Race Day Photos

As stolen from Marathonfoto people, just PROOFS!
You will never see a person looking happier than I did on my run. That's only cause I was vain and smiled at every camera I saw....I knew they'd all turn out! haha

First half marathon...COMPLETE!

UPDATE!!

So here's a run by run of the last two days.

Saturday morning: I had planned on going to play some pitch and putt with Viet, my siblings, and Andrew, but by the time Jasmine and Julian was ready, it started to rain. So we went to e-canteen for lunch instead. Never really been there without parents before, feels like we're all grown up. I ordered rice to pack on the carbs.

After lunch, I went to Superstore to do some grocery shopping but then we didn't get enough stuff so we went to T&T as well. Viet chose out new glasses cause his frames ran out :( But I like the new ones! I was dropped off at home for a brief 45 mins in which I quickly packed an overnight bag with everything I can think of that I would need.

Fuel belt? Check
Sport beans? Check
Running clothes? Check
Sleeping clothes? Check
Toiletries? Check
iPod? Check
Tickets and forms? Check

Then I had to quickly figure out how to get to the Sheridan Wall Centre by bus. Turns out it's a lot simpler than I thought it would be. Take the #41 bus to Knight, then take the #22 MacDonald bus to downtown St. Paul Hospital.

I got there late, but was able to decorate my bib. I talked about in my last post my sponsored hero, Jessica. I wrote her name on the back of my bib.

Dinner was at 5:30 and we had to rush to get there. Lots of foood! Pasta, bread, salad. So.much.food. I even had TWO plates! :)

By the time dinner was done we all rushed to the bar to watch the hockey game. When we came up, the score was 2-0 Canucks! Yes! Then it all fell apart. Five goals in a row for Chicago. Canucks finally added one more in before Chicago won with an empty netter. 6-3....ouch. I tell you, if the feng shui is working, don't mess with it. We don't watch, we lead 2-0, we watch, they start losing :( It's ok! Game 3 tomorrow.

After the very disappointed game, Bonnie and I headed back to our room to clean up and head to bed early. The big meal literally knocked me out at 9:15. We had a surprise overnight and this was what was left on our doors. A personal card from Coach Mike as his final words of inspiration.
The sign was stuck on our door and said WE were the heroes tomorrow for running. Glenna and Veronica is just so amazing :)

Sunday morning: I got up at 5am to pack up, dress up, and get pumped up for the run. Bonnie and I went to Starbucks to pick up some bread before our run. We hopped onto the busses at around 6:15 and it took us to the Terry Fox Memorial where we hopped off and to the Expo. Free coffee from McDonalds?? So tempting, but must not get dehydrated.

Our whole group got pumped up, seeked out the 2 hr pace bunny, and before we know it..."3...2...1....go!!" I felt awesome throughout the first 8km. I don't really remember stopping for the 10 and 1s. The first real place I stopped was when we hit 1/2 way before the hill to Prospect Point. I remember my stopping intervals were all less than a min, then I was off again. I was able to tone out everything, the runners, the pain, the heat. I just.kept.going. I thought of Jessica quite a bit. She's my inspiration to continue.

The weather was good...no....GREAT! AWESOME! UNBELIEVABLE! Considering the weather network was calling for rain ALL WEEK, we didn't get a drip. In fact, we had beautiful overcast with some sun peeping out and a GREAT breeze from the water.

When we got out of Stanley Park, we began to see the full marathoners running by. Boy are they fast!!!! I hit "the wall" at around 19km. I know there's only 2.1 km to go but I really felt like I can't do it. My feet were hurting, my knee was tugging, my legs felt like concrete. That was when I heard someone yell "Thanks for running for a cure!" and that really helped me. I took a sport bean (fruit punch flavour) and I started running again. 20km mark! 1 to go!
Just keep going.
Just keep going.
Just keep going.

Before I know it, I crossed the finish line. The biggest surprise? I looked up at the clock "2:35" No way!!! My goal was to do it under 3 hours because it took me 3 hours during the GTS. But not only did I meet my goal, I exceeded it! I was so happy.....and hungry.

At the finish line, there were tables upon tables lined up with food. And that was exactly what I did. I grabbed anything I could off every table I could and chowed it down. Boy did that feel good. Then I found the TNT tent, checked out and sat on the floor refusing to move anymore. That's when I realized I couldn't find Viet or Jeunessa! Did they get lost? Were they late?

I borrowed Monique's phone and gave them a call. Viet picked up and said he was at the finish line, but I finished already! So they came by to congratulate me. That's when I got my first medal! And the best one yet! My own Running Pear! Jeunessa made this for me the night before. It's the running pear's personal trophy. Isn't it amazing? She just took my pear picture from the above banner, and turned it into a stuffy!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!!

I got to the Expo to get my $20 massage. I must tell you all. This $20 I spent is the best $20 spent in the last YEAR. It was GOLD. 15 minutes with a personal massage therapist is the reason why I don't feel like I've ran a half marathon today. Seriously, it was HEAVEN. I totally recommend it!!!!

Here's a picture of what I looked like after I got home.
Pretty scary eh? I was surprised I could still walk! But I did it! I showered and was going to take a nap but grandma wanted to eat lunch so we went out for Pho. After Pho, yee ma wanted to buy sofas, so we went to Coquitlam. Man, it took super long, but Raymond and yee ma now has a new 100% leather sofa and loveseat!

I got home, and before I know it, it was time to go for our Victory dinner, so off I go. It was a great dinner, our last dinner together as a team! I was soooo tired but I loved seeing everyone. Here are some images!

Thank you everyone!
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Wow! It was SUCH an experience! I will blog about it later tonight. I've had no free time since yesterday. Finished the marathon, came home, shower, went out for lunch, then shopped for furniture. Came home, got ready, went for dinner, got back at 9:30 and hopped into my beautiful bed.

On the list today: Work til 5, cook dinner by 6, class at 6:30!!! My first photography class at Langara, I'm SO psyched! Unfortunately, that goes until 9:55. I'll see how much time I have to blog after I come home from that.

My time? 2 hours and 33 minutes. Record time for me! :)

Sun Run 2009

Wow, haven't posted in over two weeks, been lazy on my blogging again. Last week, it was pouring rain so I was lazy and didn't go for my long run, but I made it up during the week by running 3 out of 5 days.

I want to take a bit of time to introduce you to my honoured hero, Jessica. Jessica is 13 years old and was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) last year. This is the most common type of Leukemia in children. She bravely fought through rigorous treatment to conquer cancer and she is going through a great recovery right now. Jessica and her family wants to thank God for his blessing in helping Jessica go through a quick recovery. Every time when it's too hard to run, I think of Jessica and she helps me continue to run more.

I've been getting hyped up for today because it's the 25th Annual Vancouver Sun Run. This is my first time participating in the Sun Run, so I was pretty excited about being a part of such a huge event. The weather network all week called for rain, but we were very blessed because it didn't rain a drop!

I packed light so I didn't have to use gear check. I felt really good on the 10k run today. I think I finished just over 1hr15min which is a pretty good time! Viet was running with me the whole time, though at times I had to stop and wait or run back a bit just to make sure I don't lose him.

After the run, there was an expo inside BC Place with free food!! I had two cups of yogurt, two halves of a banana, a box of apple juice, a cup of orange juice, a cup of pineapple juice and one bagel...Now that I have that typed up, that's quite a bit of food I chowed down. Hey! I was tired! and starving!

After failing to find people we know, Viet and I walked over to Gerry and Jo-Ann's place to see the wonderful view before they move to their new place on May 1st. Jack was barking like crazy every time a new person came through the door, but you can tell he's a good boy :)

Going home after the run, I showered and took a nap for an hour before the Canucks game.

Canucks game 3 vs. St. Louis Blues. We kicked butt! 3-2 was the final. Our powerplay AND penalty kill is really kicking it up. Game 4 on Tuesday!!!

My First Half Marathon!

Sunday April 5, 2009. The date of my first half marathon.

I woke up today feeling better than I did most weeks because I knew in my head we were running a half marathon today. Bonnie's at work this week, so I headed out to Granville Island alone. I saw Sarah on the way and I waved at her...she's much faster than I am now, so we can't take the same ride.

Luckily this week, there were no sun runners hogging up all the parking spot. Last week was almost impossible to find parking. I also got a great surprise this week, my running buddy, Monique is back!!! Back and Better than Before! Her knee is completely healed and she's ready to run the full way.

This week, Mike says we're still only doing 18km. But Sarah, Laura, AND Monique won't be here next week and that's when we're supposed to run the 21km, so we decided as a group to run the 21km this week. The run started out very well, I felt good for the entire first half up to 9km. Then when we got up the hill to UBC's Museum of Anthropologie, my legs started burning really bad. Monique and I decided to walk up that hill mostly. It was only an extra 1.5km, but it sure felt a lot longer. We ran back down and passed Jericho. At about 16km point, my body really started wheezing and yelling at me to slow down. Monique was feeling it too, so we took it a bit easier for the last 5km.

We made it back! At a horrendous time though, because we got back at about the 3 hour mark, which is QUITE long for a half marathon, but I'm sure I can get better next week. It's like a weekly ritual now, Mike and Amy always brings bananas at the finish line and it tastes GREAT! Since I took so long to finish my run, I had to leave because parking at Granville Island is only for 3 hours. Great job team! We'll do it again next week!

On a side note, I've had some pain on my left foot from the outside of my pinky toe to about halfway up my calf, anyone know what that is?

My fundraising is almost complete! I'm only less than $300 away! Thank you to all my sponsors!

Natalia Gilewicz hey Nat! I'll always be your favourite TA right? :) I miss you! Hope you're doing well, update me on GCM soon! :)
Katannya Yee heya Kat, it's ok that you couldn't make it out to the bowling night, thanks for donating. We need to meet up sometime soon and catch up! Call me up!

Sorry :(

Haven't posted in a while, a quick one here.

I'm going to be entering a quick contest hosted by SFU Now.
Please check out the website at http://www.sfunow.ca/

Maybe I'll win an iPod nano to help me on my longer runs! :)

I'm at 18k now :)

St. Patrick's Day Bowlarama - A Success!

First off... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT CAME OUT TO SUPPORT OUR FUNDRAISER!

Pictures can be found at here

I was pretty stressed out about the fundraiser the day before. I had to get prizes for the top bowlers (which we never got around to) I had to get balloons blown up (Thank you Tim the Mute at Balloonatics!) and I still had to finalize the list of attendees.

The night before, I couldn't sleep all night thinking and worrying about what I'm missing, what I'll need. I couldn't sleep until 3:30 so of course, I couldn't get up for our GTS on Sunday morning. Slept in til about 10:30 and looked outside. The rain's held off so I guess I can go for a run! I planned out the 18km route from my house to Wallace St. and back.

Running in traffic on a big street is definitely different than our regular GTS. I have to watch for traffic lights, turning cars, pedestrians, slowed my time down by a lot. At 11:30, I was only at Carnavarn and 41st. But then it started to rain! So I guess it was a sign to head back. But when I got to Granville and 41st, it started SLEETING SNOW! I was soaking wet and freezing cold. Finally made my way to the bus stop at 41st and Oak and ran into the Chevron to call Viet to come pick me up.

Lesson learned: Always check weather report before going out for a run.

After going home to shower and thaw myself, I started getting together the final plans for the night.

I arrived at the bowling alley at around 5pm to find the previous league not done yet. So we waited around while they finished. Monique showed up with all the great gift cards and we got our raffle table set up!

Then before we could set everything up, people started arriving in the masses! I had to finish the table, made sure people pay, make sure they got their token, my head was really spinning. But luckily, everyone got to bowl (I think) and a lot of people purchased 50/50 tickets and raffle tickets. That's pretty much the event as I saw it because most of it was just spinning by me. I however remember that a lot of people stuck around for the Raffle drawing and 50/50 which ended up going to people who weren't originally part of our fundraiser! But it's ok, if they were willing to purchase tickets, they have every right to win.

I want to thank my latest sponsors:
Joe Hung heya, you missed my fundraiser but thank you for donating instead! :)
Coast Imaging Arts Ernst at Coast Imaging Arts is a colleague/associate of the BCPIA. Thank you for donating to our cause!

Please visit this page to sponsor me in my run on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

Another Day. Another Run

Forgot to post this on THIS blog last Sunday, so I'll repost it now.

I haven't really explained the format of our training with the TEAM. TEAM in Training is organized by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. There is a group of dedicated full time staff that help in collecting donations from participants that will in turn help the Society.

The training portion of TEAM in Training is organized by a team of volunteer Coaches and Mentors. There are coaches for 3 main teams. The Run team, the Walk team and the Tri(athlon) team. As I plan to Run the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon, my run coach is Coach Mike. Coach Mike is SUPER fast. I think he's ran over 5 marathons and he's a pretty seasoned runner. It's really great having such a seasoned coach because he understands what it's like for us when we first start out. Coach Mike and his wife Amy actually came from Ontario. Amy has Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, a form of Leukemia that requires taking a single pill called Gleevec that inhibits the leukemia. Gleevec is the result of the hard work of thousands and thousands of fundraisers and donations. The fundraising and donations of these people has made Gleevec possible for people like Amy and many more.

We train every Sunday at 8:30 (yes that's A.M. for you sleepyheads) at Granville Island. We call those runs GTS (or group training sessions). It usually starts by meeting behind Cat's Social House in the little area that is covered. Sometimes we have workshops where experts come in to talk to us about strength training, nutritions, and equipment, but most times, we warm up, yell a quick "GO TEAM" and we're off!

The distances usually vary. Now for those of you that really know me from way back in high school (well not that way back) we used to have "run days" where we run about 3km around the school twice. Even in high school, I wasn't much of a sporty kid, I couldn't run that 3km without walking half of it. Imagine my surprise when we started one fine December day last year and Coach Mike told us our first run was 4km!!!! We maintain a set distance usually two weeks in a row and go up by 1 to 2km on the next run.

I still remember our first 4km run like it was yesterday. Coach Mike maps out a route for us:
1. Start off going west at Granville Island.
2. Run along the seawall below both the Granville St. Bridge and Burrard St. Bridge
3. Run past the Planetarium at Vanier Park
4. Run to the washrooms by the Totem Pole and Museum.
5. Turn around and run back.

I looked at that distance and thought.....NO...WAY.

Here's a look at our run route yesterday:
1. Start off going west at Granville Island
2. Run along the seawall past Vanier Park
3. Continue along the seawall past Kits beach
4. Turn up along the hill when you hit the pool at Kits beach. Right at Balsam
5. Run along Point Grey Rd. until you hit Jericho Beach
6. Turn up along the path to W. 4th Ave.
7. Turn right down NW Marine Drive
8. Continue along Marine Drive until you hit the concession stand.
9. Turn around and head back to Granville Island along the same route.

Now. Yesterday was also Daylight Savings Time. I'm currently busy organizing our Bowling Fundraiser next Sunday, so of course I didn't sleep until 11:30 PRE-daylight savings time. Which meant, after I set the clock an hour faster, it was 12:30! Yesterday's run I felt fatigue from the very beginning. My feet were slowly dragging along. The cold weather made it hard for my muscles to warm up. And my head just wasn't that into it.

The route you just saw above is our 16km route yesterday. It's the first step up from the 14km we've been doing for the last two weeks. When I started the run, I was sure I could only do 14km today. But when I thought of Jessica, I also thought, "Well, it's only really a km more, because it's a km there and when we turn back, it's an extra km back." Besides, I don't want to be the only person to not complete our 16km run! It'll be THAT much harder next week!

So I pushed on and conquered it!!!!

The best part? 1h 47mins which was only 4 mins slower than my 14km run the last week. But then I think this run wasn't a full 16km, which would explain why I'm only 4 mins slower for an extra 2km. I still felt great about myself.

Every time I think it's too hard to push on, I think of Jessica. She's brave, she's strong, and if she can battle cancer, a run should be nothing.

Please visit this page to sponsor me in my run on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.