First 1/2 marathon

Wow ... I can't believe I just did my first 1/2 marathon walk. My cousin registered and did the walk with me. We started at 6:30 am this morning and finished in 3 hours 27 minutes. We crossed the finish line together with the exact same times placing us 1st out of 127 women , 1st in our age category 30-39 and 2nd overall in the event !!!! I am so excited with the accomplishment, it is a huge milestone for me.
Although I am happy with what I did today, I am having reservations about the full marathon in 2 months. I'm glad that I decided to do the 21km because it's definietly put a few things into perspective. I will continue to train for the 42km focusing on walking it. I will let the Dr and the trainer decide when the time comes if I do the 42k or 10k. My heart is set on the 42k but I have to listen to my body. So far after the 21k today I don't feel too bad. A couple of big blisters on the bottoms of my feet and alittle bit of pain from the injury but not too bad. I will see how things play out over the next couple of days and evaluate. I'm hoping these horrible blisters won't keep me down for too long, I was just getting back into a training groove after my injury.


The support from everyone today was awesome and I am so thankful for everyone that continues to support me through email, facebook and running these races with me.

Cheers to a successful day !!!!

Re-evaluation !!!

So I've had to do some re-evaluating of what this upcoming marathon is going to look like for me. Up until June when I suffered the injury I was focused on doing a run/walk to complete the marathon and so I was focused to try and complete it in a resonable time. But since the injury and coming to the realization that body is not meant for running I have decided to refocus my energy into walking the complete course. I needed to take a step back and remember why I started this whole journey in the first place and it wasn't to become some super athlete running a marathon. I was doing it because I suffer from arthritis and I wanted to be an inspiration to other people, raise money for an amazing cause and reach some personal physical goals. I feel like I got so wrapped up in the training and the athletic part of the journey I forgot about the rest. I remember saying at the begining of this journey that if it took me 8 hours to finish the marathon so be it but somewhere along the line I started to focus on time and my body has since reminded me that I need to re-evaluate. I have spent the last month revamping my training so that it involves walking only. All my hill training , long and short training are all involve walking and I am more consistent now. I have determined that I walk pretty darn fast, almost as fast as my slow run and my body is much happier. I don't think my foot is going to be completely happy until all the training and the marathon is done but hopefully with the orthodics, splinting and lots of ice it will hold out for a couple more months. So it might take me alittle longer to finish my upcoming races but I think that focusing my training on walking them only, I will have a better chance at actually being able to finish them.
It's been kinda cool doing my training while on vacation, new places to walk and new things to see. Definietly gets rid of the boredom factor..lol (sorry about the slowing blogging, we don't always have internet access so I will update when I can.)
Something has to be said for power walking on the transcanada highway with cars whizzing by and watching for things like bears in the thick bush on the other side..lol

I'm back in a better space now with the training after a bit of discouragement with the injury and although I still have pain, it's not quite as bad as when I'm trying to run.
Less than 2 weeks until the half marathon I will be doing in Edmonton, that will be a test as to where I am and what things will look like for Oct.

Stay tuned and thanks again for all your support. :-)

still struggling and not happy ! :-(

So frustration has consumed my every thought about what is going to happen with this event. My injury to my foot is in a very slow recovery mode. The cast is gone and the orthodics and foot splint are in place but I am frustrated with the amount I can (or can't do) however you wanna look at it. I celebrate the fact that my fundraising goal has been met thanks to all my great supporters and I could then focus on the training more ... then "wham"
I'm hit with an injury. With less than 4 months to train and I am frustrated beyond believe. I started this journey for so many reasons and set so many goals for myself and I'm afraid of failing. Some will call it a "type A" personality but I so want to be able to complete this marathon and not have to live with an injury afterwards. If don't stay focused on training for the marathon I won't be able to reach my goals. (which are already getting further and further away from being attainable). I have people telling me to focus on doing the 10k rather the full marathon, but my heart just wouldn't be in the same away. I'm sorry that this entry to my blog is turning out to be a frustration vent, but right now this is what it is and it's a huge challenge for me right now. This is the reason I haven't been able to blog, because I didn't want to have such negativity come through as I struggled but it was time to let you know what was going on. I have never wanted something so bad and felt like it was slipping away. I guess so much of this is coming from the fact that I tried to do a run tonight and it didn't go well at all. :-( I was so excited because I thought the new runners, the orthodics and splint would put me back on track, but it didn't in fact it did just the opposite.

We just received our online training schedules from the running room and that added yet more discouragement when I typed in Marathon in Oct. I even put that I was going to walk the entire thing in 6.5 hours and the results were not encouraging.
So many things going through my head, do I do the marathon and walk as much as I can and not worry about finishing or do I focus and do the 10k and be able to finish and feel successful? Do opt into another event a couple months down the road after I'm able to fully recover from the injury. I hate to feel defeat and I know not participating in the marathon would make me feel like that. The thought of not going to Athens with the group that I've been training with would be sad, we've all become such good friends and shared our stories.

Well these are my thoughts from the last couple of weeks and I truly hope that I can find the answers I need soon. Thanks for listening and I will keep you posted. :-) Thank you to everyone for your continued support !!!

Plugging Along :-(

It's been a very frustrating month to say the least. After months of training and getting into a groove, it can all come to a grinding all so quickly. It's been 2 months now since I first started having pain in my foot and almost a month now in a cast and on limited workouts.
And the most frustrating part is it's only 4 months until the marathon. :-( I saw the Dr. yesterday and he was so kind to point out that soft tissue injuries can take a very long time to recover from. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, although I kinda already new that in the back of my mind.
I did see a podorthist as well and she has fitted me to have some orthodics and a splint for inside my shoe. They won't be ready until mid July but I'm crossing my fingers they will help with the road to recovery.
The biggest let down for me is not being able to reach my personal goals that I had set for myself by October, a big part of the reason why I took on this journey. I'm trying to stay to focused and positive but this injury has put me in a bad place right now and I am extremely frustrated. Not only feeling like I let myself down but all of my supporters too. :-(
I haven't given up on doing the marathon and until the Dr. says "absolutely not" (although not sure that I would even listen if he did..lol ) I will continue to plug along and do what I can.

So send your happy positive thoughts !!! :-) And I will keep you posted !!!

Enjoy the summertime sun !!!

Thanks again everyone for your much needed support.

2 weeks instead of 6 !!!!

Xrays and bone scan done on my foot and thankfully there is no stress fracture. The injury appears to be soft tissue so hopefully that only means 2 weeks of being off of it instead of 6.
I see physio on Tues so they can help me to determine when I can start back on my running program. I've still managed to do water workouts (not my favorite but I do what I have to do) and bootcamp doing only arms and core.
My thinking is it's already been 2 weeks of no weight bearing exercise while having it in the aircast so I am hopeful that with a few visits to physio things will be much in improved. The difficulty is that my arthritis is soft tissue so it could take the healing process a bit longer but I'm really crossing my fingers that's not the case.
I did get new runners as per the Dr's request but when I went back to see him last Friday he still insisted they weren't the right shoe...grrrr !! So I will see what physio thinks on Tues and perhaps give foot solutions a visit next week.

I have reached my fundraising goal which I am very excited about, in fact I have exceeded my goal and I thank everyone for their generosity in making that happen. I will continue to raise money for the Arthritis Society Joints in Motion program so please feel free to continue to invite your family and friends to donate to my page.

Our fundraising event treasure island was a success, I will be able to add about additional $1200 to my personal fundraising goal. Thanks again everyone that supported that event.

I'm thinking I should set a new goal of $10,000, what an accomplishment that would be to raise that much money for an amazing cause !!! :-)

http://arthritis.akaraisin.com/pledge/Participant/Home.aspx?seid=2150&mid=9&Lang=en-CA&pid=125270

Event Pictures

Thank you to one of the participants we have some awesome pictures of the event. http://flickr.com/gp/ericzchu/0713L9
Here is a sneak peek with the winner of the west jet tickets. Congrats Dee !!!
We still don't have all the numbers in but it looks like after all our expenses as a group we raised about $9500 for the Arthritis Society's Joints in Motion Program. Thank you again to everyone that donated items, bought tickets, attended the event and supported our silent auction, as well as those people that volunteered their time to work the event with us. Again it wouldn't have been a success without you.





An update on my training, well it's pool bound for running for at least 2 weeks. I go for a bone scan on Wed and that will determine how long I am in this air cast for. Thankfully I can still do core and arm work out of the pool and everyone assures me that running in the pool is just as effective so I'm not too worried about the training part. I just hope my foot heals sooner rather than later.

Great news with my fundraising ... I am now at 95% so that is so awesome, I am so excited !!! I have a couple of other donations coming in so I should be completed by July 1 and have my name entered in for the companion tickets to Greece !!!! (I'm thinking I should just enter my sister's name instead of mine cause she's the lucky one..lol)

The Good and the Bad !!!

Wow .. what a great time !!! The "Treasure Island" fundraising event was a great time !! We didn't have as many guests as we were hoping but none the less the people that were there had a fabulous time. The food and entertainment were amazing. We don't have all the accounting done yet but I'm hoping that I will be able to say that my fundraising is done once it's finished.
Thank you to everyone that bought tickets and supported the event. I'm hoping to have some pictures up soon. Congrats to Deanna Kowalski!!! Yes my sister drove 2 hours to attend the event and she won the westjet tickets for 2. Thankfully I didn't draw the winning ticket cause that would have looked alittle funny...lol !!! I was very excited for her !!!

Stay tuned for pictures and the amount we raised for the Arthritis Society !!!!

As far as training, well lets just say I've suffered another set back. All the pain I've been having in foot has come to a head and I had to go for an xray. Have to wait to hear if we are dealing with a stress fracture in the top of my foot or some serious inflammation in the tendons. Either way I am off all weight bearing exercises !!!
So it's off to the pool for workouts and running. Who knew you could do a running program in the pool !!! I'm sure my body will be much happier but holy man, I thought running outside was boring???? this has that beat for boredom.. lol !! But I will do what ever I have to do to get my training in .

As luck would have it, I just registered for a 1/2 marathon in Aug in Edmonton. I figured I should tackle a 1/2 marathon before the full in Oct !!! So cross your fingers and toes for me that this injury is shorted lived !!!

Thanks again everyone for all your support !!!!