Yesterday marked the kick-off of the local yearly festival, Kermis. Part of the reason I chose to travel when I did was so that I could partake in the festivities, seeing as R could not accurately describe them to me.

My original plan was to watch (and support R and his team) in the marathon, however one of his friends' aunt's team lost their team member and back-up, so they called R and asked if I was interested. I had done a bit of running earlier in the month, so I figured it would be much nicer to participate than to just watch, and boy was I right!

The weather was terrible - windy, raining and 16 degrees C. I seriously debated what to wear, and ended up bringing a few options with me.

We arrived at the designated meeting point, where I met my team, Lady Powe(b)rrr. The theme for this year's race was Après Ski, which to the Dutch means dressing up like Germans or the Swiss. Thankfully my team just had tank tops made. Other teams had whole outfits, including wigs!

After we all got registered, they took each group's picture next to the 'chalet.' They also took pictures of the individuals who ran the marathon as individuals.

Lady Powe(b)rrrr

R's Team, Er lauft ein loel in my way!

I was runner #1 for my team, so I went to the 'start' line, where the proceed to escort us through a crazy narrow set of laneways, and over a bridge (the portion of the race in the water in the below image) to a bigger starting area.

The relay route

At the start, two people spoke for at least 10 minutes. I tuned them out because it was all in Dutch (naturally) but everyone else seemed quite put-off by their lengthy speeches. We were all so cold given the weather conditions and our attire.

The Racers, looking enthralled

The speakers

I know the speakers talked for at least 10 minutes, because I thought the race was supposed to start at noon, and we didn't get going until at least 12:10. That was the last time I looked at my phone before moving to the stopwatch app.

Finally, we were off

I noticed a bunch of cameras and go pros, but only found these two photos below of R and I. As more shop up, I will post them.

R is so fast he's blurry!

Me, realizing I should have started closer to the back

My first round was awful, thank goodness it was shorter than the rest! My official time was 12:17 for about 2.5 km. I had a stitch like nobody's business!  The 2nd round was much better, I ran the full 2.66km in 18:46 and felt good the whole way. In the 3rd round my IT band started acting up, and I knew I was going to have to pull out. It took me 20:37 to get through the route, and I could barely walk afterwards. Thankfully one of my teammates' daughters was on-call, and she was able to run the last 2 rounds for me. My team finished with a total time of 4:19:48.

I think this would have been a super fun race to participate in if the weather hadn't been so bad (rainy and windy). Everyone was so happy to be there, and had so much enthusiasm about the theme. Seriously, you need to check out the event photos! If I'm here at this time of the year again, I will definitely be looking for a team who can handle my slow pace as well as Lady Powe(b)rrrr did!!

On Sunday, Ali and I relayed the Around the Bay 30k race with spatulas in Hamilton. For those who don't remember, Ali, Jamie and I ran the 3 person, 10k relay with spatulas! We were all going to do the full 30k this year, but due to Ali's injury and my fear of the long distance, we were thankfully allowed into the relay. Best. Decision. Ever.

I was supposed to carpool with a friend from Toronto, however she got Sick on Friday and was unable to race.

Contrary to what everyone was expecting, I was up on time on Sunday, and out the forlorn as planned, with just enough time to pick up my morning coffee. I was a little nervous that I would take the wrong exit, but I just followed the mass of cars, and was fine. I parked in the same lot as last year, and made my way to Copps to meet up with everyone. I was there by 8:40, only 10 minutes past when I was aiming for!

I found Ali, Colin, Jamie and Mike easily enough once I got into the stands, and met a few other Daily Milers before going to the bathrooms. The line was long, but moved fast.

Shamelessly stolen from Running with Spatulas

We gathered our stuff, and I headed for the relay buses while the rest of the crew went to the starting line. We rode on the buses for what felt like a reeeeealy long time, and finally arrived at our destination.

The Canal Lift Bridge

 I realized when I got here that I'd made a rookie move not bringing any food or water! I had hydrated really well the day before, but I was feeling thirsty. I looked up where the nearest water station was, and thankfully it was just a short walk from where I was waiting! I stole took a few glasses, and am still glad that I did.

Water Station at the 15K mark

It always fascinates me how quickly the elite runners go! We had a really nice place to watch from! Though I wanted to watch everyone running, I knew it was important to use the bathroom, so I went, and I'm pretty sure that's when Mike ran by, because I didn't see him at all. I did spot a few Running Maniacs when I got back from the port-o-potties though!

Running Maniac!

I also saw Jamie, but I didn't get her picture because I was fiddling with my phone, and only saw her because she yelled at me as she was going by. I'm glad she did! I also saw Colin, and managed to snap a pic as he was running by.

Thumbs Up!

I decided it was smart and was going to be less stressful for Ali if I stood right at the front of the line of the 2nd leg runners. After seeing a girl run up and down the changeover area yelling "Andrea!!" I knew I didn't want to be a partner like that! I spotted Ali and her spatulas really easily, but my camera wouldn't turn on before she got to me, so again, no photo. Sorry Ali!

After a quick chat and a handover of the chip and spatulas, I was off.

Shamelessly stolen from Running with Spatulas

I decided before I started that I was going to run 14 and 1s. I know that's a little weird, but it's what I did for my longer training runs, and it divided the time nicely into quarter hour sections.

I was feeling good!

I was feeling so good, that when I looked down at my watch, I had already run for 20 minutes! So much for my plan! I walked, ate one of my gummies, and facebooked...


At this point some jerk told me to get off my phone and get running. I wanted to tell him that he should get off his a$$ and into the race if he was going to say stuff like that. But instead I smiled and started running again, because my minute walking break was up and it was time to run again!

This is about the time my knees started to twinge. It was about the same spot in the race that it happened last year, except last year I only had about half a kilometer to go, and this time I had 11.5... I stopped in at the washrooms at the 19.5k relay handover, because I really had to go again (probably because of all the water I drank at the 15k water station!) and after that, my knees went from bad to worse. I ran up all the hills, including this one (which, it turns out, you can't really see all that well...)

Valley Inn Hill

Just before the Valley Inn Hill.

I kept putting one foot in front of the other. There wasn't much else to do at that point. I was really mad, because my cardiovascular system, which is usually what gives me trouble, was feeling great, but my knees, which admittedly have also given me trouble in the past, were having none of it.

It will sound strange, but I was very happy to see the Grim Reaper!! I knew he was coming up, and couldn't wait to stop and take a photo with him!

Spatula Grim!

As we ran along York Boulevard, I was amazed to see where I had run from. Look closely, it's hard to find!

From whence I came

I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw this 60km/hr speed limit sign, since I was already moving so slowly.


At some point, a girl behind me yelled "I can see Copps!" And she was right. It was visible, although still unbelievably far away!

It's there, I promise

Just before I nearly fell

Finally done!!



My route



Since University I've been a pretty active person, but more with sports like Ultimate Frisbee. My old roommate was an avid gym goer, going nearly every day. I've had a few gym memberships over the years, but they've always ended up being a waste of my money, in my opinion. I always swore that I'd never get one again. I guess there's a reason that people say 'never say never'.

I couldn't pass up this groupon for $22 for 2 months at the Wynn Fitness near my house. Seeing as I slacked big time with my running training, and I'd like to have an option to run on a treadmill when the weather gets to bad to go out. They also have some Yoga and Spin classes that work with my training schedule.

If you're in the GTA, it might be worth checking out!

Coming around the corner at the 3k mark

I was sooo happy to walk for water at the 7.5k mark

Nearly done! Look at that heel strike!

After watching the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, I put it out there that I wanted to do a half marathon next fall. I also mentioned that Ali, Jamie and I had so much fun running the Around the Bay relay last year that we planned to do the same thing this year. Except by the time we went to register, it was already sold out!

Ali and Jamie, being the hardcore runners that they are, have already signed up for the full!  I am less confident in my ability to run 30km in less than 4 months, seeing as the furthest I've ever run is 10K! But I put an Around the Bay Training plan together and have been sticking with it so far. More than that, I've really been enjoying the training. I've even noticed time and speed improvements, albeit small ones, and my ability to just keep running when I want to stop is also much better.


I sure do wish I could get my legs to look like this! source

To support my plan, and keep me motivated, I've signed up for two races; the Santa Shuffle 5K in Guelph on December 1st, and the New Year's Day Resolution Road Race 10K in Brantford on January 1st. I've even got some time goals, which I never really had before!

Now if only Runner's World would bring back their "What to Wear" page, I'd be golden! It was my saving grace in figuring out what clothes work best for me in the changing weather.

Let me start out by giving a huge shout out to my race buddies, Ali and Jamie. What an awesome weekend of scheming and running!

For those who don't know, Around the Bay is the oldest road race in North America, and has been held every year in Hamilton since 1894. The full race is 30 km, but we each ran 1/3. I ran the 2nd (and shortest) leg, from the 10km mark to the 19.5km mark.

On Saturday evening, we all met in Burlington for some Thai food and for some pre-race scheming that continued on at my Grandma's house! You see, the typical relay runners have to meet at the start at 9:15 and take buses to their respective starting points where they just wait... How boring!



Instead, the Spatula Runners went to the starting line for a photo shoot. We also got to test my shoe pack to see if the chip registered while it was in there.

Go Spatula Runners! Photo courtesy of Running with Spatulas

We left Jamie in the throng of runners then walked to a spot on the route closest to Colin's parked car and waited for Jamie to run by. While we were there we saw the elite runners, who seemed to be sprinting, and Elvis!

I couldn't get over how fast they were running!

We found her! Photo courtesy of From Couch to Iron Woman

We then tried to drive to the relay exchange point, which proved to be a little bit difficult. Colin, Ali's hubby, did some amazing driving, but we still managed to get caught behind those crazy elite runners for a little bit. We got there with enough time for me to stand in the GIANT line-up for the port-o-potty's.

Jamie and I nearly missed each other at the exchange. We thought that there would be two sets of mats to record the relay times, so she was looking for one, and I was in the back of the pack stretching...

We got the chip and spatulas exchanged and I was on my way!


I started a bit too fast, as is typical for me in races. The first 3 km felt like they were dragging on and on and on. There were lots of nice people cheering, and some amazing people running and walking including:

...a helicopter

...3 people from Canadian Armed Forces and their packs

Seeing those things made me forget about carrying the spatulas!

The last 2/3 of my race went by much quicker. I had a few people ask me why I was carrying spatulas, so I told them about Ali's blog, and how we were there to 'spread the love'. One guy asked if they were in case anyone cut me off!

I was nervous I was going to drop my spatulas along the Burlington Lift Bridge. If I'd dropped them anywhere else they would have been easy to pick up. The Lift Bridge has an open deck, which means if I'd dropped them, they would have been in the bay... Good thing I held on tight!

Image courtesy of Running with Spatulas

That last hill got to me a little bit. All of my training has been in Toronto by the lake, which means very little elevation change. I walked a little bit, especially after my right knee started to hurt. It's normally my left knee that bothers me, I'm not quite sure what happened.   Thankfully this was at my 9 km mark, so I knew I only had 500m to go. Time to push through!

Photo courtesy of From Couch to Iron Woman

I saw Mike at the exchange point first - he was the lookout. He yelled at me to run to the right, so I immediately went left... Thankfully I managed to find the rest, get Ali the chip and spatulas, then she was on her way!

Photo courtesy of Running with Spatulas

 According to my watch, I'd run 9.5km in 1:05. Translated to a 10km race, my time would have been 1:08, still a personal best by 5 minutes! Makes me want to do a 'proper' 10k to get that made official!

I grabbed my food kit and water from the back of a van. Thankfully they had these vans rather than making us all wait until the end to get our race food. We walked to the car to drive back to Copps Colosseum. We managed to get into the same parking lot where we had started!

Jamie and I waited by the runner's entrance to Copps Colosseum, where we saw a disturbing number of people trip on the curb on the way in. Jamie spotted Ali first, so I sent a quick text to Colin and Mike to let them know she was on her way!

As a team, we finished in 3:12:41. Not too shabby!

Photo courtesy of Running with Spatulas

Please be sure to read Ali and Jamie's recaps as well. They also have much better pictures, taken with actual cameras. I only had my crappy blackberry camera with me.