"If it was easy, everyone would do it"

If you have been following our blog somewhat regularly, you would have noticed a trend in the posts, and that they have mostly been written by PrincessFliss. She gives us the stink eye all the time because we haven’t been posting. I think her blogs are awesome and love her writing and I haven’t really had anything to write about. I could have wrote about how I went to Vegas a few weeks ago and pretty much didn’t run for 2 weeks after that. I didn’t even kid myself by bringing my running stuff to Vegas. The only running I did there was the running man on the dance floor in heels! Now that’s cardio!

It’s amazing how fast you can fall out of running and your body begins to revert back to it’s couch potato state when you take a few days off. I then had a terrible cold after Vegas so didn’t do much running the week after I returned. It was then that I realized how close the 10k race I had agreed to run with a girlfriend actually was! It was Tuesday and the race was Saturday! First off let me tell you I have never run a race before and I had also never run a full 10km before!! The furthest I had made it in my training so far was about 6.3km! So, I was a little nervous and I got me arse out running in the few days I had left before Saturday. I ran here at the airport once, along the river from home once and over to a girl friend’s house one evening, which was my attempt at hill training! Yikes!

Well Friday came around and I forced myself to call it a night and be in bed by 10 even though I really wanted to stay out for vino with my friend Courtney on what felt like that last nice day Calgary will ever see again. Treena (my roommate and running pal that day) and I were up early, good breakfast in our bellies and about to hit the road when Treena couldn’t find that one little thing that might make or break her run. Her running shoes!! She couldn’t find them anywhere! So she threw on a pair of mine (size and a half too small) and we were out the door. She’s a trooper because I probably would have said F’it and gone back to bed! We arrived in Banff after a very windy drive there but the temperature was already +16 degrees at 9:30 in the morning, the sun was shining, the changing trees gorgeous and people in spandex everywhere!

I’m starting to ramble here so I’ll jump to it. I LOVED IT! The race was an amazing experience and I can for sure say I am hooked now! There’s definitely a crazy energy in a race environment and the most rewarding feeling when it’s done. This was the Melissa’s Road Race in Banff and is either a 10k or a 22k. The route was in and around the town of Banff and up a crazy hill at the very beginning. I had heard horror stories about the hill and that it just kills you at the start. It turned out to not be as bad as I thought and I think I did pretty well given that I have never done hill training! I had to stop twice to walk quickly to catch my breath but only for about a minute each time, so I pretty much ran the whole hill. Then of course, what goes up, must come down and it was a nice run down, perfect to recover a little from the hill. A friend a told me not to let myself get discouraged by all the runners flying by me, but I didn’t at all. First of all, I was actually passing people! That made me feel great and the people running past me only inspired me. They were amazing! I also really enjoyed checking out all the different running outfits as well as all the amazing calves on everyone! I have this obsession to get kick ass calves and I was definitely motivated to run faster. The one thing I certainly did not enjoy though were the people passing gas as they were running. And, no it wasn’t the sulfur hot springs I could smell!

I loved all the people along the sides cheering and all the signs they were holding. My favorite sign I saw, was one that said “If it was easy, everyone would do it!” and I thought “YA, that’s right!” and kept on running! It went by surprisingly fast, adrenaline assisting there I’m sure. I noticed the 2km marker and then didn’t see anymore until the 7km marker pleasantly popped up. At that point that was the furthest I had EVER run before so already I had accomplished something. I didn’t bring my ipod, so I enjoyed listening to all the random things groups of runners were chatting about and lots of them passing me and didn’t even sound out of breath one bit! Amazing! At this point I kept looking for another marker as it had to be getting close and we were rounding back to the area we started. I saw the 15km marker for the 22ers and sort of gasped in my head at the thought of running 22km at this point. People were cheering and yelling “Home Stretch!” although I still hadn’t seen another marker. I overheard someone saying it was just up and around this bend and back to where we started. I could see all the people who had switched back and were almost done, cheering and yelling “You’re almost there!”. At the bend, the person directing the path was yelling “1km! Only 1km left! And a beer at the end!!”. Well if that wasn’t enough to kick me into high gear. Now let me tell you, 1km, after running 9 already, seems like a piece of cake. But when you decide ‘I’m going to run like the dickens this last km’ and you think a km is shorter in your head than it really is, running really fast that last bit, probably isn’t the best idea. I was running and passing people and feeling awesome and knew I was really close to the point where the race started. Then I could see where it started and reality stuck hard, that the finish line was not exactly where we had started! It was further back in a different spot! Nausea set in instantly because I had run so hard that last bit, and then panic as I would rather die than barf in front of everyone 250m from the finish line. But, a few deep breaths later I was good to go and I was in that last little stretch. It’s a bit of a blur, all the people cheering and I couldn’t tell which line was the actual finish. I think one scans you as you cross for your name to be announced then the last one under the big timer clocks your time. I saw a photographer at the end and I couldn’t think of how my face should look as I crossed the finish! I think I may have mustered a half smile but inside I was beaming. I did it. I ACTUALLY DID IT! A year ago I would have never thought I could even run 5km let alone 10. The half marathon still seems like a stretch but more feasible than ever now. My official time was 1:03:46 which I was very proud of given that this was my first 10km ever, my first race ever and I was told it’s not an easy race either. SUCCESS!!

Next up: 10km race in Phoenix. Piece of cake!