Thank you Marcia & John Jessop for your donation to the Canadian Diabetes Association!

Inspiration. I was surfing the web this afternoon and I came across this photo and just had to share it. It reads:

$1000 - Shoes, clothing, electronics and incidentals
$7500 - Hours training and fundraising converted to salary
$6100 - Funds raised for Team Diabetes to participate in the Barcelona 2008 Marathon

Running my first 42Km marathon on my 42nd birthday in honour of my diabetic wife Tammy . . . priceless!!

A big thanks goes out to Mary & Jim Volk for their generous donation!

You too can donate online. Click here to find out how.

There are one day left to bid on an item at the Team Diabetes Online Charity Auction! Bid on gift certificates, spa passes and sports equipment starting at or under 50% retail value!!

Go to http://www.realauction.ca/teamdiabetes-sudbury to bid now!

Ottawa Army Run 2009. On Sunday I took part in the Army Run in Ottawa. It started off with a bang - literally - they shot off a cannon to start the race. It was a beautiful course that started downtown and ran along the Ottawa canal all the way to the experimental farm, around Dow's Lake and then onto Queen Elizabeth Drive back downtown. Dave followed me the whole way cheering me on every 5kms or so. It meant a lot to have someone on the course with me since I was running alone.

I started out pretty strong setting a new personal best for the 10km with a time of 73'49". The second half of the run slowed down as I was having a lot of pain in my lower back. My new orthotics have been great for my feet, no pain there, but they are a killer on my lower back. I think I need to make an appointment to check them out. I came across the finish line at 2:47:22 coming in 317/334 in my age/gender group (yay not last!).

After the race Jen, Melanie, Jim and I went to Le Nordik to soak in the nordic baths. Jen asked about massage cancellations and luckily there was an opening so I had a 60min swedish massage to aid in recovery. Thanks Jen! I love massages! We stayed at the spa for almost 4 hours - I love that place - especially the hot tubs.

Check out happy Taylor in the hot tub with the sunglass burn:

A big thanks to Jessica Bennett-Heywood for her donation! Very much appreciated! Jessica is raising money for cancer research through the CIBC Run for the cure on October 4th. You can sponsor her here!

The online charity auction for my Team Diabetes Campaign is now live! You can check out the items for bid at http://www.realauction.ca/teamdiabetes-sudbury.

Highlights include:
- CAA Plus Membership
- John Frieda Gift Baskets
- Le Scandinave Spa Passes
- VIP Wine Tour and Tasting at Vineland Estates Winery
- Couple Portrait session in Toronto with Pink Pearl Images
- Molly Maid Gift Certificate

Teammates. On the way back from the wedding David and I stopped to meet fellow Team D participant Marilyn at Cottage Country Crafts in Collingwood. Marilyn is also running the marathon in Athens and she generously donated some books to my online auction.

Her entire store had signs about Team Diabetes. Art hung on the wall with the proceeds being donated to CDA. Various craft supplies and toys has CDA signs on them. And there was a pledge form at the cash in case you felt inclined to donate. Check out the opening/closing times sign. If you can't read it, it says "It's Team Diabetes long marathon training time again! We will be closed Sundays for training until after the marathon in Athens, Greece in November." Fantastic! If you never heard about Team Diabetes before you entered Cottage Country Crafts you sure did afterwards.

Check out Marilyn's 'trophies' of her previous Team Diabetes races that are displayed above the cash. She's been to Rome, Rio and Dublin and she's already signed up for the London marathon next year! I really like meeting other Team D members - it makes me feel more like I'm on a team and gives me renewed spirit in my fundraising/training initiatives!

Cottage Country Crafts
69 Hurontario Street

Collingwood, ON
L9Y 2L7
(705) 446-0877

Big News. I got married at the end of August at Vineland Estates Winery (Niagara area). We had 49 people join us for our little celebration. We even had a mario brothers themed cake! Originally I had this nieve idea that I could run the 14km chocolate race in st catherines the next day. Eventually I decided it might be nice to visit with friends and family and get a bit more sleep.

Milestones abound. You know it's kind of great being a 'newish' runner or at least a sucky one. Improvements happen all the time! When I was a kid I always got the "Most Improved Player" award just because I sucked so much to start off with. Since I've recently become more comfortable running a slowish pace for longer periods I've recently started to challange myself other ways: running faster, or longer. Today I beat my record and ran continuously for 40 minutes straight plus I beat my 5k personal best record which was previously 36'05"!

New Milestone. Yesterday I had a good run. I did my 5 minute walk warm-up and then started into an easy jog on the account of my leg injury. And this something surprising happened...I didn't feel like stopping. So I jogged 35 minutes straight! And I could have gone longer but my scheduled run was up. I felt good, I was able to ignore pretty much everything and think about something other than running and the moment (don't worry I still kept an eye out for cars and bears and such...). Hopefully I have more runs like this one in the future. More good news, my thigh doesn't have pain which is great since my long run is scheduled today.

Bad News. The pain my right thigh has returned. I'm becoming sufficiently annoyed that this occurs after the short weekday runs and not the long weekend runs. I figured that after feeling fine after the 19.4km earlier this week that I was in the clear. Apparently not. I had a run scheduled for today however I am going to take it easy. If I don't feel better by Friday I think I'm going to try out water running as much as that makes me sad.

My Fastest Runs

Before Today's Run:

After Today's Run:Check it out! I left today with the mission to run fast instead of my usual mantra, "just survive." As you can see I destroyed my 1 mile and 5km personal best times. I have a goal of completing a sub-30min 5km run at some point and have decided that after the marathon training is over that is what I will concentrate on. This is just a step to completing that goal.

Ewww. So after being pathetically weak and nauseous after my 19.4km run Sunday I decided that I could not longer delay the inevitable. I would need a supplement other than just water. I need gels. Ewww. I think of gels kind of like hair gel that happens to have a hint of strawberry or chocolate. Okay so the taste is usually not great but it's the texture that gets me. Yuck. So I went to my friendly Running Room and got some answers on what the salesman though was the least offensive. On a positive note I picked up some "Sport beans" which are jelly beans instead of gel!!! Lots of people don't like them because they think it's not good to walk during a run because that would make them less of a runner. I can imagine trying to pop in a bag of jelly beans while running could prove to be difficult. But for me (I walk through every water station) walking and eating jelly beans sounds like a nice break and a hell of a lot better than gel. Alas the beans are a bit bulky so I bought a selection of gel to try out. I'll give you my first review this weekend. Here's to low expectations....

A couple days ago I received a donation from my friend and colleague. He is currently training and fundraising for The weekend to end breast cancer which is a 60km walk Sept 11-13. He has reached his $2000 goal but is still accepting donations. Check out www.endcancer.ca/goto/MichaelSchumaker if you're interested in finding out more.

New Orthotics! My new orthotic inserts came in yesterday. It will take a while to get used to them. The schedule is to wear them one hour the first day and then add an hour a day until I can wear them all the time without pain.

Injured. After some internet self-diagnosis which left me subsequently paranoid, I went to the sports injury clinic to find out if the nagging pain in my thigh was going to be a big problem. If you drew a line down the centre of my thigh and then moved the line 2 inches from center towards the left, I had a 5" x 0.5" area of pain. The sports injury clinic determined that I had full range of motion so it was mostly likely just a muscle strain. This diagnosis made me happy but simultaneously embarassed. So I am taking the week off of running to let this injury heal. I'll start with an easy run on Tuesday.

Le Scandinave Spa: Blue Mountain. One of my favourite places on Earth has donated passes to their scandinavian baths to the Team Diabetes auction! The Scandinavian Baths are renowned for their ability to cleanse the skin and provide a sense of well-being. You can try the Finnish Sauna, Norwegian Steam Bath, Thermal & Nordic Waterfalls, as well as Hot Baths & Cold Plunges. Coming up for bid September 1st 2009.

I am in the midst of preparing an online charity auction for Team Diabetes that will run for the month of September. Momentum for item donation picked up today as I recieved three more items. The nicest conversation I had was with Russ at Rusty Cellars which is a make your own wine establishment. Russ has generously donated one of his Showcase Collection.

Keep your eyes open for more info on the auction. Hopefully there will be some great deals!

Last week I went to the foot doctor to see about orthotics. The running stores always tell me that one foot pronates more than the other (sometimes they ask me if I've broken my ankle before!). I believe that this imbalance explains why my sore ankle changes sides with different shoes (different levels of support).

So it turns out the running store people are not full of it and all they said was true. Apparently I have excessive overpronation. This means that my foot rolls inward too much, the foot and ankle have problems stabilizing the body, and shock isn't absorbed as efficiently.

So I have ordered some orthotics and they should be in in a couple of weeks. I'm excited to try them out but a little worried that its going to hurt and take a while to adjust.