Cleavers in Canada

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Once more, with feeling

I’m currently on a train to New York. It’s the marathon tomorrow. No, I’m not running it. I am going to cheer on a good friend who is recognizing 5 years of remission from breast cancer. I love cheering way more than I actually enjoy running the damn things. Unsurprisingly. I ran the New York marathon back in 2016. Life looked a whole lot different then. I’d only been in the US about 18 months…

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Taking Stock

Procrastination is something I am very familiar with nowadays as I continue on my quest to find a job.  I delay as much as possible the moment when I sit down at my computer, and fire up Linked In, all the while knowing that once I actually start, I’ll be back into the process quickly, picking up where I left off the day before, and networking like I’ve never networked before.

What does that have…

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It's that time again.......

It’s that time again…….

It seems that every year, about about this time, I dust off my writing tools and put metaphorical pen to paper. This year is no different as on October 28, I will be participating in the Marine Corps Marathon. This week is the start of marathon training, and this week is why I’m writing once more, with feeling.

My last marathon was New York in November 2016. Everyone I know who has run it told…

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Once More, With Feeling

Once More, With Feeling

“You are the unicorn of lottery runs.” That is what one of my colleagues said when I told her yesterday that I had been selected in the lottery for a marathon….this time, the Marine Corps Marathon. After the New York Marathon in November last year, I decided that there was no way I was going to run a marathon in 2017. So, how is it that somehow, I will be doing one in October? Running the New…

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Great Weather for Ducks - or the Broad Street Run

Great Weather for Ducks – or the Broad Street Run

That has to have been one of the wettest runs I have ever done. I think that even if I’d jumped in the river, I wouldn’t have been as wet as I was by the time I crossed the finish line. It started on Friday when I texted my friend Sarah to say I’d seen the weather forecast for Sunday’s race and it wasn’t looking good. “Don’t worry,” she responded, full of confidence, “general consensus is that it…

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New York, New York - so good they named it twice

New York, New York – so good they named it twice

It’s been a while since I’ve last been here. Since my last post, I’ve run a few more races – Avengers Half Marathon, Walt Disneyworld Half Marathon, Cherry Blossom 10-miler, GW Parkway Classic – most of which have been spectacularly slow and for which I have been mostly unprepared. In fact, the Disney race I ran in Orlando in January ranked second on my list of hardest races I’ve ever done –…

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Michelle, the Marathoner

 I am a marathoner.  It’s been three weeks since Chicago and it still feels…..odd saying that. I ran the race – I know I did, I was there, I felt the pain – but it feels so unreal. I ran 26.2 miles. In one go. I mean, that’s just crazy.  In the run up to the race, I was equal parts excited and totally bricking myself. I made the – very sensible – decision to get there on the Friday rather than…

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26.2

On April 28th this year, I got an email telling me that I had been selected in the lottery to run the 2015 Chicago Marathon. 5 1/2 months ago, it seemed…..unreal.  The furthest I had ever run was 14.5 miles.  I’d always sworn that I would never run a marathon.  Yet here I was, with an entry to one of the most respected, high profile & sought after marathons in the world.  A marathon that I had –…

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Run Harder, Run Longer

Run Harder, Run Longer

Yesterday I ran 21.5 miles. 21.5 miles. Even writing that, and knowing that I did it, I still can’t quite believe it.   It’s not the first time I’ve run 20+ miles – the first time I did was in Toronto a few weeks ago.  That run was tough.  I re-jigged my running plan to make sure the run fell while in Toronto as I knew the weather would be cooler and I know the roads.  I set out early, I headed…

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Pacing

I’ve always struggled with pacing, particularly when starting a run; my enthusiasm typically gets the best of me, I go out too fast and then as the run progresses, I get slower and slower.  I don’t think I’ve ever managed a negative split run, which is a goal most runners have.  Last year, using my Garmin helped, as did running with my coaching group in Toronto and my ability to pace myself…

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Putting on the mileage

Putting on the mileage

If last week was about hitting a long-run milestone, this week has been about continuing to build up my mileage.  After that very tough 10-miler last weekend, and a long weekend of travel coming up, I knew I would have to plan well in order to make sure that I could both get in all of my planned runs and also do my weekly long run, which according to my plan was to be “11-13 very easy miles.” As…

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Milestones

One of the key things about training for long races is building mileage.  Day by day, week by week, month by month – as race day approaches, mileage increases. The last run I did of any significant distance was back in November last year when I ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas half marathon.  Between then and this May, my running was sporadic at best with a significant period of time where I did…

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Finding my rhythm again

After a travel heavy last few weeks, life has settled down into some semblance of normality.  Which means that running – oh running, my old friend – is once again a regular fixture on my agenda and I, for one, couldn’t be happier about that.  Twice a week, on a Tuesday & a Thursday, my alarm goes off at 5.15am.   It’s a bloody awful time to have to get up but get up I do and I head to the track…

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Back on Track

I’ve joined a running group. It’s the Arlington branch of a Virginia wide chain – Potomac River Running – and while I signed up a while ago, thanks to the travel I’ve been doing, I’ve not been able to join them until this morning. After doing a fair amount of research, I picked this group because the format of their training is very similar to that which I had in Toronto; as that was so…

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All That Jazz

I’ve been asked by a few people recently when I started running.  My instinctive answer is “in the last couple of years” as that is when I started to ‘feel’ like a runner.  After having a handful of half-marathons under my belt, it was 2 years ago that I decided that I wanted to do better – I wanted to be faster.  So I focused…and that is when I became ‘a runner’. Conversely, when I talk to…

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Personal Bests

It’s been a good couple of running weeks, both in terms of training runs and races. Last weekend I ran the Midsummer Night Run.  I did the 15k option and achieved a personal best.  It’s the first time I’ve run an evening race and the weather was in our favour – yes, it was humid but the sun wasn’t beating down.  The route took us out onto the Leslie spit and provided us with some amazing views of…

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'You had a bad day.....'

‘You had a bad day…..’

The first time I cried after running was in October 2010 when I finished my first half-marathon.  It was a big deal for me.  Not only was I most definitely not a runner, but I was a non-runner who was running for a cause. My younger brother had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes which had come as quite a shock; living so far away from him, I felt impotent.  So I decided that I’d run a…

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