One more round (of pain)!

So here I sit, in a lovely hotel room at the Westin Bayshore with a fantastic view of the Vancouver harbour, recovering from another marathon. Crazy, you say? At this point I definitely won’t argue with you. Actually, I shall rather quote a sign I saw along the course: “We are all insane. Some are just more insane than others.” I set out this time to achieve my goal of running a marathon in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I did not achieve that goal. Not even close. So yes, I will likely at some point run another. But right now I’m not sure when that will happen, because I vow to retire the fuel belt for at least the rest of this year. I’ve got a lot on my plate over the summer and another full marathon is just not in the cards. A 100 km bike race, yes, but a marathon, no. Remember I’m retiring the fuel belt, not the eLoad.

So on with the stories. My official finishing chip time was 4:31:22. So not the 4:15 I was hoping for. And I wanted that time. Bad. Really, really bad. I trained, and I thought I could do it. Then somewhere between 21 and 30 km, it all fell apart. That’s actually exactly where it fell apart last year at the Vancouver marathon. I’ve decided now that I just really don’t like this course. There’s something about it that just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not a huge fan of long, semi-straight stretches, and this course is full of them. There’s also a really long stretch of road right at the end that takes you out of downtown and all the way out to UBC and back. And I swear it’s the longest stretch of road in the world. It just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. And the problem for me is, I see that it keeps going, and all I can think is that I have to turn around and come right back. It’s awful, especially for it being the last 12 km of the course. Pure torture. So I think I need to expand my horizons in the way of the marathons I run. I think maybe Calgary next year if I can work it. I could use a new belt buckle…

There’s also been a lot going on in my life lately. Glen and I have put the house up for sale and are planning to move back to Alberta by the end of July. Glen’s been out of work, and my own experience at work lately hasn’t exactly been stellar. And on Friday I could feel a sore throat starting, so I started popping Cold FX like they were candy. It’s held the sore throat at bay, but I can feel it spreading now. So I’m getting sick. All of this probably contributed in some way to the demise of my 4:15 dreams. I guess it just wasn’t my day. But enough of the excuses. Someday A I’ll get there. Someday.

Moving right along, I was doing very well until about half way. I was actually ahead of my nemesis, the pace bunny. Only this time it was the 4:15 pace bunny. I was ahead of him! I can’t tell you how happy that made me. But somewhere in there he passed me, and I just couldn’t catch him. Damn you, pace bunny! Damn you! The hills this time were killer. Every hill after half-way felt like a mountain, and I just couldn’t maintain my pace. I had to slow down almost to a walk. But I didn’t walk. I may not have done stellar, and I may have disappointed myself, but I didn’t walk. And it would have been all too easy after the 30 km marker. Oh, to have just walked for a minute or two! No! I would not walk! I knew at that point my goal time was shot, but I had to salvage my dignity somehow. So I kept running. Many know my creedo is that you can’t say you’ve run a marathon if you stop to walk during it, and I stand by that. I may have bombed when it came to time, but I still ran the marathon. So while I might be disappointed with my time, I still have a time. I still finished. Which is more than I can say for a large chunk of the population that will never even try. So despite all that, I’m satisfied, thank you very much.
Not a lot of runners from Campbell River made the trip across the straight for this event, but I still managed to see a couple of them. The coach caught up with me somewhere around 34 km, and I’m pretty sure he lied when he said he thought the 4:15 pace bunny was behind me. Nice try, Mark. I appreciate the thought. I give much love to Marian, though. I was on my way back from the turnaround at UBC when I hollered at her. Despite being at the end of my rope I still yelled. And she waved back and hooted in her typical Marian fashion. It wasn’t much, but it kept me going for nearly 4 more kilometres. So thanks, Marian. I hope your race went better than mine.

So now on to the tidbits we all love so much.

The Lulu girls. There were a lot of people out on the course wearing gear from Lululemon. In my own personal experience, the people that shop at Lulu for running gear aren’t generally very hard-core runners. Not that you have to be to enter a marathon. Actually, I’m probably just projecting my jealously on them, since I don’t look nearly as good in the clothes as they do. I tried my hardest to keep ahead of these two girls wearing identical shorts from that store in different colors. I can’t remember now if I came in ahead of them or not. But I hope I did. I can’t really explain why, maybe it’s the jealousy thing, but I just felt the need to keep ahead of them. Though it could have been the perkiness of their stride. After 30 km, perky gets really, really annoying. If you have a perky stride, don’t run next to me in a marathon. I’m likely to shove you into a thorny bush along the course.

Sponges. Seriously, who did a girl have to sleep with to get a sponge out on the course? There was a serious lack of sponges at this race. The last 2 years in Vancouver there’s been an abundance of sponges at some of the water stations. This year, I came across only a single sponge station that still had any left. And you bet your arse I took it. And it felt good. This year I was really needing the sponges, too. It was dry this year, and the sun kept peeking out, so I was actually getting pretty sweaty. So I needed sponges. But seeing as there were none, I had to resort to using the water station cups and just splashing them into my face. It didn’t jive so well with the sweat and the contact lenses. But it was better than nothing, I guess.

Hat guy! If you’ve read one of my recent entries about the Comox Valley half, you’ll know about hat guy. Well, he was back again this year! He was actually behind me quite a ways, but he was still there in all his hat-wearing glory. Someday I’m going to get the nerve to introduce myself and find out what his name is.

The wounds. Many of you are familiar with my experiences with wounds sustained in the quest of a marathon medal, and Vancouver was no exception. Sometimes the wound is as simple as some thigh chafing from my shorts, or as big as the now permanent scar I have on my chest from making a poor sports bra decision (see my 2007 blog entitled “42 km is really far”). Well, there was still chafing this time, but there was no broken skin. I also somehow managed to get some chafing from a sports bra that I wore in the last marathon I ran, and that time it didn’t chafe at all. This year, the most impressive injury I sustained was a blister on my right big toe that’s roughly the size of Philadelphia. It’s huge! And not only that, it even bled a little. So it looks even more impressive. I also have the marathoner’s walk going on, but I expect that to get better over the next couple days.

New management. I think there was a change in the organizing committee for this year’s marathon, and they made some changes I wasn’t particularly happy with. Previously, they had hosted the expo and race package pick-up at the host hotel, where we usually stay. This year they set up big tents near the start/finish line, which made the expo very crowded and somewhat difficult to get to. It was very convenient when it was at the hotel, but this year we ended up driving around trying to find a parking space for about 20 minutes. There was also far less food at the finish line this year than previously, and there were no bags to carry it in. They also handed out the shirts at the package pick-up instead of at the finish line, so they don’t say “finisher” on them. Which is okay, I still get the shirt, but there’s something to be said for the pride of wearing a shirt that says “marathon finisher” on it. But my biggest complaint is with this year’s medals. It’s not that they changed the logo on the medal, though I did like the native art they used to put on them. It’s the fact that this year’s medal has no date or year on it! That was the unique, exciting part of the medals, you could only get them that year. Even if the design didn’t change, at least the date would be different. But these ones could be from any year, really. And it sucks! I’m running 42.2 km! The least you could do is make the medal unique enough that if I come back to run again next year I don’t end up with exactly the same medal! I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty cheesed about that.

Newspaper coverage. Normally I like staying the night after the marathon to recuperate, but also so that I can get a copy of the newspaper the next day to see my name in print. But alas, the year, my name was not in print. In fact, there was very little coverage of the marathon in the papers this year. The Province had a couple pages, which was nice, but the Vancouver Sun had a single picture with a caption. That’s it. No accompanying article, no list of the winners, just a single picture. Yet there were nearly 2 pages devoted to the Vancouver Canucks, who I might mention, actually lost that weekend. Vancouver is a running city. They host one of the largest marathons in Canada, and yet all we rate is a single picture? Thousands of people trained for thousands of hours, shedding their sweat, tears, and even some blood, and yet they barely rate any newspaper coverage? Shame on you, Vancouver newspapers, shame on you.

So that’s all my stories about this year’s Vancouver Marathon. My next adventure has yet to be planned, but I can’t lie that I kinda hear the waves on the Chesterman’s in Tofino calling my name…

Two days in Ontario.

As many of you are already aware, my loving husband is currently out of work. Thus he's been looking, and this past week we were flown to Ontario for two days in the Niagra region so he could go to an in-person interview for a job as a maintenance engineer at a recycled paper mill. The company was nice enough to fly us both out there, rent us a car and hotel room, so they could interview Glen and we could both see the area to see if we liked it enough to move there.

Strangely enough, Niagra Falls was never really on my list of stuff I wanted to see. I'm not sure why, I guess I just figured one waterfall is as good as the next and I didn't feel the need to go out of my way to see that one. But more about that later. We left on Monday morning at noon, right after I had gotten off a night shift. Which was mistake number one. I didn't get any semblance of sleep so I felt awful pretty much the entire day. We landed in Hamilton at midnight local time and made it to the hotel about an hour later. So we finally got to bed around 3 am local time.

Glen had to be up for the interview the next day at 1 pm, so I got up a bit early to use the treadmill in the hotel. I had finished my book the day before (Race to Dakar-which is fantastic, by the way, and I definitely recommend it for anyone that's into endurance sports or motorcycles) and neglected to bring a new one, so I was hoping there was a bookstore within walking distance. Fortunately, I found out that the Brock University campus was about a block away from the hotel. And where there's a university, there's a university bookstore. It only took me about half an hour to find the bookstore on campus. After that, I walked up to a the Glenridge Quarry, which was right across from the hotel. It used to be a quarry, then they used it as a landfill, and now they've converted it to a cute little park with some trails. So I went wandering around the park for a while. That's where the picture at the top of this post came from.
Once Glen came back from his interview, we headed over to Niagra Falls. And I gotta say, it's pretty impressive. Most people will say the falls are amazing, but not a lot of people mention how huge the river is that feeds it. It's gigantic! For me, the sheer size of the river that leads up to the falls is almost as impressive as the falls themselves. And there's not just Niagra falls to see, there's also a huge waterfall off the American side the the canyon that's also impressive. And there's tons to do in the little area around the falls, too. My Mom told me before I left that it's a lot like Vegas, and she was right. Only a little bit smaller. There are arcades, haunted houses, adventure parks, even a giant ferris wheel. You could spend a good couple days (and an ever better amount of money) just wandering around. We didn't do much there, since it was getting a little late and we only had a couple hours, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

The next morning the jet lag caught up with us big time. The company Glen was interviewing with had set us up with a realtor who was going to take us around and show us the different areas of the different towns, and we were meeting with her at 10 am the second day. So we had to get up a little earlier to get breakfast, plus I got up even earlier to go for a jog that morning. I actually ended up getting up around 7, which I might add would be 4 am Pacific time. I barely managed 45 minutes jogging, which is really abnormal for me, and which is also how I knew I was unbelievably tired. At one point I even fell asleep in the realtor's car. Glen was really tired too. And just when we were getting used to the time change, we had to be up at 5 am the next morning to be in Hamilton for our flight home. I might add that's 5 am local time, which would be 2 am Pacific time. You wouldn't think that 3 hours would make that big a difference, but when you're working on almost no sleep the day you leave, then throw in a 3 hour time change, well, it doesn't end well. The day we came back, I slept pretty much the entire day. I honestly thought I'd be okay given that I work really weird hours that include night shifts, but I guess even I'm not immune to crazy time changes. Next time I go on a trip with a time change of more than an hour, I'm definitely factoring in a day for jet lag.

The realtor was very nice, and took us around the areas she thought would be good for us to live in if we were to move there. He driving was a bit scary, though. Especially when she answered her cell phone while explaining something to us and driving at the same time. We thought she might kill us all, but we somehow made it out alive. The houses in that area are all brick. Seriously, if you have a house with only vinyl siding, you're the odd one on the block. It's crazy. And because of the brick, all the houses seem to look incredibly grand. They aren't necessarily that big or fancy, they just look it because of the brick. And the columns. Lots of the houses have columns. It's really quite pretty, it just seems really super fancy because that's not what we're used to.


The second day, after the realtor dropped us off at the hotel, we went out to explore a little bit more. Glen wanted to see the locks on the Welland Canal. We managed to see one of the bridges lift up to let a ship through, which was pretty cool. The whole bridge deck lifts straight into the air to let the ship go underneath. The lock was even better. The ship can just barely fit into the lock, and when they start letting the water in, it raises pretty fast. I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the lock, but the whole operation was actually quite impressive. And fast, too. It only took about 20 minutes for the whole thing.

One thing I noticed while we were down there was was that there's a serious lack of hills. I thought Saskatchewan was flat, but at least they have to occasional rolling hill. Out near Niagra Falls it's pretty much totally flat. Lots of vineyards, too. We were expecting that, since everyone was telling us it was wine country before we left. But there really are a lot of vineyards. We didn't manage to visit any, though. And you can get anywhere in about 15 minutes once you figure out the roads, because there are tons of highways and freeways. But figuring out the roads is the hard part. They don't build any of the roads straight. And none of them face north/south. Glen and I took about 10 minutes in the car the first day discussing which way north was. We found out the second day we were both wrong. It's funny how turned around you get when you don't know what direction you're facing.

Overall it's actually a pretty nice area. Though I think if we decided to move there, I would miss the hills and mountains. It sounds odd, but I think the flat landscape might make me crazy. We haven't heard anything from the company about the job yet, but the day we got back we found out that the place that owns the mill had filed for bankruptcy protection. I guess we'll see. We haven't really made any decisions yet, but don't worry, I'll let all my avid readers know when we finally get something figured out. So stay tuned for more news and my next big adventure!

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.

Sara and Glen go to Hawaii

Well, it was a whirlwind 2 weeks in Hawaii for us, so let's forgo the usual pleasantries and dig in right away.

We left Dec. 24, 2008, which almost didn't happen. We were supposed to fly out of the Campbell River airport early on the morning of the 24th, but the airline called and suggested we fly out the evening of the 23rd and stay the night in Vancouver, just to make sure we made it to Vancouver for the 24th. Earlier that week it had dumped about 3 feet of snow on us and the airport had been shut down for almost a day and a half, and they were afraid of that happening again. So away we went to spend the evening in Vancouver. And it's a good thing we did, because the next day the snow was flying, and there were more than a few flights canceled at the Vancouver airport. Thankfully, our flight was only delayed, and we still managed to get out. We were 3 hours late leaving, but we still left, praise be to Westjet. Most of the Air Canada flights were canceled that day, but only one Westjet flight was canceled. We both felt pretty lucky, since there were some people who'd been trying to get somewhere for 3 days and were still trapped in the airport. So very early on Christmas morning we landed in Honolulu. And let me tell you, it felt a little weird getting off the plane into the +25 degree heat and humidity.

Which brings me to the weather on O'ahu. We stayed the entire 2 weeks on that one island, not because we didn't want to visit the other islands, but because there was enough to do on that one island that we didn't need to go anywhere else to fill up our time. Maui will just have to wait a few more years to enjoy our company. The weather's always nice in Hawaii. Even when it's windy and raining, you still don't need a jacket. A light sweater, maybe, but never a jacket. Unless it's waterproof, and then it comes in handy. As a self-professed running junkie, I was eager to try out running in Hawaii, especially since winter had finally settled over Campbell River and I was kindof tired of wearing full pants to jog in already. But I was not prepared for Hawaii. Within about 10 minutes, the sweat was running off me in rivers. And the humidity just sucks the energy right out of you. I think the longest jog I managed while we were there was just under an hour. And I thought I was going to die! I have great respect for anyone who runs the Honolulu marathon, or even attempts the Hawaii Ironman. I think you'd have to have a few screws loose to even attempt either.

Glen and I went on a bunch of tours and day trips while we were there. The largest industry in Hawaii is tourism, so there are lots to choose from. Though I will say that the most of the ones we went on were pretty tame. They appeared to be quite adventurous online when I booked them but were in actuality geared towards lazy, unfit tourists. And good example of this was the horseback ride we took at Kualoa ranch. I thought we'd actually get to go out, see some of the more hidden valleys, get a little farther off the beaten path. No. We stayed on a very flat gravel road and only travelled about 2 km. In an hour and a half! It was one of the most boring horseback rides I've ever taken. I'll explain why later.

First up was the North Shore Shark Encounter. We were taken out into the ocean about a kilometer from shore and put into a metal and plexiglass cage floating in the ocean. Then they tossed some chum in the water and we ducked under the surface with our snorkels and watched them. While it doesn't sound particularly extreme, it changes when you hop into the cage, duck your head under the water and the sharks are 3 feet away! It was a little unnerving for a while, but really cool. Then a piece of chum goes floating by and the sharks swim after it and whack their tails against the cage hard enough to jar it and it gets really, really cool. I got seasick for the first time in my life on this tour. I was fine, then after about 10 minutes in the cage I got nauseous. Then when we got back in the boat I tossed my cookies. I'm not proud, but it wasn't just me that was getting ill. In my defense, though, the waves were 6-8 foot rollers and the boat wasn't exactly huge.


We went to 2 different luaus while we were there. One at Paradise Cove, the other at the Polynesian Cultural Center. A luau for the tourists is basically dinner and a show. And a chance to try poi. More about the poi in the food section. They were both pretty good, and we did learn a bit from each of them. A luau is not to be missed when visiting Hawaii, even if it is just so you can get lei'ed.

We also went on a hike & bike tour with Bike Hawaii. It was okay, but I was hoping for a bit more from the bike. The hike was up to a waterfall in the rain forest, so we got wet. But the waterfall was pretty, and we got to see what a bamboo forest looks like. Picture green bamboo stalks about a foot apart for as far as you can see. It was cool. And very, very muddy. If you choose to do this tour, take the rubber boots. Trust me. The bike portion was downhill. There was almost no pedalling. And it was only 6 miles. And we had to go single file. It was frustrating having to hold the brakes and go slow the entire way down because the tourist dorks up at the front haven't been on a bike in 10 years. Go faster, dammit!

We also spent a day at Kualoa Ranch. We took the 6-wheeler tour, the ranch and movie tour, the horseback ride, and the garden and fishpond tour. The 6-wheeler tour was basically them driving us around in the back of an army vehicle through the bush. Not exactly thrilling. The ranch tour was the best of the day, because we got to see where a horde of movies were filmed, and the rest of the ranch. The movies I can remember that were filmed there: Pearl Harbour, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, You Me and Dupree, George of the Jungle, Godzilla (the new one) and Mighty Joe Young. They also film a handful of TV shows there on occasion, but right now the only one I can remember is Lost. This tour would've been much better if I'd actually seen any of the shows they filmed there. I stopped watching Lost when the polar bear showed up. I've already described the horseback ride, and the garden tour was in a bus, driving through a garden pointing out different plants.


The North Shore Surf Bus was one of the better things we did while we were there. They picked us up and gave us a quick tour of the North Shore, then turned us loose at the activity of our choice for 2 1/2 hours. Glen and I chose to go surfing. More about the surfing later. Then they dropped us in Haleiwa for 1 1/2 hours to get lunch and wander aimlessly. Haleiwa is basically Hawaii's version of Tofino. We also stopped to see the turtles sunning themselves on the beach, and what should have been the Banzai Pipeline. I say should have because the day we were there it was totally flat. Yes, the stretch of beach famous 'round the world for having the best waves. Where the waves tend to reach heights of 40 feet. The stretch of beach with houses owned by Quicksilver, Roxy, and all the other surfing companies where they send their pro surfers to spend a couple weeks every year. Totally flat. I was quite cheesed, and that's putting it mildly. The picture below of Glen is at the Pipeline.

We also went out to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a day, and stayed for their luau and evening show. The center itself is interesting, and we got to try weaving, and some delightful coconut bread (which I shall attempt to make at home of I can figure out where to get freshly shredded coconut). The evening show was fantastic.

The tour guides in Hawaii are great. Most tours I've taken in other places, the guides are pretty serious, and don't really joke around a lot. The guides in Hawaii never stop with the funny. They even toss in a little sexual innuendo every now and then. It's fantastic. And it makes the tours that are a little lacking a bit easier to enjoy.

We also took a couple days to just wander around and do some stuff on our own. One of those things was hiking Diamond Head. It's a 0.7 mile "hike" to get to the rim of the crater. For Glen and I it wasn't particularly strenuous, we just sweated a lot because of the heat. But some of the people coming down that hill looked like they had climbed Everest. Seriously, 0.7 miles. That's like, 1 kilometre of uphill. It wasn't that bad. And we got a fantastic view of the island. It was also really nice to get a little exercise after having taken so many tame tours. I might also mention that we actually walked to the crater from our hotel. Most people took the bus. Pansies.


That same day we went to the Honolulu Zoo. It was a zoo. There's not much more to say. Oh, but there was this really cool Lovebird that was really friendly and kept following us back and forth in front of his cage. He squawked quite loudly when we finally walked away.

We also went our to Hanauma Bay for a day. We'd heard it was the place to go snorkeling, and we weren't disappointed. It's a protected area, so there's a fee to get in ($5-I shall rant more about this later), and you have to watch a 15 minute video before they let you in. But I didn't mind the fee so much here. In fact, I would've paid more. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. And the snorkeling was even better. The bay is filled with reef, so you can swim in and around the reef, into the little caves and crevices looking for fish and corals and other little creatures. And the reef is so shallow that at times you can scrape yourself on it just floating on the surface if you're not careful. And the fish! I couldn't begin to even start naming all of them. Though I will give you the Hawaiian name for one of them. The Reef Triggerfish, Hawaii's state fish. Humuhumunukunukuapu'aa. Yes, that's actually a real word. And I can actually pronounce it. There were so many fish you didn't even need a snorkel to see them under the surface. It was amazing. Should you ever be in Hawaii, go to Hanauma Bay. It's worth it.

We also went out to Pearl Harbour for a day. We didn't make it there early enough to get out to the USS Arizona memorial, but we did go to the other tourist traps they have out there. The USS Missouri (the "Mighty Mo") is the last battleship commissioned by the US military, and now it's a floating tourist attraction. It was a big boat. That's really all I have to say. The Pacific Aviation Museum was restored airplanes in a hangar. That's really all I have to say. The best part of that day was the submarine USS Bowfin. I whacked my head twice inside it. Submarines are tiny! But they still have all the instrumentation and dials and stuff, so it was interesting to crawl around in it.

On our last day we went to Chinatown. It wasn't really much different from any other Chinatown. The smells were making Glen nauseous, though, so that trip was short-lived.

There's still so much to say...where to start...

The other tourists. There are 2 main groups of tourists in Hawaii. Those that are Japanese, and those that are not. There are a lot of Japanese tourists in Hawaii, probably something to do with the relative proximity of Hawaii to Japan. There are so many of them that they have their own Japanese language tour guides at most of the attractions. Like in the rockies, they all have their huge cameras out all the time. And they always look perfect. Not a single hair is ever out of place. And the women are always in heels, even when it's completely impractical to be wearing heels, they have them on. We were at the ranch, and I swear I saw more than one pair of high-heeled shoes paired with white pants. At a ranch! You're just asking to fall in cow pie that way, my friend. And on the horseback ride, none of them had any idea how to ride a horse. None at all. So we had to go ultra-slow. Have you never seen a western movie? Pull left, horse goes left. Pull right, horse goes right. It`s not rocket science. Oh, and the bathrooms. As many people may not realize, Japanese women's butts never make contact with the toilet seat. Not sure exactly why this is, but they don't sit, they squat. So, as you can imagine, they miss a lot. So it's not uncommon to walk into a bathroom stall and see, not only that it hasn't been flushed, but that there's piss everywhere. On the seat, the floor, everywhere. It's disgusting. I understand that you squat, and I'm okay with that, but for the sake of everyone else using this bathroom, could you at least wipe the seat when you're done? It might make me hate you just a little bit less. I saw some of the most disgusting bathrooms I've ever seen in Hawaii. And I spent 2 weeks in the Jasper backcountry pissing over a log nailed to 2 trees. Those privys were better than some of the ones in Hawaii.

The other variety of tourist is anyone who isn't Japanese. You can spot the Canadians, they're the pasty-looking polite ones. And if you want to find out which ones they are for sure, wear a t-shirt with your favorite NHL team on it. We met at least 10 people from various places in Alberta simply by Glen wearing an Oiler's logo on his shirt. For the most part everyone's pretty cool. Though it is kindof funny to walk down the beach and try to pick out the Europeans in their speedos and cancer-dark tans. And the tans do get dark. Glen and I did get tanned a bit while we were there, but for the most part we had the SPF 50 out to prevent the inevitable sunburns. So we felt like snowpeople on the beaches for the most part. Some people have clearly never heard of skin cancer. It was a little disturbing. Sure, everyone expects you to come back looking like you've had a little sun, but there is a time to draw the line. When your skin gets darker than the locals, it's time to put the tanning oil away.

The shopping. Oi, the shopping! Man, could you spend a lot of money in Waikiki if you wanted to! A handful of the high-end stores you can find in Waikiki-Ferrari, Cartier, Ferragamo, Prada, Yves st. Laurent, Macy's. Those were the stores Glen and I stayed out of. Who needs to spend $1000 on a purse? But the other shopping, the souvenirs, of that we did plenty. After a few days we realized that every little souvenir store basically sells the same stuff. The only thing that changes is the price. And if you get to International Marketplace, you can sometimes bargain them down a little to get something cheaper. There's also a chain there called the ABC Stores. They're basically the 7-11's of Waikiki. I think one guy told us there's 42 in Waikiki alone. They're more numerous than Starbucks in downtown Vancouver. It's insane. Throw a penny in any direction and you'll hit one. I will give them this, though, they are quite handy when you're looking for something specific, 'cause they'll probably have it.

The food. Oh, the food. It's expensive, but good for the most part. I think Glen and I each gained at least 5 pounds. There are tons of restaurants in Waikiki, so you never have to go to the same place twice. You can find cheaper places to eat, but you might have to look a little harder. One of the best places we ate at was the Senor Frog's. Good Mexican food and a really fun place to eat. Though that could have been the yard-long mai tai. I was a little disappointed the guy making the balloon hats never made it to our table, but maybe next time. Cheeseburger in Paradise was also a fantastic place to get a good burger at a reasonable price. And they had good taste in music. We also had a hot dog at a place called Puka Dog, where they had all kinds of funky relishes. Glen had Starfruit relish on his, I had coconut on mine. And it actually tasted pretty good. Poi is the one food all tourists to the islands must try, and you usually find it at a luau. They make it from tarot root, which is cooked and then ground into a tasteless paste. It's pale purple. Some people hate it, Glen and I were indifferent. We did realy enjoy the poi bread at the Cultural Center, though. It was really super purple and tasted really good.

Money. Hawaii is not a cheap place to visit. Everywhere you go they want money for something. At Diamond Head we had to pay $1 just to get onto the hiking trail. And then when we got to the top they wanted $2 for a sheet that proclaimed to the world we had actually made it to the top (despite the fact that it was possibly the easiest hike I have ever done). At Hanauma Bay we had to pay $5 just for the privilege of getting in (though, as I said earlier, this was actually worth it). At the Polynesian Cultural Center, if you hadn't already paid for a guided tour, you could pay $25 each and upgrade yourself to having a guide. It's like that everywhere. But if you're picky about your souvenirs and what you do and where you go, it doesn't have to be.

The Language. There is a Hawaiian language. You don't necessarily walk around town and hear it spoken on the street, because Hawaii's been a US state for so long, but there are words that get used quite frequently. Aloha is one everybody knows, it means hello, goodbye, and I love you. Ohana (for anyone that hasn't seen Lilo and Stitch) means family. Mele Kalikimaka means Merry Christmas. It took us about a week to learn that one. We were told what Happy New Year was, but it's really long and neither of us can remember it now. Mahalo is thank you. That's about the extent of our Hawaiian vocabulary. Everyone in Hawaii is Ohana, so if you go somewhere, you get called cousin. Everyone's a cousin in Hawaii.

The Bus. This is the best way to get around O'ahu. It goes everywhere, and it's very tourist-friendly. The bus announces every stop and tells you what landmarks are near that stop so the clueless tourists (me and Glen) don't miss their stop. And it's $2 for 3 hours worth of transfers. The buses come quite often, too, so it's not like you have to be exactly on time to get where you want to go. The bus negates the need to rent a car, and for the most part will drop you off feet from where the tourist attraction you're looking to get to is. Bus guides for most of the tourist attractions on O'ahu can be found at any ABC store.

Obama. Barack Obama was born on O'ahu. And grew up there. And vacationed there. While we were there. Apparently the day he went body surfing the coast guard had to actually be in the air while he was on the beach. We learned that from one of the guys on the shark tour, whose roommate is in the coast guard. Apparently now you can even take the Obama tour, which will take you past the hospital he was born in, the school he went to, and other Obama landmarks. Though if you take enough of the other tours, you'll get to see all of those landmarks anyways. They're very proud of Obama in Hawaii. I too, shall wear my "Obama Surfs" T-shirt with pride.

Surfing. I was psyched for the surfing. The first opportunity we had was on the North Shore, when we went up with the Surf Bus. But, as I mentioned previously, the waves sucked that day. Like, really sucked. Though it wasn't just the waves. Most of the surfing in Hawaii is on reef breaks. The surfing I'm used to, in Tofino, is a beach break. They're very different. Beach breaks are regular, and frequent. Reef breaks aren't. You have to paddle out lying on your board because you can't walk, because there's reef just underneath the surface of the water. Which doesn't make the wipeouts very beginner friendly. While neither Glen nor I ever did manage to injure ourselves, it was likely only due to the fact that we never really managed to catch that many waves. Reef breaks are not regular, and they move around depending on the waves. One minute you think the wave's going to break, so you start paddling, but then it peters out and you've got nothing. Then, because of the paddling, you're in the wrong spot for the next wave, so you have to turn around and paddle back for the next wave. Except that it's a reef break, so the wave has moved. It's very frustrating. You have to literally be out on the water the entire day to get even just a couple chances. I can count on one hand the number of waves I managed to actually try and ride. And we rented a board in Waikiki for almost 4 hours one day.

The wounds. This section seems to pop up in all my blogs, so why should this one be any different? It started with a scratch on my leg the first day. I have no idea where it came from, or when it happened, but there it is. And I'm pretty sure it's gonna scar. Then there were the surfing bruises. Normally I get the ones over my hip bones where my body contacts the board, and Hawaii was no exception. Only these were much, much worse. I'd have taken pictures but they're not exactly in a good spot to be taking pictures of. They have only now started to not hurt, and we've been home for almost a week. I actually had to stop myself from renting a board one day beacuse I didn`t want to make the hipbruises worse. Another surfing injury I sustained was the board rash. Unique, as I have never had board rash before. I got it on my upper arms where they were brushing the board as I paddled, and on my hip above my bikini bottoms. It's itchy, so it makes sense they call it a rash. I guess there's a reason they call those surfing shirts "rashies". Should you decide to try surfing in a tropical climate, ask for a rashie. You may feel foolish at first, but you'll thank me later when you're rash-free.

The Eye Candy. Oh, the boys in Hawaii! The girls were pretty too, I guess, if you're into that. But the boys! Go to any beach, anywhere. It's just delightful. I wanted to get a picture of the guy who runs the surf bus to demonstrate this, but he put his shirt back on before I could get my camera. But use your imagination. And then multiply that by 5. Yeah. And there's lots of good-looking Hawaiian boys, too. They were all just a little too short for me. At one point I was promised a 6'2" guy to take my picture with at one of the luau's, only to be disappointed when he was only about 5'7". Pretty, but too short. Ladies, if you ever want to go somewhere just for some lovely man candy to look at, I recommend Hawaii. You won't be disappointed.

So that brings me to the end of our trip, finally. We did manage to get back home again. Though it was touch and go when our plane was delayed by 5 1/2 hours in Honolulu due to the weather in Vancouver. We managed to get a couple hours sleep in an airport hotel, which was much better than some, who ended up sleeping on the floor at the airport. Well, I think that's it for this adventure. I'm sure I've left something out, but I'm sure you're all tired of reading by now, or at least need to get back to work. So stay tuned for the next great adventure!

42 km is still, indeed, far.

This weekend I had the pleasure of heading down to Victoria to run the full Royal Victoria marathon. But Sara, you say, you’ve already run one marathon this year. Wouldn’t another be a little much? To which I would reply, of course not! For a running junkie like myself, there’s no such thing as too much running.

Naturally, the weekend started off disastrously. I just got off a night shift on Saturday morning at 7:30 am, so I went home and we managed to get on the road relatively early. I zonked and slept in the car pretty much all the way to Victoria. We got to the Marriott, our home for the next 2 nights, and as we were getting our bags out of the car we realized we had left Glen’s at home. His bag was packed, sitting by the door ready to go, but we had gotten in the car without putting the bag in it. Curses! Luckily it was only a 2 day trip, so we decided he could live without it. We bought a few things at the store so he could get by. And for future reference, you can get deodorant, toothbrushes, razors, shaving cream, toothpaste, and all that other stuff you need all at the 7-11. Then when we went to pick up my race package, they had gotten my shirt wrong. I’d asked for a men’s small so I could get sleeves that were long enough, and they had re-interpreted that as a women’s small. I did manage to swap that after the race for one that did fit, though.

Now on to the race. I ran it in 4:20:26. It was faster than my personal best thus far, but not the 4:15 I had been hoping for. It was, however, the best I have felt throughout the course of a race. Ever. Really. One might ask how it’s possible to feel pretty good when you’re forcing your body to cover such an unnaturally and insanely long a distance as 42 km. I felt good for about 28 km, then the pain started to kick in, but that was okay. Pain I can deal with. Fatigue is worse, and I wasn’t feeling that just yet. Then somewhere around 32 km it started to feel like a slog and the fatigue started. But I’ve heard that the last 10 km are a slog for everyone, even those really experienced runners. Despite the slog, I never had the complete and utter despair set in like I have in my other 2 marathons. I never felt like I couldn’t cover the distance. I did feel like my legs were simply going to fall off and that I’d have to drag my body over the finish line sporting just bleeding stumps, but I never felt the complete and utter despair that I would never get to the finish line because it was, simply, too far. It was great. So despite the fact that I didn’t get the time I’d been hoping for, I’m quite satisfied with my run for how I felt throughout. And that’s what I’m going to remember about this race.

The Victoria marathon had fewer participants than the Vancouver marathon, so we all managed to get spread out pretty quickly. It was nice because there was far less people dodging throughout the race. I also particularly liked the course itself. There were a lot of twists and turns, and very few hills. I find the twists and turns help because you can’t see how much farther down the road you have to run. This helps in the last couple kilometres when you swear that the long stretch of road you can see ahead of you is never going to end. It’ll just keep going forever and you’ll die before you get to the end. That didn’t happen with this course, because it winds enough that you can’t see more than a couple blocks in front of you. And the hills that were there were small and short. Hills bad, flat good.

So now I shall recount all the little tidbits I feel are worth mentioning.

The Weather. The day before the race I was freezing. I don’t know if it was because I was tired or if it actually was cold out, but I was dreading waking up early so I could get out in the frigid morning weather and run for nearly 4 ½ hours. It just didn’t particularly sound like a super-fun Sunday morning. Then came the decision: tank top, t-shirt, or long sleeves. Well, it’s not quite winter so the long sleeves were out right away, but I figured it was cold enough for a t-shirt. I did bring a long sleeved shirt that I wore until I warmed up, and promptly ditched when I felt it wasn’t needed anymore. This is a trick a lot of runners use, you just get an old shirt you don’t want anymore and ditch it when you get warm enough. Little did I know just how enjoyable it would be when I did dump the shirt. It was very satisfying, just taking off a piece of clothing and tossing it on the ground, never to be seen again. I highly recommend this if you’re not sure of the weather on race day. The weather turned out to be perfection, and we couldn’t have asked for better. It was slightly cloudy but the sun did come out a few times, but not for long, and not long enough to make it hot out.

My support crew. I take my own water and fuel during my runs. This gets a little complicated when it’s a full marathon and my fuel belt simply doesn’t carry enough for the whole race. So I had to figure out a way to get Glen somewhere out along the race route to swap me some bottle so I’d have enough. We managed to get his bike into the car, and he rode out to close to the middle of the route so he could be there with my bottles when I came by. It worked perfectly. He even managed to get a couple good pictures in the process. These races would be so much more complicated if I didn’t have such a supportive husband, so thank you, Glen. I’d be lost without you. (The irony is that Glen will likely never read this blog even though I always send him the link. He’s lazy, and that includes reading.)

The crowds and the other runners. Major props must be given to the people of Victoria for being such an enthusiastic bunch. Some of them must have been clapping and yelling for 4 hours. It was amazing. And they’d yell out your name if you got close enough for them to read it off your race bib. And if you didn’t get close enough, they’d yell out some article of clothing. I think I got called “blue shorts” about 4 times. Take a look at the picture and you’ll know where that comes from. It’s pretty hard to miss the blue shorts. Up to this point I had also never realized how much fun it was to be running a race where there are other people you know in it, and you actually see them along the course. I got a high-five from Linda, who I’m sure at the point I saw her didn’t have a whole lot of energy left, but it was awesome nonetheless. I yelled at Dawn, though I’m not sure if she heard me since she seemed pretty “in the zone” at the time. And I got a thumbs up from Coach Mark as he went by in the opposite direction, despite the fact that he looked pretty rough at the time. Sorry Mark, but you kinda did. And then there was the rest of the crew, parked up on a balcony at the Admirals hotel, who I could hear screaming from the street, despite the fact that they must’ve been three stories from the ground. Runners can be loud when they want to. Now if only they’d thought to toss me a beer…

Speaking of beer, the beer station was there again this year. I once again did not partake, but I definitely thought about it. Had they been about 5 km closer to the finish line there wouldn’t have been any thought involved. Oh, and the best part was there was a cop standing about 100 metres down the street directing traffic. Funny.

After the race, around 6 pm that night, just as Glen and I were about to head out for dinner, the power went out everywhere on the island south of Nanaimo. I still don’t know the cause, but when Glen and I did leave the hotel we had to take the stairs, and we were on the 5^th floor. That was 5 very long floors I had to walk down, my friends. It wasn’t pretty. We thought when we got to the bar they’d just seat us and let us sit until the power came back on, but no such luck, so we were turned away and headed back to our hotel. We were almost back when the power came back on so we turned around and went back to the bar again. The beer was totally worth waiting for. Mmmm…

All in all, I had an excellent time in Victoria, despite forgetting Glen’s bag, a shirt that was the wrong size and a one hour power outage. It was a good weekend, and a good race. And also, I would like to point out, no new scars to add to my tally. So yes, a very good weekend. Stay tuned for my next great adventure!