Today I had an appointment with an Athletic Therapist to discuss my hips and knees and to give me some options on how to correct them.

Well it turned out that one of my legs is shorter than the other so he fixed that somehow, it seemed like he stretched it back to normal but I am sure there was more to it than just that. My hips can get better and stronger with more stretching (I am so bad for it)plus some core training, but my knees are in a world of their own, apparently there isn't much I can do about it. My problem is that my knees pronate and it is just how my body is, there is nothing I can do or change to make them straight. I am ok with that though since with my "deformed" body, I was still able to make it to Boston.

So now this guy will pass on the info to another guy who will make up a care training schedule that will work with my running training schedule and then hopefully by April I will be in more shape and be able to run a better marathon.....pain free.

It has been quite a while since my last blog on here. I wasn't really training for much but now that my more serious training is starting I figured why not start this up again.

Since my last post back in June I have continued running here and there running a few races here and there and also getting a few more PB's. I ran a 10K on Canada Day with a PB of 46:44 (I still can't break that 45min!). In September I ran a 1:41:42 Half Marathon, another PB for me and then in October I ran another 10K in support of the Ottawa Hospital. Since then I have just been going out for some runs with friends.

We have been quite lucky this year with our weather and the lack of snow that are paths for running are all still open. Today I ended up running 22K, not too sure how that came to be since just last week it was only up to 18K. I felt good going out, I kept my pace up but was quite tired coming back especially through the Experimental farm where it is all open space and like running through a wind tunnel. My fingers even froze up on the way back, I guess it is time to get out some more winter things. In the end I ran the 22K in 2hrs and 11min.

My full training will start in January and I will also be starting with some more core training. There are a few more races I have in mind to help with my training leading up to Boston. Some I will race and some I will just run.....maybe.

I ran a 10k race this morning, I haven't run a 10k in a long time but during most of my training for the marathon I was able to run 10k tempos in about 50 min. I had a goal time of 45min for this one. Showing up for the race I was happy to see many of my fellow runners from the RR and met up with one to do a bit of a warm up and start together. The weather seemed really good for a run before it started, it was a cloudy day a bit cool, but as the race started you could feel the humidity hit and by 2k I was already dripping wet. As with all my 10k races I got a stitch early on, about 2k in and it was very difficult to get it to go away, even as I sit here a few hours after the run I can still feel it a bit. My friend and I joked after the run that we would have rather ran the marathon again over running this. Hee hee well maybe not.

I did not reach my goal time of 45 and instead finished with a 47:58. Here are my stats for this run.

I was so surprised and a little shocked to see that I came in 1st out of all the females in my age category and the 5th woman overall. For coming in first I got a nice little prize, a New Balance Mini Vent sports watch. Very exciting!

Shoes Shoes Shoes

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/confidential/sneaker_video.html

Wednesday night I showed up at the Running Room and didn't see too many of my usual running partners so I ended up going out with this other group of guys. They are also Boston Qualifiers so I thought I would try it out, however, they were all men, most of them have been to Boston a couple of times already, and they have completed it with a sub 3 hour. So keeping up with them was a challenge but I had to so I wouldn't get lost or left behind. I basically ran an 11km run in under an hour and it wasn't even a race.

I do have a couple of 10km races coming up in the next couple of weeks before I go on vacation. Just because I go on vacation it does not mean that I am not going to run though, as I am planning to run a 1/2 marathon in September. My serious training won't start until December/January and I am considering joining this other group out in Barrhaven that has an actual Boston group. I have also started more cross training as part of my overall training hoping it will help in the end.

Now I am off to enjoy this summerlike day.

I DID IT!

Yes that is right I did it......I qualified for Boston!!! I am so excited!

Last Sunday was the National Capital Race Weekend in Ottawa and they had so many people running many different distances from 2km all the way up to 42.2km. I had a good weekend leading up to Sunday, I had an early pasta lunch for the carbs and then an early meat and potato dinner for the protein. I went to bed early to be sure I got a good night's sleep and sleep I did, I don't think I've ever slept so well in a long time. I had all my gear ready to go so I wouldn't forget anything.

Sunday morning I got up early and made myself some oatmeal with egg whites for some extra protein, got dressed and headed out the door by 5:50am for a 7 o'clock race start. I met up with a lot of the people from my running group and got together in the coloured corral system. I was not feeling nervous at all before the race started which is so not like me as I usually get butterflies when I go out for our LSD. I was very calm and ready for the day to start. The gun went off and we all started it was already pretty warm when we took off which I didn't notice until later.

I felt so good during the first half, it was so nice to see so many other "crazy" people up at that time of day just to cheer us other "crazy" people on, it gave me a high and allowed me to keep going. The second half was more difficult for many reasons; 1 I was already tired from running half of it; 2 the sun was getting hotter and there was less shade to hide from it; 3 the wind was always coming at me. It seemed there were more hills in the second half or it could have just been my brain going a little coo-coo. I didn't notice any discomfort until around the 25km mark, which is pretty good for me and I will have to thank it on all the ART I had done leading up to the race. After the last water station was where I was having a lot of trouble keeping focused and keeping on my pace. The crowds nearing the finish line were tremendous and I tried to feed off of them, at about 700m left to go was where I started feeling a little faint so I took some more water and pushed it right to the end knowing that at that point I had about 4 minutes to get to the finish line to qualify. Passing that finish line was overwhelming and I literally had nothing left in me, I had to waddle over to get some water, a foil blanket and of course.....my medal! Which will be engraved soon.

I waited for some of my friends to come through the finishing chute to see how they did and felt, after I found a few of them we went through for some post race food (not a good idea for me) and then we were off to find our families.

Here are my stats and split times:

Placed 770/3577 overall; 113/1343 females; placed 30/224 females 30-34 years

10k split 51:19; 21.1k split 1:47:31; 30k split 2:33:57

Chip time 3:39:44; Gun time 3:40:46

By the way did I tell you I qualified for Boston?

NYC Marathon

Well today I got the email from the NYRR and once I saw that word "Unfortunately" I knew it was not the year for me. I know of a few other people who did get accepted though.

Now I have to figure out which other race I should do instead. There is the Fall Colours in Cumberland, the Army Half or even the Toronto Waterfront again. Who knows, all I know is that I will finish this Marathon first and see what happens. Maybe my next race will be Boston.

Here's to hoping.