Deluge, gale and bruncheon.

There's only one way to say it: Sunday's run was pretty miserable. The word 'deluge' springs quickly to mind. Oh, and 'gale.' Put 'em together and add a fully-loaded double Chariot and the term 'pretty miserable' is a euphemism. 


But none of that ultimately mattered, because Sunday was Bruncheon Day! Yes, Christy the magnificent Organizer of All Things contacted Hayley, the owner/operator/chef of Nourish Bistro at Glendale Gardens and we all got together for a yummy brunch. Such an amazing reward after the slogfest I experienced on the roads earlier that morning. The food was incredible (barley/mushroom/bean risotto with butternut squash), the company sublime.


And thanks so, so much to Christy for the wonderful and thoughtful Christmas gifts; I honestly don't know where you find the time! xo

Bragging rights.

Written by Christy Simard. What an awesome run! I'm actually kinda jealous... the way only runners get jealous. ;)

Today was a bit of a difficult day to run... To start the day looked nice but with 90 km winds! Not so great when you are pushing a barn door on your run. Our other run leader Carey had to cancel her run today, so I was by myself. That made it even harder to run, but what most of you don’t know is that I made a commitment to a 90 mile challenge for Movember! So rain or wind, I still needed to log some more distance this month to make my goal. With the remainder of my miles scheduled for this month, today was meant to be an 8km (5 mile) run, but since I was pretty sure I was going to be by myself... I pushed harder! 

As I pushed the stroller up Fort Street I had this sinking feeling in my gut: I am cheating on the group! I really cannot recall the last time I ran alone with Elise; probably back in May when I was foolishly training by myself for my first half marathon. Now I know better!

My run today looped up into Oak Bay and as I turned on to Oak Bay Ave, Mother Nature was smiling, and I figured I was golden. Turns out the sun was just a taster, and didn’t last long enough to even warm me. Heading back down Richmond Ave, the wind appeared around almost every corner. Gonzales Ave and Foul Bay Rd flew by and at the turn on to Hollywood Crescent I had to stop to put on my little flashing beacon because the clouds were darkening. 

Looking at my phone, I was only 5 km in; this was the make or break point. Do I shorten my route or push through and dig deep?, Well I dug in. As I turned the corner to Dallas Rd and the cemetery I was greeted by a clear sign that I was crazy!!!

I was actually feeling great about this run for the first time (so yes I am just a bit crazy, and a runner). So detour we did, looping around the cemetery and down May Street. I passed through Beacon Hill Park and the skies opened on me (insert sounds of doom). Into James Bay the rain began to fall sideways and my glasses became a victim. The puddles were huge, my feet were officially wet, but I still felt great! 

Now I was just trying to make sure that Elise was still holding her own in the stroller. She was handling it like a rock star, umbrellas were flying sideways, cars splashed us, no one was aware we were there so onto the road we ran.  We helped a gentleman who in his rush to get out of the weather missed a few stairs at the grocery store (luckily no injuries other than his pride), and continued through James Bay and back into Beacon Hill for the second time. A very deserted location today, and very peaceful at the same time. 

We hammered up my favourite part of this route, the Quadra Street hill at Fairfield. This is my dessert after a great meal; I eat it up every run. ...and there is always room for more of it! I have had many an “ah ha” moment at this spot, and look forward to it every time we run this route.  So today I ran it purposely. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. 

Pushing up the final hill on Vancouver with the store in sight, my mileage was just shy of the 12.5km, so into the parking lot I ran, finally stopping on the even number. As I pulled the stroller up to the coffee shop, it was raining so hard I could hardly see past it. The people inside were shaking their heads at me and I was giggling. In my head, I knew that I had beat the weather, and as Sara said... I have the bragging rights!!! 

Brrr.

Wow, it's getting cold out there, particularly at 8am. 

We've had some really great runs lately, averaging around 7-8km on our Monday, Wednesday, Friday runs and a minimum of 10km (up to 15km) on Sundays. This morning, we ran a hair over 10km and I didn't take my insulated jacket or my toque off at all during the run. Brrr. But really, it was a stellar day for a run; just overcast enough to keep the sun out of the kids' eyes, but no rain and no wind. Crisp and clear and beautiful. 

A warm Running Moms welcome to two new Moms to the group: Lisa and Jean. It has been an absolute pleasure to meet you and get to know you a little. I look forward to running with you a lot more over the next while. Hopefully we'll have a big group for the Half Marathon clinic starting in January!

With all these cold temperatures, I need to mention that if there is snow and/or ice on the ground, Running Moms doesn't run. I don't want to take the chance that someone will slip and hurt themselves and I've never felt safe running with my stroller in snow or ice. For those Moms who are able to run without kids and who are comfortable running in snow or ice (you can buy special treads you can attach to your shoes for traction), we can look at setting up meeting times, but we'll wait until the situation dictates.

In the meantime, here's a fun sequence of pictures from our run this past Monday: Christy taking photos of Adrianne and me as I take photos of Christy and Adrianne. Duelling camera/iPhone. ;)

I calls it like I sees it.

We like to say that running is a lifestyle because it's true, but all runners know that there's an addictive quality about running that really keeps us coming back for more.


People who haven't felt that addictive pull tend to scoff a bit and fair enough. But we runners know that if they stick with it long enough, at some point we'll see that scoffer out there training hard and showing up to all the local races. And if we like them, or even love them, we're liable to bug them about it, because we were once that same person who looked in on the world of runners and was a little envious even though we insisted we weren't.

I don't normally run on Fridays; it's Christy's day to lead the run and I'm usually off doing something with my kids. But this past Friday I needed to run. I wasn't overly stressed or upset or even feeling bad about anything (running is a great way to relieve all of these things), I just wanted to get out there and haul ass a bit.


So I showed up with Christy and Cristal and I could tell right away that Christy was tired. She had done some form of running for five days straight, which meant Friday made it six days. I sensed that she was relieved I had showed up and I felt a bit bad, because I felt like running kinda hard. Turns out Christy was more than happy to take a couple short cuts and snap a few pics on her iPhone of Cristal and me running, so everything worked out just fine. (All the photos in this post are the ones Christy took on Friday.)


It was a great run and an amazing morning to be running.

Sunday's run was fun. Christina came out for her first Sunday run with Running Moms after surviving her first Wednesday run unscathed. I had two route distances mapped out, since we were running an hour-an-a-half and I knew Christina would only want to run around an hour. We all ran 10K together and then Christina went home and Cristal, Carey, Laura and I ran an additional 5K. It was a stellar day for a run; almost too sunny for the kids in the strollers when we started up Dallas Road and the sun was in everyone's eyes, but we made it.

...So getting back to original train of thought in this post: six days in a row?? Christy's developing quite the little running problem. 

Just sayin'. ;)

Plus one.

I get so excited when someone runs with Running Moms for the first time. My friend (and as it turns out, Christy's friend) Christina, came out with us for the first time yesterday and it made my day. I love having a widening circle of people to run with; a widening circle of friends that I am pretty much guaranteed to see at least a couple times a week.

Christina was a trooper. I didn't know she was planning to run with us and I had a 9K route mapped out. I offered to shorten it, but she said she should be fine running that far, so we stuck to the plan. 

L-R: Sara, Haven, Cristal, Tegan, Christy, Madison, Christina and Georgia.

Christy wasn't running with Elise in the stroller yesterday, so she helped out pushing Christina's daughter Georgia. That helped a lot on the hills and when fatigue started to set in. It's always such a bonus to have a Mom running sans stroller; being able to share pushing can make such a difference. 


I could see Christina was feeling those last few kilometres, but with Christy's and my encouragement she persevered and ran strong until the end. Anyone who knows me knows I love to see someone work hard and push themselves (within reason, of course). I'm so looking forward to having Christina join us again soon.


Now I just need to make sure I keep these names straight: Cristal, Christy and Christina. None of them go by Chris as far as I know, so I can't even fall back on that one...