I am now officially mesmerized I actually made it to the Sun Run starting line. Because as of Sunday evening I had contracted Carter’s flu like symptoms, which apparently have turned out to be Norwalk (sp??). I originally thought I just felt kind of fatigued from the race, but as the day wore on I could feel there was something more to this uggghhh feeling.
I ended up calling in sick to work later Sunday, was being bed ridden for Mon and was only beginning to feel ‘human’ later Tues. By later in the day on Wed I was back to normal (a relative term I know), but of course with Julie being a nurse I also learned that Norwalk sticks around much longer (and is still catchy) up to two days after symptoms. So I finally went back to work on Thurs.
The worst part was Carter’s b-day party on Sat meant the sickie hit parade was on. By today’s count 16 of the 21 people at the party have also come down with said virus. Oh the fun that sick little kids create.
It might help to explain my hurting legs so early on in the Sun Run (maybe????) and my lack of energy over the latter parts of the race. It just felt hard from the get go. Oh well, maybe this is a needed rest.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
What a week....
It was exactly one year and one day ago that I found out what really matters. I have led an interesting life (a natural results of your father being in the RCMP and living in many different places), but last year changed everything. Why……simple…the birth of our first child. His birth (being as stressful as it was) caused both great hardship and great joy. The joy being how he has responded to his birth (we both believe he wouldn’t have made it through the weekend of his birth if my wife hadn’t had the feeling that something was wrong and had gone to the hospital), and turned into a tank of a child, who is eternally happy (even when he pukes you can still get a smile out of him).
It is when things go awry that I find myself with the simple concept that his life almost never began and that always bring me back into the real world. Today is such a day (being mothers day and all) when I can take a look back and realize that I cannot imagine much worse things than the birth of my child (I am still traumatized), but also how his resilient personality (yeah he has one) puts a constant smile on my face.
I've mentioned this before and if there's anything I've learned about myself (more so in recent times) is the requirement to become 'emotional' when I run. The past week has been a mess in regards to actually being able to focus on the Sun Run this week, and my performance showed as much. I cannot say it was terrible, but I also know it wasn't great. It was simply...'there'.
Back in high school when I played hockey I played my best when in an absolute emotional frenzy. I was one of those obnoxious (yeah imagine that!!!) player s that played on the edge and chirped away. Over the years I found that some people were able to get themselves up for any race. I was not one of those people. I could train at a high level, but I needed that extra little bit to race well.
What I also found was that getting ready to race for me was a buildup of events. I knew when and where I was going to run my best months in advance. But where problems sometimes arose (especially over the last two years has been in life getting in the way (not an entirely bad thing, but sometimes bad timing). Such was this past week.
Things began with our school track city championships on Monday. I enjoy the coaching, but the length of some of these days is exhausting. I got home around 8:30, never ran and went to sleep at 9:15. Not seeing Carter brings a great deal of stress and impatience on my part, so it was like a double whammy. Unfortunately, Tues was not much better. Because I hadn’t read any emails On Mon I messed up practice time and showed up at 5:30 (the time we had been showing up at). In turn I also had to cover our track practice as my coaching partner wasn’t there that day. Wed was another long day as I had to go to White Rock for another HS track race and didn’t get home til 6:30. Thurs was going fine til Carter was about to go to sleep and then proceeded to vomit all over Julie. That meant another late night as I was able to get in a short hill workout just it got dark around 9ish, go home and then had to go find a 24 hour drugstore to get fluids and Gravol for carter (who apparently had been puking non-stop since I had left). So another late night led to another early and long day as our final day of city championships took place. Now it was a beautiful day, but the sun and walking around are the last things I want to do before a bigger race. But wait…it gets better. I end up in bad traffic going home, get there late and can only put in a short run before I head downtown for a VIP shindig for the Sun Run. It was fine, but I would much rather have been relaxing at home. The adventures of this week don’t end there. Carter’s birthday was on Sat, s once again no down time and the to top it off I go out for a short run, come home and Julie now has what Carter had.
As always a moral…….Yeah!!!! I was totally ready to race on Sunday morning (insert sarcasm here)…. So after all this whining my Sun Run result is put in perspective (BTW I was top master and ran 30:57, but had a poor last km and was hoping for a much better time). …and that is some of our HS kids look as though they may be on their way to being successful in this sport, my wife had her first even Mothers day and most importantly Carter had his first ever birthday (or as I say to my wife, every day he is alive is a good day for me). I might be exhausted right now (not from the race), but I cannot complain.
It is when things go awry that I find myself with the simple concept that his life almost never began and that always bring me back into the real world. Today is such a day (being mothers day and all) when I can take a look back and realize that I cannot imagine much worse things than the birth of my child (I am still traumatized), but also how his resilient personality (yeah he has one) puts a constant smile on my face.
I've mentioned this before and if there's anything I've learned about myself (more so in recent times) is the requirement to become 'emotional' when I run. The past week has been a mess in regards to actually being able to focus on the Sun Run this week, and my performance showed as much. I cannot say it was terrible, but I also know it wasn't great. It was simply...'there'.
Back in high school when I played hockey I played my best when in an absolute emotional frenzy. I was one of those obnoxious (yeah imagine that!!!) player s that played on the edge and chirped away. Over the years I found that some people were able to get themselves up for any race. I was not one of those people. I could train at a high level, but I needed that extra little bit to race well.
What I also found was that getting ready to race for me was a buildup of events. I knew when and where I was going to run my best months in advance. But where problems sometimes arose (especially over the last two years has been in life getting in the way (not an entirely bad thing, but sometimes bad timing). Such was this past week.
Things began with our school track city championships on Monday. I enjoy the coaching, but the length of some of these days is exhausting. I got home around 8:30, never ran and went to sleep at 9:15. Not seeing Carter brings a great deal of stress and impatience on my part, so it was like a double whammy. Unfortunately, Tues was not much better. Because I hadn’t read any emails On Mon I messed up practice time and showed up at 5:30 (the time we had been showing up at). In turn I also had to cover our track practice as my coaching partner wasn’t there that day. Wed was another long day as I had to go to White Rock for another HS track race and didn’t get home til 6:30. Thurs was going fine til Carter was about to go to sleep and then proceeded to vomit all over Julie. That meant another late night as I was able to get in a short hill workout just it got dark around 9ish, go home and then had to go find a 24 hour drugstore to get fluids and Gravol for carter (who apparently had been puking non-stop since I had left). So another late night led to another early and long day as our final day of city championships took place. Now it was a beautiful day, but the sun and walking around are the last things I want to do before a bigger race. But wait…it gets better. I end up in bad traffic going home, get there late and can only put in a short run before I head downtown for a VIP shindig for the Sun Run. It was fine, but I would much rather have been relaxing at home. The adventures of this week don’t end there. Carter’s birthday was on Sat, s once again no down time and the to top it off I go out for a short run, come home and Julie now has what Carter had.
As always a moral…….Yeah!!!! I was totally ready to race on Sunday morning (insert sarcasm here)…. So after all this whining my Sun Run result is put in perspective (BTW I was top master and ran 30:57, but had a poor last km and was hoping for a much better time). …and that is some of our HS kids look as though they may be on their way to being successful in this sport, my wife had her first even Mothers day and most importantly Carter had his first ever birthday (or as I say to my wife, every day he is alive is a good day for me). I might be exhausted right now (not from the race), but I cannot complain.
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