My Young Man

Here are some photos that capture Connor turning 12...my young man.

What a great father & son moment. Time to learn how to tie a REAL tie. No more zipper ties, Connor. You're a young man now.

11218

That's my bib number...or what would have been my bib number. The race organizers emailed it to me today. But hey, Martin my physiotherapist says I can run for 5 whole minutes this weekend to see how that feels! It's a far cry from the 2.5 hours I was planning on running though.

I will be cheering on 68 year old Bro. Carlos Velazquez and thinking about him on Sunday while he runs the FULL marathon. That's right. The full marathon! AND his goal is to run it within 4 hours so he can qualify for the Boston Marathon!

Just to put that time into perspective, I was planning on running a HALF marathon in 2.5 hours. He's planning on running the FULL marathon in 4 hours.

Now THAT's inspiring.

GO BRO. VELAZQUEZ GO!

My Decision

My dilemna was solved this morning. I've made a decision.

I choose Plan B. I will run in the October race. What pushed me to make that final decision was hearing at church that Stake Conference would be a Canada-wide broadcast with President Thomas S. Monson speaking to us. The race is on the same day as Stake Conference. If I run the race, I would miss what he has to say to us. I figure if there was something important to say if the prophet would be speaking to all Canadian members. I should probably be there.

I had a ton of reasons to race in two weeks and just as many reasons not to. I had a lot of people advising me to go for it; to run in two weeks. And I had a lot of people cautioning me to heal properly first and run in October. Hearing about Stake Conference just made that decision a whole lot easier. I do want to thank everyone for supporting me. I hope you continue to do so because you are my cheerleaders. When I'm struggling with long runs during my training, I think about you guys cheering me on. Your pom poms are in the mail. I don't want to disappoint you so I will reach my goal to run a half marathon and I will do it this year. It just won't be in two weeks.

What's even more exciting about running in the Thanksgiving weekend race is that Connor and Aidan have expressed interest in running with me too! Aidan wants to do the Turkey Trot (the 1km race). Connor wants to run the 5km race. I'm so proud of my boys. This is something we can work on together. I'm looking forward to and so excited to train with them.

Now how do I convince Sheldon to run too.

Two Plans

Plan A

• Try Martin's plan and see how I'm feeling at the end of the first week.
• If I'm feeling good, I'll keep going and run the race in two weeks.
• If i'm not feeling good at the end of the first week, I go to Plan B.

Plan B

• Take my time at healing and run in the Ottawa Fall Colours Race. That's right! I Googled "Ottawa marathons" and found out there's another race Thanksgiving weekend!
• In a way, I'm leaning more towards Plan B but should I give Plan A a chance anyways?

Your thoughts?

The verdict is in...

...and it doesn't look good. I went to my physio appointment this morning. Martin, the physiotherapist, said there is some swelling in my calf muscle due to fluid build up. I've injured my gastrocnemius muscle. I am not allowed to run on the ground until it heals some more which totally screws up my last two weeks of training. However, he says I could be able to run in the race if I train via pool running or biking, and go to physio every day, Monday to Friday, until the race.

However, the flu put me out of commission for a week already. My calf muscle has put my out of commission for an additional week and a half. I haven't ran 10km in weeks. By now, I should be running 15-18km. The half marathon is 21.1km. I feel like I'm so behind but then a part of me thinks maybe I can beat all odds. Martin thinks it can be done. It may be physically and mentally hard on race day, but maybe I can still do it. I imagine the joy I would feel if I ran the race and finished, beating all the odds. It would feel so good!

But am I just kidding myself?

I can't even run a few steps to catch the bus right now without pain. Will I be able to heal and train enough in two weeks?

I've spent the rest of the day in despair. I don't know what to do. I want to run a half marathon. That's my goal for this year. I want to do it so badlly. I know I won't be able to go to Toronto or New York to run in the fall because of the costs (plus I won't have any vacation time left). I'm upset. This must be only a fraction of the emotions pro-athletes go through when they're injured right before the Olympics or something.

Should I just go for it? What if I can't finish?

I don't want to fail. I don't want to quit.

What do I do?

Lots to catch up on

So I've been pretty delinquent at posting lately. It's been busy at work and home life is busy too. Here's the skinny on my training:

• Last Wednesday I ran 5 km in just over 30 min. Body felt good but breathing was tough. I did a long cool down walk afterwards and my legs weren't too sore.
• Last Thursday I ran just over 8km. I took my time and finished in an hour. I was mentally bored during the run so I started counting by two's. I didn't do a proper cool down and that became my downfall.
• Ever since the last run, my left calf muscle has been hurting. It hurts enough that I have to limp.
• On Sunday, I was really struggling on whether to run and hope my muscle loosens up or whether to take more time off. There's less than 3 weeks left for the run and I need to build myself back up to where I was before I got sick. This may not have been a tough decision for you but I was sure struggling. I was even psyched to do 15 km. Then I went up and down the stairs and decided against it. My calf muscle was really sore.
• Monday I started making phone calls and made a massage appointment for Wednesday (today) and a physio appointment for Friday. I'm not going to run but I'm sure putting the money into recuperating as quick as possible so I can start resuming my training as soon as possible!
• Today was my massage and I can actually walk normally now! I can feel myself still favouring my left leg but the massage definitely helped worked some kinks out. I'm going back Friday after work...just in case.
• Now my plan is to run on Saturday and Sunday. This will leave me only two weeks to catch up on training. I don't think I can totally catch up now so as long as I've run 15km (or more) before the race, I'm confident I can finish the rest on my own. I may have to sacrifice doing it within 2 hrs. 30 min. but I have to remind myself that this whole goal started as a "just to finish the race" goal; it's not a "time to finish the race in" goal.

This last couple of weeks, I've been reading up a lot on the priesthood since Connor will be turning 12 on May 14. (in our church, 12 year old boys can be eligable to receive the "first level" of priesthood authority). I have a greater respect and awe for those brethren who hold the priesthood now. They have the responsibility to try and always be worthy of exercising their priesthood power because they never know when they'll be called upon to use it. For example, if your child becomes very sick in the middle of the night, you better be ready to give a blessing if the situation calls for it. Anyways, to all those who hold the priesthood and honor it, I am in awe and am grateful to you.

Can you believe Connor will be a deacon soon? My heart is filled with joy when I think about it. He's been working hard at memorizing his Articles of Faith too in order to "graduate" from Primary (the children's Sunday school). Before you know it, he'll be leaving on a mission!

Speaking about missions, we just said farewell to a very special young woman who just left for her mission in Argentina. I can't believe it! When we first moved to Ottawa, I was her Beehive advisor (teacher for the 12-13 year olds). Now she's old enough to go on her mission!! I am so proud of her. She has always made good, solid decisions.

Hmmm, what else is going on? Oh yeah, last night I took Sheldon to see his favourite comedian, Russell Peters. It was my 12th anniversary gift to him. It was such a fun night. I laughed so much my cheeks hurt. He does a lot of cultural jokes. He is famous for his parenting bit but if you're sensitve to that kind of topic (ie don't believe in spanking or similar), don't watch this video. Oh and there's some language too so you've been warned. His understanding of all cultures and the accents he uses are spot on. So funny!