Gotta get me some Iron Legs!

So...I decided it's about time to lay down a goal...and it's a big one...I just registered for my first 50 miler baby!! The Iron Legs 50 miler! It's close to home...about 45 mins from Calgary...and I think it'll be just the 3rd running of this race but I do believe I have run part of the course in the Powderface 42 I raced in 2009...recap here. That was a tough race so I can't imagine what the 50 mile might be like in that location!! Yikes! It's not until mid August so I think with all the trailrunning I do in Kananaskis in the spring/summer I should be good to go by then I hope!

I'm also hoping to get in a 50km sometime before that...maybe in June. I might go back and do the Scorched Sole 50km I raced back in 2009...recap here and pics here. I've heard this year they have a new course in a new location so that sounds good. And I think my bro is potentially doing the Scorched Sole 50 miler again this year so it'll be cool to be out racing at the same time!

Now that I have a real goal set down, i'm pretty excited!

Change of Plans...

So...remember all those times when I said my foot is getting better yada yada yada? Well, it's not. It is better than what it was...but it still hurts...and still hurts like a mofo at times. Guess what else hurts? My knee...on the same leg as the bad foot. I have hardly been running...maybe 3 times a week and very rarely anything longer than an hour...and haven't had knee issues in like 10 years...so i'm pretty sure my knee hurts because i'm compensating and running and walking differently due to my foot (especially in the morning when my foot hurts most and I end up walking on the side of my foot). Awesome.

So instead of writing you guys and saying, i'm definitely taking a month off and then changing my mind a day later like last time...well, I really am taking time off...and to be honest, I don't even mind. I've been having fun doing lots of other things when I haven't been running...I've been doing more downhill skiing and plan on doing lots more...I'm going to be taking Logan out on some awesome showshoeing adventures...and a bunch of my friends all have xc skis and I haven't taken advantage of using mine as much as I should. I feel like the last week i've had this revelation that it's not a big deal if I can't run...my body clearly needs a serious break from it. If I don't get to race the races I wanted to this summer then i've realized i'm really ok with that as i've already got lots of other adventures wheeling around in my head that I'd like to do. It's not a tragedy if I can't race this season...and I think i've finally realized that.

It's funny that my last post I talked about still wanting to do the Death Race and then when registration opened on New Years Day and I thought more about it and sat down to potentially register...I started thinking that maybe I really didn't want to train for a 125km race this summer. I don't think I want my whole summer to be about training for races. Even if my knee/foot gets better and I can run tons, I think I just want to go out on running adventures like I did before...but not because I have to because there is a race coming up. Last year was an anomaly for me as I've never raced so much in a season. I basically just used all of those races to help train for Transrockies.

So i'm not signing up for any more races anytime soon until I feel like i'm an uninjured and pain free runner...and that I know I really really want to do a certain race. I've only signed up for one so far in July...the Powderface 42. Since i've qualified for the New York marathon which is next november, i'm pretty sure i'm going to do that one as well. New York would be a pretty sweet trip and I do love a fall marathon. So that's it for me at the moment. I'm surprisingly not bummed or unhappy that i'm injured and have to take time off...i've been doing lots of other things and having a blast. Currently i'm trying to work on my downhill skiing skillz which I severely lack...so hopefully i'll be able to join my boyfriend on some sweet backcountry skiing adventures in the future...

Here's what i'm definitely going to do this summer...my brother signed up for the Death Race on August 1st weekend so i'm going to be heading out to Grande Cache, Alberta and help crew him. I'm super pumped for him as he'll do awesome for sure. Kira, my mountainbiking superstar sister-in-law is doing the Transrockies Bike this summer which is freakin WICKED! That is a 7 day/stage race going from Fernie, BC to Canmore, AB...pretty much in my backyard! So i'll definitely be heading out to cheer her on somewhere along the way!

I don't intend to ignore my blog so no worries about that...I just might be blogging a lot about my non-running adventures!

Happy New Year!!

I got worked at Powderface

Holy Hannah...what a day what a day! I knew going in that this was going to be a tough race and it did not disappoint!

I left my house at 6am for the 45 min drive to Kananaskis Country where the race started at the Station Flats parking lot. I run into my friend Alan on arrival and hang out and chat in the parking lot for a while and get introduced to some people and some other people that are also doing Transrockies this year. Good times. It's probably 40 mins before race start and there's already people all ready to go and i'm sitting there yawning my face off and waiting till the last possible moment to get changed and ready. It's not that cold...around 10 degrees...but when I wake up in the morning i'm always freezing no matter what the temp and it takes me a while to get over it! While I'm in line for the bathroom a guy turns around and asks me "Are you Deb?" I'm like, yeah! (that's never happened to me before haha). Anyways, he knows a friend of mine and also ended up finding and reading my blog! Cool beans! It was great meeting you today Jason, great race! :)

About 10 mins before race start we have a pre race meeting and are told that due to a wildlife incident our route is going to be detoured about halfway through the race...we have to go off the trail and down to the dirt road to run on for about 3km to the midpoint aid station. Hmm...interesting...bear siting? I dunno what it was...but we're told later :)

So...the race...what to say...I don't know a lot about the details of elevation other than the start of the race was at 1410m, the highest point of the race was at 2025m, and we had a total elevation gain for the day of 1858m. What can I say...the first 10km was hard! I had a feeling there was 3 girls in total ahead of me and I had been following behind 1 of them for the first 5 km. At about 5km came aid station #1 and I ended up leaving it quicker that her. She had been running really well and I was actually thinking she would come back and pass me pretty quick but this didn't happen. The next 5km was pretty fun and had a lot of fun downhill leading to aid station #2 at about the 10km mark.

This is where I met the guy just infront of me - Jeremy - and we left the aid station together. It was especially nice to have the company as the second 10km was harder and mentally exhausting as well. It helped take my mind off of how I was feeling. There was a lot of steep climbing that we walked and he chatted away and I cursed to myself how easy he was talking while I gasped for air with my responses. Damn you lol! This is where I really was not feeling well at all...I was not happy that I was already feeling this way at about 13km in! These hills were tough!! I expected Jeremy to quickly move on but he was content to stick with the pace we were going. Finally we got to some great downhills again and he was a superstar while I'm still learning to go fast on them. I was actually super impressed with myself on the downhill sections today as I'm trying to get used to just letting myself go and stop holding back all the time. There were many crazy sketchy spots where I could have seen myself tripping and flying in the air halfway down the hill.

At about 18km or so we break out onto the dirt road for the detour and reach aid station #3 at about 22km. We hear that we're 12th and 13th overall and I am infact the 3rd female. Cool stuff. We leave that aid station and after having some banana and orange slices...i'm feeling like a rockstar! Fewf! The trail is nice and rolling and we fly along chatting away. At about 26km I notice 3 guys come out of nowhere from up ahead just standing there...huh? As we approach I realize it's my running friends Al, Garrath, and Erich and they high five me and cheer me on. It was awesome seeing them and it definitely brought a huge smile to my fast and gave me a boost!I had no idea they would be out there today!!

The rest of the run up to aid station #4 around the 32km mark was fun and I felt really good. I knew there was still some tough stuff to come but didn't want to think about it and just enjoyed the run! We start catching up to half marathoners at this point as they were doing an out and back route. I didn't expect to see so many at this point as it should have been pretty late into their race...they were supposed to start 2 hours after us...but apparently they started about 40 mins late as there was a bear on the trail. Aid station 4 is a bit of craziness as we're coming in and half marathoners are everywhere. Leaving the station it climbs up and we run the same route back that we did on the way out for the last 10km. As we're climbing up on this rocky section I don't know if I should be moving out of the way for the people going downhill or if they should move for me?...mostly they moved but I felt bad and the first time I tried to move...i kind of step off the edge of the trail and stumble somehow and total wipe out...so yeah I end up screwing up the people coming down and the people going up...very nice Deb, nice work. Come on though...did you doubt this would happen? Every trail race i've run so far this year i've totally bailed on.

Anyways, from about 8km on my long 22km run with Jeremy ended as I was feeling pretty good and I guess he wasn't and slowed down a bit...however, his longest run in preparation for this event was 26km up to this point so he was doing a pretty kick ass job! I kept going and fully expected him to appear out of nowhere. 8km left and I felt awesome!!! I come to this weird section that looks like it used to be a river with big round rocks...I should have slowed and walked over them but did I? No. I tried to run through it and ended up falling HARD onto both knees and getting a bit of a nasty gash on one of them. Oh my. What a surprise...Deb falls again...shocking I know. It definitely didn't feel good but I was more angry than anything for being such a dumb ass!

Anyhow, I continue on and began to realize that we had come down some crazy downhills a few hours ago to get to that last aid station...which means there's some fun climbing to come...damn! All i'm going to say was that the next 4km were tough...tough! And while i'm cursing the hills I look back and see these 2 guys catching me pretty quick...shit balls! Relief hits when I see by their bib that they're half marathoners...saweet. But I also notice this girl farther back down the trail power hiking and moving pretty quick...to me she looks like the girl I passed over 25km ago! That instantly gets me moving quicker and finally i'm into the last 4 km which is pretty much flat or downhill...running scared! I can't get caught when I have 4 km to go!!

And I didn't...yay! I finished a long day in 4:39 and managed to get 3rd place overall female. Unfortunately I heard throughout the second half of the run that I was only 2 mins behind the 2nd place woman but i never saw her! I had trouble believing that but it's true...first place was Doone Watson (also heading to Transrockies) with about 3 mins on me and the second place lady was about 2 mins on me. Honestly, I couldn't have given anymore and was pleased with my finish! And it turns out that it was a half marathon female that I had been running scared from so I should say thanks to her for motivating me to pick up the pace!

After the race, my friend Alan (who also finished about 3-4 mins ahead of me) and I drove a few mins down the road to get to the glorious river to soak our legs...damn that glacier fed stuff is cooold. I could only manage to get in just passed my knees...i'm kind of a wimp that way! We spend the next couple of hours waiting around for the awards and chatting with everyone about the race. I was happy to discover a lot of people had also bailed and looked worse off than me with their cuts and scrapes :) However one guy that ran the half marathon ended up falling and having a stick go completely through his hand...poor guy was rushed off to the hospital!

For my third place finish I got a sweet ass SmartWool long sleeve zip merino wool shirt...it fits perfect! Great prize! Oh and remember the "wildlife incident" that caused the detour and the race being a bit shorter finishing at about 41.3km? Apparently there was a cougar kill on the trail that a grizzly was now enjoying. Yikes. Pffft...and Alan called me a rookie for running with bear spray...whatevs, if it wasn't for Jeremy i would have spent almost the whole day by myself and it's Kananaskis Country...bear country people. I feel safer with it...bears freak me out!

So yeah, this was definitely the hardest race I've ever done and I'm damn sore! I wore my skins in the race and i think they really helped a lot and now i'm recovering in my zoots which are a bit tighter...feels great. I'm actually thinking about buying a pair of compression tights for Transrockies for recovery each night. My quads and hamstrings are super sore and if they feel like that after each stage then I'll definitely want them!!

It'll be interesting to see how I make out on my run tomorrow. Tonight i'm chilling and watching more of le Tour...can't get enough :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Deb

Powderface 42...tomorrow!

This time tomorrow i'll be almost 3 hours into the race....seems like i've been talking about it for weeks and now it's finally here! Powderface42!! The forecast looks good and I'm thankful it's not going to be a crazy hot day like it has been out there in the past! Looks like they're calling for sun/cloud and a high of 23 with showers in the afternoon. It takes a while to warm up out there too so I expect i'll be finished long before it even reaches that temperature. It's going to be ideal for me!

The entire race, including the half marathon, is capped at 150 people. I have no real idea who'll be there and how many people are actually doing the marathon. Usually there's tons more doing the half. I know one other guy doing the 42 and two from the blogging world I look forward to meeting...Mike from Banff...and Phil from Canmore (who's also doing Transrockies!).

I have absolutely no idea how long it's going to take me or what to expect...i've never run these trails before...although that seems to be the case in every trail race i've done this year! In a way I kind of like not knowing what to expect! From the profile, it looks like it's going to be harder than the Scorched Sole 50km I did a month ago with a lot more ups and downs and it might even take me a bit longer. I'm not sure but it's going to be an interesting day! I never really seem to have a race plan going into any race that I'm doing...regardless if it's on the road or trail...I kind of just go with the flow and how i'm feeling and see what happens from there.

For the past couple of weeks i've been having issues with one of my toes...the one that's next to my big toe. I keep getting a blister on the side and top of the toe after each run but I have no idea what's causing it...it's not even my longest toe! As a result I finally lost the toenail this week - now it matches my other foot as I lost the same toenail on my other foot about a month ago which was a result of running Boston way back. Bizarre. Anyhow, the toe is still annoying me and I could feel it last night during an easy 8km run that I did to loosen up. I'm not sure if I should tape it for tomorrow or just rub bodyglide all around it and hope for the best. Other than that, my legs are feeling pretty good and I seem to be recovered from last weekend's insanity

Yesterday was our stampede team building party with work and since I wasn't drinking it was a pretty funny perspective to sit there as my co-workers got increasingly drunk around me. Some of them made it to work today...some did not lol. It's funny the pressure you get from your co-workers to drink...how many times did I get asked why I wasn't drinking? They know I run and when I say I have a race then they're cool with that...guess that's a good enough excuse around here! Wahoo!

So that's all I got. I'm feeling ready and I'll let you know how it goes :) It's going to be a fun day!

Deb

I missed the memo...

...for some reason after 3 years of living here I still haven't clued into the fact that Stampede week in Calgary also means dress like a cowboy/Daisy Duke at work (and this is no conservative Daisy Duke look either people)...seriously, this is no joke...people are nuts in this city...wellll woopity doo! I don't do that. Bah Humbug! I'm actually shocked at the amount of people living here that actually own cowboy boots. By the amount I saw today on the streets I'd say 1 in 2 people in this city own em! Here's what I will do to celebrate Stampede...I will take advantage of not having to dress up for work this week and I will wear jeans each day...but that is as far as it goes!

And now onto more important things...

This was a tough weekend of running for me...both mentally and physically. I'm glad I got through it as they say that kind of stuff makes you stronger...but really...who are "they"?...and does it really? I dunno but I hope so...i'm completely bagged from this weekend.

The weatherman forecasted heat for Vernon this weekend...and that's what we got. It was a blazin hot one from the moment I arrived on thursday evening till the time I left yesterday afternoon.

Friday's run was to be an evening run as my brother was working and then had a friend visiting in the afternoon. We had a fun afternoon with a walk to the beach for a swim. Logan must have been pretty hot as I've never seen him swim so far out from shore before.

By the time we started our run in Kal Park it was almost 7pm. It was still 30 degrees and I could feel it, despite the shade we were in during much of the run. I didn't feel good from the very beginning...my legs just felt like lead and I could not lift them for the life of me. On one particularly hard climb we were on I finally had to stop for a break and I got swarmed by mosquitoes...and when I get bit, they turn into giant welts...my arms and back probably have at least 30 bites...not cool at all.

I finally started to feel a little better once the really tough climbs were over and we got to do some fun downhill singletrack stuff! We get to about 1km to go and stop dead in our tracks as a rattle snake is on the side of the trail rattling and hissing away...and looking pretty pissed. He wouldn't even budge when Steve started throwing stuff at it. Steve ended up just trotting by which it didn't look to happy with and I followed suit wondering how far those things can lunge at you? Luckily it was all talk and no action :) That was my first time seeing a rattler!

We finished 17km with some pretty sore muscles. I'm not used to feeling sore after a shorter run like that but the heat definitely messed with me for sure. All I have to say is how much I love my compression socks lately. My legs feel like a million bucks putting those on after a run!

Saturday started with 2+ hours infront of the tv watching the first day of the Tour de France. Damn is that ever addicting. We wanted to leave for our run by 10am but Day 1 was close to finishing so we ended up delaying our run till around 11am. It was already 25C degrees by this point...our own fault but hey, you've gotta get used to running in heat too...you never know what race day will be like right?

The first half of this run again started out really tough for me yet my brother was a rockstar...i am not used to running in heat and the climbing in the beginning was so tough. I felt guilty that I was having such a hard day and kept apologizing but i've got to learn to stop doing that. We're both going to have tough days at Transrockies and have just got to deal with it and not let it get you down mentally as well. He's very good at keeping optimistic and motivating me along though when i'm having a tough time which i'm pretty thankful for.

We knew there was a lake up there that we were going to cool off in and when I needed it most is when it showed up at around the 18km mark. Wahoo! It was fabulous and we felt frigging amazing after that! The rest of the run up to the 32km mark was pretty decent and there was a river that flowed all the way down so we got to stop lots to dunk our heads. I was pretty thankful for that!

At 32km we were out of the trees and back down to the road for the rest of the way home. Steve had used up all of his 3L of nuun he brought with him so we made a stop at Esso and asked if they had a sink we could use to fill up our hydration bladder. After having to explain what we needed it for the lady agreed! I thought it was fairly obvious why we needed water but apparently not!

Back out on the road...not fun...it was 35 degrees in the shade...but we had no shade! Ugh! According to Google Earth we measured that it would be 10km to get home from here...this was not the case. A little bit further and we see a sign that says "Vernon 13km"...I was like WTF?!? That's going to be over 50km!! Finally at about 36km we decided to call Kira to come get us and she arrived when we were getting close to 40km. I'd had it...that was enough for sure!! This was a long hard day and a blizzard has never tasted so good to me as the one I had that night :)

Sunday was a relaxing morning of watching Day 2 of the Tour, cherry picking in the backyard, and the end of a super exciting Wimbledon final!! I was also happy to get to go to Kira's babyshower before the long drive back to Calgary...i'll be Aunt Deb in less than a month! :)

The rest of the week will be fairly easy running as I do a mini taper before race day on saturday! Wish me luck!

Deb

What? Last day of June?

Seriously, where did June go? This summer is flying by and I feel like I've still got a lot of work to do before Transrockies! Training is coming along very nicely though and after this weekend past I'm definitely starting to feel more confident and more excited for Transrockies. I think I was a little worried that my hill climbing skillz were going to be pathetic and overall I wouldn't be able to keep up with my rockstar partner. Luckily this wasn't the case and I really surprised myself!

Steve and I got in 3 good long and semi-long trail runs on the weekend that all included some pretty tough climbs. I have to say I definitely left Vernon feeling stronger than when I got there! I'm heading back out to Vernon on thursday for another weekend of training runs and then i'll do somewhat of a taper next week before Powderface 42 the following Saturday. I'm getting super pumped for that race! The race is sold out but Steve is looking for a bib for it so if anyone knows of one for sale for the 42 let me know!

I'm a little beat out from the weekend and the long drive back home so I decided to take yesterday and today completely off. It's hard to make yourself do that sometimes but I'm definitely starting to get better at listening to my body. Tomorrow is Canada Day and I'm trying to figure out what i'd like to do on my day off from work!! I'd like to sleep in a bit...unfortunately for me, sleeping in means till about 7am! I'm so not a morning person yet I still wake up super early on days off...argh! I'd love to get a big hike in somewhere...haven't been out hiking in a couple of weeks.

I left my camera in Calgary this weekend so didn't get any trail running pics...but i'll leave you with this pic...check out the black bear trying to look in the windows of my parents trailer when they were in a campground in Eastport, Newfoundland. Pretty funny :)

Running is my multivitamin

I borrowed the title of my post from Kelly Roe's blog...thanks Kelly...it's a great one and definitely applies to me huge :) Kelly and her boyfriend are also teaming up for Transrockies and I'm super excited to meet them as well!!

I'm currently at my brother's place in Vernon. I love it here, what a great town! I left Calgary yesterday a little after 4 and got here a little after 10 Calgary time (9 BC time)...it takes pretty much exactly 6 hours. I'm pretty excited to be getting in some good running with my brother...my TR partner. Steve and Kira are both at work today so i'm going to just chill out and wander around Vernon.

Oh and guess who now lives in Vernon...and who my brother and wife had over for dinner a short while ago...Aaron Heidt! This guy came 3rd OVERALL in the Vancouver Marathon in a sick time...something like 2:36 I believe? He's a top Canadian ultrarunner and is on Team Montrail Canada! And of course...also competing in Transrockies. Holy crap...there are going to be some fast ass people at this race in 2 short months. Clearly they are not our competition...I mean we just want to have fun and finish the bloody thing. I am so excited to be going to a race where I get to meet these people, run "with" them and hang out with them for 6 days. It's going to be incredible.

This spring/summer so far has been the most exciting and fun racing season I've ever had...and it only gets better from here on! Running at Boston was amazing and I will be back next year and any year after that if I continue to requalify. I still love road racing and I don't think that experience at Boston will ever get old for me. But trail running/racing is still very new to me and boy am I hooked. After my first 50km 3 weeks ago I said to myself I can not picture running anything longer than that...and already I'm looking for 50 mile and 100km races I can do next year. Funny how that happens...I ran my first marathon in 2005 thinking at the end that I didn't know if I'd ever do that again...and now I can't seem to get enough! :)

Gary Robbins (from Newfoundland I might proudly add - living in Vancouver) is also one of the top Canadian ultrarunners and is racing in the very impressive Western States 100 mile race tomorrow...100 miles people!! That is so exciting and I find him and his blog super inspiring and motivating. I just know he's going to rock it!

Good luck to everybody racing this weekend. I'll be training my butt off as I get ready for Powderface 42 in 2 very short weeks. Surprisingly I'm feeling nervous for this one...but very excited. I love what I do :) For those of us training...work hard and enjoy it...we've so lucky to get to do what we love every day!

K-100 Race Report

Well this was my first year participating in the K-100 and I must say that it was a blast! My team was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again next year! The official results aren't in so I'm not sure how we did overall or how I did overall for my leg but i'll let you know soon enough!

We all had to predict how long we thought it would take us to do each leg so we'd know when to be at each leg to meet our runner coming in. The first 2 guys ran well under their predicted time so by the time Leg 5 came around I ended up starting 20 mins earlier than planned. Luckily I was ready to go...a bunch of kind runners had let me infront of them at the portaloo cuz in casual conversation I was like "yeah i'm gonna seriously bust if I don't pee soon" LOL. I wasn't lying...I drank tons on the drive to Kananaskis!!

This one guy infront of me in line gives me this look up and down and then he's like "so you're doing leg 5?" and i'm like 'YUP'! He proceeds to ask me if i've ever done it before and I give an enthusiastic 'NOPE' and he continues with yeah...there's so many hills, then it flattens, then there's another crazy hill and then at the very end it goes on forever up this one hill blah blah blah...the whole time i'm giving him this fake grin and ask that's cool, how many times have you done Leg 5? ohhhh 6 or 7 he says. I'm like that's awesome, way to go...giving him the pat on the back he feels he deserves I guess...as much as I loved our conversation it's my turn to pee (jackass)....later!

Anyhow, shortly after I meet up with our team leader Garrath and he says Jen (our leg 4) has just passed the 1 mile to go mark and is getting close! I cross the highway to get in the shoot to meet her. She gets there waaay quicker than I anticipated, gives me a high 5 and then i'm off!

I started out feeling very good and sticking with 5 min kms...I didn't want to go out too hard and then die when I hit the hills. I have to say I didn't find the first 10km to be too bad at all...i thought, wow this is it? This is nothing! Although really I think it was hilly and I was just feeling good from training hills lately! My biggest mistake in the entire race was taking the gatorade that was given to me early on. Our crew had water or gatorade every couple of kms...and while I only ever drink nuun...I wanted something other than water...I take the gatorade and it immediately gives me the worst stomach cramping i've ever had...I thought to myself...you idiot, this is why they say don't try anything new on race day. But i've never ever had this problem from anything i've drank or eaten so I was shocked.

Regardless of that, our crew was kick ass...they showed up every couple of kilometres...would slow down as they drove past to yell at me and blast some sweet tunes to pump me up. I couldn't help laughing everytime they drove by! Here's me giving Garrath my half smile/half this sucks face...i'm hurting, i can't fake that i'm not for the camera :) That sweet VW van in the background is our crew/team supporting us the whole way!

My stomach was in such pain that I couldn't even think about eating the gel I brought with me that I wanted around the 9km mark. Finally by 12km I was fading and forced down a gel that i'm still holding onto in this pic...sometimes it takes me a while to get through a whole gel!

Luckily it helped huge. The hills were getting worse too! Finally I get to I think about 2km to go...this is the bitch of all hills and as I saw the cars off in the distance still going up this endless hill I just thought uh oh...this could be trouble!

I see this guy in the distance...spandex clad...it looks like a triathlete to me...you know, they love their spandex (and no I'm not making fun...they do!!)...I begin to wonder if it's my new friend Trevor...I just started reading his blog through Cam's blog and found out we were both doing Leg 5! I'd never met him in person but kind of knew what he looked like and decided I wanted to try and catch up and see if it was him!!! I get closer and yup, it was definitely a triathlete (again...spandex, hello!)...I start to pass him on the left...look over and say...

"is that Trevor?"

"Yup"

"Hey, it's Deb!"

He laughs and responds with "see I knew you were going to kick my ass!" LOL. I tell him i'm dying...which in fact was true! I actually stopped on this hill twice to catch my breath and the second time I stopped I looked back as I had visions of him just blowing by me at this point. He's close so I start going again as my garmin tells me the end is near! Finally I get to the top of the hill...there's a little bit of a flat and a downhill and then I can see the finish! I gunned it, high fived our Leg 6 runner Laura, and finished with my garmin reading 17.6km at 1:28:37. I was super happy with that and my 5:03 min/km average.

Trevor and I caught up at the end of our leg...very cool to meet someone in person from the blogging world! I've also been told that the next time I pass him in a race (which I seriously doubt will happen again - this dude is a faaaasst runner/ironman)...i'm allowed to slap him on the butt as I go by just like Cam does :)

So yeah it was a super fun day...even moreso after my leg was finished and I got to cheer on everyone else for the rest of the day and enjoy some beer! Beer has never tasted so good to me as it did shortly after that race! Yum! There was a bbq after the entire race was over...and while I have to admit they weren't the best burgers I've ever had...kind of McDonald's like but worse...I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will pretty much eat anything put infront of me after a race! Here's a pic at the post-race bbq of Laura (Leg 6), Carmello (Leg 5 on another team), and me enjoying our beer :) and waiting in line for our dirty burgers!

What's on the schedule next? My next 2 weekends in a row are long ones...so i'm off to Vernon for both of them to train with my brother...multi lonnnng hilly days in preps for Transrockies. This will also help huge in my preparation for the Powderface trail marathon in 3 weeks! Wahoo!

Hope you guys are having a great monday! I wasn't sore at all from saturday's race but was wiped out yesterday and decided against my long run. I needed some extra rest and enjoyed a very lazy sunday indeed! My body was pretty happy with me :) Today's 10km at lunch felt great and it actually turned into a Tempo run! I love those days! :)