A marathon and garden update (with photos!)

So... This past Sunday was Marathon Day, or in plain English: what on earth were we thinking when we signed up for this marathon-day. The last couple of weeks have been really warm which had us a bit worried, especially when the forecast earlier in the week still called for 29 degrees for race day. But, our prayers were answered and the Sunday itself was actually close-to-perfect running weather: overcast for the first half and mid-teens, changing to sunny and warmer for the second half.
But let's back up a little bit. The race preparations started on Saturday, which doing a whole lot of nothing... Well, we spent a bit of time in the garden, and I managed to get a sun burn. The excitement of the day was delivered by Fertile, quite literally, when she pointed us to a decapitated mouse in the basement. Thanks! The night before she'd caught another mouse, but we were able to take it away from her and released it outside. It seemed unharmed, but it might not have been super bright and returned back into the house.
The day of the marathon, the alarm went off at 4:30 am. When I came downstairs, Murphy was sitting underneath the dining room table, staring at something. Yes, he was having a staring contest with another mouse! I chased him away, got another container and the mouse simply ran into it. Not sure why it wasn't moving, or why the cats did not attack it (maybe being totally stiff of fear saved its life?), but I was able to release it again. And so far it hasn't returned. But a great way to start the day, for sure.
We had no problems getting downtown or finding parking. It was all very well set up, and the organization was great. There were a lot of people out cheering, which made it quite a bit easier. We tried to interact with the people cheering as much as possible; it gives a tonne of energy! Around the 14km mark, Debby and Julie were out cheering us on, which was really nice. Then we headed to Quebec, which was definitely a bit more quiet, hardly anyone out there! We looped back to the Ontario side, and did the loop through Rockcliffe park, before heading back to the canal, where Debbie and JoAnn where to cheer us on. I felt quite strong, although the second half was definitely much harder than the first half (duh!). But we both felt good until we were back on the canal, around the 39km mark. We just hit wall and wanted to be done. But we kept going and finished strong, well under our goal time of 5 hrs (4:53)! Several people were cheering for us at the home stretch, which helped us pushing a bit for the final 500 meters.

At 38km, there was a photographer, and he caught us while we should have been running:

This photo is from the Ottawa Citizen, and we are actually in it!

We both were a bit sore afterwards, but we are recovering nicely. We are both very happy it's done, but also proud and feel good about it. Now it's time to focus on shorter distances again, and hit the trails again.

Besides running, we are also proud of our 'new' garden. We expanded the garden in the back of the yard, and added some perennials and bushes. We also planted more vegetables compared to last year, and bought quite a few hanging baskets, simply to add some colour!

A little rose bush in the corner planter

My favourite hanging basket!

Showing some colour around our deck.

Our vegetable garden: tomatoes, basil, green and orange pepper, cucumber and strawberries. Now it just needs to grow!

Another row of hanging baskets along the fence. We just love colour!

One of my little pine trees. Almost doubled in size so far this year.

One of our new climates plants. We planted three around the deck to, again, add some colour!

Our extended garden, where we added a mixture of perennials and annuals. The silver plant in the middle is supposed to be an annual, but somehow survived a winter, a transplant and is still going strong. I guess we got our money's worth.

The second part of our expanded garden, where in the back we simply planted perennials, which will hopefully fill up that corner.

We still have the bird feeder up, and I have to admit that these finches are among my favourites.

Sorry, no picture of the decapitated mouse.

What else is new? Well, I spent another week in the field last week, and am now trying to adapt to an office lifestyle again. But besides that, life is good and we are surely enjoying it!

Montreal Marathon: the aftermath

It’s been 4 days now since we ran those famous 42.2 km, and we’re starting to feel more human. Stated, we both took a hot bath Monday night to loosen up our quads, and we’ve gone for a few walks to prevent those muscles too much from stiffen up. The first couple of days were almost funny: you need about 15 minutes to get out of the car. Going down the stairs backwards? We’re masters at it now! Going to the bathroom becomes an interesting adventure and Nolan and I both admitted to using the handicapped stalls because the toilets are higher…

But today, we can both tell that we’re almost back to normal. Well, except for a sharp pain at the bottom of my left foot that came out of nowhere last night. I’ll ice it with the water bottle (fantastic trick for plantar fasciitis!), to soothe it, and that will hopefully do the trick.

Only 8 more nights in our current house, and a whole house to pack up! But we’re both very excited about the new place, and can’t wait to move in and make it our own. Too bad that a week after we move in, I’ll be leaving Nolan alone for a trip to Jasper. Yes indeed, rough life :-)

Montreal Marathon: a report

Well, yesterday was the day: The Montreal Marathon! We left for Montreal Saturday morning, taking Debby with us who would run the the 10k.  The hotel was right across the Race Expo, so we sure didn't waste any energy there. Afterwards we went for a stroll through Old Montreal, and found a place for dinner (and yes, we had pasta, and a glass of wine!). We called it a night early on, to make sure we'd be well rested. After a very decent night sleep, we woke up around 6 am which gave us enough time to get ready. We took the metro to the start, and after we got on I realized I forgot my Garmin watch. Oh well, now we could not keep track of our pace, and it forced us to listen to our body. Which in the end probably was a good thing.
Luckily there was a bag-check at the beginning, which was great because the start and the finish were not at the same location. The start was on top of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, and during the first part of the race, we ran on the Formula 1 track! At around 11km, we had to cross the next bridge, to get into the harbour, and that's when we really started feeling the wind! And that wind would never leave us alone. The course itself was quite hilly, which we trained for. But the wind was a factor we had not anticipated, and which is really hard to train for! At one point, we turned around the corner, and the wind was so strong, it made my backpack move! It didn't matter what direction we were running, the wind was turning all the time, maybe due to the taller buildings and open spaces? Several times we ran uphill and in the wind, which is fine early on, but after 35 km it becomes very challenging. On the up side, it didn't rain, and the temperature was great.
The finish was great, though. You run a final loop in the Olympic Stadium, and the moment you enter the stadium, we were both swallowing back tears! Very impressing.
All in all it was a good race; the organization was pretty good, and although we did not meet our goal time (4:45), we both feel we should do another one at some point to redeem ourselves! But there is no rush :-) Right now, we're trying to soothe our sore legs, and take it easy. The next half marathon is in two weeks, and we're hoping to do well there. However, it's the same weekend we're moving into our new home, so we'll see how that will actually play out!

Getting closer to Marathon Day

Yesterday we did our last 'long slow distance' run in preparation for the marathon, next week in Montreal. Compared to two years ago, when we were also training for a marathon, the one in Prince Edward County, the training this time around felt much more comfortable, comprehensible and manageable. Not sure what the difference was, maybe experience, maybe the fact that we didn't have too much time to think about it because we were occupied with realty business? We were dreading yesterday's run a little bit, because last time, we thought 'Oh, we ONLY have to do a 16km run, how hard can that be?'. Well, turned out it was the hardest run of the summer.
This time around, we were a little apprehensive, maybe more realistic, and it payed off. We did a very comfortable, relaxed and great 17.5km. We hit the trails in the Greenbelt again, and it's just a joy and privilege to run there. We really discovered the trails this year, and did most of our long runs on the trails. It's very forgiving for our bodies, since we're not pounding the pavement as much. Maybe that's why we stayed virtually injury free this time? Also, Nolan's blisters are pretty much non-existent, which is huge! All in all, I think we're ready for next week's run. This week, we'll do maybe two short runs, but rest our legs for the most part, so they'll be fresh for Sunday. The only thing we'll be doing I think this week is pack, pack, and pack!