Pups and Racing - Run for L'Arche

Well what a week it’s been. Last Monday we had some bad news – some friends of ours had lost their dog to a cougar up in the Bragg Creek area. Jake was an outdoor dog and had been for the 10 years or so that he had graced this earth, so it was a most unfortunate and very sad way to leave it. Our little dog Wilson had spent many hours playing with Jake since our arrival here 12 months ago – swimming in the lake, chasing the squirrels and generally having a great time together - and he was one of the most gentle, loving, friendly and playful boys you’d ever like to meet. He will never be forgotten by either his family or his many fans that met him over the years, and from our point of view,we will always fondly remember the good times he had with Wilson.

Wilson at Jake playing at Bragg Creek only last Christmas 

It seems a little inconsiderate, but the past week has also been spent trying to find a new live-in playmate for Wilson. Prior to the sad news about Jakey Boy, we’d applied to the local doggy rescue to adopt one of their dogs and whilst we received glowing praise about our suitability as potential owners, we would be unable to adopt whilst Wilson was still intact. This was somewhat upsetting as we felt like we were being forced down a road we didn’t really want to travel, and whilst we acknowledge their policy on responsible dog ownership, it was disappointing that they took this stance with dogs like Wilson that had absolutely no connection with them.

Whilst debating should we/shouldn’t we with regards to Wilson and his manhood, we kept our options open and had a look in the local classifieds for dogs up for sale. Many of them were breeders which we didn’t really want, but then we came across a photograph of a beautiful little dog named Brandy. She was a 5 month old female chocolate Labrador x Border Collie, and the description of her seemed perfect. Her current family was due to move into rented accommodation that wouldn’t allow pets, and therefore they needed to re-home her. The fact that we already had Wilson, plus a moggy and a bunny, seemed to reassure them that Brandy would go to a loving home were we to adopt her, and so we made arrangements to meet up and introduce ourselves to the little lady. Our main concern was whether Wilson would take to her and vice versa, so we took him along with the intention of introducing them to each other and testing the water.

Brandy - Wilson's New Little Sister

As suspected, the first 5 minutes or so involved lots of barking, growling, pulling, and basically any other unruly behaviour you would expect from a devil dog, but as we started to go for a bit of walk, both dogs relaxed as they realized they weren’t a threat to each other. Cue bum sniffing and ear snuffling, and the next thing we know, both dogs are having a wrestle and playing like they’ve known each other for years! It was such a relief and it looked like Wilson was finally going to have a younger sister - she would be joining us over Easter weekend when we’d moved into our new house :o)

With all these activities, it was a good thing that I had a race planned for the following weekend as it meant the couple of rest days I'd taken from raining runs freed up some time to focus on other things.

I’d entered the Run for L’Arche Half Marathon before Christmas as I wanted a spring time road race to determine how my winter training had gone, to gauge my fitness, and to develop a training plan to get me in optimum shape ready for my target races during the summer. I really had no expectation when entering with a view of just suck it and see, and give it my all.

The weather reports in the week leading up to the race were changing daily from forecasts of heavy snow Thursday through to Saturday, to cold, dry and sunny weather. When running home from work midweek, the snow really did come down thick and fast and it was looking like race day would be the same. However, Edmonton bore the brunt of the threatened snow storm whilst Calgary got away with it, so come race morning, we were greeted with beautiful sunshine and blue skies with temperatures around -10 degrees.

It was through entering this race that I’d met some fantastic people – race director Dawn and her assistant Don – who in turn introduced me to their Sunday morning running group. I’d joined them a few times on a weekend for a longer run and I have to say they are a pretty speedy bunch! Running with them has been great and it has certainly helped to have some company and push the pace when I would probably have slacked off on my own.

Don is a very experienced runner and is working wonders coaching Dawn at the moment who is absolutely flying, and having chatted to Don a couple of weeks ago, he reckoned that I would go sub 90 minutes in the race. I doubted it very much as it was 3 years since I’d last ran a sub 90 and that was at Shifnal Half which I won in a time of around 1.28 whilst on my way back from a foot injury. Since then, I’d been running around 1.35, and figured there was absolutely no way I could maintain 4.15km pace for 21km. Realistically, I thought a 1.32 was more likely and I’d already said to Andy that I would do the Calgary Marathon if I ran any quicker. However, the seed had been planted, and I honestly believe that it’s thanks to Don that I started to believe that maybe I could do sub 90 – hell, what harm was there in giving it a go?!

The race started downtown and it really was a beautiful day for running. Considering it was a city road race, it was lovely running alongside the Bow River on the out and back course. It was certainly a flat race too with the only “hills” been up the ramps on foot bridges, and the support of the volunteers and marshals was infallible.

Downtown Calgary and just across the way from Race Start

The out and back course actually helped mentally as I split it into 2 x 10km ish races. I went through the first 10km split in 42.30 which I was extremely surprised by as it was faster than my 10k finishing time at a race I did a few weeks ago. Some serious patches of ice when approaching the midway point caused me to stop and tentatively walk across them for fear of bruising my coccyx even further, causing me to lose some vital seconds although in general, I was feeling pretty good and was somehow managing to hold onto a 4.15 average pace.

The kms past swiftly as I was so busy doing calculations in my head and before I knew it, I was into the last km with about 5 minutes to spare to dip under 90 minutes. The final straight seemed to go on forever and with around 200m to go, the clock had just gone through 1.29 and it was only then that I really believed I could do it!

I crossed the line in 1.29.35 finishing 6^th lady, 1^st L40 and 22^nd overall. The leading lady had a superb run of 1.19 and smashed the previous ladies course record, whilst the men’s winner also walked away with a $250 bonus as he too broke the course record for the men.

Post race celebratory pancakes from the Stampede Caravan seemed well deserved, all provided free of charge to runners and spectators, and boy were they delicious :o)

I have so much to thank Dawn and Don for. First of all, they did a fantastic job with the race, making sure everything went smoothly and spending hours and hours organizing things over the past year which I’m sure has caused lots of headaches and sleepless nights - I loved the event and will certainly be back next year if they’ll have me. But aside from that, they both had the belief that I could run well when I lacked the confidence in myself – if that initial seed hadn’t been planted, I may have just settled for a slower time, so thanks to both of them for the encouragement.

Now that the race is done, I’ve got another busy week ahead as we do our final house inspection prior to our move on Friday, and then of course we collect Brandy on Saturday and welcome her to our new home. This may be the perfect time to have an easy week of running to give the body chance to recover from recent races.

I didn’t have any other races planned until my 100km trail race in June but I am a woman of my word. I did get under 1.32 on Saturday so I WILL be doing the Calgary Marathon at the end of May after all, and hopefully with 2 more months of training, warmer temperatures and less snow (ha – who knows in Calgary!!), I will be able to improve on last year’s time and maybe, just maybe, run a little closer to that magical 3 hour mark again.

Smiles and Tears

Things over the past few weeks couldn’t have been better – running and racing has gone well, the weather has started to warm up a little despite a couple of heavy dumps of snow, and of course, things have been moving along swiftly with our new house with things due to complete on 29^th March. I’ve been feeling really happy and positive about things, and having read today that male grizzlies are likely to start coming out of their dens over the coming weeks, it already feels like spring is on the horizon. Better still, on April 4^th, I will be celebrating my 366^th day living in Calgary – a full year since I left the UK to start my new life.

However, despite my obvious happiness, there are a couple of things to overcome this month.

March 13^th marks the first anniversary of losing our 17 year old dog, Sammy. He was too old to move overseas with us and prior to our move last year, under vet advice, he went to live with his nana and grandad Smith who he’d spent many happy days with over the years.  Unfortunately, Sammy was taken ill and I’m thankful that I was in the UK to be with him in his final hours. I loved that little dog with all my heart and so wanted him to experience the wilds of Canada, but it was never to be and his spirit now runs free over the Roaches in the Staffordshire Moorlands, along with our other faithful old boy, Leo.

Leo (Left) and Sam on Seven Sisters, Dovedale, Derbyshire

A week or so after we lost Sammy, our little rabbit Bunny crossed Rainbow Bridge to join him. Bunny did make it to Canada and had settled well into his new home in Chaparral – but complications when in quarantine means that he too is now running wild and free somewhere in Bunny Heaven. It was a very sad time having lost both of them so close together and we still miss them immensely, but they will certainly never be forgotten and we frequently talk and laugh about their quirky habits and loving natures.

Bunny (Front) enjoying a play in the snow with his bud Spud - Stoke-on-Trent

The other thing causing a little sadness is that had things gone well last year, I would have been giving birth to our first child this month. Whilst I have now got over that loss both physically and mentally, it is still strange thinking how different things could have been as I head into my second year over here.

Thankfully the happy times far outweigh the sad, and whilst I will certainly never forget, I have moved on and can look to our future with optimism. I’ve said many times that my running is a great healer - it gives some “me time” where I can be alone with my thoughts and think things through, and I always feel better once I’ve been out for a run.

Last weekend, I headed out on the trails with friends and had a wonderful if tiring time plodding up and down the hills. The spring like day that we were expecting didn’t quite materialize, but thankfully the heavy dump of snow didn’t arrive until Sunday morning meaning the trails weren’t covered in snow, although there were some treacherous icy sections and once again, I hit the ground like a ton of bricks at one point.

The next day, I was extremely achy in the quads from all the hills and slightly bruised from my fall. I’d wanted to get a decent run in again, but with blizzard conditions and snow drifts of 2-3 feet deep, I figured I wasn’t going to achieve a great deal and so headed out with Wilson instead. We covered approximately 12km in about an hour, but Wilson loved it and was bounding through the deepest snow he could find.



A snowy run with Wilson - Calgary 3rd March



We had another 10cm dumped on us again midweek followed by rising temperatures and beautiful sunny days later in the week, but  the snow wasn’t going anywhere quickly for the final cross country race of the season which was at Fish Creek Park on Saturday.

It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day with clear blue skies – so bright in fact, I even came away with a sunburnt/snow burnt face and freckles – and with the course being just shy of 10km, it was going to be a long one.

As things stood, there was a clear overall ladies winner, but 2^nd and 3^rd were up for grabs and with 3 of us competing for the remaining prizes, it really was a case of running all out. The longer course would probably suit me and having done a lot of running in snow over the winter months, that didn’t particularly bother me. However, the race would finish on quite a steep hill and I was convinced that it would come to a sprint finish on that hill and I would lose out.  A quick look around on the startline helped to ease some of the pressure when I noticed that one of the other ladies hadn't turned up, so it was now a race between me and new friend Anne Marie Landry to see who got 2^nd and 3^rd.

The start was quite fast along a narrow trail as everybody tried to get ahead of the field on the pathway. I managed to get quite near the front but was well aware that Anne wasn’t too far behind and that I needed to open up a gap to give me a cushion when hitting the hills. I managed to use my strength as a downhill runner where I could and relied on my speed on the flatter sections, but one minute I would be flying along, and the next I’d be stumbling in calf-deep snow and losing momentum. I try not to look behind me in a race, but as we made our ascent up the first of 3 hills, I took a sneaky peek  and relaxed a little as I noticed that there were only 3 men close behind and no visible sign of Anne. However, Anne has a good strong finish and I knew I couldn’t be caught slacking so I pushed on, running on adrenalin, and overtaking a few chaps in the process.



Taking advantage of downhill running - Fish Creek XC 9th March

The race did feel long and it took 55 minutes to cover the 9.75km course, but on approaching the finish, I knew I had secured 2^nd place and so took it easy going up the hill. I was so pleased and felt assured that at last, things are starting to come together again with my running :o)

Being a local race, we decided to go to the post race gathering at Lake Chaparral, the idea being that volunteers made soup for the runners, and the runners donate a dessert. I’m pleased to say that my home made trifle seemed to get the thumbs up, and it was really nice to finally sit down and have a proper chat with the people I had been competing with over the past 6 months.

The Calgary Road Runners XC Grand Prix has been a brilliant experience, and I’m so pleased to have completed all 10 races throughout the winter. It’s been so different when compared to XC in the UK where we’d run a maximum of 6km and generally encounter rain, wind and mud – here we’ve had deep snow, lethal icy conditions, freezing cold temperatures, and courses of 8km or more for both men and women.

At the post race gathering, I was chatting to a chap from Glasgow who’s lived in Canada since the early 1970’s. This was his 101^st consecutive Calgary Road Runners XC race and I’m hoping that this is something I can aspire to - after a couple of ultras in the summer months, I’ll be back to support the CRR cross country races again in October and I’m already looking forward to it. In the meantime though, I’ve got the Awards Evening to look forward to and I need to face my biggest challenge yet - cooking a main course as well as a desert to share with those attending. I don’t do cooking or baking, and I have to say that it frightens the living daylights out of me. It's such a shame they don’t have Staffordshire Oatcakes over here – I’m sure cheesy ones would go down extremely well and it’s something I’m actually capable of “cooking” !!

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely brilliant, and I’m feeling so positive about my running at the moment. A couple of race victories and some good training sessions are certainly the ticket for putting a spring in my step, and I’m feeling motivated and focused on the months ahead.

The good news is that I’ve rekindled my passion for ultra running, and with the Canadian Rockies as my playground as well as the wonderful city of Calgary, I’m pretty sure that I won’t have any problems finding suitable routes to pound out the miles. I’m also very lucky to have met a great bunch of runners here – in fact, the word “great” doesn't do enough justice, and I guess I’m just grateful to call them my buddies. No doubt over the coming months, we will share our running tales and woes about racing and training as we hit the trails and pavements together.

In terms of race plans, it would appear that I’m subconsciously trying to become some sort of “Iron Maiden” or "Iron Lady" or something, particularly with my choice of events making reference to this rather unattractive metal.

Those who follow my progress will already be aware that I've been competing in the Calgary Road Runners Cross Country Grand Prix during the winter months and that only one race remains out of the 10 race series. Even if I end up crawling around the course next weekend, I’m determined to be a “complete finisher” just so that I can receive the “Iron Person Award”, along with any other runners that have completed all 10 races.

A couple of weeks later, I have a half marathon which I’m hoping to use as an indicator of current fitness, as well as attempting to wake up the old legs and lungs after a few months of plodding around in the snow and ice – I’m sure it will be a shock to the system making my body work beyond it's comfort zone, but it has to be done!

My first 100km race in 2007, where
I became the British 100km Champion

My first major ultra of the year will be the Fast Trax 100km trail race in mid-June – 10 laps of an undulating course at Edmonton’s Goldbar Park. 

It’s almost 6 years since I did my first 100km race, and over two years since I did my last, but I’m hoping that this one will help to prepare me for one of my main goals of the year – the Iron Legs 50 mile mountain / trail race in August.

I’ve done 2 mountain races in my time – the Swiss Alpine Mountain Marathon which was 78km in the Swiss Alps, and the World Trail Running Championships in Connemara, Ireland when I represented the Great Britain team on the trails. I found both of them quite tough races – not in terms of distance but more the terrain - but then living in Stoke-on-Trent wasn’t exactly helpful in preparing me for the mountains of Switzerland and Southern Ireland!

Swiss Alpine Mountain Marathon
2008 (78km)

For Iron Legs however, I have no excuses, especially as it’s a local race on the trails around Bragg Creek – a half hour drive from home – and I’m really excited about doing this one. With approximately 20,000 feet of elevation – and 75% of that being in the first 30 miles or so – it’s certainly going to be a tough one, and one that I need to be better prepared for.



However, my major target for the year is the Iron Horse Ultra – a 100 mile trail race starting in St Paul in Northern Alberta at the beginning of October, with the route being on continuous, undulating trail. St Paul is also home to the first Alien Landing Pad and I’m pretty certain that if I run into any aliens, I will be convinced that I’m hallucinating by the time I’ve finished!

World Trail Running Championships
Connemara 2011 (48 miles)

The Iron Horse Ultra 100 will be my biggest challenge in my running career to date, and I know that it will either make or break me. 

The furthest I’ve ever ran is 100km – this will be 38 miles further over more rugged terrain, and no doubt it will be a physical and mental battle to get to the finish. 

It’s a huge learning curve for me, both in training and preparation terms, but until I try it, I will never know whether it is something that is achievable for me personally. 

I don’t like things to be easy – challenging oneself both mentally and physically makes us stronger individuals and for me it helps to appreciate the more simple things in life – but I know that with the support of Andy, my family, and running friends old and new, I will give it my best shot and hopefully succeed.

I certainly don’t have a training plan as yet, but I’ve started to do my research, and I can already see back to back long runs on the horizon to help build up my  strength and endurance, and to teach my body, mind and soul to keep moving even when they’re all crying out to stop. I also need to work out what food to eat en-route – whilst I do have a soft spot for donuts of any variety, I’m not entirely sure they will be the best source of fuel throughout the run although I’m sure one or two wouldn't go amiss.

I’ll also need to get out on the trails and in the mountains even more to help me get used to the terrain I’ll be running on.

I am nervous and I know there will be times when I feel like giving up, but I’m also excited by the unknown, and I’m looking forward to starting my journey to becoming an “Iron Maiden” by the end of the year. The literal long road starts tomorrow, and with the prospect of a warm sunny day and a couple of hours out on the trails running with friends, I’ve already got some positive vibes – let’s hope they last!