Christmas Day run!

I totally intended to run our loop of Elk and Beaver lake while wearing my Santa hat (it is Christmas after all), but I lasted about twenty meters before ducking back to the car to change into my regular toque. That bouncing pompom would have driven me batty! 


So Christy suggested we get some staged shots of me running with the Santa hat and Cristal was nice enough to shoot them. I have to say that it does look pretty cute.

Thanks so much to Christy, Cristal and Nicole for running this morning; it was just the Christmas gift that I needed! Nicole was the true hero though; during the run she became nauseous with what was likely a mild case of food poisoning. I don't think I could have done it, so serious props.


We will definitely make this run an annual thing (sans the food poisoning), so make sure you join us; it's an amazing way to start your Christmas day!

Just what was needed.

Written by Christy Simard.

Our last run before the feasting begins... This is the time of year when stress gets the best of us all; I am no exception. I knew on the way down to the run that it was going to be a minimal show, if anyone else showed. I know it is terrible to say but today was one of those days when I would not have been disappointed had no one else shown, but I was really glad that Adrienne was waiting for me! 

The weather was not looking great; it was threatening rain (and eventually did)... neither one of us was really excited about running today. Never a great start! 

We persevered though, like we always do. We stopped a few times, chatting the entire time. Almost back at the store and feeling very happy we had actually gone running instead of going for coffee, we ran into Rob after he had just challenged people on Facebook to “stop” him in the streets!  We got to pick a gift card from a pile taking our chance on a big win, the joys of carrying your iPhone on runs! Lots of pictures, and instant updates from Facebook... 

We had a great run; a bit slow, but just what was needed to reduce the stress hanging on our shoulders today. 

A big Thank You to Frontrunners for being such a great support to our group, and to Rob for the great surprise. 

From my family to yours:

May everyone have a safe and Happy Holiday! 

Spotty running.

Hello!!


Last weekend (Sunday, December 4th) Cristal and I ran the Merrython 8K in Oak Bay without our kids. It was a tonne of fun, a challenging course (as usual) and a very satisfying finish in around 38:50. Cristal was pretty pleased with her time and I could see the fire in her eyes; she immediately starting talking about 10K times and I jokingly said, "now I'm stuck with you!", meaning that she's going to want to run all her races with me from now on! Honestly, I don't mind at all and it got me thinking that Cristal is the type of runner who gets all in her head during a race and it can be her biggest stumbling block. And let me be clear: Cristal being "all in her head" almost always manifests physically; she ends up hobbling across the finish line. If I can help her out and see her finish strong, I'll run as many races with her as I have to!


Christy has been away in Costa Rica all week (poor thing) and that coupled with Cristal being careful with a sore shin and Adrianne unable to make the runs resulted in two no-shows this week; I had no runners Monday or Friday. That's the first time that has happened in months! I can't say I minded too much... Haven and I ran errands on Monday while Sonja was at preschool and on Friday my girls and I went home and ate popcorn and watched movies. Ah, December. I don't mind taking things easy in December because the new clinic starts in January (dates coming soon) and then the real work begins.


The only bad thing about not running much is that I get complacent. It's really, really easy to start bagging runs when my running has been spotty; it's a slippery slope! So this morning's run with Cristal, Carey, Laura and Lisa was just what the doctor ordered: 12.5K in the bright, cold sunshine. We were working hard and it felt great!

I'm so looking forward to having Christy back with the group this week. And speaking of Christy, I need to post a couple photos of the amazing gift she made for each of our Moms:

It's a race-number holder! Now we finally have somewhere to put all of our old race numbers. And of course the photo was taken before the Half Marathon in October. Thanks again, Christy!