Well day three is over and I am still on the race, sort of.
Today's stage was 56k long, total ascend +1650 and total descend was - 1920.
I am going to be brief on my post since I have to blog on my Blackberry, we have been sleeping at arenas and such so there is no internet.
I had an outstanding day today even if the outcome was less than desirable. I felt great if a bit slower but I managed to keep up with a lot of people. The view was as usual spectacular, it reminds me a lot of Canmore with a french flair.
I was doing great and was running with 3 other women who had previously pass me for more than and hour, but at the end we all time out including three other males. We are all allowed to be late once, the catch is that I have to not only finish on time from now on but also meet the checkpoints cut out times.
I feel a bit like Rocky Balboa on his movie. Rocky' where he is down for 9 counts and saved by the bell.
We had to decide to either stay on the 350k and try or move to the 175k. Maria Medueno of Tijuana, Mexico decided to switch, she is a 3:10 marathoner with 10 years of ultrarunning experience and a former Olympian in cycling.
Everybody else is going to try. The stages are getting harder and I am getting slower so it will be very tough to accomplish this with 4 days to go, but its not impossible. I don't want to go home and wonder if I could have done it, if I try and I still fail then I will know for sure.
For all of Rob's friends, my fellow Canadian competitor, he is still running strong but has a blister, I told him not to be a such a princess so he is expected to continue and run well, he can't stop smiling since last year this is as far as he could go, had to pull out because of an injury.
I will tell you tomorrow of the stars are aligned, and like my best friend from Calgary Nadia Larsson said once when I had a hard time on a race, run strong and when your legs can't carry you any longer, run with mine. Well Nadia, hope you are ready for tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Swiss Jura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swiss Jura. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Swiss Jura Day 2
What a day today. The stage was 45 kilometers long with the same altitude as yesterday 1679 meters of elevation as the highest point. Last night was a bit hard since everybody seemed to be finding things so easy. I felt lost since I felt I didn't belong here either.
I had a great chat with 51 year old Rob Jansen Of Aldegrove BC, he works in agriculture. He was born in the Netherlands and move to Canada about 30 years ago, I guess you can call him dutchman running wild. Rob will be the kind of guy you will love to hate if its not because he is so nice. He is a strong runner that also manages to have fantastic pictures. He is still running strong even after day two.
Last night Rob was sitting with his brother and fellow dutch friends when they asked me when I came in. I told them I came with only 30 minutes to spare, one of them call me a eco runner.
I had no idea so he explained that the eco runners are the slow runners that are always stopping to take pictures and lingering at checkpoints like its a cocktail party eating and drinking. Then it hit me, he just called me a jogger, my ego was sure bruised specially since I had yet to go as fast as I could.
In the morning things became a bit clearer for me, the worst thing I could do was to be beaten mentally. Then and there I decided to fight hard until the end. I also decided to be smarter and not to try and keep up with everybody, just to run my race.
My race is between my body and my mind, and the race to fight and stay in the 350k distance. I started at a conservative 8k per hour knowing that I needed at lest 7, I run slow and even some of the hills at a much conservative pace, yesterday I was doing 11k per hour to only bonk at 30k.
I felt great but I was still worry about timing out, about 32k into I was passed by absolutely everybody, then it became more real that for sure I was timing out if I didn't find the strengh to run hard. Have to thank my kids for putting music on my iPod and the Foo Fighters for that matter,
What a day today. The stage was 45 kilometers long with the same altitude as yesterday 1679 meters of elevation as the highest point. Last night was a bit hard since everybody seemed to be finding things so easy. I felt lost since I felt I didn't belong here either.
I had a great chat with 51 year old Rob
Jansen Of Aldegrove BC, he works in agriculture. He was born in the Nethelands and move to Canada about 30 years ago, I guess you can call him dutchman running wild. Rob will be the kind of guy you will love to hate if its not because he is so nice. He is a strong runner that also manages to have fantastic pictures. He is still running strong even after day two.
Last night Rob was sitting with his brother and fellow dutch friends when they asked me when I came in. I told them I came with only 30 minutes to spare, one of them call me a eco runner.
I had no idea so he explained that the eco runners are the slow runners that are always stopping to take pictures and lingering at checkpoints like its a cocktail party eating and drinking. Then it hit me, he just called me a jogger, my ego was sure bruised specially since I had yet to go as fast as I could.
In the morning things became a bit clearer for me, the worst thing I could do was to be beaten mentally. Then and there I decided to fights hard until the end. I also decided to be smarter and not to try and keep up with everybody, just to run my race.
My race is between my body and my mind, and the race to fight and stay in the 350k distance. I started at a conservative 8k per hour knowing that I needed at lest 7, I run slow and even some of the hills at a much conservative pace, yesterday I was doing 11k per hour to only bonk at 30k.
I felt great but I was still worry about timing out, about 32k into I was passed by absolutely everybody, then it became more real that for sure I was timing out if I didn't find the strengh to run hard. Have to thank my kids for putting music on my iPod and the Foo Fighters for that matter, I put music on and the song the pretender came on and the lyrics spoke loud to me,
"what if I say you are not like the others, what if I say I will never surrender, you are the pretender". I was not the pretender I am a runner not a jogger, I run hard for the last 10k the faster I run the faster I wanted to go, I made a decision, to be who I am and not to be afraid. For the first time in my life I allowed myself to say, I am an athlete, I felt every bit as I fought hard to not be disqualified on the 350k distance. Something changed on the last hour. I made the decision to be happy with who I am to be proud, to focus on the wins but not on the losses, to see them as part of the journey.
Things are changing at the race, people are hurting, while I came smiling and in better shape than yesterday most people found it harder today. There are no way to predict who will finish or who will not today I did it, tomorrow is an other day and I will welcome it for the wonderful opportunity of becoming the person I was born to be.
I put music on and the song The Pretender came on and the lyrics spoke loud to me, what if I say you are not like the others, what if I say I will never surrender, you are the pretender. I was not the pretender I am a runner not a jogger, I run hard for the last 10k the faster I run the faster I wanted to go, I made a decision, to be who I am and not to be afraid. For the first time in my life I allowed myself to say, I am an athlete, I felt every bit as I fought hard to not be Disqualified on the 350k distance. Something changed on the last hour. I made the decision to be happy with who I am to be proud, to focus on the wins and not on the losses, to see them as part of the journey.
Things are changing at the race, people are hurting, while I came smiling and in better shape than yesterday most people found it harder today. There are no way to predict who will finish or who will not today I did it, tomorrow is an other day and I will welcome it for the wonderful opportunity of becoming the person I was born to be.
I had a great chat with 51 year old Rob Jansen Of Aldegrove BC, he works in agriculture. He was born in the Netherlands and move to Canada about 30 years ago, I guess you can call him dutchman running wild. Rob will be the kind of guy you will love to hate if its not because he is so nice. He is a strong runner that also manages to have fantastic pictures. He is still running strong even after day two.
Last night Rob was sitting with his brother and fellow dutch friends when they asked me when I came in. I told them I came with only 30 minutes to spare, one of them call me a eco runner.
I had no idea so he explained that the eco runners are the slow runners that are always stopping to take pictures and lingering at checkpoints like its a cocktail party eating and drinking. Then it hit me, he just called me a jogger, my ego was sure bruised specially since I had yet to go as fast as I could.
In the morning things became a bit clearer for me, the worst thing I could do was to be beaten mentally. Then and there I decided to fight hard until the end. I also decided to be smarter and not to try and keep up with everybody, just to run my race.
My race is between my body and my mind, and the race to fight and stay in the 350k distance. I started at a conservative 8k per hour knowing that I needed at lest 7, I run slow and even some of the hills at a much conservative pace, yesterday I was doing 11k per hour to only bonk at 30k.
I felt great but I was still worry about timing out, about 32k into I was passed by absolutely everybody, then it became more real that for sure I was timing out if I didn't find the strengh to run hard. Have to thank my kids for putting music on my iPod and the Foo Fighters for that matter,
What a day today. The stage was 45 kilometers long with the same altitude as yesterday 1679 meters of elevation as the highest point. Last night was a bit hard since everybody seemed to be finding things so easy. I felt lost since I felt I didn't belong here either.
I had a great chat with 51 year old Rob
Jansen Of Aldegrove BC, he works in agriculture. He was born in the Nethelands and move to Canada about 30 years ago, I guess you can call him dutchman running wild. Rob will be the kind of guy you will love to hate if its not because he is so nice. He is a strong runner that also manages to have fantastic pictures. He is still running strong even after day two.
Last night Rob was sitting with his brother and fellow dutch friends when they asked me when I came in. I told them I came with only 30 minutes to spare, one of them call me a eco runner.
I had no idea so he explained that the eco runners are the slow runners that are always stopping to take pictures and lingering at checkpoints like its a cocktail party eating and drinking. Then it hit me, he just called me a jogger, my ego was sure bruised specially since I had yet to go as fast as I could.
In the morning things became a bit clearer for me, the worst thing I could do was to be beaten mentally. Then and there I decided to fights hard until the end. I also decided to be smarter and not to try and keep up with everybody, just to run my race.
My race is between my body and my mind, and the race to fight and stay in the 350k distance. I started at a conservative 8k per hour knowing that I needed at lest 7, I run slow and even some of the hills at a much conservative pace, yesterday I was doing 11k per hour to only bonk at 30k.
I felt great but I was still worry about timing out, about 32k into I was passed by absolutely everybody, then it became more real that for sure I was timing out if I didn't find the strengh to run hard. Have to thank my kids for putting music on my iPod and the Foo Fighters for that matter, I put music on and the song the pretender came on and the lyrics spoke loud to me,
"what if I say you are not like the others, what if I say I will never surrender, you are the pretender". I was not the pretender I am a runner not a jogger, I run hard for the last 10k the faster I run the faster I wanted to go, I made a decision, to be who I am and not to be afraid. For the first time in my life I allowed myself to say, I am an athlete, I felt every bit as I fought hard to not be disqualified on the 350k distance. Something changed on the last hour. I made the decision to be happy with who I am to be proud, to focus on the wins but not on the losses, to see them as part of the journey.
Things are changing at the race, people are hurting, while I came smiling and in better shape than yesterday most people found it harder today. There are no way to predict who will finish or who will not today I did it, tomorrow is an other day and I will welcome it for the wonderful opportunity of becoming the person I was born to be.
I put music on and the song The Pretender came on and the lyrics spoke loud to me, what if I say you are not like the others, what if I say I will never surrender, you are the pretender. I was not the pretender I am a runner not a jogger, I run hard for the last 10k the faster I run the faster I wanted to go, I made a decision, to be who I am and not to be afraid. For the first time in my life I allowed myself to say, I am an athlete, I felt every bit as I fought hard to not be Disqualified on the 350k distance. Something changed on the last hour. I made the decision to be happy with who I am to be proud, to focus on the wins and not on the losses, to see them as part of the journey.
Things are changing at the race, people are hurting, while I came smiling and in better shape than yesterday most people found it harder today. There are no way to predict who will finish or who will not today I did it, tomorrow is an other day and I will welcome it for the wonderful opportunity of becoming the person I was born to be.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Swiss Jura Marathon
Swiss Jura Marathon
I am in Paris and making my way tomorrow Saturday the 4th to St Cergue for the start of the race Sunday Morning. I arrived in Paris because this is where the points could take me; I beg and borrow points for flying to friends and this is the closes that I could get to Switzerland.
I never been to Europe so this is a treat. Paris is so alive. I am only shocked at how expensive Europe is. My other races have been in remote mostly developing countries so my money lasted a lot longer, I did get to see Johnny Depp on Champs Elysses on the premiere of his new movie Public Enemy, so I guess it’s all worth it broke and all.
I have been so nervous about this race, it’s the last one and I was having trouble sleeping at home. My kids are out of school so I took them to Houston to meet their father for summer vacation, he lives overseas but has a place in Houston, so they see him usually during holidays.
The race starts Sunday at 8am and it will finish Saturday around 3pm. There are about 63 competitors and 11 of them are female. Most of the participants are Europeans but there is a Canadian Rob Fransen from BC. Daily distance ranges from 47K to 53K and the daily climbs are between 1410 and 2020. At 350K and 11,000 feet of elevation it will be a very though race. It also has a very strict time limit, around 7 hours max time limit. There are also great things about the race, I will not be running with a heavy pack like in Gobi or Namibia, they also feed us at night and the menu looks amazing, I will be able to shower daily and have a massage as well. There is also a friend coming to watch the end of the race, for the first time I will have somebody to cheer me at the finish line. 39 year old Nicola Fontanesi from Italy was a tent mate in Gobi, at 6’3 he looks more like a volleyball player than a ultrarunner but he is light and faster than me, we used each other as pacers, he never wanted to finish behind me, an ego thing and I knew that if I finish not far behind I was usually top 20.
The race is low key and we will be sleeping on school gyms and such, if I have cell reception I might be able to twitter at http://twitter.com/utrarunwild but I will not have access to email so I will not be able to blog until the end of the race.
Wish me luck, I hardly feel ready for Swiss Jura, maybe because my short time at home was hardly enough time to recover from my last three races that where back to back, with everything that was going on in my personal life and my kids end of the year activities kept me busy as well. There are times however that I am amaze of things that happen around me, I was approached at Notre Dame by an older lady, she came straight at me and without hesitation gave me a gold ring, she spoke in French of course, I panicked and told her I didn’t speak French she then spoke in broken English, she told me she wanted to give me the ring because I was lucky and pretty, the ring is a wedding band, I didn’t know what to say, well, define lucky, there are many times that I feel extremely lucky but this is a wedding band after all, being divorced for the last 9 years I am sure that I am not that lucky at relationships, but she just kissed both of my cheeks and left, I kept it, she did say lucky so I am taking it with me to the race along with my the lucky charms that my kids made for me. Author Tim Rice did say, “We all dream a lot - some are lucky, some are not. But if you think it, want it; dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.”
I am in Paris and making my way tomorrow Saturday the 4th to St Cergue for the start of the race Sunday Morning. I arrived in Paris because this is where the points could take me; I beg and borrow points for flying to friends and this is the closes that I could get to Switzerland.
I never been to Europe so this is a treat. Paris is so alive. I am only shocked at how expensive Europe is. My other races have been in remote mostly developing countries so my money lasted a lot longer, I did get to see Johnny Depp on Champs Elysses on the premiere of his new movie Public Enemy, so I guess it’s all worth it broke and all.
I have been so nervous about this race, it’s the last one and I was having trouble sleeping at home. My kids are out of school so I took them to Houston to meet their father for summer vacation, he lives overseas but has a place in Houston, so they see him usually during holidays.
The race starts Sunday at 8am and it will finish Saturday around 3pm. There are about 63 competitors and 11 of them are female. Most of the participants are Europeans but there is a Canadian Rob Fransen from BC. Daily distance ranges from 47K to 53K and the daily climbs are between 1410 and 2020. At 350K and 11,000 feet of elevation it will be a very though race. It also has a very strict time limit, around 7 hours max time limit. There are also great things about the race, I will not be running with a heavy pack like in Gobi or Namibia, they also feed us at night and the menu looks amazing, I will be able to shower daily and have a massage as well. There is also a friend coming to watch the end of the race, for the first time I will have somebody to cheer me at the finish line. 39 year old Nicola Fontanesi from Italy was a tent mate in Gobi, at 6’3 he looks more like a volleyball player than a ultrarunner but he is light and faster than me, we used each other as pacers, he never wanted to finish behind me, an ego thing and I knew that if I finish not far behind I was usually top 20.
The race is low key and we will be sleeping on school gyms and such, if I have cell reception I might be able to twitter at http://twitter.com/utrarunwild but I will not have access to email so I will not be able to blog until the end of the race.
Wish me luck, I hardly feel ready for Swiss Jura, maybe because my short time at home was hardly enough time to recover from my last three races that where back to back, with everything that was going on in my personal life and my kids end of the year activities kept me busy as well. There are times however that I am amaze of things that happen around me, I was approached at Notre Dame by an older lady, she came straight at me and without hesitation gave me a gold ring, she spoke in French of course, I panicked and told her I didn’t speak French she then spoke in broken English, she told me she wanted to give me the ring because I was lucky and pretty, the ring is a wedding band, I didn’t know what to say, well, define lucky, there are many times that I feel extremely lucky but this is a wedding band after all, being divorced for the last 9 years I am sure that I am not that lucky at relationships, but she just kissed both of my cheeks and left, I kept it, she did say lucky so I am taking it with me to the race along with my the lucky charms that my kids made for me. Author Tim Rice did say, “We all dream a lot - some are lucky, some are not. But if you think it, want it; dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.”
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