The long retreat

The snow is taking its time in leaving, making sure that we are not to forget its impact anytime soon. In the meantime, I have been back in the gym, back to Turbulence Training, taking this opportunity to do a mini-strength focus while the footing on the trails is less than ideal. Once I was back running I no longer kept up with my strength training, my focus having shifted on getting back my running fitness, but I am once again enjoying the strength program. I am becoming better at chin ups and core strength activities, but I am not loving lunges. I think it is because our gym is small and cramped so it forces me to do my lunges starting in front of the women's changeroom, past the machines, avoiding the front desk and ending up in the cardio area, only to turn around and begin my slow walk back to the women's changeroom. Alas, they are important and must be done.

So it has been gym time for me of late.

In Marathon of Hope news, rumours say that there were about 200 entries to participate which means most of the videos must have been marked as private on youtube. A mass email was sent out today with a letter from Darrell Fox thanking us for our interest and that it will be 2- 3 weeks before we here about the next stage of the process. So, that is all I know. I know that there are amazing submissions out there so I am very interested in seeing who the 12 will be.

Terry Fox Marathon of Hope 2009

I know that I have shared with everyone the video that I have submitted for the Marathon of Hope.

And I have shared the email that went out in December as a call for people to participate.

Well, the deadline was on Thursday and there are a number of public videos now posted. The stories are amazing. Wow. What an incredible group of people willing to take this challenge on and they each have incredible reasons. I really hope that I am able to share the road with some of them, but if I am not selected to participate, they will have my complete support.

I have watched about 35-40 videos so far and wanted to share a few. While my video has a serious message, which may belie my more Jasper Blake-like outgoing/kid/weirdo side, I wanted to express the reverence I hold for Terry and what he did. The following videos do the same but in different ways. Enjoy. (And I recommend watching them in HIGH QUALITY if it allows you to - you'll see the little link to the bottom right of the video if you can.)

Steve Gaul was an ENDURrun finisher this summer. I encourage you to listen to his incredible story.



I do not know Dave Thomas, but I wished I worked for him.



And Ferg Hawke. Holy crap! He has run some of the hardest races on earth and done well. And he has DEAN KARNAZES giving him props, as the kids say. Wow. And a slick video.



If you want to see all the videos, I found that searching using the terms Marathon of Hope 2009 and Terry Fox Application will find you most of the them (you will find different ones when you use the two).

Finally, just so everyone knows, I do think that I would be a great fit for this, obviously, but I am just blown away by the stories of the lives of the other applicants. Makes you wonder about how many untold stories there are at the start line of every race...

And we're back here....

Happy belated new year!  I hope everyone was sufficiently festive.

I have been absent from the blogosphere (I have never ever used that term before) as I have become reacquainted with Ontario winter in Vancouver.  A missed flight resulting in a great night with Sonja's parents in Toronto, a few hours of shoveling the car out from under wet snow, the abruptness of the end of the semester of teaching and one submission later, I am back.  Phew.

Our flight home from Barbados was delayed for 90 minutes as we waited on the tarmac for airspace to open up to allow us to leave.  This was just enough time for us to miss our connection back to Vancouver that night, but that was actually perfect as we were able to spend the night and the next day with Sonja's parents.  It was great to catch up with them and family friends before boarding another flight to come home to a snow storm.  

I thought shoveling snow was cute until my back was sore the next day.  And I was using my legs!  I swear!  But the amount of snow that awaited us was unreal.  It has been raining for three days straight which has taken the edge off the city, but all I can think about is what this city would like if the temperature had not recently warmed.  Three days of straight snow would have suffocated Vancouver.

About the submission.  The Marathon of Hope 2009 submission deadline is today and I have finished the video portion this evening.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute.  In my defense, I had an epiphany as to what I could do and that necessitated some changes which took longer than anticipated.  I have been in contact with the organizers of the event and they have been warm and understanding, the kind of people you would want to have around if you were going to run 143 marathons in a row.  I have checked out some of the videos on youtube (search Marathon of Hope 2009) and they are GOOD!  Wow.  Canada has some incredible runners/video producers.   I am currently waiting for my video to finish uploading to youtube and will post it here as well once it is done.  

Other than that, a quiet week.  

Oh yeah.  One more thing.  Sonja and I became, as she likes to joke, enfianced, which I am told is a real word.  She agreed to marry me while in Barbados.  We are both excited about this and look forward to a long engagement - no rush for the wedding, especially if the Marathon of Hope were to happen.  I usually only mention Sonja in passing on the blog as I try to keep it running related, but this is a pretty special moment and I wanted to share it with my friends that may not have heard.  

Now, come on youtube upload!  Please get done (it has been 90 minutes so far!).