Walk to Cure Cancer

Good Morning,

It is a nice day this morning. We are off to Vaughan Mills for a 5K walk, Vaughan in Motion to Cure Cancer. This is a 5K walk inside the mall, it is a fairly large mall with 3 laps inside will give us the 5k and a good way to raise some money for the Mackenzie Health Foundation for Cancer Care.

Yesterday we went out for nice warm up for today. Ivana is getting ready to do a 5K next weekend at the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon so today's 5K will be good for both of us.  It was a blowing very cool morning yesterday when we went out with Maya. She loves being off the leash and just running up and back, side to side and just can't get enough of being free.

Downsview Park, it has a nice 2.75km paved loop for walking, running and even biking with up and down hills, go one way and it is a little easier with a long down hill, but go up the other way and you have a long and winding haul uphill.  A real nice place to go out in the morning and be alone.

This used to be CFB Downsview, I was based here back in the mid 80's, now it is a Federal Park which is being turned into an Urban Park. They have done a great job over the years making it a as natural as possible and are still working on it. If you want to know more about the Park, click here Parc Downsview Park.

Downsview Park

Can I Go, Can I Go, Come on let's go NOW

Well, I will post a few pics tomorrow and a little about the Walk to Cure Cancer.

Damaged Heart.

A PB on the Toronto Yonge Street 10K

Well, the Toronto Yonge Street 10K is over and I am a little behind in posting, but I was waiting and waiting for photos from Marathon-Photos, but two pics only. You know, for a company that is suppose to be the "Official Photographers" for the Canada Running Series, this company is lacking.  I know that it is hard to get everyone or even the ideal photos taken, but they should at least have photographers set up at the finish line making sure that there are a lot of photos to be taken.

For me, this is not about my first race and wanting a photo at the finish line (as for a lot of people it is their first race), I am wanting or trying to get photos of all at the finish line at least for this year. So I sent an email asking if there are photos which i can scan through to see if maybe the bib number wasn't visible that there may be one there, but no answer from them for over a week now. Oh well.

Sorry about the rant first.

It was about 5c on the Sunday morning, but it was to warm up to a nice day. All my gear was ready to go the night before, even my new jersey with some of the printing on it. Heart & Stroke logo, Ride to Conquer Cancer (friends of mine, Dino and Kelly are riding in it this year. This will be Dino's 3rd ride as a survivor, AWSOME), and RunningFree.com, great place in Markham to get your gear and very helpful staff. 

Ivana, Maya and I headed out the door for a nice quite drive to Yonge and Eglinton for the start line. Parking was a bit of a pain as I knew it would be. Driving in the area to find a spot was interesting as you see all of the people parking, getting dressed in warmer clothes, warming up and then you see the Elite's sprinting up and down the side roads getting ready, they are fast in practice!

Heading over to the start line was a nice little walk to warm up and then a little sprint for me as well. With the cool morning and a coffee, water I had to find the head as the bladder was telling me something. Line ups for the port potties were very long so we headed to Tim Hortons and it was even longer waiting in there. Well, bought a coffee instead to keep warm as there was only one person in line. We walked back to the start line, Maya was all excited as there was a lot of people around and she was jumping and didn't know what was going on. We got back just in time to see the start of the HandCycle Athletes starting and then 5 minutes later we all started down the Famous Yonge Street.

HandCycle:

Before the Start:

      

The Start:

I am just behind the blue sign on the left (can't see me)

2 Photos from Canada Running Series Website

Maya was wanting to jump into the corral with me, she has a little separation anxiety. I gave Ivana a kiss, along with Maya, and said I will see you at the finish line in about 1:10 min hopefully. 

Down the road I go and about 1K in, I am really feeling my bladder telling me to find a place to go or a am going to burst.  I knew there was a Tim Hortons about a ½ Km (NOT THAT I DRINK A LOT OF TIMMIES.......or know where most of them are) I ran off the road and right into the washroom, came out and went right back onto the road. A few people were looking at me as I entered back into the race.

Everything was going well with the run, steady pace for me at 7:21/km while having to watch my heart rate. You see my max HR is only 145-150, but the meds help keep it steady and with recovery as well.  Good race going, I am warmed up, bladder is empty Feeling really good. Then the 3K mark is going past me and I all of a sudden hit the road, BOOM down I went. Don't know why, there was no holes in the road, I guess I just tripped over my own feet.  I know my balance is a little off since I have to wedge my left arm between my body and my water bottle on my fuel belt. Got up a little sore, walked for a bit as my right knee was giving me a little pain.

I picked up the pace a bit and then started running at the 4K mark and it was starting to hurt again at 5K at the water station. I walked the water station and then tried to run again, NOPE. Well I ended up running for a KM and then walk for a 1/2K all the way to the finish line.  

Videos: Here I am at the 5K mark and the Finish line (far left side behind a tall guy)

It was a great day over all for me, I had a PB of 1:20:36 even with the fall, but way short of my 1:10 that I wanted to attempt for. That's okay, I have a few 10K's planned for the year so hopefully I will be able to hit my goal.  I had a few people come by me telling me  they hope I make the 500 miles, which was a really good feeling. 

I took Monday off, went to see Cassandra, my RMT, at Yorkdale Wellness Clinic, to get her to work the knots out of my thighs and for her constant caring of my arm and shoulder weakness/stiffness. This arm still is not getting better. The weakness is going to be there and I am starting to feel the cramping in my right hand and muscles are twitching in the right arm once in a while now. I felt a lot better after my session with Cassandra, so good that I was running again on Wednesday with a nice stretching slow run and some power walking. 

I have been back training again and it is going well, I took Maya with me for a nice 5K this week, she was out like a light when we got back in the car and headed home, got home and you can see what she was like here. She couldn't even lift her head off of the antler that she loves chewing.

Maya pooped after 5K and she's an agility dog.

Now I am going to sound like a NASCAR driver here, The Damaged Hearts in Motion, Heart & Stroke, RunningFree.com Machine (I'm the Machine lol) done real good today even though it was a slow start with the Machine getting a little Body Damage from the pavement. We'll have to get the body into the shop and get the work done for the next one. All in all the Damaged Hearts in Motion, Heart & Stroke, RunningFree.com will be ready to go back to back days on May 3rd and 4th with the Mississauga 10K and the GoodLife Fitness Toronto ½ Marathon the next morning.

Well off for a seminar course this evening, will be back on here soon.

Damaged Heart

Toronto 10K Race Kit Pick Up

Hello,

Well I picked up my race kit today for the Toronto Yonge Street 10K which will be on Sunday morning.

They are closing down most of Yonge Street for this great 10K race with Canada Running Series. This race has been running for 26 years now, it has had many names over the years.

I have been in this race twice since my heart attack. The first year was in 2010 where I just walked and power walked the race and it felt amazing with my wife and friends waiting at the finish line. Then in 2012, I did it again looking to have a PB again and I power walked and jogged (shuffled) my way down Yonge Street and making it towards the finish line.

That year, I was on my way to doing it but there was an older man shuffling his way to the finish line as well, but about a km away I noticed him leaning way too much over and then he fell right in front of me.  I stopped, picked him up as he was trying to get back to his feet. I got him to sit on the curb for a few minutes and looked around for help, but no one was there.  He said I need to finish this, so I helped him up and I said I will walk with you to the finish line. Well we walked and then he started to shuffle again and getting faster, then down he went again. We can see the finish line just up the road at this point and he got up again. Then I said lets just walk so he agreed. As we were walking his son had seen what was going on and he came running up to us and held on to him and told me to just finish and he would get him there.  The man finished the race and it was good to see that he was okay after seeing the medical staff on site.

That race was also the first one that my wife had entered into as well along with a friend of hers. I waited at the finish line for her to finish and then we saw our friend crossing as well.

So, this year I am really looking to finish in about 1:10:00 hopefully this will really cut my time down. 2010 was 1:33:34 and 2012 was a 1:21:59.

Back to picking up the race kit. Small little expo but it was very nice to look at some new product that was there, like the Garmin 910XT which I REALLY REALLY want to get sometime in the future. This nice gizmo can be used while you are swimming without putting it under you swim cap. A lot of freebies in the kit bag a nice tech shirt good colours and a COOL Max Hat,  in 2012 was Orange with the 10K logo on it. Not a big fan of the colour orange so it sits in the closet most of the time until it is the last shirt to wear. Here is a photo of the shirt, bib and hat.

Toronto 10K Yonge Street Kit

Well off to bed now, let you know how the race goes (personally) not going to be winning anything except hopefully raising funds for the Heart & Stroke. Well the 500 mile season will be really kicking off with this one and then it will be a busy schedule for the next 2 months.

I have new shirts for all my races this year, the unveiling will be in the next post. I will take sponsors to put on there logos, for a donation to the Heart & Stroke Foundation if Corp or person wants to help  out the HSF. You can email me.

Damaged Heart

Zackees Turn Signal Gloves on Kickstarter

Good Morning everyone. I saw this video of a great pair of riding gloves, even for runners as well.

Take a quick look and let me know what you think.



Damaged Heart