I got a Christmas tree!!!

Thanks Charlie Brown!

You like?

I did this too - a Christmas centre-piece. :-) This was the easy part. Now to do the dinner party planning, only 20 days left! Yoiks!

Looking for my running mojo

Here are a few photos from my Sunday run. I've been in a bit of a running low. Just feeling, meh and feeling just damn lazy! I'm sure I'll get over it really soon. Apparently it's normal to feel bummed after a marathon - for up to two months. I guess that makes sense. I felt incredibly high and wonderful for about two whole weeks after the Nike San Francisco Women's Marathon.

I had a bit of fun on my run this morning. I would NOT let a guy who passed me whom I then passed, pass me. No dude. Nope, not today. YOU, sir are not allowed to pass me. Sir, I beat you on the hill and I will beat you around the pool too! Let's go! He kept trying. I kept on hearing his foot steps get close and then fall away behind and back again. I felt competitive today. Well at least for a bit. See? I'll get over my running slump. :-)

View from English Bay

Gail's bench. Off to the left not pictured is Christine's bench.
She lost her fight with cancer November 29, 2009.
Christine is AF's mom.

Note: Vancouver coffee shops should carry gluten-free goodies. I was STARVING after my run and went out to get coffee and a treat. I gave up, skipped coffee, went home and made my own food instead. Coffee shops, I would have dropped $20 easily on treats because my eyes are always bigger than my tummy when I'm hungry. Instead I saved that money and ate at home instead.

Moist wipes and Baconnaise

Last night AF and I went to his company's Christmas party. There was a fun Secret Santa gift exchange and stealing. We got a Snuggie! Yay! And then it got stolen. Awww!

This is what we came home with. The meal of champions. AF cannot stand canned tuna, mayonnaise, chocolate spread and jams & jellies. He made a commented (made fun of) on how stinky a colleague's (pictured in the black t-shirt in the background) tuna & mayo lunch was one day. And karma brought him the gift below!

Moist wipes, canned tuna, Baconnaise, Nutella and apple mint jelly. Yep, that's BACONNAISE in the picture. For realz! Ahahahahahahahah!

Nike Women's Marathon San Francisco 2010

Finally!  I'm posting my race report. Soooooo...

On October 17, 2010 I completed my first marathon, the Nike San Francisco Women's Marathon!

I came. I saw, I conquered. Wooo! I ran my first marathon! The end. Ha! Just kidding.

So the day started at 5 a.m. I stayed at the Parc 55, so it was a short walk up to the start line. Neeks came and met me in the lobby at 6 and we both set off. Nervous and excited.

The night before I almost bailed on the race. At the end of the day I couldn't walk on my feet because of pain and it had been that way for over a week. I planned to start with Neeks, bail at a first-aid station along the race route and catch a medic ride to the finish, cry and wait.

Looks like I'm having too much fun doesn't it?

The first first-aid station didn't even have a tent! No way was I bailing at mile 2. NO WAY! I kept going. I decided to just keep going until I couldn't. It hurt my feet less to run than walk and the Nike music stations were too good anyway. I was even running faster than Neeks! Wow. I became her personal cheerleader. I'd run ahead and then stop and wait and when I saw her coming up I'd start cheering her on.

Mile 6 - The not-so-big hill. Thanks to WWU10KRUNNER who helped with training (WWU10KRUNNER called me the night before to wish me luck - Thanks DS!! It meant so much. AF was really impressed too!). This hill was easy. Yah, easy! I just zipped up it. I did so many hills on the Sunshine Coast that this hill was NOTHING!!!

Mile 11 - I ran off on Neeks. She gave me a really uplifting pep talk the night before. "We'll finish it together even if you have to crawl!" I felt sooooo bad. But I saw my pace-bunny pass me. And then another, and another, and another. FRIK! So I told myself, "Winnie, this is no silly, little game of hopscotch. Go, go, go!" 

Thank you Neeks and Duane for being there! I really, really appreciate you two. AF too. It's hard rushing from cheer-station to cheer-station, standing in the rain and waiting. Thank you.

Mile 18 - Oh yah! My feet hurt. Heck!!! They hurt! I finally stopped at a first-aid tent at mile 18. Chatted with a volunteer, signed a waiver and took 2 Tylenol.

Miles 19 or 20 thru to 23 were the hardest. This part of the route takes you around Lake Merced. At about mile 22 there were men practicing shooting. There's shooting practice. Shooting! Guns! That was kind of neat.

Mile 23-24 has got to be my favourite. There was a cheer-station hosted by Power Balance. They had the BEST music. I just wanted to stop there and dance.

I finished 5:32:19 which is WAY over my goal time but gosh! This crazy girl finished!!! I got my blue Tiffany box from a very handsome fireman in a tux and Nike sneakers. I put my necklace on right away. 

I really hope to get into the Nike Marathon again if not I hope to get into NYC marathon. For now I start training for the April Fools day half on the Sunshine Coast and the BMO Vancouver Marathon :-D

PS. I found the best fast food place at Westfield. It's called the Loving Hut. Vegan! But not gluten-free. (This was before I found out I was allergic.) I highly recommend it. I was so impressed! A vegan fast food joint in a SHOPPING MALL!

New bucket list item

Heli-skiing.

Adding it to my bucket list.

For now I'm just going to pretend that I just jumped out of a helicopter with a pair of fat skis on in this picture. I said pretend!

My play list for a GOOD TIME

I first heard this song driving up the Sunshine Coast. We were fiddling around with the radio looking for a good radio station and I think we found a college-like radio station out of Nanaimo. And how perfect is it? Have you heard it yet? That's all I want to do! Have a GOOD TIME! ALL THE TIME! This is so appropriate for my running play list. Because man! I have a good time when I'm running.

Here are few more on my play list

• Ce Jeu - Yelle
• Je Veux Te Voir - Yelle
• Paper Planes - M.I.A
• Suburban War - Arcade Fire
• Stadium Love - Metric
• Gimme Sympathy - Metric
• Phantom Limb - The Shins
• Ageless Beauty - Stars (Because I feel so young when I run)
• Kids - MGMT, MGMT gets heavy rotation on my ski play list. I had never listened to music while skiing - how do you hear the lovely scraping noise of skis against packed snow??? AF recommended it. AND OH MY GOD WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF IT BEFORE?!?! IT'S AWESOME. Oh, yes I'm posting my run playlist - let's continue
• Time to Pretend - MGMT
• Electric Feel - MGMT

• Way I Are - Timbaland
• Rainin in Paradize - Manu Chao
• Welcome to Tijuana - Manu Chao
• La Vida Tómbola - Manu Chao
• Else - Built to Spill
• We Own The Sky - M83 (Because sometimes I feel like I'm flying when I run)
• Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cindy Lauper
• Typewriter,Tip, Tip, Tip - Asha Bhosie & Kiore Kumar - (A fun song to remind me that this thing that I'm doing - running is supposed to be fun!)
• Under Pressure - Queen
• These Are They Days Of Our Lives - Queen
• Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen
• A whole bunch of DJ Tiesto (reminds me that I gotta stop coasting and run faster!)
• Huddle Formation - The Go! Team 
• If I Ever Feel Better - Phoenix
• Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (I like this when I'm getting close to the finish or home. Home is a great feeling.)
• Emotion 98.6 - Mylo (For after finish)

This is just a small sample of my running playlist. Oh, and hey! If you've got any great songs you think I should add to my playlist let me know! I love love music and love discovering new bands.

Well trained...

[11:30] Yeo: I need your opinion
[11:31] Taquito Coordinator: no, your ass does not look fat in that outfit

I was going to ask him a programming question... but ok, I'll take it. :-)