Sunday = Long run day.

Well, we did it, we finished our 19k this morning. I was a little worried starting off this morning, we had some friends over last night to watch the UFC PPV and between having a couple beer and not a lot of sleep last night, the first couple km were tough. Last week was tough mentally, I ran it with the mentality that it was 16km, today's I just looked at it as 2 laps around the lake, which I managed to convince myself wasn't too bad. As I started to feel more comfortable with the run I was able to pick up my pace closer to a 7:00 minute/kilomoter. As I reached my turn around point I was just behind another guy who had just started running. After a few minutes being behind him it was pretty obvious we were running the same pace. I took a scheduled walk break and let him run off, once I started running again I eventually caught up with him again (since he took a walk break also). Once I was running next to him we chatted a bit and decided to run together for a while, this kind of screwed my intervals up and I ended up running a 21 minute interval but the company made it a lot easier than being by myself. Once we got into a 10/1 groove again I realized how much easier it is to run with someone, I ended up being able to keep a quicker pace than I normally would. We even caught up to Waleah and she managed to run an interval with us (which was very nice being able to run with her) Big confidence booster for me being able to run todays 19km at a strong consistent pace. So Hi and Thanks to Duncan and Good Luck in the Scotia Half Marathon in June and hopefully we'll see you again to run with.

This week we start hills (YAY! but ask how I feel wednesday night), we'll take tuesday off for our gaming night (Yay!) and try to manage the rest of the workouts in. Though I don't have hope for Saturdays run (haven't done a saturday run yet...bad us...)

You'll also see the Thermometer has changed. We hit our $12,000 target!!!!!!!!! So now we've set our goal to raise $15,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association. If you haven't donated yet, why not? Easy to do and you all know it's an important cause to me and our families.

12 Weeks till the Marathon!

Only 12 more weeks to go. Last night we did our on-line travel registration. Pretty soon CDA will be booking our air line tickets and hotel and confirming the itinerary. We are both pretty excited. I still can't believe we are going to Iceland!! Last night we did 8km and it was a good night for it. We actually had to both wear long sleeved shirts as it was on the cool side. Had a good workout down by the Fraser River along the boardwalk. Very nice. Saw 2 different momma ducks with her ducklings. Very cool. One had 2 little ducklings that could have fit in the palm of my hand. They were so adorable.

This weekend our Sunday run/walk will be 19km!! Almost to the halfway point. They say the weather is supposed to be crummy so it could be a challenging workout. We then have a birthday party for one of my girlfriends little girl -- who is turning One!! Where has the past year gone! It's been a good year though. Lots of good things have been happening. :)

Stay tuned for an update after our 19km on Sunday! .....whew....that makes me tired just thinking about it. Have a good weekend.

We survived 16km!

Well it's been a good long weekend and we are now feeling fully recovered from our gaming fundraiser last weekend. This week me managed to get in some of our training runs plus a fun evening out of gaming with our usual group. Was nice to play games and not have to get up every few minutes to take care of hosting duties. :)

Yesterday we did our 16km work out. It was a great day for it. The sun was shining but not too hot and we got in our work out early enough too. Mike ran his, doing 10 min run/1 min walk intervals. I believe he managed to do most of the 16km like that, with the exception of a longer walking break towards the end. I'm so proud of how well he is doing. For a non-runner prior to signing up for this, he's doing awesome!! I walked most of my 16km workout--but I did let the feet move a little faster occassionally this time and broke into a jog a few times! :) I couldn't resist! It's been tough for me a Runner---not being able to run! At about the 8km mark I started to jog for about 2 min and felt pretty good so then walked for about 4 min and then for about 4km after I would walk the first half of a kilometre and then jog the second half. Right now my body needs the longer walking break to recover and today my back is not bothering me, so that is a success. Baby steps.....they can be hard though when your brain says "let's go, let's go, let's go!!" and your body says "hey....what do you think you are doing!!??" It becomes a battle. I figure each week as I get stronger I will try to do a little bit more running or even the same (just a few km with a walk half and jog half) so that I can run more the day of the marathon. The key is taking care of my low back and building up my strength. I have to say that the jogging I managed to do though....felt GREAT!!! Sun shining and great tunes on the Ipod and a scenic lake to jog around...no wonder the feet wanted to move quickly.

This week our goal is to try to fit in all 5 of our workouts and Sunday will be up to 19km!!! Yikes. It's all good. Each week from here on out, we'll be setting new long distances records. (mine will start at 25 km in another couple of weeks).

Tomorrow is a 6km workout and then Mike's ball game in Vancouver. Hopefully it doesn't rain!

The Day After.....

Well it's Monday, and we spent the entire weekend indoors with our fundraiser, but it was so worth it!! We are both feeling quite tired today and we will have to see if we have any energy left over after a long day at work (Mike has to work overtime this week) to fit in our 16km or not. May have to juggle this week's training around. Do not want to burn out!!

Today I received 2 more cheques and now the thermometer reads $11,604. We are so thrilled and excited about how close we are to our goal and still have 2 fundraisers to go and more people to pester :), that we are thinking about setting up another goal to work towards raising another $3000 to bring our total up to $15,000.

Stay tuned for some photos of the weekend's gaming tournament and more progress on training and fundraising. We'll also write up a good entry detailing more about the weekend's success. We had fun hosting the tournament and really enjoyed meeting all who attended. You all are a big part of our success. Thank you!

GREAT SUCCESSES ALL AROUND!!!!!!

well, except for the 16km run/walk we hoped to squeeze in this weekend :)
Apparently we had a crazy notion that after 25 hours of hosting our Gaming Event that we would have enough energy left to fit in our workout....how SILLY!!!

But on to more important things. Just home (9pm) from wrapping up the weekend and a quick dinner with some of the guests (and a pair of sponsors)...and we just had to share our exciting news of the success of BOTH fundraisers this weekend. The Golf Tournament that Mike's dad hosted was a big success with 42 people participating and aprox $1200 raised!! Way to go Marc & Lori. We can't thank you enough for doing this for us. And our weekend long Gaming event was also a big success, exceeding our expecations by far.....Fri nite we hoped/prayed to walk away with $500 after expenses......well.....we walked away with just over $1500 towards our donation!! WOW!! (apparently the most used word in my vocabulary lately) :)
A total of $2700 raised this weekend, topping off our thermometer to a whopping $11,319!!!
YIPPPEEEE......time for bed.....ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

BIG WEEKEND -- 2 FUNDRAISERS & 16km Run!

Wow....I feel like I keep saying that a lot lately!!
Our total raised just went up to $8,519!! In the past 24 hours we have received over $750 in donations!! Thank you!! Also I would like to extend a special thank you to my friend & colleague, Victoria Murphy (Heart & Art Custom Quilts)--Victoria was very generous and donated a beautiful lap quilt titled "The Front Nine". This quilt is up for auction at the Golf Tournament that Mike's dad, Marc is hosting for us out in Chilliwack this weekend. I hope we get some good bids on it....it's gorgeous and worth $125 for retail purchase. Anyone wanting to order a custom quilt, please email us and I will pass on the contact ph#. Also need to thank our friend and fellow gamer, Dan B for doing up a banner to thank our proud sponsors for this weekends' Gaming Tournament. Can't wait to see it and put it up for all to see. We have a lot of talented and generous people in our lives. You are all wonderful!! Spoke to a couple more people today who said they were happy to help us out with our fundraising goal, so we will keep updating that thermometer as the funds keep coming in. If you are free tomorrow come on out to the Marpole Curling Club at 8730 Heather Street, Vancouver (10am to Midnight; and 10am to 6pm Sunday) and play some games $30 for the weekend, $50 for couples and $15 for the day.
Have a great weekend everyone!!

Wow!! 2/3rds of the Way to our $$ Goal!!!

I am so excited. We have raised $8,083 so far to date. Today, so far I have received 2 more donations from friends. Thank you Christine & Daniela. I have a few more promises of donations to come in over the next few days and of course our two fundraisers this weekend. One of my dearest girlfriends donated $300 today from her & her husband! Thank you Dani....you Rock!!! I'm still in awe and shock this morning at your generosity. And I can't stop smiling as I look over our totals so far. That is so far our largest personal donation. When Mike & I started out on this adventure....we were so awestruck at the total amount we needed to raise. Now I find myself awestruck at peoples endless generosity and support. I received some great prizes from a buddy of mine yesterday for our Golf Tournament that is being hosted by Mike's dad, Marc Blais this weekend. Some fabulous Golf Shirts and Golf Visors. Thank you so much to everyone out there who have been so supportive thus far. We appreciate your encouragement, your donations, whether it's monetary or prize support or whether you've signed up for one of our fundraisers. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

14 1/2 Weeks till the Big Day

Wow....Time is flying by. We have our first big fundraiser coming up in 4 days. We've got our fingers crossed that we'll have a great turnout, that everyone will have a great time and that we'll raise some decent money towards our fundraising goal. I hope everything goes fairly smoothly for this weekends festivities. It's our first time planning a big event (together or otherwise).

Last week we managed to log a fair amount of kilometers! I logged 38km and Mike logged 41km. Not bad for a weeks worth of work. This week should be about the same given that we have the tournament taking up most of our weekend. Our goal is to make sure we at least fit in Sunday's long run/walk after the Tournament is done.

Not only are the kilometers trained adding up, but so is the money raised!! Just got a few more $50 donations this past week. Still lots of people on our list to hit up. I'm finding that we ask a couple of people every few days and more than not, we are lucky enough to receive more donations. Still a ways to go to reach our total target between the two of us, but it's coming along! Hopefully after the 2 fundraisers this weekend (Mike's dad is also hosting a Golf Tournament on our behalf on Saturday) we will be closer to our target. Soon we will start hitting up our friends and family. My parents have been really supportive and are also hitting up all of their friends!! Thanks you two! We really appreciate the support.

Stay tuned.......

Mike's thought of the day

Has insanity kicked in when a steady 8km run is considered an "easy" day of running?
Only if training for a marathon I guess.....

Cinqo De Maio

Happy 5th of May....
Well we've managed 3 days in a row of our mid week training this week. Both feeling pretty good. Just a bit of regular muscle soreness that comes with stepping up your exercise program. Put in over 25km so far this week. Tonight Mike has softball and tomorrow we'll see if we are up to the 6km workout that is scheduled. If not we'll stick with Sunday's long steady one and get in our 13km. We don't want to over do it and be back to where we were a week ago and being sick and run down. A couple more donations received this week. Smaller ones, but they all add up. One more week till our first big fundraiser. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes off smoothly, and that we manage to raise a nice bit of money towards our donation. Next week will be really busy with last minute preparations, running around collecting tickets and money from our awesome local Game Stores who have been so incredibly supportive! and getting everything ready for a fun weekend of gaming! And of course fitting our training in and a ball game or two for Mike. No rest for the wicked over here. :)

Have a great weekend everyone. We'll update more after our long workout on Sunday.
PS: Craving for a Game in Surrey Central Mall has re-opened in a new location after being closed for the past few weeks!! Be sure to stop in and see our friend, Buck and check out his new digs. We'll be stopping by tomorrow sometime.

Feels Good....

**** for intructions on how to donate online read to the bottom****
M



to be back to training and back to healthy selves. Mike is feeling much better. He's now over the nasty Stomach Flu he had late last week. Wow, did that ever take its toll. I managed to fight it off with some gravol and a really good nights sleep...which I desperately needed after 10 hours in Emergency after a sleepless night, and of course lots of rest over the course of the weekend.

We've successfully completed 2 days in a row of training after missing a week. Last night we went to Burnaby Lake after a full evening of errands and chores. We both managed to get in our 6km workouts and a little bit extra. I really enjoy walking to and from the Lake together. Once we get there, Mike starts to run so we are on our own for a good portion of our workouts. My IPOD keeps me company and my GPS keeps on track for walking a good pace. Tonight we stopped on the way home from work along Kent Avenue at the foot of Victoria and worked out along the seawall there. It was great. Mike managed to get in his 10km run, and I walked just over 9.5 km. I met a really nice couple who I chatted with for the first half of my workout. Managed to even give them one of our donation forms at the end of their walk. :). Bill & Nancy--it was great chatting with you and who knows....we may bump into you again.

Tomorrow night it's a few errands on the way home from work in preparation for our fundraiser next week and then our 3rd training workout this week. A medium length one, 8km.

A note for anyone wishing to donate on line....please see the link we have set up on the far right hand side--Under LINKS -- Click on Support Us, fill out the form on CDA's website and when it prompts you to pledge a participant you can either type in Waleah Cook or Michael Blais and the city we live in is Burnaby. Make sure when clicking on a race it's Iceland 2006. By looking us up that way, it will allow us to receive credit for your donation towards our fundraising goal. We are getting closer, but we still need lots of help. Thank you to all who have supported us so far, and thank you for continuing to encourage us and cheer us on.

Till next time......Stay active, stay fit and keep healthy.