It is hard to believe that it is already 2013. I realize that this blog has not been updated in quite some time, and that is my fault. I will attempt to catch up by telling you about some of the Go Girls' highlights of the year.
The Go Girls raced all over the place this year. JaJa raced in TO, Boston, BC, Brampton, and everywhere in between. Nana raced on the runway at the GTAA's Runway Run. Mariana represented us in Brazil (in Rio), Boston, and here in TO. JJ and Carol traveled quite a bit, but we're not sure that they did much running -- unless you count running after their adorable grandchildren. Both JJ and Carol welcomed new grandsons this year.
Can you believe that these women have grandchildren? No way!
The Runway Run has become one of our perennial favourites. It is therefore no surprise that the 2012 Runway Run was one of the few events to feature a gaggle of Go Girls. We mobilize to run on runways!
And here we are!
Our runners.
JaJa, Mariana, and Nana ran the race. I hobbled through the 5K with my faithful aircast and cane. (I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in January; I spent a lot of 2012 in an aircast. More on this below.)
Hey! Someone left a plane on the race course...
Seriously...couldn't they park the plane somewhere else?
Here I am, trying to out-run the plane.
Some running clubs run with the bulls. Not us.
We run with the planes.
I know what you are thinking. "These Go Girls are tough! They run with planes!" And we are tough. But we have our softer side.
Sometimes we run with Santas or rather as Santas...
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| JaJa is the centre Santa. |
Other times, we do intellectual stuff like book launches...
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| Mariana and her co-author launch a book. |
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| The whole gang was there for the booze, I mean, to support our favourite author, Mariana. |
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| Our favourite author at the book launch dinner. |
And sometimes we just cuddle bunnies. Because we can.
Then again, we are tough. Seriously tough.
Take JaJa, for example. She completed the Boston marathon on one of hottest race days ever. Even as runners were collapsing left and right, JaJa preserved and dragged herself across the finish line. Now that is TOUGH.
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| And she is still smiling! |
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| The critical moment: crossing the finish line. |
JaJa is so tough that she ran a race (Harry's Spring Run-off) in a dress made of ties...and still managed to place. Yep, that's our JaJa.
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| Why yes, JaJa is wearing an original "tie rack" dress. |
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| JaJa after the New years Resolution Run |
While JaJa was out running, Mariana and I took a road trip. We drove from Toronto to Boston in a uHaul. Together. For hours on end. And we did not kill each other. We only had one brief argument (really, a misunderstanding): it lasted 90 seconds and it had to do with navigating our way through Boston.
Mariana was the designated driver on this road trip. She felt that we were driving a "truck". We weren't. We were in a uHaul, which really falls into the car category. After Mariana experienced one of the key disadvantages of being a "truck", namely the long distance from the truck parking lot to the bathrooms at rest stops, she concurred that we were, in fact, a car (which designation comes with much greater proximity to the bathrooms).
I am also pleased to say that we arrived at our destination safely. Under Mariana's steady hand and careful driving, we did not even experience a "close call" (unless you count the bathroom incident when we parked in the "truck" lot). The photo below should illustrate to you why we did not even come close to having an accident. (It also illustrates why the bathrooms always seemed so far away: because they were!)
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| Mariana squeezes the "truck" into a tight parking space. |
Another great Go Girl highlight of 2012 also involves Boston. Our DH Joanna was accepted into the SJD program at Harvard Law! Only a very small number of candidates are accepted each year into the SJD program (usually around seven), and Joanna was one of them. We are not surprised, of course. She is brilliant. But it was nice to see that Harvard concurs with our assessment.
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| This is Joanna. We are currently loaning her to Harvard. |
As for me, well, 2012 was the Year of the Stress Fracture. I suffered a stress fracture to my second metatarsal on my right foot in January 2012. I conclusively diagnosed myself after a 10K run. (At about the 3 or 4K mark, I knew the foot was cooked. But I continued, knowing that I wouldn't be running again for a long time. I also set a new Personal Best: 1h20 min to complete a 10K with a broken metatarsal.) This pesky stress fracture would not resolve itself, and so I spent a large portion of 2012 sporting the ultimate in fashion accessories: an aircast.
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| The aircast: what every fashionable runner wore in 2012. |
I wore in aircast in February, on a trip I took with students to Amsterdam.
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| Notice how I have accessorized the aircast with a little sock to keep my toes warm. |
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| I definitely had an aircast tan line. |
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| Just look for the ugly cane to locate me! |
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| I was actually doing a little dance number with the cane. |
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| Here we are in Osnabruck, "studying" law and culture. |
I wore it until it wore out. Then I got a new aircast, and I wore it. Finally, the doctor said that I could take off the aircast. Not because my foot was better, but because the aircast was not helping.
But there is a happy ending to this story. In December, an MRI revealed that the stress fracture had finally resolved. I am very grateful to Dr. Hamilton, Karen R. and Julie C. at Toronto's Sports Medicine Specialists for getting me through a very difficult year.
And now here we are: a new year! There's a new road ahead. It's exciting. So as you go into this year, my friends, may the sun always shine on your face and may the wind always be at your back.
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