Running in Prince Edward Island

My parents have a cottage in Prince Edward Island that they drive to and from Montreal every summer. My Dad is from PEI originally and as kids we would spend our entire summers there.

As we got older, and now, have our own lives, careers and families, I haven’t been able to get down there as much.

Up until mid-August, I hadn’t made it to PEI at all this year, nor had I had it in my plans to go. That is until my mom phoned me on my first morning of vacation to let me know that my Dad had a detached retina and had to get back to Montreal as soon as possible.

Since my mom doesn’t drive much, I immediately booked a flight to PEI for later that day, packed up my bags and headed to PEI for what would be my shortest trip on the Island on record!

My adorable parents

I spent a total of 12 hours there (with about 6-7 of them spent sleeping) before driving my parents 14 hours straight back to Montreal. But in that short time, I did manage one AMAZING run on the beach that I spend most of my childhood summer’s on….Lakeside Beach – one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

I woke up early to a bright, sunny day. Temperature was perfect – not too hot, not too cold. I had thrown some running clothes in my bag at the last second before I left my house in Ottawa, and I was so happy I made that decision!

The beach is probably under 500m from my parent’s cottage, so I was running on sand in no time.

Not many people were on the beach at this time, which made it nice for running. Those that were there gave the typical friendly wave or hello and carried on with their morning.

I couldn’t believe I was actually there and enjoying such a wonderful, calm serene morning on the beach. Less than 24 hours before I was in Ottawa with no plans to even leave the house that day!

I didn’t run for very long as I knew I had a long day ahead of me, but I managed just enough time to fall in love with running on Lakeside beach all over again and develop a longing to go back and do it every day!

M.

Terry Fox Run 5km Recap

Today was the Terry Fox Run. For those who do not know what it is, the Terry Fox Run is an event that is held every September in communities all across Canada and throughout the world.

Terry Fox, an iconic Canadian, developed bone cancer at the age of 18 and in 1977 had his leg amputated because of it. He decided he wanted to do something to fight this terrible disease and began his preparations to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He called this journey the “Marathon of Hope.”

 

Terry started on the far eastern side of Canada in Newfoundland and over the course of a year and half ran his way, a marathon a day, across Canada. Along the way, he began to gain support for his cause and money for cancer research.

Unfortunately, Terry never did make it all the way across Canada and in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he passed away at the very young age of 22.

A nation was saddened with the loss of Terry but his legacy was just beginning…

Terry wanted Canadians to join him in this fight against cancer and so the annual Terry Fox Run was born and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer research.

Personally, I am proud to support this cause, and have been a proud runner in the Terry Fox Run since the age of 5. Today marks my 26th Terry Fox Run, and I still get emotional thinking of Terry Fox, the impact he has made on Canadians and the contribution his legacy has made to cancer research.

The Terry Fox run connects Canadians from coast to coast, and running in it is truly something every Canadian should take part in.

I participated today’s Terry Fox Run with my friend and her 4 year old daughter. It has become a new tradition for the past 3 or 4 years that I have run/walked/jogged the Terry Fox Run with her, and I hope we can continue to for many years to come.

Terry Fox said, ““Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me” – as Canadians, we will continue for you Terry!

M.

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon Registration

As I alluded to in my 10km race recap on September 8th, I am now training for a half-marathon. I made the decision earlier this summer that it was the right time for me to complete another half-marathon and I had been toying with the idea of a late October race.

Being out of the country for a month from June 26 – July 25 and being swamped with work for the few months before that, I knew a half marathon any earlier than late October was out of the question if I wanted to train and be prepared to run it well, so early in the summer I started looking into my options.

I haven’t run a half marathon since 2010 for a variety of reasons. After watching a few big half marathons regretfully pass me by, I decided that I need to forget about everything else going on and sign up for one before any more could pass me by.

I calculated that 12 weeks from my return from Russia was the October 20th Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon. I wanted my half to be a big race, with a big crowd and lots of excitement and this one seemed to fit the bill. Toronto is also about 5-6 hours from where I am in Ottawa so this would also be a destination race for me – completing one was on my 2013 Running Goals.

I spent some of my time in Russia this summer debating whether or not to sign up, and came home with the decision unresolved.

It took my husband telling me the following that utlimately lead me to sign up the very next day: “You are in good enough shape to run a half-marathon right now if you want to, just think of the next 12 weeks as bonus to get you finishing it even faster!”)

He was right, so I went online and signed up before the price jumped or the race sold out.

Once that part was done, I got into one of my favorite parts of any race preparation – building the training program. As a very detailed oriented and organized person, I must admit that creating a training program for any race, big or small, excites me, so I spent some of the next day perfecting mine.

I am by no means a running coach but I feel like I know what works well for me and what is unrealistic. I build my training plan with all of this in mind and am now half way though it!

True to my blog’s name and origin, I have already taken my training to many different cities – Montreal, QC, Lakeside, PEI, Sherbrooke, QC, Whistler, BC and Vancouver, BC. Photos of many of these runs are on my twitter account (@marymac82) but I plan to post reviews of each of these training runs shortly as well.

Here’s a sneak peek….from a run in Vancouver, BC.

And, it doesn’t stop there, stay tuned for my next 6 weeks of training, where I travel internationally and take my training to Italy – Venice, Milan, & Trento!

M.

MEC Ottawa 10km Race Recap

On a whim Friday I decided to sign up for the MEC Ottawa 10km Race that was held this Sunday, September 8th. I wanted to get a 10km race in in sufficient time before I run my half marathon in October (another post to come about what race that is!) and as I will be out of town for most of the weekends leading up to the half, I knew this was likely my last weekend to get a 10km race in.

I had missed the online registration deadline so had to go into the MEC store to sign up. It was a smooth sign up process as it was only a small race. I got an awesome drawstring bag, a magazine and 10% in store so I purchase a lovely little 4 pack of NUUN.

Sunday morning I had to be up early so was fairly tired. I had a bad case of pre-race jitters but managed to eat half a bagel and a small pack of Welches before the race so I wasn’t running on empty.

It was a bit of a chilly morning but with the temperature above 10c I knew I could still pull off running in shorts and maintain my comfort and warmth. I was cold pre-race but once it got going, I was the perfect temperature with a long sleeve shirt on top.

The field for the 10km was really small, only 37 runners. There was also a 5km and a 15km race going on with a total of about 175 runners out that day.

Once the race started I immediately scoped out my competition. I had a race plan and I knew how I wanted to pace myself but I also knew if there was a chance I could place well I would push myself to get there. When we started I noticed right away there were only 3 women ahead of me, so I made it my mission to at minimum place in the top 3.

The first kilometer people always so go out too hard. I try to hold myself back and maintain my pace and it has typically paid off with negative splits on race day.

I started out by passing the first female almost right away and set my sights on the 2nd place female ahead of me. She wasn’t far and after about 2km I passed her. With that I only had one female ahead of me for the rest of the race – I timed that she was about 30 second ahead of me so I wasn’t sure I could actually reach her.

Nevertheless, I plugged on sticking fairly close to my race plan and passed a few guys through kilometers 3-5. The course was a 5km loop which we had to run twice. At the end of the first loop, I noticed that the female ahead of me was only about 20-25 seconds away, and I then realized I was gaining on her and might actually be able to catch her in the second half of the race.

As I began kilometer 6, she got closer and closer. I struggled with the thought of whether or not to pass her now or to hang back and pass her at the end thinking I would have the upper hand knowing exactly where she was ahead of me.

I then thought otherwise and decided I was there to run my own race regardless of what anyone else ran so I maintained my pace and zipped by her somewhere between kilometer 6 and 7. I didn’t see her again until she finished 1:25 behind me. I was glad I trusted my instincts and ran my own race at that point!

The final few kilometers of the race were my fastest of the entire 10km. I managed to pass 2 males and have a strong sprint to the finish line (which was around 300m of a track – making for a pretty cool finishing experience!) I finished in an official time 48:18.

It was a small race so not much fanfare or cheering at the finish. I didn’t have anyone there watching me so I just smiled to myself after a well-run race and wondered why I had such nerves in the first place!

This was the final race in the MEC race series this year, but I certainly hope to run more of them in 2014 – they were inexpensive to participate in, the parking was awesome because there was not a huge crowd, there were no bathroom lineups, the post-race food was great (cliff bars, bananas, oranges) and there were door prizes to be won!

Stayed tuned for an update on my fall running plans, which include a major half-marathon update!

M.

Running in Vienna – Danube River

Back in July, I traveled to Vienna, Austria after almost a month in Russia for work. I managed to squeeze in some runs in the beautiful city of Vienna while I was there. The first run was in Prater, an amazing park within the city – read about it here. The second run was along the Danube River, see my recap of that run below…

It was on my second morning in Vienna that I decided to be a little bit more adventurous and seek out one of my favorite places to run in any new city – along the water!

I knew the Danube River was fairly close to my hotel and I knew the general direction it was in, so I headed out first thing in the morning to try my luck at finding it.

As I jostled between pedestrians walking to work and cyclists on the move, I found a comfortable spot along a bike path that seemed to be the right direction.

Winding down a few streets towards the water, I stumbled upon an impressive building – it looked to me like a castle, but then I remembered I was in Vienna and every building looked equally as impressive.

I snapped the shot above while waiting for the traffic light to change and was then on my way with the water in sight.

I climbed a few stairs and took in the beauty of the water on a hot, sunny day – I had reached the Danube!

…without getting lost!

I was lucky there was a wide path along the River, so proceeded to run along it for a bit.

Docked along the river were many small cruise ships, presumably traveling along the Danube River through the many countries it winds through.

At a certain point, I knew I had to find my way back to my hotel, so hopped on a bike path nearby in the hopes that I could find my way back to my hotel from there.

Not overly familiar with Vienna, its streets or neighborhoods, I was confident that I could find a landmark I would recognize or the street name of my hotel without too much trouble. My sense of direction is pretty sharp but as I winded my way back towards where I thought my hotel was, it was the first time on my run that I started to doubt myself.

Confident enough that I was headed in the right direction, I pushed on without looking back and to my delight, I soon saw the big Wiener Riesenrad (giant ferris wheel) in the distance – knowing my hotel was only a few hundred meters from there.

A sprint for the final stretch, and I made it back to my hotel after the most adventurous run I’ve had in a new city in a while.

Stay tuned for recaps of some of the many Canadian cities I have visited and run in the past month while on vacation – Lakeside, PEI, Sherbrooke, QC, Whistler, BC, and Vancouver, BC!

M.