Marlene asked me to write a paragraph for her blog about my very first run/walk today at the Toronto Womens Half Marathon/5K.

Marlene has been a huge inspiration to me. I decided to try this out for myself back in September, which is when I signed up for the Womens 5K. I started training with the Couch to 5K program on my iPod and was doing pretty well until my/our life was turned upside down earlier this year.

(Side note from Marlene – I mentioned a couple months ago that I was going through a rough time. It has been a difficult year for my family and Mom has taken the brunt of it.)

I lost interest in the training and wasn’t even sure I was going to do the walk/run.

With urging from my daughters, I decided to go ahead and try. I reached my goal today and was very pleased with the way I felt during and after. I listened to music and I did have some emotional feelings during the walk. I did it and in pretty good time, less than an hour.*

I have already signed up for the Toronto Waterfront 5K in September, along with my youngest daughter.

Thanks Marlene for being an amazing daughter and sister. You are an inspiration to all of us!!

*Mom is being modest here; her time was 46:11!

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I’m SO proud of her and thrilled that she has already signed up for her next event, along with my little sister.

I’ll be back with my HM report tomorrow!

This afternoon I picked up my race kit for the Toronto Women’s Half taking place this Sunday.

The top is nice and we got some great goodies.

I also picked up my ‘costume’ – a group of us will be dressed in these funky skirts with matching hair-ties.

Hopefully it won’t drive me crazy!

I’m really looking forward to the event. It should be a great environment with all the ladies, some special treats along the way (firefighters! chocolate!) and my Mom is run/walking her first 5K!

Good luck to all the racers this weekend, especially Chic Runner who will be running her first marathon in San Diego!

I can handle the rain, but this…

…is a little too difficult to navigate.

I must be crazy, because I still gave it a shot. I ran a warm-up lap and slogged straight through the puddle lake on the track, thinking maybe it wasn’t too deep. WRONG! It was pouring rain as I splashed my way through the ankle-deep water, and all I could do was laugh. It was actually kind of fun, but would have been more fun in rubber boots. Two minutes into my workout and my feet and shoes were 100% water-logged, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I tried a few modified laps where I ran back and forth, turning around when I reached the flooding, but the sharp stops/turns were killing me. It was also impossible to keep track of my distance – isn’t the whole purpose of track running to have a set 400m lap?

Anyway, after a few sloppy non-laps I decided to throw in the towel and went for a wet run through the neighbourhood instead. Here I am after 10K in the rain.

I’m disappointed that my first track workout didn’t go as planned, but as they say… try try again!

That’s right, I have never trained on a track (at least, not since elementary school). The handful of times I have completed intervals, it has been on quiet residential streets or the treadmill. Even running Yasso’s with my clinic, we were running an 800m loop comprised of two residential blocks.

I’ve discovered that I can’t seem to push myself hard enough to complete my intervals at goal pace when running by myself out on the streets, and I refuse to run on the treadmill in the spring/summer/fall. It’s time to hit the track, starting tonight!

Hubby and I scoped out a local high school track last night that looks pretty decent. Unfortunately it’s been raining all day long and it looks like it will continue through the evening, but that’s not going to stop me. The track is gravel, so it shouldn’t be too messy – right?!

Why the sudden interest in track workouts? I have a local 5K coming up in July, the same event where I placed first in my age group last year. This year, I intend to break 23:00.

Tonight’s workout:

1.5mi warm-up
3 x 1600m at ~7:14/mi (~1:48/400m) (=4:30/km)
1.5mi cool-down

I completed a similar workout on the treadmill back in April so here’s hoping I can make it happen on the track.

Any last minute advice? I don’t even know how close to the inside I should be running for a 400m lap, but I guess I can figure that out on the warm-up. Wish me luck!

I’ve registered for marathon #2!

I had originally planned to run the Toronto Marathon in October this year, but most of the group that I will be training with all summer will be working towards this event, so I’ve decided to go with the flow. A number of factors influenced my decision, but the primary reason is for the support I will have on race day. It’s an incredible group with an amazing coach and I want to train with them from start to finish.

Plus, this gives me the opportunity to seek redemption at the course that chewed me up and spit me out last year. Look out, STWM, I’m coming back for more!