Strangest experience...

Halifax Commons ball park where the tournament took place.

This past weekend was my softball league's ice-breaker fun tournament. We do this every year where all the players in the league show up and are randomly divided into teams - no more than 3 or 4 players from the same 'team' are together. It's great fun and this year was no exception. One of the best things about this day is of course the BEER!  Did I mention I play in a beer league? Sponsored by Labatt no less.  

You're probably wondering why I'm writing about a softball league on a runner's blog...?  Well I had the strangest experience at this ice-breaker, my first day of ball since I've started 'running'. After the first game I realized the closest bank machine was 2 blocks away. I didn't stop at one on the way to the tournament and I needed $$ for beer and lunch.  So, for probably the first time in my life, I thought "I could RUN to the bank machine!" - not because I was pressed for time, but because I WANTED to!!  So sure enough, I started off running across the ball field and down the sidewalk for 2 blocks...  After what was probably 3min of running, (felt like 15) I asked myself "Why am I running? This does not feel good at all!"  Soccer clets on pavement is not the ideal running gear, but then another strange thing happened - I kept running!  I didn't stop until I was short of breath (induced earlier than normal mostly due to the fact that I had already had one beer at this point...) and only steps from the store where the bank machine was.

It felt strangely rewarding to have done something that was so OUTSIDE my comfort zone! Another side effect of all this running, similar to my soccer game, I felt full of energy all day - jogging on and off the field between innings, even though we lost every game...

If you're reading this and have never been much of a runner - it's totally worth a try if you want more energy and enjoyment out of life!  Check with your doctor first of course - not that I did though, but I've been involved in sports my whole adult life without checking first...  Right there is another "Ah-Ha" - I've been involved in sports my whole adult life, but never felt so full of energy as I do now after running regularly!!  I encourage you to give it a try - what have you got to lose?

Just a quick hello - in VIDEO!

Check out my short video I filmed yesterday (Thursday) from the trail around Lake Banook. You'll notice I'm wearing my YMCA Strong Kids hat and my Blue Nose Marathon shirt from last year. I was wearing sandals and pushing my son in the stroller, hence the reason I *couldn't* run - even though I wanted to!

This was an impromptu take - the sound quality isn't great because of the wind over the mic and the cars in the background, so you may need to turn your volume up! One of the other Y-Champions had video on his blog and I thought it was too cool - wanted to try it out myself. Let me know what you think below!

What's next?

Two days since the Blue Nose Marathon event and I'm looking for the next event to participate in! My running partner is away for almost 3 weeks, but we have tentative plans to run in the local "Muffin Run" in Lunenburg, NS on June 14th. It's a 5km run around the historic National Park. Sounds intriguing. Plus our hubbys would be joining us, so hopefully we can find a jogging stroller that will hold our two boys (5yrs & 18mons) to borrow.  Anyone reading this in the HRM willing to offer, we would be very thankful!

Meanwhile, I'm going to try and get together for a run with my good friend Michelle (read about her running and weight-loss journey here). We've never ran together before, so I'm really looking forward to the new, shared experience!

As for my other activities - spring soccer has ended. We had our last game Sunday evening and we won 1-0!  One thing I've really noticed since this training is my increase in energy and speed when playing soccer. I love it!  My teammates jokingly say I should run 5k every game day!  I think summer season starts in a couple weeks.

Swimming is still going great. I can feel changes in my stroke that are bringing my form more streamlined and powerful. I really get a rush off the feeling of pulling my body through the water. I wonder, is there a "swimmer's high"?  With an average of 1800-2200m per night, two nights per week, I'm getting some serious cardio and strength benefits that I'm sure are spilling over to my running and soccer.  

Did I mention I play softball too?  That season starts with an ice-breaker fun tournament this Saturday!  I wonder if maybe I'm trying to do too much?  What do you think?

THANKS! And I did it!!

Thanks to all my supporters - I reached my $1,000 goal in support of the YMCA Strong Kids! Click on the link: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2103855 to see the fireworks!!

My race time this morning was 32:50 (gun) and 30:15 (chip - actual time) and I placed in the top 25% for my age/gender group (45/187)!! You can see more details on the SportsStats website - www.sportstats.ca - search for "Blue Nose Marathon 5km"  and "Rake" as the surname to see how I did!  Jill and I shaved a whole 6min off our training run from last weekend!  And I can't say enough how awesome Jill did - she pushed her 8-month-old DS for the FIRST time and it was all I could to do keep up!  She was like the Energizer Bunny.  Jill, YOU ROCK!  Thanks for being such an awesome running partner.

Thanks again for all your support! Can't wait to do it again next year!
Corinna

P.S. In case you were following along - I DID get up at 7am to go running with Jill Friday morning. We had a great final training run, finishing our 7+km route in 56min!