42.2 km later...

This past Sunday marks a first for me- I completed my first marathon! :)


My friend Mandy kindly let me stay at her place the night before, in Toronto, and I got rested up before race day. I thought I would be a ball of nerves but I actually was relaxed and not too stressed- I even managed to have a good night's sleep whereas I'm usually so "tendu."

The starting line was pretty stressful- crammed in with 12,000 other people- but we eventually got going. I had to really book it to catch up with my friends but ended up running with another girl from my clinic for pretty much the whole way.

I won't bore you with all the details...but try it sometime :P At about 38 km, I was really fading and didn't want to take another step. I felt like I couldn't breathe and had to walk/run the last few kilometres, which I hate doing, but I still finished well. I dropped back from my friend and finished a few minutes after her, but it turned out we finished in about the same time because of the starting line. Somehow I still pulled together some kind of energy and still ran across the finish:)

I tried to post photos but they are official race photos and can't copy them...so I took a couple of my own, of the medal, race shirt and my race bib.

Next up, Boston.... (yeah right!)

I just have to say...«Je raffole de l'automne!» It's my favourite season; even though every year I'm wishing for the last moments of summer to linger a little longer, I am so thrilled when the air changes and there's that delicious autumn smell.

Soon, I hope to post some fall photos, but for now, here are a couple that my little sister Ruth took from soccer, and one of Ruth taking a photo.

Kind of looks like we don't do much... :)

Deking out the competition

On the way to Toronto, I had a great visit with my former roommate, Jenny. It was great to reconnect before continuing on.


Well, it may be my last post before Europe...I'll let you all know how it goes!

Ciao! And Happy Thanksgiving a little early! :)

Miscellany

The countdown is on... 4 days till my race, about 20 till Europe!!! Yikes! There is too much to do till then, but hopefully it will all come together.


So far, I'm not too injured that I can't compete, so I'm going to do my best. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends Mandy and Robin in Toronto; they're kindly letting me stay over the night before the race. I'm excited to go to the runner's expo and hopefully get some free stuff:)


Tonight, our small group is meeting for the first time. I'm kind of nervous but looking forward to what this year will bring, and how we will blend together as a group. It's been a while since I led anything like this before and I'm very glad there are three of us leading. We're going to be discussing prayer for the first while, which is something that's always a challenge for me, so it will be great to get input from others and to explore all this together.


The other night, I couldn't get to sleep right away, and I started just thinking about everything that's going on, and I realized how important it is for me to take some time in every day just to process, and to allow myself to calm down for a few minutes. I really need this quietude in my life and I'm too stressed when I don't take those few minutes, and it was a time when I could refocus.


Church was like that too this week- I had to listen to some things I didn't want to hear, about our love for Jesus showing by the way we live with each other. So simple, but immensely hard to practice for me, a lot of the time! I tend to pick my situations where I can not be too bothered or inconvenienced, and that's pretty opposite from what Jesus wants. This is especially the case with my sister- and in the past, with my roommates- and it was an opportunity for my pretenses to be stripped away. Again. (Not fun.) It reminded me of Edmund in Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis) when he is a dragon and he has to get all the dragon skin peeled off in order to go back to himself; I would say it's a pretty close parallel.


This has turned into a long post; again, my words escape with me:) I will update probably after this weekend, hopefully the race pics turn out okay!

my room (for lack of a better photo) :)

Why ain't it always summer? Why must it end? Who wants to put their shoes on? Not me, my friend (Anne of Green Gables musical) :)

Can you believe it's the second week of September? There's already a chill in the air and I'm still clinging to the last thoughts of summer.

I just have to say, I can't wait till my friends Josh and Laura have their baby- I guessed they would have it on the 8th but it looks like I was wrong. I can't wait to see photos of the little one, if you're reading this, hope all goes well, it will be such a cutie!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of a visit from my Aunt Barb and Uncle Phil who were passing through on their way back from a wedding. I haven't seen them often the last few years, and they moved to the States this year, so it was a pleasant surprise.

We went out for lunch before they took to the road again, and had a great time catching up. Now I'm thinking...road trip to New York state? :)

Somehow, September is filling up so fast already, even though I'm no longer a student- it surprises me every year when every day almost I have somewhere I need to go or something I need to get done.

Right now, my time is largely consumed with training for this marathon - 18 days left! Yikes! - and trying to avoid injury. I am SO taking a break after this one! Hopefully I can actually finish the race, that's the goal at this point. (Of course, it would be a nice bonus to do it well- but we'll see...)

This year, I'm co-leading a small group in our young adults group, so I'm pretty excited about that, plus continuing with ESL conversation class. How did I get so busy for someone who's not a student? I feel like I have more (or just as much) on the go as when I was a student with three part-time jobs in the summer. And that's without family responsibilities like kids! To you moms out there, I don't know how you do it, but I applaud you!

I leave you with a couple of photos from Roman Holiday- I love the idea of dancing on a barge in Rome:) Who knows, I may get to try some of these things! We shall see...

Happy September!

Sisters

This weekend, my little sister Ruth came down for a visit, one week after her birthday as kind of a late birthday present. She took the train to Toronto and I met her there; we enjoyed walking around Toronto until our train back to London. It was her first time in either city, and on a train, so I think it was fun for her.

While she was here, Liz and I took her out for supper, and for ice cream at Marble Slab. The girl there actually thought we were twins- we were like, "Um, no... there's ten years between us..." - unbelievable! We also took Ruth to Niagara Falls on Saturday - a first for her and Liz. There was a huge rainbow arcing over the entire falls for several minutes. I tried to get some shots of it but I think I overexposed the photos.

All in all, it was great to have her, and we had all kinds of adventures, including getting lost on the way to and back from the falls! Good times.

We also took some goofy car photos on the way back - this is one where Liz looks so impressed :P

Word for today

Psalm 121

The LORD the Keeper of Israel.

A Song of Ascents.

1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8 The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Today I am restless and need to expend some energy- hard to do while sitting at a desk at a sedentary job. But I'm also feeling restless in spirit, and I think this psalm is very appropriate for today.

The wheels on the bus

This morning, while riding the bus to work, I decided to watch the people around me, instead of just plugging in my earphones and listening to my music.

While sitting there, it occurred to me how much I can learn from students. Well, not just students, but that is mostly who ride the bus I take to work:) The guy beside me had his music too loud, which irritated me until I realized it was a Taylor Swift song that I like. The young mother who is often on the bus was keeping up a steady stream of conversation while taking her daughter to school. Someone else was reading a book which looked like Harry Potter, and another girl had a really great hairstyle that I can't do with my curly hair.

All these things are not really profound or anything, but it made me realize how the little things can really affect one's day. I could choose to be grumpy for a couple hours till my coffee kicked in, or I could appreciate the cross-section of society that I shared a bus with. Surprisingly, I was thinking all these lucid thoughts before 8 o'clock in morning:)

In a year where I've had some pretty high highs and low lows, today is a reminder that my mood does not control me, and I can choose to make the most of each day instead of letting circumstances dictate my life. Somehow I always manage to forget this till the next rainy day when I actually need to apply it:)

Any thoughts?

Welcome back, Kat!

On Tuesday night, I got together with my friend Kat who was in London shortly on her way back from Ukraine. I got to see her before when she was leaving and again now that she's back, I'm spoiled:) It was fun reconnecting and hearing what God has been doing in her life in the last year. Welcome back, Kat:)

Kat's first Starbucks back in Canada!