2013: The Year in Review

Well it's been quite a year.  I've ran twelve races, four 5k's, one duathlon, two mud runs, two 10k's and three half marathon while logging 122.99 km.  Or so says Map My Run on my iPhone.  If the courses are accurate, it should have added up to 119 km.  Anyways, 122.99 km in races and 521.21 km of running on my own for a total of 644.2 km.  This doesn't seem like a lot considering in 2012 I ran 467 km and didn't start running seriously until July.  Last August I did go crazy though, running 160.79 km for the month, running 5-7k nearly every day and sometimes running twice if I missed a day.  The closest I've come to that total was 90.4 km in February.  I was advised by a more experienced runner to allocate rest days to avoid injury.

My Wall of Bibs

On my way to completing those 12 races, I earned myself 7 medals.  My first race was the Brita Resolution Run on New Year's morning.  No medal, but we received a nice blue jacket, except the zippers on my pockets both stopped zipping properly.  Shortly after that, I began training for the Fargo Half set in May, where I received my first medal.  A month later, I ran the Manitoba Half, beating Fargo's time and earning my second medal at which point developed the desire to earn medals.  July became a busy month, in which I ran 5 races.  First up was the 20 min challenge, a free 5k run in which we received a free hat.  Next up that weekend was the Morden Try-a-du (2k run, 10k bike, 3k run).  I had done a couple of brick training sessions to get used to the transitioning from running to biking and back to running.  Following the race, to my surprise, we each received a finisher's medal.  A week later was Color Me Rad, a 5k color run in which we wore white and got bombed by color powder and liquids.  No medal was awarded.  That next weekend was Mud Hero, a 6k mud run where I received my forth medal. 

Fargo Half, MB Half, Mud Hero, Morden Try-a-du, Winnipeg 10&10, WFPS Half, Santa Shuffle

Three weeks later, I participated in the Dirty Donkey, another mud run, but this time it was 5k.  Again, no medal was awarded, but each finisher received an orange Buff.  Towards the end of August was the Fort Whyte Twilight run, a 10k race after dusk.  Again, no medal was awarded, but we received a headlamp.  September would mark my second 10k race, the Winnipeg 10 & 10.  I finished with a new personal best and my fifth medal.

My third Half Marathon would be a difficult one, as I returned to work, but on nights.  I completed the race with an unfavorable time, but had just finished working 13 hour shift.  I also received my sixth medal.  From then until December, I had a 6 week period in which I had not ran due to work, an injury sandwiched between a couple of colds and quite a few social events in which some I was part of the planning.  I signed up for the Santa Shuffle knowing things would have settled down by then.  It was a cold one, but completed it for my 7th and final medal of the year.  Very few 5k's award medals, and this was my first.

There are a lot of races out there and many medals to be had.  I'd like to try new races if possible, but will likely run a few of the same races again in 2014.  I have just registered for the Fargo Half in May and will commence training tomorrow, on January 1st.  I also know that I'll be running the WFPS Half again for sure.  Reason being...

 ...I won a free entry through their Facebook page.  Score!  I'm considering the Fargo Half again, as it was by far my favorite race to date.  The Manitoba Half is high on my list as well, since I know so many people who participate.  I'd also like to go try the Rock 'n Roll Vegas half in November as I've heard that is an amazing event to experience.  A more recent one that I've added to my bucket list is the Bermuda Marathon Weekend which is held in January.  I have a friend who lives out there, but due to life, have not had the opportunity to go.  Unfortunately it's too late to register or plan to go in 2014, but I want to make it a strong possibility in 2015.  This one features 3 races, a 1k on Friday evening, a 10k Saturday morning and your choice of a half or full marathon on Sunday.  Each race awards a different medal and if you participate in all three events, you earn a forth medal.

Well 2013 proved to be a very eventful year for myself.  Many firsts, a few personal bests and a lot of fun times with old and new friends.  I look forward to what 2014 may bring while striving to reach my goals.  I hope to improve on my running by breaking personal bests and becoming an overall better runner.  Here's a 3 min montage video recapping my year in running.  Have a Safe and Happy New Year.

Teefury's 12 days of Shirtmas Part 2

Tee Fury held a picture contest.  For more details, view my previous entry here: Teefury's 12 days of Shirtmas Part 1

Day 7: Ugliest Sweaters
One fan had asked Tee Fury via Twitter if they would do a contest that didn't require a shirt, because they didn't own one. Many commented asking why she didn't own any, as they are so good.  Tee Fury responded that day 7, you wouldn't require a Tee Fury shirt.  I own an ugly Christmas sweater which I made myself.  Fortunately I have pics of myself wearing said sweater.  It features 2 snowmen, one of which stole the other's carrot nose, a googly eyed Santa, Bumbles on a mitt, 2 very friendly reindeer and working Christmas lights.  So I took one pic of me wearing the sweater and added close ups of the details on the right, seen below.

Ugliest Sweaters

Day 8: Hidden In A Tree

Previously in part 1, I mentioned that I had not put up a tree.  Well 2 days prior to Day 8, I decided to make an invisible tree.  I saw this posted on Facebook last year and new I wanted to make on this year.  My cousin Michelle does the whole Boxing Day shopping every year, so I asked her to pick me up some green ball ornaments.  I took a round plastic platter from a meat tray and drilled pairs of holes throughout and hung that from a hook in the ceiling.  I then took fishing line and tied one end to the ornaments themselves and the other to ornament hooks.  These I would attach to the platter through the holes.  These ornaments would be suspended in the form of a tree creating an illusion that they hang from an invisible tree.  So for this pic, I wore my Tessellation shirt which features a Transformers Starscream in bot mode morphing into his plane mode.  In one hand I held my Classics Starscream (bot) and the other held Universe Starscream (plane), somewhat making them part of my shirts design.  This being an invisible tree, it wasn't a very good hiding place for Starscream.

Hidden in a Tree

Day 9: Adventurous Christmas:

Again, I new pretty much how I wanted to implement this theme.  I went back to Jason, as he wore a Finn (Adventure Time) costume to Comic Con (C4) last year.  I asked if I could borrow it for said pic.  He agreed, but couldn't meet til later.  When I arrived, it was a bit late and asked if he could take my pic in costume.  His wife Stef said that their son Skyler has one too, but also a Jake costume that was too big for him at Halloween time.  She suggested dressing him up to try it on. Skyler didn't seem to like it too much, as he fidgeted a lot.  They snapped a few pics of him solo and then I put on a Santa had on myself and antlers on Skyler.  Finn wears a blue shirt, so I put on my Energon shirt which features Kup's hand from Transformers holding energon goodies with the tag line "ba-weep-gra-na-weep-ninny-bong" which is their universal greeting.  Below is the result.  This picture was also very popular, likely because of how cute Skyler was.

Adventurous Christmas

Day 10: Christmas Past

This pic, I decided to recreate the Ghost of Christmas Past.  My shirt of choice was my Megatron shirt which is recreated into a football helmet to mimic Detroit Lion wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, who shares his name as his nickname. I put on a white shirt, draped part of my toga and put on shackles from my Atlas costume a few years back.  I then placed the face on the shirt over my face to make up the ghostly figure.  I had lit candles in the background, but unfortunately I'm blocking them out of view.  

Christmas Past

Day 11:  Christmas Future

I wasn't quite sure what I would do this time around.  I was thinking a black hoodie and doing Ghost of Christmas Future, but wasn't sure.  I saw Stef online, who had been following my pics, and asked if she had any suggestions.  She said I should make myself look old.  I found an iphone app called Old Booth, which ages you different ages, 70, 85 and 99.  I chose 85.  Unfortunately it zooms into your face and you can't use the whole pic. I had to put it on my lap top and cut out the face, resize it and paste it back onto the original picture.  This was the first picture that I actually manipulated for the contest.  Here, I chose my You're In My Spot tee, inspired by Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory.  It being red, I also wore my Santa hat, and you can see my invisible tree in the mirror behind me.  I'm holding Bender from Futurama due to both shirts they sold that day were mash-ups of Futurama and Dr Who.

Christmas Future

Day 12: Something Sweet:

Now this one was really fun to shoot.  I was inspired by Elf, where he makes himself a spaghetti breakfast containing candy, marshmallows, pancake and ice cream syrops and pop tarts.  In the scene, Buddy grabs a handful of marshmallows and tops his spaghetti, before taking a fork and shoveling it into his mouth with strands hanging out.  He then takes a pop tart, breaks it apart and mixes it in with his hands, before scooping some into his mouth, again with the spaghetti hanging out.  As you can see, there is a lot of sugar on the table.  I didn't actually consume the spaghetti, but I did pick out the pop tarts and ate them.  One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Buddy says: "We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup".  As for the shirt, my green Confused Chameleon would have worked better, but I had already worn it for the contest.  So I went with this black one, which features several different space ships throughout Sci-Fi.  I don't know them all, but found this list in the comments, so I'm not sure how accurate it is:

Millennium Falcon
Eagle 5
Serenity
Discovery One
Planet Express Ship
Enterprise
Space Invader
Cylon Raider
Tardis
Andromeda ascendant
Starfox Arwing
Saiyan Space Pod
Heart of Gold
Moya
tie fighter
Asteroids ship
Gunstar (Last Starfighter)
Babylon 5

Something Sweet

Although I did not win, it was a fun contest to participate in.  I do hope TeeFury holds similar contests in the future.

Teefury's 12 days of Shirtmas Part 1

I've been known to wear a variety of pop culture tee shirts.  Many of them with a Transformers theme.  I get most of them from Target and a couple of websites: Tee Fury and Ript Apparel.  This Christmas Tee Fury held a contest called The 12 Days of Shirtmas.  In order to participate, they would provide a theme and you would have to be creative and take a picture of said theme, preferably with one of their t-shirts and then post it to Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr using the hash tag #shirtmas.  I signed up for Instagram about a year and a half ago and had only posted 1 pic.  I never really used it before, so this forced me to learn how to use it.  Now I'm hooked.  You can follow me on both Instagram and Twitter @llfalcon.  Tee Fury's daily shirt always foreshadowed the theme loosely.  I decided to participate, as I probably have more than 12 of their shirts.  I sorted through my shirts and found all my Tee Fury Tees.  There was a daily prize of 1 t-shirt from their gallery (listed at $18 each) awarded to a random participant.  A grand prize of 12 t-shirts would be awarded to a creative participant of all 12 days.

Day 1: Santa

I wasn't sure how I was going to do this at first.  My friend Lisa was visiting from out of town with her 15 month old daughter Asha and we decided to meet and go to the mall.  She had a few items to pick up, then we hung out at the play area so that we could catch up while Asha played.  We passed by the Santa at the mall and had Lisa take a pic of me with Santa in the background.  It was tough to get a shot because he was so far back and we tried not to get any children in the shot.  I thought, meh, good enough.  After our visit, I returned home and it grew darker.  There's a house across the street with an amazing Christmas display that flashes it's lights to music.  This display contains a Santa.  So in the cold, I went out, removed my jacket and sweater and took a few selfies with my phone while wearing my Drunken Clam shirt inspired by the local watering hole from Family Guy.  This is what I came up with.

Santa

Day 2: Use the Force

When I read the theme, I knew instantly how I wanted to play this one out.  My friend Jason is a huge Star Wars fan and I wanted to use his Darth Vader mask and light saber as props for my pic.  I texted him to see if I can stop by and use his props.  He agreed and I went there once he got home from work.  I work a black long sleeved shirt and my Plastic Heroes shirt.  This features silhouettes of heroic characters made into toys from the 80's.  This includes Optimus Prime, Snake Eyes, Leonardo, Lion-O, He-Man, Voltron, a Smurf, a lego man, Hulk Hogan, Batman and Chewbacca.  I put on the helmet with light saber in hand (unfortunately the batteries were dead) and did the force choke with some of his collection in the background.

Use The Force

Day 3: Christmas By the Sea

Now this was a bit more challenging as it's winter here and I live no where by the ocean.  Lisa was now back home in Bermuda and she suggested I send her a pic and she'd take a picture of me on her iPad with the ocean in the background.  Now I read the theme on my phone off of Twitter and misread the theme.  Christmas was at the end of one line and By the Sea was on the next.  I missed the Christmas part and thought it was only By the Sea.  My idea was to wear a white tee, Hear Evil, See Evil and Speak Evil.  This features monkeys, pirates have monkeys (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Pirates live at sea.  I also dressed up in a black vest, red skull bandana, an eye patch and a bone necklace.  I took several selfies in the mirror and sent Lisa the one I thought looked best.  Unfortunately it was an overcast day in Bermuda and this was the best she came up with.  It was difficult to see my shirt, so I added a picture of the print to the bottom of the pic. 

Christmas By The Sea

Day 4: I Met a Wild Tee

This one was easy.  I have a Max costume from Where the Wild Things Are and thought this would fit the theme perfectly.  The tough part was, how would I take a picture of myself on my phone?   I have a camera, but I had misplaced the charger.  So I searched all over and finally found that and my tripod.  I got dressed into costume and chose my Confused Chameleon shirt which features a rainbow colored lizard.  I set up the tripod on my deck and set the timer for 10 seconds.  I ran out into the high snow to get my shot.  It took about 3 tries before I got the shot that I wanted.  It was hella cold, so I returned quickly back into the house.  After returning indoors, I realized that I was still wearing my glasses that tinted in sunlight.  Doh, this will have to do, because there was no way I was going out in the cold again for a reshoot.  This proved to be one of my most popular ones, as it received many likes from friends, contest participants and even Teefury themselves.  I thought this one would win for sure, but unfortunately it did not as they said it was random.

I Met A Wild Tee

Day 5: Bubbly

This one wasn't my best picture.  I wanted to blow bubbles all around me and take a pic.  I made a mixture out of dish soap and water but had nothing to make the bubbles with.  I improvised and used some Macgyver skills to make a hoop out of a screw driver and a key ring.  The bubbles weren't really coming out as I had expected.  I had read that if you added cornstarch, the bubbles would hold much better.  It still wasn't really working all that well, but well enough.  I set up my camera with the timer and took many pics, but the bubbles kept popping.  After at least 10 pics, I was able to capture on good sized bubble.  I wore my E.T. the Extreme Terrestrial shirt for this one.

Bubbly

Day 6:  Festive Family

I was working my last night shift and slept most of the day.  I had no tree, so I called my parents.  They had not put up a tree either.  Hmm...I called my aunt.  She said she doesn't put one up anymore and gave it to my cousin.  He was currently there, so I asked him.  He had put it up, but had not decorated it yet.  So I asked him if I could go to his house and take a pic for this contest.  He agreed.  I then called back my folks and asked if they would go there and be in my picture.  They were limited by time as they had a Christmas party to attend.  They did however agree and I met them there.  I got there first and started decorating the tree.  Upon their arrival I had them put on a matching shirt and Christmas headgear.  Today's shirt is a Grim Find, which is a fossilized version of the Transfomers Grimlock (T-Rex).  I've been collecting multiples of the Transformers shirts to sell at a later date, so my parents were able to wear the same shirt as me.  We finished decorating the tree and posed for several pics as my cousin snapped them.  This also saved my cousin a lot of time from decorating the next day.  Thanks to my parents for being good sports and my cousin for using his tree and taking the pics.

Festive Family

Continue on to Part 2

Santa Shuffle 5k (Race Recap)

The Santa Shuffle will likely be my final race of the year, as I don't think there is really any more.  I likely don't have the time for one anyhow.  I picked up my race kit late Thursday evening.  This included my bib, chocolate, hand warmers and not seen here, some tissues, an iRun magazine and a Salvation Army newsletter.

Race kit

Saturday morning was fairly cold.  High of -21C, low of -28C with a windchill of -36C.  If you dress appropriately, it's not that bad.  I've ran in worse and for longer, so it didn't phase me.  I picked up Steph that morning and went to the race site.  I wore my bright green shell, my Do Not Open Til Xmas pajama bottoms and my Santa hat, of course over several layers of running gear.  Waiting for the race to begin, we got our pic taken with Santa.

Picture with Santa

The race began shortly after 10am and was a course mapped out for two loops to make up the 5k.  Starting off at the Forks, near the Scotiabank Stage, we ran towards and over the Provencher bridge.  Immediately crossing the bridge, we hung a right down an unplowed path.  This is where it bottle necked as everyone was running single file.  I signaled to Steph to take the road as we followed a modified path that many followed.  From there, we ran down the back side of the hospital, before bottle necking again down a flight of stairs to another unplowed pather closer to the river.  This led us to a ramp that went to the Queensway Bridge and then another ramp entering the Forks again.  We reached the Start/Finish line, which marked the start of the 2nd loop.  Here, I started to get tired and slowed down.  Steph slowly pulled away at this point.  Crossing the bridge, I took the unplowed path, as traffic the 2nd go around wasn't bottlenecking.  Still, it was unplowed and wasn't great to run on.  When the opportunity arrived, I hopped down the snowbank onto the road.  I took several rest walks along the way, especially when I got to the stairs and traffic slowed down again.  I ended up following a few people the rest of the way through as they were running the ideal pace for my currently ability.  I reached the finish line and got my medal.  Steph was waiting patiently in the cold with a friend.  My face was frosted over and would have taken a pick, but my phone konked out due to the extreme cold.  Honestly, the race itself wasn't bad since I was bundled up.  The worst part was waiting before the race and then when we stopped after the race.

We got some hot chocolate which felt nice to hold and warmed up our hands.  Well now it was breakfast time.  To the Pancake House we go!  There was a little bit of a wait for a table, but not too long.  I ran into my Janelle and her 2 friends, so I introduced everyone.  We were called up for seating at the same time and got adjacent tables.  Once my phone warmed up and turned on, we got our photo ops with our medals. 

In front of the Christmas Tree at the Pancake House

I ordered bacon, eggs and pancakes while Steph had her glutten free chocolate chip pancakes  We ate our meals, then made our way home.  Inspired partially by Elf on a Shelf photos that have been floating around, as well as a girl I knew back in high school and her own Elf on a Shelf posts, I decided to start taking photos with Santa Bender.  This being the first.

Robot Santa and Santa Bender displaying my 7th finishers medal

I also set this one up on my friend's tree later that night at her Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

I came in like a wrecking ball...

Back In Action

Well it's been a while since my last entry, which was following the WFPS half.  The main reason for not posting is that I dropped off from running.  So it was about 6.5 weeks between that race on Oct 19th and my first run last Wednesday, Dec 4th.  There are a multitude of reasons that I haven't been running, but they are excuses.  If I really wanted to run, I would have found the time and made the effort.  I had been rehired back at my previous employment after a 3.5 absence due to my term ending.  Working shift work and 13 hour shifts made it difficult to run half of the week.  I was also playing 3 sports.  Ball hockey I made every game, Soccer, maybe half the games and my newest activity, 3D Dodgeball, which I made most games.  It is basically dodgeball on trampolines at a new place that just opened, Skyzone.  I'll get back to that in a moment.  I also got sick and didn't want to run outside, as the temperature started to drop.  I then pulled my calf in ball hockey, but didn't realize it.  I thought I had gotten hit somehow and it was bruised, so I iced it.  It wasn't too bad, but I went to play soccer the next evening and pulled it again, a little more severely, enough for me to remove myself from the game.  2 days later, as stubborn as I am, I played 3D Dodgeball and it was sore afterwards.  I then rested it for 4 days before playing playing ball hockey again.  Yes, I'm stubborn, but I love my sports and don't want to let my team down.  I made sure to stretch it well, but it was still sore after.  Again, soccer came and I still played.  I was surely slowed down by it.  The next day, guess what?  I played dodgeball and again it was sore after.  I then rested it for the next 4 days, all while icing it during that period.  It did eventually heal, which I was happy about, but then I got sick again. 

One of my best friends Sandra is getting married later this month and asked me to be one of her Bride's maids (or Bride's men if you will), which I accepted.  This meant helping out a lot in various events, planning and attending.  This includes the Wedding Social, Bridal Shower and Stagette.  There have been a few other events recently that I attended, so this made for a fairly busy few months.  I had previously registered for the Santa Shuffle, which is only a 5k fun run, but I thought it would be best to get in a few runs prior to the event.  I could feel in my different sports that I had lost a lot of cardio with my lack of running.  So Wednesday December 4th was my return to running.  It being my day off and my department having a potluck lunch, I slept in a little too long and had to cut my run short to go into the office that morning.  It was a bad week to return to running as it snowed and the temperature had dropped to -12C, -15C with the windchill.  I only managed a 3.5k run, but it was a start.  It snowed all day and into the night, which made for worse conditions the next day.  This time it was a very slow 5.5k run through deep snow, with temps of -15C, -19C with the windchill.  I ran about 1.5k through the unplowed sidewalks, until I decided to run on the street.  It was icy, but was wearing my grips.  Neither run would I consider to be good, but I had to restart somewhere. 

I'll end this entry with a new 30 day challenge that I'm doing.  I was discussing challenges with some members of my dodgeball team, as one girl, Leah, was completing a 30 day yoga challenge.  Having enjoyed the 30 day squat challenge, I asked them if they'd be interested in doing that?  Due to vacations and some being out of the country at the end/beginning of the year, we decided not to start that until January 15th.  Another member of my team presented me a plank challenge, that I accepted.  The 2 of us are currently working on the following. 

The 30 Day Plank Challenge will send your core strength through the roof! Yes, all you have to do is HOLD this position, nothing else! It looks pretty easy, but it isn't!

Day 1 - 20 seconds
Day 2 - 20 seconds
Day 3 - 30 seconds
Day 4 - 30 seconds
Day 5 - 40 seconds
Day 6 - REST
Day 7 - 45 seconds
Day 8 - 45 seconds
Day 9 - 60 seconds
Day 10 - 60 seconds
Day 11 - 60 seconds
Day 12 - 90 seconds
Day 13 - REST
Day 14 - 90 seconds
Day 15 - 90 seconds
Day 16 - 120 seconds
Day 17 - 120 seconds
Day 18 - 150 seconds
Day 19 - REST
Day 20 - 150 seconds
Day 21 - 150 seconds
Day 22 - 180 seconds
Day 23 - 180 seconds
Day 24 - 210 seconds
Day 25 - 210 seconds
Day 26 - REST
Day 27 - 240 seconds
Day 28 - 240 seconds
Day 29 - 270 seconds
Day 30 - PLANK FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!

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Benefits of Plank Exercise:

*It strengthens your lower back
*It develops your core muscles – which include the abs, back, hips and the butt.
*Helps you to avoid injuries and encourage good posture
*Can be done anywhere
*Develops your abdominals by targeting the rectus abdominis

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This is a beginner routine.. everyone starts somewhere!

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