Scenes from the day before my first ultra marathon...

So what's there to really say the day before your first ultra marathon?

Other than the "I am's":

• I'm incredibly excited
• I'm kinda scared
• I'm nervous
• I'm curious

The "I hope's":

• I hope I trained enough
• I hope the weather holds out
• I hope I packed the right stuff
• I hope I survive
• I hope I can walk the next day

And the inevitable:

• I think tomorrow is going to be an amazing day

That pretty much sums it up.  I'm too excited to write much more of a post today so instead I'm going to give you this...

Sorry, still love playing with InstaQuote!

This day has been staring at me from my calendar for months and now here I am with my fridge stocked with lots of water, homemade-orade and chocolate milk for afterwards...

My snazzy volunteer shirt is all ready to go for my shift this afternoon (package pickup for the other Run for Water events) and my magic mini potatoes are all boiled, just cooling and waiting to be salted and stored...

My two favorite pair of Mizuno Wave Riders are ready and waiting by the front door...

My clothes are laid out on the bed, minus jackets and things like that.  My outer layer, if any, is totally going to have to wait until I see what the weather is actually like tomorrow...

Fun swag at the expo...couldn't help but do a little shopping during my volunteer breaks!

My finish line bag complete with water, sandals, cold chocolate milk, a bag of chips and my new favourite chocolate covered toffee balls (thanks Trader Joe's) is all packed and ready to go with one of my crew members...

Not much more I can do now except eat dinner and relax for the evening.  It was a great day and tomorrow's going to be a pretty great day too.

Goodnight and thanks so much for all of the amazing well wishes and kind notes of encouragement and good luck on Twitter, Facebook etc.

RaceDay Books: Always remember why you race

Run for Water is just days away and tapering for my first ultra marathon has been quite the experience.  My training is done, not much more I can do but rest at this point.  But I'm feeling antsy, like I'm suddenly not doing enough and just crazy with anticipation of how the big day will go.

However, instead of letting those anxieties get the best of me, I'm trying to also use this time to reflect on how far I have come.  And believe me, I've a come a long way baby!

When I look back on all of my races I sometimes can't believe that I've made it to where I am today.  I survived the ones that challenged me, enjoyed the races run with good friends, humbled myself with my first DNF and celebrated each race for the accomplishment it was.  When you put them all together, our races tell such amazing stories about each of us.

And that is why I just love the idea of RaceDay Books.

I came across RaceDay Books awhile ago on another blog I was reading.  RaceDay Books offers beautifully crafted, organizational books so that runners can record all of their race memories and compile race details, statistics, bibs and photos in one special place.

When I began my fundraising for Run for Water I reached out to RaceDay Books to see if they'd be interested in supporting my efforts.  I was thrilled when Lauren graciously offered me a book to review and even better, a second one to giveaway.  

When I think back my entire running journey has been pretty amazing but the last year and a half in particular are made up of some pretty special memories.  In 2012 I pretty much had my Dream Year of Racing including all kinds of races I'd always wanted to do, culminating in the Goofy Challenge.  2013 has turned out to be a pretty awesome year too with my second marathon, my first ultra and so many more fun races ahead.

Each RaceDay Book is organized to hold your memories from 10 events and is available in either pink or green.  Each event gets it's own set of pages in the book that are beautifully designed for all the details you want to remember.  I'm a big fan of the bright green with the kraft paper so that's the color I chose for both books...

I love that in addition to writing out the details you want to remember about your race, there are also pockets you can slide your bib into for display and space for other memorabilia like tickets or brochures...

I've seen all kinds of other bib storage ideas but what I like about keeping them in your RaceDay Book is that your bib gets displayed along with the rest of what's special from the event.  Each section also has space for photos from your race so along with your bib, notes and memories you really get to see the whole event at once...

Admittedly, I am having trouble deciding how to organize all of my own memories from the past year and my RaceDay Book is still very much a work in progress.

I am so excited to be able to share this wonderful book with one of my readers as one of my last giveaways before Run for Water.  It means so much to know that the companies who support us in our running are willing to reach out and support us in our charitable endeavours too.  A big thank you goes to Lauren and everyone at RaceDay Books for sharing this lovely way for me to save all my raceday memories.

As with my previous Run for Water giveaways, additional entries will be awarded to any donations made, no matter how big or small.

The next few days are going to be pretty busy as I get through my final preparations for the big day so the giveaway will remain open until Sunday at midnight and a winner will be selected and contacted shortly thereafter.

Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter and thank you once again for all of your support these past few months.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

While RaceDay Books kindly offered a book to me free of charge, I was not compensated for this post and all opinions expressed within are my own.  I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of RaceDay Books in providing these products for review and giveaway in

conjunction with my Run for Water fundraising.

What to pack for your first ultra marathon...

As I've been working on this post I've had a song in my head that goes a little something like this:

I'm going to an ultra marathon and in my suitcase I will pack: an apple,

some bandaids, a can of pop...  

Do you remember playing that game and singing it as a kid?  Except I'm pretty sure when we were little we sang it about a "vacation" not an "ultra marathon" but hey, things change as you get older.

I'm pretty good at packing a race bag, I know the things I need beforehand and I know what things I like to have waiting for me when I finish.  But packing for an ultra marathon is a whole different story.  This time my bag is not going to be sitting around while I'm out running.  No sir, I'm going to be running for so much longer than ever before that I will be giving my bag to our support team and going in and out of it at checkpoints every 5km or so.  Whoa, game changer.

Like a good little runner I've been talking to lots of people and doing lots of reading about what I should bring with me.  Not because I can't figure out the necessities but because I'm hoping my soon-to-be fellow ultra marathoners might take pity on first-timer me and give me some tips.  And they have.  And I'm so thankful for their help.

Well, a first-timer's opinion anyways...

In 4 more sleeps I am going to my first ultra marathon and in my bag I will pack...

Gear:

• Spare pair(s) of shoes
• Extra pair(s) of socks
• Extra shirts
• A long sleeve shirt
• Jacket
• Hat
• Gloves
• An extra Handana (lots to wipe over the course of 55km!)
• Sunglasses
• Garmin
• iPod (just in case I need some extra pep in my step)
• iPhone (gotta keep everyone updated and take photos!)

Medical/First Aid:

• Pain relief meds
• Lanacane anti-chafe (the best product out there, you should try it!)
• Sunscreen
• Chap stick
• Baby wipes (as one runner put it "A clean ___ is a happy ___")
• Blister kit: needle, bandaids, mole skin
• Sports tape
• Muscle relief gel
• Kleenex
• Roll Recovery R8 (LOVE that thing)

Fuel/Nutrition:

• Homemade-orade (recipe here)
• Salt pills
• Dried cherries, peaches, raisins and apricots
• Macadamia nuts
• Boiled salted potatoes (apparently a fave of Ray Zahab's and mentioned by several others!)
• Peanut butter sandwiches (I don't really eat bread anymore but after 55km I'm game for anything!)
• Bananas
• Sports beans, gels, energy bars and Gatorade (as backups) 
• Treats: chips, chocolate covered raisins, pretzels, banana bread, granola bars, chocolate milk, juice boxes
• Lots of water

Lucky charms:

• My lucky unicorn (thanks Cori)
• Borrowed ring (thanks Solana)
• Runner necklace (thanks Brandi) 

Bits of advice I've received so far:

• Bring a sense of humour
• If you think you're going too slow, slow down some more
• Fuelling is key. It works differently for everyone but bottom line is, you just have to do it.
• Have fun, enjoy every moment
• Drink, drink, eat, repeat
• It's all about the food
• Ray will have all the magic goodies you need
• Bring a donut

I'm planning to pack all of my extra gear in a knapsack and all of my food in a small cooler.

Have you ever run an ultra marathon before?  What do you think of my list?  Any suggestions or omissions?

New to Bloglovin...

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Recently signed my blog up with Bloglovin so this post is just to embed some code for following and statistics.  If you use Bloglovin, you can use the link below to follow along...

Here's who gets to be rad this summer!

Thanks to everyone for entering my giveaway for the Color Me Rad race entries.  It was such a fun race here in Vancouver last year, I sure hope you guys enjoy whichever races you pick to be part of!

I also want to send out a huge thank you to the kind folks at Color Me Rad for donating these entries and for the amazing generosity from the blogging community and their donations to Run for Water (did I mention my ultramarathon is only 5 days away? Yikes!)

I have four entries to draw for and the first two have been drawn from the entire pool of entries.  Congratulations to the first two winners...

• Zaneta for posting a comment and being rad because she has naturally curly hair, and
• Ashley T for posting a comment and being rad because she's a runner

And the second two winners have been drawn just from the pool of entries earned by Run for Water donations so a big congratulations (and thank you) go to...

• Aurora for her awesome donation, and
• Kirsten D for being rad by donating to Run for Water as well

I will contact each of you directly later today but if you guys see this post beforehand, please be in touch with a comment below or via Twitter DM just to confirm.  

Congrats to the winners and thanks again to all who entered.  Happy running!

Crying at crossfit...

Yup, its true.  I cried today at my very first real crossfit class.  How's that for tough, eh?

After finishing our on ramp introduction earlier this week Krista and I planned to go to our first real crossfit session this morning.  I'm not going to lie, I was feeling pretty nervous about it.  I found the introduction sessions to be really hard and was worried I'd just be too wimpy and totally out of place in a real class.

I was definitely kinda wimpy but I didn't feel out of place at all.

The group of people that come for the 9:30 class have been there a few times during our introduction so I'd chatted with a few of them before.  A super nice bunch of women and it made that nervous newbie feeling go away a little bit to see familiar faces.  We chatted a bit while we warmed up on the bikes and then it was time.

We all gathered down on the floor and our instructor ran through the warm up for us.  It looked something like this:

• 200m row
• Dynamic stretching
• 2 mins of double under (skipping) practice
• Mobility stretches
• 400m run

When we got back from the little run we gathered again and he went through the actual workout of the day...

My very first official WOD

I had checked it online earlier this morning so I kinda knew what we'd be in for (yay, no squats!)  It was great to have the instructor go through it all and give us some tips and pointers and ways to modify if necessary.  Although they had some weights specified for the kettle bells and wall balls, I knew I'd be going just a bit lighter.

We were going to start the wod and see how far we could get in 5 mins then take a 3 min break.  Then we'd start all over again and see how far we got in 7 mins and then take another break.  Lastly, we were to do the entire thing for time.  Yikes!

They counted us down and boom! we were off on the rowing machines.  So far so good.  Then it was off to the skipping.  I'm not a bad skipper but those double unders are tough.  It's basically getting the rope around twice in one jump and it's tricky!  I can do them but just barely and certainly not all 50 in a row.  I modified a bit but definitely gave it my best shot.  

Then came the kettlebell swings.

And then came the tears. :)

So as you know, I have to be very careful with my back because of all of the previous injuries.  It's weak and limited and just not the same anymore.  I could tell right away that I was doing something wrong however because after only a handful of KB swings my back was killing me!  I swore I was going to snap my spine off at the hips every time I swung down with the kettlebell.  Thankfully the timer saved me and it was time to rest.  I wiped away my little tears and sucked it up.

The second time around it all went fine until I hit the kettlebells again.  I tried my best but it hurt so bad.  I ran over and grabbed a lighter bell hoping that would help.  But it didn't and by then I was kinda choking back the tears because it was hurting so much.  

Crap.  My first day and I'm already crying.  Awesome.

I called the instructor over and through my wimpy tears asked him what I was doing wrong.  I wasn't quite holding my posture correct and squatting with my legs enough.  He showed me the right way and sucked back the tears again and thanked him.  Oh, and I apologized for crying.  Ha ha.

The last time around I got through the rowing and the skipping and then it was time for the kettlebells.  I was really careful to watch my form but kept the lighter bell.  And what do you know, I got through them.  No tears.  Phew!

From there the wall balls were super hard.  Then we had to do these things called feet-to-bar but since I couldn't crunch high enough I did something more like knees-to-awkward-crotch-height to at least get started building some strength.  I'm pretty sure I looked like I was in a birthing position hanging from the bar but whatever I got them done.  The final thing was 10 assisted pull ups and I think those were my best exercise of the day!

We then got to record our WOD time on the board but I forgot to look at the clock so this was my entry...

"I finished!! (forgot to look at time)

So in the end, I survived.  But yes, I cried.  And I'll probably have other days where I might shed a tear or two in pain or frustration.  But already I can see how the culture and camaraderie of crossfit inspires you to work hard no matter how fast or strong you might be or not be.  It was a tough workout today but I feel great having completed it.

I felt so good I even snapped this geeky pic in front of the board...

And then this even geekier pic of Krista and I in the parking lot.  These are our "we survived" faces and I'm not sure which picture is worse.  Nice, eh?

In other news we're heading up to the cabin for the long weekend and I have my very last long runs before Run for Water planned.  Yikes!  It's just about a week away!  Can you believe it?  I was pretty proud to see this article about the Run for Water ultra in our Vancouver Sun newspaper the other day, check it out!

Oh and don't forget to enter my giveaway for 1 of 4 Color Me Rad race entries for anywhere on the tour!

Have you ever cried at crossfit?  Or maybe at some other workout?

35 things to do before I turn 36...

One of my favourite online-to-real-life friends Cori did something really cool for her birthday last year.  She posted a list of 36 Resolutions, one for every year of her birthday and I just loved the idea.  And since I pretty much love everything else about Cori, I'm going to borrow her cool idea and write my own version of it for my 35th birthday today.

So here it is...

I downloaded Instaquote today, watch out!

1.  Run a sub 2-hr half marathon
2.  Complete my Run for Water ultra with a smile on my face
3.  Have coffee with Cori
4.  De-clutter my craft room
5.  Get over my fear of box jumps at cross fit
6.  Learn how to use my DSLR
7.  Get professional family photos taken
8.  Let go of the rope while wake-surfing
9.  Do more speed training with Solana
10. Plan a local Twitter/Blogger meetup
11.  Run a trail race
12.  Think about another tattoo
13.  Consolidate my botched attempts at transferring files from my PC to my MAC
14.  Buy more groceries from our local farm market
15.  Find a favorite local butcher
16.  Teach the boys how to ride their bikes
17.  Actually finish my book club book each month!
18.  Clean out the garage
19.  Find a goal marathon for 2014
20.  Earn my runDisney Coast to Coast medal
21.  Run in costume at least once
22.  Work on the boys' baby books
23.  Write an article for the Running Room magazine
24.  Lift more than just the bar at crossfit
25.  Instruct or co-lead another Running Room clinic
26.  Find ways to be more charitable
27.  Ice skate with the boys
28.  Run another race with my seester
29.  Take a family vacation with just Hubs and the boys
30.  Have Christmas in our new house
31.  Volunteer at some races
32.  Pay for the person's order behind me in a drive thru
33.  Run a sub-30 minute 5k
34.  Go on a special date with each of the boys
35.  Update this list regularly

Okay, okay, so some are goals, some are cool, other are kind of lame and a couple I may have just lifted directly from Cori's list (thanks Cori!)  But I think this will be a fun little thing to keep track of during the year and hopefully it will help me remember to make time for those little dreams that always fall to the back of our minds.

As runners we all make lots of goals but have you ever done a resolutions or dreams list like this?