Since the other princesses ran their long run on Saturday.. I had to make my effort and make sure I did the same, especially with the Chinook that blew in and brought us some pretty spectacular running weather. In order to make up those kilometers I chose to run to work. No for those Calgarians that means running from 17th Ave and 14th Street to the to the airport for those who are not, it means a 18.36km run. Now this is not an endeavor one wants to do in the dark of morning and especially not by themselves. So in casual conversation, I asked my friend Chuck to run with me, not expecting him or anyone to say yes… but he did and thank God for that.
So after some serious planning (leaving cars and clothes at work the day before, arranging rides home, etc) I started the morning by picking Chuck up at 6am then bringing him back to my place for our starting point. Running wear was the second most serious plan to organize so made sure we had the running belt filled with Gatorade, the headlamp on for the dark parts of the trail and luckily most of the run took place on city running trails so we avoided traffic and hit the trail within the first kilometer.
Now as we started our run, Chuck mentioned that he had segmented the run into 5 segments so that it wouldn’t seem so long – My place to Memorial Dr - Memorial to Deerfoot - Deerfoot to the pedestrian bridge - Bridge to 19th - 19th /McCall to WestJet.
Segment 1 My Place to Memorial – A few hiccups during this leg including the river overflowing under Centre Street and me totally wiping out on the ice then after picking myself up and wiping myself off, the ice started cracking under our feet.. Chuck actually went through the ice and soaked his foot. This lead to us having to jump on the fence and shimmy our way to the other side of the now cracked ice. Kinda scary..
Segment 2 Memorial to Deerfoot – down one segment onto the next. Our only hiccup here was that fact that it said that that path was closed on the other side of the bridge, we figured it was due to high water (aka ice) so not wanting to repeat our last series of events, we crossed over St. George’s bridge, climbed the hill to the zoo then made our way through the parking lot, construction and snowbanks to the path by Deerfoot…
Segment 3 Deerfoot to the Pedestrian Bridge – this segment there was nothing but figuring how far we’ve been, how far still to go, oh and of course how to get up the big long hill by the golf course. This is usually where Chuck would leave me in his dust on his bike, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when he did it while we were running too. Oh well, I had to save something for the last 6km so let him go…
Segment 4 Bridge to McKnight (INDUSTRIAL) – this was the least favourite part of the run. The path took us all the way to 19th, then it was running on a four lane road (two each way), without a sidewalk and no streetlights just before dawn with reflective gear but nothing the semi’s and cars could actually see. This was terrifying and closer to the end so it seemed never ending.. but it did end, finally on McNight!
Segment 5 McKnight to Campus! – Legs are getting heavy by this point, but campus is in sight! We finished our 18.36kms at the corner at Barlow and walked it in! So excited to have finished this monstrous run and celebrated with a ½ hot shower at campus before heading out for the day!!
We ran 18k on Saturday. That's right, just 3k short of a half marathon. Oh, and it gets better. We ran it INSIDE. That's right, when we got up on Saturday morning to eat toast and drink Gatorade, the thermometer had dipped to -32C. Now, we've learned that we can totally run in the cold, but this was going to be nearly 10C colder than ever before, and would have been for a full two hours. Ever prepared, we had a backup plan to run inside at Westside Rec since it featured a 425m track and was near both our houses. We met in the parking lot in our capris and dashed inside before our calves froze, grumbling about the injustice of having to pay $13 to go run in circles when all we really wanted to do was run along the river on a snowy day. Stupid boring inside run we had to pay for! Stupid outside weather being too cold!
Take a Midol, Mother Nature
Pretty much as soon as we walked inside, I felt like I owed the Rec Center an apology. It was AMAZING! It had a giant pool area with wave pool, lazy river, wading pool and waterslide set inside. The other pool area had a lap pool and diving pool. Looking up, we realized the track went all around the center, and WASN'T AN OVAL, which meant that even though we would be running laps, they wouldn't be in the same circle over and over. We peeked into some of the classrooms and they were bright sparkling rooms filled with brightly colored weights and mats and upbeat music. When we went upstairs, we were dazzled by the number of strength training machines we'd never seen before as well as hockey arenas and indoor skating rinks complete with trees and giant firepit in the middle. We were almost speechless! (almost)
Getting ourselves prepped to run, we asked a nearby staffer how far the track was. He directed us to the chart and our hastily done in line math was bang on, we had to do 42 laps to get in 18.2K. The guy noticed our concern about losing track of our laps and offered us a counter we could click after every lap and not lose track. There was a table where we could leave our drinks and so after a quick stretch, we started from there. We were off!
I think we spent the first 3-4 laps exclaiming over new things we saw. This track was pretty much the best we could hope for running laps inside; it was shaped like a clover leaf so you didn't just see the same people over and over again and it kept things a bit more interesting. Plus, the shape of the track meant you kept running by all the different parts of the center.
We watched some middle aged guys work out with their trainers, sprinting down the 40 yard track set up on one side, or else doing these loopy squats under the handrails. Click!
We watched these adorable little kids at hockey practice all skate around in matching Iginla jerseys for ages. Click! Click! Click!
We passed a woman jogging in jeans and hiking shoes a few times. Click! Click! Click!
We soon noted that the 3 leaves of the clover shape each had their own "feel". The first one was really quiet, the second one nice and cool and the third one kinda hot and stuffy. Click!
We marvelled over the whippet thin woman who was on the stairmaster for the first hour. Click!
I got to pee in a real bathroom and not behind a bush or in the snow. Click!
We admired a woman walking laps with a baby peering out of his snuggie strapped to her chest. Click!
We watched a little old man walk quite a few laps clutching his Tim Hortons and wished we had one too. Click! Click!
Without even realizing it, time was flying by! Before we knew it, we were counting down the last 10 laps, and before long, we were DONE! We squealed and high fived and got the nice guy who had given us the clicker to take our photo. We felt good!
You can't fake this kind of authenticity, you know
Crystal: "piff, 18k, no problem, we could totally do 3 more for the half!" Felicity: "for sure, no problem!"
....pause....
Felicity: "ummm, but we're not going to, right? We're done?" Crystal: "oh, yeah, we're done, I just meant we COULD do the other 3k for race day" Felicity: "Whew!"
Still smiling after 42 laps! And the guy behind us posed too?
Sadly, we both had to dash off without getting to try out any of the crazy new stretching or situp machines we'd been eying or go for a quick dip in the pool or hottub, but happily, it was because we both had massages booked that we had to get to. I'd be happy to go back there and spend an entire day there testing everything out!
So, last night I get home to discover a large padded envelope had arrived. FROM HONG KONG, IT'S MY DRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! After I treat Bryan's broken eardrums incurred from my shrieks of delight, I tear open the package, breathless with anticipation! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...
You can't fake this kind of excitement! It had a Thank You card!
OMG- It looks even better in real life than it did online!
Hold on a sec. I'm not the 7 year old girl this was made for
Stop laughing, it'll fit.
See? I'm halfway in! Am a genius!
I'm not stuck, ummm....I'm thinking about my next move
Hold on...I forgot about two things
Cheap feel, but someone's gotta do it
Serious error in judgement. Am taller than a 7 year old
Yeah, it's on, but that's as far as it goes. You win, dress!
So, it didn't quite fit. I thought I could squeeze into it, but didn't bank on the height of the dress being my downfall...I knew it would be about kneelength instead of a ballgown, but I didn't realize it would be more of an empire waist. The whole bodice is about 6 inches long! I'm not worried, I should easily be able to cut off the skirt and add a yellow tank top, which would be moisture wicking anyways. And being able to breath is always a great idea, especially on a 21K run.
I did give it one more try later where I just pulled it on as a tube top instead of trying to fit into the arm holes...I think it looked a lot better with the accessories and I can't wait for race day!
A princess always curtsies! Even when her ribcage is collapsing.
Well, I also ran on the weekend, but pretty much had a totally different experience than my fellow princesses. Now, I've lived in Calgary for over 25 years so I should be used to it, but it still amazes me how much easier it is to breathe pretty much anywhere else, especially when running. So when I found myself in Victoria this weekend for a belated Christmas celebration I had been looking forward to a long ocean side run for weeks! I was expecting a good run based on the fact that I was going to be at sea level, where I've found that running feels a lot easier because I don't have to breathe through tight lungs full of fire like I do at 3500 feet. This run did NOT disappoint!
After a breakfast of freshly made bread topped with peanut butter and banana, I headed out along the ocean. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the grass was green. Yes, GREEN grass! And it was warm enough that I didn’t need mittens or have to worry about slipping on ice. Along the ocean walk path, I blew by dozens and dozens of walkers….with walkers….or canes. Did I mention I was in the retirement community of Saanich, not actually Victoria? Eat my running dust, good citizens!
Combined with the altitude and humidity that didn’t have my mouth dry out like a raisin in the first 3 minutes, I felt like I was flying! I felt so good, I actually did 14k instead of 12 just because I thought I should take advantage of the great weather and how awesome I felt. Around the 12K mark I had to cross an overpass over the highway, and I actually sped up running up the incline to the top since my lungs weren’t filling with fire. In Calgary, I would have trudged up, possibly crying a little by that point, but behold my sea level skills! I am Superathlete, watch me fly!
When I finished, I checked my trusty Nike Plus, confident I had broken all speed records. I was actually SHOCKED to discover I was only a few seconds faster per km than usual, not really anything special or overly speedy. I guess the combination of altitude, humidity, temperature and the fact that I was alone on a new route and had nothing to compare my pace to except by how I felt. And it felt GREAT! Hopefully, since Florida is also at sea level, this half is gonna be a breeze!
PS...Guess how much butter chicken I can eat at a Fairmont buffet after running 14K? I DISGRACED myself with at LEAST 4 trips up...but it was awesome!
Well the time finally came that a whole lotta bad weather came in and stayed in, no chance to move the schedule around in order to run outside instead of on the treadmill. So while Felicity ran her 12km in sunny Victoria, Crystal and I worked convincing ourselves to get off of our respective couches and go run the track at Mt.RoyalUniversity’s indoor track, another running first for us. With temps falling to -28 with the windchill it was our only real option.
We arrived at Mt Royal, paid our $10.78 (yes, paid to run the track), got out of our layers of warm clothes, made our way past the guy doing the grapevine up and down the stairs (seriously impossible if you want to try) and found ourselves in front of the “How to” board. Now before we even got to Mt Royal, Crystal had done the math, 200m x 60laps = 12km, right? **(we’ll come back to this later..)
Ok, so here’s how our run went..
Laps 1- 4 “How are we ever going to remember what lap we’re on when we have to do 60, I lose count running hills and stop one short?” “Let’s remember that when ever Christi is on the inside it’s an odd lap and when Crystal is in the inside it’s an even lap, oh and let’s switch every lap to make it easier”
Laps 5-17ish.. “Uh, heh, remember how the outside lane is 228m, well that would mean we don’t have to run 60laps, definitely less, right?” “ok, soooo… if 60laps at 200m is 12km, how many laps do we have to run?” silence… “Uh, well what if we figured it out at 225, it’ll be easier” silence… “Uh, well 4 laps would actually be 4 and a half, right” “Yup, right” .. silence.. “Sooo.. what does that mean?” … silence “Umm.. I’m really good at math on paper…” silence.. “Well using simple math and our fingers.. every 4 actually being 4 ½ .. sooo 9 + 9 +9.. so 54 laps would be right?” “Let’s do 54 then figure it out on our phones later”
Laps 20-22 “Well now that, that is sorted out.. So glad to be here” “Sure wish we could have run outside like Felicity did” “Yeah, we were talking about flying somewhere for a long run.. why haven’t we done that?” “I guess it hasn’t been that cold yet” “We’ll still have to go to the Pannenkoek Haus next Sunday” “I have to work, I can’t do next Sunday L” “Definitely the weekend after!” “Definitely!”
Laps 23-30 Random conversation about anything and everything.. all VERY important subjects mind you, work, friends, the Princess Run, etc
Laps 31-35 “Hey, that guy is running the wrong way!” “Seriously, why is he doing that” “Hey, that guy is talking to the Mt Royal guy about direction, what is he thinking?” “Wait, are WE running the wrong way?” “Most indoor tracks have some sort of sign telling you which way to run?” **(see reference 2nd paragraph) “Maybe let’s take a big detour and read that sign again” “Nope we’re right.. Sundays are clockwise.. thank God!”
Laps 36-42 Then more random conversations like Victoria Beckham's pregnancy “Victoria Beckham is pregnant?!" “Ya! Crazy!” “that’s 42 right?” “No I think she is like 35 or something?” “35 laps? I thought we were on 42??” “YA! No, SHE is 35 years old, WE’RE on lap 42. right??” "Right!"
Laps 43-45 “This is waayyy better than a treadmill” “Yeah, but still not as great as winter running though” “Yeah, winter running your clothes get wet and summer/indoor running you just get gross and sweaty” “Yeah” “Hate all the sweat drying on my face and turning salty”
Laps 46-55 “Already done 45 laps” “Remember when we had like 50 left?” “46 laps!” “Was that 46 done or 46 when this lap is done?" “What was it last lap, 45 or 45 once we’re done?” “Let’s count down then?” “We only have 8
laps left” “We’re in the single digits now!!” “Only 7 more laps left”
“Have we sped up our pace?”“6 laps” “How long have we been running for” “Only 5 more laps..”“Hey that guy is running our direction again” “4laps!” “We’re almost done” “3 laps!” “Thank God” “2 laps.. only 2 laps” “Doesn’t really feel like we’ve been running that long” “LAST LAP” “Stretching then we’re outta here”
(photo - see speedy "wrong way" guy flying by in the yellow t-shirt)
