I found this on etsy a while back and just loved it

I was looking back through some older posts here and came across a few talking about how I just ran 7 or 8 kms that particular day.. I don’t remember what night it was, or what I had for dinner.. but I do remember those early days of starting out how much it really really hurt and how tired I was when I finished. 5km’s used to make me so tired it hurt so much walking up a dozen flight of stairs afterwords. Today? 5,6,7 kms is basically just a warm up for what ever run I’m doing that day. It’s funny how quickly things change and yet how much it feels like just yesterday that I was giving my all and coming up with a 30 minute 5km run.

The above photo is of me in early 2008, just about the time I originally started to run, but only to give it up because of painful knees and shins. I picked things up once again in 2010 just as we moved to Toronto. There just so happened to be a track across the road and I’d go over and do my thing sometimes in the morning, or at night when the soccer leagues were out playing under the lights. Slowly I built up my distances, laughing with co-workers as we talked over how absurd a marathon sounded.. and yet there was the thought that someday I might run a half marathon but it never really crossed my mind to do the full. When the day came to move out to Vancouver, I decided to sign up for a half marathon.. thinking how incredibly far it really seemed. It went fairly well, considering the snow storm that blew through the week before leaving snow and ice throughout the course. Following that came another 1/2 in 2011, this time improving my PB by 6 minutes. It’s about that time I knew I was hooked and I decided to sign up for the big show and do the full marathon.

It wasn’t really a matter of running it to prove anything.. well, maybe it was on some what of a personal level, but I really wanted to do it to test myself at what I really could do.. what I was physically capable of. Along the way through some long, long 20+ mile training runs, it became apparent that running this thing would be as much as a mental challenge as it would be a physical challenge. It was that which I never really thought about. There was always looking ahead on the calendar and laughing with friends about how much it’s going to hurt.. but It never moved to how much focus would have to go into running that far. The truth is there is no real way to mentally and physically prepare for what the marathon would be until I actually laced up my shoes and stood on the line. This in itself made me the most nervous. I trained right, had all the support along the way.. but until i experienced that mythical wall and went past mile 22 (the farthest I would train before), I really didn’t know what to expect.

So here I am, 26.2 miles further than where I started out April 29th. What can I say? Did I hit the wall? Not really. With some great training and planning with the help of my friend Colin, and Nike running.com, I can really say that I was only really tired until mile 24-25. To me that’s one hell of a run. I even ran some negative splits running the second half of the race faster than the first half! After everything is said and done, I look at the photo above and it makes me think back where I started and how much it hurt then to run.. and where I am now as the photo on the right in 2012, and how much it took for me to hurt and get to the finish. I doubt I’ll run anything past 26.2 miles, I’m already thinking ahead to next May when I plan on running the Vancouver Marathon…ready and willing to put my mind and body through 3 hours of intense pain all for the glory and weight of the medal around my neck and the arms of my son hugging me tight. I love running and it’s something that only few can really truely enjoy, but few will never really understand, seeing us out at 6am in the pouring rain smiling. My advice? It may hurt like hell, but its a good pain and one hell of a ride getting there. It’s something you know you earned and will look back on how far you’ve come and something to think about where you’re going.

Until the next race.

Well, what to say… where to start… That was the most nervous I’ve ever been probably since I proposed to Chantelle.. before the race was pretty intense. I was awake at 4:45am, and had a bunch of food and finally made my way over to the race at 6:25am.. My goal was to run with the 3:25 pace bunny for the marathon and to see where that would go.. For the race, I kept with the bunny for the first 14 miles and then started to realize I was in better condition to pick things up and see where things land..

A guy named Pedro, whom had run 97 marathons, pulled up beside me after mile 14 and we started chatting which helped immensely to help keep my mind off everything. We kept pace until at about 22 miles in, and I kept the going at my pace and he fell back. I kept pace with another guy named Jeremy for the last 6 miles. He definitely helped keep the pace going, and if anything, increased it over the last few miles. My legs felt great up until mile 24 and then shit got real and I just tried to keep my pace until the end. The crowds were great and the atmosphere something I’ll never forget.

It was the most tired I’ve ever been, most intense run and most proud I’ve been to complete a run. I was a bit emotional afterwords when I saw Chantelle, Noah and Colin and am so happy to have them there supporting me.

I’m super happy with my finishing time of 3:19:05, pace (7:36) and overall finish! Felt good to pick up my pace for the last 6 miles, and am super glad I went out slower at the start so I wouldn’t collapse at the finish.

Splits:

• 5km: 23:47, 7:40 pace
• 10km: 48:02, 7:44 pace
• Half: 1:41:36, 7:46 pace
• 20 mile: 2:34:10, 7:43 pace
• Finish: 3:19:05, 7:36 pace

Next marathon? I’ll Probably run the BMO Vancouver Marathon in May 2013. I might be racing a 5km race the first week of June, but depending on how my legs feel… and I’ll be racing a 1/2 marathon coming up at the end of June – The Scotiabank 1/2 Marathon, which starts at UBC and ends in beautiful Stanley Park.

Here’s an awesome ad I came across for Pearl Jam/ iTunes gift card.

Here’s me from the last 3 months with the Everyday app for iPhone