Several months ago I handed over all planning power of both my bridal shower and my bachelorette party to MOH Michele and bridesmaid Jen respectively. I had an amazing bridal shower thrown for me back at Christmas time and then hadn’t really heard much about the bachelorette party.

I spent all day Saturday in a strategic planning session for work and then my friend Robyn, who was visiting me from Calgary this weekend, picked me up and we went out for Mojito’s! I had been looking forward to having dinner with Robyn and a few of my girlfriends  from around here on Saturday night but all of them “canceled” at the last minute. Heh.

Anyways, I came home from having drinks with Robyn to see Jen’s car in the driveway and then walked up the stairs into our house to 9 girlfriends in running gear, marathon numbers and wigs on yelling “SURPRISE!”

I was told to go upstairs and put on running clothes and was then provided with a mandatory wig and t-shirt to wear.

The running clothes/marathon/wig-theme was seriously SO AWESOME and FUN!

There was 11 of us total and you never would have guessed that most of these girls didn’t even know each other very well, most of them are all friends of mine from different aspects of my life. But everyone got along wonderfully!

After I got over my initial shock (and had a few shots) we headed downtown for the best part of the whole night: A SCAVENGER HUNT! Let me just say that scavenger hunts are the best thing ever. So fun! Especially as a party game at a party where not everyone knows one another very well! We were split into two teams…

…and sent off with a list of things to get – mostly things we had to take photos of.

Like girls planking.

Yoga poses.

A photo on the back of a Harley.

And some things that were a little too inappropriate for the blog It was a bachelorette party after all! Our team lost unfortunately. Probably because we got distracted by cute puppies during the hunt!

Then we all met up at a pub for more drinks, some food and lots of laughs before heading out dancing at the bar, something I hadn’t done in over two years!

It was SUCH A FUN NIGHT! Jen did an amazing job planning a party that was totally ME. I adored the marathon/running theme and let me say wearing running clothes to the bar is the best idea ever! So comfortable for a night of running around town and dancing. My friends are the best and totally spoiled me. Every time I turned around there was a shot or a drink in front of me. Sunday was definitely a hugeeee write-off.

Thank you again to all my fabulous friends who came out on Saturday!

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Questions of the day: What did you do for your bachelorette party? Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? I’ve never had one thrown for me before, this was so great!

The last couple runs I’ve done have FLOWN by because during both of them I’ve been chatting away with people. On Saturday I had an amazing run in Ottawa with Rebecaa and last night at run clinic my 8 x 600 metre hill workout flew by because I ran with a girl visiting our clinic from Calgary. She’s an Ironman who’s done several marathons so we spent the entire hour chatting away about racing and training!

When I first started running regularly back in January of 2009 I always ran alone. After training for my first two half-marathons, I learned about a local trail running group and started joining them on the weekends. Shortly after that, I decided to start going to the local running store’s Wednesday morning track workouts. I remember being SO NERVOUS that first Wednesday. I was such a new runner and the fear of being the slowest one out there plagued me. And, you know what, I was one of the slowest runners. But it didn’t matter. I continued going to those track workouts almost every Wednesday morning at 6:00 AM throughout the summer of 2009, and occasionally joined them for Sunday morning long runs as well.

In the fall of 2009 I joined a very popular local Run Club for one of their sessions. I loved the walk/run philosophy they promoted and did all my long runs with them while training for a half. Shortly after that I ran my third half-marathon and cut 10 minutes off my previous time. I’m sure it was the weekly speed work, the walk breaks on my long runs and the hill training from running trails. Also the camaraderie of my run group was unbeatable. There really isn’t anyone quite like running friends.

For some reason in 2010 I started to get away from group running as I trained for my marathon and I did 90% of my training for that alone.  Honestly, it was miserable. I will never train for a marathon by myself again. It’s hard enough to mentally wrap your head around running 20 miles (32 km) without also having to wrap it around doing it all by yourself. In early 2011 I got back to group running, I started by joining a speed clinic with the same local running store I’d joined for speed work before. This clinic helped me shave 3 minutes off my 10K time! I then started running regularly in the trails with a group of friends who I met through my old coworker while training for my first big trail race.

To train for the Vancouver Marathon I joined another new running group at the local Running Clinic that opened last year. In case you’ve lost track that’s four different running groups in the last three years. Two free ones and two paid ones. I’ve enjoyed every last one of them. The running community in my city is amazing. They are all so nice and uplifting and inspiring.

Now that I’ve rambled on and on about my history with running groups, here’s why I think everyone should join one:

1. It makes you push yourself

Nothing will make you push yourself harder than running with people faster than you and sometimes, especially when you’re doing speed training, you just need to push yourself.

2. They give you the motivation to get out there

There were many, many, many mornings when I never would have dragged myself to the track at 6:00 am without a group to meet. But I never regretted it once. It’s also been so great having my running group for the long runs this marathon training cycle and I can’t even imagine running farther than 15 K (9 miles) by myself right now.

3. Runners are really nice people

They really are a great bunch. I’m yet to meet a rude or snobby runner. In all the different groups I’ve tried everyone has been incredibly friendly, encouraging and nice.

4. You’ll learn things

Do you think I knew what a fartlek vs a tempo run was when I first started running? Or that LSD stood for something other than an illegal drug? Nope, I sure didn’t! But now I’ve ran under the instruction of very experienced runners who have ran for many years and I’ve learned a lot about running in the process.

5. It’s fun

Running is fun period for me but my favourite runs are with friends either catching up on our weeks or running in silence through empty trails in the early morning. I love chatting with people and it makes the run fly by!

So anyone who has asked me if I would recommend joining a running group lately? YES, 1,000 X yes.

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Questions of the day: Have you ever tried a running group? Was it a good experience and do you recommend it to others?

Happy Sunday everyone! I am now back from Ottawa but didn’t really post any updates this past week on what I was up to. It was a very busy week with training all day every day and in the evenings I kept myself busy with fun social things, either with the new friends I made at training or blog friends!

It’s funny because this was my second time visiting Ottawa and I was there for 5.5 full days and 6 nights. Last time I was there for 4 full days and 4 nights. But I feel like I saw so much more of Ottawa last time. Probably because for 3 of the 4 days I was touring around with Anais! That trip is recapped here, here and here.

In my true “photography” fashion lately I took a bunch of instagram photos last week so I figured I’d recap my week in one post, through those photos!

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When I first arrived in Ottawa last Sunday night it was cold. Like -20 C with the windchill! I was not happy since I had left a balmy 15 C behind in Kamloops. But it did give me the opportunity to wear the toque Lisa made for me finally!

After a long day of training on Monday I met Anais for a (very cold!) run. We ran 5.5 miles along the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and then went back to her house where she made me a delicious dinner of rainbow trout and quinoa salad. It was great! Silly me didn’t get any photos of us together, though.

On Tuesday I participated in one of the social events with my training group! We did a tour of Parliament and then went for dinner and drinks at a nearby pub. It was really fun and great to get to know all the people in my group better! I ended up making some awesome friends by the end of the week.

Wednesday I hung out with Anais again and went to hot power yoga at her gym. The gym she goes to is AWESOME. It’s massively huge and it has a hot yoga studio right inside of it that is included with the membership. It was an intense workout and I was glad to fit in some yoga during my trip. We then went for tofu burgers (same one I had with her last time), which were amazing! I once again failed at getting a photo of the two of us though

Thursday was super fun! Our training group went to the Ottawa Senators game and had box seats, which was so cool!

Friday our training wrapped up by 1:00 PM. It was really sad actually, it was very group-focused training and I met some awesome people from all across the country. All of my friends were flying out that day and I wasn’t flying out until Saturday but a few of them had a late flight so we wandered around Ottawa a bit more. We walked back to Byward Market so I could eat a Beaver Tail!

A beaver tail is just a piece of fry bread with your choice of topping! I had maple butter which was super drippy and sweet, but delicious!

I love this photo I took near Parliament in downtown Ottawa. The contrast of the new skyscraper beside the older parliament building is so cool to me. I really love Ottawa and could actually picture myself living there one day.

After saying goodbye to my friends I got ready to meet Cynthia for dinner! She just happened to be in Ottawa that weekend for work as well so it was really fun that we got to meet up. I, once again, failed on taking any photos of us. Probably because we talked for two hours straight without stopping. It’s crazy how you can meet someone for the very first time but feel like you know them so well! We had delicious pad thai and then it was early to bed for me as I had a long run planned in the morning.

I met up with Rebecca bright and early on Saturday morning to run 18 miles (29 km). I woke up to see that it had snowed and was about -10 C outside so I admit I was really dreading this run.

Well it turned out that this was by far THE BEST long run I’ve ever done. Rebecca and I literally chatted non-stop the entire three hours and I felt amazing. By the last mile or two the bottoms of my feet were starting to hurt from walking lots the day before but overall it was a really amazing run. If I feel that good during the marathon I will be one happy girl! We also ran along the Rideau Canal which was gorgeous and even though it was chilly it was also bright and sunny.

Afterwards we went back to the Scone Witch for a delicious brunch which I basically thought about the entire last half of the run.

And then it was time to head home for me! I felt really good after my run and all day yesterday but I’m definitely pretty stiff today from running for three hours and then sitting on a plane / in airports for 8.

I had a really awesome week though. I met some great new people working for the same organization as me, I learned A LOT and I had some super fun times with blog friends. Nothing wrong with that!

How was your week? Do you like traveling for work or no?