MyNextRace.com's Adventures!

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2012-08-22T06:51:00.003-07:00

Any gals out there need to get faster?

Susan….Beth….Penelope….Constance….Hanna…..Evelyn (all real names are changed to protect the innocent)….but pictures….why not!

one of Georgetown’s all-time fastest ladies….

New form of running coaching….date Peter.!! lol Guarantee to run faster or your money back. And there are good running lessons to be learned from this list, so keep reading and take something home with you.

Wait, if I start charging as a coach, they’ll call me the running pimp…Pimp my Run. MyNext Fast Boyfriend.com.

Seriously, I started looking back on my relationship history, a work in progress, some might call it a work of art, others (see list above) might call it a demolition zone. Since I started running, like many runners, the Law of Attraction suggests you attract those who also enjoy similar pursuits. Or, the more you think about something, the more likely it will happen. I recently turned 46 and as I watch the Tour de France these days, the pile ups of bikes on all these crashes started me thinking….imagine if all my exes formed a running team, they would be a Tour de Force to be reckoned with!

Starting with Susan….way back when, my first few years of racing, now she could fly. When we met she was a 3:02 marathoner, and although her pb when we broke up 3 years later was 3:01, that’s still an improvement! It was tough on her though when I ran a 2:49 marathon (Columbus) in the first month we started dating, she was super-competitive and hated to be 2nd fiddle. She co-owned a running store and was the fastest chickie in the group, but she did get much faster at the 10km distance and compared to the rest of the bunch (keep reading below) she still remains among the fastest in the group. And we were engaged for 18 months, so on this measurement, she could be tough to beat….

Beth was next, and although it was just a summer romance, Beth qualifies as gf material. She was not really into racing at the time, just alot of fitness like commuter cycling, and we met just as I started my business, in fact I think I got her a free entry into her first race. She was fast out of the gate, but like alot of newbies her full potential took longer than expected to come to fruition. Patience is a virtue as they say. Like myself, it took Beth 5-6 years to start hitting her stride, in fact my 10km (33:20) and half-marathon (1:16) pb’s occurred in my 9th year of running, so there is a lesson here. Now, 10 years later, she is winning races, prize money, trophies and has sponsors! Where is my cut by the way???

“Beth”, still getting faster, the mold has been broken…

Penelope was next, and she improved the most, by far. She had just ran her first competitive 10km when I got to know her, and 24 months later she was in an Ironman! She was willing to try anything, Adventure Races, a Cyclo Cross (she swore all day at me during this race)….but that open-mindedness probably helped to overcome the challenge of an Ironman, which I think she has now finished three or four. She also got the racing travel bug which I think makes you a better racer, it’s always easier waking up in your own bed and setting a PB. And she scalped me recently in a 10km! Like the energizer bunny….Penelope….she keeps going, and going. She was a cutie pie too.

Iceland Marathon with Team Diabetes, great memories!

Constance….how could we forget Constance. Maybe the most stubborn runner among the group, who REALLY wanted to get to Boston, so much so that she came agonizingly close soon after we broke up (there is a lesson here for sure). She was very busy and stressed at work, and did not sleep enough, and drank way too little water throughout the day and especially in training. If I told her once, I told her a thousand times, drink more water. Well, Constance ran that marathon, in a desert no less, and woke up in a hospital bed still in her running clothes! Yikes….she has no memory from 40km onwards (the best kind of memory loss for a marathoner I say), and is very lucky to be alive. Many medical tests and $$$$ wasted down the drain (I am a taxpayer afterall), the medical community pondered and tested. In the end, was it a weak heart, a hidden, faulty valve or aorta? No, dehydration was the culprit! Calling Dr Donato, calling Dr Donato… (ed note, Constance did finally qualify for Boston, but couldn’t get thru the registration mess to sign up on time, does she ask me to help since I know the race director?). Calling Dr Donato, Calling Dr Donato….

The more kisses, the better the running!

Next?! Hannah my dear, now there was a tough student. Multi talented, excellent cross training, “good” at a whole bunch of sports but not willing to cross that line (pain)….the lessons learned here, too much partying I believe. Yes, indeed, if you want to improve, at some point you have to give up “something” to gain “something”. Possibly the toughest lesson in sport. Run faster? Lose a few pounds, go to bed early, read those books. It all adds up, Hannah was eager to learn, raced a fair bit, but yes, there will be pain and discomfort peoples, the question is, how bad do you want it? I once ran so hard in a 5-mile race my heart rate monitor hit maximum! My heart would have jumped out if not for the band around my chest (thanks, Polar, that might have been too much for the EMS at the finish line). The lesson here? It’s never too late though to get that PB, just try, try again is all I say. Cut out the Pinot Noir maybe.

Race often, yes, that might work….did I say I get tonnes of free entries?

Evelyn…your turn! Now here we have, for the first time, someone who started fast already, so this should be an easy experiment, no? We met at the Boston Marathon, so that says something, and over the course of a few short months there were 5 races to test her mettle at (she beat me every time too). Already fast, I started thinking, what effect could Donato Dating have on this woman? Have I hit the dating wall? BUT, that’s not the story folks. The lesson here is, you never know what sport is truly yours to excel at. Now Evelyn was a great runner, of course, I mean, hello, she had four Boston Marathons under her belt in her first 5 years of serious running. She did speedwork….yoga….biked. Well there it is….the Bike. I spent 15 years running myself before I realized, heck, I think I was a better cyclist! I wish….I only wish I turned on that Tour de France channel sooner….but Evelyn, if she’s reading, now she could be in Rio in 2016, mark my words. Don’t put all your dirty socks in the same basket peoples, too much running and you might miss something else.

Is that all? Save the best for last as they say…..or do we open up a new account?

One of these people is really fast, and it’s not the dog we’re talking about.

Onwards and upwards, yours in running.

45 and 45, sugar cubes anyone?

2012-04-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hyde Park, London, October 2012

Seriously folks…I went back in time twice on my travels and adventures to complete 45 races in my 45 years.

I will try to describe in full detail the uniqe races I experienced recently in Europe, race #’s 21 and 22, while on holiday in England and France. The trip was planned well before I decided to pursue all these races, but as soon as the airline tickets were purchased, it was click, click, click and surf into the night to find some possible races that might fall in the brief 12 days I was abroad.   David had an easy time getting his two races while in the UK for three weeks, so why not me, it’s a bit of a competive game afterall.

“Oh honey…..what’s the address again of your Uncle’s place in Chelsea?” (at the time of my trip the girlfriend I was dating had a cousins wedding to attend, just outside London in the country).   I can’t easily describe here the look on her face, but just visualize if you can.

As luck would have it, my first run in London was pretty easy, and the price was right.    $4lbs and the start line 2km away.   Calling this “race” old school wasn’t difficult. Held at noon every last Friday of the month, it’s organized by the Serpentine Runners Club, no online registration for these time trials.   In fact, you emailed your info. on a simple 1-page registration sheet, and paid on-site. I think it was actually 8lbs since I was not a club member, but I look English, they said nothing.   The entry included a race bib. That’s it. Hand-timed, well marshaled, no post race food, medals or music.   There may have been water, I can’t quite recall, we did enjoy the hottest weather in 86 years so it felt like July as we went twice around the course.   Hyde Park is very cool, massive and full of dogs, sunbathers, statues older than Canada….

My finish time doesn’t matter really (22:30), I drank and ate so much in the first three days of arriving, went hard at the get-go but after 3km remembered I was on holiday, this needn’t hurt I kept telling myself.   Did I mention it was HOT, gawd, everyone was talking about it, even the yankee from Boston who used the same surfing skills I used to find this small, off the wall race. I didn’t hang around much afterwards, the sightseeing agenda included some museums and more pubs. Tally Ho as they say…..

Bar le Duc, France

After a pleasant family wedding, and a quick brunch visit with my 2nd cousin, Marco, also a runner, we whisked across the Channel (underneath actually) on the EuroStar, 186 miles per hour, full speed ahead for Paris.    Quick transfer, more trains, and a late nite arrival in a small, quaint town to visit a first cousin who has lived here for 20 years.   Bar le Duc is close to a much more well known city, Reins, heart of the champagne region and home to a rather large, well-known marathon that is on the radar in Europe. I continue my searches here as I had yet to nail down a race in France.

The one race I did find earlier in Canada was the Paris 20km, the day before we leave back for Canada, but it was already SOLD OUT at 20,000 runners. I did make contact with the Race Organizers and it seemed like I would be able to obtain a race bib, but truthfully I was way more interested in the cycling and wine drinking we were planning in the Alsace Region, so the next 5 days was filled aplenty with just that, food, drink and wine.    Plan B could be this one, but did I really want to end my trip with a 20km run??

Welcome to Europe! Smoking....running 20km, no problem!

Fast-forward many miles, drinks, meals and more trains, Sarah and I arrive late Saturday in Paris, a beauty, boutique hotel around the corner from the Eiffel Tower. I have now been so far removed from the office I can’t bother to find the emails I had with the race organizers. I have no idea either where the race starts, we’re beat and I need to also focus on the task at hand….Paris, girlfriend, romance…..etc. lol Maybe in the morning if the weather is good, I can use the internet in the lobby and see where this race is. The next morning does arrive and it’s wet and yucky looking, as I stare out the window. Is that a gathering of runners below on the sidewalk? It actually is, and I wonder if the race in question is actually close by? Sarah is still in bed so I wander outside to investigate further. Walking around the corner towards the Eiffel Tower, I see finish lines, trucks, hordes of runners. Wow, imagine that, we are in the closest possible hotel to the finish line! Further investigation leads me to some sort of post-race collection of tents, so I use 15+ years of experience to try and find my race number.

I am soon told that the media tent is quite far away, near the start line across the river, and in-between me and there are twenty thousand runners arriving, and I still need to go back to the room and get permission to run! This was just a scouting trip I remind myself, but with so many charity tents I must be able to get a number here. Back to the room (750 metres away) and I have to stretch, change, plead my case….if not for the 45 and 45 I think I would be SOL. Sarah can enjoy some solo time browsing book shops and more, she buys my argument….so I head back out determined to get my number. After a few tries, I find my opportunity and convince a french guy who has pretty good english that with minutes to go before the race, any unused bibs can be switched over to me, we haven’t even gotten around to price but he likes my North American idea. But now he asks for my medical clearance letter!

Now at least the french know how to celebrate! This was THREE cases of Champagne waiting at the finish.

I completely forgot this bizarre rule that is still in place for many Italian races and now I guess French ones too. You have to produce a written letter of permission (medical clearance) from a physician. No exceptions, some crazy Insurance requirement, but before I can think smartly (who says Dr. Peter Donato isn’t my cousin from Canada?) I have run out of time, I could have easily gone back to the room and quickly made up something (I hope no one reading this is a Medical Dr.). Crap. And it’s now raining. But I tell myself I have come this far, so I join the massive line at the back of the start area, and slowly we make our way to the start after the gun goes off, 10 minutes for sure. Bandits are common here too! It’s a pretty similar mad pack start as any other large race in North America, and typical of a big city most locals aren’t too concerned with the yelling, shouting and pounding afoot. I do notice that it’s not too organized, no barricades and few police visible, it’s like the runners just take over. My race? Typical of late, good start, body breaks down, last half is brutal, stretching was not on the agenda all vacation, but sitting on a bike, train, bar stool was. Can you say tight hips?

What was very different was the water stations. The first one had large, 2L bottles from a sponsor, yeah, 2 liters! Very few volunteers and no where near enough tables, so people were grabbing new bottles, taking a swig and then passing to the runner in behind. Later on, it was the same BUT with plain white sugar cubes and orange dried fruit chunks! How funny was that! Self serve too, I felt like a horse….and then in several places the hordes of runners literally came to a halt, as we entered narrow roads along the Siene, back in front of the Eiffel Tower, down to the Louvre, across the water and back again. Pretty tough to complain when you run through history here….

Great city to run and stare.....

The finish was crazy, jam packed, the lineup and post finish cram fest meant people started backing up across the actual finish line, so a mos big failing grade if you were rating this for technical merit. But mostly people didn’t care, a nice medal was given out and a decent post-food baggie, then you were on your own to check out some vendors, etc. I enjoyed shuffling my achy body back to the room, another unique race experience in the books!   Marveloux!

45 and 45 to date (as of April 2012)

1.Huntington Disease Run 10km (with Jefferson) – June 26th
2.Peachbud 5km – June 28th
2.5 Peachbud 1-mile Kids run (as Jefferson mascot)
3. Canada Day 5-miler
4. Pride Run 5km
5. Warrior Dash

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/07/45-and-45-update-3-warrior-dash/

6. Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon Run
7. Downtown Dash 5km
8. Durham 1/4 Marathon
9. Muskoka Rocks 5km (age group winner)
10. Wilson Wet and Wild Sprint Tri (New York state, water was 60 degrees, no wetsuit)

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/08/45-and-45-update-race-10/

11. Coburg Duathlon
12. Acura 5km
13. Sunset Shuffle 6km

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/09/45-in-45-race-update-3-race-13-lucky-we-didnt-drown/

14. Mid Summer Night Run 15km
15. VR Pro 10km – Children of Merinden Mtn @ Erindale Park (with Jefferson)
16.Slainte Pub 5km
17. Element Racing Off Road Triathlon. (1000 M – 18km – 8km)
18. Logs, Rocks and Steel Off-Road Triathlon / Adventure Race

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/10/45-and-45-race-updates-epic-cycling/

19. Centurion Cycling Canada – 100 miles (Century)
20. Zoo Run 5km
21. Hyde Park 5km (London, England)
22. Paris 20km (Paris France baby, yeah)!
23. Scotia Bank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon (pacing the Mascot Jefferson to another Guinness Record)!
24. Trek or Treat Nite Trail Run 10km (with Jefferson the dog tagging along)
25. Peel Region 5km (7th overall, small race obviously, 20:18)! (Saturday morning the 29th)
26. Variety Village 5km, as Jefferson Mascot, with Jefferson tagging along (Sunday morning, the 30th, 9:20 am)
27. Mad Dog Scramble 10km Trail Run, with water crossings!   With Jefferson tagging along, 11:25 am the 30th)!!
28. New York City Dash to the Finish Line inaugural 5km, Nov 5th.
29. Hannukah Hustle 5km
30. Santa Shuffle 5km, with Jefferson, as Jefferson!
31. Jingle Bell Run 5km, with Jefferson. Dec 14th.

32. New Year’s Eve Midnite Run 5km – Created, organized and Race Director, so I am counting this! Plus we ran the route before the race as a group and gave ourselves medals.   www.midniteruntoronto.com

33. Miami Tropical 5km – Jan 28th, 2012 (35 degrees and humid)
34. Chilly 5km – Burlington, March 5th, with Jefferson (minus 35 degrees)!
35. St Patrick’s Day 5km – Toronto (actually, 5.4 km’s)
36. Run the Lake 5km, with Jefferson (Pickering)
37. Good Friday Road Races 5km, Burlington, with Jefferson (April 6th)
38. Harry’s Spring Run Off 5km, High Park, Toronto (April 7th)

Yeah, I know….I have become a 5km slug!

My First Win

2012-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

My First Win

I was driving this winter, again, from Toronto to Florida on my usual January getaway to see family and continue making business inroads with my sports marketing company.   It’s necessary to drive when you have bikes, roller blades, tennis racquets, the dog Jefferson…loads of stuff. Always too much stuff, the border guards surely think I am never coming back. Like six pairs of shorts when only one get worn everyday, and then I arrive at my sister’s house near Orlando and find many items of clothing left behind from the last visit.
Driving the same route each year, I whiz through Virginia and North Carolina to get as far south as possible on the first day, and as soon as you pass thru Charlotte on Interstate 77 you’re immediately in South Carolina, and the first exit is Fort Mill. It’s 2:00 am and I can practically smell the distinctive, warm Florida swamp air that greets travellers when you connect to I-95 just before Georgia. In my case the windows are down to clear out the foul smell from yet another dog fart!

I start to think back many years ago, 1999, when I entered and actually won my first 10km race here of all places, Fort Mill…ah…the memories….suddenly, the cold, crisp air blasting in the car not only wakes Jefferson up but the dreaded sights of red and blue flashing lights in my rear view mirror bring my mind back onto the highway. Rats. Speeding ticket for sure, now the second time I am fastest around in Fort Mill….but I have to go back 13 years to where this story started.

October 1999, Toronto, another season of early morning races, evening training sessions, too many bagels and bananas. My coach and I have been working to get me that elusive Personal Best or PB road race result, something I finally gave up years ago after turning 40. (The 2^nd running boom had not yet started, 75% or more of the runners are still male, there is no online registration and the internet is still a luxury to the few techies and nerds paying attention. Google was just invented!)   The race in question is the Compugen 10km, renamed and relocated now to the Toronto Zoo, Toronto’s last, fast 10km. It was to be my season ending run, a new PB in the sub 34:00 range as per my goals. It was a race of firsts on several levels.
My mother and sister came to watch, I was addicted to running, became very skinny and so they probably felt sorry for me. Maybe they thought I was going to win? Turns out it was the first and only run my mother ever attended, and I can’t blame her.

It was cold and brutal, and I was in no mood to talk much after the race ended when I unceremoniously bonked halfway and stumbled across the finish line well slower than planned. “Peter….congratulations” was probably what she said to her only son who has tried soccer, tennis, golf and now running to fuel that competitive inner demon. I was so serious I don’t even recall much of a conversation with them as I huffed and puffed to gain back my lost breath. Plus I certainly went out for a post-run cool down, leaving them alone again to ask why are runners so weird anyway?

In fact, since I was a new runner and willing to try ANYTHING to set a PB. I believe this race involved yet another nutrition experiment, this time with caffeine. I was not a coffee drinker at the time, but I literally read dozens of running and training books and tried EVERYTHING to gain that edge. Like the newbies today in our sport who wear these compression socks up to the knee, or take the vitamin-of-the-month for maximum nutrition effect, I was open minded to say the least. I recently read about caffeine and sports performance benefits, so before this race I bought two, large, Kenyan Blend coffee in the morning before the race.   Seriously, why not? I drank them miserably in the car on the trek south on the 404 from Markham, plugging my nose certainly, thinking how can anyone stand this crap?

It’s the year 2012 now and I am on my 3^rd coffee as I write this article….

Could those two coffees caused my upset stomach?

That evening, bummed out that my season ending race was a disaster, I called my eldest sister in North Carolina.   Susanne was married and lived in Concorde, North Carolina, perfectly situated near the Basketball Triangle of Duke, NC State and UNC, where I became an NCAA basketball fan. I also figured it was my last chance at a fair weather race since Toronto at the time had nothing to offer.   “Susanne, can you search for a race in 6 weeks time, a 10km, somewhere within an hr’s drive of you….’

Next phone call, Aeroplan, to cash in some points, so desperate was I that I took the option of flying on points from Toronto – Dallas – Charlotte, NC, and the same on the return…not exactly direct but a free trip! My sister gets back to me, a 10km race in a place I never heard of, but she says only 20-30 minutes from her place. Perfect, I book this without planning and then told my coach my Plan B to end the year right.

Coach:   South Carolina, for a PB?..it’s hilly down there….famous last words…

: Over hill and dale....

Excited about the season continuing, I keep training like a madman, while most of my running friends finish their marathons and half marathons that month and put their feet up, down time after a long season of training and racing. Not me. Speed Work indoors at York University, long runs through Sunny Brooke Park, hill training in Hoggs Hollow. No junk food, hold off on that second beer on Saturday evenings, no couch surfing each evening while munching on salty snacks. It’s a military-style existence when you are hell-bent on watching those extra pounds that can mean the difference between a 33:50 or 34:05 time.   I did however enjoy beautiful, crisp fall weather in my single-minded, focused pursuit of Plan B, Mission USA….here I come.

My trip weekend arrives and I actually took advantage of the circuitous route to the Carolina’s. In Dallas on the way down, I have a six hour layover between flights, so I head to downtown to grab dinner and then wandered over to the intersection of Houston and Elm. In case you forgot, it’s the famous intersection where John F. Kennedy took his last turn in the motorcade as U.S. President. I was a political science junkie through school and became a huge admirer of this Presidency, so it was eerie and serene as I walked from the restaurant to the bottom of the 6^th Floor Depository. I had goosebumps on top of goosebumps, and will never forget that quiet moment to myself as I read the plaque on the building and stared down at the grassy knoll, untouched and unaltered after all these years.

The return swing through Dallas four days later was a little more upbeat, my first Dallas Cowboys Football game!   Monday nite even, what a blast.

Back to the race though!

Fast-forward….race morning, it’s FREEZING. In fact, colder than the race day six weeks earlier back in Toronto, when I could blame coffee, my mother and cool temperatures on poor racing performance! Bad news but what can you do, it’s the one thing as a runner you can never control, everything else for me was perfect. My monthly build up, race taper, energy levels, mood, no winter fat has found it’s way around my mid-section.   My sister shouts words of encouragement as I head out the door to find this place called Fort Mill, “bring back a trophy Uncle Peter!”   She seriously said this, did she realize I was barely top 50 in my last race?

As I drive south I can see frost on the ground, can you believe my luck, a rare cold snap blows through town, the entire Eastern seaboard has been blanketed by this freak, ill-timed weather especially if you’re a runner hoping for a 7-8 degree morning. Lucky for me I am CANADIAN and brought a toque and gloves just in case. More good luck greets me at the race site, many of the fast runners could be signed up for the half-marathon which started simultaneously with the 10km, a tune-up for the Raleigh Marathon in four weeks time. My game face is on, you would think it was the Olympic Trials, but no one here travelled so far like I did, and I don’t think anyone could have been so serious in their training the past 30 days. It’s actually fun travelling far away to a race, even just a short distance like this one for a marathoner like me trying to get a little faster before taking on the 26.2 mile distance once more. I had failed several times breaking 2:50 in the marathon so Coach Peter Pimm, a former National Team coach with impressive credentials, suggested I lower my short distance race times for a few years.

I start getting ready, arriving an hour early allows for much planning and preparation, sometimes too much! My wind wanders….should I switch to the half-marathon instead?   Is that guy over there the favourite?   Must be the pre-race nerves, silly me, stick to the Plan, Peter.   I can’t believe I travelled so far for this 10km, it’s the middle of nowhere actually, Fort Mill might as well be Fort York 75 years ago…. it’s like taking a few steps back in time….

Is everyone staring at me?   Are they wondering if I am the favourite? I actually like being anonymous sometimes, running under the radar as they say. I am the only Canadian here for sure, but this is no tourist visit people, I am here on BUSINESS!   So I focus on my pre-race, 45 minute warm up. 15 minute light jog, stretches, strides, all the while enjoying the stares from a few fellow skinny runners.   “Who is that guy?” they must be wondering…”and why are his legs so white?”

Everyone is called to the start line, it’s only 250-300 altogether as I suspect this cold weather kept many home snuggled under their warm sheets. Looking to my left and right, I see that I am the only runner wearing a toque and gloves, advantage to me. I have no idea what the race route is but we’re told to follow the Police Cruiser up ahead. The sun is shining but it’s close to zero degrees for sure, we can all see our breath as collectively we create a shroud of white mist in front of the standing pack. BLAM goes the gun, I take off excitedly in that first mile, and quickly realize a few things. Firstly, it’s straight uphill, mile #1, a foreboding of things to come.   I can hear my coach laughing 1500 km’s away in Canada.

Secondly, within 2-3 minutes my pace puts me at the front, and I mean, the FRONT! It’s just a Police Cruiser ahead of me, with flashing lights, and I keep looking back certain we have gone off course. The pack behind me seems to be settling into a comfortable pace and no one is chasing me. I keep looking back, like something is wrong, unfamiliar territory….sweet...I am in First Place!

We keep heading uphill, near the end of Mile One we turn left and I guess the half-marathon distance runners go straight, now it’s just me and the Police Cruiser and I am still leading! First time ever, so of course my heart race is BEATING through my chest, the cold weather is no longer a concern as the heat of battle drives up my internal temperature. I seem to be sweating profusely despite the near freezing temperature, so I think I toss the hat and gloves as a result. I still can’t recall too many memories and details of this race, it’s been so many years, too many miles and too many races in between to count.   But I will never forget the fear mixed with excitement of being the pursued rather than the pursuer, and wonder how can these Elite Athletes take this pressure all the time?

We are probably half way when I realize, after yet another rolling hill, that my elusive season-ending PB will remain elusive. Oh well….there’s always another race further south like Florida a few months from now!   But who cares I might just WIN this thing, imagine that.   We’re in the countryside of a typical, rural, Southern USA small town, mostly farms or low lying, single level homes with a Pick Up Truck or two in the driveway. And something else common to these parts besides rifles, chewing tobacco and badly needed paint jobs on the houses. Dogs.   The good feeling of being first quickly fades as I hear two sounds I will never forget. Firstly, heavy breathing down my neck. My pursuers have caught me, one or two I think but they are now steps behind me and probably licking their chops as my frenetic early, rookie fast pace has caught up with me. Secondly….BARKING at every corner as these lonely canines have little throughout their day to get much excited about. More barking, louder, and we realize that some of these dogs are free to roam and leave their long driveways! Literally my heart has leapt from my chest, not one but TWO pursuers on my heels…..and four legs! Try running full-out and there’s Fido nipping at your heels.

: Heel boy, heel....

Thankfully I had less fat on my legs or the dog ran out of rope….but that actually helped my pace so now heavy breather #1 is no longer within earshot, and I think I can pull this off.   Maybe he had to stop to ward off the dog?

The last mile was all a blur, I do, in fact hang on for the win, my first of just four official first place finishes as a runner. My first and LAST time at a race in Fort Mill, S.C. and when I get called up to accept first place I think I was the first Canuck to ever attend the Springbank Road Races.   My prize was a cool, engraved Crystal Bowl, a perfect souvenir that can be used as a Salad or Fruit Bowl I imagine.   When I get back to my sisters’ it was proudly displayed on her mantle, and funnily enough her early morning prophecy was correct.

So that’s the end of the story?   Well, no, I decide to bring the Bowl back to Canada, rather than have her keep it till she drives herself for a visit home, as soon as Christmas which is three weeks away!   Heck, it’s my first ever win, I need to show this off as quickly as possible. So we pack it up safely in a small box, and use all sorts of cushioning, padded items to protect the glass.

Remember now, I have an in-direct flight home, but this little box survives Charlotte to Dallas, an overnight, all-niter after the Cowboys football game, another flight to Toronto, and since I ran out of money an airport transfer on some bus to York Mills Subway station, then a TTC bus just a few more miles to my street in leafy, mid-town Yonge and Eglinton.   I am juggling a suitcase or two, probably something to eat and drink, and the box. I step off the bus, my house is 500 yards away….guess what drops onto the ground?

45 in 45 Race Update - Unlucky 13th

2011-09-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here’s the latest update, 17 races down….28 to go! My body is aching, Advil needed….

Everywhere we go, Jimmy seems to be there!

Here is the updated list, from June 26th till August 28th

1.Huntington Disease Run 10km (with Jefferson)
2.Peachbud 5km
2.5 Peachbud 1-mile Kids run (as Jefferson mascot)
3.Angus Glen Canada Day 5-miler
4.Pride Run 5km
5.Warrior Dash
6.Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon Run
7.Downtown Dash 5km
8.Durham 1/4 Marathon
9.Muskoka Rocks 5km
10. Wilson Wet and Wild Sprint Tri
11. Coburg Duathlon
12. Acura 5km
13. Sunset Shuffle 6km
14. Mid Summer Night Run 15km
15. VR Pro 10km – Children of Merinden Mtn @ Erindale Park (with Jefferson)
16.Slainte Pub 5km
17. Element Racing Off Road Triathlon. (1000 M – 18km – 8km)

—————————————
What’s becoming the MOST fun now is the planning, looking ahead and seeing if there are any new or unique races ahead. Like most athletes we have our bucket lists, so why not get some of these checked off along the way?

David looks to be running the Bupa Great Run in Scotland, as he heads across the pond to visit family. He and Haile Gebreselaisse apparently. When he mentioned the trip, of course we both start searching online for races he can attend. It’s like a game within a game, who can get the most exotic races completed…..
“Sold Out” he says, at 50,000 runners it’s the World’s Largest Half-Marathon.

Some races are this much fun!

“Don’t worry” says I, nothing is Sold Out in my world, check the Media section and fill out an online request for starters. David appears doubtful but he quickly learns the power of our brand. Within 24hrs he has two numbers, one for both of us. I guess I need that clone again.   That same day, I will be on my bike doing 160 kilometres at Centurion Canada (metric Grand Fondo).   Ask me how long my longest ride has been to date?? My butt is starting to sweat just thinking about it.

I will wait till I get to 30 races completed before I worry about the last one, which will include a rather large cake and copious amounts of alcohol to wash it down.

First things first, let me plan the next busy month before I go online and search myself, when I am in England and France for a 12 day holiday end of September (don’t tell Sarah I want to find a race somewhere).   The month of September will include a tough Adventure Race that my buddy Steve and I did not finish last year (Logs, Rocks and Steel)…..

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/02/logs-rocks-and-steel-race-report-2010/

…..and my first Century Ride of the season (160 km’s), so alot of training days still ahead. There may also be another 3-4 race weekend at some point, the most recent one (#’s 15-16-17) didn’t completely kill us.
Since my first Triathlon was such a disaster (race #10) I was hoping for a better result at the Coburg Triathlon last weekend. I’ve done this Olympic Distance race before and although the swim (1500 m) can be rough and wavy, and the bike is super hilly (neither of these disciplines have been prepared for btw), what the heck it looks good on the resume.   My biggest concern was the long swim and what would the water temperature be like (see race #10)!

My wetsuit is still broken (zipper) from last summer, many attempts and phone calls to fix it went un-resolved, so I check-in two days before the race and the water is a balmy 22 or 23 (celsius). Break out the bubbles baby, it’s bath-like.

Race morning we arrive (staff person, dog) late as usual and some friends ask me as I arrive at Transition One do I have my wet suit with me?

….Oh Oh

Race Announcer Steve Fleck shouts another reminder, good news the race is delayed but bad news the water is TWELVE degrees and wet suits are mandatory, plus you might want to double up on swim caps!   Crap! I gambled and lost, but REALLY don’t want to downgrade to the Duathlon, the Acura 10-miler scheduled tomorrow morning is lots of running. I quickly cruise over to a retailer on-site (who will remain nameless) and figure I will buy one.

$245 and I could be the (stupid) owner of a new wetsuit, which I am thinking I may only wear once the rest of the year. The announcer updates everyone that Fog is also still really bad and the Triathlon may actually get cancelled, so now I could really be stupid buying this wetsuit. But I am also really stubborn, and pick one off the rack and dig into my pockets for the $$$$.

Crap again….I only brought a little cash and my Amex card.

“___________________”, do you take Amex?”

“No (in a very harsh and sarcastic tone that befits the individual who has already bankrupt 2 running stores in less than 10 years).

“No?” I repeat, “what about I give you the $60 cash I have and pay the rest on Monday”. (The guy knows me, we used to race against each other and it’s not like his pockets are over-flowing with money)…..

“Yeah right, what if I can sell all these wetsuits to other athletes here today”? (Fat chance even though a small crowd of desperate looking triathletes have moved over to this booth and are trying on wetsuits as well).

“You won’t sell me a wet suit then?” I ask, again, shocked but not completely surprised (we have a history together and no we didn’t share running shoes).

Bah Humbug!

Long story short, I ended up doing my first Duathlon in years, a 10km run, super-hilly 40km bike followed by a 5km run. Boring running mind you…..at least the chocolate milk afterwards went down smoothly.

Sunset Shuffle – 30th anniversary

Now this was fun….and unique….and my first time racing this odd distance and even odder race. Odds are one of these words is not grammatically correct, how odd is that?

Beer always makes for a super post race!

I negotiated brilliantly on this one, traded some sunglasses for me and David race entries, which were only $25. It was like a Time Warp here with old runners (lots of miles under their legs), hand timing, trophies given to 1st and 2nd, no finisher’s medal or tech shirt, Vintage Hot Dogs that tasted amazing when downed with beer.

But that wasn’t the story folks, we took the canoe over! David, Jefferson and myself, from Cherry Beach just a km or so paddle. I have always wanted to do a race on the island and travel this way, so David went along despite the very high, choppy waters we faced.

David and Peter at Cherry Beach, navigating choppy waves over to the Island

Sean dropped off us and shot some video here, then Miki met us @ the race and took some more, for posterity! 4 beers and 4 hot dogs later, a new P.B. for both of us….darkness settles and the four of us head back to the mainland. Our bikes were dropped off ahead by Sean, so technically this was a quadrathalon for David and I. We figure a total of 20km for me adding the boat portion, run and bike home, maybe 30 for David.

If you have never canoed or kayaked across the Lake, at night, when the city lights shine brightly ahead of you, then you aren’t a Torontonian! Of course, it’s risky and somewhat dangerous if you are not careful, we had life jackets, tow rope, bailer and cell phones in case of trouble. The Water Police weren’t impressed with my Blackberry App Torch Light serving as our main source of light, but that’s their problem! (what is the fine anyway)…..our intern from Japan, Miki, squealed a few times when Jefferson moved suddenly in the canoe and we almost tipped, key word “almost”, with my new Playbook on hand I was not about to let $600 go wasted on the bottom of the Lake!

We’ll let the video tell the rest of the story, stay tuned!

Peter
aka Jefferson Mascot

45 in 45 - Updates (Race #10 completed)

2011-08-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

The first milestone race in the pursuit of 45 races completed in my 45th year, I hope the next ones aren’t so crappy!

How can I get mad at him for a broken doggie bag?

This was easily the most stressful race (start) yet, and it could have been the worst one too, my first venture across the border, dog, tent, bike and broken wetsuit in tow, invited by a potential client to check out his new race property. It was actually supposed to be an “easy” weekend, a short 5km run Saturday then the rest of the time, R and R in Niagara (drink wine, cycle, drink more wine, eat, sleep, more wine). etc. But I messed up my schedule and the 5km was a week later, so of course I scramble to find something else to keep this streak going, get as many races under my belt before (pick any) age, injury, boredom or worse slows me down. Sarah was anxious and eager to put her wine tasting skills to the test, so when I found this neat little triathlon organized by a great guy (Dan Horan, pictured here), I figured why not?

Now the sales part.

Happier times before the race.....

“Oh, honey, why don’t we drive Friday after work instead of Saturday morning (at 5:00 am, that would never fly for a nite owl like her). We can stay in the falls and act like honeymooners, then you can sleep in, go for a run and I will do this short little race (600 metre swim, 20 mile bike and 5km trail run).
Well, I at least I kept my part of the bargain! (the honeymoon part), after a hectic 60 minutes trying to find a hotel room of adequate stature, pet friendly, a low floor to lug our bikes in…. no easy task at 9pm on a Friday evening in high tourist season.

Race morning, Jefferson and I head out on another adventure, probably the 200th race we have attended together now. Grab some Tim Horton’s, sweet talk the border guard (remove the MyNextRace magnets from the side panels of course). He actually asked me why I was going across the border to do this “trathlon” thing anyway. I asked him would he not drive across our border to go fishing? (that was risky). He looked like a fisherman. Glad once again he did not open the van doors, we’ve been here before kids, several times trying to cross for the Boston Marathon when we have a van STOCKED with our Team Canada brunch items.

The drive was really pretty, Wilson, NY is on the shores of Lake Ontario, very close to the Niagara on the Lake side (Canada), but the drive through downtown Niagara Falls, NY is brutal. It feels like the world abandoned these poor people, Detroit, Flint Michigan would be nicer….of course we are late, it takes longer than expected to get to the race venue, so we arrive at approx. 8:35 am, for a 9:00 am race start and I have a tent and table to set up, a dog, registration to take care of. Oh, and when Jefferson finally did his morning business, naturally to make things more interesting the bag breaks and 2 of my fingers are covered in $%#$.

Thanks a lot, the “dog gift bag” from the Best Western lets me down……crap. Literally and figuratively. I hear the race announcer saying, “all triathletes down to the water for race instructions”. Oh, and I forgot my bike helmet too, one more item to worry about, plus the wetsuit is broken but I wonder how bad is the water anyway, it’s been a hot month? After I hurredly meet Dan the Race Director, get my entry, bodymarkings, set up tent, table, brochures, bring bike and stuff into transition, find friendly spectator cyclist and trade helmet for free sunglasses, throw tennis ball a few times to give dog some exercise. Did I mention I also went to the washroom, did my business and cleaned the hands with anti-bacterial soap (for those reading and wondering, when did that happen)?

Anyway, none of this really matters except the fact that I did barely make it to the water in time for the last wave start, which was funny as my grey swim cap should have put me in the first wave. I tried to explain to the registration lady (my time does not matter). I walked over to the swim exit to put my sandals, shirt and race bib down on the ground (which I forgot to leave in transition in all the haste). Then I jogged along the beach back over to the swim start and the spectators started yelling at me, thinking I was the first swimmer in Wave One out of the water (“this way, this way they yelled).   Looking back this was pretty funny, I could have skipped the swim altogether and been first out on the bike!

Finally, my race starts, 9:15 I think. I am a very fast swimmer (in a pool), but it’s 62 degrees btw, freak’in cold even for a Canadian.    I am sure the surfers and scuba divers on hand were eying me closely, thinking to themselves, this guy in the grey swim cap started in wave One…… ”hhmm, when is this guy going under”.   I seriously wanted to quit and turn around after 15 metres in, my balls FROZE and my brain CRAMPED.   I stopped and looked back at the warm, sandy shore, then thought what would Dan think of me now.  Here I am an Ironman Finisher and I can’t even stomach some cold water and 600 metres. I plunge back in. The last wave is always a gas as the real newbies, many first timers in open water, start panicking and freaking out, so no matter how bad of a swimmer you are, someone is behind you. I actually passed some swimmers in the wave (4 minutes) ahead of us, that was a surprise. Mark Spitz look out, Phelps II is coming….not.

I did survive the swim, my BALLS thawed and I made it to Transition One,  jumped on my Cervelo sans socks and bike shorts (I brought bike shorts liner instead of my tri-shorts by accident, so as I type this blog 4 days later I still have welts on my inner thighs from riding an hour in wet running shorts). Go ahead, keep laughing…..my pain and discomfort were hidden by the scenic, NY State scenery, countryside and all the mtn bikes I passed!    That’s about the only good thing starting at the back of a triathlon, no one passes you all day. In fact, you can feel rock-star’ish” especially on the run, passing folks left, right and centre. The trail run 5km was awesome, even though I left my running shoes in the back of the van and had to climb the transition barricades to quickly grab them from my car, which fortunately was 20 yards away.   I made every mistake it would seem, including trying to clean dog #$@# on race morning.   The end finally came, and downing two frosty cold Red Bulls at the finish didn’t hurt.

Wiped out in Niagara on the Lake.

They helped ease the sting of the icy cold stare Sarah gave me 2hrs later when I picked her up at Starbucks by the falls, and was too tired all weekend to do much else…..

Race #10 down…, “how many more races in this stupid 45 and 45 to go again”?
—————————————————–

Race #1 – Huntington Disease 10km Run – June 26th
Race #2 – Tim Horton’s Peach Bud 5km (2 days later)
Race #3 – Canada Day 5-miler (2 days later)
Race #4 – Gay Pride Run 5km (4th race in 6 days)
Race #5 – Warrior Dash 5km Obstacle Course
Race #6 – Dowtown Dash 5km – July 14th (rode bike 50+ km’s first)
Race #7 – Run, Wine and Dine Half-Marathon (whine is a better word, for 45 minutes)
Race #8 – Durham 1/4 Marathon
Race #9 – Muskoka Rocks 5km
Race #10 – Wilson Wet and Wild Sprint Triathlon (USA)
————————————————————————————————————————————

Peter Donato
aka Jefferson Mascot

For those who care, here were my Triathlon splits…..

132   Peter Donato             1:57:36   (Total Time and place overall out of 227 athletes)
TM45-49    10/16   (age group placing)
185   (swim rank out of 227 swimmers)
16:27   (swim time adjusted as per starting in last wave)
2:45     (transition #1 – from swim to bike)
131   1:10: (bike time and rank overall)
17.0    (average speed on bike, mph)
2:30   (transition #2, bike to run)
54 (run ranking)
25:o6 (5km trail run time)

45 in 45 - Race Progress Update (Warrior Dash)

2011-07-26T05:34:00.001-07:00

I promised a separate entry for this wild and woolly affair last weekend, but my next two races (#6 and #7) were pretty interesting in their own right, so let’s get straight to the Mud, Sweat and Beers immediately. If you haven’t heard of Warrior Dash and you are someone who races even just occasionally, then sleeping under a rock must also be a hobby of yours. What do you get when you combine a gorgeous summer day, 15,000 people (10, 000 finishers), Live Music and a Beer Garden with a 5km obstacle course at a Southern Ontario Resort? (if you have to even think about this for more than a nanosecond, please stop reading)!

What a Party!

I have been hearing about this “Warrior Dash” for some time, and it’s clearly struck a nerve among the Generation Active set, starting stateside 4 years ago when it was launched. Thanks to some clever social media marketing, the organizers out of Chicago (Red Frog Events) hit the proverbial Home Run on their first attempt in Canada. The event was capped at an ambitious 12,000 athletes (I use this term loosely people) and well over a month before lift off the event hung a SOLD OUT sign on their website. Like a stone gathering speed down a hill, this was THE race of conversation all spring at our booth. With a very busy day already planned, I decided I just could not miss spending the day here, but was I really interested in actually entering the race and getting down and dirty?

After....note the stickers, amazing...still there.....

Not really to be fair, but then I have been there, done that (including a Mud Run years ago), and I have found my clothes, shoes and socks before beyond recognition. One Adventure Race called Logs, Rocks and Steel was a 6hr affair and my buddy Steve and I didn’t even finish!   We were knee and waist deep in one place on the water slogging our canoe through a swamp, it was truly disgusting.   Another 2-day Adventure Race many years ago was a 10hr day that included a complete change of clothes mid-stream, the mud was so thick it took weeks before my bike was clean again. Another 24hr Mtn Bike race where I completed 4 laps included a 2am affair where my lights gave out on me, so 2x I went end-over end on the handlebars in the middle of a forest. My contacts were changed for glasses after I was rudely awoken at 1:45 am (“Peter, wake up, your leg is coming up”).   I had grass and dirt somehow wedged in my glasses, between the frames and lense. How the $#^% did that happen???

I also completed a 160km Bike Ride for Charity, 145 of these km’s in the pouring rain.   That was a long day. And an Ironman Triathlon in a desert (Arizona).

So, when I heard that Warrior Dash was ONLY 5km, I wasn’t about to rush madly and commit myself to the race, afterall, I do attend a lot of these and don’t even try to compete or complete then all. But, with this stupid competition now almost a month completed, 45 races in 45 days, my weekends usually had to include at least one race to keep pace:

Race #1 – Huntington Disease 10km Run – June 28th
Race #2 – Tim Horton’s Peach Bud 5km (2 days later)
Race #3 – Canada Day 5-miler (2 days later)
Race #4 – Gay Pride Run 5km (4th race in 6 days)
Race #5 – Warrior Dash 5km Obstacle Course
Race #6 – Dowtown Dash 5km – July 14th (rode bike 50+ km’s first)
Race #7 – Run, Wine and Dine Half-Marathon (whine is a better word, for 45 minutes)

Well, I don’t need to say much more, the pictures speak volumes.   It was both tougher than I expected (due to the heat and hilly course, plus at 3pm I was up since 5:30 and on my feet all day) and more fun than I expected. The atmosphere made for good times and fond memories, the obstacles weren’t that challenging. In fact, a few more sprinkled in the beginning would have been fun. The post-event shower by firemen, in a slopfest of a cesspool filled with bananas, shirts, shoes (probably 8,000 people were cleaned up here before we were) was unique, to say the least.

My french intern, my cousin, my clients Sean and Matt from Chico Racing, we all had fun indeed, my cousin bought a Warrior Dash mug even!   Definitely a new “to do” event for any endurance athlete’s list, and guys, if you are single…..well, just imagine what the venue was like with 65% of the attendees female, most had to clean up, strip and get semi-naked for the mud to come off.

Caesar would have been envious, thrills for the people and good times all around.

PD
aka Jefferson Mascot
World Record Holder

45 and 45 - Progress Report

2011-07-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well this is going to be a rather long year I suspect…if the first 5 races are any indication, and I will spend more money on race entries in the next year than the last 9 combined!
You can read more on how this started here……

http://www.mynextrace.com/2011/05/45-and-45/

It was innocent enough, fairly straightforward, not that difficult when you consider how many races I actually attend in person in a given year.   I even found some company from the get go, a runner who not only heard about my intentions but as a recently turned 41 year old, she became an inspiration.   “It’s not just me who is crazy……”

The first few races were not exactly text book preparation, race #1 was a 10km on a Sunday morning not far from home, but I was late on arrival and barely made it through registration, hurredly pinning my race bib and snapping a photo (here).    Thankfully Jefferson was completely distracted and stopped to sniff a million times, so my finish time won’t really matter, in fact it was so rushed they didn’t get my race entry processed fast enough! Plenty of time to fix this later…..

My 45th birthday was June 21st, so this was on the 26th, two days later I was at a big client race and again, worked too hard with our tent, display and 200 free sunglass giveaways, so the 5km actually started while I was rushing to the line. My time was okay considering I didn’t get my pre-race “dump” (20:47), which for me is more important than even a fast pair of flats. Pardon the straightforward truth of this!

Fours days hence, 2 more races were knocked down, the 3rd a 5-miler on a golf course that again took place in a hurry….literally I was pinning my bib to my shirt and bounding out of the clubhouse like Tiger when I see the first wave of runners zooming by. At least with chip timing I was able to join a slower wave and weave my way through a pack of runners on a windy, hilly course. I’ve played far better rounds here!   (38:00) …and could have hit some balls along the way and not hurt my time!

Finally, race #4 was a decent effort, slight improvement on the 5km (20:11) although it did nothing to help our MyNextRace team at the annual Pride Run, first time I can recall where i didn’t count in the standings.   At least it wasn’t too rushed and we had fun post-race – guess which picture here is from that event???    lol    I actually ran 2x this evening, the warm up with a few hundred kids was entertaining as I donned the jefferson mascot outfit and stumbled along in the heat for 1km, very difficult with all these little kids around me, but the stricter than Scottish rules for this year-long contest forbid anything less than 5km from counting….but we`ll see who logs the most `miles`in all these races!

I will post a seperate entry for race #5, it requires some thought, a crazy day at my first Warrior Dash. My body is hanging on, I have to make a regular point to stretch more, visit the chiro and improve my diet a little, getting under 20:00 for 5km is the first goal, then under 40:00 for the 10km and eventually breaking 1:30 for a half which will be a first for a long, long time. Along the way I plan on mixing it up with some cycling races, adventure races and a couple of triathlons. Maybe another run in fur too....

My overall pace is good, 2-3 more races should be completed in the next 5 days, so well ahead of pace…..at least it`s not 100 races like Katherine TRYJANKOWSKI from Buffalo, poor thing, she finished number 31 at the Peach Bud, a third of her way finished after 6 months….yikes….and you thought I was weird…..

Peter

Why did you miss that race?

2011-07-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

I am just now sending a notice back to the lovely town of Corfu, New York, population 920 (seriously), look it up, I did:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu,_New_York

I was driving back from Boston for the 11th or 12th straight year, we just wrapped up our 10th anniversary Boston Tea Party - Team Canada Brunch. Eager to get home, grab the dog, speeding ticket ensued....rats.   So it's a few months later I make sure to mail my strange parking notice back to this Court Office, consider me quilty as charged and tell me what I owe Uncle Sam kind sirs. I used to ignore these tickets in my wayward youth (18- until a few months ago), but learned a valuable lesson from a buddy, David, who was turned away en route to the Boston Marathon in 2003 (Rallying the Country):

http://bostonteaparty.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=86

Imagine all the silly excuses for missing a race? Here is what David will have to say 25 years from now..."son, your dad did indeed qualify for the Boston Marathon, but an unpaid parking ticket meant I had to miss the occasion"....wambly Pop....

How about Bike Rash? (me, summer of 2008, pre Ironman training)...hard and uncomfortable lesson here let me tell you. (also known as Butt Rash). I spent more on Penaten baby cream than those quintuplet parents..

Getting lost on the way to a race (somewhere in rural Florida, December 2005, Swamp Land Half Marathon I believe).....my friend and I drove the same loop 3x then realized we were never going to make that starting line on time, turns out we didn't miss much afterall, crap small-time race....saved us $40

Summer Cottage race was cancelled without notifying the participants beforehand (Darren and I, Orillia, 1997 or thereabouts, we wasted a fine Saturday evening of drinking the nite before).

Stayed in bed due to (insert weather problems here)...Cold, Snowy, Ice Storm, Heat Wave. 2002 Spring Run Off in High Park, how bad was it?   The Elite Kenyans never left the VIP tent that morning.....

Injuries? Too common.

Missed Flights (my two friends from Streetsville at Pearson Airport as I boarded the plane for Run Barbados, stand by no luck, one was a Dr.)   Weird, pony up the dough cheapo....

How about Jail?   Tough to make the starting line when you're behind bars, I actually know a runner who missed a race for this, crazy stuff.....

Misread the race application.......easy to do in the 1980's and 1990's before websites existted.   I was at a race one Sunday morning, London Ontario in fact, Springbank Park Road Races.  In the parking lot as I unloaded the car, I see a guy running along wearing the shirt of the upcoming Toronto Marathon I knew of.   "Guess you won't be attending that race this year?"....I ask, knowing that the race was this very same morning, 225 km's away....

"Oh yeah, I registered and look forward to next weekend".

Silly.

I am certain someone, somewhere missed an event by leaving behind crucial equipment, like a bike helmet, a bike....running shoes possibly?   Happened to me but fortunately I was able to borrow a friend's running shorts at the 11th hour, felt weird the whole time....

I almost missed a race because I decided to experiment with adding caffeine to my diet....2 large Kenyan Blend coffees pre-race, not smart, upset stomach for 10km's....should have mailed it in, stubbornly went ahead and paid the price at the half-way point. Nothing worse than being 5km away from the start line of a 10km run and you can't exactly stop.

How about you? Anything weird and wonderful to share?

Peter
peter@mynextrace.com

Dream Race Contest!

2011-06-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right folks, imagine you could go anywhere and participate in that ultimate fantasy for endurance athletes.....well someone from our community is going to WIN this summer.

We're (finally) re-launching our website this summer and we figured why not create a stir.....a frenzy....get everyone all hot and bothered! Oh wait, that's another web-site for another day....

The idea just arrived in my over-worked brain the other day, as our MyNextRace team was entered in one of my favourite races, the all-day Moraine for Life Adventure Relay. Paddling, mountain biking, trail running, spending the day outside. Bliss.....and I remembered an amazing list of races on my "to do" list, inspired by the surroundings, sweat and comraderie of friends:

Comrades Marathon - South Africa Ultra (down)
BC Bike Race - an epic 7-day mtn bike adventure
Paris, Berlin and London Marathons (to complete the set)
Alpe Duez - ask any frenchmen or roadie, they'll know....
Trans Alp - ditto if it's a hard core Euro mtn biker
Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon - yikes
Antarctica Marathon - must meet Penguins before I die
any race on a beach in Australia - there must be one.....
Beer Mile - in Germany of course....
the Amazing Race (with my sister, we would fight all the way through)
the Vermont Adventure Race over three days, killer distances.....
Tour d'Afrique - I need time away from the world one day.....
Madoc Marathon - look it up, you won't believe it!
Ironman Hawaii - the original
Laugaveguer Ultra 50km (Iceland)
Midnite Run in Central Park, NYCity, New Years's Eve

And on and on.....

I hope this blog gets you thinking, and it could be that you just want to finish something straightforward, like your first 5 or 10km run, but maybe in an exotic locale...Iceland has a 5km too!

I am lucky, blessed even, to have been in Boston for the 100th, and run a half-marathon in Reijkavik, the 10km in Quebec City, the Miami Half-Marathon, the Rome Marathon with my father and eight cousins watching, Sea to Summit Adventure Race, the Wall Street 5km (before 911), Run for the Toad 25km, Logs, Rocks and Steel Adventure Race (we didn't even finish). Ironman Arizona.....Cabot Trail and Jasper Banff Relay Races.....on and on....

Start dreaming, and send in those ideas....

--------------------------------------------------------------

Contest Details:

Over the next 30 days submit your entry to http://www.facebook.com/mynextrace

Entry's can include photos, text, video etc. The more creative you are the better!

-Must be 18 or over
-Contest winner will receive flight, accommodations, race entry PLUS MyNextRace racing swag
-Top 3 finalists will be contacted
-Trip must be valued at $10,000.00 or less

Tips on how to increase chances:
-Submit race videos and photos to our facebook page
-Have your Facebook friends ‘like’ your entry

Peter
aka Jefferson
World Record Holder

45 and 45

2011-05-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bruce from Barrie (I believe)...for the credit on this post, and maybe a few more.

I always encounter interesting athletes at our booth on race day, over the years in so many venues, cities and situations. Some I would rather not be reintroduced to!   Recently, at the Mercedes 10km Run where they actually give out a free, kick-ass car for a year's use, a guy stops at the table to ask this question.

Guy:   "How many of these races on your table give out medals?"

Me: "You only want to attend a race that gives a medal"?

Guy: "I need to find 40 races that give out a medal at the finish line, in the next year"

Me: (under my breath....so that's what the sport has come to, a medal or nothing...loser...)

Me: "Hhmmm, let's have a look, that's the first time I've had this request before".   We comb the 6-foot table covered with over 50 races and events, like we're digging for something valuable like Gold.

Me: "How about Clevelend next weekend, there are 3 races here, all with medals"

Guy: (he actually, excitedly grabs the Cleveland Marathon, 1/2 and 10km race entry postcard, has he ever been to Cleveland?)

A few minutes later, another satisfied customer walks away from MyNextRace.com.   But he got me thinking, why does he want these medals, as I wonder where my 200+ medals must be, a box somewhere I gather. So in the crowd I go find him, curiosity killed this cat.

tap on shoulder

Me: "Aahh, me again, may I ask why you wanted only races that gave out medals at the finish line?"

Guy: "I turn 40 this year and want to do 40 races."

Me: "That sounds logical"

Seriously though...very interesting....something to ponder, which I did all day....yeah, Sunday's should be like that!

I turn 45 myself in a month, how many races have I already run this year, maybe it's not such a bad idea afterall. Medals however aren't necessary for me, just the race bib would do fine, plus I expect to get in better shape and win a few hard-earned age group medals myself. My best year ever was probably 25 races, and I really did "race" alot of those, whereas now it would be just to finish I imagine.

Here is where I stand in 2011

Miami Half-Marathon, as me.
Gasparilla (Tampa) Half-Marathon as Jefferson (that should count as 2 races shouldn't it)?
Achilles Toronto St. Patrick's Day 5km (as Jefferson, but it was slow, cold and easy in all the fur).
Spring Run Off 8km in High Park
Sporting Life 10km
5 races and counting, but four months in already, crap. I was just @ two this weekend and decided not to run either of them!

At this pace I stand little chance, however, there are so many races in our local calender alone, my head starts to spin, I love this idea! At least one weekend a month I would be able to do 3-4 races as there are many evening selections available, and, some mornings it's quite possible to run a 5km at 8 am and another within an hours drive at 10 am. Plus, how about all the Master's Track events like 1500's and such, those are mid-week and easy to finish. (now I am already cheating the system)......

Now who is nuts here or what......

Back at the office, I mention this to David, the company (present) fastest runner and avid toer of the line. (that means he likes to race folks). "My birthday is 8 days apart from yours".

Game On.

Now we have to decide on a starting point, rules and regulations (does a charity bike ride count, if it's 3-4 days of solid riding, or how about multiple stages in a relay race where you have a definitive, start-finish point and it's clocked) and finally, prizes! Do we start at our respective birthdays, moving forward 12 months, or do we start on the first day of this calender year (January 1st), and count races within the calender year?

Any suggestions?

Anyone reading this turning 50, or 60???

(:

PD
peter@mynextrace.com
aka Jefferson Mascot

Remembering Danny

2011-05-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

I was just finishing my latest post this morning (blog), trying to get started again on regular contributions to the running and endurance athlete community.

Then my staff asked me if I heard the news.   "Danny Kassap is dead".   I didn't believe it at first, he was just @ our MyNextRace booth yesterday morning after the Sporting Life 10km, something he always does whether racing or not.   As per the Danny I have known for many years, he was smiling and showing off another girlfriend to me.   "Hey Peter, check out my friend, she's Italian like you""!   Always that smile, care-free and innocent, with a twist of mischevious laughter. Danny should have been in a Crest toothpaste commercial. Or, if they remake the Prefontaine movie with an African twist, Danny Kassap would have the leading role all sewn up.

But now the smile is gone, so how best do we remember a fellow running friend?

I remember many years ago when he was introduced to the local running scene, the kid from the Con
go with an incredible story, and even more incredible lungs. Escaping persecution and poverty, the scar on his body to show a life far different that any of us could imagine. Those skinny, powerful, fast legs.   We would hear about his race workouts, or small track meet results he posted with no taper, and high mileage stories. Wispering as if we couldn't believe what we heard. My friend and first known Danny Kassap agent, Jamie Black, was a member of the University of Toronto Track Club who always found time to help an elite athlete with his or her marketing needs. I was pretty fast myself in those days and found myself a few times running with Danny, like I really belonged in his company.

Once on a long run one Sunday morning, in the winter, we were plodding along on yet another 20-mile long run, and Danny was loping about with us to get the miles in. Dammit if he never looked tired...bored in fact, and always smiling, encouraging us to "keep moving" or "run faster", laughing while he said this but not laughing at us, with us, like only Danny could get away with.

Jamie was always recruiting me to help Danny find some races to win much-needed prize money. In those early days (2002 - 2005) his citenzenship did not allow for him to leave Canada, so we would pitch in to drive him to a race, no matter how small.   He worked at a fish and chip store for some time, cleaning floors, a hard worker and eager to please. He would even call me sometimes, and though my company was small and fledgling, I would tell him to come over and stuff race kits, and pay him whatever I could, including in "swag" (energy bars, samples, Juice Plus+). He was always grateful, that was his style, but if he sold anything I gave him it didn't matter.

Danny would smoke the local competition and pick up pocket money, or if he won a reasonable prize like a watch or running shoes some of us would buy them from him!   (not much of a discount either, his negotiation skills were impressive). A friend of mine who wished to remain anonymous even arranged for me to drive Danny in August, 2005 to Quebec City late one summer, so he could enter the big 1/2 marathon, his gas, hotel and expenses were covered. Upon arriving, his entourage of girls became apparent to me, of course he had "fans" in every city, especially after racking up all his victories.

"Ah, Danny, let's focus on the race this weekend, afterall, we are here to win, remember?"

"Don't worry Peter, don't worry (laughing, smiling), I willl win, you'll see".... as he wanders off, chest out, enjoying the Rock Star status that befits Canada's top endurance athlete.   We shared a room that first nite (Friday), I never saw him come back to the room naturally.   Of course he won Sunday, a blistering 1:05 on a rolling course, ho hum another day at the office. Racing came naturally to him, as he seemed to relish the opportunity to compete against the few peers that were available, usually some other Kenyans who hung around the north-eastern road racing circuit.

We even contacted many Race Directors who were always looking for an angle or way to get their race in the news, so a few agreed to pay Danny (or, put up prize money once knowing he would win),  assuming as well that their course record was about to be demolished.   "After he runs, you'll be able to show runners that you had running royalty at your race! Mississauga Half-Marathon, 2004 (1:04:14), Muskoka Rocks 10km 2006 (31:30), Angus Glen Half-Marathon, 2006 (1:06:41), Alfie Shrubb 8km 2008 (24:39).....and on and on.   Go and look up these races yourself, the course records are outstanding, mind-boggling in some instances. Go Danny Go.

His legendary racing reached mass awareness at the 2004 ScotiaBank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, where Danny's career took off.   It's a memory I will always cherish. We all knew that Danny was special, and if he would just listen to his coaches his training would pay off with some wins.    "Scotia" was gaining in popularity with the big international races, and the field of Elite men contained some bona fide road racing stars from around the world. I was hanging around the finish line area on race morning, when Jamie excitedly told me that Danny was hanging with the lead pack after the 1/2 way point.

"Let's go out there and give him some support" was Jamie's breathless advice, like we were going to have an impact on his outcome by cheering on the sidelines.

"I have my bike here, why don't I race out there to see how he is doing"?

"Brilliant".

So off I go, like a madman, who cares about my tent and booth, Danny's in the lead pack!

I get out to the beaches, where the race turns around and heads back into the city. The lead pack has whittled to 3 runners, with no one in sight for 4th place.   It's a duel in the sun as the temperature rises with each passing kilometre, game faces are on each of three runners, Joseph Kahugu, defending champ Joseph Nderitu and Danny, whose smile is no where to be seen at this point. This is serious business, running for glory and $24,000 in first place prize money, a king's ransom for a fish and chips floor cleaner. The course between 30-37 km's allows for a cyclist to zoom along the sidewalks, but I remember to put my Media / VIP pass around my neck, so the police officers let me ride among the official vehicles and motorcyclists.

"Danny, you're in third place, hang in there!" ...I scream, my legs pumping fast just to keep up with these runners, chasing down first place overall.   It seems surreal at the moment, and I call in to the finish line with the on-course updates, which Jamie passes along to Kevin the finish line announcer. It's clearly a home-town advantage, Danny can surely hear the crowds at the finish line all cheering him on. "C'mon Danny, this is it, you can WIN this, don't look back, keep turning those legs."

The pack returns along Lakeshore, and at Coxwell Avenue past the 37km mark Danny makes his move. It's amazing, he just punishes the next mile and puts a 10-second gap on 2nd and third place. I almost fell off my bike, trying to keep up and text the finish line.   "Holy cow, he's in the lead!"   I can just imagine Jamie reacting by running around the finish line area, telling everyone in sight the news.

Now we reach the 4km mark to go, 38km, and I need to keep Danny's spirit up as he is appearing to now pay the price for his surge.   "Peter, how far to go, how long for the finish?" ..asks Danny, the sweat pouring off his brow, victory is in sight but the chase pack has not gotten away. "Just 3km's left - a small white lie - pretend you are @ the U of T track, and it's a 3000 metre race, almost there...less than 9 minutes of running.

2 kilometres later...."Peter, where's the finish line...(:

We had a laugh about this many months and many times later, the gap had actually widened, and Danny would win by over 3 minutes, his surge at 37 kilometres actually did the job.    At 40km the race was over. But I didn't want Danny to know, he was on an Olympic qualifying pace, who knows if he would get his papers sorted out in time....

The next year was special, Danny was able to take advantage of new sponsors, quit his job and focus on running. I even attended his wedding at Scarborough City Hall, first time for me in this type of venue. The party after was interesting, Danny kept smiling, saying to me, "I beat you".   To the altar that is, yes Danny, even at a wedding it's all about winning.

PD
peter@mynextrace.com

-------------

ed note - The U of T Track team has started a fund for Danny's funeral costs, please donate here:

http://dannykassapmemorial.com/

streak ends! Sporting Life 10km

2011-05-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

HA!

Not much of a streak....I renewed my excitement in Boston while spectating, and started a daily commitment to exercise, mostly running for now. I even put a note in my blackberry calender to remind myself, EVERY DAY, to do something for 45 minutes. Seemed so easy at the time, just 45 minutes....

I even did a 90-minute Yoga class last week, for the first time in 3 years!   It was torture folks, I always have amazing respect for these limber souls who don't seem to have anything "tight" in their muscles like I do. My amazing 3-day running streak ended Thursday with a rather bad case of "something" down there (think George Brett circa 1980), luckily it only lasted a few days and it was over the Easter Weekend. It was worth it though! I Spent over 7 hours on an old, steel chair at a poker game celebrating my father's 75th birthday, with a bunch of his friends. Won over $300 on the evening, got to bed at 4 am so my workout would have been pretty bad the next day in any case!

I did manage a rather un-impressive track workout with my 8-year old niece who shot to sudden stardom after her first-ever cross country race (3rd place among 65 girls). Just before the Sunday family dinner we went to the local high school track, crushed gravel, old time stuff. That was a day after the Yoga class and a very slow 15km bike ride with Jefferson and Sarah.

I squeezed a few more runs in with Jefferson including a brisker than normal 9km run after a running talk with the beaches running club.   This was in cotton underwear, track pants and a short sleeve cotton shirt, more old time running!   I ran my first "fast" race since the mascot record run @ the Scotia Marathon last fall, a sub 42:00 10km at Sporting Life, one of the best races in Canada and although an asterisk goes beside your finish time (it's all downhill), it is a great venue for really pushing it all the way. (which I have not been able to motivate myself to do much the last few years).

Today I am stiff, sore and paying the price for yesterday's run, I managed to actually warm up for the first time @ this event in many years, running from the 1km mark up to start, and doing a little bit of stretching. The first km was 4minutes, and with a few stops to chat briefly with friends and walk through water stations, it was a pretty good effort. But, straight to our booth and the madness that ensues for the next 2 hours d 36oes not allow for any cool down, so the next 36hrs will be interesting.

Might need that epsom salt bath or hot tub soon, and definitely a trip to the chiropractor!

Can't wait to see how long I can keep this up!   Now it's time to vote, don't forget yourself if you live in Canada and are reading this, good luck to good friend Peter Fonseca and former 2:11 marathoner, who runs his 3rd campaign but first in Federal Politics.   H faces the Liberal Party equivalent of the Titanic, all bets are off as voters abandon the red ship across the country....

PD
peter@mynextrace.com

Fitness For Ever - Tips and Motivation cont'd

2011-04-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I just returned from another Boston Marathon, #15 for me now. I think. 5 running, 10 "working", but I am getting tired of being a spectator.   So I decided, next year, 2012, when I turn 45, I need to be at that starting line again.

Which I have to earn (qualify).

That's the hard part. It would be easy to accept a free entry which we have access to, but I would never do that, I have too much respect for the race. Running as a mascot has been suggested, but maybe Jefferson will also qualify one day!   I do have the advantage of qualifying well after the field fills up, as I may need a very late 2011 marathon, or even 2012 like Miami to get fit in time.

The easy part is that I have been there before, and think now I can make do with less mileage than before, which was usually 50-60 miles a week with tonnes of track, speed and tempo work. This time, I am going to mix it up, cross train, use some races for speedwork and see what happens. Jefferson (the real dog) will be along my side all the way, the best training partner available!   It's been years since I did any quality training, but I do know that the body "remembers" all the past trainings, mileage and like a piggy bank saves this up for future reference. Since my last serious racing (spring 2008) I do have an ironman (fall 2008) under my belt and two World Records! (running in fur, albeit slow, still counts as training in my book).....(:

For 5 consecutive years, I sat in the Media Room at Boston, and enjoyed watching the race unfold, occasionally writing, eating alot(!)...hob-knobbing with Running Royalty.   Bordin, Pippig, Clayton, Rodgers, it's been easy to stay motivated, but translating that into fitness something else.

Last weekend, attending the Champions Breakfast, I met Ron Hill, 1970's winner and reigning "streaker" record-holder (no days missed running since 1964).*   I decided that I would re-start my own fitness streak, knowing full well that if 21 days passes and you can maintain a consistent pattern then it may very well become a new habit. Changing my diet will be key (too much sweet, salt, alcohol and caffeine to name just four), and, getting up earlier to get this out of the way before my days take over.

So as I write this, it's 3 days successful.....lol

Tip #1 in a series of these tips, create a plan. As Katherine Switzer would say. So, here's my plan.   Every day, no matter what, I will do at least 45 minutes of exercise, mostly running for now, but soon cycling will easily be added. I need to stretch more and work out these aging creaks and cracks, so 15 minutes daily will be started too. Watch out, Yoga may follow.....yikes...

Tomorrow we'll get to the goals.

Regards,

Peter D.
aka Jefferson the Mascot
Guinness Book World Record Holder

Slow and Steady

2011-02-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

Fitness Tip #417.

If you missed the first 416, check your shoelaces, drink lots of water and eat more fruits and vegetables.

Now let's skip way ahead to more serious training advice. My girlfriend was planning her new running career on a recent commute to her office.   She lives only a few kilometres from work, spoiled all winter with morning drives and fresh coffee.

Bootcamp starts March 1st honey!

With the eagerness of a 10 year old the day before school begins, she's discussing her training schedule and plans for conquering the sport of running. "Rome wasn't built in a day, dear".   (or something like that). So I explain.....

Success in sport takes time, unfortunately too many eager beavers (modern day, type A, hard working 30-40 somethings who demand fast results) get into sports like cycling, running and triathlons and expect immediate gratification.

Now don't get me wrong, very quickly someone can hack a few minutes off their 5 and 10 km run times (90 days). In just a few seasons I have seen many long distance runners lop double-digit gains from their 26.2 mile journeys, with some dropping 30-45 minutes from their finish times.   Usually it's a weight issue combined with a super strong desire to brag a little more in the coffee shop. By "weight" I mean those easy extra pounds that we all carry around with us, the first 10-15 that melt away after the routine of adding more miles each week, month after month.

Some of us have ALOT more to give back..which is awesome of course. The tricky part seems to be 3-4 years in, many hit the "fitness wall". The game is over. Complacency sets in. Races are entered for "fun" and "scenery" as PB's are over. It takes SO MUCH effort to shave 30 seconds now from a 10km, or a few minutes in a marathon, doesn't seem to be worth all the sweat, pain and dinners free from 2nd desserts.

Let me share with everyone a simple, proven, scientific fact that yours truly also went through years ago.

stay tuned.

Be hopeful....

Logs Rocks and Steel Race Report (2010)

2011-02-22T20:16:00.001-08:00

If you drop your Clif Bar and Eload Gel in the forest will anyone hear you scream?

(When you are starving 60 minutes later and discover them missing)? (:

I am sitting exhausted and slightly drunk 7 hrs after finishing just 2/3 of an amazing Adventure Race today, the 3rd Annual Logs Rocks and Steel. It takes place in beautiful (and, rugged) Haliburton, near Dorset, two hours NE of Toronto. It's actually billed as an Off-Road Triathlon with a paddle in lieu of a swim. "No navigation required" is how they advertise this, and McDonald's claims that they have healthy food on their menu too.

This is the canoe Steve and I had to haul over 9 portages, we hate you Bob!

I would rather have swam in a murky pond with tall weeds than go through that "paddle" again. Or babysit 4 kids under 4. But more about that later....let's talk about Bob Millar the Race Organizer and my friend Bill Wells first.

This unique race was actually created by a couple of extreme athletes, so I should have thought about that before I entered and then trained very little this summer. Bob Millar and his team mates like Chiropractor Bill Wells race around the world in multi-day races such as this one, so it's kinda cool to race on their practice turf! Google their names and put adventure race after, see what pops up.

I bumped into Bill when Steve and I checked in late the nite prior. For those new here, Steve Jones is my Go-To Adventure Racing partner, now our 4th time racing together over the years. He's a friend from the running club days, and really into hard core experiences such as ironman triathlons, extended canoe trips into the wilderness and commuting daily through Toronto traffic into Mississauga. Finally, Steve also lives in Scarborough, where he grew up, so that says it all.

When he trains for his annual marathons, he drinks virtually no water and sport drink on his long runs, so I don't feel guilty when he refuses to drink from my camel back 90 minutes into our 2hr trail run today. He's the perfect racing partner in these events, a seasoned pro, tough as nails. Until I ask him to check his map and he asks "what map"?

But enough about the fittest 52 year old on the planet, back to Bill Wells!

P.D."How are you expecting to do tomorrow?.... I ask, a pretty natural thing to say on the eve of an epic day of racing, with someone who has stood on more than a few podiums.

B.W. "Well I was 2nd last year (by 5 minutes – despite getting lost for 18 minutes on the bike) so I am going for first place again.

P.D. "Wow, are you in better shape this year?"

B.W. "I finished 4^th in 4:35 2 weeks ago in a half-ironman triathlon, but Jacob Van Dorp (last years Logs Rocks Steel winner) was 4:29, so he's fitter too".

(Sounds like Rocky 2 shaping up tomorrow in the forest)

Ed note - I too did a few training races to warm up for this, but somehow a 90 minute race at the recent Toronto Triathlon doesn’t seem quite enough! Not to mention last nite instead of stretching, visualizing and loading up on a Power Smoothie I drank a few Coronas, ate an entire bag of Sun Chips and watched the U.S.Open till midnite.

B.W. “Are you guys ready and fit for tomorrow (or something polite like that)?”

P.D. “Oh yeah, but we’re not that serious, we even made sandwhiches”! (famous last words, seriously)

Good luck Bill!

Race Morning

So Steve and I took off on the first leg, a 15km Trail Run followed by the paddle section of 16km, with "3" portages (advertised). Within seconds my trusty sidekick is down, 100 yards into the run, I guess we should have found a coffee this morning. Wearing his road running shoes wasn't a good idea either, but that's Steve. Between his retro, minimalist clothing and gear (his mountain bike has pedals more suitable to a cruiser) and my skimpy 1999 run shorts with "Ride for Karen" cycling socks we kinda show up at the starting line unprepared. That’s why we don’t do these every month.

To be fair it was raining and the majority of the run made a typical 5Peaks Trail Race look like a walk on the beach. Logs, Rocks, Moss, Broken Twigs, Hidden Tree Roots, Slippery Canadian Shield and Steel would be a better race title. In fact, we found racer #1’s bib on the ground, Jacob Van Dorp, who actually has his own web-site – www.vandorpracing.com. Surely that cannot be a good sign when the fastest competitor loses his race bib due to the terrain….

Oh, and mud...swamps, bogs and a whole bunch of rain turned the 15km run into a 2hr struggle. And it didn't help our cause when we were passed by a female solo racer. Personally, I don't mind, since my Ironman 2 years ago I am at peace with my career. She looked very fit and experienced and Steve was okay with this one. However, a few km's later when the 2nd gal shuffles by straight out of a Running Room 1/2 marathon clinic, wearing a new Lance Armstrong "Livestrong" cycling top no less, well that was too much for Steve.

I had been struggling as usual after 45 minutes with my tight Soas muscles, a long-ago tennis injury that resurfaced after 4-5 years of heavy volume running. Combined with a lot of time sitting in a chair (working) and on a bike the last few years, it’s an unusual “injury” that is treatable with a lot of stretching and deep tissue manual active release therapy.

Who the heck has time for all that anymore!

So I have to stop and stretch a few times and take walking breaks, but Steve is chomping at the bit, and for someone who began racing in the late 1970’s with a 2:50 marathon p.b. he’s old school and has his breaking point. Me? The more women in tight shorts who pass me, the better vantage point in my opinion, Girl Power has my vote!

Steve is clearly not happy, he’s picked up the pace, he’s mumbling under his breath and his fists are clenched, precisely why I pick him for these zany adventures! We’re also soaked, from head to toe. The rain continues to fall, and even in the canopy of the forest we’re getting pelted from above, while a river crossing and numerous puddles / swamps / bogs have soaked our feet many times over.

Finally we reach our canoe, 2hrs later, starved of course and eager to rest our legs. As a rule in these events I carried a camel back with our First Aid supplies, emergency thermal blankets, whistles, emergency sport gels and 2-liter water supply. I was smart and experienced enough to bring dozens of various sport bars, gels, liquid fuel options and other snacks to keep our tummies filled while we navigated through mother nature’s finest terrain. I was stupid enough to leave everything in the car, back at the starting line!

“Steve, I can’t find ANY bars in here, we’re screwed! All I have our these two e-load gels, what about you?” My trusty team-mate nervously hands over a half-eaten bar, knowing full well it could be the last fuel we have as we embark on 16km’s of paddling and portaging. What are team-mates for after all, I did provide breakfast at 6:30 am of fruit and stale, cold potaoes….

As we pull on our $110 swank, sporty life jackets from MEC, I see a Clif Bar and E-load Gel in the convenient pockets where you would smartly store this emergency food. “Wait, I did bring something afterall, yippee”….as I unzip the pocket and show off my stash, like a proud 14-year old showing off a toad scooped out of a pond. It was like I found an unclaimed lottery ticket worth a million dollars so valuable these 400 calories were.

Of course in my excitement putting them back I failed to zip up the pocket, some lucky hiker or wandering rodent will hopefully enjoy these trail offerings one day in the future.

THE PADDLE

The paddle / portage was breathtaking, as promised by the race organizers and testimonials from past participants. Despite the cloud, rain, fog and inclement weather, we mixed our consistent strokes with expressions of “wow”, “look at that” and extended of silent stares of the beauty surrounding us. Some of the small lakes were void of any human contact, and what few cottages we saw were cute, simple and a breath of fresh air from the many new, modern “cottages” I was used to seeing and sleeping in Muskoka. There were even some cool wall-like rock facings that were tempting to climb and jump below into the warm, inviting waters. I found myself constantly dipping my hands through the water to enjoy the sensation of clean, bath-like water, but also do clean the mud from each portage!

We also enjoyed many “breath-taking” moments hauling this large, rather heavy canoe (compared to everyone else’s kayaks and rented canoes). We won’t re-print what was said after our 6^th portage, over a kilometer long, up and down slippery, narrow, rock-covered trails. We felt more like movers carrying a Grand Piano on a winding staircase, with broken treads! We were finally rewarded with a short, small paddle over lily pads, around displaced logs and clumps of mud sitting on the surface. Crazy stuff!

But the (pick one) “piece de resistance” was the swamp? beaver dam pond? Home of the Bog Monster? we mucked through for 100 yards to reach yet another heavenly piece of land. Imagine gingerly placing your foot outside the comfy confines of a canoe, and carefully placing it on what appears to be the surface. The first step is fine, like Neil Armstrong’s nervous first step on the moon must have felt like. You breathe a sigh of relief. The next step, WHOMP, your foot disappears and never touches the bottom, only your mid-section (called BALLS on a guy) stops your leg from ending up in China. After you recover from the shock and wonder if something alive down there has been disturbed. You pull your leg up so it can gasp at fresh air. You can only hope that your stinking, wet sock has discouraged something living below this disgusting piece of earth is taken aback by the smell and isn’t ready to make a meal out of you just yet.

It’s at precisely this point that we wonder why we didn’t sleep in 6 hours ago.

Some of the paddling was truly spectacular!

Needless to say, Steve and I continue our conversation and wonder if quicksand really exists. “Of course it does Steve, even here in Ontario” (that will get him thinking the next time he visits Algonquin Park). Even the solo female kayakers we had company with over the past hour were starting to lose their patience, in the water, out, in the water, out of the water, it seemed like more distance was spent carrying our boats and less actually in them.

We scarfed down our two emergency gels, and Steve finished his Gatorade bottles, but we were both running out of fuel as we scrambled and screamed our way through the last portage of almost 2 kilometres. At least it was the flattest, and we were still in the company of one remaining solo kayaker from Newmarket, Melissa. She was racing with us until dropping our sorry butts on this last land crossing. Finally, Lake St. Nora, where the Frost Centre (and our race start line) was situated. Soggy and half-worn, I decided now was a good time to check the map. We were into a fierce wind now, an open lake with no protection. Small white caps were showing themselves in the choppy waters. We were out of fuel save for some water in my camelback, and Steve utters the line of the day. “It’s not that bad out here!” Almost as good as his bold, obvious statement a few miles earlier, “I guess we should hit the gym next year and lift some weights”.

God love my racing partner, but did I mention he was MAD as a HATTER? Now the rain was coming down again. Brutal. The sun had yet to break through the clouds so the wet clothes from mile #2 on the run are still, yes, wet. Our arms were pounding from all the heavy lifting we did over 9 portages at last count. But there was a blessing ahead of us finally, and she was looking prettier than ever, our angel on the water. Melissa was struggling too! “Yes!”, we had to shout, we’re not alone in our misery out here….Indeed, our brave solo Kayaker was going backwards like we were, and appeared to be waiting for us to catch up. “Steve, I believe she’s lost as well”

So we mosy on up beside her Kayak, and look at her dry, fresh map (of course women are organized) for some indication of where to head next. “I think THAT is the Frost Centre over there” motions Melisaa, pointing thru the rain and foggy horizon. “The red building straight ahead”. Now what follows is probably the stupidest sentence in the history of adventure racing. Ever. Worldwide. In history. All time. Stupidist, if that’s really a word.

“No, that’s not the Frost Centre, it’s much further THIS way” (opposite direction, further away from where we started, further away from the two other boats behind us who went THAT way 45 minutes ago). “NO WAY is that the Frost Centre”. Emphatically.

Now please understand that the person (me) saying this has actually never seen the Frost Centre from the lake, or during daylight, or a picture in a magazine, tourism guide or from a plane above. This same person (me) has actually never properly read an adventure racing map and is 0-5 in these types of events that require the study, analysis and execution of map reading. This same person (me), however, actually sounds rather convinced and convinces our poor friend from Newmarket to listen to the idiot.

2 hours later, we found the Frost Centre. And we were frosty, frozen and when we found out we missed the bike cut-off, someone on our team was Frosty Mad.

The Bike

There was no bike….lol

FINISH

So here we are, in my van, which I strategically parked close to the bike transition area, so we could change if needed quickly into our bike clothes, and more importantly we can access those two great sandwhiches I made! Oh, and for the visibility of the logo.

Steve is still fuming. We are officially DNF’ed, but I know we can sneak off and finish the bike portion, which is our strongest talent this summer. I can tell he’s itching to get on his mountain bike. “Buddy, just eat your sandwhich, I’ll turn up the heat, and we’ll get out there and finish this thing.” I look over and Steve is shaking like a leaf. We’ve been off the water for 20 minutes, the heat is full-on inside the van too. “Ah, Steve, I think we’re done for the day……”

they REALLY were amazing sandwhiches....

We are parked 40 yards from the port-o-lets. I look and see a familiar face getting into one. “Look, it’s Bill Wells, he must be finished”.

I look at my watch….impossible. But Bill’s body language and facial expression suggests he is finished the war in the forest (Rambo 6). It isn’t very positive, . I roll down the window, calling him over. “Hey Bill, how was the race?” He walks over, probably thinking those are good-looking sandwhiches. His face is covered in mud, which tells the tale more than any words can.

“I didn’t win, I was 3^rd, the run went fine but in my new Kayak all those portages meant lots of scratches….I wasn’t prepared to bust up my new boat today.

That sounds like a logical strategy to me. We held back for fear of getting our socks really dirty.

Steve, pass me the corn chips.

Peter

p.s. Congrats to Jacob Van Dorp for winning his 3rd race of the season, adding titles at the Frontier Adventure Challenge, Rockstar and now Logs Rocks and Steel. Up next, the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge. Sounds tame….

Barb Campbell takes home first place among the women, she’s a three time North American Rogaining champ, Canadian Orienteering Champ (Steve, we follow her next time) and Ski Marathon champ. Both winners get to represent Canada in New Zealand later this fall for yet another ridiculously long, wet/cold/hot adventure in the wilds….

Raven Run Part 2

2011-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this guy is sucking us in to run 8 miles, I can still feel the Corona in my belly. It's pretty warm, it's now 4:45 and the group is antsy.

"We just ate, so maybe we can just take some pictures and join you tonite for the dinner"

Sarah nods approvingly, fear and shock would better describe her facial expression when I suggest maybe we should run then.   "It's only eight miles, and we can walk/run it".

Raven:   "You can't attend the dinner if you're not in "the book".

Sarah: "What book?"

Peter: "There's  a book too?"

Sexy Canadian: "Well it's actually a list, of every runner who has ran 8 miles with the Raven".

Canuck: "C'mom, you have to run now, you are here, and you'll get a nickname too"

Sarah and Peter:   "A nickname"?

Raven: "So are we running or what"....

(you get the jist of the conversation, as I mull over the possibility, and Sarah recovers from the reality that instead of another round of margaritas on a patio, after an easy bike ride, she may have to run again, with the wrong bra no less)

Peter:   (to Sarah).   "We have to run, we may not be here tomorrow, or for another year in fact!"

Josh pipes in (my friend and exposure #1):   "You are running aren't you?"

Peter: (to Raven) "How fast do you guys go?"

Raven: "After 35 years...trust me...it's not that fast"

Sexy Canadian: "But you have to be back before Raven leaves the beach or you don't get on the list"

Sarah and Peter:   "Rats".

Sarah:   "We just ate, and I am not dressed. No way can I do this, especially after eating``

Peter: ``Ì will go with you (famous last words, every runner has said this to a slower companion)....it will be fun, trust me (more famous last words).

So the group takes off, we`re at the back, and now there are 20 runners, Raven starts Roll Call and introduces the new people. What a memory, and he mentions my World Record too (mascot marathon). He also appreciates me and Commando in our barefeet, so he asks me what my nickname will be. Apparently, he makes up alot of runner`s nicknames, but he senses my marketing savvyness and before long (8 seconds) I decide that Mascot is appropriate.   I could have gone with Promoter but Frankie Ruiz from the Miami Marathon has that name down. (there are no duplicates on `the list`)

Raven remembers everyones nicknames, how long they have been running with him, and other tidbits to pass the first stretch south towards the pier.   We are also in the midst of special members today, Warrior most among them. He was extremely overweight, out of shape and un-motivated two years earlier, living up north when he heard about Raven. He shared with me that one day he decided, enough was enough, he wanted to change his lifestyle for the better. He moved to Miami Beach, got fitter, started running 80 days ago and hasn`t missed a day! This included the day prior, when he ran his first marathon AND ran 8 miles on the beach that afternoon.

No wonder his nickname is warrior!   He is going after the most auspicious Raven record of the lot, the most consecutive days running with the legend himself, which is actually owned by Poutine, a Canadian gal whom we met at dinner that evening. Her streak ended un-ceremoniously at 151 days when she went back to Canada for the birthday of a relative (soft).   So now after less than a few miles, I start to have a fond and growing respect for what`s going on here. Imagine the impact of this one individual, transforming his life and now inspiring others to do the same. How the hell can I quit now!

Sarah and I though are quickly suffering from the heavy stomach, her sore legs and my aching body. The main group sticks together and you quickly notice the stares and attention from late day sun worshippers collecting a few more rays of skin cancer.

There are many joggers and power-walkers, fast runners and certainly many have no idea of the history passing them by.   Speaking of passing, the lead group is already coming back the other way, and everyone encourages each other so it`s inspiring.   There are 4 routes I believe, this is south, north past the starting point, back to the pier, north again a little further than before, then all the way back to the pier a 3rd time (killer time now), then finally at the Lifeguard station.

Sarah and I are so far behind after a few miles, I worry that we`ll both miss the cut-off. We`re as committed now as a couple of pigs at a slaughterhouse, so this could get ugly. For the first time in a long time, I don`t want to finish a run and Sarah seems further behind mentally than I am. I have quit very few races in my 16 years of running, but more than a handful of training runs have been bailed on. This seems different, even on vacation and the day after a half-marathon (which I always take off btw).

Not only are the Raven runners supporting us, but I sense something regretful if I don`t finish today.   The sun is setting, and I start to selfishly think of myself.   ``Sarah can always run again tomorrow, and being a newbie may not care to miss out on making `the list`.   But I HAVE TO finish...so she lets me take off, as I proceed down to the water where the sand allows me to pick up the pace considerably, in my barefeet. I am certain she`s toast, like some of the sun worshippers among us.

Pretty soon, I find my gears, and start whipping along the beach, catching up to the pack. I am amazed at how nimble I soon feel, nothing quite like a change of scenery, on a soft surface, to dig up some long lost running inspiration. I head back up the flat, hard, wide section of the beach, the first point of entry from the sidewalk. There is a very large middle section, where the sunbathers, chairs and umbrellas fill in, then the hard-packed, jelly fish littered, cantered section adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. I have almost caught up to the group, passing Sarah once more and stopping to encourage her.   She`s doing okay, but I worry that she won`t make it before Raven finishes. We`re almost done but she still has a ways to go. Thankfully, Canuck has to finish his run by heading further north, so he joins her on the lonely, last section furthest north on today`s route. (regulars are allowed to improvise their runs by running to the start, thus running back to homes and condos and still qualifying as a `run`with Raven``

I finally finish but not before passing Sarah one last time, as she heads south again for her last mile. She`s ecstatic, which surprises me, and even refuses my water. Ì have it! she exclaims, like she must mean the winning lottery ticket to last evenings`draw.   Or she found a 1000-year old Spanish Gold antique lying under the sand.

`My nickname`she cries, as if it was the answer to the Holy Grails resting place. `Northen Dancer!   How appropriate I comment, you like to Salsa, grew up among horses in Kentucky and are also a Canadian.

Well how about that, we all need inspiration in many ways, shapes and forms and Sarah covered more ground today than she ever had as a `runner`.

Thank you Raven.

The World's Most Unusual and Unique Running Club

2011-02-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

RavenRun

Miami, Florida

How would you like to know that you can show up, every day, at the same time and place and be guaranteed someone to run with, rain or shine? And it was FREE!

Recently I was in Miami attending the Miami Marathon, Florida's fastest growing running festival. Peter Donato finally ticked off another running conquest, running with South Beaches legendary streaker (consecutive days running with no days off), Robert "Raven" Kraft. Some of you may have heard of this interesting personality, who recently celebrated 100,000 miles of a running streak lasting 35 years, and counting. I actually heard about the Raven several years ago on my first visit to the Miami Marathon, which is now a client of our company. A friend who had been to Toronto to work the Scotia Bank Marathon Race Expo invited me to "run with the Raven", but it sounded a bit bizarre. Not knowing this person, and fearing he was kind of a freak, I passed on the invitation.

At the Miami Marathon Race Expo on the Friday, I bumped into a fellow runner from Canada who I had seen countless times at local GTA races. He noticed Jefferson who was with me, tied to the Girl Guides table out front, smart place to sell cookies! He's mentioning the Raven Run and will I be joining? He tells me his nickname is the Sexy Canadian, and I can't disagree. Solid tan, matching and fashionable clothes, cool demeanour about this fellow. I dismiss the offer, again, not wanting to get sucked into anything unusual (!). But now it's exposure number four, they say it takes six or seven often to make a decision.

During my 1/2 marathon run 2 days later, at mile three as we enter South Beach, I pass a familiar looking guy on the side of the road. Dressed in black, shirt open, scraggly and greying hair. He's cheering on the sidelines, and at the very moment I hear a woman shout out, "hey Raven thanks for cheering" and she passes me wearing a Raven Run t-shirt. That wasn't what bothered me....it was not being able to catch up to her to read the back! Now we had posted an article and photo on our site years earlier, so this "Raven" person now has a face, and he even looked familiar to someone I passed at the Expo on the Friday (although I was in Mascot drag so who knows if he saw me).....(:

So there it is again, the Raven....

Monday morning arrives, me very much stiff, sore and barely coherent, tyypical post-race enjoying a mellow breakfast overflowing with eggs, toast and unlimited coffee. The Sexy Canadian passes our table on the sidewalk. Sarah is seated with me, girlfriend and casual runner who just finished a 45-minute run-walk along the beach. Alot of miles for a newbie on vacation (foreshadowing here folks). "Hey Sexy Canadian, over here...join us". It's always great to mingle with fellow Canucks on the road, especially colourful characters like Dave is. We exchange the usual post-run banter, etc. How was your race, what's your "next race"...lol

"No running for me today, in addition to running the 1/2 marathon I also biked to/from the start line, and roller-bladed over an hour at the end of the day. Severely exhausted I am, Sarah too. "Why don't you join me today at 4pm for the Raven Run, then tonite at the Annual Awards Banquet."...enquires the Sexy Canadian.

What???

There's a run AND an Awards Banquet? What and who is this guy? Curiosity finally killed this cat.

Now we have to meet him at least. Sarah and I decide to show up, finally (exposure number seven seals the deal) but JUST to meet him, take a picture, maybe attend the dinner. I bring my roller blades and her bike, we're going to burn off the late lunch, margaritas and Coronas. She has run already, and my legs are trashed. As we wander to the Lifeguard station near 5th Street we have zero interest in actually running. Maybe tomorrow. It's 4:15, we're late and there is no sign of the guy. Another girl wearing a shirt approaches us wandering the sidewalk (lost), comforts us, we're not lost afterall. "Oh he's coming, he is usually late anyway".

We are now on the beach, beautiful sand, water, sun, near naked bodies splayed on the sand. Not a bad choice for a daily run, even 13,000 days consecutively. Pretty soon people show up from all directions, all shapes and sizes, and it's a real friendly, social gathering. Typical run club outing, for starters. 10-12...15 people. Something's happening here. Raven shows up too. All in black....

Sexy Canadian is here. Groundhog. Canuck (from Toronto as well). Warrior (massive, strong looking guy who also ran the marathon the day prior). Seems like everyone has an alter ego. Sarah and I get some pictures taken, then he pops the question. "So, are you two running with us?".

"Ah, no, not really...."

And as they say, "the rest of the story" follows on post number two.

http://ravenrun.net/

Tour for kids 2010

2010-08-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

Tour for kids 800km epic 4day adventure, pledges still accepted!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day One - Thursday

Stouffville - Trent University

It's 7:20 pm and 15 of us are stranded at the Pioneer Gas Station in Springville - 15 km's out of Peterborough. We started at 9am by the way.....

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I lost my little baggie with $30 in it....somewhere in the first 50km. I also decided to start in the 2nd fastest group again this year, and rode my ass off quite well till 50km (too bad it's a 200km day). I then got dropped like a bad Brett Favre pass. But not after enjoying some "Tour de France" like riding - bombing along the country roads towards Uxbridge at 40+ kph in some flat sections....priceless. In a Peleton (pack of cyclists) you can even go up a decent hill doing 30.

The weather was perfect today, sunny skies, warm with slight winds to provide relief. After the first rest stop, a few of us missed the cut off on

Marsh Hill Road

, and so a few miles later we were officially lost. This would set the tone for the day unfortunately.

I decided that we should "improvise" and find our way back to the group we broke off from, but my travelling companions wanted to retrace their pedals......and before I could turn around to join them I noticed my tire going flat.

AAggghh!

20 minutes later....and two C02 cartridges...I am on my way, map in hand with a less-than-fully inflated front tire. So I know this won't last another 100+ km's, and we're getting close to Port Perry. "There must be a bike shop here somewhere"?

I am now on the outskirts of Port Perry, and pull into a "tire repair" shop which would make sense if I was in a car! Usually these mechanics have everything, including the convertor for regular air pressure and these skinny tires we have.

I skirt across the road and notice a rather impressive looking Audi turning out of the lot, and he's yelling at me! "White trash redneck" is all I could think at the moment, forgetting that it's a $50,000 German car and not a used North American pick-up. I am trying to find someone who works here and the guy in the Audi is still shouting and now he's reversing his car back towards me!

Good grief, he either really hates road cyclists, or maybe he wants to make a donation to Tour for Kids?? (Always the Optimist).

Well, funnily enough it's a client, Adam Ruppell from Chico Racing (Ontario's Premier Mountain Biking guru). "How did you know it was me" I asked? "Your Juice Plus+ cycling jersey gave you away!"

So 15 minutes later as we discuss the state of affairs in Trail Running (stay tuned for new 2011 Chico Trail running folks)....we finally change topics and move onto more pressing matters, like my under-inflated flat tire! "There's a bike guy straight across the corn field over there, Johnston's Bike Shop".

These were the directions I was given by my friendly attendant, who finally emerged from the shadows, reading the Toronto Sun certainly. "Yup...if you could ride your bike straight that way you'd see Johntson's Bike Repair right in front of you. "Or a madder-than-hell corn farmer" was my first thought.

"Great...so how about instructions on my Cervelo here...on a paved road"?

Now I am headed in the opposite direction of Peterborough but happy to find relief in one of the most unlikely places for a roadie. The Bike Shop - a garage actually, but upon entering it's just like the back shop of any cycling mechanic. Messy....chock full of wheels hanging from the ceiling, notes, scribbles and items from across the full spectrum of cycling parts known and unknown. And Brian is larger than life, literally and figuratively.

"Don't get too many road types like yourself in here, they pass by all the time though and would rather spend 2x as much elsewhere."

"Well I just need to add some more air to my front tire, and if you have a spare tube for these wheels I will happily grab one of those as well". (Polite gesture as I figure no way he has one.).

"Got one left as his head emerges from a pile".

"Just 10 bucks for the Presta Valve and Tube."

What a deal I think, and scrounge through my jersey pockets and Bento Box, looking for that plastic baggie with the 30 bucks.....oh oh.

To be continued.......

Tour for kids 800km epic 4day adventure, pledges still accepted!

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=827935&LangPref=en-CA

Canceled races...

2010-08-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

My friend and client Jerry emailed me yesterday, Cruise to Run Race Director, just got back from Alaska on their "maiden" Running Cruise. This guy has seen it all, done it all, and shared with me that one of their races was delayed due to the fact the ship (small, presumably) bringing the runners hit a whale.

No $%^# Mobey Dick!

And on the same "run" a bear was on the course and interrupted the run (are they adjusting the finish times with an asterisk)?

* the following participants can deduct 30 seconds and qualify for a fresh pair of shorts

! (:

So of course I piped in, "we actually had a pregnant bear on the course at the 1999 Jasper-Banff Relay that canceled outright stage run #11 for all teams except the first place Japanese Pro team who went by first.....Naturally the bear was dis-interested in these skinny fellows anyway, wait for the plodders 4 hours later.... yours truly was actually scheduled to run that stage, all revved up and back to bed....strange evening for sure.

So we started chatting, Jerry and I, and found out that we were both in the infamous Around the Bay Road Race 30km in 1996. The Port of Hamilton bridge went "up" a little prematurely on all 4,000 runners save for the first 15 men and lone female, now that was a debacle! It was exactly 15km into the race, so of course many of us turned around and went back the way we came. We could see in the water the slow-moving tanker that was in fact a day early on arrival (who wants to be in Hamilton earlier than expected anyway)??

Think that's strange.....

An early edition of the Toronto Marathon (when there was only one - 1971 I think) featured world famous marathoner Bill Rodgers, and somewhere out in Scarborough (yikes) a pack of runners was stopped by a train, another race finish another asterisk....

*the following runners can deduct two minutes from their finish times and earn 35% off their next trip with Via Rail

How about the race in Myrtle Beach - canceled due to a massive, freak snow storm the night prior:

http://www.mynextrace.com/Article1132.htm

Remember the Chicago Marathon in 2007, canceled mid-stride as it were, due to oppressive heat and humidity:

http://www.mynextrace.com/Article526.htm

The best story was the Montreal Marathon, somewhere back in the 1990's I am guessing, the race was actually canceled as runners lined up at the start line. "Runners, take your marks. Set. Wait........hold on...nervous Race Director takes emergency call from police on course....permit hasn't been paid....unsafe road conditions (traffic)....Pull the Plug!

Well, something like that, straight from the mouth of the current organizer, a client and friend of mine, who struggled for years with runners and sponsors, saying time and again, "we're not the same organizational team as THAT year"!

Imagine if that was you, what would you do?

At least a bear won't be munching on your energy bar.

peter@mynextrace.com

I am a Tour de France Cyclist

2010-07-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

It's interesting what goes through your mind when you are out on a bike....for hours....

In the middle of a 110 km day of training under a windy and intensely hot ride, I arrived at the conclusion that I am an easy roadie to identify with. For five straight years, it seems like I get started on some serious rides around early July, and my cycling peaks in September when the weather is ideal here in Southern Ontario.

If you’re thinking, “fair weather cyclist” you are partially correct, although I find myself getting from A-B year-round in the city on my commuter bike in just about any weather, including icy and snow-covered city streets. I also own a very active dog, Jefferson is a collie mix so it does not matter what the weather brings, he needs exercise....including several hours with me on a bike and he jogging along. In my 4th year of downtown living I have become a true cyclist, saving gas, the environment and building a real firm butt!

My last true holiday also found me riding from Rome to Venice, so clearly I enjoy the long distance variety!

However, it dawned on me this past weekend, that it's the Tour and all the excitement that goes with this race where I start to begin my short, outdoor season in earnest. My road bike stayed out of action when I returned from

Italy

in mid-October until mid-May, which is terrible I know. I chose not to ride it in Florida partly because of the cold snap (wimp) and because I left all my cycling clothes behind as I hurriedly packed when it was minus-25 and I was itching to hit the highway. (I did bring the trusty commuter bike with me, which I left behind with my brother-in-law).

I can't stand indoor spin classes (claustrophobic), and stationary trainer riding at home was a necessity for the build up to Ironman but the dust has now collected on the trainer. It's actually being put to use as a very expensive door stop, our french doors open to a glamorous view of our neighbour's backyards here in dwtn Queen West.....

Once the cold and windy rain starts in late fall....there goes the Cervelo until the annual winter Florida trip....

Not sure how I break this cycle...maybe tape the Tour and pop in some DVD's to fake me out??

Oh well....maybe a new bike purchase will change this?

peter@mynextrace.com

shoeguy

2010-03-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

- Have you ever met a "shoe guy"???

- To be more specific....a running shoe "rep"? If I asked you what colour their eyes were, that could be a challenge.

- Cause they are programed like robots to stare at the ground....at least until they satisfy their craving.

Medical advice...

2010-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, after a long absence here goes a new resolution in 2010, more writing....

I have found some cool, local coffee shops and hideaways in my new "hood" so it should be easy to pen some thoughts from this wacky world of endurance sports.

This first one could be the best of the year!

Anyone (Canadian) found themselves caught in a hospital (

U.S.A.

or insert scary foreign country here_____________)

....with no medical coverage...

....after running a partial marathon...

....and you woke up...

...in a hospital in your running clothes....

!!!!!

Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. Seriously, this HAPPENED to someone I know, recently, at a big

U.S.

race where he / she (we're going to protect the identity of this individual) was pushing the envelope to qualify for Boston.

(not ANOTHER crazy runner pursuing the Holy Grail?)...

He / she was on pace, everything seemed fine, then instead of mile marker 24, some sports drink, maybe a gel, hopefully a Rock and Roll Band encouraging everyone as you're "almost finished"....then he /she woke up in a hospital. Then transferred to another hospital for more tests...

"Oh, can someone track down my runner's bag at the finish line?"

"Oh, can someone call my hotel to tell them I won't need that $200/nite hotel room, this polyester bed sheet and green potatoes are fine"....

Could anything be worse than this post-marathon HELL???

"Ah, Mrs / Mr. ____________ - it seems as though your insurance documents are dated for the 18th, and we admitted you on the 17th...."

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Hello, Insurance Company.......YOU %$%#ed up......!!!

$27,000 dollars later.....the soap opera continues....

Let's see if we can get a happy ending out of this story.

Just a friendly reminder to check that list, check it twice....

happy running.

or not

peter@mynextrace.com

flat coke story

2009-02-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

since performance enhancers have been all over the news lately:

- A-Rod

- Clemons

- Phelps (bong man)

I thought I would share some truths myself and come clean, finally, about this dark little secret, or two, that I have been withholding from y'use all these last few years.

I was recently on a cruise with my client, Run and Fun Vacations, and Frank Shorter was the celebrity guest. Never heard of Frank, shame on you! Arguably one of the distance superstars of the modern (post war) era, Frank has few equals when comparing the careers of the great distance men.

When I started running, in 1995, I bought just about all the books available, to be "like a sponge" so to speak, and since nutrition was a field of interest for me already, I wanted to pay attention to what worked best in terms of my diet and what I would eat and drink during a marathon.

One of the more interesting anecdotes was from two-time Olympic medalist, American Frank Shorter (Gold in Munich, Silver in Montreal - Marathon). Gatorade and other sports drinks weren't available, so Mr. Shorter publicly endorsed the use of flat coke.

Why the hell not!

Fortune would smile on me in my 4th marathon, in Kelowna, May 1996, as I shared the weekend stage with Canada's top marathoner at the time, Peter Fonseca, gearing up himself for the upcoming Atlanta Olympics. Peter was flown in to act as local dignatary on behalf of the Running Room - speaking at the Pasta Dinner and running the 1/2 marathon himself.

By association, they figured I was fast too! Going along for the ride, I was asked if I had any "special needs" on race day.

"Uumm, well, yeah, I guess I could have my own sports drink available at the water stations"...was the best I could do under very quick circumstances (literally)....(:

So, then I found myself at the local variety store, soon then in my hotel room, shaking the fizz out and preparing 4 500ml bottles, which I happily shared with the race day volunteer crew. To my amazement on race day, I actually located 3/4 bottles, and to add further fuel to the fire, found myself with a new P.B. at the conclusion of 42.2 miles - 2:54!!

Was it the coke?

We won't get into Sudafed, that's another story...

cheers,

P.D.

peter@mynextrace.com

blog entry miami

2009-01-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Legends (not) of the sport

So you think you’re a famous runner do you….? If your name is Salazar, Zatopek, Kastor or Radcliffe, then yes, you qualify.

How about “the Raven”? Coat Man? 50-state and 7 continents runners?

The many “streakers” who toe the line beside you?

I was just running the Miami ½ marathon recently with a travel group (Run and Fun Vacations) and “ran” into a familiar personality on the race circuit, or, to put it a better way, a sub-cultural group of personalities, many from the southern states where running daily with no snow, ice or slush to contend with.

I started noticing these “wackos” years ago, when we did some MyNextRace.com experimenting and out-reach marketing in places like Ohio (Cleveland), Illinois (Chicago), Massachussetts (Boston), Florida (Tampa, Orlando) and New York State (New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica).

Guys who have run in the 500+ marathon categories, runners who want to run a marathon in every State, Province or Continent.

Never heard of these guys?

Top Ten Reasons to Run and Fun

Yes, this is a paid blog item – courtesy of my clients Joe and Theresa from Run and Fun Vacations

Every day and every meal is a carbo load day! Run more = eat more..
Get up close and personal with Olympic Legend Frank Shorter
If you’ve never run on a cruise ship running track, with water all around you, you haven’t experienced one of the best places to run….
When you’re surrounded by mostly slower, out of shape humans, you feel like an even more accomplished athlete
Ever run on a Caribbean island, on the sand in your barefeet – another MUST DO for all runners
Run outside in freezing cold weather OR get away and develop a tan at the same time – how difficult is this to comprehend?
Miami = Beaches = Nite Life = Flat Course = South Beach = International Race Field….
Can there be a better post-race recovery concept for a marathon runner than a cruise?
You can sit in your room, watch tv and they’ll bring every meal to your cabin – FREE – now how is that for post-race pamering???
Rum and Beer on Island patios is $2 / drink in most places, cheaper than those energy bars and gel shots

Island Running Man

Ironman Arizona – Race Report…finally!

2008-12-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Ed. Note:

If you’re a tri-geek and looking forward to your typical race report, then you may wish to skip the following. There will not be any mention of gels, bars, water bottles, feed zones, “hitting the wall”, body-marking, salt sticks, drafting, water buoys, kayaks, chip timing, bonking, getting smacked in the face and gulping water at the same time, nor anything else remotely connected to what eventually will happen on race day.

I will refer you to many of these on my web-site if you so desire…

http://www.mynextrace.com/Article340.htm

I’m now sitting on the plane heading down (Thursday) for Sunday’s first fall edition of the 2008 Ironman Arizona (Tempe), and I have started to get excited.

Finally.

My story actually goes along way back, to practically the beginning of the Ironman sport roots, 1982 in fact, when I and millions of others around North America and eventually the world watched in a combination of shock, horror and amazement when Julie Moss crawled her way across the finish line at the Hawaii Ironman, presented by ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Only Rosie Ruiz could be equally famous among female sporting heroes of the modern era.

As an avid sports television watcher, I decided that day that maybe, just maybe one day, I could do this race too, which was billed as the World’s Toughest Sporting accomplishment. The key word here is “watcher”, because at the age of 16, tennis, golf, ball-hockey (did I mention that I was the Wayne Gretzky of ball-hockey?) and some soccer growing filled up my athletic resume. I loved watching sports, especially the NFL, NHL hockey, the Olympics and just about anything else I could watch to distract me from my biggest nemesis, homework and my three sisters.

I can then recall in University, 4 years later, coming slowly into my own as a sexually interested young adult (interested, but not active mind you!) and entering a “tin man” triathlon at York University., mostly to impress a tall, hot blonde swimmer who lived in residence. I was recruited to join our Intramural swim team, and while doing some awful laps in a cold, mindless 25-meter pool, I was invited to sign-up for the upcoming triathlon which included an indoor swim.

There it was again, the Ironman crossing my radar screen, and although I don’t have too many memories of the training that I did, I remember once being on an old bike somewhere in North York (we lived in Unionville), in October, cursing as I was under-dressed and ill-prepared for this, after 25 years I guess things haven’t changed! I finished the tin-man triathlon in 90 minutes I believe (I still have the certificate), which included a 625 meter (25 lap) swim.

I was dead last out of the pool, and recall vividly sitting on the deck, changing into my cycling clothes and looking outside at the heavy snow falling (it was November after-all). Funny how my first Ironman is now November, 2008 – and the first heavy snowfall to hit the streets of Toronto greeted me as I packed my suitcase and loaded my bike into the bike box.

The most significant memory however from that race as a 2^nd year student at York, was the guy who showed up well-tanned and still bearing his race number markings on his legs and arms. Holy crap, this guy had just returned from Hawaii, and he’s in THIS small little race…Not only was I excited, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off “this guy”. What a specimen of fitness, tall, muscular, lean, ripped abs, as I stopped at just about every turn of the 25 laps, I was looking to see if he would be the first to exit the water, which he was. As I made my way around the looped road that circled the main campus, I was passed by “the IM guy”, who wizzed around the road on a far superior looking bike.

Then, to my amazement, I saw “the guy” walking on the side of the road, bike over his shoulder, flat tire and pissed off look on his face. HA, now I’m ahead of him….on the run, which even in my pre-marathon days was pretty quick, I was actually caught by “the guy”, who miraculously had to return to his car to repair / replace his tire, and he still caught me! I actually believe that he and I chatted for a bit, and I think I even put the hammer down and beat him across the finish line. Round one to the triathlon virgin….

Fast-forward to 1994, and I recently joined a fitness club with an indoor tennis bubble, my modus operandi to work on my “fitness” and improve a fairly competive game of tennis, which included some provincially ranked success as an “A” men’s tennis player. What happened to my Ironman dream? Who knows, I guess when you’ve beaten a Hawaii Ironman finisher what else is there to prove…

Actually, my brief foray into endurance sports truly was brief, as I never “got the girl” after my first triathlon, and my golf and tennis interest intensified during the summer months in-between semesters at York. I even made the Varsity Golf Team, broke 70 on one occasion, and came a hairs breadth away from making the men’s Tennis team as well- before an academic ineligibility forced me to sit out. Who knew that filling out a proper form would come back to bite me in the ass, my dreams of being a two-letterman were indeed spoiled.

“You’re going to need to work on your cardio fitness and pump some light weights if you want to improve your tennis game”…was the reply from the Personal Trainer, who put me through a serious of fit tests to gauge my present, overall fitness. Day One at the Fitness Institute, boy are these guys serious.

“That’s a pretty decent effort, but we have a long way to go to work that heart of yours” replied the trainer, as I lay on the ground, exhausted after pedaling to the max for a few minutes on the stationary bike, wires and tubes connected to my body. The “fit test” was actually pretty dismal, after-all when you’ve been hanging around the Country Club drinking beers and eating pretzels it’s not exactly the healthiest lifestyle (but it sure is FUN)…

“I want to see you riding the bike and running on the treadmill, 3 times a week, for 20-30 minutes to get your cardio fitness up, then you’ll see dramatic improvements in your tennis game, and you might find yourself with more energy at the end of a tournament.’

“Oh, I can run on a treadmill for 10 minutes, do some weights and then head out to the tennis court”. So began my quest in the fall of 2004 to take a serious “run” at the ultra-competitive world of Ontario Men’s Class A tennis tournaments, where the previous summer found me actually winning $50 once (quarter-finalist) at one of the biggest tournaments on the schedule. Golf was over for me, retired you might say, after you shoot 69 yourself you then might agree on this one…

Something interesting then happened, four events combining at the right time, and before you can say “fartlek”, I’m signing up for my first marathon. Improvements in my diet (www.since1993juiceplus.com), an introduction to a new, life-long friend (Michael Brennan of Marathon Dynamics), and a visit to Orange County, California to spend a weekend immersed in the interesting pursuit of “personal development”. I found my way to sunny California spending two days at a “Weekend Seminar” with Jim Rohn, and for the first time in my life, I’m actually writing down 1-3-5 year goals, how fun is this!

Own my own Sports Marketing Company one day. 9 years later. Check.
Get married and have kids. Un-check
Buy a new pair of shoes. (yes, I wrote that down, we were told to pick some easy, short-term goals to keep our confidence up). Check.
Run a Marathon. Un-check (7 months later, 3:01 debut, BIG check).
Travel the world more than I have been. Iceland, Rome, Paris, London, N.Y., Chicago, 15 states, all Cdn. Provinces. BIG CHECK…
Finish an Ironman Triathlon. (ask me in 72 hours)
Achieve financial independence. (keep asking me this, please, I’m working….)
Spend more time with family. BIG check.
Get a dog. (I made that up now). (: check. Jefferson!
Do some writing and maybe get paid for it. See link. CHECK.

www.cbcsports.tourdefrance

So, how did this happen….oh, the last of the four happenstance, chance meetings, circumstance…whatever! I went out partying as usual one Saturday evening, popping out of the subway downtown and taking a shortcut through Metro Hall, to get to the entertainment district. I started to notice a bunch of tents, barricades and an unusual amount of activity for a Saturday evening, and then I see my Sport York buddy David Marsi, hunched over a sign. We worked together for the York University Athletic Department, hence the interest in someday choosing this as a career interest.

“hey Dave, what are you doing here”. “The Toronto Marathon is tomorrow, you should come out and watch, I work for the Event Company that organizes it”.

“Wow, what a cool job, absolutely I’ll come down, I want to do one of those Ironman Triathlons one day myself.” “Well, you have to do a marathon first my friend….”

“ %^$%”, there’s that word again, Ironman, I can’t seem to shake it out of my mind. Despite a very late evening, I dragged myself out of bed at some ungodly, early morning hour, got dressed, then headed outside. It was pouring rain, ugly, ugly, ugly. I thought to myself, those poor suckers, having to run in this rain, so I bailed and went back to bed. Not enough motivation for me…..the next morning, I read about the race, which became a controversial subject and point of embarrassment for two of Canada’s top marathon runners, Peter Fonseca and Peter Maher, caught on camera shaking hands during the race, agreeing to split the prize money between first and second place, “saving” their energy for a cash-pursuit soon afterwards.

“Hey I thought, that’s the guy that went to my school, in grade 9.” Little would I know that Peter would then represent

Canada

at the upcoming 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but I would be standing along the side of the road, watching those games in person. Now that was motivation, and I was truly hooked. It was yet another reason why running and endurance sports became such a fun pursuit, as I also ended befriending Peter, getting some great advice and wound up being the M/C at the now Minister of Labour’s wedding!

My first marathon was the 1995 Shopper’s Drug Mart Toronto Marathon, won by Peter Fonseca himself, and though my 3:01 finishing time was 50 minutes behind the winning times, I was not only bound for the 100^th running of the Boston Marathon (April, 1996) I could not have realized how my life and good fortunes would change forever after that day…

Here’s a piece of advice, if you’re still reading. Get involved in a charity. Better yet, get involved in many, varied, useful charities. Volunteer your time and service to others, it’s amazing what could happen. I took the easy way, offering my services as a single guy to the M/S Society in their Bachelor Auction that resulted in my “services” being ponied up to the tune of $3300. My friend Warren called me one day, and said this:

“Peter, how would you like to be a single guy in a room full of 1,000 well-dressed, mostly female and wealthy women, and you might just meet some great people that could change your life forever”.

“Where do I sign up for that and whatever it costs, I’m in!” was my quick reply, could you blame me???

Fast-forward to the post-event gathering, and a handful of the 30-odd (and yes, it was an odd bunch) bachelors are networking and finding out more about each other. I walk over to this one guy whom I never had a chance to meet in the months leading up to the event (October, 2004), he seemed to be the life of the party at the far end of the table.

“my name is Peter, who are you?”

“Michael Brennan, and here’s my brochure, we’re starting a Marathon clinic this January and you look skinny enough to do this kind of thing” (I made that last part up, but if you know M.B. it’s very probable that he recruited me with this one-liner). Wow, I thought, that’s what I have to do at the end of the Ironman, run 26.2 miles, I guess I should sign up for this after-all…

Ironman Arizona – Race Report - #2 – The Build Up

So…

I’ve now completed my first marathon, in 1995, running a miraculous 3:01 on less-than stellar training for a newbie, placing myself #1 among my class of over 100 marathoners. “Mybe THIS was the sport I should have focused on when I was younger”, I had to start asking myself…Needless to say, I was hooked, and with my time I qualified for the 100^th anniversary of the running of the Boston Marathon (1996), how sweet was that! I also learned from my awesome instructors that to get thru some of the tough days while training, it helps to have another goal on the horizon.

Should have been the Ironman for me, the time was perfect, a steady job, easy hours, reliable and easy going girlfriend at the time….

BUT…

I was enthralled with the idea of the New York Marathon that fall, so I actually applied before I even finished my first marathon, and then I got in! That was cool, and when I arrived in New York, I saw the “big picture” in the sport. The Race Expo was massive, there were all these famous, retired runners I read about, I even met the Finnish sensation, Lasse Viren, considered one of the greatest runners of all time. That experience solidified my desire to find myself one day working in this industry.

Ironman??…not even in my mind anymore. The sport was still for the hard-core, exclusive variety…and I was now a running geek officially.

The problem with running was the carrot that now dangled in front of me. Being competitive, I HAD to break three hours (which I did a year later – 2:54), then 2:50 was the next milestone (1999) and then I couldn’t stop. Interestingly, people were now saying things to me like, “you should take up triathlons, you’d be good at them”. Even though I added mountain biking to my repertoire, and I also started my company (All Sports Marketing, 2003) and found myself at all these triathlons with my display, I was still focused on becoming a faster runner. I even dipped my tow in the water, so to speak, and entered some duathlons on my mtn. bike, with slicks of course. 5 Boston Marathons later, a lot of speedwork, and I still couldn’t get under 2:40, so I felt like I was spinning my wheels, or were they looking for another vehicle???

It was always fun when the fast cyclists caught me well-into the course, they’d zoom by and wonder how this guy on a mountain bike was so far ahead of them…(: I refused to enter a triathlon, as my weak background in swimming didn’t help my confidence when an athlete died at one of the earliest races I attended, Guelph Lake II – the swimming option was that much more of a deterrent for me. Plus, did I mention that I watched Jaws at least ½ dozen times when it first came out, back in my t.v. watching heydays….I imagined sharks in the various swimming pools when I went for the occasional swim.

Things finally changed however, in the spring of 2005, when I re-visited some of my major life goals, at the same time connected to one of the Triathlon sport’s most well-known last names, Bentley. Steve Bentley became a new client of our company, and then he became a Juice Plus+ business associate of mine. What a dynamo Steve was, we got along well immediately, and often when I called him he would answer while on his indoor bike. He was training once again for another crack at Hawaii, so I constantly peppered him with ”Ironman” questions and advice. I decided to finally write that life-long goal of mine into the book, and added a photo of an Ironman Finisher to my Dream Board. I believe I even committed to doing one myself before the end of 2007, so excuse me for being a year too late!

I also started posting various athlete first-time, Ironman race reports to MyNextRace.com, and I had to proof-read a lot of these, so it got my juices flowing. Then, all these friends and acquaintances from my running circle started beating me to their first Ironman! Owen, my long-time golf buddy who I ran the 2002 Boston Marathon with, then Kate my ex-girlfriend who went from her first 10km – first marathon – first Boston and then first Ironman within 2 years, go Juice Monkey!

Then I started thinking, what about me? When is my turn?

Then I turned 40. yikes, time for some big reflection.

Stay tuned for the final post.

Ironman Race Report – why my Finisher’s Medal is at the bottom of Lake Tempe

Update….if yu missed the first post….and want to know the background to this last story….

http://mynextrace.com/Article761.htm

And the second….

http://mynextrace.com/Article765.htm

If you really enjoy reading about what actually happened on race day, I decided against my original plans, due to many requests, to jot down some notes from the 13-hour ordeal. That info. is here:

I will mention now (no point in delaying this) that I threw my finisher’s medal into Lake Tempe the morning after the big event. That’s a decision I made several weeks before, but it’s an idea that has been with me for many years….

So…..am I crazy or what?

Was there more to this 25-year pursuit than meets the eye? Is it really such a big deal to complete an Ironman anyway? What did I learn, if anything, from this journey, and did it make me a better person? Can any of us learn something from these athletic achievements that stretch and force us to go beyond what is expected of us, or where we believe we can go?

I sit here two weeks after-the-fact, looking back on the experience in the short-term, but more importantly it’s the long-term journey that is far more memorable to me than any race medal, finisher’s t-shirt or collection of finisher’s photos. Yes, I broke down against my prior resolve and bought a limited amount of “swag” at the race, like a coffee mug! And yesterday, when I went for a swim at the “Y”, naturally I had to wear my new Ironman Swim Trunks, and I did feel a little bit of bravado when I plunked my portable Ironman Arizona Coffee Thermos down on the counter at Starbuck’s on the weekend, “can yu fill this up please?”…(:

I think I deserve to show-off a little, even though to the amusement and bewilderment of many friends, I don’t actually think it is such a big deal to finish an Ironman, now that it’s over. Stop and think about how simple all three of the disciplines are, it’s mostly fear that limits many from taking up swimming, or prevents recreational cyclists from road-riding and getting hit by a car. You want challenging? How about performing a Triple Axel on skates, or staying awake to complete a 4-day adventure race, or hit a curve ball from a pitcher’s arm, moving 80 mph? How about getting a Black Belt in Karate, or getting your MBA part-time while working and raising a family…

Should I keep going?

On their own, the 4km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2 km run are really not feats of impossibility. Think about that for a second. If you had to do these back-to-back-back without being allowed to stop, re-fuel or even change clothes, then we might have something! Or, maybe a 12-hour cut-off instead of 17 hrs….like a friend who did these years ago commented, “anyone can push a bike for an extended period of time and then shuffle through a marathon”.

The Ironman to me represented that so called “big item” on the “to-do” list, and it was on there longer than just about anything else. I also wrote down years ago that I wanted to get married one day….HA HA. Funny, though, now with this “in the books” I look forward to even bigger physical challenges, like riding a bike across the country, or entering one of those 5-6-7 day stage races like the B.C. Bike Race, Trans Rockies or the Trans Alp in Europe. I also still seek one more of those “perfect days” as an endurance athlete, since my first marathon. I accomplished this as a tennis and golf player, and truthfully I don’t believe I ran a better marathon than my debut marathon (3:01 with a negative split) or my personal best marathon (2:49). But what has driven me more than anything after all these races, stories, articles, personal anecdotes and sharing of experiences I encountered over the years, the one that stood out is actually something I cannot find….though I did search for it.

Many years ago, I read an article about a triathlete and his experience at <b?Kona, the World Championships of Triathlon (Hawaii) – and he aptly described how he “left something behind” on his way to finishing the race. I know he didn’t win, and I don’t believe he even won his age group, but he found himself taking his effort “somewhere else” and gaining tremendous satisfaction from the accomplishment. Imagine that, putting forth an effort when it matters most, in the heat of battle, and arriving at the finish line 100% spent. Isn’t that the goal of every athlete that races competitively?

He didn’t win of course, but that’s not what this is all about, is it. He described a moment in his race when he experienced what could be best explained or described as an “out of body experience”, akin to the “runner’s high” we’ve heard about so often. This athlete wrote about leaving behind a “part” of his soul, and will always cherish and remember this race because of it. I know for which he speaks, as I think about the many experiences in running races myself, at some of the victories I was able to accomplish like the first Run for the Toad, or the St. Catherines Trail ½ marathon. Moments that occur when you are forced to dig deeper than you can ever imagine, withstanding the pain and uncomfortable feelings that seem unbearable, and then basking in the achievement after-the-fact. For this first Ironman race I never really “went there” as it were, and I am disappointed to a degree about this, life got in the way I guess. As I look back at the many moments throughout the training, there were many swims and long bike rides in the rain or indoors on a trainer where I “gutted” it out and prepared myself mentally for the challenge that is Ironman., so this is equally as rewarding, “there’s always another day” or so the saying goes.

So…

What I will take with me are the training rides, experiences, and memories through the physical, mental and emotional build-up that is an Ironman Triathlon lifestyle. The solo bike rides to Stratford, Ontario, from Niagara Falls to Toronto, Toronto-Ancaster-Toronto (same day). The outdoor riding in Florida and Arizona, the indoor Compu-Trainer workouts at AETT in Toronto, the long runs (sort of) with Jefferson in the early mornings. Most importantly for me, the solo swims up in Muskoka, Lake Kelso,the Welland Canal – always with Jefferson at my side (until he figured out I wasn’t drowning and then he would follow me and watch over my strokes along the shore line). Heck, I even swam (albeit briefly) in Osprey Lake, at my sister’s in Florida, where all the neighbours insist alligators still hang out…

Thank-you Ironman, for:

- allowing me to continue to dream, and achieve

- helping me conquer my fear of the open-water

- giving me something new in sport to feel excited about

- for pushing me beyond where I previously thought I could go

- for allowing me to be in the best shape of my life

- and for continuing to inspire others to do the same

Now, finally, back to the medal in the Lake stunt….I changed my mind in the middle of the marathon run, when all seemed lost! “No way am I giving this up” I thought to myself, as my muscles tightened and the long-suffering injury I have put up with has now reared it’s ugly head and my run stride has been reduced from a shuffle to a walk. Things changed though the next morning, as I headed to the post-event breakfast, and the whirlwhind of Race Day was behind me. I rode my bike back across the Mill Street bridge that we swam under to get to the swim start, rode adjacent to on the bike, and ran across three times on the loop marathon course.

I looked out onto the Lake, and couldn’t believe that I actually, finally did this, seeing the full 2km swim (out and back) and remembering how terrorized I was just a few months ago in my first ½ Iron Distance triathlon. It seemed impossible that I would get this done, but I did, and so without much fanfare, I decided to “leave something behind” as my unknown friend once did. I looked to make sure no one was watching me (! – maybe there would be a fine from the local constabulary for littering!), then plopped it over the railing and very near the spot where I swam by. That’s it, the end of a chapter, and now time to start a new one.

P.D.

I made it a big deal last summer ALL WEEKEND to swim from my friend's Muskoka Cottage out across the lake, around a nearby Island and back, likely 4-5 km's, calling this my "ironman swim prep" - so after we all got ready and the owner rode her boat along-side two of us (for safety), I lasted approx. 150 yards and bailed...how embarrassing!

I also started to talk myself out of this madness, using excuses like I'm too busy, I've never recovered from the two car accidents I suffered in 2002 and 2004, it's not really such a tough distance when you break down the three events individually, and they give you 17 hours to do it! Is anyone buying this??

Didn't believe so.

Then I turned 40. yikes, time for some big reflection.

Stay tuned for the final post.

(post #1 is here - http://mynextrace.com/Article761.htm

THANKS TO MY SPONSORS AND FRIENDS / MENTORS FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN:

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Domenic and Marilyn Donato

All Sports Marketing Inc.

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Getting ready for I.M. in my new, snazzy MyNextRace.com cycling jersey, with the sleeves cut off naturally!

Race Day Race Report!

I didn’t really want to write this, but many of my friends who have yet to complete an Ironman Triathlon have been asking, I think out of some morbid curiosity and also because like myself, they hope and/or plan to do one of these sometime in the future. I believe now, more than ever, that it’s very “do-able”, easy in fact if you already have 2/3 disciplines under your belt.

Of course, I entered the pre-race taper very much behind the proverbial 8-ball and a long way from being race-ready. The only thing that saved me was a lot of experience at the starting line and a strong desire to do whatever it took to get me healthy and ready to finish this race, at last. I finished enough training on the bike and in the water to feel sufficiently confident enough to get though the 4km open water swim and through the 180km bike ride, and with 15 marathons under my belt I knew that if I could get healthy enough by race day, I would manage somehow to finish.

Two weeks before, I decided to enter a 25km “adventure run”, hoping that this last, long trail run would be the confidence builder I needed to mentally prepare me for the run portion of the Ironman. I ended a 7-week absence from the water (my last swim was a 40-minute open water session at Lake Kelso) by swimming a couple of times, albeit briefly, at the YMCA in Toronto and Markham, and then on both the Friday and Saturday morning practice swim sessions in Tempe, race site. Yes, I quite likely had the worst taper imaginable! In fact, when I had to drop out after less than ½ of the Adventure Relay trail run, the reality of my situation was like a slap in the face. My old injuries and tightness in my hip flexor muscles might very well be the ultimate Achilles heel of my life-long Ironman pursuit.

My focus really was now all about survival, and doing whatever it took to get to the starting line in a position just to finish, let alone compete. Seeing my massage therapist on the Tuesday before the race, I realized how far I had was behind, and the deep-rooted pain not only in my abductors but in my soas muscles made me start to wonder if I wasn’t heading into a no-win situation. The look on Milton’s face told me more than anything I could

Race Morning

It really is an exciting experience, Ironman Race Day, so much planning and preparation involved, and we’re not talking the training! The logistics involved are sometimes overwhelming, five bags alone are needed to be prepared – morning dry bag, swim-bike, bike-run, special needs bike and special needs run. The time spent getting these ready and preparing yourself on race day adds to the build up and ratched-up the emotions, words like survival and

The logistics involved from the standpoint of the organizers is truly amazing, but even with these details, ushering 2200 swimmers into the water is no easy task. My strategy was simple and clear, wait as long as possible to get into the water, and then hang out in the back, why rush into something you have absolutely no interest in doing in the first place! I had yet to swim in any race, even small triathlons, without experiencing some nervous moments in the water (hyperventilation, shortness of breath, the fear of drowning) - why would this swim on such a massive scale be any different! Much to my surprise, I managed to cover almost the entire distance without any contact with other swimmers, what a pleasant surprise! Hanging back and slowly picking your way through the crowd was a strategy that worked to a “T”, and I got out of the water in 1:33, very satisfactory to me.

I did have to pee so badly, starting at around the 2km mark of the swim, that I raced like a madman out of transition and into the bike area, getting much applause and attention for my break-neck speed, little did anyone know the real reason…after what seemed like an Ironman type amount of time in the washroom, I entered the men’s change tent to discover a lot of shivering bodies. The water was pretty cold, but here was my competitive advantage as a Canadian shining through, the poor Californian triathletes (500) were miserable and ill-prepared. I sped thru transition and got am immediate jump start onto the bike course, I felt like I was flying…

Two miles later, my first speed bump arrived in the form of a full-on tire failure, the “pop” I heard from my back wheel was unlike anything I had heard or experienced before. Turns out my tires were pumped up way beyond the 90 psi that was intended (big rookie mistake, never trust anyone with your equipment) and I found myself feeling like a lost tourist on the side of the road. Initial support vehicles

- all the garbage and road-side crap

- chasing down a pro..Donna Phelan

- time actually flies by…

Run course – I’ll never forget the feeling as I came upon mile #1 – only here did it dawn on me what a monumentous challenge that lay ahead. Despite my fast pace off the bike, I knew I was up for a shocking reality check anytime soon….my first few miles at 7:44 pace would not last, even I knew that.

I also came to another realization in that first mile, I still had my bike shorts on! Rats…I hate running in these clunkers, should I turn back now? Can you believe this, in all the excitement thru transition, I forgot to change into my fast and fashionable run shorts, this will certainly cost me precious seconds on my overall time….

The marathon run in an Ironman is more accurately described as a walk, and in our case, a walk thru parks! I think for most of us back-end finishers (anything over 11 hours), it’s really just about finishing, and I know myself that I no longer cared about my time. My focus was just staying upright, eating and drinking throughout, and enjoying the moment. It was also at this time that I felt like no matter what, I was going to keep this dam medal upon finishing…

I bumped into

…but I will share with you the quick lists of “do not do” if you end up doing your first Ironman Triathlon and want to avoid what I went through myself, so consider this a free coaching session:

- it is possible to swim the entire distance, without much bumping or colliding, but don’t expect to have a fast time, I didn’t even come close to anyone until 2km…and only as we exited the water was there congestion not much unlike rush hour on the DVP in Toronto…

- don’t wait until race weekend to figure out the best seat height and aero bar positioning for your personal enjoyment, do this the first time you decide to start training, 180km’s is a long way to be uncomfortable..

- don’t start your taper 7 weeks out, regardless of how “busy” you become, you’ll pay for it on race day..

- If you have any tightness, sore spots, aching muscles – they’ll be magnified after the event, so spend more time getting 100% healthy than cramming in some last-minute workouts…

- set-aside $5000 as your Ironman fund, because when all is said and done, you’ll probably spend that much at minimum to get through one of these in proper fashion, “stuff” just adds up!

- don’t trust anyone to your equipment, take the time to know the ins and outs of your bike, how to take it apart, and how much tire pressure you’ll need, having a full tire blow-out at mile #2 for a stupid reason like over-inflating your tires is STUPID!

- “Do” attend the pre-event dinner and post-event breakfast if it’s your first race, they are well-organized and provide for a perfect pre and post event celebration..