{Source}

Last night I tried Crossfit for the first time ever with Bronwyn! It was really intense, and really fun. I am planning to get a month unlimited pass and go 3-4 times per week. I need to get back into strength training and don’t seem to do it at home so I’m hoping this will push me. Plus it doesn’t hurt that I have this pretty significant event coming up in my life where I will be wearing a sleeveless dress all day long…

Crossfit last night was also my first workout since the marathon (well, if you don’t count mine and Eric’s dancing less on Monday night) and it was good to do something again. While I have really enjoyed being lazy, resting and recovering I know it’s time to get back into regular workouts. Plus I have NO energy when I don’t workout and dragging myself out of bed in the morning is the hardest thing ever. I still haven’t ran, but have a running date on Friday – in the trails no less so I’m jumping right back into it!

Right now I just want to focus on yoga and strength training and maintaining my running base (1.5 – 2 hour long runs + two other runs per week) until after the wedding. I am then doing the inaugural Kamloops half-marathon at the end of July with my girlfriend from Calgary (thank god Lisa talked me down from the ledge when I almost signed up for the marathon, which is 20 days after my wedding!) and I am also 95% sure I will be running the Kelowna marathon in October. Other things on the agenda are lots of trail running, gearing up for an 18K (or possibly 36K if I’m feeling ambitious and want to do two loops) trail run in September.

Originally I wanted to do another triathlon at the end of August but now I’m not so sure I will. I really did not enjoy triathlon training last year even though I loved the race itself. We’ll see. I’ll be digging my bike back out for bike to work week at the end of this month and then go from there.

So that’s where I’m at on the workout/training front right now! On one hand I’m itching to sign up for a race and dive into another training cycle but on the other hand I know that I should be focused on the wedding right now (and there is a lot to do, trust me!) so shouldn’t get myself too busy with *more* training.

What are you training for right now and/or this summer? 

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!

***

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 Proposal
• Announcing our venue and date
• Asking my bridesmaids
• On hiring a wedding planner
• Wedding Inspiration
• On finding “the one”
• Our Invitations
• 8 months to go!
• 7 months to go!
• 6 months to go!
• 5 months to go!
• 4 months to go!
• 3 months to go! 

***

As I’m sure you can imagine the last month has been pretty consumed with the marathon so not much has happened on the wedding planning front since my last update. However, I think the wedding will be the PERFECT thing to distract me as I go through my post-marathon blues, am I right?

A recent favourite wedding picture taken at our resort. {Source} 

Instead of my usual to-do list format, here are some random blurbs on wedding planning in general, and how I’m feeling with only two months to go until the big day.

- Despite making a decision about what we’re going to do for tuxes, we’re yet to actually order them. The guy at the tux store should not have told us we only needed to do it a month ahead of time because now we probably will. Oh well! At least we know exactly what we want.

- The final guest list numbers are in more or less (give or take 5 or 10 people more or less). I am really happy with the number of people we’re going to have (less than 100) and think it will make for a really nice, intimate – but still fun! – affair. Of course, I’m really sad that certain people couldn’t make it and I’ve definitely had a few disappointing no RSVP’s, but overall I am happy with how it’s unfolding.

- I created a Facebook group for my bridal party and it seems to be working as a great way to keep all the important information in one area without sending a million emails!

- Day of itinerary is something lurking at the back of my mind. I know I need to start planning this soon as well as a day before itinerary and logistics of getting everyone from Vancouver to the resort and the day on Saturday when we’ll be in Vancouver and will be a bit of a “mini” bachelorette party for me (no, I will not be getting crazy drunk or going too wild two nights before my wedding!)

- I’m really, really, REALLY looking forward to our honeymoon. This year has been ca-ra-zy so far and our honeymoon is the “light at the end of the tunnel” in terms of a chance to really kickback and relax after a crazy-busy 7 months!

- I’ve been meaning to write a blog post talking about changing my name (I am changing it!) but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I will in the next month!

- Eric and I have a dancing lesson on Monday! I booked this months ago and completely forgot about it until last week! It should be interesting to say the least. Hope my quads are back to 100% by then.

- Speaking of dancing, we need to finish filling out our music profile for the DJ.

- Speaking of that, we also need to finish writing and planning our ceremony. And write a joint ‘Thank You’ type speech for the reception. Oy.

- My dress doesn’t need to be hemmed! It is the PERFECT length with my kitten-heel shoes. So happy about that!

- That’s about it. My mind has been totally focused and obsessed with the marathon the last little while so wedding mode is back on. There is quite a bit to be done in the next two months.

Anything else I should be thinking about 2 months out? I’m sure I’m missing something…

Onto the real report. Let’s start from the beginning…

The night before I laid out all my stuff like always. I had my race outfit, my fuel and everything I would need to use before leaving the hotel like deodorant, sunscreen, body glide and vaseline.

I was wide awake when my alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I crawled out of bed and got all my stuff ready, made some coffee, choked down a bagel with PB and a banana and tweeted a photo of my race outfit and told people to yell if they saw me. So glad I did this because Stacey, Jackie and Erin all spotted me and said ‘hi’ to me because of this! I knew lots of twitter/blog friends who were running the marathon and it was fun to read all the tweets with the #runvan hashtag before leaving my hotel!

I left around 6:15 and walked the 2 km to the skytrain station where I was planning to meet Brittany. There was a huge line-up of runners waiting to buy tickets to get on the skytrain. At 6:50 AM there were still a bunch of half-marathoners in the line-up too (their race was at 7 am). Finally someone who worked there just came up and said “just get on, you can buy your tickets at the exit” Thank goodness they did that or a lot of people would have been late for their race. I think it’s awesome that translink was so accommodating to the runners.

Britt met me on the platform and we both got on the skytrain and right away someone said “Amber?” and it was Stacey! We have been tweeting back and forth about our training for a few months now so it was really cool to see her. We all ended up walking to the start together and getting a photo – Twitter friends are seriously the best!

We saw the half-marathoners starting as we were walking to the start and that was exciting too!

I also ran into my friend from high school and tried to meet up with two people from my running group but couldn’t coordinate meeting them. It was awesome to see so many people I knew before starting and really helped calm my nerves! Check out the pretty mountain view while we were waiting around.

Britt and I headed to our corral shortly after arriving at the start line and waited around there. We did a long run together a month before when I was in Vancouver and had both been training for a 4:30 marathon finish so we decided to run together and stick together for as much of the race as possible. Running the race WITH someone was the BEST THING EVER and I’m so glad we did this.

Anyways, before we knew it we were inching our way to the start (which I neglected to take a picture of) and we were off. The course started on a hill and then moved into some rollers and I felt really anxious and “off” at first. It took me a good 6-7 K to finally feel like I was settling into a pace.

Mile 1 – 9:57, Mile 2 – 9:43, Mile 3 – 9:51, Mile 4 – 9:35, Mile 5 – 9:50

We were doing 10 and 1′s (10 minutes running and 1 minute walking) and cruising along when we made it to the hill I had heard so much about.

While I am glad this hill came so early in the race it was a killer! I had just settled into my pace when we climbed this thing and it totally threw my pace off again.

Mile 6 – 10:47, Mile 7 – 10:40, Mile 8 – 11:01, Mile 9 – 10:16, Mile 10 – 10:27

The next few miles were through the UBC campus and we were on a wide road with huge trees on both sides. It offered some really nice shade and was really pretty! Around mile 8 I sent my first tweet saying we were feeling good. Britt and I were still together and chatting away.

We had a nice downhill right before reaching the halfway point. And while it felt really good we were conscious to not go too hard and kill our knees and quads.

We reached the halfway point in 2:14:29, which was perfectly on pace for our 4:30 goal. We were both feeling awesome!

Mile 11 – 10:13, Mile 12 – 10:11, Mile 13 – 9:55, Mile 14 – 10:16, Mile 15 – 10:34

The next few miles were a bit of a blur. We ran along the Spanish Banks, Jericho Beach and Kitsilano beach. This part of the course followed the same route as the Scotiabank Half-marathon (which I ran in 2009) and it was gorgeous with some amazing ocean and mountain views. There were a few tough points in here where Britt and I were basically counting down to our next walk. We kept saying 5 minutes to go, 4 minutes to go, 3 minutes to go etc.

I felt really, really crappy around mile’s 15 – 17 (25K – 28ishK) and neither of us were talking much other than to say “we’re running a freaking marathon!” “we’re awesome!” “best time ever!” and a few random cheers to get our morale up. I also started counting down until we would see Eric as he was waiting for us at km 32 (mile 20ish).

Soon we were hitting the Burrard Bridge. Another decent climb. I knew we’d see Eric shortly after crossing the bridge but we were both in pretty low spirits by this point so to pick ourselves up we came down off the bridge and started cheering and waving our arms like crazy for the race photographer – can’t wait to see the photo!

Mile 16 – 10:20, Mile 17 – 10:41, Mile 18 – 11:05, Mile 19 – 10:54, Mile 20 – 11:10

Before we knew it we were at the Inukshuk and km 32! I came down around the corner and saw Eric standing there and started waving wildly at him. I was sooo happy to see him!

Look at those smiles! Can you tell we’re in a bit of pain here? Ha!

We dropped our water belts with him, I gave him a quick (and super sweaty) kiss and we were off! Only 10 km to go. But I knew from my last marathon that these would be the toughest 10 km of the whole thing…and they were.

I was excited to enter the seawall as I knew it would be flat and gorgeous. But I was also tired and my legs were getting pretty sore. We were just tried to keep up with our 10 and 1′s and keep smiles on our faces.

I actually started to feel pretty good about 2 miles after seeing Eric. Unfortunately, Britt was having some stomach issues so after running for 21 miles (33 km) together we said our goodbyes and promised to meet up at the finish line. I plugged in my music for the FIRST time the entire marathon and off I went! I felt really good for about 2 more miles and then it all went downhill from there.

Mile 21 – 11:14, Mile 22 – 10:50, Mile 23 – 11:04

Around mile 22.5 (36ish km) I started feeling really nauseous and off and also had to pee really badly. I told myself I only had 5K to go and I could do this but I wasn’t feeling very mentally strong at this point. Finally when I came up to the mile 23 aid station I decided to pop into the porta-potty. I had been on pace for a 4:30 goal this ENTIRE race but that bathroom break put me about 1.5 minutes behind my pace band and, in a moment of mental weakness I felt really discouraged and just threw it off.

The next 5K were brutal you guys. My stomach was cramping. I wanted to puke. I knew it was only 5K but I just didn’t have it in me to push anymore. I walked a lot. At mile 25 I tried to call Eric and was almost in tears. I was so mad at myself and was being super negative in my head.

Mile 25 – 10:56

I finally got out of Stanley Park and came up around a corner and was heading uphill (meanies!) back into the city again when I saw Karen on the edge of the road cheering! It was so great to see her smiling face and I gave her a hug and said “this is SO HARD” and she was like, “you’re almost there!!!” so I took off again.

I had to go up the block a bit further and around a corner to get to the finish line. At this point I looked at my watch and knew if I kept running I could make it under 4:40 and at least have a time that STARTED with a 4:3x so I got my butt moving.

Mile 26 – 11:40, Mile 26 – 26.2 – 10:34

Eric was waiting for me at the end and got this photo of me coming in.

I crossed the finish line and immediately bent over and put my hands on my knees. I was sure I was going to throw up. A medic came over and encouraged me to walk around so I walked down and talked to Eric through the fence but told him I wanted to wait for Britt. I went and got my medal (who I happened to get from a girl I went to middle school with – I knew she’d be there since I saw on Facebook but still small world!)

Once Britt crossed the finish line I gave her a HUGE hug and then we walked out of the finish area to find Eric so she could get her cell phone and call her husband. I immediately started eating some salty potato chips and felt 100x better within a few minutes of eating them. I then felt really upbeat and was super energetic despite the fact that I’d just ran a marathon!

We went back to our hotel so I could shower and then checked out and got on the road, with a quick stop for some very greasy – and very delicious – pizza!

Final Stats:

Chip time: 4:39:07

Age place (19-24): 68/102

Gender place: 1126/1838

Final Thoughts: 

I’m not going to lie. I’m disappointed I didn’t hit my 4:30 goal time. I know if I’d pushed harder that last 5 km I would have done it and while I was battling nausea and stomach cramps I also didn’t push myself mentally at all. I would say the last 5 km of this marathon were equally as hard as the last 5 km of my half-marathon in October where I ran sub-2. The difference was I dug deep mentally during that half-marathon and I didn’t during my marathon.

However, I smiled and laughed A LOT this race. I had a little bit of trouble miles 15-17 and then didn’t really feel crappy again until mile 23. The course was beautiful and it was so well organized with tons of aid stations and porta-potties. And we literally could not have asked for better weather. It was truly a great day.

What went wrong with my stomach? I’m not really sure. It was a warm day out there, about 17 C, and the sun was bright and hot. I took three GU’s, two packs of shot bloks and drank A LOT of gatorade in an attempt to stay well fueled. I think I may have OVER-fueled and the sugar wreaked havoc on my stomach. I also might have been lacking in sodium considering how amazing those potato chips tasted by the end. I took water every aid station so I’m pretty sure I was well hydrated, but it’s hard to say for sure.

I’ve tweeted with a few other runners who missed their goal time as well and the general consensus was that it was a warm day and that was hard on the runners for a variety of reasons. Also, while this is considered a FAST course (lots of downhill) I would not call it a FLAT course at all. There are plenty of rollers out there to beat up your legs.

All that being said, I LOVED the course a lot. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will run it again one day. This was a brand new course for Vancouver and the organizers did an amazing job showing off the best parts of a very beautiful city. I cannot recommend it enough. Especially if you’ve never been to Vancouver and want a destination race.

I have a 4:30 in my legs and now, after this marathon, I know I have it in my mind. I will be running another marathon in 2012 (stay tuned for details!) and that 4:30 or faster goal will be at the forefront of my mind and training, whereas this time it was just to finish injury-free and have a good, fun race (which I did)!

I loved running into so many twitter/blog friends and having Eric there was the BEST THING EVER! It really was a wonderful, fun day.

A huge, huge thank you to Britt. I have never ran almost an entire race like that with someone before and I loved it. It was so great to have someone by my side to chat with and scream with and yell “WE’RE RUNNING AN F-ING MARATHON!” with while chugging up hills!

And thank you to all my readers and twitter followers. I was overwhelmed with tweets, facebook messages and texts of encouragement. They meant so much!

XO