I did my last long run in our ATB training this morning... 27 km... and man, it was miserable! Supposed to be 30, but no way was I eking out another 3 k... I just wanted to sit down in the middle of the road and cry as it was

So, three weeks to ATB... my longest run and race to date... am I crazy to be excited? After todays run I think I'm just crazy period

I am happy to be able to say that the hills of ATB are the least of my concerns... Deb makes sure we get plenty of hills in our training runs... loooooooong hills at that. It's the distance that is my big concern. But, it'll definitely be an adventure!

I thought the days of white knuckled drives to work were done... I guess I know what thought did Man, gimme spring! I am SICK of winter!

Enjoy your Monday everyone, and think tulips and crocuses. Maybe if we all think it in unison, it will happen

I did the Chilly Half in Burlington on Sunday. Pretty nice day, hovering around zero celcius. I finished in 1:34:36 gun time, about a minute more than I did it last year in somewhat icy and snowy conditions. Stayed around the 1:35 pace rabbit most of the way. Didn't really taper for this event and the nice weather last week had me communting on my bike outside for the first time since last December, so my legs felt tired going into the race. Plus I was on my feet at the Bike Show on Friday for a good 4 hours.

Fortunately there wasn't any westerly wind on the Lakeshore 8K stretch to the finish like there has been in past years. This race is almost pancake flat. Spent most of the time chasing down a set of identically dress twin teenaged girls. Either that or I was starting to see double. Their idenitical bouncing ponytails were hypnotic (no baseball caps though).

Overall I finished 129th out of 1295 finishers, so I was still at my goal of finishing in the top ten percent when I race. Fortunately most people just finished up when the wet snow started to come down hard.

I know it's not going to be easy to finish under 2:15 this year at the ATB to earn a silver medal.



http://This message has been edited by Fast Eddie (edited Mar-08-2004).

Ode to my mom.

She was born in 1925, and raised in the modest 'company' houses in Sydney, the houses were built for the steelworkers when the industry first took off in Nova Scotia. The youngest of 6 children, she remained at the family home long after her parents had passed on and the rest of the siblings moved out. I never knew those grandparents, they were gone before I was born. She married while young and had a daughter, but the marriage didn't last. Some time later she met my dad, John, who moved into the home with her.

The home wasn't much, part of a semi with no basement, no foundation, just walls and a roof. My dad did a great job of taking care of it. Just yards from the back shed sat banks of coal used to make coke for the steel furnaces, and active train tracks for transporting to coal from the mines to storage to the coke ovens, this was my playground as a child. We had little money, Cape Breton wasn't (and isn't) exactly a wealthy part of the country, but there was always food on the table, and always a bustle of activity in the house. The neighborhood, despite it's location, was a wonderful group of people and our doors were rarely locked. Mom tended to us while dad worked hard to pay the bills.

With my dad, there were three more children, including me. Mom loved us all but had a special attachment to her first daughter, Judy. Jude was highly outgoing and aggressive, ran an office here in Toronto. She also married young, which also didn't last, but she never had children and never wanted to. 11 years ago Jude passed away due to heart disease, at the young age of 44. My mom never really got over the loss.

Her best friend was her sister, Myrt (Myrtle). Myrt was full of energy and had the most infectious laugh you could hear. 30 years ago she had a brief bout with cancer, and my mom lost her best friend.

One by one, mom's siblings passed on. After Myrt, she lost her only brother, Earnest, then Edna (everyone called her Ted), Phyllis was the aunt I never met. Mom and Phyllis had a battle regarding the house when they were younger and never spoke to each other after. Her last remaining sibling passed on just a few years ago, Liz was one of my favorite aunts. There's a great story of when they were in elementary school together, Liz was a rouser and for whatever reason, the teacher took her downstairs and tied her to the hot water pipes in the school basement as punishment (imagine trying to get away with THAT today!). Mom found her and released her, and then had to rescue the teacher as Liz nearly tore her apart when she got back to the classroom.

For a long time, mom had problems with her health, starting with high blood pressure for almost as long as I can remember. In the last few years, she deteriorated badly, her kidneys stopped working 2 years ago and she had been on dialysis since. The meds and treatment took it's toll. They've long since left the old home on Victoria Road, the neighborhood was no longer the same as it was. In a retirement apartment high on a hill in Sydney, my dad took care of her, and even though he is 83 could still handle the workload of cooking, laundry, shopping and bathing and assisting my mom. She was in and out of the hospital over the last few years, often for months at a time.

Despite it all, she fought hard against her problems and when doctors again and again gave up hope, she kept pulling through to live another day. Yesterday she ended her battle, in the company of the rest of my family and some friends, as though she wasn't going until everyone was there to watch (typical of my mom).

Thelma Rodgers (Mercer).

May 12, 1925 - March 9, 2004

Oh Jim, you made me cry What a beautiful tribute. How lucky your mom is to have a son like you.