10 days!

Only 10 days left until I run the SeaWheeze in Vancouver!!!
  
I can hardly contain my excitement.  Kara and I ran for 2 hours (10s and 1s) in the river valley yesterday and accomplished it well.  Last time we ran 15k and almost died...also almost ran out of water.  But this time, almost 20k done and felt great.  We did plan to fill our water bottles strategically though, especially important running in the sun.  That great run made me feel so confident for August 10th.  I am excited to push myself during the race and hopefully beat my personal best time. 

I'm sure Nathan and I will run the sea wall before the race, so less than 10 days till that!  Going to be amazing, I know it.

Color Me Rad July 6

I haven't posted in over a month! Been busy, but I wanted to write a quick post of Color Me Rad that we ran on July 6. The very next day I was wishing to be back there covered in colors! It was so much fun. Nathan's first race, Janine's first race, and the most exciting run I've done so far. The popular runs are always more exciting though. I have no idea how fast we ran the 5k, and it didn't matter to me anyways! Having people I love there and having so much fun made it such a good day for me. 

We also got sunglasses that I actually like! I picked highlighter yellow. Will definitely run color races again. 

Running on vacation

I've come to the conclusion that running away from home is far better than here.  Maybe it's because I don't love Edmonton nearly as much as other places.  I cannot wait to run my half marathon in Vancouver (in 69 days!) and many more runs in places around Canada and the world.

I think that is my current goal with running, to run races in interesting and new places!  Cannot wait to travel more.

Saskatoon half marathon

I haven't blogged in so long!  This weekend I went to Saskatoon with Nathan, and stayed at my sisters place for free.  We went for dinner, to the mall, the driving range for my first time golfing, mini golfing, and to the zoo. It was such a great weekend.  I ran the half marathon of the Saskatchewan marathon on Sunday, May 24.  During my training I started doing 10s and 1s (run 10 min, walk 1) and found it very helpful for me.  That's exactly what I did in the race as well.  Must be what works for me!

I finished in about 2:15, which is great for me! I'm not very fast yet. While I was running across a huge bridge there and down by the river, it felt like I was in San Francisco again, just slightly muggier! The water from the river smelled and felt like salt, even Nathan noticed that. Maybe it was just the muggy weather. It threatened to rain all weekend but didn't actually rain during the race at all! Just nice warm overcast, perfect running weather to keep me cool. I couldn't have asked for a better race.

Of course, Nathan took my car and drove along to meet me at about 4 check stops along the route. It helped tremendously knowing I would see him every few kilometers after 10k (the easy first half). 

And I ate 1 pack of GU chomps and half of a gel, lots of water, and I was good to go. At the end I wasn't too dead surprisingly, even though the last 3km were difficult with a lot of walking. Yesterday, however, I could barely walk. Today is better, but every tiny piece of my legs is just so sore. 

Oh and I forgot to mention, I ran the entire race with my shorts inside out...which have built in underwear that were then tightly attached to the outside of my shorts. Lovely. Hopefully no one noticed, my tank top was long! 

Full marathon, here we come!

Looking forward to fast 5ks

On Tuesday I ran my fastest 5k yet! (With Nathan's help since he's faster) 29 minutes and something...but the point is it was under 30 min. I'm a pretty slow runner, but for short distances I should really try to pick my pace up. So I'm going to always run 5 in less than 30 min now. And 10 in less than an hour! I'm determined to increase my speed.

In search of perfect running underwear

I realize I might sound very strange, but I need to find the perfect running underwear. They need to be non cotton, full coverage, and stay in place! I tried the Under armour booty short style ones, but honestly they just slide up from one minute into my run 'till the end.

I've heard Asics and Patagonia make some good ones, I'll have to check them out when I go to the states in August! Hopefully I can find some in Canada before that for a reasonable price. Okay, I'm done writing about my underwear for this year now.

Spring?

Usually, I don't want spring to come, because that means winter (aka. snowboarding season and fun winter activities) are over. But right now I want the snow to melt so my new garden on my balcony can grow and so I can run more comfortably in the warm weather! Also, I want all my races to start already.

Oh yeah, and I also want my tax money so I can buy a new Lululemon or other running item! Maybe a bright silverescent tank top or the speed shorts I've been wanting. One day I'm going to have ten running outfits...after I graduate. Happy Spring! (hopefully)