No, not that kind of white dress. But the dress I bought to take along to Vegas.
Those of you who follow me on Twitter might remember some tweets about a lost (and then found) bracelet of mine that I left at a store I had stopped at the night before to try [and then buy] a cute dress from the window to wear during the day in Vegas. This is the dress:
Took the red eye home from Vegas last night, so it’s back to the real world for me.
I did love listening to 680 news (3, 4, 5 times a day!) on our drive from the airport downtown and hearing the lead story – a BEAR in a tree. If they didn’t repeat it every 5 minutes, I might have thought my 4 hours of sleep self made it up. Gotta love Canada.
In any case, I will post some pictures once I have a chance to upload them. In the meantime, the official race pictures from Ottawa came out. Did I mention I tried to smile for the cameras when I saw them? Well, it worked, and here’s the best one of them:
The rest are here if you’re curious/bored. Funny the one that’s missing is of me with my medal actually posing. Oh well. Mental note that next time I should smile AND suck in!
Rant: Why are the pictures so freaking expensive? I totally want to order this one and digital prints cost $40+! I appreciate the need to cover costs, but maybe if the pricing was more accessible then enough people would pay so they wouldn’t need to charge $40 per photo! Grumble.
1 = the number of antibiotics I have left to take
2 = the number of days until my Garmin 305 is delivered to the hotel
3 = the number of sleeps until VEGAS!
Life is happy.
I’m writing this on Sunday at 4 in the hotel room where we don’t have internet (and for some reason we’re unable to purchase it even when we try). I’m taking the hint and staying off-line, but thought I would document the day for your, and my, entertainment. Especially after all the build up this week.
Also worth noting – this is my first attempt at writing a race report. It came out pretty long (probably because there’s no Twitter/Facebook to distract me). So if you tune out before the end I will totally understand.
Lisa and I arrived in Ottawa yesterday at about 1. We checked into our hotel, which was less than 5 minutes from the start line and about the same from the finish. They told us they were oversold for the night, so we were delighted to get exactly the room we had ordered (and only about a month ago — even though there was a waiting list for the hotel we found a room on Expedia).
We made the 7 minute walk to City hall and hopped on a shuttle to the expo. Picked up our race kits (side note: they only had S and M shirts left because they let you ask for whatever size you wanted. The shirts were cut small [and are also thin and white = see thru and unforgiving] and even I took an M [I had put down a small] so I’m sure there were a ton of people who ended up with shirts that didn’t fit. Sucks).
Got all sorts of goodness. The official Ottawa race merch wasn’t my style – I really wanted socks as a souvenir, but was not going to shell out big bucks for a soso top. Instead I indulged in other booths. I picked up pink running socks that say “b*tch” around the top (without the asterisk) (it was either that or High Maintenance – which is probably more true, but harder to read), some bras (I LOVE moving comfort — and they even gave me a lingerie bag which I think I was the most excited about), and a visor that says Run Girl Run. AND two stickers that have the funniest slogans:
If I was a running blog this could have made for a good giveaway item… Hmm… And Lisa picked up some funny ones too:
The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Headed out to an earlyish dinner and walked along the street. Lisa got a mint aero bar that she declared would be her post run treat. We saw the cutest cupcake at a bakery. I decided that would be my post run treat – I asked the baker who reassured me there would be fresh ones in the morning, so decided would pick one up after brunch. Had some quality time with my “The Stick” that N gave me as a congrats/good luck gift. We were in bed by 10:30.
I had vivid dreams all night about having forgotten stuff for the race. Three times pretty much the same dream with different items. I kept waking up and being like “Jenn, you’re in your hotel room and your [sports bra/ipod/water belt] is here too! Now go back to sleep”. Made it until about 7:15 and then decided getting out of bed would be a good idea. Had a few egg muffins (oatmeal and egg whites – breakfast of champions!) and got dressed and ready.
Was super hyper leading up to the race. Joan and her Jen met Lisa and I in our room, and we headed to the start line (5 minutes away). I couldn’t make it up to my corral, so started further back. More people to pass, I figured. And then the race began. 5 minutes later we started to move, and 5 minutes after that we crossed the start line! I took off, leaving Joan, Lisa and Jen, and started running. All the crowds were super smiley and I really had fun for the first bit – I love when kids want to give you high fives. A few times I got “left hanging” but I didn’t take it personally. Going into Gatenau was cool. Loved the French cheers of Bravo!
I didn’t love the heat. It was really sunny, and there wasn’t much shade. At the first water station I watched a woman dump a cup of water in her hat, and told her she was very smart. I then did the same thing at every other rest stop. I also loved the sprinkle stations set up. It was so hot! There were no sponges when I ran through those stations (unless you count all the colourful foam underfoot!) which was a bit disappointing. Not that I needed the sponge that badly — I was just really excited about them because I hadn’t ever had a sponge station before! Something to look forward to I guess.
I kept pacing next to different people. First I followed a woman with a Jiggle Bum (is that mean? Yeah, it is. But it’s not like I know her name or bib number). When I lost her, I paced after a woman with blue stuff in her water belt. I stayed on her for the middle 10km I figure. But at around 16km it started getting tough. I was using my sleeve more frequently as a kleenex, and felt the need to take walk breaks. I had decided I wasn’t going to kill myself, so tried to find a good balance between pushing myself, but not pushing too hard. I was annoyed that I needed to walk inside the last 3km, but I kept going which is what matters. My calves started to seize up around 750m to go and are still cranky. Ow.
Crossed the finish line at about 2:24 gun time, and don’t know my chip time yet. I figure it’s about 10 minutes faster than that. Got my silver blanket.
Oh yeah, want to know how to confuse your pace entirely? Switch from km to miles. Yes, my ipod decided to speak Miles this morning (have no idea why). I couldn’t believe how long the first kilometer seemed – and then all of a sudden it was all “One mile completed”. Um, what? It’s never done that before – I never even thought to check the settings! So I had no idea how fast I was going. Which made it easier for me to take it easy. And again, I forgot to end my workout when I crossed the finish – shiny medals are distracting! But when I turned it off about 10 minutes later I still hadn’t hit 13.1 on the ipod. Maybe I need to re-calibrate? Or maybe I just need a Garmin. Whatever the solution, it was still great to hear Paula telling me I had completed my longest workout yet.
Made my way quickly through the finisher area, chatting on my phone to N and mom while looking for the exit gate. Went to meet up with Other Lisa, who was also there with her fiancee, and said a quick hi. Then I went to our meeting place and waited. For an hour. I had fun chatting with people. A 65 year old marathon runner from Baltimore (he looked so young!) and a woman who had just finished her first half and was waiting for her family (she didn’t know how to text, so I texted her husband to let him know where she was). Then my phone rang and it was Lisa calling from the hotel. They didn’t see me and had left — boo. She offered to come grab me because she knew I wouldn’t find the hotel (Yes, I did tell you that the hotel was 5 min away, but my sense of direction is actually *that* bad).
At the hotel hung out for a few minutes with Joan and Jen’s families. Cute kids. I think I won the “Who loves Hello Kitty the most” battle. Wooh!
After showering and getting ready (read: popping blisters) Lisa and I headed to the pub down the street for brunch. Then went to pick up some Epsom salts (and Traumeel too!) AND my cupcake – but they were SOLD OUT! Bah! I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Which is okay – lots of indulging to come at dinner tonight and in VEGAS on Friday!
And now I’m fresh out of my Epsom salt bath, with calves that are coated in cream. I have my medal around my neck and I am happy! Which is a great way to end this report. Can’t wait to write the next one!
I get excited when I get blog comments.
I get really excited when they’re from friends.
I get super excited when they come from people whose blogs I read that I don’t know in real life.
That’s all.
I’m not going to be thrilled just to run on the weekend. I’m cranky that I trained all winter outside in the snow and cold and am [likely] not going to be 100% by the time this weekend’s race rolls around. Breaking 2 hours seemed like such a good goal – so downgrading my expectations to just finishing is a big let down.
But I’m trying to stay positive.
Side note: I haven’t been able to exercise ALL WEEKEND which for sure has something to do with the major case of the Crankies I can’t seem to shake.
The race is less than a week away. And I’m sick. I started feeling “off” friday, and have been getting worse. Saturday I popped Sudafed. Yesterday I decided it was allergies and took Reactin. Today I have a sinus headache (hence the up early) and so am back on Sudafed/Advil. I think I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow in the hopes of procuring some drugs to further improve the situation.
I haven’t been able to run since Friday morning’s quick 8km. I’m taking “tapering” to a whole new level. The only action my legs have seen is from my foam roller so despite the complete lack of exercise, parts of me are still sore. Ha.
If (and I do mean *if*) I’m able to run on the weekend, I’ll be thrilled. Even if I don’t PR (get a personal record) it will be such a relief to be running again that I’m hoping I’ll finish without struggling.
In the meantime, anyone have fun suggestions for my playlist?
Today I got a facebook message from a guy I went on one date with quite some time ago. It was pretty obvious, since I’m super smart, that I shouldn’t click on the link.
Anyway, a few minutes later another friend [who shall remain nameless] sent me the same facebook message. I sent her an email to let her know she was ill.
Turns out she got it from the same dude (who she also went out on one date with). Gross.
So let that be your warning to always practice safe clicking.
[Edit: nameless friend gave me goahead to add a link to her blog. And no, you won’t get a virus if you go there]
It’s official – I’m heading to Chile for 10 days at the end of June/beginning of July with my friend Ruth. In typical Jenn style, I’ll be leaving the day after a stagette, and getting home the day of the rehearsal dinner for the same wedding (in which I’m marching). At least there’s not a big time change (unlike the one between China and Vancouver).
It will be winter in Chile, which means we’re going to spend our time in the North where it’s warm[er] and not in the South. And there’s vinyards. And volcanoes!
Let the planning begin.
I had a fun time trying to find myself in the finishing video that the National Post put up of Sunday’s race.
Here I am approaching the finish line – I then keep running for about a second and disapear off the screen.
Here’s Baron – who ran right in front of the camera. Coincidence? I think not.
Photos of the finish line give you a sense of how many people were running the race (13K) and an understanding of why, for some people, getting through the finish chute, through Fort York and to the Subway took longer than running the actual race!!