Giddy & Sick....

I'm still fighting this nasty summer cold, Waleah seems to have shaken it off (I think the giddiness has been a great immune system booster :) ). Tuesday night we did our training run after my ball game and it went pretty well with the exception of the bugs and our GPS's not being able to pick up a consistent signal. Wednesday & last night's run just did not happen due to not feeling well and packing for our trip this weekend. So that means I have done 1!!! hill training session, not a great thing but I will have to will myself through it. I do have a ball tournament in Armstrong this weekend and my goal will to NOT injure myself so we can do our 29k on Monday morning and then hopefully get back on track with training.

Thank you all for the kind words about our engagement, it's a very exciting time and 2006 is shaping up to be a eventful year for the 2 of us. We're still trying to figure out what kind of wedding we want, and serious planning will have to wait until after the marathon.

Have a Happy,safe and FUN Canada Day (or 4th of July to Janis) weekend.
Cheers!!!

Sunday, June 25th = Happiest Day of My Life

This morning we got up early and headed out of the house in hopes to beat the heat for our workout. We left home just after 8am and headed to our favorite Sunday spot, Burnaby Lake. The sun was shining and it was a picture perfect day, with the exception of the heat. 21 degrees at 7am....apparently we should have gotten up earlier......Oh well. We've both been sick the past week and missed our mid week workouts and I missed last weekends from being sick. We set out with the intention of doing our 29km workout, but realized 7km in that it probably wouldn't happen.....after 10 we decided to cut it short (we did 14km in total). Mike still wasn't feeling well so he joined me halfway around the lake and worked out with me till we called it quits for the day. We jogged and walked together, doing half km running and half km walking. We decided not to push too far and this week we will get in all our mid week workouts and tackle our long one next week with better health and stamina.

So you're probably reading and saying how does this equal the happiest day of her life???

Well at the end of our workout when we got to the dam Mike decided we should hang out for a few minutes -- we were drinking some cold water from the water pump and having fun pouring water over each other to cool each other off and just having fun joking and chatting. We were actually chatting about our future plans to eventually get married and I was telling Mike that I couldn't wait to marry him and I look forward to our future together.....he asked me if I was sure and if I had any doubts or hestitations....I said I was sure and had no doubts. He's who I'm meant to be with.....all of a sudden he stood up in front of me and said "Waleah, Will You Marry Me?"......I was a little stunned and confused....I thought I had just established that yes I wanted to marry him....what I didn't realize till I looked down at his hands instead of up at his handsome face, was that he was holding an engagement ring in his fingers.......*sigh*....I really got confused and actually asked him if I was dreaming......when he assured me no....I was indeed awake and yes he was holding a ring and asking me to marry him, I promptly replied with a YES and a few dozen kisses and some tears!!! The best was when he looked at me with his big beautiful smile and said "I'm so excited--I get to marry you!!". Mike is the best guy I've ever met and he makes me so happy and today he made me even happier than I thought I could be. My ring is beautiful!! It's sparkly and looks great on my hand. And the best part was it came from him with love and from the bottom of his very big heart!! It's been a fun day of calling my girlfriends and sharing our exciting news. Now we just need to figure out what we want to do for our wedding and set a date (and then the real fun begins....all the planning!!). And I'm so excited to be marrying my best friend. I'm looking forward to a lifetime with Mike.

PS....Bless......I'm getting Maaaarrriiieeedd (too)!!! neener neener neener :)

good night all.

Over the Top

Well here we are a little less than 2 months till marathon day and a little less than 1 month till fundraising deadline; and we have far exceeded both the original $12,200 goal set out for us and have now just surpassed the $15,200 goal we set for ourselves!! There are still a few more donations coming in and we still have our beer draw. We have received a cheque for $2500 from an unamed source who agreed to match a percentage of funds I raised personally. This is our single largest donation we have received. The feeling of being able to raise so much money for such a good cause is almost indescribable. Maybe we'll be able to hit $16,000 before we leave (we'll see). We are noticing that our fundraising efforts are tapering off and we are concentrating more on our training right now (okay, well not this week as we are both sick with a nasty cold). Yes, it caught up to Mike too. Hopefully by the weekend we'll be back to our healthy selves and can resume training.

Only 56 more days till we leave for Iceland. Awesome. Thank you to everyone who has donated financially, those who donated prizes or other items for our fundraisers, and those who have been so supportive of us over the past few months. Thank you to those who stop by and read our blog and to those who post words of encouragement too! We appreciate it all very much!!

27km for Waleah & 26km for Mike

This weekend was busy as we had my birth mother Barb in town from Regina. She stayed with us for the weekend and was brave enough to do my training session with me. Mike ran his 26km and had a good workout. Barb walked with me for 22km. I then continued on to do another 5km and Barb and Mike made the walk back home to start brunch and get cleaned up. The afternoon was pretty mellow as we all needed a snooze after our long workout.

It's monday night and we are both feeling exhausted. Had a really nice dinner over at our friends, Paula & Steve 's place and had fun with their little guy Tyson who is 13 months old and a real cutie! Mike's mom and step dad were there tonight too and we had a great time, but now it's off to bed so we can get rested for another long, full and busy day tomorrow. Seems that ever since we signed up for this adventure life has gotten even busier than normal. But we are having fun and enjoying ourselves.

On that note, good night all.....have a good one.....zzzzzzzzz

Today -- 24.7km!! and 4:23hrs!!

Wow....today was a long workout!! We left home and it was raining a bit. Got to Burnaby Lake and it wasn't too bad, actually almost getting muggy as the rain was disappearing. We stretched together for a couple of minutes and Mike headed off on his run and I started out walking -- we were to do 23km today. However Mike was feeling tired and his legs were talking to him, and he listened well and ended up heading back towards me and when we met up, he told me he would be keeping me company today. That was a nice treat for me and in the end I think even for him. We got to walk together today (that usually doesn't happen). I enjoyed having the company and even though we both listened to our ipods on a quieter setting we got to chat along the way. Burnaby Lake is really a pretty place to be doing one's training. Today we saw a baby bunny and a turtle. Not it was not the tortoise and the hare race.....the turtle was out in the water and the bunny was hopping along in front of us. Very sweet seeing mother nature in her truest spring form. We even saw a young geeseling with some older Canada Geese. By the time we did our two laps of the lake and walked home, we had logged just under 25km. Whew....into a hot shower and bath for me to soak my muscles. Mike made us a yummy lunch to restore the fuel we burned up. My GPS said I burned 1500+ calories today!! We spent the rest of the day recouperating, relaxing and reading. Isn't that the way a Sunday should be anyways?
Well this day is over now and its time for bed and get rested to start the week all over again and on with this week's training! Next Sunday is 26km. stay tuned as we continue to count down our Iceland trip. We just ordered the Lonely Planet's guide to Iceland. Should have it in about a week. Want to learn more about where we are going and what else we can do for our extended stay. Cheers!

Thank you Barb!!!

A big thank you goes out to my birth mother, Barb Carriere who lives in Regina (yes, I'm adopted and have 2 mothers). Over the last little while Barb has been asking friends and family for donations for us!! Last night when we came home from our 8km workout in the rain, pouring rain and more rain.....I checked the mail and found an envelope with 15 donations adding up to $675!!!!! Thank you so much Barb for asking so many people and also for your own very generous monetary donation on top of asking so many people and telling them what we are doing. Our Thermometer now reads $12,801. I believe we'll hit our $15,200 Goal. Only $2399 more to raise. In fact I have a suspicion we may even pass that goal before we leave for Iceland. We still have a couple more fundraisers happening and still more people we haven't asked yet.

I too have logged just over 112km for the month of May. Mostly walking on my part as I'm still trying to ease into running. We have only 11 more weeks. Now I know that 11 weeks seems like a long time, but when you have lots of mileage to put in and more money to raise, it does not seem like that long. And time just seems to fly by. Just yesterday I celebrated my 5 year anniversary at work and can't believe that much time has gone by already. I still remember my first day!!

For the month of June we will likely log between 175 and 230 km. Depending on if we hit all our training workouts with all the other time commitment's we have.

Thank you again to everyone who checks our blog and is following our progress. Thank you to those who leave comments and encourage us. Thank you to those who support our endeavors and encourage us and a big thank you to each and everyone of you who has donated so far. We both really appreciate everyone's support. Stay tuned for more as the mileage and the thermometer continue to climb......

wow

I'm not sure about Waleah's totals but I logged over 112km of running and another 15 or so walking in May. Wow! and I'm sure Waleah has logged about the same. Kinda scared to see what June/July will be with those really long sunday runs......

Congratulations to our friends Brent & Bless who got engaged last weekend. If you happen to read their blog, it is only further proof that Waleah and I are not the only insane people around.

Wednesday = Hills

Didn't have a great night running last night. Waleah wasn't feeling well so I set out on my own to conquer the Caribou Road hill. Walked/ran to the hill which is 2.5km from home and then started my hill repeats. The first one was ok, ran the full 600m up and then down the hill, but then it went down from there, ran 400m of the 2nd and 3rd repeats (walked/jogged down the hill)and called it quits after 300m of my last interval. I was disappointed that I didn't finish the full training run, physically I could have, mentally I just wasn't able to push through. I know today I could have finished as I do not feel like I worked out last night at all. I guess I need to start looking at the ongoing training as mental as well as physical preparation for the marathon because I'm sure that there will be a lot more mental "walls" that I will need to push through in the next couple months.