The alarm as always went off at 4:00am.  As I started to wake up, I could hear the rain outside and I thought to myself that perhaps it was just lightly raining.  I got up and looked outside and it was pouring!  Yuck!  All I wanted to do was crawl back into my nice warm bed, snuggle up beside Mike and sleep for a few more hours.

But no, I had to get up and get going.  I packed a second set of clothes because I thought that if it kept raining the whole morning, I would definitely need to change half way through the rain. 

As I left home, it seemed to be raining even harder – rain was bouncing off the roads.  I just resigned myself to the fact that it was not going to be a pleasant run .

As I got closer to the Arboretum, the rain started to abate somewhat and by the time I parked the car and got ready to run, it had stopped altogether.

What I thought would be a very wet and dreary run  turned out to be a fantastic run with the sun coming out as we were finishing up.

Cheers!

What an glorious morning it was!  It was amazingly  bright at 5:15am – likely because of the spectacular full moon. 

I had my camera with me, so I took some pictures of the moon, ran a bit and saw all the ducks in Dow’s Lake so paused to take a few shots. Then I noticed how beautiful the tulips were on the other side of the road so ran over and took a few pictures and just paused to take it all in in the quiet of the morning.  

I realized then that I had better get running if I wanted to get in my 22km before meeting the group at 8:00.

As I was running, my thoughts went back to the marathon run in Rome where I stopped numerous times along the way to take pictures and to take in the sights.

I thought why not play tourist in my city – at least for 22km.  That’s what I did.  Ottawa is a beautiful city and sometimes we just need to take a moment just really appreciate it all.  Here are some of the pictures that I took:

While I just got in about 21km in over 2.5 hours, it was well worth it. I felt great when I met up with the group.  We did another part of the marathon route and running an unfamiliar route, made us all take a little more notice of our surroundings.

 Cheers!

Having just gotten back from being away for a  three week vacation which included two races and one non race marathon, I was feeling the residual effects of those efforts along with normal tiredness associated with flying and travel.

When the alarm went off at 4:00 am, it took a lot of might to drag myself out of bed and start the run. 

I was so grateful for the group that awaited me at 8:00 and they were just what I needed to get me going for the second half. 

It was a tough run though, but like all the rest I got through it for another week

Cheers!

I was now in Rome for marathon 19.  This time though, I was not running a race as the actual marathon was run on March 18th.  I got in touch with the Rome Marathon organizers and they directed me to the map of the race.  In addition, after explaining why I wanted to run the race course, they told me they would send me the official Rome Marathon t-shirt!  Very very nice of them to do this.

As I was reading the map, I was very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find my way because it seemed that every few hundred metres the road changed.  Here is the link to the race course:  http://www.maratonadiroma.it/public/documenti/Percorso_2012.pdf 

Once in Rome however, I had a larger map and I was able to map out the run, with the exception of the part going to the Basillica di San Paulo as it didn’t show on the map.  It seemed easy enough though, continue south from the start, find the Basillica di San Paulo, cross the river and head back to the historic centre.  Famous last words

Before I go further, I have to say that the Marathon route is incredible.  You pass by so many of the famous landmarks that it would be hard not to stop and marvel at the sights if you were doing the real marathon.  I say this, yet I know that in a race, I tend to only focus on the task at hand and don’t take the time to take in my surroundings.  So running the route for fun, was just that – fun!  I really appreciated my surroundings and the breathtaking vistas and amazing historic sites.

Here we are at the start of the race with the collesum in the background.

Christina decided she would run 10km with me.  Now Chris is amazing at finding her way around while I can easily get myself turned around, even with a map.  Well, this time we both got turned around but it wasn’t so much as not having this section on the map, but because we were so engrossed in our conversation we just both naturally headed left, when in fact we should have turned right after crossing that first bridge.  After about 5km we started to pay more attention to our surroundings and noticed that we were definitely not getting close to the historic centre…lucky for us the first person we asked for some help spoke english and confirmed that indeed we were going the wrong way.  This building gave us our first clue that we were perhaps going the wrong way. Like many places in Italy there was lots of Graffitti to be seen in Rome as well.

So, Chris’s plan of running 10km was out the window by now.  Continue reading →

I felt good right up until about 21km – so good that I thought I might be able to run the marathon in 4 hours.  Well, it was not meant to be because I really started to slow down just past the halfway point.  While the rain may have had something to do with it, who was I kidding - I obviously  hadn’t fully recovered from Two Oceans.  I crossed the finish line in 4:30.

At 25km I was very pleasantly surprised to see Chris and Chris (sister and brother-in-law) at the Duomo – they were taking the day to sightsee and we just all happened to be at the same place at the same time.  These are a couple of the pictures that Chris took and I think this is the only time during the race I was smiling. 

 The Duomo di Milano is very impressive – as were all of the Duomos/Basillicas I visited.  I truly marvel at how these amazing buildings were constructed.  In fact this particular Duomo which is the fourth largest cathedral in the world took nearly six centuries to complete.

Cheers!

On April 3 I began my vacation.  I was going to spend a few days in Cape Town to run the Two Oceans Marathon, then fly to Italy for two weeks where I would run the Milan Marathon and run the marathon route in Rome. I’ll write the blog entries for Milan and Rome separately.

 The Two Oceans Marathon is a marathon of 56km.  On race day there is also a half marathon (21.2km).  There were 16,000 entries for the half and just over 9,000 for the marathon.  Many of the marathon runners use this race as a training run for Comrades Marathon which is  a very challenging 87 km race. 

It is important to remember that there is a 7 hour cut-off which means if you do not cross the finish line within 7 hours from when the gun goes off, you will not get a medal and you will be listed as a DNF (did not finish).  In addition to the 7 hour cut-off, there are also various cut-off points along the course and if you do not make the cut-off you will not be allowed to continue.

Two Oceans is challenging as well as you can see from the profile. The link gives you a better picuture of the route profile.  http://www.twooceansmarathon.org.za/themes/tom2010/alt/56K.pdf

An interesting feature of the route of Two Oceans Marathon, is as the name indicates, it passes both oceans surrounding the South African shoreline – the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. While the climb up Chapmans Peak is challenging you are rewarded with spectacular views. As challenging as this climb is, it is really nothing compared to the climb up Constantia Nek especially as it comes after the 42km mark.  Going down the other side is difficult as well because the roads are very cambered which made it difficult for me to get a good pace going.

Although the race began under cloudy skies, it wasn’t long before the rain began and continued pretty much throughout the day.  Even though it was about 18 degrees, I was happy that I had brought my arm warmers as they helped keep me warm.  Coming from cooler temperatures, I was glad that it wasn’t a scorching hot day. 

Support for this race is incredible. There were aid stations every couple of kilometres where they served a variety of items such as  Coke, PowerAde, water, potatoes, ice cream, chocolates . Towards the end, the aid stations were every kilometre!

While the course was very challenging, I think that as I was used to running 42km every Sunday and because it took 6.5 hours to run the race my legs weren’t all that sore the following day.  Good thing because I was heading to Rome in the evening, via Dubai.  Now this part of my trip was very tiring.  The flight to Dubai was about 9 hours followed by a 10 hour layover followed by another 6 hour flight. To say I was pretty tired by the time I arrived in Rome would be an understatment, yet I slept well that night and as such felt fresh the next morning as I caught the train to Florence where I would meet up with my sister (Christina) and her husband (Christopher) for a whirl wind two weeks in Italy.

These pictures taken during the run are climbing Chapmans Peak and at the Finish.

Cheers!

Last week was what I guess you would call a down week.  Something I haven’t done in a very long week.  in fact I only ran once during the week.  While taking a break from time to time is always a good thing, I took a break because my big toe was really hurting. Although it has been hurting on an off for a long time it is just getting progressively worse. 

Googling the issue brought me to this website which talks about big toe joint pain. 

 http://footcarexpress.com/foot-orthotics/big-toe-joint-pain/  – Big Toe Joint Pain (hallux rigidus)  is a very painful condition for anyone who suffers from it. In fact, arthritis in the foot is most commonly found in the metatarsophalangeal joint which happens to be at the base of the Big Toe. The pain is most often associated with stiffness and as a result walking  or running can become very difficult.

This describes perfectly what I have.  So while for now this is my diagonosis, I will confirm by seeing my massage therapist, chiro and a podiatrist.

 I thought taking a few days off would perhaps lessen the pain, but it didn’t.  The pain was there just the same as always. As well, even though the work that is being done(chiropractic and ART) is helping, the pain is still there.  I decided to see a podiatrist because I wondered if surgery would be helpful. Surgery is an option and aparantly the pain is gone as a result. The down side is that you can’t run for a few weeks. So, this is something I will consider after the marathons. I did opt for a cortizone shot to relieve the inflammation and to hopefully relieve some of the pain.  The toe does feel better, but I’ll see how it holds up on my next run.    All I need is for the toe to be ok for the next 36 marathons.

Cheers

Today was one of those days where running just felt wonderful.  I don’t if it’s because I slept really well last night or was just so inspired by Chris McDougall’s “Born to Run”.  If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it!

One of my favorite quotes by William James  in that book is “Beyond the very extreme of fatique and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength never taxed at all, because we never push through the obstruction”

Today it was raining for the first hour or so and at +4 at least it wasn’t all that cold.  I once again tested out the “Compounder Shell” by Columbia and was very happy with its performance.

I wore my metronome today for the first part of my run and had it set at 172….I think for the most part I was able to keep up with the beat.  But, wow those first 22 or so km are just so slow these days.  It used to be my average Sunday run pace would be about a 6:15km.  Now, those first k’s are around a 6:45km.  Once I am with the group I seem to be able to hold onto a faster pace, but I wonder why the first half is always so slow.  I think probably a lot has to do with the fact that it’s early in the morning, it’s dark out and I am running by myself.  Yet, I think too that the slower pace with a bit of an increase in the second half is  ok because thus far I am not injured at all. 

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Sonja

I have hit the 25% mark in my quest to run 52 marathons in a year.  So far, so good!

The time change made getting up more difficult than usual and I wondered how many people would be coming out to run given they were also loosing an hour of sleep.

To my great surprise, 12 runners came out.  It was great having such a large group to run with.

I think we have now turned the corner from winter into spring.  It was so nice to run on pavement without having to worry about ice or uneven footing.  Although we have had a fairly decent winter, there was a lot of rain which made the paths very slippery at times. With the exception of the snowy conditions on Christmas Day, there has not been a single snow storm on the Sunday runs. All the snow and rain happened mid week.  I much prefer to have had the uneven, slippery conditions than to have run a marathon in a full on snowstorm. 

Cheers