Small things get bigger in long runs

I can't believe that I did this!  I put my gloves on and laced up my shoes at 6:30 am.  I knew they were tighter than supposed to be.  But I was lazy to take off my gloves and loosen them up.  At the 17^th km, the pain in my right foot was more than noticeable. I untied them but it was too late.  At the 39^th km I was limping.  Now I can hardly walk.  Yeah, I’ve learned a hard lesson (one more time):  running long distance is not a joke.
--Yigit

Surviving a Long Run on the Rock!

What a day! Leona and I were in NL for the weekend and as timing would have it, we ended up having to do our long run during the end of a snow storm. I started at 5:30am, after about 45min of running on this dark, snowy, windy morning I saw 2 figures in the distance running towards me. I smiled underneath my face mask and thought, "See, I am not the only person foolish enough to be out in this!" and laughed. All we could do was raise a hand to each other in acknowledgement as it was so windy any attempt to say hello would be lost in the wind.
I circled back for Leona at 7am...as we were running through Mount Pearl (where I grew up), I heard the pitter patter of feet approaching from behind. I glanced over my shoulder to see a blur of blue approaching me...it was 2 runners. After we said hello, one of the ladies asks "didn't we see you earlier this morning?" it was the same 2 ladies I saw at about 6 am. :-) they were training for the upcoming Boston Marathon.
At about 10am we finished perhaps the toughest, windiest, coldest long run of our lives. We both felt great that we "pushed 'er through" and got it done but hope that this is one feeling of accomplishment we don't soon get to experience again.
-- J

What a surprise today

I’ve been running every Tuesday and Thursday starting around 6:00 am for the last 9 months regardless of weather. There is a construction area in the first 2K where many workers arrive at while I am running.  Even if I couldn’t see their faces in the dark, we got to know each other.  I say “good morning”, they murmur in return.  I was sure, until now, they think I have some sort of mental problems.

I was running today, again I said “good morning”, they said “we admire you man, keep it up!”

That’s rewarding!

--Yigit

The Feeling of Accomplishment

4:30 am -> Alarm clock goes off!
5:30 am -> I meet Yigit in front of my house for our weekly long run.

We head down to the Bedford Highway and head towards Halifax...across the MacDonald Bridge...to Lake Banook....out through Waverly...turn onto Rocky Lake Road to the Bedford Highway and back to home!

It was a beautiful day! Only to be topped by the fact that Yigit completed his second marathon and beat his personal best by 21 min. It was great to be there to see him achieve another goal. Funny thing is...as soon as he finished he asked me, "OK, what is our next challenge?" LOL

Great job Yigit!
- J

Japan and Running

Life is so unpredictable even in the richest country.  What do you want, comfort (hang up your shoes) or challenge (lace up your shoes)? Go out and challenge yourself in beautiful Nova Scotia.  Be able to say "at least I didn't have a dull life"...

--Yigit 

Today's run

What a run today!

It was muddy, windy and wet.  We ran 30K in the woods today in 4 hours 20 minutes.  I realized one more time how important who your running buddy is.  From my window outside was like a horror movie at 5:00am: it was pouring with high wind shaking the house.  Jason was in the car waiting for me.  I jumped in and said f$%^#.  He said “come on not so bad.”

Gordon (Warnica) joined us.  He ran with us almost 2 hours.   Everybody who runs long distance knows him.  I understand today one more time why.  After our run he went to another run to train new runners for 10K.  You rock GORDON!

When you have a run like this with people like them, it becomes a dream run.  Thank you guys!  

--Yigit

Well it looks like this is going to happen!

Wow! This is the first post for our journey. We, Jason and I, are going to run the Trans Canada Trail, also known as Newfoundland T'Railway, in 14 days in July. It's 883 km. We have almost 4 months. For now that's it. All the details about us, about the trail, and our training will follow...

See you soon...

--Yigit