I’m Back!

Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009

Well, what an adventure I had! I never imagined I would ever get to travel to Japan and certainly not Australia…so to travel to both places in less than two weeks was mind blowing. Not to mention travelling to these far away places as a runner of all things! It’s just crazy to me. I feel very fortunate.

The Ekiden was an incredible experience. It was tough having such big travel just days before the race and I think almost the whole Canadian team was affected to some extent by the fatigue that sets in a day or two after you fly across so many time-zones.  The three days before the race were low-key for me. I just did some light running and a few strides the day before the race. All the teams stayed in these cabins set in the woods near this recreation centre just outside of Chiba (Nihon Aerobic Centre). We were shuttled to and from the main centre which was just a 5′ ride away where we ate all our meals. We were looked after so well by our Japanese hosts!

Team Meeting

Neon Aerobic Centre

Our Cabin in the Woods

Our Home

The race was incredibly well-organized…quite the feat with an event like this.  We were bused to our stage a good two hours before we had to run so we had a ton of time to kill. The other women from my leg were pretty chatty so it helped pass the time. Catherine Ndereba introduced herself to me (!) and then asked if I would be willing to swap track suits after the race. That was a huge score for me! She was extremely gracious and engaging.

Catherine & Me

I also met Malin Ewerlof  from Sweden. We chatted all through our warm-up and she has a comeback story in her career which I found very interesting. We were finally herded over to the street where we were to begin running our leg. Listening like crazy for our call (we had no idea who was coming in from which team until about ten seconds before we had to get on deck). The male from team Japan predictably came through first. We could hear the commentator giving his play by play in a frenetic, high-pitched voice as we waited for the next runner to pass off. As soon as he appeared at the top of the hill, the crowds around us went absolutely wild! By the time Dylan arrived, I was revved up and had to tell myself not to take off like a maniac in all the excitement. This leg was the last of six and was 7.195km long. I heard rumours that this leg had a few hills ..that was no exaggeration. I faced one hill after another. I was prepared to run alone on this leg as the teams would be broken up at this stage of the race. I set my Garmin to beep every km (there were no km markers on the course) so I would have something to aim for but it did little good as the crowds that lined ether side of the streetwere so loud, I could not hear the thing ringing! What an experience! I laughed to myself as I heard a voice stick out from all the Japanese cheers yell out  ”Toronto! Toronto! Toronto!”  I ran 25:22 for my leg. Our team came in 8th overall: Results

The post-race party was a ton of fun. I left early to get some sleep before a very full day ahead of sight-seeing and travel. I had made a big decisionthe day before the Ekiden race to take an invitation to race in the Great Australian Run in Melbourne the following week. I was emailed by the elite athlete coordinator asking if I was interested in running the race the following weekend.  It was a tough choice as it meant missing the National cross-country championships being held the same weekend which also meant me not getting a chance to make the team going to Worlds. I consulted with Jon (praying he would lean towards going to Australia) and he encouraged me to go ahead and take Andy’s offer to run the GAR. It was crazy booking the flights but Joey helped out a lot since I only had limited wifi access in the centre. I managed to get good flights from Tokyo to Melbourne (via Sydney) and then a flight back home the day after the GAR via LA and Vancouver. More on that later! Here are some pics from the  Ekiden post-race party!

Dylan and Reid goofing around

Me looking like a ten year old standing next to Craig Mottram!

Team Canada's Table!

Me and Richard pretending to be drunk

Being Serenaded