Mountain Growth

 Easy does not change us; tough is where growth happens. Yesterday I grew by leaps and bounds, literally. In retrospect, the Northface EnduranceChallenge half marathon at Blue Mountain, in Collingwood may have been ambitious for my first exposure to off road running. It was the kind of race that experienced trail runners called challenging. I called it just plain hard.

With the completion of hard things comes a sense of pride. The harder something is that you stick through; the feeling of pride is multiplied exponentially. I headed out for the hardest run of my life to endure all that the Collingwood mountain terrain could throw at me. What I didn't know was that the landscape would get thrown in front of me again and again and again. The triumph of any given climb was short lived as another was waiting around the corner or on the other side of the forest.

Running Home, Not Alone

In the past I have written about my preference for being a solo runner. I have shared how following my own schedule and not allowing my running to be bound by a group running itinerary has worked for me. I am disorganized; fly by night and without pattern to my lifestyle. The only schedule in my life is my work schedule and that is not even consistent from one week to the next, so the thought of waiting for the clock to say a certain time to run has never appealed to me. Running on my own timetable and fitting my runs in between family and work without having to plan for a running timetable is less stressful for me.

For Nicole

The Ottawa Marathon is just a little more than a week away and my legs and hips are feeling good, but on Tuesday, my heart was broken. My sister in law, Nicole Belair died as a result as an act of heroism.

The link will direct you to a post I wrote for the Ottawa Marathon blog page. The post highlights my preparedness for the race next Sunday, along with a tribute to Nicole.

Rest peacefully, sweet girl...until we meet in Heaven xo

Evolving But Never Revolving

 Spring is finally here! Spring is my favorite season because of the hopeful feeling it generates. It makes me feel inspired to do new things. So, I am going to share a few of them with you and see where we land...

Over the winter I had been feeling like I had outgrown my blog and until five minutes ago, this had caused me some distress. Moments ago, that feeling changed, just like that! When you change your perception, you change your opportunities.