Poonapalooza: BRIGHT Run

Yesterday I went to the BRIGHT Run to support my gal Beverly who has been on the planning committee since its inception five years ago. What an event. It was a rainy and wet day, but the enthusiasm of the people and hearing the stories of the survivors was so touching, I barely noticed the grey skies and drizzle. Once the run started, the rain let up and it even became sunny by the time we were heading home. The run was a 5k, not timed, run. Since I had no chip or gun time to try and beat from my last race, I took it easy and ran with my hubby which gave us the opportunity to chat about all kinds of stuff. And we got to cross the finish line together. We rarely run together because someone always has to watch Julien, so this was a real treat.

My friend from work came to the run with her two children. Mary has a disease called Sarcoidosis and she wants to organize her own run in the near future to raise money for Sarcoidosis research. Mary had never been to a run/race before and she was curious to see how a charity running event was organized. She went away with lots to think about. She thought it was very helpful to be there because she was able to see all the work that goes into organizing such an event. When Mary does organize her run for Sarcoidosis research, you better believe I will be running it:)

Mary and I post run.

I ran into my girlfriend Elin's sisters at the event in the toilet line. I was wondering why one of them sort of gave me the brush off. I learned today from Elin, that the offending sister had no idea who I was. And I actually wasn't offended, just baffled. She hadn't seen me since Christmas. The same thing happened to me about a month ago with a former client of mine. He didn't recognize me at all, and afterwards, blamed it on wearing new contact lenses. It baffles me that I look so different to others. I need to remember that my appearance has changed dramatically and people I know, can walk right by me and not say anything to me because they don't recognize me. It has happened a few times and I have to remind myself that they are not being rude, they just don't register who I am.

Something that I have noticed of late is my left ankle is swollen. I'm not sure what this means because it's not sore in any way. I noticed it this Wednesday past while I was test driving a new pair of Adidas running shoes. My ankle was noticeably swollen. It has gone down since Wednesday, but still looks a little swollen. The only thing I can think of is that I did a lot of driving last week and my left foot didn't get any action. It just sat there. If it continues to swell this week, I will have to go visit the doctor. Can't take any chances with my feet or any part of me that will mess with my running.

Today my Running Room boss asked me if I would be willing to teach the Learn to Run clinic again. I said I would and I'm sure that Beverly would co-teach with me again. Depending on what instructors want to teach what clinics, we may just get to do the For Women Only clinic which is the same thing as the Learn to Run, but for women only. It's on a Friday night which may work better for me if we get some participants this time around. Carol (my boss) also suggested that I submit my weight-loss story to the Running Room magazine. I may just do it. It would be cool to see a story I wrote myself in publication.

I meant to weigh-in this weekend, but with the run on Saturday morning, and my practice run this morning, I forgot to weigh in until this afternoon. And I wasn't about to do a weigh-in in the afternoon! I could weigh-in tomorrow morning, but I'm calling Dr. Poon's clinic tomorrow to make an appointment for the 19th of September because that's the next time I'm going through Pickering. I may just wait to get weighed until then since it will be my "official" weigh-in day and I always like to see a big weight-loss number. I also don't need to see the numbers on the scale to validate how I'm doing. If I'm staying on plan, then I know that I'm losing weight regardless. So I think I'll continue to eat on plan, swim, run and walk my dog until the 19th. I'll be excited to see what the number is then. It should be in the 170's...fingers crossed!

I will leave you with some photos from the BRIGHT Run. Note to self, I must remember to always wear cool running shades during photos, even when it's cloudy because otherwise, I look VERY old. Those wrinkles tell a story!