The Running Diva

I had an extremely busy week that left me with very little time to blog but since this was a recovery week, there hasn’t been much to blog anyway.

Sunday, June 22, 2008: I did an easy 60 minutes. Squintch was still staying with us and decided to join Juice and me for a loop or so at the lakes. We forgot that the half-ironman was going on so there we were dodging a lot of traffic.  I was amazed at how good I felt. My flight from Ottawa got in at 10:20pm the night before. Juice left Pano and Lin’s wedding reception to pick me up and bring me back to the party where we ate and danced and had some laughs with Glenn and Squintch. We didn’t get home until 2am…5am Ottawa time! Pan-Pan is one fine Il Greco dancer and Lin looked just stunning!

Monday, June 23, 2008: I did two, 35 minute runs on Monday. One early before work and one after work with some strides. I had a massage booked with Kimmy who performed her magic on me and I walked out of her office with a new body!! I found out today that I have a wardrobe fitting for the ad tomorrow in Vancouver and they asked me to also keep Wednesday, Thursday and Friday open to do the shoot. 

Tuesday, June 24, 2008: Juice and I took the 7am ferry. The fitting was pretty straight forward. They decided on a Nike tank-top, shorts, socks and shoes. We were back on the road heading to Ikea (our old Ikea dresser exploded so we had to purchase another, hopefully non-exploding Ikea dresser) when I got a call from the agent who got me the contract. He asked me how the fitting went but I could tell he had something else to tell me. He finally came out with it. The production team who just saw me in wardrobe called him to ask him to call me and tell me to wax my upper lip. Well, doesn’t that just make a girl feel attractive. I started laughing which I am sure made the poor guy even more embarrassed. I made it back in time to do a plyo session at the track while OCal’s gang was doing their wo. I called Shan later that night for hair removal advice and she said that the rip & strip would leave me with major red marks that 24 hours may not heal so she said ‘Time to get out the ol’ Bic!’…and that I am sad to say is what I did. It was quite a site. Joey held up a mirror in front of the window so I could see what I was doing while I shaved my ’stache. Nice. 

Wednesday, June 25, 2008:  I ran a steady 60 minutes at CH in the morning and took the bus/ferry over to Vancouver right after work. Bri and Alex picked me up at the bus station and we got a great little visit in before bedtime.

Thursday, June 26, 2008: I had to be at the site of the shoot at 7am . We were in an industrial area in Burnaby on a quiet street with a steep hill. There were two directors and about forty others all busily getting the scene ready when I arrived. I was a bit intimidated at first but I reminded myself that all I had to do was run…how hard could it be? Well, we started at 8am and finished at 3pm and I ran up and down that bloody hill about 50 times! It was a cold day so I had to wear a parka between takes to stay warm. The ad will show me running down the hill in slow motion. They chose a steep downhill so my legs would pound the pavement hard so the shock going up my legs would be more dramatic. So, I had to sprint up the hill as hard as I could (they wanted me out of breath), turn-around, was spritzed with water (I would squeal ever time because the water was cold!) and then I had to run down the hill towards the camera following this imaginary line they wanted me to take. I did this over and over again. They tried blowing leaves on the pavement where I was running…they didn’t like that so the leaves where swept away. Then just a few leaves where blown in, then no leaves, then they hosed the pavement with water, then they had me run on a treadmill, then on the spot. I got my wo in for the day, that’s for sure! The production team and marketing team from SportChek were just super and treated me so well! The food they had catered in was excellent, so I had plenty to eat…thank goodness! I was able to see most of the play-back takes and it looks pretty cool and everyone seemed happy. The ad is for tv and should be out in August. The entire crew went to another location in Central Park where they were going to shoot another ad with some soccer players. They served us lunch and then a sound technician taped my footsteps running and my breathing which they’ll dub in afterwards. It was all very fun and I hope to get more opportunities through Reelathletes, an agency that contracts people with special skills for work in film and television. I took the bus and ferry back home that evening and went to bed pretty bagged.

Friday, June 27, 2008: I was planning on doing an easy morning run on Friday but only if I woke up before my alarm which I set for the last possible minute that would allow me to get me to work on time. Big surprise…I slept right to the alarm. I was also pretty sore this morning so no run for me. I did do an easy thirty minutes on the UVic trails with Juice after work, just to shake out my legs. They were sore at the start but felt fine after 15 minutes.