Tuesday, December 29, 2009

and then I asked if I could smack his ass....



Yesterday was an amazing day, haven't had so much fun in such a long time. I started of the day with some shopping with the girls at the Eaton Centre downtown Toronto. I managed to get Brooke Hogan's Redemption, Rise Against's Revolutions Per Minute, a pair of AE skinny jeans (I usually don't like to shop at AE b/c I feel their clothes are overpriced and generic but these jeans were 20$ and they fit my skinny flat ass pretty nicely - btw does anyone else feel AE sizes are larger than normal sizes?, I usually wear size 0-3 but I got my jeans in 00), green eye shadow from Sephora (guilty indulgence, so expensive), and Under Armour 2in shorts (got the last pair of 2in shorts, wish they had extra small though but no one seems to have extra smalls in stock....but they were only just under 30$ (tax included) - they are usually 40$ per pair). {wow what a run-on sentence} We also went down onto Queen Street West - love it there, we popped into this dress shop and the dresses were BEAUTIFUL - I wanted to buy the whole store but we couldn't buy anything b/c "if we want to eat tonight we can't buy anything else" as we told the store sales person - I think he's gay - not that I have any issues with them, he was so nice and just so cute - wish more men were that cute. There's a "Black Market" thrift shop kind of thing on Queen and we popped into there, it was insanely amazing. There was a booth that sold clothing from The Fairies Pyjamas (designer is Toronto based) and the clothes were just amazingly cute - my friend D brought a cute purple elf hat from there, we loved it!

From there we trekked down to Front and down to Union so we could catch the streetcar to Exhibition for the Marlies game. We somehow managed to get confused so we asked for directions, a really nice guy gave us directions to board the streetcar but my friend J managed to make us laugh by calling the guy old by accident in front of him when she called her dad - it was hilarious.

Once on the streetcar I noticed there was a family with boys our age onboard, why I noticed this? One of the guys kept on staring at my friend K - not that it's that surprising since K is really pretty and the rest of us were REALLY LOUD - we don't have a mute button. It was a fun ride b/c we kept on freaking out that we were going to miss our stop but in the end we got to the Rioch without any trouble. Getting INTO the building was another story - we decided we were going to be different and not follow the hordes of people so we ended up at the back of the building with genius me trying to convince everyone to go through the staff doors. In the end we had to go where the hordes had gone earlier - we're such geniuses.

We met up with the guys inside the building (A, N (J's huggy), & A), we had issues going to our seats (Section 104 Row D) b/c the Marlies were coming out for warmup - my friend K got excited at the sight of #38 of the Marlies "#38 is soo CUTE!!!!" btw #38 of the Marlies is Jay Rosehill. This was how our first hockey game (for the majority of us) started - it only got dirtier after that. I have to say it was mostly my fault b/c I couldn't help but admire the butts of the Lake Erie Monsters - shoutouts to #29 and #49 of the LEM - à mon dieu they have cute butts. My friend A (the brown one) and I spent most of the warm up period making fun of the LEM goalie (if only we can take that back) b/c we were sitting right behind the opposing goalie's net - it was amazing for us but I imagine not for the people sitting around us b/c we were being VERY rowdy teenagers. We continued our excitement until the end of the first period when we were losing 0-4 (Marlies were losing).


Then came the fries - word of advice, DO NOT GET FRIES FROM THE RIOCH - they taste like CARDBOARD, though the hot sauce + bbq sauce was very tasty:) Not that they helped us from being disappointed at the lost, 0-7 - we only wanted ONE GOAL but we didn't get it:( Throughout the game this guy infront of us kept turning around to talk to me and omg he was funny - according to my friend D he wanted to Marlies Dancers to come back (they had danced in front of us during the 1st period) but I guess they ran away from that guy, my friends A &A - not N b/c he has my friend J. During the last period my friends and I got rowdy again and decided we could play better, my friend A (big one) would play goalie b/c he's a big guy, A (brown one) would play defence b/c he just learnt to skate last week and his falling on the opposing players = checking, and I would play offense b/c I'm a bit fast :) sounds great to me.

Anyways, post game, my friend D and I lined up for an autograph from a Marlies player which was Andre Deveaux last night. During the game I kind of dirty talked and said that I would like to smack a player's ass and well some of the guys said they would pay me if I did (including the guy who kept turning around to talk to me). So when our turn came to get the autographs I asked Deveaux very politely if I could smack his ass - since he was sitting down it wasn't like I could just do it. He just gave me a weird look, laughed, and said no. Which is understandable b/c really, why would he want to have me smack his ass. I thought it would be fine since I won't ever be seeing him again but then I realized when I woke up this morning that my anti-bullying committee, PEERS, is trying to somehow work with the Marlies to prevent bullying in elementary schools - which means I might have to see him again. I think I should RUN and never come back. It's hard to believe I wasn't drinking with what I did last night.

Highlight calls of the night:
-"You're Skating like A"
-"Don't let D eat you"
-"you're the hot sauce on my cardboard fries"
-"score one for the Asian!"
-"Squid head"

Sunday, November 15, 2009

OFSAA XC 2009


I actually raced last week (well on the 7th) but I've been too busy to blog or too lazy to blog. Let's just say this was the worst race of the season for me - approx. 5k = 24:14. I was predicted to be in the top 100 and I came in at 159. I didn't even make top half. I have to say it was pretty devastating though it is understandable - 2 weeks before racing I had a popped hip flexor hence inflammation so I had to knock down my milage - just wasn't at top 100% physically. I also didn't have the best of warm ups - up until 3.5k my leg muscles were contracting like heck and I even considered dropping out of the race (something that has never occurred in my mind). On the bright side, I did get a gorg. OFSAA hoodie:) I love it, so warm and just cute on me.

I took a week off (well in my mind it's a week, I last ran on Tues so I'm SUPPOSED to be off my feet until Wed but not running is a torture) and I just can't wait to get myself back onto the roads - I can't sit still and even my creativity is down - my English essay on the use of irony in the novella Mad Shadows was supposed to be done by Fri afternoon but as of right now I've written about 1/4 of a paragraph.
On Wed I hit the weightroom pretty hard for someone who hasn't been in there for a formal workout in months - I did overhead squats (love those) and these weird squats that had me hold dumbbells in my arms and squat down in a way that burned my glutes - had the hardest time even walking from Thurs - Sat. Also spent some time on the rowing machine - I did leg lifts last night (amazing for my core, I'm getting my mini sex-v back!).

On Fri, I had a bit of a melt down as I confessed the crushes I had so far this year to my frineds (J&K since I told D already). All 3 of the guys were on my XC team and one of them is totally out of my usual crushing range (like totally opposite from any guy I've ever liked). The other 2, I know I will never have a chance b/c we just so different in who we are - I know it's not a good idea to crush on them b/c I'll only end up hurting myself like I did with M. The said part is I think I might still have a crush on one of the three and I don't want that crush - b/c of one of my clubs I'm bound to see him at least once a week....I hope I get over him soon.

Italian word of the week: Avvitare
Translation: To screw
:). Enjoy.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

OFF to OFSAA BABY


-originally posted Oct 22
HEADING TO OFSAA!!!!!!!!

XC SEASON: Cardinal Carter + YRAA

Last Wed I was at the Cardinal Carter XC meet (Pre-OFSAA) at BOYD Conservation Park. I have to say it was one of the worst races I've ever ran. It took me 23:42.72 to run 5k - yeah I know, slow. Granted the terrain was quite tough - huge hill, many smaller hills, MUD, and just rocky bits over the route. Not to mention I was sick and was blowing my nose every 2 or 3 min - note to self, sticking tissue into the waistband of UA compression shorts = inability to take out the tissue. I just couldn't get my act together that day, I was boxed in the whole race and at the end of the race I had so much energy that I just SPRINTED to the finish - I don't think I have ever sprinted that fast in my life. In the last 100m of the race I passed approx. 30-40 girls - no joke. Overall I placed 113 out of 574 (of those who finished). The placing wasn't amazing but it wasn't bad either but I do wish I had ran a faster race and hadn't been boxed in. Reflecting back I think if I had warmed up a bit more it would have been a faster race - but then I was boxed in the whole race....

Yesterday, I was at the YRAA XC meet which was the meet to qualify for OFSAA. Time wasn't all that great, I was scared I was going to run out of juice so I ran conservatively throughout the race hence 23:18.34. My final sprint could have been alot better, I passed about 5 people in the final 100 m (upon entering the chute) and 2-3 of them were pretty near the finish line by the time I entered the chute. I wish I hadn't been boxed in for the first 5-10s of the race, otherwise I would have been able to run with the lead group and have them set the pace. I have to say, being a distane runner really gives me an advantage both mentally and physically. As I was wrapping up the race I had a side stich but I was able to push myself to run faster simply b/c I kept telling myself not to be a wimp b/c if I can run a half-marathon then I should be able to run a 5k easy. Overall I placed 11th out of 130 (of those who finished). Our team was 3rd in senior girls and b/c YRAA is hosting OFSAA this year they were allowed to have a few extra runners to send to OFSAA (4 teams + 6 individuals instead of 2 teams + 3 individuals / category) hence ST ROBERT RAMS ARE HITTING UP OFSAA BABY!!!! I have to say when I finished and the coaches told me I was heading to OFSAA (as an individual at that time, 8 out of then 11 runners in front of me were from 2 teams) I thought they were mocking me and just joking around. It took them over 10min to convince me that I had made OFSAA. OFSAA is such a big deal and I had never in a million years thought I would actually make it. I can't wait to get one of those cute OFSAA hoodies!

I also ran the guys' 7k race yesterday b/c I didn't have time to run at home and it was amazingly fun. I wasn't allowed to run fast b/c I would "get into the way" of the guys - well technically I wasn't even supposed to run the race. But...I did passed about half of the guys even though I had raced earlier and wasn't even going at a full out pace - each time I passed a guy they were in shock "are you a girl or a guy or a hermaphrodite?" "I'm a chick, sorry to disappoint you babe." I had such an interesting convo on this with this really cute guy (totally would date him if he were faster) none the less he was complimenting me and saying that I must have passed a ton of guys:).

Took my 2nd day off this week, I was planning to run but after yoga my hip started to ache. I have promised myself that after my 10k next week and OFSAA the week after I will take some time off and go see a professional about this b/c I'm really scared it's a stress fracture but..I don't want to know yet b/c my season isn't' over yet.

School is basically killing me right now, let's just say my average dropped over 20% - if anyone is planning to take on IB I suggest you ask yourself if you're ready to take on unwanted stress and huge mark drops.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon

    It's been a while since my last post but I've been so busy. Currently I am failing math and English as well as doing poorly in chem. & French. I am excited that I got a 5 on my Frye presentation (20/30| I almost got a 21/30 which would have been a high 5 but she bumped me down – I do understand why though) but I know for midterms I'm going to have a 50something (if I'm lucky) because I totally failed the English test – not only did I not finish question #4 which was worth 50% of the test but I also got the thesis wrong. I have so much homework this weekend; chem. lab due Mon, les devoirs de français, theme/quote charts for English on both The Educated Imagination by Northrope Frye and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. I have got to say I absolutely love A Streetcar Named Desire it is such an awesome play – Stanley is just awesome! I also have to get the bulk of my Math Portfolio done which is worth 10% of my final mark and is due in 2 weeks. Not to mention I have a French test on Tues, math test on Wed, and a chem. test on Thurs. Fri will be fun though because 1st period will be Turkey Trot, I really want to win the turkey but I think either Torrey or Kathryn will win it simply because they are better and faster at short distances than I am. Also going shopping with the girls on Fri! YES. Long weekend coming upJ

    It's been a week since the Toronto Waterfront Marathon race weekend and about time for me to blog of my experiences. For the record I did not run the full marathon last Sunday as I am underage to run a full marathon as of this moment – when I turn 18 I'm definitely getting a tattoo of my Chinese name as well as running a full marathon. Let's start with the running expo which I went to last Friday after hitting up the University Fair (I'm seriously considering kinesiology and nutritional sciences at either McGill or UBC since I know I won't make it to the States but the problem is what are the options for career if I were to come out with these degrees). The running expo was neat in the sense there were no long line ups for race pack pickups – didn't really get to visit all the booths as I was in a rush. My race pack was a joke – they gave me pasta sauce in a bag. I never even knew pasta sauce could exist in a bag...the rice chips also present in my race pack were awesome though.

    The race itself on Sunday was enormous – approx. 20000 people for the full marathon, half marathon, and 5k events. The bag check lines were horrible, they definitely were a factor to my dismayed finishing times. I had signed up to run in the blue corral a few months back as I had predicted a time of 1:50 for myself but that proved to be a horrible experience. There were people who signed up for the yellow and blue corrals who could not run the time windows, this caused me to be stuck behind a ton of people and not be able to run at my own pace not to mention the difference between my official and my chip time is over 8 minutes. I am disappointed with the people who decided to try to give themselves an advantage by signing up for a corral with a time window in which they could not finish in as they are utterly selfish and they cause many others like myself to have to slow down and not race the way we wanted. The race itself was pretty awesome; I loved the cheering & entertainment stations. At one point during the race we passed by a cute Scotiabank dog mascot so I gave him a huge sweaty hug as we were moving slow enough – I kind of feel bad for that guy since I made him all sweaty but he was so cute.

    Moving onwards, at 11k I grabbed some Gatorade but stupid me thought I could run while drinking which I couldn't so I managed to get Gatorade ALL OVER ME. It was not cool. At the next drink station I managed to clean myself by pouring water head down J I felt cleaner and definitely more refreshed since it was really humid during the race and I hate humid weather. I believe my 10k split time was 49:50 but I'm not sure but either way even my training run 10k spilt times were faster than this so I definitely was not happy. Around 13k I was able to start running at my own pace as some of the crowd had thinned out, either because they had stopped to walk or they were that much faster than me. The last legs of the race were run more at my pace (11-21k = 52:50) and I was able to sprint the final 500m which felt good as I really was gaining in some speed. I have to say at 18k I got quite pissed - I was passing some spectators when I heard one of them say to her friend, "Look there's a little one". I'm sorry but I'm actually quite sensitive about my height, I'm not THAT short. I'm actually quite a compact size though I do wish I could be taller because it would definitely help me run faster.

    The most amusing part of my race were the 7 men who peed at the trees, I have to say I was very tempted to join them but I held in it. I got to say props to them for having the guts to pee at a tree. Not only did they relieve themselves but they also provided the tree with drink and nutrition as pee is actually quite nutritious.

    In summarization, , Kenneth Mungara of Kenya ran the fastest marathon ever ran on Canadian soil in a time of 2:08:31.9 while Amane Gobena of Ethiopia won on the women's side in a time of 2:28:31. They are such amazing runners – if only I could run like that. Megan Brown won the Half Marathon on the women's side in a time of 1:17:59.7, I am so happy she won. I had the opportunity to meet her at the Toronto Island Girl 10k over the summer and she is such a nice person. I really do hope she will take her talent to England in 2010 – she is one of Canada's top runners and I fully support her.

    As for my own race? My official time was 1:50:50 while my chip time was 1:42:40. I was able to exceed all expectations; I had predicted a time of 1:48-1:50 for myself and only hoped for a sub 1:45 so for me to have ran a 1:42 I was ecstatic. My official time was good enough for me to place 2nd in W19, I think I could have been 1st if it were not for the fact I was stuck behind others for most of the race and couldn't run at my own pace BUT at the same time the placing doesn't matter. Actually, I think the process to getting to race day was more important than race day itself. I put in killer distances over the summer and spent hours a week strengthening my body and the outcome was awesome – the process strengthened my belief that nothing comes easy and the more effort you put into something the greater it is. I am happy to be able to say I ran a half marathon but at the same time I'm happier when I describe my summer training plan – those months were pretty brutal but I did get to experience a ton of things during my training runs. I have to admit I did feel a sense of pride as I looked over the race results and realized I had came 2nd in my age group and was the youngest runner to place.

    I do wonder what my prize for placing 2nd in my age group is; I left Nathan Philips Square before the awards ceremony as I did not think I placed not to mention placed in an award winning category. I'm getting my dad to pick up my prize from CRS on Monday and I honesty hope it's not socks because the last time I got my dad to pick up a prize we got socks and he yelled at me for a month :P .

    I have got to run, much do homework and work on my Math Portfolio not to mention run since I just took 2 days off for my body to rest up and repair itself.

    And for the record, I'm definitely running the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon again next year! Love the distance racesJ so relaxing.


 


Saturday, September 12, 2009

IB Land Week One

Where is IB land? My teachers kept mentioning it but I still don't know where it is - it's probably somewhere near Geneva, Swizterland. I'm not exactly sure what IB land is but I like to imagine that IB land is an amusement park for IB teachers and such. I do have to say that everytime one of my teachers say "we're in IB land now" I want to reply that I would rather be in Neverland.
Life as an offical IB student (no more of that Pre-IB crap) is intense. I'm usually okish with math but the math we did this week is just way over the top of my head. I take math outside of school but even then it doesn't really help me very much. And this is with me taking IB SL Math - imagine if I had to take IB HL Math. I would DIE. And what is with the final mark being 40% from Math P1, 40% from Math P2, & 20% from IAs. I am going to fail math this year. I really want a 7 but I think 4 is more of the reality.
I have a feeling Chem is going to be way intense this year with it being HL chem and all, we're going to be doing labs that count toward the submitted IB labs. I am beyond freaked out about my marks right now - the fact I had 2 sub-standard science teachers in a row doesn't help.
French. I have a feeling I'm going to end up with a 4 in French. I can barely make out what my teacher is spitting out during class - I am not excited whatsoever for the orals I have to do this year. Nor am I excited for the exams I have to write in May.
Normally, I love to read but I am not exactly enjoying the book I have to read for English by Wed. The context of the book is interesting (why do we study literature) but it is written in a way that is just so confusing, and what book is this? Northope Frye's The Educated Imagination. My teacher said she read it in Year 3 of University - we're reading it in Year 1 of IB. The rest of my reading list for this year seems pretty cool though: Mad Shadows, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1984, & Oedipus Rex. I also have to do an IOP this year which will be sent to the IBO next year - this is not good as I had 2 pretty bad teachers for English in a row.
I think the only thing that turned out right for me this week was my PR for a 5k - but that might only be because I haven't ran a 5k in months I believe. But I am happy with my 21:57 - I had hoped for a sub 22 this season but since I'm already there I'm going to have to pick a new goal. I think for this season I'm just going to hope for a PR of sub 21:30.
I'm also very ecstatic that my running buddy has finally signed up for the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon - we are going to run such a fun race. I'm hoping for a sub1:45 but I thinkin in reality I'm going to hit between 1:45-1:50.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Long Way from the Start

I’m a runner and I can write this with pride, I am not your fastest runner or the one who can endure the longest distance nor am I yet the runner which I aspire to be – to be the ultimate runner in my mind is to be able to run a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, full marathon, ultra marathon, and complete both a duathlon and triathlon. I am a runner because I love to run; I run for the sake of running because I simply love the rush I feel during this motion. Under Armour has the saying “Some athletes train to run, others run to train” and I think this applies to me – I spend time in a weight room to strengthen my body to run and I train for my races by running.
Talking to one of my XC coaches the other day during a pre-school year run with him and my other friend I realized that it has almost been a year since I officially started to run. I started running with XC in September 2008, I joined because it was the first sport of the year and I have no eye-hand coordination hence any sport involving balls is absolutely out of question not to mention I am scared of balls (due to certain mishaps with soccer balls (to the head), volleyballs (to the face), tennis balls (to the nose) and rather hard baseballs &etc. I still remember at the first practice I had clocked a 27-something 5k – that 5k used to seem so tough to me with the hills and such. XC last year was a blur, we only had a few races and while I was never the first girl of my team to get past the finish line I wasn’t the last either, I had started XC as the slowest girl on the team but in the last meet I was the second fastest of the Junior Girls XC team of my school (not saying much though because our school is practically famous for being a failure at sports). My final race last season was a 4k clocking 19:23 – at that point in time I thought it was an amazing time.
I continued to run during the winter thanks to the fact my coaches had set up a running club, this club was directed toward longer distances with the aim to run the Sporting Life 10k. It was then that I realized I LOVED running, in the beginning I was freaked out that I wouldn’t be able to finish whatever distance we were aiming for that day but in the end I was the one pushing for us to go longer and faster – this is all thanks to the encouragement of the coaches as well as my running buddy and the rest of the team.
On May 3, 2009 our team set out to race the Sporting Life 10k with yours truly clocking a 47:13 – that to me was an amazing time for I had aimed for sub 50 and hoped for a sub 48 (keep in mind I had only started to run for a few months for those of you scoffing at such slow times). Our team, the Running Rams, was on fire, our girls’ team came in as the top female high school team of Toronto. We also came in as the overall top second team in Toronto. We were very happy with these results but to our horror we discovered that the event organizers had a little mishap where our team wasn’t listed as a high school team – but that was cleared up with a few emails to the race organizers with the girls’ team receiving New Balance running socks (amazing socks btw) as a prize. This race taught me a lot, the most important lesson regarding running that I learnt was that you should always try to be as far front and close to the starting line as possible – for all awards are based on official time and not chip time.
With the Sporting Life 10k over and in the past I moved on to run track – which was not really what I wanted to do but was “forced” to by the track&field head coach. I ran the 1500m Steeplechase and while I was extremely slow I have to say that was one of the most fun races I have ever done. Of course, being me, I had to do stupid things during my race such as not realizing the finish was 15m in front of me as well as falling flat on my face in the water pit which resulted me being on the covers of a few local newspapers. I also ran the 3000m (flat course) where I was able to advance to OFSAA centrals, at both the YRAA & centrals I raced against an amazing girl. She was quick, lively, and FAST – in my mind in a few years I will see her win a few medals for Canada, the best part is that she is extremely nice. While I protested against joining track I have to say I am glad I did because it gave me a ton of experience and I got to meet some great girls.
A highlight for me has to be the athletic banquet, to my surprise I received both the Track&Field Junior Girls MVP as well as the Cross Country Junior Girls MVP – in my mind I do not deserve these awards because there are girls who are much faster than me and have given more to the teams than I have. For course, I’m not complaining since I never win anything. There is a kind of funny story to the Cross Country MVP award – I actually wasn’t at the banquet when they called my name as the receiver of the award. An hour after they called my name I entered into the room and my friends were all asking me where I had been (I had quite a few texts from them) and my only reply was that I had been out running and that I had PR’ed for 11k. They found it amusing that I had been out running instead of accepting my award for running – I find it amusing that somehow all the recipients of the XC awards were either absent or late, in the official photo of the XC award recipients there was only one guy – the XC Senior Boys MVP.
I continued to run during the summer and I also did a race – the Toronto Island Girl 10k. This race was in a way miserable, it was HOT. I had to race in 38C (humidex included) sunny weather and yet I somehow managed to PR however I wasn’t able to run the time I wanted. I clocked this race with 45:59 – I had wanted a sub 45 which I sincerely believe I could have done if it were not for the heat. This race was a sweet deal for me though, I managed to come 5th overall and 1st in my age group although to me this race wasn’t really a “win” because in my age group there were only 11 girls not to mention the race had an almost all female population. I am proud of myself though and I am happy I got to spend time with my mom, who waited on the Toronto Island with me all morning. That race was amazing in the terms that there was a community feeling to it and everyone was just friendly – racing and running isn’t just about winning but also about making friends.
As a write this, school starts at 8:30 when I get up and a new season of XC starts on either Wednesday or Thursday. Looking back I realize how far I have come, instead of a 27-something 5k on my first practice of the season I’m looking to do a 22:30 5k (still not amazing but I don’t like to run 5ks not to mention I have short legs). In just a year I went from a non-running to one of those crazy people wearing shorts in the winter and running (I used to laugh at those people). With running I made a ton of friends and I am so grateful for their support and we are just going to keep running because it is what we do. Running has made me a happier person as well as less stressed. Overall my point is that if I can come this far then anyone can too. As far as I have come I know I can go further – on September 27 I will be racing the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon to cross off yet another one of the distances of my list to be the ultimate runner I can be. If you live in Toronto, come and race one of the Toronto Waterfront series with me and if you don’t live in Toronto then just sign up for a race this fall and see where that takes you. I have come a long way from where I started but there is more of that road to run – come join me on my journey to be the ultimate runner or to become healthy.