I am the Queen of Awesome!

Or at least that's how I felt after finishing the Comox Valley Half Marathon yesterday.

I went into this race not entirely sure how I was going to do, or even what I wanted to do. Generally, when I enter a racem I have some goal in mind, however vague. Like getting a specific time, or even just finishing in one piece. I didn't really have a goal for this one. It wasn't until the day before when Mark asked me about it that I even gave it any thought. Did I want to run hard, to see how fast I could do it? Or did I want to take it easy and enjoy the experience?
I decided I wanted to see how fast I could go. I haven't really been training to run a half marathon, and it's not really my top choice of distance. I prefer the marathon, however twisted and masochistic that might sound to you all. I like a good long distance, and 21.1 km just really doesn't feel like enough. I've been of the opinion lately that the race really starts at 19 km. I still believe that, Sunday was no exception. But it was a good race.

There aren't really a lot of spectators on the course in Comox. It's kind of out in the country and it's not exactly a huge event (somewhere around 500 people each year), so there aren't people lined up along the ditches the entire way to watch. The people that do go to watch, however, are fantastic. Especially the volunteers. It wasn't exactly warm out there on Sunday, and they stood outside for hours, directing traffic and screaming their heads off for people they didn't even know. It's awesome.

The course itself is an out and back, so you run out, turn around and run back along the same roads. This is the second time I've done this race, and I like the course much better this time. It's slightly uphill most of the way out, and then slightly downhill most of the way back. It took me an hour to get to the halfway point, and just under 59 minutes to get back. And I know I was going faster on the way back. I like it for that-as long as you don't kill yourself in the first half, the second half isn't too bad. Well, that's how I felt about it on Sunday anyways.My official time was 1:58:41, which is a personal best for me. What's even better is that I felt good during the race, which makes the outcome just that much sweeter. I think I just might be getting the hang of this "running" thing. There were only a few moments where I felt like stopping or slowing down, and somehow by reminding myself there wasn't much distance left and that I knew I could keep going this speed I managed to keep my pace up. I'm rather proud of myself, can you tell? Toot, toot. That's me tooting my own horn.

I don't really have a lot of the usual tidbits I normally rant about after a race. For whatever reason I was having a good day and not a lot was bothering me. I do have one or two, though.

Hat Guy. There's this guy, he's Asian and I've seen him in more than one race, and he was there on Sunday. He wears these goofy hats-the kind you'd get at the dollar store that look like something out of Dr. Seuss. The only reason I recognized him was because I remember following him in Vancouver last year. And I remember because I was fixated on passing him for about 5 km. The hats were different, but I know it was the same guy by his stride and the spandex shorts. (Some people have a very particular stride you can recognize from a long ways away. I'm told I have one of these recognizeable strides.) He was out there on Sunday, with one of his goofy hats. And he wears them for the entire race. It's insane. And it can't be particularly comfortable since most of those hats are pretty cheap and have absolutely no air flow. This time it only took me about a kilometre to pass him, though. I have to give this guy props for his props, as it were. Everyone who passes him smiles, and he brings just a little bit of joy to the race. I hope I get to see this guy again in future races.

The Gel Station. I do not use gels. I had an unfortunateincident a couple years ago when I tried one, and ended up spending the afternoon curled up around the porcelain bowl wondering why I started running in the first place. I later determined it may have been due to the gel being of the banana flavor, which I have since decided I might be slightly allergic to. Nevertheless, every time I see or think about energy gels, my stomach lurches and I have to concentrate relatively hard not to immediately toss my cookies. There was a gel station on the course and as I passed it my stomach did it's enevitable flip-flop. But I managed to keep it together and keep going. I'm hoping at some point to get over this, but who knows how long that's going to take.

The food. I love to eat, and I'm not embarrased to say that eating is probably the entire reason I continue to run. Running means I can eat like a pig just before auction and get away with it. The food post-race in Comox is fantastic! This year there was chili (meaty or veggie, depending on your tastes), buns (mmm, carbs), juice boxes (the 5 year-old in me is squealing), and the obligatory oranges and bananas. There were also some delightful cookies and yogurt. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. And I was all good, the chili in particular. I'm starting to think the whole reason I run in races is for the food afterwards...

Draw prizes. Many thanks to the good folks at Timex for donating the shiny new Iroman Triathalon watch I am currently sporting as a draw prize. It fits my wrist perfectly and is actually very aesthetically pleasing. Like any former universty student, I love free stuff. Especially when it's a really sweet watch. Glen's been eyeing it up since I won it, but I think I'm safe since I'm pretty sure it won't fit his huge man wrists (it's a women's watch).

That's about it for this particular race. The Merville 15 km is only a couple weeks away, so stay tuned.

Tofino in March=Bad Idea.

So it had been almost two months since I last tried surfing, and I'll admit I was itching to get out of Campbell River for a couple days. So I traded a couple shifts at work and convinced Glen to head out to Tofino for few days for some surfing and hiking. You might say, "Sara, it's March, won't it be a little cold to be playing around in the ocean?" Well, yes, it will be, but the wetsuits keep you nice and warm, so I wasn't particularly worried about that.

Originally I had thought we would stay at the hostel, but then we found out that we were going during the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, so every type of accommodation in town had hiked their prices for the week, probably hoping to make a few extra bucks off the tourists. Well, not only am I cheap, but I also have an unemployed husband. So we decided we would camp instead to save ourselves the cash. Bad idea. We wanted to stay at Crystal Cove, where I know they have nice bathrooms and good campsites, but when we got there they told us they no longer allow tenting. Seriously? We had stayed there before, but now we weren't allowed? Despite the fact that most of their sites were empty, they were turning down our business. That's right, they only take RVs now. They're camping snobs. So we left quite irritated and went down the road to Bella Pacifica. Where the showers and bathrooms aren't heated, and are basically outdoors.

After we set up the tent and tarp to keep the rain off our heads (this is the west coast, after all), we went into town and rented wetsuits and boards. It was cold, but once you get the wetsuit on, it's not so bad. We got to the parking lot at the beach, which was completely empty. That's right, we had the beach to ourselves. I somehow managed to get into my wetsuit whilst still in the car, which is no small feat. And I was on the driver's side, so the steering wheel was in the way. It wasn't easy, but I still managed to do it. It was windy, but the waves were excellent, and fairly large. Somehow, though, I had manged to get a short pair of gloves, and every time I moved my arm they would exposed a lovely chunk of skin on my wrist and the water would trickle into my glove. So it only took about 5 minutes before my hands were numb. And the booties didn't fit right, either. So my feet were cold. I didn't realize just how cold until we got out of the water. It took a good 3 hours before I could feel my big toe again. A few more minutes, and I think I may have had some serious frostbite. Like, amputation frostbite. Yikes.


We only lasted about an hour before we got out of the water, mostly owing to my cold feet and hands. And there was no way we were going to put those frozen wetsuits back on the next day, so we returned them. Back at the campsite we decided we at least needed to rinse the saltwater off, so we braved the outdoor shower. I'll qualify what I mean by this. There were walls, but they didn't go all the way to the roof or the floor of the building. So the wind and cold were free-flowing through the shower stall. It was about 2 degrees celsius by this point in the day. And one loonie bought you 2 minutes worth of hot water. I'm pretty sure it was the quickest shower I've ever taken. We lit a fire back at camp and finally managed to get the feeling back in our extremeties. Just in time for it to start snowing. Well, it wasn't really snow, it was what my Dad calls gropple, which is actually more similar ot hail. We ate and then immediately went to bed. Sweet, down-filled, warm bed.


I rained and snowed all night, and when we finally rolled our lazy butts out of our nice warm sleeping bags, it was still going. So rather than spending a couple more days freezing and being miserable and wet, we packed up and headed for home. Which you would've thought would be a simple operation, only it was snowing all over the island at that point. And there's two passes on the way back to Campbell River. We spent most of the way back going about 60 km/h, and at a couple points we couldn't really go much faster than 15 km/h for fear of taking a corner too fast and careening right off the edge of a cliff on one of the windy roads. It wasn't particularly fun.


So Glen has now revoked my trip-making abilities, and refuses to take any more suggestions for weekend trips. I don't blame him, I don't have a particularly positive record at the moment.