Drum roll…………..I’m running my first race of the year Sunday morning! Eeekkk, I’m kinda of excited and nervous all at the same time. I’m hoping by pacing the 10k (1:10 finish) I will shake out any nerves I have for the following weekend’s half marathon in PEI. Fingers crossed.

I even went for a few practice runs this week! Wednesday I tried to follow a 6:45 minute/km pace but was all over the map and didn’t set my Garmin correctly. Thanks to some awesome tutorials I found online, I managed to sort out my Garmin for Thursday’s RUNCH.

I finished a morning meeting and stopped by my house for lunch…well, to run and eat lunch as quickly as possible before returning to work. I was planning to run at 6:50 minute/km and managed 6:48 minute/km…not too shabby, eh! I even picked up a stick (no lie) and ran with it for about a km. Why? Well, I have to run with a sign for the first 5km. It’s a little sign that reads my distance and pace/finish time and it’s on a little wooden doweling. Don’t worry, I dropped the stick when I saw someone coming in the opposite direction 😉

What I’m excited for this weekend?

• Watching both of my girls run their races: Hilary’s first 400m and Lilly’s 3rd time running this race but 800m this time.
• Being with my little family and bigger family.
• Enjoying the local running community over the weekend.
• Pacing others to a 1:10 finish.

As mentioned, Lilly’s run the Valley Harvest Kids run in 2013 and 2014. She’s super pumped. I will more than likely run the 400m with Hilary as she’s a little younger than when Lilly ran it on her own the first time. I’m cool with that, twist my arm 😉 I took them to see the track last weekend so Hilary would understand where she would be running. 

What I’m nervous about?

• Pacing others to a 1:10 finish or faster 🙂

My goals are:

• Run with Hilary and cheer on Lilly.
• Encourage those around me to push their pace if they are struggling and to push those ahead of me that are feeling strong and want to finish before me.
• Finish as close to 1:10 as I can.
• EAT ALL THE FOOD SUNDAY AFTERNOON!

Thanksgiving:

I have a lot to be thankful for though it may appear on my blog that I haven’t been the happiest camper lately. I’ll be honest, life isn’t easy … BUT, what you make of it is up to you. It’s been a long year injured and a long 2 years being a part-time single parent (and no, it’s not easy on my husband either).

I’m thankful my husband and I have jobs, that our girls are healthy, that they test our patients, that they accomplish new things (biking, swimming, saying full sentences, writing words etc.). I’m thankful for where I live and the friends I’ve made since we moved here roughly 8 years ago.

I’m thankful for an amazing running community; online, offline, local, in Timberlea and Halifax. I’ve learned a lot from blogging, twitter chat groups like RunATCan. I’ve been humbled by comments and brought to tears often by the kind things people have said to me as I’ve struggle with my hamstring and more recently my foot.

Though things are HARD at times, most of all I feel lucky for all that I have in my life.

So, to all those Canadians celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend – I hope you have a lovely long weekend with your family, your friends and your neighbours.

Oh, and if you want to see how all the races go….check me out on Instagram.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good luck to all those running this weekend at the Valley Harvest & Chicago Marathon!

What are you thankful for?

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

Anyone racing this weekend?