Bluenose 2013

I've giving it a go once again, for this year's Bluenose Marathon I'm going to try my hand one more time at the half marathon. The run is only in 35 more days - eek!

I've recently bought a new pair of kicks and I'm doing my best to break them in, time will only tell if they and my feet will be a good duo for the race.

In the meantime I'll share a picture, they are very, very light. In the middle between a traditional running shoe and a minimal shoe:

Johnny Miles Run

*click the photo on the left for lots more pictures*

This past weekend Greg and I participated in the Johnny Miles Marathon...but the 10km portion of the event. We had beautiful weather and it was great to take part in a run that we could walk to from our house!

An important part of any run, ensuring your bladder is empty. A pit stop at the port-a-potties. There were lots and lots of people milling about and the run was actually sold out with just over 2000 runners/walkers.

Greg and I before the run, I definitely wasn't wearing the long sleeve while running, it was a super hot morning!

I came in at 57:58, my personal best. Greg ran along with me and I'm sure if he was really trying to compete his time would be much better, but being the lovely guy he is he ran with me and helped bring my time down.

This is post run with another couple of medals to add to the pile. It's excellent to receive medals just for participating!

After we finished we joined in the crowd to cheer on the incoming runners.

We were both really keen to watch the marathon runners come in, particularly because we could AND because a runner was trying to win his 9th marathon. He's a local so the crowd was really loud when he came around the corner and down the finish line. It was a pretty big deal.

After putting in a good run and hanging out in the community all before noon we headed home for a hearty brunch. Monster breakfast sandwiches with egg, tomato, lettuce, cheese (lactose free!), bacon and avocado. Delicious! Oh and we got juice boxes from the run so we had those too:

Since the Euro Cup is on and we don't have cable we headed to one of the two sports bars in New Glasgow to watch the Netherlands and Portugal game. The place was pretty empty as most people were on the deck, it seems that soccer doesn't draw a crowd in this town.

Greg taking in the match:

Overall a great run and a great Sunday. Perhaps I'll try to get a new personal best next year.

Bluenose 2012 In Full

*Click the photo for the full post, with lots of pictures*

Greg and I spent this past weekend in Halifax and participated in the Bluenose run. Here are an overwhelming amount of pictures from the weekend, and I will be posting another soon.

I finished the 10km in 59:18, my personal best time. Greg kicked butt and finished the half marathon (21.1km) in 1:43.

Now to thoroughly gross you out, here are my feet after the run. I have been working on breaking in a new pair of sneakers but thought it unwise to use them for the race. This might have been a poor decision given what my old sneakers did to my feet - womp womp.

Now that I've grossed you out with my feet I'm going to talk about food, sounds appropriate. To celebrate our victorious Bluenose involvement Greg and I joined his family for dinner at the Hamachi Steak House, it was delicious!

Bluenose 2012

I ran my third Bluenose race this year, and finished the 10km with my personal best of 59:18. I have lots and lots to share about the run and my lovely long weekend, but this picture and my time will just have to do for now.

YAAAAAAAAY!

Running Update

In 16 days I'll be participating in my third Bluenose Marathon...but not the whole marathon. That would be crazy. This year I'm going for setting my personal best at the 10km. I've participated in the half marathon twice before and rather than run my brains out again I decided to reduce the length of the run and focus on my time. Before I was only aiming to finish, I'm hoping I can also achieve that goal this year.

Over the past month or so I've been trying to work out a playlist filled with songs that give me a good and consistent pace. I enjoy running with music but I often find myself running to the beat and that could mean a lazy pace run or something where I end up having to walk it out from exhaustion. I'm a sucker for pop music when I run because it does have a strong beat, so this is what I've come up with so far:

So yes, here I am, airing my pop-love secrets. You might notice that Beyonce's Countdown is on there twice. It's necessary as near the end of my run I need to be revved up again and that song seems to do the trick. I'm not quite done fiddling with the order but it's getting there. I have 16 days to perfect it! I'll be sure to share what I end up with.

The whole list runs for an hour, which is my goal to finish the 10km in.

In running related news I picked up a new pair of sneakers this week. They are the exact style as my current sneakers and I'm sure I'll enjoy breaking them in after the run. Check out the difference in the treads....hopefully this pair serves me as well (new shoes left, old shoes right):