Saturday 29 August 2015

I am more than my body

Yesterday a man decided to pass a judgement about my body. I was waking home from the gym, minding my own business and this man thought that mumbling under his breathe that I should go to the gym and exercise, and proceed to call me a fat ass was such a great idea. Well I am here to tell you that it was not such a great idea. I don't know who this man is, I'm sure he has many an issue and I sincerely hope I never see him again. 

I am here to tell you that I am more than my body. I am more than a number associated with how my body looks. And I am most definitely not alive to impress you, or anyone for that matter. 

I wish I could say that what this man said went in one ear and out the other but I can't. It stung, it was hurtful, and while in the privacy of my own home I did cry...not for long thanks to the Gardiner fam...I am not going to hide that fact that words hurt. Words hurt a lot. You carry words people say to you everywhere and everyday. As an introvert it also takes me longer to process what people say and takes me even longer to let it go so words tend to stick like glue to me. 

I've always had a hard time wrapping my head around this movement where women go on about their bodies being their bodies. I understood it and where it was coming from, but I've never felt the things some women have, until yesterday. I get it entirely. 

My body is not here for you to judge. My body is mine. Your opinion of it doesn't matter. My body is healthy. The food I put in it fuels my active life style. I make no regrets for the food I put in my body. I run for myself, because I feel accomplished and strong when I do it. I lift weights to build muscle to make myself better. I do these things for me and no one else. I run to maintain my sanity in this ever increasingly insane world. The feminist in me has had enough of men judging my body because they don't feel it's good enough. My body is better than good enough- it is perfect. And it belongs to me. 

One of the reasons I love the running community is that everyone is so supportive of one another. The elites have been in the beginners shoes, they've been in the injured runners shoes, they've been at races with no one and with hundreds of supporters, they've been in the same pain and had the same aches. I have never heard a runner put another runner down. Friendly competition or being excited when you pass another runner whose traditionally faster than you is entirely normal but that doesn't mean you turn around and stick your tongue out at them, instead you pass them and tell them how great they're doing and that they're almost at the end and to keep it up. John Stanton tweeted this today "as a runner you really succeed when you encourage others to succeed and enjoy our great sport!"...if everyone lived by this everyone would be so much happier. 

So if anyone feel like challenging me on being a "fat ass", I would love to spend some time running with you and see how quickly your mind changes. 

Sunday 23 August 2015

Post Wedding Exhaustion

This week has been a blur of amazing things happening.

Let's start with the Scotiabank Marathon. My champions page is up and my fundraising page is up! I would really love it if my friends and family could donate to me and support my run :)

You can find the West Neighbourhood House Champions page here

http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/nc/nc3.htm#charity

From there you can click to my page to donate :) A donation of $10 will mean a charitable tax receipt for you! I'm really excited to be running this race and I'm really looking forward to it.

The second part of this is that two of my oldest and best friends got married on the weekend! I want to say a huge congratulations to Linda and Justin on a lifetime of love and happiness. I was so honoured Linda asked me to be one of her bridesmaids.


In terms of running this totally affected my training over the last couple of weeks...and it's been worth ALL of it. I've missed runs because of her bachelorette party (shout out to the #butternuts) and rehearsal dinner and have zero regrets about any of it. I knew that I didn't want to miss my Sunday long run or 14km...the Sunday after their wedding. So I made a conscience choice to watch how much I drank and left at a semi-reasonable hour and I did my run.

Today's run was stupid crazy. The weather was wonderful (unlike last Sunday when I thought I was going to die from heat) the distance was insane. We were told we were going to run 14km and I figured it  would be 14.5km or something like that...instead it turned out to be 15.89km...and I wish I was joking. The run was luckily beautiful. We ran through a butterfly garden and by the waterfront. We stopped for a group photo...here's one them...check out the view! It was gorgeous!



The exhaustion I'm feeling as I write this is unreal. In the last 3 days I've gotten a total of 12.45 hours of sleep...that's broken down into 4.45 hours on Friday, 6 hours on Saturday night and a 2 hour nap on Sunday. I'm exhausted. My nap wasn't long enough but I had to wake up otherwise there won't be any sleep happening tonight.

Now that I'm home, showered, napped, etc. I'm nursing a headache, aching muscles and sore feet. I also discovered my first real chaffing experience...under my bra strap. As a girl who needs to wear a bra in life...like I have ZERO option in the matter...the chaffing is highly uncomfortable and I'm not sure how to get rid of it or how to protect it. Anyone have any tips?

Lastly, I want to thank my buddy Warren who was also in the wedding yesterday. At the end of the night he was sharing some reasons who people were awesome. I'm so glad that 1) he didn't tell me I'm an inspiration since he's been running for longer than me and 2) that he actually reads these (HI Warren!!!). He also was so genuine in saying he's proud of me. Although I don't see Warren often he's an awesome guy and I'm lucky to have the woman as a friend.

Alright ya'll...keep running, keep strong, keep hydrated and have fun!

Tuesday 4 August 2015

It's been a little while...

It's been a little while since my last post, and quite a bit has happened...I'm simply going to make a list and go from there...

1) I got another pair of shoes!

I tried on these shoes a long time ago and fell in love with them. Why I didn't buy them earlier is beyond me. Anyways, I purchased the Brooks Glycerin 13's, with multiple coupons. These shoes are like running on cushions to me. They have so much support, so much structure and are a nice bright colour...apparently running shoes only come in shades of bright these days. I wore them while at the cottage to do all of my training and they were amazing. They held up well on the dirt, gravel, puddles and grass and go me through 20km's of running.

2) I watched the men's and women's Pan Am marathon and was very motivated by them

In terms of Pan Am, the marathon was all that I was invested in. I don't play sports and don't consider myself to be athletic but running is what I love. I watched the women's marathon bright and early with my good buddy Angie (we basically do everything together). We trekked it down to the lakeshore at 6:30am to see women run back and forth in the nastiest humidity. It was so empowering to watch all of these women take on the same roads I'm running, the same hills I train on and beat world records. I has a goal of running a half marathon in 2 hours and 20 minutes...they run entire marathon's in that time! It's insane! Watching their form and see how they push through was truly empowering. Watching the men's marathon was just fun. A few girls from the running room and I all met up, watched the men running, went on a run ourselves and then had a delicious brunch. That was so special because of the bonding we were able to do. That showed me how much of a community the running world is. You show up and support everyone because we all know how their legs are feeling and how hard those runs are.

3) I got injured (yuck)

Yes folks, you read that correctly- I got injured. Now normally I can suck it up and go on with my life but I make an effort to take care of myself, to not over do it, to eat well, get enough sleep (as all my friends can attest to- I will leave just about anything early to go to sleep). I have no idea what I did or how I did it but something on the right side of my ankle started hurting and the pain just got worse and worse. I ended up taking a few days off of everything- I stopped walking a lot, I stopped running, I didn't work out (things were boring, let me tell you). I also got acupuncture for the first time. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has an injury. The sensation of it was so calming and relaxing but also so healing. I could literally feel the injured part heating up as the blood was going to it. Anyways- the point is that acupuncture and rest work miracles and being injured sucks! 

4) I made running friends!

Like actual running friends- we text and everything. It's seriously makes going on training runs so much better! I missed training a couple weeks back but I got a text from the girls wondering where I was and saying they missed me! The friendships make such a difference. 

5) I've "inspired" people to run

This one I have a hard time wrapping my head around. I have encouraged friends to start running...it's a weird thing because I'm still not sure who encouraged me to run, but oh well! The more the merrier! 

6) I did all of my training on my own- and was very successful at it...

So last week I went away for the long weekend to my cottage and wasn't sure how my training would go, but I managed to do all of my training on my own...and I was very successful! Mind you, I went back to the cottage this weekend for my girls bachelorette and did zero running, ate like a beast and drank like a tank...so who knows what kind of fun this week holds! 

7) The weight loss competition! 
So I won...we assumed! But Angie really won because she got a trainer and is going to kick ass! 

8) HILLS HILLS HILLS!!! 

We started hill training last week and what fresh hell! Whoever came up with hill repeats like torturing people but also wants to build strength. The tension and stress on my calves were intense but damn did it feel good to make it up the hills 3 times!