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Oh it’s on baby! My dear darling husband has laid down the gauntlet, and me being one never to shirk from a competitive wager, I dove straight in arms a flailing. Following my completion of the New Year’s Day Resolution Run, Mario let it slip that he might be interested in doing the run next year. And I got all super excited – for like a second. See, he didn’t stop there, the silly devil followed that statement up with a bit of cockiness. “I’m going to smoke your ass,” he told me. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Really? I questioned the so-called non-runner. “Yep,” he said. “You’re going to eat my dust.” And he didn’t stop there, he followed the cockiness up with a “friendly” bet: If I win, he cooks dinner all year. If he wins, I cook dinner. Seems easy enough right. Well, while […]

While many people slept in this morning to nurse their New Year’s hangovers, Mario and I got up before the crack of dawn; him to get his camera gear ready, me to get my racing duds on. This morning, the first morning of 2011, was my first crack at the New Year’s Day Resolution Run, my first race of the year. It was freaking cold! Mario and I aren’t really the party animal types; our New Year’s celebrations usually consist of dinner and a movie, and last night was no exception. We had the option of going to a friend’s house, but neither of us are much for driving on New Year’s, given that not everyone is all that responsible, so we thought it best to see those friends another day and stick to our traditions. We started out at The Boathouse, where Mario chose the steak and lobster, and

Tomorrow I look ahead to the future. Today, I reflect on the year past. It was surprisingly a spectacular year, given that it started out a little on the glass half empty side. Shortly after we rang in the new year, I was sidelined by injury while training for the Historic Half in Fort Langley and had to “graciously” bow out of the race. I was angry, frustrated, heart-broken, and had been in that very same place a short year before. My wallowing and grumbling didn’t last too long though. The Olympics – and Alexender Ovechkin! – helped make sure of that 😉 And because my goal of becoming a marathoner had never once wavered, those months that I was off running were used to transform my body into a better-functioning machine. It was a year of travel, family bonding, love, new friends, old friends, blogging, and lots and lots of running.

How is it that the non-runner has more running gumption these days than the runner? Here’s a conversation I never thought I’d be having: Runner: I think I’ve lost my love for running. Non-runner: Nah, come out for a run with me tonight, you’ll get it back. Runner: It’s freaking cold out. Non-runner: It’s a beautiful night. Runner: My toes are numb, they’re icicles. Non-runner: Keep running, they’ll warm up. What the heck is going on here, it’s like a collision of worlds has happened and I’ve ended up in the wrong world! The last thing Mario said to me before I left for work this morning was “We’re going for a run tonight right,” and followed it up with an encouraging fist bump. Sure, I said, why not. But as the day slowly dwindled my motivation quickly lagged. I kept feeling phantom tightness and pains in my calves, knees,

I went back to work today after five days off, and boy oh boy the newsroom was like tumbleweed blowing through the bald prairie, empty, lonely, desolate, not a soul there but me. I think I may have missed a memo or something. I was a little disgruntled when I woke up this morning. It’s always hard to get back into the routine after holiday, and when the 6 a.m. alarm blasted, the last thing I wanted to do was pull myself out of bed. And apparently it was the last thing my legs wanted to do too, because as soon as I stood up, my right leg buckled from under me. It was the weirdest thing, I think I may have actually had a cramp in my knee. I’ve had cramps in my calves, in my feet, in my toes, in my hands, but never in my knees. I