html
I recommend reading the "history" component as you will find another reason to be proud of Canada and the increasingly creative population we have in this country. Also check out where they are performing next, hopefully close to you, because the performance is certainly worth the money!
Thankyou to The Old Trouts for imagining, creating and performing!

Miss Champagne Sparkles

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of, in some measure, knowing about Miss Champagne Sparkles, here is a picture of her: (I took liberty of taking the picture from her website, so thankyou to her photographer)



In case the face and name intrigue you, here is her website http://www.champagnesparkles.ca/

I had the opportunity to see Miss Sparkles perform at the Habitat back in April of 2007. A friend of mine had seen a poster for a Peep, peep, peep show featuring an opening act of the Kabuki Guns and the main dish being Cheesecake Burlesque Revue (by far the better of the two). So we wrangled up another friend (minus the rope and spurs) and went to the Habitat to see the performance. I had a great time watching the Cheesecake Burlesque Revue and for a moment became inspired to be a burlesque performer...reality is, I have no dancing background and had a significant amount of weight to loss. (not all is lost, I am losing the weight and I am currently in bellydancing classes, who knows? my future is bright). Recently I decided to google my blog to see what kind of hit it would get and both hits were about my review of the evening (not that I am any actual critic or anything, I just wanted to put out there how great it was to have burlesque in Kelowna and how great Cheesecake was--certainly less calories!)
Anyways, Miss Sparkles and M. Colada both responded to my post!!! I was blown away and quite excited! So I felt it was necessary to put it out my love for burlesque and for the ladies who do it so well and to update their information for any one who might be reading. Miss Sparkles, I am watching my comments section now!! *smile*
Anyways, I am not sure about venues...Habitat is a wonderful supporter of such acts as burlesque. I may be a bit tainted on my view of Kelowna (been here too long), but the overall sentiment is very conservative here. Now that the University of British Columbia has moved into town I have high hopes that the Okanagan - Kelowna - will be busted out its shell and desire a more eclectic and electicfying flavour!
My suggestion outside of the Habitat would be the Rotary Arts Centre, there is a lovely stage there and the seating is elevated so everyone can equally see the show...I also feel like the RAC is becoming and is more progressive.
I will spend some more time pondering this, especially if there is hope that the Revue will be back in Kelowna soon! It wouldn't be hard to sell out the show even! (or two? *hopeful smile*)