Will my rubber tires save me if I'm hit by lightning?

One nice thing about visiting Toronto is that not too far away, about 20-25k from my mom's house, I can cycle and find myself some rolling hills.

Unfortunately though, this particular visit, like the last, was threatened by rain, rain, and more rain according to the weather report.

I didn't care. The sun was shining and though there were some clouds, I said to myself, convinced it wouldn''t rain until much later.

Because it had been bright, sunny and hot when I started my cycle, I decided to wear a tank top instead of a racing jersey and carried food and other essentials in a money pouch. La-di-da ... and away I went for what I planned to be a metric century.

Once I hit farm country, the torrential rains started. The sky was black and the wind kicked me from all angles. I saw lightning and heard thunder in the near distance, which is never a good sign when one is out in the open. Will my rubber tires save me if I'm hit by lightning? But OH, how I had my heart set on a long ride! Tomorrow, I wouldn't have enough time, so it was now or never.

Do I turn back?

I looked at the hills beyond beckoning me to zip down them at super fast speeds and noticed that the skies above them seemed a lighter shade of gray. Would I be able to ride out of the storm? I decided to go for it and several kilometres later, though I was still being rained on, it wasn't that bad since it was only drizzling at this point. I could live with that.

One thing about riding in farmland is trying to figure out a place to pee. Not a ton of trees, except those indicating entrances to people's driveways. I've only pee'ed while riding my bike when torrential rain allowed the washing away of evidence from my socks and shoes ... meaning I wouldn't have to deal with any lingering smells ... but I just couldn't do it in this medium light sort of rain. Besides, Freida, my bike, would not appreciate it.

Then I saw it, a huge concrete slab blocking the entranceway to what appeared to be a condemned farmhouse. Excellent!

Aaaah ... and off I went again.

What's nice about hills, though they do require a bit of work to climb, is the incredible thrill to speed down them ... I totally LOVE THAT RUSH!! Of course, what adds to that thrill is the reward of seeing your bike odometer spit out and confirm your exhilarating speed.

But not today. Not in the pouring rain. Nope ... my bike computer had konked out and no reading was available, no distance, no time, no speed. Bummer. :-(

I felt like a computer freak user without internet or e-mail access.

So on I went, up and down and up and down, none of my climbing achievements being confirmed and my trying not to be phased by it ... Distraction: Oh that road looks good! Lots more hills! Then off I veered ... into the storm clouds once more.

The unfortunate thing about my choice of clothing that day is that rain has a tendency to cool things down. 15-17 C is not warm. 15-17 C is even less warm in a tank top in the rain. The big black clouds opened up and spewed out its angry storm and my bare arms and shoulders felt the wrath of sharp raindrops.

It was time to turn back lest I become hypothermic. Anyway, I didn't know how much more I would be able to stand of what felt like hail hitting my fragile, tired, discouraged body. Besides, I had not fully recuperated from the 85k I had cycled the day before on the same hills.

I got as far as that cement block on my way back when I realised that my peddle felt "off", strangely uneven, and my chain seemed to hit the derailleur no matter what gear I shifted into. I stopped in the rain and looked at my peddles and cleats. Check. Everything seemed tight, no loose screws. Then I looked at my crank. Not so good ... I could see too much space between my left crank and its insertion point into my bike. What to do, what to do. I thought, I'll have to get that adjusted when I get back to Montreal, but at least that would explain the chain rubbing problem.

I continued cycling and the riding only got worse, getting even more uneven. I looked down at my left foot while cycling and it looked and felt like I was peddling with a limp! Again, I stopped in the pouring rain and examined my crank. Good thing I had my handy little multi-tool gadget. Though I am totally inept bike mechanic-wise, I managed to tighten my crank. No choice. Figure it out or be stranded in no-man's land in the pouring rain holding my bike in one hand and pieces of my new compact crank in the other.

La-di-da (yeah right) ... and off I went. I finally got back home. 90k, I figured. Not quite the 100 I wanted but I was back home at my mom's where I could take a hot shower and get some food into me. The three hours in the storm was not exactly *fun*. And though I am a grown woman who can make my own choices, of course, this particular choice did not sit well with my worried mom at home who couldn't understand why anyone would want to cycle in that weather.

I told her I was fine and she needn't have worried so much, then went upstairs to shower.

What I REALLY wanted to tell her was, "I'm doing it for the thrill of the downhills, Mom!"

Good eats!

Most of us take our mobility and the subsequent freedom to do what we want and go where we want for granted. But some of us can't walk outside alone lest we fall. This means no unaccompanied outings, including dining out or grocery shopping.

So I took my mother out for supper and I took her grocery shopping and she savoured every minute, as did I, since this meant more precious moments with her.

There is nothing like sharing a tasty meal with someone you love, especially if it's with someone you love dearly and don't get to see often.



To take the pics, I had to slide past my mother on her bench so I could extend my hand properly to take the self-portrait. Since my mother has trouble standing up, I decided to get back to my side of the table via "under the table".

How embarrassing! Of course, this had to be THE MOMENT when the waitress came over to serve us while I was still in the midst of trying to manouvre my body out from underneath the table. I should have predicted my difficulty, being much bigger than my children and all, doh! I finally managed to wriggle out and up onto the bench and then, ahem ... apologized to the waitress, "I was just playing! Ha ha!"

Here's what we ordered:

1) Tofu and vegetable hot pot

2) Beef and green bean spicy satay

3) Salt and pepper shrimp

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 roads are now clear ...

... and I will be on my way to Toronto to see my mom, who has stabilized in the hospital. This is a particularly scary drive for me because of my past car accident and also because of the road conditions. I'm just happy that it stopped snowing and it's warmer, which will hopefully mean less ice.

My mom has stablized and the head scan showed no signs of cancer or other in her brain. Thank God. She is now on blood thinners to deal with the clots and her morale has brightened, especially knowing the results of the scan. Though it is evident that her cancer has deteriorated, I am praying that she still hold onto life because selfishly, I still need my mother and the kids still need their grandmother. Besides that, we have plans to bring in the New Year with her.

Yesterday, I managed 56 laps in the pool, or 1400 m. Not where I need to be but it's a start. And it was wonderfully therapeutic.

Marathon #13 - Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront

It's been almost a week since I ran the marathon and frankly, I'm feeling quite good ... finally. I think I've recovered but the real test will come with my first run. As far as training, I've only gone for a short swim so far on Friday.

The marathon weekend started badly. I ended up working late on Friday and only started my drive around 9 pm, straight from the office. It's a long drive to Toronto and with heavy eyes drooping, I stopped and took a long nap in a rest stop parking lot only to be awoken by Sainte checking up on me ... "That's dangerous, you can't sleep there!" Yes, it was a very long drive. Bedtime only came at 5 am.

The general rule for pre-marathon rest is to get a good night's sleep two nights prior to racing as the night before is always a little nerve-wracking. Obviously, that didn't quite work out as planned ...

The alarm rang at 9:30 am as I had to go to the sports expo to pick up my race kit and a tech shirt that would hopefully fit. I have enough men's large and x-large race shirts in my collection, thank you, and no, I do not wear sleep shirts.

Here we are at the bib pick-up and chip check. I proudly pulled out "my own" chip. (Thanks again, Sainte!)

Feeling exhausted by late afternoon, I had to lie down for a bit. Later on, a little rejuvenated, I went out and did a short 3 km jog around the neighbourhood, just to get the blood flowing but nothing to shock the legs. After a good supper and some quiet time with my mom, it was time to prep for the race (backpack, clothing, race bib, drinks, etc.) I called it a night around 11:30 pm or so and zonked out right away ... I was still so tired!

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

Race Date: September 30, 2007
Weather: about 17 C at start, 24 C at finish, very sunny
Wake-up: 5 am
Breakfast: coffee, croissant, banana, some canteloupe

Total July training: no running, no serious swimming, 90+ km cycling, the "+" being some unknown short recreational-pace distance with the kiddies
Total August training: 20 km running, 65 km cycling
Total September training: 48 km running, 61 km cycling, 1000 m swimming

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

My two alarms rang too early at 5 am. I got dressed and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I heard my mother stirring and she soon joined me afterwards. Groggily, she offered to make me something for breakfast but I reminded her that she had (lovingly) picked up what I needed the day before. Then I gave her a hug and she went back to bed. I can't tell you how happy I felt to have my mother see me off to this race ...

At 5:45 am, my good friend, Sainte, came to pick me up. How spoiled I was! It was still dark when he dropped me off downtown at Metro Hall, close-by the race start. "You'll do fine," he said and gave me a good luck hug.

Lots of runners filled the hall. I shared some good luck chit chat with some of the other runners.

First thing I did when I arrived was the ritual wait-in-line for the toilet. Then after taking off my extra layers, I checked in my bag and then did another wait-in-line to try to avoid having to do my usual port-o-let marathon break at 2 km.

Then off to the start line. No evident corrals and the pace bunnies seemed to be scattered hap-hazardly, not that I planned to follow any of them. Everyone started bunching up and slowly moving forward but when did the gun go off? Hmm, I just missed another start to a race. Alright, here we go again!

It was quite crowded for many kilometers and it was difficult to lock in on a regular stride as I weaved in and out of the crowd and they weaved in and out past me. It was a beautiful day and the sun had already risen. We ran through downtown Toronto until we got to the Lakeshore Boulevard. You would have thought the scenery to be more spectacular, as this race is called the "Waterfront" marathon, but unfortunately, due to our sheer numbers, we could not run by the water but on the big boulevard x-100's of metres away, only catching slight glimpses of water every so often through trees and/or past buildings.

The 10 km marker came and went and I could feel the pain in my bunions and also in my hips building up. I had not run anything more than 10 km since the Ottawa Marathon in May, four months ago, and had only managed a measly 8 km in the past two weeks. I passed the 15 km marker and was still hanging on but I had to pop a pain-killer. Though my hips felt on fire, my mood was excellent! I knew what I had gotten into with so little training and had totally accepted it ... why worry about it during the race? Anyway, there was only one really pretty part of the waterfront and it was by the nice condos, restaurants and shops. Why ruin the moment with lousy attitude?

The scenic interesting part of the race was unfortunately over in a few short kilometers and we soon found ourselves stuck in some concrete purgatory. We were running under the Gardiner Expressway, a massive highway structure that passed alongside the waterfront. Several kilometers later, we finally made our way off this dismal part of the Lakeshore Boulevard but promptly got ejected onto the Leslie Spit, a piece of landfill left gone "wild". It was more like another boring out-and-back section with overgrown grass. I was really starting to hurt and had absolutely nothing interesting to distract me.

In fact, the only thing that redeemed running the Leslie Spit was happily leaving it and seeing the 30 km marker. Woohoo!

Then drat ... right back into industrial wasteland. Oh, I could not contain my excitement about the scenery any longer, so afraid to blink lest I miss something (this is sarcasm folks).

Yes, I was a-cryin' inside but I figured I'd try to make up for the pain in gels, Gatorade, and walking through the water stops. My mood was still quite good though as I realised how much closer I was to the finish. Anyway, I wanted to look good for the photographer as I hit the infamous "wall" at 32 km!

Oh oh!!

Why did that sun have to be so strong and hot? Why didn't I feel like I was sweating? Why did these kilometres keep dragging on ... and what was with all these boring out-and-back sections? The runners I passed face-to-face looked horrible and in so much pain ... and I knew I was slower and would be hurting more than they by the time I got to those same points!

Walks at the water stations became longer and I finally resorted to the ultimate "I will not give up" tactic of the marathon shuffle, combined with short occasional stints of the Death March. I had way too much lactic acid build-up in my quads to be able to pick up my legs anymore and I had already popped a second pain-killer, to no effect.

The marathon shuffle proved quite effective as I surprisingly passed people. Maybe I was able to pump my arms harder or quicker?

"Just keep moving forward, keep moving forward."

Only a few kilometres from the finish, there was way too much silence. The streets were almost empty except for me and the other straggling BOP (back-of-pack) runners. There were no spectators. There were no cars. No noise, just quiet. It was horrible and lonely and made this difficult moment even more torturous.

Not until I went back under the Gardiner Expressway and up Bay Street, with little over a kilometre to go to the finish, did I start to see and hear a little more more life. I saw two runners in the distance. I knew I was too far from the man ahead of me to catch him, but me and my non-competitive ego could certainly ping off the girl only a hundred or so metres away from me. I turned the corner into the final stretch and heard the crowd roar. I sped up my pace determined to pass ... but the excited runners ahead of me also picked up the pace ...

200 m to the finish line. I made a break for it, lifted my heavy lactic-acid filled legs and charged!

I passed the girl in front of me, left her in my dust, and crossed the finish line.

Cry of victory! Woohoo!

Marathon #13, the "unlucky" one ... finished.

Another day, another marathon ... this one proving to me how strong the mind can be since I definitely did not have the training.

But I *believed*.

Sainte picked me up after the race and I promptly lifted my legs and propped my bare feet up against the dashboard. More than any part of me, my hips were killing me and I needed to stretch them. I was sure glad that traffic was heavy on the way back home so I could share this precious post-race moment with a good friend.

Sainte dropped me off at my mom's and gave me a congratulatory hug.

What an incredible day. I got to be with my mom and one of my best friend's and also got to collect another medal. On top of that, my mom had pork and tofu soup waiting for me. Marathon #13 wasn't unlucky at all! I told my mom about the race and her comment made me laugh. "If it hurts that much, why do it?"

Afterwards, I got cleaned up and and caught some well-deserved zzzz's. Later on, I couldn't have asked for more than to be eating a delicious home-cooked post-race supper with my mother. Yes, I was a lucky girl today.

For those who have run a marathon or other similarly difficult race, I thought I'd share with you the following picture of some stairs I encountered at a rest stop on my drive back to Montreal the next day.

What goes up ...

Must come down! ... OUCH!

Race time (gun time): 5:16:31.3
Chip time (actual time): 5:11:45.4
Pace: 7:31 min/km

Placement: 1820/2100 runners
Gender Placement: 553/710 women
Age Category Placement: 97/125

10 km split: 1:09:59
21.1 km split: 2:28:13
30 km split: 3:36:32

Was this gruelling marathon worth it? You bet your sassy bottom, YESSS!!

Yowza! I'm biking to work!

Most of you know that I have not been mentioning any cycling ... 'cause I ain't been doing any ...

BUT ...

I finally tuned up my mountain bike and added all my new toys to make it possible to ride to work ... rack, saddle bags, slicks, lock ... then I got everything ready for the next day ... toiletries, lunch, $$ and other stuff from my purse, and folded up my clothes neatly and placed it on the kitchen table to avoid getting wrinkled.

Woke up late the next morning and threw everything into my bags. Rode to work and was very proud of myself. Realised I'd forgotten something very important and rode back home, feeling really stupid. Picked up my clothes from the kitchen table and headed off again to work.

Well, at least I finally got in some decent distance ... 60k in all!

I rode to work yesterday too and really felt my 12 1/2 hour day on the way back home while riding into the wind in the total dark.

I see the sun shining, originally uploaded by Irongoddess.

Hey, I've joined Flickr, a cool photo site. Catch me there for pics of my trip to Toronto and others!