Week in recap, return to running and miscellaneous stuff...

Friday was fun...my company usually gets into Halloween, big time. Which is funny, because when I first started with them 10.5 years ago, I was one of a handful of people who dressed up each year. Then the floor/department competitions started and it all went CRAZY!


Halloween 2006...We did a Tim Burton theme...I'm the Case Worker from Beetlejuice.




Halloween 2007...we decided to decorate as Christmas (really?!?), so, of course, I decide to be a Christmas present...a Barbie...in a box. I lost best costume to some chick with rubber snakes in her hair...did the judges not see that I was IN.A.FREAKING.BOX?!



Halloween 2008...our first year doing a Haunted House, complete with a Thriller Zombie Dance. This is the year we won best team and best area decorations.



Halloween 2009...continuing with the Haunted House, we did it with a Fairy Tale theme...I'm rocking the cradle...hehehe...note the glow in the dark zombie eyes. You can find a lot of stuff on the Internet!!


This year, it was decided (by survey) that Halloween was getting a tad out of control, as many departments would work for months (yes, months) on costumes and decorations and were at the office till midnight the night before...all for one day of fun. So this year, we had a Halloween Bash in the main lobby instead. Dress up if you wanted to (and many did) and decorate if you wanted to (didn't go around to see) but we (the committee) would handle games, candy, music, prizes and, of course, a Haunted House. We did a pretty good job, we think, except we learned that all the lights couldn't be shut off, so it wasn't as dark and spooky as it could be. We know for next year now.
During the day, I was Sue Sylvester from Glee (forgot my camera at home)...

And during the Bash, I spent my time running around, making grown-ups scream like little girls! Good times!!!

All proceeds (food and money) for an iPad prize went to our Together is Amazing food bank campaign, and I think was hugely successful. We'll have to wait to hear what people thought of the new format and see if we'll do the same thing next year. I still had fun.

Came home to find a lump in my bed...whatever is it???

It's George, thinking he's a wild, jungle kitty, hiding in a cave...

Finally got my precious Gold card from Starbucks...yes, I spend that much money! Where's your Gold card, Jamie?! LOL!

Lined up my marathon bling...Toronto definitely wins, hands down! I weighed it, and it does come in at one pound, exactly. Calgary (the middle one) is a belt buckle, because it was always known as the Stampede Marathon, before it was moved to May. And Vancouver was my first. I'm waiting on a display rack I ordered this week, so that I can proudly display my bling, rather than tossing it on a desk or in a drawer.

After meeting up with H-woman Friday night, we hit up a local pub for beers and burgers. Okay, I had a burger (yummo) and H-woman had a steak salad. But I did also have a pint...came home with a headache though, that nagged me all day Saturday as well. Napping and Advil didn't really make it go away, so I had a very low-key day. After all, I wanted to return to running on Sunday.

Earlier this week, I decided to try the Epicure French Onion soup mix...I tried and really like the Seafood Chowder, so thought, how can they mess up this one?? First off, let me state that I LOVE Epicure and almost everything we sell. But man, did they mess up with the French Onion soup...which is a classic in it's simplicity...onions, beef stock, red wine. Top with cheesy toast and voila! Our soup was yellow...icky, turmeric yellow. What the????? Okay...I decided not to judge it on colour, but on taste...patooey is all I have to say! I had one spoonful and dumped the rest of the pot down the sink. However, I was still craving French Onion soup, so I made some from scratch yesterday...with onions (one white, one yellow, one red) that I fried up till they were a brown, gooey mass, beef stock and my Meritage red wine. Toast with Swiss Gruyere and another type of Swiss cheese (I eat that on the side because there is nothing more foul than soggy bread) and a Caesar salad to up the vegetables. I am a good cooker!

Met up with a few ladies from marathon clinic (and boot camp) this morning and decided to head out for a "nice, slow 10km"...after all, I'm just two weeks off finishing a marathon, M. is recovering from a stress fracture that has kept her from running for the past 3 months, and the other M. has had plantar issues for weeks. Well...the best laid plans, right? We headed out with K. (my former 5:45 pacer) and another lady and found ourselves pushing our pace quite quickly at 7:15-7:23...just for comparison, for a 5 hour finish, our Sunday slow pace was 8! I joked with K. (who stated several times that she wanted to run slow) that she was setting the pace (she was in front) and we were all struggling to keep up! She and the other lady turned back early (they wanted to do a set of stairs) so myself and the M's continued on and slowed down our pace...a bit. We finished (despite 6:58 showing up on Mr. Garmin) 10.29km at an average pace of 7:35, which while faster than we wanted, still felt good for all three of us. After a cup of coffee and a breakfast wrap, I came home to this sight...queen sized bed and they have to snuggle on my top! Awwwww...


Enjoying some leftovers (OMGee...so very good the next day!) and the Amazing Race. Hope you all had a great weekend and have an awesome week ahead (supposed to hit +20 in Calgary by Thursday...only took till November for us to get a summer.

Happy Halloween

BOO!

Wow!

Where has the week gone?

Busy Monday, came home and was in bed by 10pm.

Boot Camp Tuesday: 1st time indoors - jury is still out on that one. Bed early as well.

Wednesday - after donating blood at work in the morning, I met up with everyone at the usual Wednesday pub for the marathon completion celebration party. I won "best bling"...my 1 pound medal easily kicked all the puny medal's butts!!

Tonight: after spending 3.5 hours setting up and decorating our "Haunted House" at work, I whipped home, via Shopper's Drug Mart (more stuff), then off to Value Village (a mask for tomorrow's costume # 2) and lastly Walmart - even more stuff.
Came home and had dinner of McDonald's (after today's weigh-in debacle, I surprised myself with that choice, but it was 9pm and I was hungry!) before whipping up pumpkin cheesecake and gathering everything else I need to take into work.

I will be up at the crack of stupid tomorrow to drive, and haul everything in to work. Finish up the final touches on the Haunted House, run around driving people crazy with costume #1 (Sue Sylvester from Glee!), have Potluck (I just finished baking said cheesecakes), change into costume #2 (scary death dude) and then run the Haunted House from 2-4pm, doing my best to make people scream like little girls! Then it's tear down and meet up with H-woman for dinner and a much needed catch-up gab session.

I'm tired already...

Later,

Gleekdom

I finally got caught up on Glee. Granted, it took some serious couch time to go through the 77 DVD's (skipped all the extras, which I'll view another day) as well as another 4 hours on the PVR, but I am all caught up in time for next week's Rocky Horror extravaganza! I do like the show...it makes me cry, it makes me laugh and it has me tapping my toe throughout. And Matthew Morrison is just HOT! If my high school teachers looked like that, I may have paid more attention in class!!! And my costume for Halloween is now complete, after stopping into the local sports store Friday night. Add the megaphone (that arrived on Thursday) and my tracksuit...Sue Sylvester comes to Calgary!

After I crashed on Thursday, it was up and at 'em on Friday to go get Mom and head downtown to meet up with the new doctor. It is a strange process to be going through after 40+ years with the same physician and poor Mom is just freaking confused. "All this fuss just for Synthroid"... It is probably a blessing that Mom really is healthy, other than her memory. If she was Dad, with all the crap he was on at the end...oi vay.

After having lunch with Mom, and taking her back out to buy a watch and more chocolates (10 days...the TWO boxes I bought her before I left lasted 10 days!!! And these weren't small boxes!), I left her with a stern warning to eat more than just chocolate and headed for home. Had lunch of leftover rice and then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch. I woke up with 3 minutes to get changed and ready and on the road to boot camp. Pulled up right behind Trainer Josh, and off we went. After a warm up run of Douglas Fir (which I'm going to run every weekend on my own, as long as the snow doesn't close it), we went back to our mats and the torture began! Starting at the one set of picnic tables (we're still outdoors, but Friday was the last night), we did leg lifts with shoulder presses and then curls. Run to our mats and do push-ups, flip over and drop leg overheads. Run to the bands and do overhead extensions and more shoulder presses, run to the last set of tables and do step-ups followed by dips. Return to start, repeating everything. After the curls, we added bent over rows, at the mats we added toe touches, at the bands we added jumping jacks. After the steps and dips, return, repeating everything. Just when we thought we were done, we added incline narrow grip push-ups, full body bike and curls. Back and forth, back and forth we went. As much as my legs were tired through, I was really happy to be back. I heart boot camp!

Next week is a freebie week, for anyone (in Calgary, of course) who would care to join me. We're moving indoors for the next session, which I'm not completely sold on yet. I actually hate working out inside...you've seen me after a run outside on a bitterly cold winter day...move that inside and I'm likely just to burst into flames!!! But I love boot camp more, so I will suck it up for the couple of sessions to get us through the winter. And Josh is keeping one of the classes outside (Friday nights) so I'll still get my fresh air fix. Anyway, if you're interested, join me at the 5pm class at the Rosscarrock Community Centre, 4411 - 10 Ave SW. Bring a set of weights and a mat and a desire to sweat. If you like the class, sign up.

Came home and grazed dinner Friday night, with a little of this and a little of that. I did bring home Safeway's red curry chicken soup which was really, really, really good! I did thaw some ground pork and beef Saturday morning and made a mushroom loaded meatloaf for supper. Add some smashed potatoes, skins and all, and a side of veggies with mushroom gravy and I had a good supper Saturday night.

I was in the mood for pancakes this weekend too (I'm still in carbo mode, as I also inhaled a small loaf of rye with dip over the last two days), so I mixed up some Coyote buttermilk and topped them with maple pecans and peaches (boil maple syrup in pan, added pecans and cook till they are coated and candied...throw in peach slices and heat through). A grand way to start the day.

Got the yard cleaned up in time for next week's forecast...yes, the "s" word...and today have done 4 loads of laundry to get that caught up. Next I'll go vacuum the hallways and wash some floors. Boy, do I know how to rock out the last days of my vacation or what?!?

That's if for me.

Later,

Home

Went to bed way early last night, after a great visit with Cathy's sister, hubs, kids, Mom & Dad. Cathy and I met in High School (yes, Cathy...it was THAT long ago!) when her Dad was transferred to Calgary, and have kept in touch. Obviously the miles got in the way (Cathy moved back to Toronto after university) but it was like old times with everyone sitting around and yakking all at once. Okay, so there were way more kids than before (last time I was out, the youngest son was just a belly bump) but it was like nothing had changed. We had a huge pot of goulash, smashed potatoes, mac & cheese (homemade, of course), salad, and finishing the night off with lemon loaf and ice cream. Nom, nom, nom...of course, I had to fight two teen aged boys for food, but I think I did okay!!! Then it was good night, and rush upstairs to pack, as my flight left Toronto at 8am. However, Cathy took me in when she went to work (at the airport, oddly enough) at 6:30am! That means I was up and at 'em at 5am (or 3am Calgary time) and am proud to say still going strong. Okay, so there may have been a brief nap around 4, but more of that later.

Picture recap of the week:

An area the locals call Mars. This is from our fall colours drive on Saturday. Very cool place, as the ground really is red (Terra cotta).

To prove I was in Canada...not on the Red Planet!

My official maple leaf fall picture...not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Race day...running down Yonge Street.

And now 5+ hours later!!!

Upright and smiling, always.

Sunburn in October in Canada?!?! Who would have thunk it?????

More fall colours (on my stroll to find Starbucks).

Terry the dawg...so cute!

The pool...which sadly they closed up the week before I got there. I don't swim, but dipping the legs in would have been awesome! Oh well, I recovered just fine without it. Next time I visit though...Cathy...I may have committed to coming out to visit again! LOL!

On our last afternoon, Cathy and I drove to Don Mills to check out McEwan's. Yes, I am that much of a Food Network geek!!! Kind of hoping he'd be there, because Mark McEwan is HOT, but I was just as happy to wander the aisles and check things out. I admit I had to buy something, as well as the purple go bag, and came home with some spices (that I don't have or sell), some McEwan rubs and a curried mustard that is amazing, based on the initial taste! How I managed to pack everything (also had to stop at another great store to buy some Mango Coconut Pepper sauce...all I have to say is O.M.G!!!!!!!), including the 26.2 book, running jacket and top that I bought at the Expo. It all fit...it was tight, but it all fit.

Yes...I had my camera in the store. I did say I was a geek...

Stopped for lunch at the deli counter and had the most amazing mushroom, brie and truffle aioli on ciabatta...EVER...oh, and so excited, as I also found Chobani yogurt (haven't found it out here yet). Wow!! So good. Worth all the blogger hype.


After sitting at the airport, nursing a Starbucks and a fruit yogurt parfait, Cathy went off to work. I was also making certain that I took the recommended dose of the air sickness pills I picked up at the natural food store. They appeared to have worked just fine, as nary a roll. But then again, the pilot today didn't do a loop-d-loop, like the dude on Friday did! I swear that's what happened. Of course, what else made today's flight so much better is that I got bumped. Yes, the elusive, almost unheard of bump up to Business /First Class (whatever they call it these days). I got to sit on the either side of the blue curtain. They get food!!! For free!!!! Okay, so the tickets cost twice as much as a normal flight, but still. I didn't get breakfast though, as I was an "extra body" and they only had a pre-determined number of breakfasts. The stewardess (so not PC, but I don't know what they're called these days) did offer to get me something from the other tray, but I did have the yogurt and was honestly fine. I sat in a big, comfy seat, watched the Karate Kid and generally enjoyed my flight. Okay, not going to lie...the fresh baked cookies and ice cream did seal the deal!

Got off the plane (nice, bump free landing, I may add), spied my mountains and knew I was home! Walked right to a cab and was in my door, hugging my fur-children by 11am. Then I was changed and back out the door 20 minutes later, so I could go to Weight Watchers. Happy to say that I was down another 2 pounds this week. This week's meeting was about attitude (vs. fatitude) and I decided that I need to look at my weight loss the same way I look at a marathon. Break it into pieces, conquer one section at a time, celebrate the small victories and finish, upright and smiling!

After a quick lunch, some wandering downtown, pop into the grocery store for some dinner for tonight, I came home to a quick nap. Then up and made dinner of rice and peas (not as good as Cathy's, but I think I may have missed a step or ingredient...I did it from memory), coconut crusted tilapia and a salad. I wanted to dip my new coconut sauce, since I brought it all the way home from Toronto. Yum, yum!

Fading...and my head is starting to hurt. I have to go to bed, as I'm collecting Mom and we're off to meet & greet our potential new physician tomorrow morning. Wish us luck...I've heard horror stories about this!

Later,

Aches and pains

Things are starting to seriously seize up, but I am still moving way better than after my 1st, oh so long ago now.

After I heard everyone leave this morning (Cathy starts work at the crack of stupid and the hubs and boys leave not so much later than that), I decided I was awake and just got up. Made a pot of coffee, laid on the couch watching the world news and found out that Calgary voted for mayor the guy that was in third place last week. See...you vote does count! Use it!! I am happy this guy won (I did vote for him, after all) and we'll see what happens with the city now that Mayor Dave is gone, and Mr. No (the front runner) lost out on both the mayor's chair and his alderman's seat (which he gave up to run for mayor).

Turns out I'm famous...okay maybe just in my mind, but I got a mention in the Calgary Herald's running blog, Calgary Runners. Kind of cool to see my name listed like that...and I wasn't last!

After laying on the couch for awhile, I decided that I needed some serious caffeine in me, so I showered, got dressed and went exploring. Mr. Garmin says the Starbuck's (yes, I can sniff them out!) is about 2km from Cathy's home, so it was a nice walk to loosen things up. My calves are really tight this morning, as are my quads, so the walk felt really good. And the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the trees were doing what trees do. After sitting in the sun for a bit sipping my 6 shots (the girl said she was going to "just throw it out" - the horror!) and the oat fudge bar. What a lovely way to spend a morning. I beat Cathy home from work by about 5 minutes, and then we headed back out to the mall (hey...this looks familiar) for a bite to eat (Jimmy the Greek for me) and then to pick up groceries for tomorrow night's supper. We returned home and make lemon loaf, another loaf of bread, goulash, pork chops for supper, as well as pulled in the laundry from outside (mmmm...smells so good!), enjoyed a cup of tea and just chatted. Very Zen...

Going to do some more stretching and make sure I head out for another walk in the morning. But nothing hurts terribly, which I am pleased with. Training really does pay off. Who would have thunk it???

The house is smelling really, really, really good now and I am getting hangry!!

Later,

Lazy Day

Lasted last night till about 10:30, and then I was ready to crash...could have had something to do with being up at 6am...could have been the half a cow I had for supper...could have been the 5+ hour run I did earlier in the day. Guess we'll never know...lol!

While I heard the house moving about this morning (it's a regular Monday for them), I drifted back to sleep and got up around 9. I didn't sleep horribly, but not great as the hips kept protesting through out the night. Made for a lot of flipping about, but we all got over it. Did some stretching when I got up this morning, to ease some of the aches out, and that seems to have helped a bit.

Managed to make it downstairs okay...so it was one step at a time to begin with, but now I can already move like a normal...okay, almost normal person. Had a cup...pot...of coffee while I watched Cathy being superwoman. Laundry, baked bread, made rice & peas, cleaned the kitchen (I helped!), ran the dishes, had lunch, got ready for work and then left. I was exhausted just watching her! I had some delicious turkey soup for lunch and then laid down for a nap. The boys are home now, and I'm in charge of dinner. Okay, so it's mainly all made, but I am reheating the rice! The jerk chicken will be bbq'd when hubs gets home, and then I'll either heat up the veggies left over from last night or make some new stuff. We won't starve. I may join the boys for their walk with the dog after supper, just to see the neighbourhood, and so I can figure out where to take the dog, if I chose to head out tomorrow on my own.

That's all I've got for you. I hope to have some more adventures to share tomorrow.

Later,

5:18:04

Not the sub-5 I was aiming for, but it's still a personal best and I'll take it! Of course, Mr. Garmin disagrees with the "official" time (off by 3 minutes) but even 5:21 is still over 20 minutes faster than the marathon I ran in May.

Got up at the crack of stupid, as did Cathy and her family! Felt a little sorry for her one teenager, as this is normally his sleep-in day, but we all got over it. Drove into the city, after my usual breakfast of bagel, nutella and banana. Topped off with milk and some coffee and I was ready to roll. Got to Mel Lastman square nice and early, in time to watch the Half group head off on their race. Then we hung out inside (to keep warm) before I loaded my gear in the storage truck, and queued up to run. I'll post pictures later, as Cathy took some, while here hubs took pictures with mine. Cathy was blown away by all the "throw-away" clothes lying around. I tried to explain the concept, but since I am always hot, I didn't have anything to throw away. The temperature was forecast to be +15, so I was running in a tank and shorts today. Who knew the one thing that I would really need was sunscreen...in OCTOBER! But more about that later...

We took off, and so my third marathon began. I tried to hold back, but as usual started a little fast, averaging a pace of anywhere from 6:36 to 7:00. I did really well, even reaching the halfway mark at another PB (clock said 2:32)...this is where I fell apart a little. I wasn't in pain, but I did have some trouble breathing in some areas and had to pull out the inhaler a couple of times. Not sure if it was the humidity or what, but that slowed me down a bit.

Then we hit Lakeshore...I will say that this marathon is actually quite beautiful, as we ran down Yonge Street and through some of the older neighbourhoods before reaching Lakeshore. That went on FOR FREAKING FOR.EVER!! With a head-wind, to boot. I think we ran Lakeshore for about 10 km and then turned around to run back. This was the only point to see other runners, but for the most part, this was a point to point race. After finally turning around at the 30km mark, I let the mental part get the better of me, as I realized I still had 12 km to go...that took some wind out of my sails. I tried not to look at a clock, or my Garmin, but I wasn't running nearly as fast as before. By this point, I was just plugging away at this point, even resorting to counting backwards from 300 to try and take my mind off the distance.

The crowds for the marathon were great, as people stood and clapped and cheered your name (on the bib) as you ran past. That helped too...and awesome volunteers and course marshalls everywhere, all checking that you were doing all right. I actually witnessed someone "hit the wall", and thought we were going to have to call medical, but he recovered rather quickly. Finally hit the 40km mark, and phone Cathy to tell her I was heading in. Also passed a clock at this point, and realized that I wasn't going to be sub-5, but still knew that I was much faster than the Calgary marathon in May. We did have a wee bit of a hill to run up into Queen's Park, which I didn't enjoy, along with the constant chorus of "you're almost there". Saw Cathy and her son, holding up their "go, Carol, go" signs and cheering me on. That pushed me across the finish line (even though Mr. Garmin had already said I was done about 200 meters previously) with a smile on my face, and spring in my step. Okay, maybe not a spring, but I was moving better than I thought.

After a quick rest and a stretch, we walked back to the car, with me moving way better than expected, and returned to the house to eat COW! Yummo!!! Cathy's hubs is a good BBQer!!! Not feeling too bad, but I am looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow! Realized that I should have worn some sunscreen though, as my back, shoulders, face and chest are all pretty pink and toasty! In October!!!! Crazy.

Now which marathon shall I tackle next?? And how do I convince Cathy and family to come with me, as they were awesome race support?

Later,