Good afternoon all, hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful sunshine

Large crowd for the 5k this morning in St. Laurent. Introduced my friend to the lovely KJ, Grommit who had one of his youngsters in tow.. Truxx (who I am sure is hiding a pair of wings underneath his t-shirts ) and Ralf who was in great spirits.

I like this race, it was my first last year, what a difference in weather ..much better today. I am disappointed with my finish time, didn?t have the same ?ole pitter patter?dog let off a leash feeling?. My buddy is really cool, lots of encouragement and keeping time?but it didn?t happen, felt sluggish the whole way.

JB ? saw the pics, thank you. I particularly like the one where he is passed out on the pavé?.looks like he worked real hard ! Good luck with munchkin #2 ? hope it all goes as smoothly as possible.

Coureur ? thanks for the Sat report on the ?road conditions? on the mount, useful for the old gal who comes in from the burbs?I know what to expect.( What ?! - no wine report this weekend ?!)

Mickey, Véro, and other students out there, take heart, the exams are almost over, I know its a grind.

Mars, Chops, hope you enjoyed your slow 15k -

Have a good week everyone, Df

Just in case your interested, Paula Radcliff won the London marathon in 2:17.42 setting a new record, not for the fastest time, but she now has the three fastest times for a marathon! I guess she's back in top shape after her desappointing Olympics! Way to go. Now lets see if Caterina will keep again, and again, her title at the Boston marathon tomorrow!

Enough news, going out for a 16k, the middle kms will be at my goal pace for next week race.

Don't forget to post your race reports for VSL race, Mars must be waiting in front of his computer while he's doing his stretching. (Okay, same here for me!)

Ok, here's my race report:

Weather: very good

Water supplies: low. I forgot that these paper cups are so tiny.

Driving directions: bad. The directions given on the race website lead through the streets blocked for the race.

Spirit: high (see DF's posting above)

Finish time: Better than I expected: between 57'33" (my watch) and something below 58' (racetime). This is not a PR, but I did not taper since this race is not my main goal.

It was nice to say hello to KJ (with whom I shared the first 500m of the race), Truxx & Co., Grommit & Co., and DF with her running buddy. I will post the pics made by me and my personal support team in a couple of days.

Mars, how about Tuesday morning?

Take care

Ralf

http://This message has been edited by RalfM (edited Apr-17-2005).

Thanks for Df and Ralph race reports... how about the rest of the gang ! I had to go on the endurance site to check your results.
Grommit: Beautiful performance
KJ: We want to know what happened
Traxx: SB ?? Is it you ?

Hey Mars, Sorry for the delay in posting but we had my brother-in-law & his wife over yesterday....... his company has banished him to 1 month in Fort Wayne, Indiana... so we did the farewell BBQ... god knows what he'll eat while he's down there!

The highlight of my morning yesterday was watching the kids 1k race... I love the expressions on their faces...... determination, pride, sheer joy... and all those proud parents. God knows there was nothing even remotely similar to this in my childhood...... but then again my folks probably figured that we had it easy compared to being brought up in London during the war... it's all relative I guess.

Grommit Jr. placed 9th in the 1K.... 3:58, obviously there was no training involved, lucky little swine.

Grommit Snr. almost missed the start, yakking with KJ, Scott and DF and had to burn some rubber to get somewhere near where he likes to be. I ran this for the first time with no watch it died earlier in the week which was really strange as I am pretty anal about the pacing thing. The only clue as to how I was doing was when I passed the clock at the half way mark ... 20:45ish which was a pretty even split as my time was 42:34... about a minute slower in the second half. Hmmm I probably could've pushed a little harder... ah well next time.

Big congrats to Scott who PR'd by over 2 mins.... 40:??.... Nice job!!... Drop me an e-mail and we'll try and hook up at some point...

KJ... looked real good at the end, but didn't catch her PR... there will be loads of next times

Hope this weather holds,

Take Care

Grommit

Sehr gut Ralf.
Great stuff G & T
KJ
Merci Mars
My buddy told me this am that the Standard Life 10k plan has changed - it won't be in the street this year, check the site if you are planning on attending it..

I'm sitting here in Toronto while some of my friends are running Boston, and I'm tracking their times on the Internet and it's driving me malade!

Even though I promised myself never to run Boston again (all that training in the dead of winter, brrrrrrrrr!) I get the itches every time it's run.

This is too hard. Maybe I should reconsider. Maybe I should reconcile myself with the notion of running Boston...

I have to go back...

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Coureur:

By mistake I erased a post I wanted to edit. The post was addressed to Sally and said that KJ and I were having an off-line discussion about Sally's moto "Follow your bliss".

I told KJ that if you "follow" your bliss, you're bound to finish second, at best.

KJ said, who cares, if it's your bliss you're following.

KJ had a point there, so my next question was "well, Sally, does your bliss run fast?" <HR>

Hi everyone,

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

"When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't even know they were going to be."

- Joseph Campbell

These are words I have lived by since I first read them 15 years ago, and I have not looked back ....

My "bliss" does not run fast, but it gets me where I need and want to be. I remember watching a film when I was a teenager, don't remember the title though. It was about a woman who got fed up with her lifestyle, so gave up a 2-pack a day habit and started running ... first just through the park a little bit, then ending up running the Boston (?) Marathon. She didn't finish fast, but she finished (back of the pack), and the glory of finishing and her accomplishment and happiness always struck me.

I was running recreationally at that time in my life, and I thought, "run a marathon, I could never do that."

I've been through lots in life, in fact, too many downs, but have learned to create the ups. When I started running again five years ago, I remembered this film and how it touched me. So the year after, as proof of the beauty and strength in Life and in myself, I ran my first marathon. Lots more to the full story, but that's the short version.

When I follow my bliss, I am ALWAYS first.

Congrats to all you runners in last weekend's race! Kudos for going for it!

No race next Sunday for this tired and sick girl ... bad chest cold aggravated by a wicked cycle of hacking cough and asthma (anyone else out there asthmatic?) But I wish you all the best of luck and lots of fun!

Still tired from my dance weekend in the States ... never had as much fun getting somewhere in my life (I'm being sarcastic, for those who can't see my face). Flat tire on the 40 by the 13, and I had just had the tire fixed that morning (flat the night before), and also had just had the tires changed the day before.

I should buy a lottery ticket now.

JB - the friend I stayed with had a cute beagle too ... and a neighbour's beagle, Sally, came to say hello. Coincidence? Hmmm ....

To top it off, a good friend of mine just gave birth to a baby boy. What is with all the babies at this particular time?

Sally, the beagle lover (cause they really are cute, you know)


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"Follow your bliss"

http://This message has been edited by Silly Sally (edited Apr-18-2005).