I didn't know running was such an expensive sport!

So, lacking time, I decided to go for a quick jaunt around my neighbourhood instead of head to our wonderful little mountain in the heart of our city. And since I was expecting someone to come pick something up, I was limited with time and thus rushed to get out of the house.

Running clothes - check

Running shoes - check
Hat, ear band, gloves - check
Keys - check

And off I went! I pulled the door behind me and it locked shut. I then went to lock the deadbolt but for some reason, none of the three keys on the keyring worked because none of these keys were for this lock ... DRAT! I'd taken my mother's house keys accidentally!

Plan B

I ran to JC's house and prayed he'd be in when I got there. I'd given him an extra set of keys over a year ago to water my lawn while I was gone but had never asked for them back. Wish I could have enjoyed the 3.5 km run to his house but I felt too anxious to run slowly and pushed the pace more than I wanted. An angst-ridden me arrived at his house and I rang the doorbell ... Woohoo! He was home and I was relieved.

Seems that everyone makes JC's their extra key depository. He passed me three sets of keys that "could be" mine and off I went back home in a cab with borrowed money.

But alas ... none of the keys fit. Waaah! So I was stuck dropping in on a neighbour to call the locksmith. Good thing help came 15 minutes later or I would have frozen outside in my damp running clothes so entirely inappropriate for the cold this time of year. Brrrr!

Ahhhh ... There's nothing more welcoming than walking into your own warm home after being stuck outside in the dark and cold, shut out with no easy way in.

So, today's run was an expensive one what with the cab and the locksmith ... a whopping $26.29/km. Sucks royally.

But at least I'm home. And the two locksmiths were funny. And I will never EVER take the wrong set of keys again.

My friend will unfortunately have to pass by again. Oh well.

Visiting Mom

When it FINALLY hit me that I would lose my mother to an incurable cancer, my heart and soul cried out in anguish and that "little girl" inside of me, with insecure, selfish, little girl needs of love and affection, awakened and wailed.

I realised how much I still needed my mother. And though it will be difficult, I know that the inevitability is that I will have to let go, ready or not.

So, for every day that I still have my mother, I will love her as deeply and tenderly as I can. Some people have bitterness and resentment towards their parents during their adult life. I feel none of this towards my mother and realise that life is too short for blame. Could haves, would haves, should haves. None of this means anything in the face of death. No point in ruminating over what wasn't perfect, for the Universe knows I was far from it.

And so, I was very happy to visit my mother in Toronto. Thank you Jonathan Clark for taking this beautiful series of shots.

Thursday, May 1

No training for this little girl today. It was a travelling day. Besides, after Jonathan's Soul Travel, India show, I had too many loose ends to take care of which resulted in another night of almost no sleep. I opted for some zzz's in the car. It's nice having a second driver!

My mom was really excited about my visit, and upon my arrival, I promptly took her out for supper at a Chinese buffet she hadn't visited for a long while. Lots of choice, maybe too much ... we happily ate like PIGS! For dessert, I had a green tea rice ball, mango jello, almond jello, and some red bean soup.



Friday, May 2

Pissy rain day. Popped by my cousin's house to visit her newborn fraternal twins ... a little boy and a little girl ... how adorable! Good thing Grandma, her mother, is there to help!



Then I took my mom out for our ritual dim sum and afterwards ran around with her grocery shopping, a luxury for her since she can't get out on her own.

I slipped out after supper for a quick swim. Toronto is renown for the distances between places, and the available pool was no exception. It took me almost half an hour to get there! Was it worth it for the measly 1000 m that I swam before the pool closed? You betcha! Felt good to train again ...

Saturday, May 3

Another pissy rain day, but today, I had committed to cycling.

It was miserable, cold and very wet, at times even torrential, but I really wanted to cycle some of the rollers just outside Toronto. I gave up looking for a place to relieve myself in the thick of the rain and while adjusting my aerobars at some intersection, I promptly went there, where I was standing, happily knowing that the rain would hide my, ahem, urgency.

I arrived home after cycling 55 km to a wonderful plate of my mom's fried rice. This has got to be one of my #1 comfort foods and I could have eaten unlimited plates of it!

The afternoon brought more shopping, including this really cool Chinese herb place.

Sunday, May 4

What I had in rain yesterday, I had in wind today. I headed out again to the rollers to do some more cycling. At one point, while going downhill, I could only hit 22km/h. Pretty dismal headwind. Needless to say I was pretty spent and very happy to finally make it back home after a 45 km cycle.

I came home to my mom's pork bone and tofu leaf soup. Another favourite comfort food.

That evening, we gathered up the relatives and had a BBQ feast at my cousin's ... My mom and I were happy to see everyone all together, it had been so long for both of us.

Monday, May 5

Travel day back to Montreal, no time to train.

Jonathan met up with us in the morning and we visited ZS (pics above), a friend of my mother's who had shared a hospital room with her for a few months during her recovery from the fall she had had before Christmas.

ZS, you are a beautiful woman, inside and out. Thank you for being so kind to my mother. My mother was thrilled to be reunited with you.

Oh Mom ... It's always so hard to say good-bye ...

The food, don't forget the food ...

The ridiculously busy periods of my life seem to get longer and more intense, giving me very little time to stop and breathe and just do nothing.

Recently, it's been one of those times ... and since I don't follow a training schedule yet or keep a formal log, it's quite tough trying to remember what I did when. I try my best to remember, but who knows, maybe I did diddly-squat and just want to believe that I'd been a good little triathlete girl and actually trained for the day.

Today, the day that I am writing this, which you don't really know since I can change the publish date of a post on Blogger, I am sure of only two things and neither have to do with training.

1) The spicy minced pork eggplant dish with broccoli and jasmine-scented rice that I made the other day was incredibly tasty and I could for sure eat it again now. I have fallen in love with melt-in-your mouth eggplant, especially the eggplant and basil at my favourite Thai restaurant, Phaya Thai. (Shh, their secret is to deep fry it first!)


2) Jonathan Clark presented yet another fantastic photo expostion - Soul Travel, India - the third in a spectacular slide show series hosted by Operation Triumph. Check it out to see more pics.

Oooh ... I've got to kick my butt a lot harder!

I've been doing a fair bit of cooking recently, probably to provide me with great leftovers so I can be lazy for the rest of the week.

This was fairly easy to make:

- chicken and portabella mushrooms alfredo
- endive and cucumber salad

And actually, so was this ... which is actually my first attempt at making salmon ... DELICIOUS! And I used to hate fish when I was growing up.

- sauteed potatoes with onions and spices
- salmon (olive oil, chives, special mix of seasonings with orange, topped with Italian breadcrumbs)
- sauteed veggies (I added some chicken stock for the seasoning, just perfect for this meal!)


I'm getting a wee more disciplined in training, but just a tad. I think when I finally make up my training schedule and post it somewhere, it'll be easier, 'cause frankly, having too many choices makes me end up doing none of them. I am too easily distracted.

In reverse order (as I try to remember my week ...):

Thursday
Cycle = 23km
Swim = 750m
- ride on my mountain bike up the mountain path and around through Outremont, a picturesque and wealthy part of town. Some good climbing for JC and I!
- super quick swim before joining a friend for supper. Worked in flip turns at every lap 'cept for two, once since I didn't want to kick a girl resting at the end, the other to adjust my cap

Wednesday
Cycle = 14km
- had too much to do and also had to change my tire so only got in a short symbolic ride. Still good to get out on my mountain bike though I feared puncturing my tire again.

Monday
Run = 14.5km
Swim = 1000m, with flip turns

Sunday
Swim = 1500m
Cycle = 30 min. on Mr. SB 'cause I was too lazy to set up my trainer

Saturday
Cycle = 1h 10min on my trainer
- I watched "Ray" while riding and have to admit, was distracted enough to stop a few times 'cause I didn't want to miss out on what was happening. Jamie Foxx's performance is amazing! Ray Charles was such a dog.
- the best films to cycle to though are action ones, like the Matrix series. The action and music just keep me pumping!

Week in review ...

Let's go backwards ...

First of all, after a good half hour of creative blogging, what I thought was saved wasn't and my orginal post is lost in cyberspace. Oh well, such is life ...

I have a headache and nausea right now. Is this the start of a cold or am I just feeling the effects of a super busy week and ugly damp cold weather? I think I'm going to go lie down and relax in front of the television.

Friday
Slipped in a 1200 m swim but felt really tired so decided to call it early.

Thursday
Sandwiched a short swim inbetween my run. Felt strong slicing through the water ... YAY!

Run = 6 km
Swim = 1200 m

Wednesday
Had lots to do to get ready for Soul Travel, Burning Man, which was a huge success, by the way. Check it out here.



I managed to slip in a short but strong swim followed by my first bike ride outside. I've been hesitant to get out onto real road because of the potholes and other crap leftover from winter. No way I was going to do this with Freida, my road bike, but figured I'd be safe with my trusty Rocky Raleigh mountain bike.

Or so I thought.

WHOOOOOSH!

At first, I thought it was the brake pad rubbing. I braked and released. Nope. Then I got off my bike and thought, "Oh no, the tire valve must be broken!" since the sound was loud and fast. Nope. And then I saw it. A huge honking piece of glass jutted out from my tire.

DAMN!

"I'll just change the tube! I might not be fast, but I'll be riding in no time."

Doh!

Reality check when I remembered what I'd remarked just a few minutes earlier. I suppose it was an omen when I looked at my water bottle thirstily and noticed I'd forgotten to transfer my pump from my road bike. I started walking but after 15 minutes, I realised that I wasn't getting anywhere fast. I was 8 km from home.

I've never hitch-hiked before and deliberated for many minutes before I courageously stuck out my thumb as a minivan approached. The vehicle stopped ... YAY! I was saved!

Donald, an elderly gentleman with white hair and a friendly smile, told me that he cycles too and that the same thing might happen to him one day. He kindly drove me to my door. This was his second good deed of the day since he had actually been on his way home from giving blood when he stopped for me. We were both very happy that he could help.

Tuesday
I went and picked up JC during my run. He doesn't have my endurance nor speed (yes, there are worse runners than I) but it's always cool to run with a friend. Longest run of the year so far and I was surprised I could tough it because of my tight hamstrings from all the recent stair-climbing. JC elbowed me hard in the upper arm accidentally at one point ... OUCH! Not a good thing 'cause I was so soooore from my previous days' cross-training.

Run = 13k for me, 7k for JC

Sunday and Monday
Five hours of cross-training. Had to empty the flooded cellar so I could get the bikes out from storage. Not fun repeatedly climbing steep stairs, trudging through the backyard, then hoisting heavy buckets of water over the fence to empty into the sewer drain. The right side of my upper body had to do all the heavy work since I'm still too weak on my left side to even lift 5 lbs. because of my car accident.

RN told me that it was good upper body training and it'd help my swim. Maybe he's got a point but I wish he didn't. The melting snow has flooded my cellar again. Back to square one.

**************************************

Tonight, I think I'll take it a little easier and just cycle a bit ... try out my new saddles. A cheap one and an expensive one ... guess which one cost triple the price? I don't care about the cost difference. I just hope and pray that one of them is more comfortable than what I've got now. I've already tried three other ones to no avail.

What a small world ...

Once-a-week blogging is not enough, neither for you nor for me! Just too much happens in one week and I am starting to lose track of what I do and how I'm training.

I have vague memories of being on my bike trainer (55 min or so, that thing is soooo boring) and also a half hour on Mr. SB (my stationary bike where the easiest setting is equivalent to climbing a 6-7% grade). Did I run? Hmm ... can't remember, but I did get in a couple of swims. Just a short 1000 m, then a 1500 m session another day. 1000 m straight-out followed by 5 x 200 (100 m fast + 100 m slow).

Still, not enough training hours in the week. They say a rich social life is good for the soul ... but it's bad for the training!

I went to my first press conference a week ago for the Festival TransAmérique. Here I am flanked by JKR, my publicist, and in the middle, Annabelle Soutar, director and playwright for Import/Export.

It's funny how small the world is ...

JC buddies, told me that he was going to see a performance by pianist-composer Stephan Moccio. I said, "Oh, I know him, JKR sent me a song from him as a holiday's greeting!" JC said, "Well, I just did his website." How cool!

Then later that afternoon, I speak with JKR and ask her what's she up to later that evening. Similar thing, she brings up Stephan Moccio then invites me to attend his performance. Sure! I tell her about JC's involvement with him ... "No way!" she exclaims.

We all meet up before the show, and lo and behold, one of JC's invitees is also one of JKR's good friends, and we laugh about it ... yes, what a small world.

Great concert. Talented musician. Here's a cell phone pic of Stephan and I.

I've got a new look to my website!

This week has flown by ... I don't even remember exactly what I did as training this past week ... some running and some swimming but I never got around to the cycling even though I had set up my bike on my trainer.

GB, my good friend and webdesigner, called me back at 10pm Thursday evening. I needed to redesign my website and had a deadline. Shortly before, he had given me bad news. He had too much work to do to be able to help me out on such short notice. But being the amazing person he is, he set me up with a basic template and gave me a quick tutorial on how to use Joomla!, the hot CMS (Content Management System) these days.

I worked all night and learnt what I needed to do to create my website. Good thing I'm a quick study!

Geoff checked out my website the following morning ... "Holy sh*t, it's bursting at the seams!" Some adjustments to the colours and bits of editing to text and lo and behold, we were basically ready to go live the next day!

www.bonniemak.com

Then I finally got some sleep ...

Saturday

- swam 40 min., lost count of laps because the pool was so busy and the swimmers were so fast. Besides, I had trouble keeping my goggles snug on my face which was really annoying and made me take extra breaks. I swam about 1500 m, I think.

Later that evening, I met up with some friends and we went to a Meetin' Montreal meet'n'greet at Brutopia. Terrifically fun evening! We played this hilarious icebreaker game. We had been asked to submit three non-evident "secrets" about ourselves a few days previous. Our responses were compiled into a list and it was up to us that evening to figure out which statement belonged to who by mingling.

I wasn't particularly interested in meeting the person who matched this statement: "I am Supremely Intelligent." Seems like I wasn't the only one who felt that way ...

Sunday

- ran 11k, part of it with a hungover JC who had gone out with me the night before. Needless to say, he didn't fare too well. I felt surprisingly good, probably since I had had an inspiring week full of change. As I ran by two men out chatting on the porch, they cheered me on. How cool was that!

That evening, Operation Triumph celebrated some new members and the official launch of the website with a potluck supper. We got treated to some superb singing. Find out more here.

Monday

- Excellent swim today! I experienced a technique epiphany that really made me feel and go faster ... or perhaps it's just the exercises I've been doing with my arms - my pull might have gotten stronger. All I know is that I had a good feel of the water and felt like I was slicing through quicker than usual. Woohoo! I hope to develop more and more of that feeling. I've gotta better my swim time at Ironman, you know!

2 x 500, 5 x 250

Total = 2250m

Can't train if I've got two feet on ice!

I had a super fun time last night curling with my Meetin' group. I couldn't resist the offer of a free curling lesson given by a professional teacher, followed by a trial game. It's funny ... curling has been the butt of many a joke as long as I have known, and like bowling, it seems to occupy a lot of sports broadcasting time on Sunday afternoons.

I had to find out why.

I can easily say, after having a hilarious time and bruising my knee, that I have a new-found respect for this sport that requires flexibility, speed, strength, strategy and pinpoint precision. Who would have ever thought? Nope, it ain't so easy folks.

Me as skip, strategizing

JC had a super fun time as well!

Would I ever curl again? You bet ya! I'd just make sure to wear thermal socks next time ... brrr. Oh yes ... my team, The Terminators, won easy!

So no swimming last night, just a quick 28 min. jaunt around the neighbourhood before heading out, enough to get the blood flowing in the legs.

Earlier this evening, I did manage to slip in an 11k run. My legs felt heavy though from yesterday's many lunges as we learnt how to deliver the rock.

What did I do since my last post? Oh, my memory is failing me in my old age ... Thursday, a fast 750 m swim since JC's vegetarian lasagne and friends in from England beckoned me and Friday? Hmm, a short 30 min. run before the kids came home, then 55 minutes of cycling as we watched "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".

I gotta get more organized with this training. A little over five months of training time left ...

Good thing is that the snow is finally melting outside and I am planning to take my mountain bike outside this week until the city has a chance to clean the debris off the street. Ain't no way I'm gonna subject Freida, my road bike to that kind of torture. Anyway, the knobby tires on my mountain bike are much better suited to handle the cracks and potholes in our Montreal streets created by an all too wicked winter.

Playing catch up ...

Been a crazy busy week this week what with the first fund-raiser of Operation Triumph last night, Soul Travel, From Auckland to Montreal. Here's a pic from the fantastic photo exposition narrated by Jonathan Clark, the photographer:


To read the blog about last night, click here.

Needless to say, what with friends in from out of town, all the prep necessary for the show, and some long rehearsals for the play I'm in, Import/Export, I did not manage to fit in any training ... where did the time go?

So today, I am finally playing catch up and tidying up my home and taking care of paperwork and other little things. Gonna swim and bike tonight ... well, that's what I have planned ... but I also have friends in from overseas ... hmm ... and my friend is making his infamous veggie lasagne.

Wish I may, wish I might ...

Frankly, training has been HORRIBLE, what with my ever-failing adaptation to long corporate overtime work hours. My romantic artist soul feels imprisoned in a colourless, claustrophobic cacophony of can't do this', musn't do that's, and we-are-watching-you's.

I'm sinking ... sinking ... sinking ... oh too fast ... much too fast.

Star light, star bright
First star I see tonight
Wish I may, wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.

I auditioned for two car commercials today, one a callback (yay). Quite the feat to do considering I also had to fit in a full day at work too. I was a chicken with my head cut off. Lots of driving, what with going back and forth from the airport to downtown twice in the same day.

Weekend update:
I'm so proud of my oldest son, T ... he cycled 47 km with JC and I on Saturday. Wish I had brought my camera. (Sorry, folks.) We stopped for a picnic by the scenic north shore of Rivière-des-Prairies ... very pretty and very relaxing. JC immensely enjoyed the rustling of the leaves as slumber carried him off. I walked out onto the rocks in the river but one can only travel so far with cleats. Had to stop T who would have crossed the river if he had found enough rocks, irregardless of safe footing.

Took both sons out for a shorter cycle of 14 km on Sunday. Wish it had been longer but alas, my youngest doesn't yet have the fortitude of the eldest and magically developed a headache and sore throat just a few kilometres into the ride. Sigh.

But we got to eat some tasty Chinese desserts! Wintermelon biscuits and sweet sticky noodles, two of my childhood favourites.

Good news ... I slipped in a 5k this morning after going over lines and before heading to work.

My friend, Turtleboy, chided me tonight for my most recent tactic of only training for the last 5k of the marathon. He said I must have it down pat by now. So funny since he's actually not that far off ... When I ran this morning (while running lines in my head), I visualized the start, middle and finish of the marathon. I told myself, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if the whole marathon could be run this easy-breezy (i.e. like before fatigue set in at kilometre six)?" The silly thing is this visualization tactic can work wonders ... gotta train the mind you know, 'cause that's what'll take you to that finish line. That or the sheer stupid belief that one can run a marathon without any training. Ugh.

Star light, star bright
First star I see tonight
Wish I may, wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.

----------------------------------------------
Dear Universe,

I wish that I will land both car commercials and then have that horrible task of deciding which one to choose! Hmm ... I choose BOTH!!

Thank you,

Silly Sally
----------------------------------------------

Of course, getting my wish would most likely nix my marathon plans for this weekend since it coincides with the possible shoot dates.

Dang. :-)

Second Wind

I had an exhausting weekend but not from training ... sigh.

I held a garage sale (pics to come soon courtesy of Jonathan Clark, my super talented photographer friend). It's amazing how someone's junk is someone else's treasure and also how cheap people can get when trying to barter.

It's also amazing how drunk one can get on three drinks ... mind you, they were quite stiff ones and I hadn't eaten supper ... well, a banana ... does that count? JC and I headed to a *special function* in *special clothing* and stayed out late like naughty little children. Word of advice: 4-inch stilletto heels are not conducive to dancing for hours.

Was it a fun night? Definitely! Was it a fun post-event morning? Definitely not ... ooooh!

Almost fell asleep on the couch tonight after wrapping up the garage sale and while chatting with a friend on the phone. I realised I was drifting when I heard my friend, AT, say, "Are you there?"

So now, instead of sleeping, since I had too many things to do, I am blogging. WHAT HAPPENED?! I was so tired earlier and thought I'd be able to get in a good night's sleep finally and now I'm wide awake!

Drat that second wind ...

Sometimes it has nothing to do with how well you drive ...

I got hit by a car today. Rear-ended.

I had stopped for a light. But the driver behind me decided not to stop.

He was driving some huge SUV. My car is a little Chevy Aveo. Can you imagine the impact? His car pushed mine into the station wagon in front of me.

No apology, no how are the kids, how is your friend? He did ask me if I was alright, and I said quite clearly, evidently shaken, "NO, I am NOT alright."

Do you think he would have noticed that all my hair, which had been thrown forward with my neck, was still stuck all over my face? Noooo ... he was just a stupid a-hole driver who walked back to his car with no comment.

Then when I finally went to speak with him to ask him what the f*ck he thought he was doing (without using those words), he mentioned something about "it was something in my car" then had the gall to say about the accident, "It was nothing." Nothing? ... NOTHING? "I told you I was not alright, my neck and shoulders hurt and you say it is nothing?" The unapologetic man tried to defend his inattentive driving with callousness and nonchalance. That never works, bud ... it just makes you a bigger jerk.

And the woman whose car I got pushed into, all she could say was "I'm a doctor, I'll only talk to you when you calm down. I'm not listening to you." Then she turned her back like a spoiled little brat who couldn't get her way.

Excuse me, Madame ... obviously, there are good reasons for my not feeling calm ... Let me point them out to you because you are so un-observant:

1) I am hurt. All I need is more whiplash on top of last year's whiplash.

2) The driver who hit me refused to accept responsibility.

3) He also had no concern for the passengers of my car, namely me, my kids and my friend.


Thank you Madame for your utter lack of concern. I am glad I am not your patient.

My neck hurts, my back hurts, and my shoulder hurts ... but worse, I feel shaken down to my core emotionally, especially since I am still healing from last year's accident and it's been such a long road back.

Oh, here's another stupid proud remark from the doctor when I told her that whiplash is serious ... "Oh, I've treated lots of people with whiplash." Yup, that's why she took my being upset and in pain so unseriously.

To top it all off, I overheard the guy driver say to someone on his cell phone, "There's nothing wrong with her".

What happened to decency, respect, compassion and caring?

Sad world in which we live when we encounter incidents like this. Just remember, this is a choice one makes, to care or not to care.

I choose to care.

Thanks JC for caring and consoling me through my tears. Thanks Gustav for trying to massage out the pain ... and thank you to my boys for all the hugs you gave me when you saw how shaken up mummy felt.

Who has time to train?

Met up with Turtleboy for a race strategy discussion over Chinese food.

On the menu was:

- salt & pepper shrimps (one of my favourites)

- beef and peppers ho fun in black bean sauce

- snow pea leaf with garlic

- fried ice cream

Afterwards, we head out to meet JC at a loft party hosted by those cool folks from Flickr. Fantastically extravagant shin-dig ... great food, open bar, DJ, dancing ... and a cool little photo book to take home!

Rock on, JC!

I got me a new running buddy ... my infamous swimming buddy, JC!! Woohoo! And he was suuuch a good sport tonight, running half my run with me. He had called me up for a swim but I told him I needed to run. He had run a half hour yesterday so I was surprised that he said he'd join me. He's a newbie runner and I know that it can be quite difficult running two days straight when one is not used to it. Heck, even I try to avoid it ... note my 1 to 3-day/week marathong training schedule.

I was very happy to have the company and didn't mind slowing down a notch or two, even walking for a minute or so, just to give JC a chance to recuperate. This is the farthest he's ever run and he did a mighty impressive job ... Congrats, my friend :-) I'm so proud of you. It's a good thing you didn't know what kind of distance you were in for ...

Ottawa Marathon Training - W5, Day #2

Planned distance: 5 km
Actual distance: 14 km

This may sound good but it really isn't. I'm just trying to make up for Tuesday's missed run due to a super bad allergic reaction. An emergency visit to the doctor's and now I'm now on lots of meds. Don't ask me what I'm allergic to, I wish I knew! This extremely itchy rash covered over 50% of my body. My skin felt like it was on fire, stretched out too tightly from all the inflammation.


Jonathan and I talked about training and races. This will be his first foray into triathlon this summer. He's joining the tri team I belonged to next month and will be aiming for a sprint triathlon later this summer. I'm sure he'll have lots of fun.

We made jokes about running marathons and how hard they are. I told him that I used to get mad at myself (for choosing to run another marathon) and curse out loud when it got really tough. I remember asking myself "Why do you do this, Bonnie?" and ponder if I'd ever run another marathon, "This is it, this is the last one, never again. F**K!!"

I stopped cursing and asking myself questions a few marathons ago. This especially showed with New York where I wasn't even nervous the night before as per usual marathon routine. I just accept that it's gonna hurt real bad and that I'll probably never lose the marathon bug. Bad addiction. I'm afraid that the same thing might happen with Ironman ...

Problem is ...

I like to race but I don't like to train.

www.newagesensitiveman.com

I went to a little social gathering at JC's recently and, being the fantastic photographer that he is, of course whipped out his camera ...

JC: "Give her a little kiss."

So lo and behold, here we have it ... Flirtation abounds!



JC gave me a good chuckle on the phone today ... I was complaining about the lack of interesting, exciting, intelligent men to date.

JC: "Go check out www.newagesensitiveman.com."

So I did ... and found nothing. Absolutely nada. Sort of symbolic of what the real dating scene is all about ...

Like, why can't I find a guy who makes me swoon in his arms when he dances with me and who can also do triathlons ... I mean, is it too much to ask that he attempt at least a sprint triathlon, or failing that, how about just a measly marathon if he's not interested in all three sports?

And picking up dancing can't be too difficult ... I organize workshops, he can get in for free ... I can even teach him myself!

SHEESH!!

Got back from a fun dance event this evening in fact. My miserable cold is still holding on tenaciously and blatantly ignoring my pleas for it to leave me alone. No training today obviously, but do I get points for all this dancing? Hey, it's cross-training!

I would have never thought!

Today was SUPPOSED to be a very productive day. Instead, I got sucked into the vortex of two very charming and delightful gentlemen visiting from London, England, and ended up pigging out and showing off Montreal's fun eating spots. I would have never thought that they were so totally cool! Ha ha!

And who is to blame for this? ... JC, my swim buddy!!

Alright, alright, I admit it ... I went with my twisted rubber arm to meet JC and his brother GC and friend GM for brunch. Cool morning ... got to hang out with two Kiwis and an Aussie for hours over a delicious omelet, fresh fruit, and three cups of coffee. It was great meeting JR as well, a very sincere and pretty girl from Franc, who like JC, is also a photographer. We had a great conversation about the importance of looking into people's eyes ...

JC and JR returned to their work. We remaining three decided that the super long brunch called for a walk afterwards. Final destination, Little Italy and the Jean-Talon market where I snapped this shot of GM and GC (left to right) .


Spring is just around the corner! Isn't it wonderful to finally have above zero temperatures? Lovely flowers, aren't they?

GM was intent on finding some yummy cannollis but instead, we found some lovely homemade pasta. Never found those cannollis but there were lots of nice cafés.

A little gurgle in GC's tummy brought us next to Schwartz's, the internationally reknown deli famous for it's amazing smoked meat sandwiches. Can't visit Montreal without tasting one of these, and of course a bagel from Fairmount or St-Viateur's Bagels, but we didn't have time to stop there too.



I wanted to chuck the cell phone of the man sitting to my right at the cafeteria-style table. It rang non-stop with one of those annoying gimmicky ring tones one hears only in American films. Obviously, he was not aware of the "vibrate" function on his phone.

The still hungry men wanted pie afterwards, so of course I HAD to bring them to Rockaberry's on St-Denis Street. And of course, I HAD to have a slice of Key Lime Pie. Couldn't let the men eat alone, could I? And heck, we still had 45 minutes to kill until it became absolutely essential to get them back to JC's flat so that they could pack and catch their evening flight.


All in all, a very unproductive day work-wise, but an incredibly amusing and lucky day spent happily in the company of two wonderful men with sexy accents and wild wit. The fetish nightclub story was a total hoot!

Thank you GC and GM for your company and all the laughs! And thank you for sharing with me two things that I love ... Montreal and FOOD!!

Ahem ... no training today ... couldn't get up off the ground from rolling around with my big belly ...