AFib Asian: Canada Army Run 2019 and #ThisIs51

Canada Army Run 2019

About two weeks before the Army Run I decided to pull the plug on my 1/2 marathon and forego reinjuring or just not finishing at all given that I've had next to zero training. In fact ever since my injury it's been a struggle to get back. In fact in continues, but I don't give in too easily. I'm trying to prep myself to be at 9 run run as I've not done the half there either, but at least I'll have a couple of weeks to train. But for Army on a newer hilly course I didn't think it would be wise. Oh and I talked to the 9 run run race director so I'll be going with the walkers for the 21.1km distance so there may be spurts of running.

In the meantime, the Canada Army Run was hard to give up so I decided I would volunteer instead since it was a new venue and the call to volunteer is always strong in me to get out and support the run community.

It's a bit warm in this tent!

Ran into this darling Diana. It was too funny stalking her from the LRT 😂

The Volunteer Swag

I was responsible for race kit pickup amongst a whole crew of people doing either the bib pickup or the shirts. I decided to head over to the shirts and help out there. So Friday I handed out shirts in the 10K area. I was working with one of the soldiers which of course was fun for them as much as it is for the people helping out. I'm sure if you ask the students getting their volunteer hours it may have been a tad long and uneventful.

It seemed we had spurts while it seemed like a majority of the people were doing challenges and the rest of use were just watching them run back and forth which seemed odd, but it happens.

Friday was actually the more temperate as my shift was 4-8p. Oh and I even got to ride the LRT. It was OK, but realistically as I work out in the east end to do a full mode hop on the bus and go would have been well over an hour. I still would have either walked or took another bus just to get to the campus. But it was nice to be on the cutting edge of transportation in the city. It was long overdue and I'm sure when next week comes along and the buses are no longer running in tandem then it would be another rude awakening for the city.

Saturday my shift was from 1-6p and as some of you who ran they were dreading the onset of HOTtawa again. It seems the 2nd style of race weekend was another hot one. Last year was different as with the tornadoes that touched down seemed to calm the weather beforehand.

This time for my shift since we had a swarm of new worker bee volunteers I chose to go back to the shirt areas as I found that quite easy and being able to see people for a bit longer as if I was handing out bibs.

Needless to say as a "veteran" of like one day I was put over by the Commander's Challenge area. This one required a bit more running but as far as I know it was equally as fine. I was amazed at how many were doing the challenges.

Definitely the afternoon shift was extremely warm in those tents. Logistically it was a challenge in it's own to have to re-direct people back to the museum to pick up their bib since I was only handing out shirts. Some gave the look 😑

What was worse than having to send them back was running out of shirts for the women! Especially since some ordered them and of course there were a lot of last minute entrants to the race. 😦

Needless to say as a volunteer I totally empathized with them, but I had zero control on who ordered the shirts and how many were leftover. By the end of my shift there wasn't much left in terms of the commander's challenge. BUT they were offering a trade in for sizing and it seemed that most who left with some of their swag had a chance to show up bright and early Sunday morning before the race to swap.

Oh and the highlight of my night was getting a chance to see Sonia from this past season's Team Awesome.

Great dinner and chat with her fam. They even gave me a lift to the LRT station Pimisi (which means "eel" in Algonquin).

Sonia and Fam at Mill Street Pub

Race Day

Well my mini-me and I woke up early to head out to cheer the runners at the Army Run. We parked over by Tom Brown Arena and hoofed it up to the Bayview LRT. Since I was a volunteer my bib actually allowed us on the LRT for free, but from what I heard from participants is that the train lines didn't start until like 8a on weekends. What time did the races start? Oh 8a! Apparently they tried to get OC transpo to bring drivers earlier on, but you know how that went over I'm sure. They did however provide shuttle buses but you had to park at certain areas like Tunney's Pasture and get bussed to the start line. I guess I was lucky I didn't have to do the race. I would have been going stir crazy. I would have loved to see the ill, injured and disabled start, but ML and I decided we would have to try and make it over to Gatineau as we planned to pick up her friend to go Apple picking, but once we got past the actual finish and thought about crossing the bridge it was chaos. So we said, let's just cheer the last 200m for the folks as I didn't realize the hill that was just before the finish. It would have been crazy. And from what I heard for the 5K it was absolute chaos for the people doing the Normandy challenge to actually make it for the 10K race.

Early on the 5K medics and military tried to herd the runners to one lane. 😦

To say it was a shitshow it would be an understatement, but Marie and Tara (Evolve Run Club) had mentioned that it was backed up beyond the timing mat. It seemed runners had no idea which direction to go.

While we waited for all the 5K's to finish we continued to cheer and see friends zipping by. I'm pretty sure I stood out enough people could see me. HOW some of you missed me is baffling! 😅

Get your glow on...Pylon Dan at work!

Fun fact: when you are cheering and clapping you can generate some calorie burn and boost your step count 😉

We all had a lot of fun seeing everyone scream by. Some I was afraid to high 5 in case they were going for their PB's/PR's

Here are some of the cool kids kicking it into their high gear.

Dustin

Team Kristel Unicorn chaser

Jesse

Gesine

My fave West End girl (Eunice and Liisa) crew and also dance moms extraordinaire

Kelsey

Leah and Trevor

It was a great morning and if I didn't see you finish it's because I had a date with this crew to go Apple Picking.

Annual trip to Mountain Orchards

This is 51!

September 30, 2019. What can I say it is a day after my official birthday as I type this post and after a year of getting ready to run my last two races of 2018 and then hanging up my runners for the race season while I prep to get ready for my Ablation in December.

So Birthday morning I woke up, but really I got to sleep in. I knew I had scheduled a birthday burn at OrangeTheory Fitness so I was ready to earn the calories I would be consuming 😉

I had a nice strength workout with Coach Liz who made sure everyone knew it was my birthday so it was a lot of fun. In addition to my workout I headed back home and showered and I was out the door again to run errands. Not for me...oh no they were for the women in my household. A jeweller and then to the apple orchard. But I did have some Me time as it was nice to have the day to just putter and do these things.

I decided to stop in at Manotick and have lunch at the Black Dog Bistro. After all it is my birthday! I had their chicken sandwich. Once I finished my late lunch I headed home and got ready to take my new to me road bike for a ride. But since we could not have a family dinner on my birthday we postponed it to the next day. However I did head to Pi-Rho in Kanata as I was craving some greens after that delicious chicken sandwich. After all it's all about balance. I know my nutritionist would tell me that I need a better balance since I need more fruits and vegetables in my diet.

But I was served by this lady and subsequently was chatting with another TA member Jenn and we got to chatting that she's eaten at a Pi-Rho before and that her sister in law works at the one I was eating. So long story short it was her working and we got to chatting. Small world.

Serious note though, Since seeing my EP in July just after "michelle" that I haven't felt any episodes of concern. Other than the usual post exercise and some random stuff but it isn't like what it was before. Now I try to rebuild what I lost over the summer from all the inactivity. I have to give a huge shout out to the team at Kinetic Edge and now expanded to Recover.RX as both Dr. Joanna Taylor and Taylor McCabe have brought me out of my funk with Michelle as I slowly try to get myself ready for the comeback. But a huge kudos goes out to Kathy Berry who friended me along the dark "Michelle" days to lift my spirits with her non-sugar coating ways and basically telling me the hard truths of letting goals go and that I'm not alone in this. I may not have her spunk, but I appreciate the long chats over IG and her telling me it's OK. A lot of laughs and maybe some intimidation and straight calling me out on stuff. She was someone that pretty much understood the journey we both were on. So without her I would not have found the team at Kinetic Edge and have bounced back to where I am now.

So for now the last couple of days and leading in from my birthday weekend it has been quite the year. I can't explain what it is like to be on the right path if that makes sense.

Regardless of where I am or how far I've come...my story doesn't end here. In Special K's words it's time to turn the page and prepare what's to come. This is a new chapter and now let us begin again! #ThisIs51