stoopid dora

so now when people ask if i did anything special for my 50th birthday, i can say i dropped a 45lb barbell on my foot, and broke my toe ! what a loser !!! great shot though . . .

and check out this pic i got from my buddy kiz today - obviously he has way too much time on his hands . . .

at least i can still bike . . .

running didn't seem to be part of the plan for my body this week, so i had to keep riding. luckily the weather's staying sweet, and the colors are keeping me entertained! i've even had to resort to the dreaded elliptical a couple of times, as per coach spaff. just imagine the comments i got while trying not to get distracted and fall off one of those blasted pieces of equipment! spaff said i should attach a sign that reads 'the only reason i'm on this stoopid thing is because spaff says'. anyways, that said, i must admit i had a couple of beauty rides. saturday i headed up old baseline past the badlands and over to belfountain. got rained on a few times, but nothing my new 'gore bike' jacket couldn't handle !! ended up coming down st andrews and harassing a couple of golfers on 'the pulpit'. managed to put in around 80k in 3 and a half hours. i know, it's slow, but i had fun ! here are a few shots from saturday . . .

sunday i rode into bolton for crossfit. good group out today. me, jenn and dino did deadlifts, burpees, pushups and squats - 70 total. seemed to really trash the legs! then got back on the giant and rode over to boston mills for a little extra mileage. again, great day to ride and got in another 60k! here's a couple shots from the south end of st andrews.

and so here's hoping i can get back on the trails this week - either that or i'm going to kill somebody !!!!!!

i know, i know, patience grasshopper !

not much going on

here's a kool shot of me and les from stage 2 of this year's TRR.

'come on dora, don't be a baby'

me and christine did the 'old lady ride' on the rail trail out to inglewood on sunday. of course we had to stop at the gen store for a coffee and a cookie . . .

and look what ann s got me for my birthday - an 'edible arrangement.' and just guess how long those chocolate strawberries lasted !!! great gift for sure !

free hugs

so because of my stoopidity at having dropped a barbell on my foot, i haven't been able to run all week. ask me how crabby i am . . . coach 'd' got me to do a 30 minute tempo on my bike - and that almost killed me MORE than the tempo i did previously while running! man i suck on the bike this year!! BUT !!! look what i got in the mail on friday !! freddie of team knucklehead fame from TRR 2008, and partner of the infamous georgie - SHUT UP - labelled me 'the hugger', and just HAD to send me this . . .

and so natch i had to wear it to our 'friday night club' at crossfit. we named it that on account of a bunch of us have nothing better to do on a friday - not that that's a bad thing! unfortunately, our ring leader, the soon-to-be-lycra-clad LUCA didn't make it - something about his car being in pieces in the garage ??!!! this is a shot of us AFTER dillon made me do 100 pullups, 150 pushups, 200 situps and 250 squats !!! argh!

and so like i said, no running for me this weekend. instead, i decided to ride up st. andrews and over to hockley. wait a minute, is that the general store . . . gee, i just might have to stop and get a coffee . . . and a cowboy cookie . . .

it was a beauty day for a ride, and i really enjoyed being out by myself. the colors are just starting, and i know it's evil to a lot of people, but the golden rod is gorgeous. check out this shot i took on the gore.

and the highlight - these two little dudes on the road to connor just north of hwy 9 !!!



so despite not being able to get in a long run, i had a great day!

enough already !!!!!

well, the big five ohhh has come and gone. thank pete ! everyone EXCEPT me seemed to think it was a big deal - to me, it's just another day. a lot of people seemed to think i had to 'do something special' . . . hmmmm, let's see, if i really consider it, i say i've already DONE a lot of really kool things this year. like - visiting georgie in texas and running 80 miles, like - going to tennesse with my favorite pylons and running the mountains of chattanooga for 3 days. like - starting up a trail group and seeing how fit all my little dirties have become. like - being introduced to the mighty alex and going crazy with my latest obsession - crossfit. like going sky diving with my friends michael and little miss betty. like - going back to colorado to run the transrockies with my bitchin friend leslie on REALLY short notice. like - getting a sunflower tattooed on my shoulder. so ya, sounds pretty sweet to me !

BUT i must get one 'little' thing off my chest before i go any further. i truly think my clients were out to get me this year. over the span of 5 days, i received - and consumed - the following . . .

• 4 chocolate bars of assorted flavor
• 2 shortbread chocolate chunk cookies
• one bag of chocolate covered cranberries
• 21 sour cream glazed timbits (okay, i bought those - but derrick said i could!)
• one dairy queen ice cream cake - which the pickle helped me eat
• one wendy's triple cheeseburger and fries - moose's fault
• one VERY LARGE brownie reeses peanut butter milk chocolate chip cheesecake
• a dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
• 3 pieces of peanut butter chocolate cream pie

and yes digger, it's all true. kick me off the primal wagon - for i have sinned beyond forgiveness!

anyways, enough on that. check out the pic below - this is what your foot might look like IF you drop a 45lb barbell on it . . .

i am such a loser !

and finally, you all know how i LOVE getting stuff in the mail . . . well check out what i got from derrick today!!! and check out how he addressed it . . .

MORE STICKERS !!!

thanks D - LOVE the shirt !!! you rock !!!

and finally, let's all take a moment to remember matt. it was a year ago, on my birthday, that he died. i hope you all did a little run in his memory. keep exploring the trails my friend, wherever your spirit takes you.

one more day . . .

yeehaw! got our new crossfit shirts last night (only after 80 reps of assorted madness with the olympic bar and 68 burpees - thanks dillon !) check 'em out

went running in hilton falls with a few of the pylons today. as usual, only saw the captain, cy and robbie at the start, and for the first 10 minutes - stoopid slow dora ! homey felt sorry for me and plodded along keeping me company. here i am goofing around on the limestone - man what a technical place to run !

homey and me taking a 5'er by the golf course . . .


homey by the quarry bridge

and hahaha - look what i got from the captain, digger and cy !!! adore the wrapping and the cinderella card! thanks guys - i luvs ya !!

talk about luck . . . can you BELIEVE someone was actually going to throw these out !!??? i mean, they're HOMER slippers! c'mon !! super score for dora !!


and so as mentioned, i've enlisted the services of derrick spafford to try and get me back on track with the running. he had me do a 20min tempo run on wednesday and that almost killed me. and then an easy recovery hour on thursday. went up across humber station and the gore and managed to catch a pic of this guy amongst the golden rod.

but the main reason i like this guy, is he recommended i consume 50 sour cream timbits to celebrate my birthday on sunday. how kool is THAT !!??

'life is good'

cake and balloons

my trail group is amazing! when we got to the bench at the top of humber station , i noticed a bunch of balloons! the girls, with little shar as the ring leader, had snuck out early and decorated the big old maple tree. and there was cake! and coffee!

thanks guys! what a super thing to do! you're the best!!!
xoxoxoxo

it's september already . . .

alrightee - made it to brampton on thursday and got the color put in my sunflower. glen did an amazing job as usual . . .

my internet service has totally sucked lately, so i thought maybe if i cleared some branches, i could get a better signal. i tried chopping down a few hawthorns by the road, and then had the moose climb the maple outside my window. probably wasn't the best idea in the middle of the side effects of 'earl'. doh ! and unfortunately, it didn't help at all. stoopid internet connection.

finally got back to training the glp - it'd been a few weeks and i'm thinking she's gonna be hurtin tomorrow! sorry fatima !!! great shot of 'the pickle' playing spiderman, although i can't believe he was allowed to do this without a helmet . . .

AND, it's probably a good thing school starts in a couple of days - 'the pickle' is getting pretty bored . . .

it felt good to be hanging out at the gym again. i'd missed the gang and dillon made sure i hadn't forgot how to do pull-ups by giving me 125 of them on thursday. whaaaa ! and, because i've been excessively lazy with my running this summer, i've decided to enlist the expertise of 'the spaff' to try and help get me back on track !!! 'what could go wrong?'

stage 6

vail to beaver creek - 21.2 miles - total climbing 4780 feet - and we're done!

had to laugh right off the start line when leslie commented on a woman strutting through vail in a pair of stilettos at 8 in the morning. ah, lifestyles of the rich and famous . . .

anyways, another sweet day for running. and the last day to play in the mountains (big sad face). here's a shot from the first climb up through the trembling aspens - i love this section.

got to the first aid station and was greeted by the lovely cindy - massage therapist extreme! i had met her in 2008, and she sure hasn't lost her touch! made the girls sing for the last two legs. what a sweetie !

and won't soon forget this moment - a hug from the incredible dean karnazes . what a nice guy! said if he'd known he'd get this many hugs from the middle of the packers, he run with them more often ! hehe

as we approached the top of the climb, i was dreading the downhill. flashbacks from 2008 kept appearing in my head. visions of me and christine running full tilt down that dreaded singletrack, with me pretty much convinced i was going to die, wouldn't leave my head. so when leslie and i took it at a more sane pace, i was actually able to see what we'd run down two years ago. and again, i can see now why 'it almost killed me'.

and i'd also been thinking about that last ski hill i'd had to drag christine up - thinking i might have to get leslie to tow me this time!! fortunately they'd changed it a bit, and we were able to avoid most of it, and run some nice single track instead! and then before we knew it, we were heading back down and could hear the announcer! over the bridge we went and across the line in 5:11. it was so great to have keith calling us in . . .


a few shots from the finish . . .

and a few shots from the banquet - tamara and michael

the lovely/super fast michelle barton and her adorable daughter sierra

and of course, the TRR just wouldn't have been complete without a couple of 'old goats' !!

so, to summarize, we ran approx 116 miles and climbed over 21,000 feet over 6 days. our total running time was 28 hours and 13 minutes. AND, we managed to come in 6th out of 18 in the women's 80+ category. not bad considering my last LONG run was in june, and my longest training run since then was only 2 hours. all i can say is, crossfit works! my legs felt strong and not once were my quads trashed on the downhills. yeehaw! big thanks to alex and the boys for pushing my sorry old arse.

and one more thing - i want to really thank keith and leslie for bringing me back to colorado, despite the short notice and the lack of training. as mentioned, leslie was a great partner and it was soooo good to get to know her better. she's an amazing runner and truly lives up to the label of 'mountain girl'. incredible! and oh ya, i think i saw even more of her ass then i have of my good buddy homey's lately! hehehe! tons of luck in italy girl - go rock it !!!

stage 5

red cliff to vail - total of 22.8 miles and 5500 feet climbing. another beauty day as leslie and i headed up yet another mountain ! damn we're getting good at these! check out the pic of max king - leader and eventual winner in the mens' open category ! guess when you're that fast you can get away with it! and totally prefer this outfit to the guy with the white spandex waffle knickers - eep !

les taking a pic of me taking a pic of les . . .

funny story of the day - when we got to the top of vail, we spotted a load of 'fat tourists' heading onto a shuttle bus. a couple of them asked if 'we were last' . . . hmmm - they definitely deserve 'the ass'. so as their bus passed by us we dropped our shorts and howled as the bus driver slowed down and let them take pics! even funnier though, when we finished the stage, and were soaking in the creek, the same load of tourists, having made their way back down the mountain, met up with us while standing on the bridge over the creek. they were laughing and making comments like they didn't recognize us with our shorts on . . . too much!

saweet shot from the top of vail . . .


'top of the world'

so day 5 turned out to be the longest, with a running time of 5:52. but you know, it was probably the easiest and my most favorite. thanks again leslie for making it so !!!

finished off the day with an amazing feast of bbq'd steak, big mushrooms, grilled veggies and monster chocolate chip cookies. TR sure knows how to spoil a girl !!!

day four

camp hale to red cliff - 14 miles - 3060 feet elevation - basically, runners go up, runners go down. nice thing is, they took out a big, long, evil dirt road downhill section and substituted some sweet single track! it was lovely ! lot easier on the quads for sure! started off the uphill feeling like lead, but got my climbing legs after about an hour. feeling spec, i tried a small sprint and almost passed out !! leslie and i had a good laugh over that one !!

here's a great shot from the top . . .

special guest runner for the day was kevin, more affectionately known as houda ! one of the race organizers and hugely responsible for keeping everything on track. this guy is hilarious! was arrested at last year's TRR for being drunk and disorderly. typical hockey player, and, those nice strong legs sure helped him hammer the climbs. the last i saw of him this year was at the banquet walking around with 3 beer in his hands (and i'm not exaggerating).

i was dreading the half mile we had to run through the creek - remembering it from 2008. poor leslie had to listen to me bitch - before we even got there. luckily, and for whatever reason, it wasn't near as bad, so my feet were able to thaw out after only a couple of minutes this time!

couple more shots from the creek - not sure whether i was coming . . .

or going . . .

another great shot of our view on the way down. i think this is close to the finish, but i can't remember !! stoopid old-brained dora . . .

we made it to the finish line in 3:26. good day of running. followed our freeeeezing creek soak with a massive bacon, avocado cheeseburger at the green mango while waiting for leslie's husband keith and GORE supa'star cynthia to come in - they had walked the course and had a fantastic time !!!


and totally unrelated to TRR, but before i forget, i'd like to mention one of my most inspirational friends. his name is scott and he just completed an ironman on the weekend. take the time to read his story. it'll make you cry, and it'll make you believe you can do anything.

love you scott !