Well folks, it’s official – I am Portland Marathon bound! Bright and early, this Thanksgiving (for us Canadians, that is) I will be running 42.2 km! Good golly, am I insane??? As soon as I completed the registration, butterflies were swooning all through my belly, and light twangs of mostly thought up pains as well … have I mentioned I have a serious case of runners’ hypochondria? 😉 As excited as I am though, let me just say, it does NOT pay to procrastinate! I’ve been digging my heels in about registering for the marathon for about a good month now, despite knowing that I wanted to do this ever since I first saw the signs posted along the streets of Portland last year, a week before the race. But given my history with signing up for races and then getting injured right after doing so, I think I had good […]

“Let the Tour begin!” – that’s what the alarm should have screamed when it went off at like 5 a.m. this morning! Did I mention I’m not a morning person? Even though the Tour de France officially started yesterday, for those of us who like to sleep, such as myself, it didn’t really start until today – at 5:27 a.m. to be exact!!! While yesterday’s time trial started at a somewhat decent hour of 8:30 a.m., this morning, and the next three weeks for that matter, was a whole different story – a hellish story if I do say so myself, and I do. See, my dear, darling husband (I am so not gritting my teeth while writing this ;)) has a bit of a psychotic tradition – yep, psychotic – when it comes to the Tour. While most people would either prefer to catch the later runs on the OLN (although, it seems, OLN

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was exhausted physically and mentally. My thighs were somewhat fatigued from my trek up the Grind the day before, my calves were still tight as could be (just as they’ve been for the last couple of weeks) my eyes were droopy, my head was sleepy. The last thing I wanted to do was put my running shoes on. Lucky for me, yesterday was a rest day! I decided to take the day off work and extend my long weekend, but with no exercise on the agenda, what oh what was a running princess to do? Go bike shopping, that’s what! Mario found a new bike shop in Fort Langley, a cute, little historical community about a half hour from where we live, that listed Felt bikes on their website. I was a little dubious at first, given that another shop in Port Moody

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!! When Mario and I went to bed last night we were undecided on how we would celebrate Canada’s birthday. Do I go for a solo recovery run (which I was supposed to do)? Do we go for a ride? Or, do we head up to the Grind? When we woke up, this morning, the weather decided it for us. It was grey and drizzly, perfect Grouse Grind weather. I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Grind, but when I’m not climbing it, I like to think there’s more love for it than hate. The Grind and I, we have history. The first time I climbed it, five years ago, was mine and Mario’s first “non-date/date.” Before going, I was told it was nature’s stairmaster, but the second I got on it I knew this was no stairmaster – I was practically dying! By the

To personalize or not, that is the question. Well, in regards to my marathon bib number that is 😀 I had fully intended on registering for the Portland Marathon today, and I was halfway through when I got to the empty box that didn’t have a red star next to it: “Personalize?” Uh, what? I didn’t know what to do. Do I personalize or do I leave it blank? And let me just say, Google did NOT help. Some on the forums were for it. Some were against it. My running girls, they were for it. But here’s the dilemma: I’ve only got 8 characters to work with, and it just so happens that “Princess” is exactly 8 letters, but Princess of Pavement, way too long. Or do I go with my birth name? Some on the Google forums said it was cool to run past people, who don’t know