Running Mysteries...

There are many mysteries on the road.  We runners have seen and experienced many strange things.

For example, when I run in a race, I am sure that I look sort of like this:

And when I see the finish line, I am pretty sure that I close the race like Seabiscuit winning at Santa Anna.

Mysteriously, when I get the race photos back, I go from looking like a Cheetah and a Race Horse to, well, an ostrich or some other other awkward looking creature...

This is not Cheetah-esque.

And here I look more Tea Biscuit than Seabiscuit...

I cannot explain how this happens.  I can only say that in my head, I have the speed and agility of a cheetah and the strength, determination, and heart of Seabiscuit....even if I am just a slow, oddly dressed T-Biscuit.

How to be a Champion

Champions come in all shapes and sizes.  You might think that a champion is the person who comes in first, the person who runs the race the fastest.  But that person is the winner.  Being a champion takes more than just athletic talent and the ability to beat everyone else.  It takes an attitude, a mindset, and dedication.  It takes things that are not always easy to see or to measure.  In fact, champions do a lot of things behind the scenes, and it is what happens off the course and outside of the race that is the true measure of a champion.  If you want to identify the champions, sometimes you have to disregard race times and look at the bigger picture.

The GoGirls Team is full of champions, though our women are often champions off the race course, i.e., in real life.  We have running talent, to be sure, but that is not the full story.  One particular GoGirl springs to mind when I think about champions: Nana, our social queen and southern belle.

Nana is one of the original GoGirls and a former JeansMarine.  She has run marathons, half-marathons, and a myriad of shorter races.  To my knowledge, she has never actually placed in a race.  But most of our GoGirls have not placed in a race, so she is in good company.  What Nana does is start and finish the races.  You may think that this is easy, but have you ever started a marathon and then finished it?  It's 26.2 miles of running, sweating, grunting, aching, and, yes, suffering.  Most southern belles wouldn't be caught dead in a marathon.  Nana runs marathons AND plans the post-race festivities.

Here are some of the things that I consider make Nana a true champion...

When Nana was unable to run the Prince Edward County Half Marathon due to illness, she ran 21.1K two weeks later...so that she had covered the distance of the race, even if it was unofficially.  Who does that?

Nana has been the gracious hostess for many GoGirls events.

Nana keeps coming out to run even though there are often not runners running at her pace.  This means that Nana often has to run alone.  But she still comes out to run.

Nana puts up with our teasing.  Let's just say that Nana doesn't have the same dance moves as other groups members, and we don't let her forget it.

Nana makes dinner reservations and lunch reservations for our group.  This is not a job I would want, and I am grateful that Nana takes on the pesky task of making sure there is somewhere for us to eat post-race or post-event.

Nana encourages other runners.  Did you know that she cheers at races?  She is one of those people who line race courses and cheer on other runners, even if a direct family member/spouse is not even running in that race!  That is commitment to the sport of running.  That is Nana being a champion for running.

The truth is that the GoGirls would not exist without Nana.  And that is reason enough for me to call Nana a Champion.

Alain the Designated Husband, Nana the Champion, and Molly the Designated Pup.

This is why we train

We do speed work.  We do hills.  We make sure we log those long runs.

Why?  Why do we slog through ice and snow in the winter and humidity and heat in the summer?

Because you just never know when you will need to drop the hammer and run like hell...

We are alive!

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we are BACK.  It has been a long time since my last post.  It's been a long year!  To our faithful readers (and I might just be talking to myself here), thank you for your patience and understanding during what has been a very busy 10 months period of work, work, a bit of running, and then more work.

From a running and racing perspective, the past 10 or so odd months have been exciting, rewarding, fun, tasty, painful, maddening frustrating, exhilarating, and all-around awesome.  In this first post, I think I will focus on all the amazing and exciting adventures our club has had.  We have done some great races.  Below are some quick summaries, photos, and updates to get us started.

One the most exciting developments was JaJa's full marathon training.  JaJa signed up for the Mississauga Marathon and began training with Marathon Dynamics.  I knew that JaJa needed an excellent coach and I also knew that Kevin Smith, founder of MD, was just the man for the job.  Kevin set JaJa on a good training program and before we knew it, JaJa was crossing the finish line in Mississauga...and qualifying for BOSTON in her very first marathon!  Well done, JaJa -- and kudos to Kevin Smith and MD, perhaps the only coach and club that could simultaneously rein JaJa the wild stallion in while also pushing her to be her best.

JaJa heading toward the finish in Mississauga...and heading for Boston!

Soon it was summer and the Go Girls headed off to the airport to race the airplanes.

Here we are the 2011 Pearson GTAA Runway Run, where all the runners are stars.

Post-race ritual at the Rosedale Dinner: The Breakfast of Champions.

A beautiful Saturday morning run along the Martin Goodman Trail.

In August, JaJa and I participated in A Midsummer Night's Run.  What a great event!  So far, I have logged 45K in this great event.  JaJa has logged 15K.  We both expect to participate again.  Who doesn't love a race with pace fairies?!

JaJa and I do A Midsummer Night's Run: here we are before the race, as Race Fairies....

...and post-run, as Zombie Fairies!

In the fall, we headed to Prince Edward County to run the County Half-Marathon.  The weather was awful but we enjoyed ourselves all the same.  We ate good food (Mariana's highlight was the Crepes/craps, which apparently were better than finishing her first half-marathon), enjoyed good company, and two of us -- Mariana and JaJa -- logged awesome races.  Nana and I were sick and/or injured (or both).  But JaJa and Mariana sure made us proud.

This cow was like, wha?  You girls are running how far?  Girlfriend, that 's crazy...

Here are more cows.  They did not run in the race.

Here are some bikers.  They did not run in the race.

Here is a blurry Mariana.  She did run in the race and she is holding a medal because she was awesome.  But all she's really thinking about was eating the blueberry crepe waiting for her at the B&B.

The fall turned into winter.  Well, sort-of.  We sure did not get much snow.  As a result, it was a great winter for running: relatively mild temperatures, no ice, and so forth.  Unfortunately for me, I suffered a stress fracture in January and could not run.  I was able to determine that I had a stress fracture after logging a 10K with a very sore foot.  By the end of the run, I knew two things: one, I had just set a PB for 10K with a broken foot (1h19) and two, I had a broken foot.  I do not recommend that you use a 10K run as a diagnostic tool, however.

While I was sitting around, waiting for my foot to heal, the girls were out in full force.  Mariana continued to run, as she has made the transition to Canadian runner.  She even invited a new runner to join our group and  gave him guidance on the appropriate gear to wear!  And yes, she recruited a BOY.  However, Richard (or Ricardo, as I immediately renamed him) was awesome and a great addition to our club.  Ricardo has now returned to Brazil.  It seems that we were not family enough for him, and he wanted to go back to be with his wife and children.  However, he has apparently promised to return to Canada to run with us again, and next time, he will bring his wife and children.  We look forward to that visit, Ricardo!!!

JaJa was also busy with her marathon training.  But this time, JaJa was not training for the Mississauga Marathon.  She was training for Boston.  Leading up to the Big Race, JaJa and the girls participated in a few local events.  As usual, we sent a delegation to the official kick-off of the spring running season: the CRS Harry's Spring Run-Off!  JaJa and Nana signed up for the 5K.  I had signed up for the 8K, but was unable to run due to my foot injury.  Mariana gamely agreed to run in my place.  And run she did!  I impressed on Mariana how important it was that she not screw the race up.  After all, it was going to be on my permanent record.  Mariana, like a good intense A-type, took my threats and cajoling seriously.  She ran a terrific race, finishing in about 48 minutes.  Perhaps most impressively, she did NOT stop to use the bathroom even though it was becoming necessary so that she would not add time to "my" finish.  Now that is a great friend!!!!  Thanks Mariana!

Everyone had  great races at Harry's SRO.  JaJa won two prizes: she placed first in her age group in the 5K and she won best costume!  (She wore a dress made of ties!)  The Go Girls OWNED Harry's SRO  this year.

JaJa crosses the finish line at Harry's Spring Run-Off.

And then finally there was Boston.  Boston: the dream race for runners; not because it is easy but precisely the opposite: because it is so difficult to qualify and because the course itself is challenging.  And then there is the weather.  The weather is always the wildcard for Boston.  At times, it has been very cold.  Several years ago, there was actually a Nor'easter on the day of the race.  If the Nor-easter threaten to drown runners, freeze them, and then blow them off the course, this year's weather threatened to melt the runners with its intense heat.  The heat led the BAA to take an unprecedented step: it offered to let runners defer their race entry for a year without penalty.  But many runners were not deterred.  They had trained for this race and they were determined to run it.  JaJa was among those determined runners.

And so JaJa ran the Boston Marathon...prevailed over the course and the weather.  It was not easy.  Reports from the marathon indicate that runners were collapsing all along the route and that over 100 runners were admitted to the hospital (this is to say nothing of the hundreds of runners who sought assistance in the race first aid tents).  With runners dropping left and right, JaJa soldiered on, stuffing ice cubes down her bra whenever she could and telling people at the water stations that she was "still alive".  We are very proud of JaJa for her hard training, her excellent race, and for her grace under pressure.  Check out her race photos below and ask yourself, "how does she look so good?  She's running a marathon in terrible heat!"

JaJa, making it look easy.

VICTORY!

And that brings us to May, 2012.  Stay tuned for more race updates, more exciting stories about our adventures, more photos of food (because we really are an eating and drinking group with a running problem), and the like.  In the meantime, keep running and we'll see you out on the road!