a PB weekend.

It's been a long weekend. A 10km run, a half marathon and a funeral.

I'm tired, a wee bit sunburnt, and my right boob is killing me. More on that later...

Let's start with the upside: a new PB in 10 kilometres! hot damn.

Saturday morning started with a nice community run down by the river. The Mountain Equipment Co-op Bow River Run was good times. Seemed like a couple hundred peeps braved the sunny lovely conditions to do a 5 or 10k jaunt.

I ran with my good friend Tom, who is a avid cyclist and is in damn good shape. And Can run really fast (damn him) without really trying. The only thing I have on him right now is my endurance. ha. But it was his very first race of the year, soo he was looking to go slow. He actually ran with me the whole time, but kept shouting out heart rate, and interval speed and timing to keep me in the loop. Of course the last time we ran together was last summer, where I might have weighed 20 more pounds and could not even THINK aobut keeping up with him. Oh how I love how times have changed. I am sure he humoured me, since he ran ahead of me and finished the last kilometre in under 4 minutes, whereas I did mine in about 6:20 per k. Still it was a good day for a race.

Sunday began with me walking and realizing my hip (or maybe my glute) was going to be a jerk. A real tight jerk. So i spent 30 minutes rolling and praying for it to loosen the hell up.

Then I drove off to Airdrie (about 30 mins norht of the city) to meet my pal Lisa for a halfmara - the  tourdeairdrie!

We ran in memory of Andrea Conroy, who at 33, was murdered on March 2 by her boyfriend (who then killed himself). We ran to help support ending the cycle of violence.

What a glorious day. Sunny, and the hottest day of the year. Now, April in Alberta is not usually very warm. This was a day where temperatures soared above 20C (more than 70F).

So seriously HOT for this time of year. That's OK, we crowed. We are gonna crush this race.

It is, after all, our 4th official half marathon of the year.

hot chicks and their compression sox

And then we started running. And we go by the first waterstation. Not yet set up. Hmmmm. What does this mean, I wonder. Me, who did NOT wear a water belt since there were upteen aid stations in this race is screwed. That's what I am wondering. And then I am also wondering if my hip will smarten up and loosen.

Then at about mile 5 I wondered where I was gonna pee. Cause I had to. BAD. And so I did. And didn't care who saw. Stopped just off the pathway near a partially covered fence and took a glorious pee break. A truck honked as he went by me crouching down. Awesome. Hey, but I had to go. Seriously a half mara with NO biffies. What is UP??

And we keep going. We rock through 7 miles in 1 hour and 7 minutes. WHOOHOOO. WE are on track to bust this mother. And Lisa sort of gets ahead of me, as she really is a faster runner. And I don't think to say, "hey, give me one of your waters outta yer belt". I mean why would i. there are at least 2 or 3 more stations coming up, right?

And then seriously. NOT ONE MORE WATER STATION for the rest of the race.

I am screwed.

With 3 miles left,  I passed a cemetery. I thought, "how apropo". My time kept slowing and slowing, and my legs became lead.

With 1 mile left, I caught Lisa and we drank the rest of the water. And the last 2 k sucked. Sure we finished in just shy of 2.5 hours. YAY (its about the race, not time....I say, but i know this is bullshit!) I am glad to have ran, glad to have finished, glad to feel freaking awesome. But I am so so SO sad i have not cracked 2:20. GAWD. Well, there is another halfmara next weekend....

Let me tell you I spent the rest of the day gulping water.

So the funeral bit....well, my ex's dad passed away last week. He asked me to sing at the service. I said yes. Jesus.

The funny part of this tale is me after a halfmara brushing out my hair, realizing F*ck, I do NOT have time to shower...so I head straight to the funeral home. Where I am greeted by the presiding minister with quite a look. I think he was unsure of what to make of my hot pink compression socks and a shirt that declared "does this shirt make my butt look fast?". And my purple running skirt. So I hightail it to the washroom, change in to real clothes and come back out.

And so i take OFF my running bra (which I LOVE) and its bloody. Ummm. Great, Boob chafe. Once again I have lost a bit more weight But now my one and only run bra is too big and i have stingy awful chafe under my right boob? C'mon!!!!!!!!!!

Man...I have drank 3 bottles of water in 30 minutes, and am still thirsty. And I keep seeing people who I like, who I don't see or speak to anymore...but I have no idea what to say, so I try to ignore everyone and keep a low profile.

Did I tell you that my regular bra hurts the boob chafe? yeh. It does.

Anyhoo. I sang, It went OK...I find flaws in every performance, so I am too hard on myself. But I was glad I could share the gift of song. "In the Garden" is one of my favs. I was glad to have sang it. I hope it helped the family in a small way. Gosh, it's been hard to watch someone go thru the loss of a parent. I couldn't be that stoic. Never have been and never will be. My mom calls me the sensitive one. Is that a middle child thing?

And now I am off to bed. I'm tired. Tomorrow is a new day. And a day off of running. And a day off of work. Except I am spending my day off working the election polls for our provincial election. Should make for an interesting day!