Still running!

I have some shocking news: I haven't given up on running yet! I have not missed one session of my running group, which meets twice a week, and I had another race last weekend! This time, I did a 5k.

Happy because I'm near the finish line!

I had a crazy notion that I would try to run the entire thing, which did NOT happen. I did run most of it though, albeit very slowly. At one point, I was passed by a man carrying a full-size canoe. Yes. Man with canoe was faster than I was (as were LOTS of people pushing strollers and pulling wagons with kids in them).

But I'm really pleased with my time - 42:49. That's faster than I expected to do it, AND I was more than twice as fast as the 2.5k race I did two weeks before (my time was 22:05). So, even though I'm slow, I'm improving. :)

Eating well remains, as always, a struggle. But I just had some lentil soup, so that's something. All I can do is keep trying!

In other news, my 60s birthday party was lots of fun. After a few Youtube videos and an hour of teasing/hairspraying my hair, this was the end result:

It wasn't perfect, but I was satisfied.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! Bye for now!

A few things

• My 28th birthday is on Friday. I'm having a 1965-themed birthday party. I bought a new dress and tonight I'm going to practice putting my hair in a beehive. It may mean I don't have time to vacuum, but I think my friends will agree that I made the right choice.
• I'm registered in a 5k run on Sunday. I will let you know how it goes (my goal is not to collapse, which should give you a sense of my fitness level these days!).
• I bought a Fitbit One and it's my new best friend.
• I have a cat right now, and this is what happens when I sit at my computer:

I tried to get a picture of her nudging my hand, but this is the best I could do.

• The reason I have a cat right now is that my sister, Lucy, is living in Wales for a few months doing research with a professor there as part of her PhD (I don't know if I've mentioned on here before that I have such a smart sister!). Her boyfriend is with her right now, so I have his cat! 
• My mom and I are planning a Europe trip to visit Lucy in December! We've never been to Europe before, so we are beyond excited.

Today I kept thinking about my dad. At work, I found myself thinking about the last few years before he died: all of the hospital visits, all of the surgeries, all of the recoveries. And yet, despite his poor health, his death still felt like such a shock.

At yoga, during Savasana, I was thinking about the time right around his death. I thought about the last day I ever saw him, in the hospital on New Year's Eve, 2011. I thought about the day he died. I was living in Thunder Bay when I found out. I packed a bag in a fog, got a friend to drive me to the airport, and boarded the next flight home to Toronto. I remember debating whether or not I should bring black clothing home - a part of me thought I should be optimistic and not pack for a funeral. But, of course, I knew there would be a funeral.

On the flight home, I listened to the same song on my ipod over and over again (Pumped Up Kicks, for some inexplicable reason). Thankfully, no one was sitting next to me. Less than 24 hours later, I was leaving the funeral home with my mom and my sister, having already made countless decisions about a situation that felt completely surreal.

I have no idea how I finished my school year (I was completing my B.Ed. at the time). I flew back to Thunder Bay after 2 weeks in Toronto, and somehow finished my coursework. Then I was back home for a 5-week practicum teaching high school English (the subject my dad had taught my whole life).

Some days, my dad's death is like a fact that my brain will occasionally flit to without making a big fuss. But sometimes, it feels like a piece of information that I can't quite process. Something does not compute. I can't understand where my dad is, and I don't quite believe that he doesn't know where I work now or where I live now, or that I didn't just talk to him yesterday on the phone.

I don't like to think about time passing - time feels like an ever-widening gulf between us. I felt this very acutely in the weeks after he died. Each passing minute was like an affront to his memory. It's a cliche, but it truly didn't feel right that the world could keep going on while he wasn't in it. I can't make sense of it sometimes, so I keep going over and over the facts in my brain, trying to fit it all together so I can finally have it neatly filed away and resolved.

Anyway, I should get ready for my 60s party on Friday. I think my dad would appreciate it.

New Running Adventures

Last year, during my university's Homecoming weekend, I watched three of my closest friends run a 5km race. It was really fun to watch, but I was also very jealous that I wasn't running with them.

As I've mentioned, a few weeks ago I joined a "Learn to Run" group. Seeing as it had only been a couple of weeks since I got back into running, I was planning to watch my friends run that same 5k again. But then, my running group leader suggested that run/walking the 2.5km loop of the same race would be a good idea. For some reason, this had never even occurred to me. After he put the idea in my head, I quickly signed up - and two more of my friends decided to do the 2.5 km loop as well!

So, one week ago, all 5 of us participated in the Laurier Loop! I really pushed myself, and I was very surprised when I was able to run all the way to the water station (which I think was at the halfway point, about 1.25km).

Feeling good around the 1 km mark!

With my besties after the race! I wish someone had told me about my hair situation.

It was pretty brutal finishing the race. The last leg was to run around a stadium track to the finish line, and I had decided I wanted to run that whole section. It was really hard, and I think I was definitely running slower than a walking pace, but I still managed to finish. My time was 22:04 - not too shabby, in my opinion! :)

It was so fun to be in the race atmosphere, I've signed up for a 5k on October 20... 2 days after my 28th birthday. I know I won't be able to run the entire thing, but that's okay. I'm just so happy that I'm feeling excited about running again.