Packing List for a Destination Race

When I was getting ready to leave for Florida, I found that it was really helpful to make a packing list of everything that I was going to need for my big marathon race to make sure that I didn’t forget anything.

I put all of my “race day” stuff in a separate bag within my luggage so I wouldn’t have to do much to get ready the night before the race. All I needed was to pick up my bib and put out my race day bag on Saturday night so I was ready for the brutally early 3:20AM wake-up call on Sunday morning.

Word to the wise: Put all your running gear in a Carry-On, because if it gets lost, you’re fucked. Just imagine getting to your destination and not having your running shoes with you. Not good.

The night before the race I laid out my stuffed fanny pack, bib, race clothes, and running shoes

Race Day Packing List

Clothes:

-Running Shoes
-Socks – 2 pairs, in case it’s too cold to wear just one
-Underwear – especially if you have a certain pair you prefer to run in
-Shirts -bring an extra long sleeve shirt in case of cold weather
-Running Shorts or Tights or both
-Sports Bra
-Headgear – headband, hat, hair ties, hairpins
-Compression Gear – shirts/pants/shorts/sleeves if you wear them
-Warm clothes for the start – sweatshirts, sweatpants, gloves, hat, earmuffs (You can toss these on the side of the course mid-race. Most races will collect them to donate)
-Extra safety pins for your bib

Gear:

-Sunglasses
-Camera & Battery Charger
-MP3 player, Earbuds, & Charger
-Vaseline/BodyGlide/athletic tape for chaffing
-Bandages – in a ziploc bag to carry with you
-Food and Fuel – dates/gu/shot blocks/powerade/etc.; whatever you’re used to eating and drinking on course
-Knee Braces
-Fuel Belt with bottles or Camelback
-Extra Toilet Paper – in a ziploc bag to carry with you
-Fanny Pack – to carry fuel, bandages, toilet paper, and camera
-Watch
-Tylenol
-Sunscreen

Paperwork:

-Race Forms/Waivers, Bib, and Chip – if you get them in advance
-Proof of time – if you want to try to move up in corrals
-Pace charts
-Travel Itinerary
-Passport -if necessary

Islands of Adventure Theme Park

On Friday morning Tina and I woke up bright and early to make the 6:30am start time of the Fiesta 5K Race at Epcot Centre. Tina was running and I was cheering her on. Before I knew it, she finished the race with an impressive sub-25:00 time.

When I caught up with her after the race was done, I asked her how it was and she said:

“It was a dream I never knew I had!”

which I thought was the most eloquent way to put it and which got me really excited for my own race on Sunday.

After rushing back to our hotel and showering, we just barely made our shuttle bus to Universal Studios – Islands of Adventure theme park.

I was really excited for this theme park for one main reason: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I’m a Harry Potter fanatic and I have been pretty stoked to visit the theme park since it opened.

Maybe it was all the hype, or the fact that it was swarming with people (even though it’s the off season) but, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t all that impressed.

It’s small. It looks a lot bigger in pictures than it actually is. There are only about 5 real shops that you can go into and they are packed with people. Forget going into Ollivander’s Wand Shop unless you want to wait in line for it. Although I didn’t mind too much though because I wasn’t planning on buying anything.

The rest are just shop storefronts, although they do have some pretty attractive window scenes that showcase a lot of “magical” items like a screaming mandrake, moving bludgers, or a scribbling quill which I found to be really interesting to look at.

The jerky motion and spinning from the park’s signature ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, inside Hogwarts castle is a nightmare for anyone who gets motion sickness (ahem, me). Although Tina loved it and literally came off of the ride jumping with excitement (though she stopped jumping as soon as she saw my green pallor). The description makes the ride sound tamer than “it’s a small world” but it’s really a vicious beast of a ride.

There were some things that I really loved about the place, like the Frozen Butterbeer which tastes like cream soda but has the added deliciousness of a layer of melted ice cream on top to simulate the head (it’s a little on the sweet side, so if you don’t like sweet things then you won’t like it)

I am going to try to recreate this stuff at home!

I also thought that the details of the park were spot on with the books and movie (besides Ollivander’s which is actually in Diagon Alley and not Hogsmeade) and you get a real feel for being in Hogsmeade. I think if there were less people I might have enjoyed exploring it a little more, but me and big crowds don’t mix.

One thing that I did love about Islands of Adventure though, Seuss Landing. I wanted to pack my bags and move in to this little world that looked exactly like it was ripped from the pages of a Dr. Seuss book.

I found the Cat in the Hat ride to be a bit jerky for my liking, but it was still fun to experience. My favourite attraction in Seuss Landing was “If I ran the zoo” which is basically a playground for 3 year olds (and yet, equally fun for 26 year olds!)

We met the Lorax under the Truffula Trees and isn’t he the cutest?

Tina and I went to both Universal Studios parks and of every attraction the children’s playgrounds were my favourite. I guess I like interactive stuff that is meant for toddlers. It’s my style.

Camp Jurassic in Jurassic Park

I also loved the Toon Lagoon park which was full of cartoon themed shops and restaurants that offered a lot to look at.

Tina and I lined up for Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges and didn’t realize until the last minute that it was a river raft ride which meant that we were going to be getting soaked.

It was worth it.

In summary:

Harry Potter World is too crowded to be all that fun, but the butterbeer is tasty. Seuss Landing is hella awesome. Me and 3 year olds enjoy the same entertainment.

Walt Disney World Marathon Recap

I ran the Disney World Marathon on Sunday, January 8th. My first official marathon.

Click on the photos for bigger versions. See all of my marathon photos here.

Getting Ready:

The morning started out so early that it was actually late. A 3:20AM wake-up call got me up from a restless night of little sleep. I tossed my clothes on, brushed my teeth, and read through the motivational quotes that my friend Tina gave me for inspiration. I shoved a muffin and granola bar in my mouth and headed down to the hotel lobby for my 3:45 cab to Epcot and the marathon starting line.

The Starting Line:

Getting between the drop off point and the starting line meant a 20 minute walk. Tina walked with me and the 20,000 other runners all the way to the corrals even though she wasn’t supposed to. The morning was chilly, but not uncomfortably cold. I wore a light jacket to the start then handed it off to Tina before she left me for the spectator area.

I was more than pissed that my kickass music playlist was a no-go since my iPod decided to stop functioning just days before the marathon. I had no music to pump me up for the run and would only have myself and my thoughts for the next 26 miles. I was a concerned that I would run out of thoughts. :/

Waiting in my corral, my stomach was upset. A little bit from nervousness, but mostly from the cabbage I ate at an Irish Pub the night before. I know what you’re thinking Who the hell eats cabbage the night before a marathon?!? I have no words to explain my lack of foresight that evening.

I hit up the porta-potties at the start line just as the elite runners were about to take off. The extra toilet paper that I put in my fanny pack was genius! I patted myself on the back for at least that foresight.

The race started at 5:30 but, since I was in corral E, I didn’t start until 5:45. Mickey Mouse counted us down, there were fireworks, and then the runners took off.

Miles 1-9 –Excitement:

Mile 1 and 2 came and went before we hit Epcot centre. We ran through some of the World Showcase (I remember Mexico and Norway, but can’t remember if we ran through others) and then right out of the park.

Tina was waiting for me at mile 4 with noise-makers, cheering, and words of encouragement. She was waiting for me again at mile 9 and it was always so inspiring to have her cheering me on.

In spite of already having taken 2 bathroom breaks, I was keeping about a 10 minute mile pace. I was feeling really good at this point and getting excited to come up on the Magic Kingdom at Mile 10.

Mile 10 –Running through Magic Kingdom:

I would rate this one of the top experiences in my life; even higher than crossing the finish line. There were so many spectators lining Main Street USA making so much noise that you couldn’t help but be motivated by all the energy that was pumping through that place. I probably could have flown through Magic Kingdom on all that energy, but I stopped for photo-ops.

The anticipation builds as you are about to enter Cinderella’s castle too, which is the pinnacle of marathon running awesomeness.

And then out you come, feeling like a princess, with a whole bunch of snap-happy photographers there to take your picture.

Miles 11-13 –Coming off the high:

I was still in high spirits (although my stomach was not so I stopped again to use the porta-potty) after coming out of the Magic Kingdom in the part of the race. We ran past the Grand Floridian and the golf resort, both of which made for good scenery.

I spotted Tina again just before the 13 mile mark though the spectators were bit far from the route barrier so I didn’t get a chance to stop and talk to her at this point which was disappointing because I knew that I wouldn’t see her until the finish line and I wasn’t even halfway done.

Mile 14-16 –Three miles from Hell:

I run the back roads of Essex County so I’m intimately familiar with boring stretches of road, and yet getting through these 3 dull miles between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom was tough. They call this an area “rarely seen by the public” but that’s just because it’s so awful. Hey Disney, let’s stop kidding ourselves and call it what it is: the worst part of the marathon course. You’re halfway through and there is nothing to look at, hardly any spectators, and very little incentive to keep running. At one point we even had to run past a garbage dump which smelled like ass and made me wonder out loud, “Are you fucking kidding me right now?!” to everyone around but no one in particular.

I had to make my fourth annoying bathroom stop to relieve my stomach ache and I stopped at the medical station to pump some biofreeze onto my right knee which was beginning to bother me at this point. At the medical stations they also had vaseline available. I considered reapplying some since I knew most of it had been wiped away during all my bathroom breaks, but I thought people would start to wonder when they saw me sticking my hand down my pants in public, so I refrained. In the end, the chaffing wasn’t so bad.

The highlight of this stretch was my photo-op with Pocahontas, Meeko, and John Smith from my favourite Disney movie. After that I gave a little fist pump and ran off at a quicker pace.

Mile 17-21 –Animal Kingdom:

I was relieved to see an ass on the side of the road. And falcons. It meant we were entering Animal Kingdom and most of the remaining miles would be through the theme parks. Animal Kingdom was open to the public by the time we ran through so there were lots of people around cheering on the runners. It wasn’t nearly as energetic as Magic Kingdom though where the spectators were lining the streets just to see the runners come through. I’ve never been to Animal Kingdom before but it was cool to run through the jungle trees, see the Tree of Life, and Mount Everest.

As we were leaving the park I stopped to get a photo with Minnie and then Mickey. That was my most exciting celebrity sighting.

Miles 19 to 21 were on a stretch of highway between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios where I started to add lots of walking intervals among my slower running, decreasing my pace to about 12 minute miles. At mile 20.5 there were some entertainers lining the road and asking people where they were from. I shouted “Canada!” into the mic and the guy says, “Canada? Um, okay?” which made me confused. Was that the wrong answer?

Mile 22-24 –Hollywood Studios:

My left shin was really starting to hurt and the biofreeze did nothing for my knee. I kept my walking intervals but just being in the park motivated me to run a little more than I had been on the highways.

I felt that there was a lot more to experience in Hollywood Studios compared to Animal Kingdom. There were more spectators and there were more sights to see, like the tower of terror, a costume design studio, and the iconic sorcerer’s hat. The spectators there had a lot of energy, maybe because we were so close to the finish. Everyone was shouting, “Only 3 miles to go!” but 3 miles feels like a long time when you’ve already run 23.

I grabbed some candy and chocolate at mile 23. I pocketed the chocolate for later because the richness didn’t sound appetizing, but I pounded back the candy.

At mile 24 I stopped for my fifth and last bathroom break in an actual public bathroom which felt positively luxurious in comparison to the stinky porta-potties I was getting used to. I tried to force myself to run as much as possible for the last 2.2 miles.

Mile 25-26 –The Boardwalk and Epcot:

Because you don’t need a theme park ticket to check out the boardwalk, it was lined with lots of spectators there just for the race. The energy was really building at this point with just a mile left to go and so many people cheering on the runners, it felt pretty good to be almost done despite the pain I was feeling.

We ran through the World Showcase in Epcot again which was much better during the day when you can really experience it. No one was stopping for pictures at this point because the race was almost done. I stopped for a quick picture with the Beast in France, my favourite Disney leading man, and Mushu from Mulan in China.

Before I knew it I was rounding the corner toward the finish line.

The Finish:

The energy from the crowd here was intense! I figured Tina was somewhere out in the stands so I was just waving at everyone like a celebrity on the red carpet and hoping that I she would see me. (I ended up finding her just passed the finish line)

I was so happy with my race that I crossed the finish with a huge smile on my face.

Final Time: 5:14:50
Goal Time: 5:15ish or whatever
Training Miles Run: 347.5
Bathroom Breaks: 5
Food Eaten on Course: 2 dates, 1 banana, 2 Clif Shots, 1 pack of candies
Cups of Powerade Consumed: 30+
Body Parts in Pain: 4: lower back, right knee, left shin, right foot
Disney Characters I Took Pictures With: 26 (See all of my marathon photos here.)

Hello from Orlando!

My friend and I arrived in Orlando yesterday afternoon to sunshine and palm trees. It’s been years since I’ve travelled anywhere where there is palm trees.

The weather here is perfect: in the low 60s, but felt warm enough in the bright sun to walk around without a coat. I guess this weather is unseasonably cold for Florida so I saw a few people sporting very heavy down jackets and one lady was wearing a fur coat. Someone even told me to “stay warm”. Oh Floridians!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Downtown Disney which is store after store of Disney paraphenalia. And since Tina and I are both sick and were exhausted we came back to the hotel for a nap. Our hotel has a hot tub and a pool (which is ICE COLD) so we could lounge in the hot tub and then run and jump into the pool for our own spa-like experience.

Today we’re heading to Magic Kingdom! Woot!

I’ll try to check in again but I’m on a hotel computer and I have some anxious kids standing behind me waiting to use it.

1 week until show time

Happy 2012 Everyone!

It’s January 1st, which means New Year’s for some, but for me it means on week until I’ll be running the Walt Disney World Marathon at the ungodly hour of 5:30am.

My training plan has had me tapering since the weekend before Christmas (so 3 weeks before the race) but I hit a chink in that plan on Friday that made me miss 8 miles of running this week:

I started to get a sore throat on Thursday night and knew that a cold was coming on. Since then I have been doing everything I can to keep the symptoms at bay. Normally I wouldn’t miss a workout for just a cold but with the marathon next weekend I don’t want to take any chances.

Luckily the cold symptoms haven’t hit me too hard but that could be because I’ve been doing everything I can think of to keep them minimal:

- gargling salt water
- resting and napping
- deep breathing a steam bath of lavender-infused hot water

(I spent much of the last few days with my head over this sink)

- taking an extra vitamin C
- drinking plenty of fluids, especially warm water with lemon and ginger
- using the steam room for 15 minutes followed by an ice cold shower to boost circulation

On Friday I went to use the steam room at the gym to help clear my sinuses and forced myself to stay in there for a full 15 minutes.16, actually, if we’re getting technical. When I got home Matt looked at me and started laughing.

“What happened to your nose!? Why is your nose purple?”

I don’t if it was from the steam or what but somehow the tip of my nose turned purple, it looks a bit like a bruise but more like I dipped the tip of my nose in an ink pad.

For the rest of the night he couldn’t look at me without laughing. Thanks, husband.

The purpleyness has since gone down a bit but the tip of my nose is still off-coloured, though now I can conceal it with make-up pretty effectively. Good news, since I went out with a big group of people for New Year’s Eve last night. I don’t think anyone noticed, although maybe it’s just rude to ask about it.

So rude.

So I’m holing up in my house and trying to get some rest and fluids and praying that I’m back in peak shape for the trip to Florida this week. Staying up way too late last night was a bit of a set back, but there was champagne to be popped, and Rock Band to be played, and lots of friends over at my house for the celebration.

In retrospect, jumping around and singing Bad Reputation at the top of my lungs might not have been the best idea.

Wait, who am I kidding? When is that ever a bad idea?

Cookie Party 2011

My husband thinks I’m too competitive. Which I am. It stems from the high standards for success and overachievement of my childhood, but let’s not get into that. Anyway, if I’m the competitive one I don’t understand why he always insists that our parties become contests or competitions. Wine tasting competition, chili cook-off, dessert bake-off, beer tasting competition, we’ve had them all.

“Can’t we just have a party that doesn’t involve competing?” I’ll ask every time we discuss our next party

“What do you have against competitions?” Matt will reply. And so it always goes.

Sometimes I win out. One time I convinced him to have a potluck. A normal one where people bring food and we all eat it and enjoy it rather than critiquing it for its flaws. That’s when my friend Kyle brought the Epic Mealtime Lasagna to “change the game” and I started to think that competitions are expected at the Menzies’.

I see where Matt’s coming from though. People get more invested in something when they think they could be a victor which makes the party that much more exciting. Instead of bringing a tray of leftover cookies to the party they spend a hundred bucks on fast food and 40 of Jack Daniels to make a lasagna that will blow people’s minds (seriously. that’s what was in the epic mealtime lasagna).

Of course given my own competitive nature, when we have these parties I toss the ‘gracious hostess’ act in favour of my natural ‘cut-throat contender’ persona because I want to win as much as the next guy. More, probably.

On the 23rd Matt and I hosted a Christmas Cookie party at our place for our friends. The rules were simple, everyone brings a cookie, guests vote on their top 5 favourites (with #1 favourite getting 5 points and #5 favourite getting 1 point) and the winner is determined by total number of points.

For our cookie competition I spent a lot of time trying to determine what kind of cookie would be worthy of the win. I make a lot of good cookies but it’s tough to determine what is going to appeal to everyone in a large group of people. I decided on 3 factors- Rich, Chocolatey, and Complicated- and wound up making Peppermint Patty Cookies- a chocolate sable, topped with peppermint fondant and dipped in semi-sweet chocolate- a recipe that was entirely my own creation.

Yummy. Irresistible.

Sounds pretty damn awesome, doesn’t it? Sounds like it would win, right?

Well the head gamemaker, my husband, decided on a last minute rule (once all the votes came in and my peppermint patty came out on top, mind you) that the host of the party couldn’t win.

Say what?!? Why did I even bother entering this goddamn thing then? I was unimpressed.

Can’t you just say that I won, but give the prize to second place? I asked Matt as he tallied up the vote count. I don’t care about prizes, all I care about is recognition.

Why are you so competitive? Can’t you just win humbly without announcing it to everyone?

Umm. . . actually, no.

It took everything I had not to be that asshole and shout out “Lies! Lies!!!!” while Matt read the name of the “winner” and didn’t even give me a fake second or third place.

The number 2 cookie was phenomenal and fully deserved to win that LCBO gift card (seriously Zack, please send me the recipe.) It was a peanut butter sandwich cookie half dipped in chocolate that was soft and sweet and peanut buttery and chocolatey and that everyone was a big fan of.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. Delicious. But, ya know, not quite as delicious as mine.

But between you, me, and the Internets the secret is out that I make the best cookies (even if I only won by 3 points).

And now I can sleep better at night.

Do you think there’s enough food?

I’m back after my Internet hiatus for Christmas. I’ve hardly turned on my computer for 5 straight days over the holidays and, not gonna lie, I quite liked it.

In its usual way, the holiday brought lots of family dinners and a bounty of food that naturally led to my overconsumption. My sister and I hosted Christmas Eve at our dad’s place which, in our family, means drinks and appetizers. My family’s philosophy on food can be summed up in 2 words: volume and variety.

Growing up with celebrations where a 40lb turkey was the standard size and everyone went home with a week’s worth of leftovers, I have it ingrained in my mind that if you don’t serve enough food for twice as many guests as you actually have in attendance then you’ve failed. My biggest stressor when hosting an event is whether or not there is going to be enough food. My rational brain knows that the massive menu is more than enough, but I always have doubts.

Inevitably, no matter how many dishes are prepared, I always second guess myself. On Friday as we were prepping some of the 18+ appetizers that were on the menu my sister asked

“Do you think we have enough? You don’t. I can tell.”

I wanted to reassure her, but all I could think was that our family might be going hungry this Christmas Eve.

A week of baking, and two days of prepping and cooking later and I was driving to my dad’s for the big Christmas eve party and practically falling asleep at the weel from being on my feet for 2 days straight. All I wanted was a nap. And maybe a foot massage.

But I love cooking, and I love hosting, and I love serving too much food. It’s worth the sore feet and the stress once my loud and boisterous family arrive with their boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and brothers and babies and everyone gathers around the food to eat and drink and catch up with each other.

Obviously with all the dishes that we made, my family wasn’t going hungry this Christmas. We ate until we were full and then ate a bit more and there were still plenty of leftovers at the end of the night. It always happens this way, and yet I will always doubt that there is enough food on the table.

Sahtan!

My aunt and uncle brought a platter with enough caviar to feed a Russian army.

Homemade California Rolls

Jumbo Shrimp

Homemade Lox on Homemade German Pumpernickel

Apple, Bacon, and Caramelized Onion Turnovers (top) Shrimp Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Asiago Frico with prosciutto, spring greens, and balsamic.

Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tarts

Sesame Chicken on Rice Cakes

Homemade Baguette, Pumpernickel, Oat Crackers, and Wheat Thins

We also had seafood salad, cider fondue, oysters, swedish meatballs, guacamole and chips, zucchini and feta tarts with olives and mint, jalapeno poppers, grape tomatoes with bocconcini and basil, fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce, spiced nuts, and mistletoe sangria to drink.

So yeah, there was enough food.

Oatmeal Butter Crackers

This week I’m baking like a mad woman for Christmas. I’m on bread and cracker baking duty so I’ve got a lot of work to do this week to get everything ready.

A week and a half ago I started making a Bavarian style rye bread. It’s a really dense, dark rye bread (a lot like volkornbrot) that is sliced thinly and that I’m planning on serving with homemade lox. This bread is a process. First I had to make a gelatinous mash, then I had to grow some fresh yeast, then I had to make the starters for the final bread and cook up some wheat berries to add into it, and finally 9 days later the dough made it to the oven. Now that it’s baked I have to age it for a day or so before cutting into it, so I’m not even sure what it tastes like. All I have to say is, with all the work it damn well better be good!

Sometimes I think that German bread isn’t really worth the effort. I mean, I love the density and the intensity of flavour but it doesn’t seem to win over the crowd as much as a Ciabatta or baguette or foccaccia. It’s a bit underrated.

So for the purposes of pleasing the masses I also baked up 6 demi-baguettes on Monday night and I plan on making a fluffy rye bread and possibly a garlic and herb pull-apart bread.

I’ve also baked two types of crackers this week: wheat thins, and buttery oat crackers. I like to make crackers that have a rich grain flavour and a slight sweetness so they work with savoury cheeses and dips as well as sweet  jams. Both of these type of crackers fit that profile, but the oatmeal ones I just couldn’t stop eating (but then I had to because I realized that they have to make it to Saturday night)

True to my style, I burned a good number of the wheat thins but most of them turned out alright. They were the first batch I made so I learned my lesson for the oatmeal batch. I really do love these crackers. Did I mention that I couldn’t stop eating them? The oat flavour, the butter, the slight sweetness. They’re pretty damn awesome if you asked me and really really easy to make.

Oatmeal Butter Crackers

makes about 100 1″ crackers

Ingredients

9 oz. whole wheat flour
9 oz. rolled oats
2 t. baking soda
1 t. sea salt
3 T. granulated sugar
6 oz. cold, salted butter (3/4 c.), cut ino cubes
enough milk to bring it all together (~1 c.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment stir together the dry ingredients at low speed.

Add the butter cubes and increase the speed of the mixer until you get pea sized clumps, like you’re making a pie dough.

Add in as much milk as necessary to get the dough to come together into a ball without crumbling. If you add too much milk and the dough is sticky, just sprinkle a little more flour on it, no big deal.

On a floured surface, roll out your dough with a rolling pin to about 1/4″ thickness. Cut it into squares or rectangles using a pastry cutter or pizza cutter.

Transfer the crackers to a foil lined baking sheet (or multiple, I needed 3). They can be very close, but try not to let them touch.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. They will not crisp up in the oven, but once you remove them and allow them to cool on a rack they will be nice and crisp.

And so begins the taper

Saturday night I made the idiotic decision of having a very spicy stirfry at Chanoso’s for dinner at 10pm. I got an 8 on their 1-10 scale of spiciness which was perfect for my heat tooth but not so good for my intestines.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if I weren’t planning to run 20 miles on Sunday morning. So I guess there will be no spicy food the night before the big marathon. Lesson #1 learned.

To spare myself from being miles away from home and having to squat in the woods, I decided to run my longest run of marathon training on the treadmill at the gym (in close proximity to a bathroom). I wasn’t too happy about it, because the weather on Sunday was pretty mild and would have made for a nice run, but luckily there was a decent movie on TV (Kingdom of Heaven) to occupy my boredom.

The run actually went really well. It took me 3:06 (not including bathroom breaks) which is a 9:18/mile pace.

I wasn’t as tired as I had expected to be. Unfortunately I forgot to vaseline my chaffing spots so by mile 9 my ribs and back were raw from all the rubbing against my sports bra and by mile 13 my ass was starting to chafe too. Ass chaffing might be the worst thing in the world. Lube up before you run! Lesson #2 learned.

I took a quick break at mile 13 to refill my water and eat a few dates as a snack. Once I stopped running I noticed that my right knee was hurting just a bit. I’ve never felt knee pain before so I was a bit worried about whether to keep running but I decided to give it a go. It was only 7 more miles. My knee felt uncomfortable but not painful while I ran so I just let myself run through it and after a while I didn’t notice anything. Today it feels a bit ‘off’ but I don’t think it’s anything serious.

So now that my big 20 mile run is out of the way it’s time to taper for the marathon which is only 3 weeks away! Eeeek!

The next big things to do before the marathon are 1) massage. Scheduled for Thursday.  2) put together a packing list of all the things I’m going to need so I don’t forget anything important (like vaseline or moisture wicking underwear).

Holiday Health Challenge Update:

This is week  5 of my Holiday Health Challenge with less than a week to go before Christmas. I was lazy this week and didn’t do a great job sticking to my plan.

1) Keep a food journal – B-

I got lazy and missed a few days of journalling and I wasn’t really considering what I was eating. I would look at my journal and say ‘I ate a lot of nuts today’, but then eat just as many the next day. It was pure laziness and lack of planning.

2) Eliminate processed sugar – C

Not a good week for this at all. I really want to do better this week bit in the week before Christmas I’m wondering how?

3) Floss my teeth every day – B

I think I only flossed 4 days this week.

4) Start the day with lemon juice and water – C

I missed 4 days.

5) Run 150 miles – A+ – (177/150 miles)

I ran all 39 miles I had scheduled for this week and so I smashed my goal of running 150 miles before Christmas by 27 miles. This might have been my best week of running ever with an amazing 5 mile run, a 3 mile run in 23 minutes where I beat my own PR!!!, and of course my big 20 miler.

6) Squat 155lbs for 5 reps – A+

I smashed this goal last week and this week I got up to 8 reps at 155lbs. I tried for 160lbs and got 4 reps! Yowza. I’m rockin’ it.

7) Make my walks with Bagigis 5 minutes longer – C

I think she only got 2 long-ish walks this week. Bad puppy mom.

8 ) Take all my vitamins – A+

Done and Done.

Christmas Tunes

I got a hair cut, finally. I only delayed it about 6 months or so.

Before: Wow, did I really leave the house with my hair that frizzy? Sadly, it looks like this on a daily basis.

After: Trimmed an inch, shortened the layers, and thinned out. It will probably go back to looking like the ‘before’ in a couple of days.

I was looking for some new Christmas music to add to my collection and heard lots of good things about A Very She & Him Christmas, so I downloaded it.

While I like their rendition of “The Christmas Waltz“, I find listening to the whole album at length to be rather boring, and the last thing I want is to be bored by my Christmas tunes. It brought back memories of being forced to watch the Lawrence Welk Show on Sunday nights with my Nonna. Plus, there isn’t a single religious song on the album, which is a major Christmas album fail, in my opinion.

So that got me thinking about my favourite (and least favourite) tunes from the holiday season. There are SO many, so it’s tough to pick but I narrowed down my preferences as best as possible.

Best Christmas Tunes

Classic Secular:

Happy Xmas (War is Over) – John Lennon

Truthfully I am partial to Sarah McLachlan’s or Celine Dion’s versions though. Yoko just ruins the original for me.

Coming in a close second is Last Christmas – Wham! (and no one else’s version even comes close to the original). There isn’t a time when I don’t hear this song and turn it up to jam.

Modern Secular:

Yule Shoot Your Eye Out – Fall Out Boy

Yeah, it’s depressing and emo, but I love it. And I listen to this song all year long. Don’t judge.

Classic Religious:

This is SO hard. I think that all the religious songs are a million times better than the secular stuff which I generally find cheesy. I think it’s a toss up between:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and
Oh! Holy Night

Modern Religious:

Breathe of Heaven – Amy Grant

This song is a beautiful perspective of Christmas from the Virgin Mary. We used to sing it every year in high school and it still tops my Christmas playlist.

Worst Christmas Tunes

Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid

I get that this was a fundraiser for the 1980s Ethiopian famine and that’s all well and good. And I get that the lyrics were trying to put into perspective our first world “needs” at Christmas time compared actual needs of the rest of the world, but has anyone ever really listened to the lyrics? Like, really listened to them? They’re a bit of a stretch for even my liberal brain to wrap itself around.

It’s a world of dreaded fear
Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears
And the christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you

The clanging chimes of doom? Really? It’s Africa, people, not the coming of the grim reaper.

In case you don’t agere with me, even the songwriter Bob Geldorf thinks it’s the worst song in history.

Christmas Time is Here – A Charlie Brown Christmas

This song actually makes me want to shoot my eye out. Or at the very least, cover my ears, curl into a ball, and cry “please, make it stop!”

Anything from Manheim Steamroller

How do people listen to this shit?

Blue Christmas – Elvis

Any version of this song is depressing. The most depressing part being that I can’t stop myself from singing along. Elvis’ version is by far the worst.