Bluenose Marathon 2014

I ran the Bluenose marathon yesterday. That makes marathon #2 in the books.

First of all I want to say thanks to the organizers and the volunteers for making this another great event. I've been hearing so many positive comments as usual about this event. Good job. I'd also like to thank Joanne for training with me and Luc for cooking suppers and keeping the house clean while I was out running.

18 weeks of training

As many of you know, I have been run streaking since November 29th. What started as the Runners World run streak from US Thanksgiving to New Years day turned into 172 days and counting for me. So a rest day for me is a mile. It takes me longer to put my gym clothes on and off then it does to actually run the mile. HA!

The week leading up to the race

I knew from the my last marathon how important it is to get properly fueled right the week leading up to the race. 200-300 grams of carbs plus clean eating. My eating went to hell this time and I do think that did hamper my performance somewhat. I could have done better, but for some reason my DGAF meter was pretty high.

NOTE: It's Jan 23, 2015 I just found this post that I hadn't finished writing. I will finish it now. I'm going to back date it too.

I really enjoyed this race. It was wonderful to race on home turf.

I really don't remember but the food couldn't have been that much of an issue. I PR'd it. 5:28 and some change.

Before the race started, I took my place behind the 5 hour plus marker. There was only 3 or 4 of us there. When the horn blew everybody took off like their asses were on fire. I kept thinking "Why is everyone running so fast? They are going to blow up" As I watched everyone get further and further away. I'm going to assume they did, because of the 3 or 4 that were in the 5+ hour corral, there were 23 that finished 5 hours plus and 3 that didn't finish at all. Don't start off too fast.

I spent most of the race in last place. When we hit Shubie Park, I was able to pass a couple of other ladies. We spent most of the race vying for last place. I do remember hitting Inglis street and I put the thrusters on. I passed the two of them and they weren't able to catch up after that. That was probably 8k from the finish, I think.

What was the hardest part

The hardest part for me was running through the parks. Shubie park is very twisty turny and hilly. Point Pleasant Park while not so twisty and turny, had the hardest hill in the whole race to conquer. Serpentine. Both parks are crusher dust. I find it hard to run on, and because I tend to shuffle, I tend to get a lot of rocks in my shoes from running through the parks.

Everyone complains about the Blue nose marathon hills

The Bluenose is a very technical course. There are hills. There is terrain differences. But most people complain about the hills.

The Bridge - People complain about this. I really don't know why. But they do. The swaying bridge over open water scares me more than the slight, long incline.

Nantucket - Right after you get off the bridge, you have to climb Nantucket. There are worse hills coming up. Don't worry. This one is a piece of cake.

Woodland - This takes you up behind Mic Mac Mall and heading into Shubie Park. I don't really even remember anything about this one. I know it's there, but it wasn't really memborable.

Maple - Anyone from Dartmouth dreads this hill. It's a killer. Yep it is. It's steep. But you climb it fast. There are a lot of spectators on Maple to help carry you up to the top. Before you know it, you are on the straight away heading back to Halifax.

Brunswick - This is a little irritating incline at the finish / half way point. I'm not sure why this is so irritating. It's not steep. It's not overly long. It's just irritating.

Ramp at the Casino - This is another irritating one. It's a little steep, but it's not long.

Serpentine - This is about 5km from the finish. It's in Point Pleasant Park. It's steep. It's long. It's winding. It's on crusher gravel. Your tired. This is brutal. BRUTAL.  But once you reach the top you're only about 3.5 km from the finish. Home Sweet Home.

2013 in review

For the most part I had a fantastic year.

Start with the lows

My father in law had a stroke early in the year. He recovered for the most part but he does have some memory and speech problems.

I gained 30 lbs. that is just gross.

Friends around me suffered some losses. Children, parents, siblings, spouses, friends, pets. Divorces and separations. I hope they have a better year in 2014.

And the bombing at the Boston Marathon. We were in the middle of planning our trip to this event, when the opportunity for Cuba presented itself.

and now for the highs

We had our fair share of RV Shows. Halifax in January. Moncton and Montreal in March.

We took a family trip to Cuba. It was a great trip. It definitely was not long enough. We will go back someday.




My step son graduated from St FX university. And my son ( the baby) graduated from high school. Daughter received the Academic All Canadian award.

We had another campground season that was pretty good. It was so cold May long weekend. It snowed in some places. Gander NL got 20 cm of snow that weekend.

We managed to get in a couple of camping trips ourselves in this year. One to Hidden Hilltop in Truro and a couple of weekends at Spry Bay Campground.




Hiking through Taylor Head Provincial Park was so much fun. I'm looking forward to more hiking in 2014.




The mud run and Run or Dye were run at Martock on the Cross Country skiing trails. I really enjoyed running through there. I'd like to get a chance to cross country ski through there too.

We also got to go to the 2013 Tourism Summit this year. We really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun and really interesting. We learned a lot. I'm looking forward to going again next year.

Christmas Eve we had an open house. I had an absolute blast. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did. It was probably the highlight of my holiday.








Looking back through Facebook at my 2013 I realize that we eat a LOT of lobster. And I say "and I didn't even poop my pants" more than any person should.







Running Highlights

Hypothermic Half in February. 21.1 km. This was sort of postponed due to a blizzard. So I ran mine the next day.
Lung Run in April 5km
Bluenose Half in May 21.1 km PB



Lunenburg Muffin Run in June 5km 32:35 PB
Mud run in July 6km
Maritime Race Weekend in September 5km and 21.1 km
Run or Dye in September 3 km *eyeroll*
Valley Harvest Marathon in October 42.2 km 5:40:00
Lucky 7 Relay in November 7km
Mad Dash in November 10km 1:14 PB
Resolution Run in December 5km

One of my goals for 2013 was to hit a sub-30 5km. I came close but didn't quite hit it. But I am happy with my progress. My distance goal for the year was to do at least 100 km per month. I didn't hit that in August, but I did for every other month and broke a total of 1600 km for the year. What I did do, was race every distance this year and I PB'd them all.

I took part in the #rwrunstreak this year. The goal was to run at least one mile a day from US Thanksgiving to New Years Eve. 34 Days. I ran every one of them.

That was 2013 in a nutshell. Stay tuned for plans for 2014.

2013 reading

One of my goals for 2013 was to read more. I read some and listened to lots. I kept a list and here it is. I found that with all the driving I do in the summer, I get to listen to a lot of books. Once camping season was over, I didn't have the time and the books were sent back to the library before I got to finish. I really enjoyed the James Patterson books. I'm looking forward to reading and listening to more.


1) Abduction - Mark Giminez - This had flashbacks to Vietnam war. I'm not a big war story fan, but this was a good book.
2) Eat Run - Scott Jurek - Enjoyed this
3) 50/50 - Dean Karnazes Feb 10 - Enjoyed this
4) Death du Jour - Kathy Reichs - Mar 2 - Really slow. Hard to finish
5) Born to Run - Chris MacDougall (audiobook) Good book.
6) Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn really enjoyed this one. Hard to put down
7) The Brethren - John Grisham ( audiobook) - I expected more from the ending.
8) Kill Me if you Can - James Patterson ( audiobook) this one was really good.
9) The Postcard Killers - James Patterson (audiobook) - Good. But I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first JP book.
10) Violets are Blue - James Patterson (audiobook)
11) NYPD Red - James Patterson (audiobook) I really enjoyed this one. Probably my favorite JP book so far.
12) Along Came a Spider - James Patterson (audiobook) I have never seen the movie, so it wasn't spoiled.
13) Now You See Her - James Patterson (audiobook) Another JP Fav.
14) Private - James Patterson (audiobook)
15) You've been warned -James Patterson (audiobook)
16) Sail -James Patterson (audiobook)
17) You've Been Warned - James Patterson (audiobook) - good book. Loved the ending
18) Wedding Night - Sophie Kinsela (audiobook) - only got to chapter 5 before the library took it back.
19) Run for your life - James Patterson. Audiobook.