My Home.
Every weekend for the next while will be dedicated to the kitchen. Today was the first day of painting.
When we picked our ceiling paint, for some reason, we didn't like the pure white that is typical of ceiling paint. We elected to go with an off-shade known as Silk Moon. After applying two coats of this paint today, I cannot really tell the difference.
And yes, those goggles are the same ones from CHEM 201.
Home Depot - Richmond Hill.
I am in the process of redoing my entire kitchen. Over the past two weeks I have gutted my entire kitchen (only thing remaining is my dishwasher, which I have not figured out how to disconnect, and some old tiles).
Well, much to my dismay, I found my drywall and insulation required more repairs than expected. Good thing Home Depot is only a 5 minute drive away! I've learned and used pretty much everything there is in this aisle at Home Depot.
This will be a montage of my every day life... most of the photos will not be amazing or spectacular, at times, even crappy... but that's part of the spirit. One is bound to have good and bad days. :-)
Help me stay motivated by adding comments to my photos! Write me a nasty note if I am slow with my updates. Hope you enjoy this!
Without further ado... 1st photo:
January 1, 2010 - Sunrise @ SAT
Today marks the end of my San Antonio, TX trip and I had an early morning flight to Dallas connecting onward to Toronto. Security was heightened to ORANGE status thanks to the Nigerian dude. As I was trying to take photos of the sunrise, a security guy approached and asked WTF was I doing... what the heck. He released after I told him I was just trying to get a picture of the beautiful colours. I didn't feel too comfortable taking more photos... so this was the best I ended up with. :|
After my eventful Ottawa Marathon in May of this year, I did not feel like I ran a full marathon. So, a week later, on May 30th, I signed up for the October Toronto Marathon to give myself a chance at redemption. May 30th feels like eons ago, but the Toronto Marathon date creped upon me a lot faster than expected.
As in any intense sport, training is of utmost importance and often begins months before the actual competition. I gave myself the entire June off as a break after the Ottawa Marathon; studies have shown that it takes a day for each mile ran in order for your body to recover. I have also been told you only need 3 months of intense training to prepare for a marathon!
For many reasons, none better than I was lazy and had found more interesting things to do than running, I got off to a slow start with my training. Then came the Iceland and Enchantments trips to interrupt my training schedule. By September, I only ran once or twice a week, the typical run was about 5km, with single long run of about 20km. Perhaps I was eating out a lot more, but my weight was 3-4 lbs heavier than in May.
I participated in the September Terry Fox run – a good opportunity to test my race pace for 10km. Finished the run in about 53 minutes. I had given my all into the run, and my pace was quite a bit slower than my all time best of 47 minutes. My muscles were sore after the run too. Not Good!!!
I was pretty motivated from that point to seriously train, as I realized I was pretty screwed in terms of preparation already. However, to make matters worse, two weeks before the race, I experienced some upper left chest pains. I had no idea if the pain was emanating from my chest muscles or my heart. At the same time, a rash had developed behind my right knee and had become infected.
This health scare totally rattled my psyche. If I could not even walk without pain, how was I going to run a marathon? Despite the disappointment, the choice was rather simple. Health comes before running. Ended up seeing a doctor and getting a battery of tests for my heart and chest. Most likely just a temporal muscle spasm, according to my doctor. I also got a prescription of Bmethasone which did wonders to my rash (cured in 48 hours).
To make matters even more interesting, the weather had taken a sharp turn to the chilly side the week before the marathon. 10-15C (50-60F) is the ideal temperature range, but the forecast put race day to be 2-8C (35-45F)! Everyone jokingly said that I would not collapse from heat exhaustion in this weather! However, I did not want to freeze to death or carry extra clothing weight for 42km.
I was on the fence right up to the day of the Expo. Should I run the full marathon, downgrade to a half, or not run at all. Physically, I felt fine, but a marathon is definitely taxing on the body. Ironically, the health issues put the race into a totally new perspective for me. My original goals were to finish under 4 hours and to keep running the entire distance. Now I’d be happy to just finish the race. For real.
Expo day arrived. My sister had arrived the previous night to run the race. We wanted to drive the race course before visiting the expo to get a feel for the distance. The course starts at Mel Lastman Square and heads down Yonge Street before making a side trip to Casa Loma. I have taken the Finch subway line downtown so often, but I never expected that I would run pretty much the entire line!! From Casa Loma, we would run down the Bayview Bypass towards Waterfront. The last half of the course travels along the lake shore towards High Park before looping back and finishing at Queen’s Park. With traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to drive most of the course!
The Expo was itself was mediocre. However, when I got to the line to pick up the race kits, I decided that I wanted to run the marathon. A lot of people had dropped by to give their support these past couple days. My sister had driven up from Rhode Island to run with me. Pekoe would take a day off to cheer me on. Everyone believed in me, how can I not believe in myself? I mean, the worse I could do was walk. lol.
The two highlights of the expo were a chat with a pysching team doctor and meeting Kathrine Switzer and her husband. The former was interesting as my sister soaked up all the advise the doctor imparted. For me, given my Ottawa Marathon experience, I could relate to everything she was talking about. This was the first time where I realized how much experience matters. You know exactly what you are getting yourself into. :P
Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry before women were officially allowed. She recounted her Boston Marathon story to the crowd, but her constant interjections to buy her book for the full story annoyed me. I was more impressed that she was able to bring down her marathon time from 4:20 to a 2:51 over her lifetime! That’s ridiculous. Since I had registered early for the marathon, I received a complimentary copy of her book 26.2 Marathon Stories. Her autograph in my book:
For Joran:
To share our love of the marathon, with its challenges and its magic.
Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson
Toronto Marathon Oct 18, 2009
We went back uptown to Pacific Mall for the last supper.
Tomorrow’s the big day.
This is it. -MJ
I thought no one reads this blog anymore, but recently I found out one person does. lol.
Since my last entry in May, a lot has happened. One of the more interesting things was that I was able to partake in the Amazing Race show on CBS. They were in their 15th instalment this season and I was invited to help out (well basically cheer) with the Vietnam leg of the race while I was there earlier this year. Not that I knew what I was doing at the time, as it was my first ever experience with a professional film crew. Little did I know, a clip of me made it into the October 4th, 2009 episode!!!
Thanks to GC for the screencap. :)