My trip part 4 and the end

On the plan for today speedwork.  Was supposed to do 8x400.  I did 10x400.  Still no AC at the Gym so that sucked a bit but I felt pretty good.  On the plan Coach Hal says we have to do these at 5k pace but that is dare I say...too easy for me.  Maybe my 5k pace is faster then I think? We shall see on July 4th at my next 5k race.  Anyway I went 35 sec faster for the first 5 and and 1 min faster for the last 5.  Can I hold 30-35 sec faster for 5k? I am not sure I can but I am going to try.  I am now loving intervals!

I want to thank everyone for leaving the kindest comments about my hometown and my family and me. 

I am a lucky person.  I come from a special and beautiful place.  I got to live there for 31 years.  In French homesick is Le mal du pays.  (The country's ache) I have that illness.   There is no cure for it.  My kids are way too young to appreciate the sacrifice I made for our family but my husband is well aware of it.  That helps.  On the way back home we had 2 flights to take, Quebec-Toronto and Toronto-Los Angeles.  When we took off from Quebec I cried and then again when we left Toronto because then I was leaving my country once again.  I wish I came from a boring place sometimes, it would be easier to leave it behind.
I hope it will not take another  3 years before I get to go back. 

If you miss part 1 it is here
part 2 here
part 3 (with a pic of me at 17 yrs old) here

So a few more pics from our visit

Helping my dad in the yard!

My dad has lots of grapevines.  He makes his own wine with the grapes.

Will's Godmother is one of my best friend.  She like to spoil the boys.  There is a fantastic toys store near her house called BENJO.  She took the boys there and they made a craft, painting a figurine.  Then she told them to pick something in the store.... Ayaye....trouble!
So Jonathan aka mini Urban (if you are new and you don't get this,  you can read here) shocked everyone and said : "I want a GUITAR!" Of course he does.  I loose parental control with my friend.  She is the boss.  So they found the musical section and there it was;  the most precious thing Jonathan had ever seen: A UKULELE!  He was soooo happy.  He took that thing everywhere we went.  He would have slept with it if I had let him.  He showed it to the pilots on the plane when he got on.  It was a HUGE HIT.  Will also found something cool: a Batman board game.  So my friend Sonia is their favorite by a mile.

Can you see what it says on my shirt? GOTTA RUN!

See the Ukulele?
See they have this mini entree just for kids.

Of course Jonathan had to be on the guitar side and pretend to play it!!!

I miss her, I miss my family, I miss everybody.

My trip part 3 - The 25th High School reunion

I went to the gym today and guess who was there?
My stalker! He goes "Hey I have not seen you in a while, where have you been?!"
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
That is creepy....he noticed I had been gone....Yikes....

I did 3 miles, it was supposed to be a rest day but did not feel like resting and I needed a break from my boys, yes I know bad bad mommy.  The AC was not working....it was hot and humid....hope they get this fixed for my speedwork on Thursday.

I have started training for the Disney half.  I will used the same plan I used for OC HM, Hal Higdon's intermediate program but I don't want to start over and lower my mileage or my 400s repeats so I will pick up at week 5 and just adjust.  This will give me at least an extra week in the double digit for the long runs.  I need that.

Took the boys to go see Kung Fu Panda 2.  I know,  lucky me.  Some kids movie I can do but most not so much.  This one, I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing it, it would have been just fine.

Ok now I continue with my trip to Quebec.  I miss being there. I wish we would have stayed a month.
If you missed part 1 it is here
and part 2 here.

So I graduated High School in 1986.  25 years ago.  It does not feel like it was that long ago.  This is me 25 yrs ago: (dont know what is up with my fingers there)

So the day of the reunion I had made plans to go have breakfast with some friends from HS so that we could have more time to catch up.  I told Bill that I would be gone for a couple of hours....it turned out to be a 4.5 hours breakfast!  25 yrs is a long time.  We were 4.  One is Valerie.  my oldest friend and our friendship survived different Colleges, Universities, Boyfriends, Marriages, Kids, me leaving Quebec, we have been friends for 30 yrs now.  She was my maid of honor and she came here for the birth of both my sons.  Here we are at breakfast at this great place called "Le Cochon Dingue".  Valerie is across from me with the short hair.  Next to me is Annie and she played basketball with me and Carole, the prettiest girl in the school, was on the swim team with me for a couple of years.

After that great breakfast with my friends, I headed to another friend's house, this time with Bill and the boys.  I have 3 girlfriends from HS with whom I also stayed close friends with through the years and all the changes life brought our ways.  Friends for over 25 yrs.  That is very precious to me.  We used to be 4 on the group pictures and now there's 16 of us! We each had 2 kids and we all had them later in life.  My son Will is the older one of the 8 and he will be 7 in 2 weeks and the youngest is 2 1/2.  Here we are:

And here we are with our kids:

At that BBQ we had time to catch up and also time to convince each other NOT to go to the reunion!!!   Yep we started having second thoughts...what if it is lame, what if nobody remembers us, what if  this what if that...what to wear...  All the good stuff!!!

Of course we decided to go.

Good thing we did! It was a blast!

172 of us showed up! Everyone was happy to be there.  It was a crazy magical night.

I could recognize almost everyone.  The guys did not change much, gray hair and or less hair was the common change.  The girls well the make up on some and also the ones who are now dying their hair were harder to recognize, so many blondes who are not real blondes...!

It was crazy one minute I was talking to one person, then I would turn my head and spot another, it went fast...I was the one who came from further away.  Only 2 of us are in the US, the other one is in Miami.  People kept coming to me saying :"Hey there's the marathoner"! I kept saying "just half, just half!"  Everybody I talked to recognized me so that is good I guess!!!  It was so fun, I am so happy I went.  Some of our teachers were there also.  When your 25th HS reunion comes around, I encourage you to GO!  After 25 yrs there's no more gangs and people being excluded. everything was easy and happy.  We have a Facebook page for this and since that night people are saying they are ready to do it again.  We all said the same, it went by too fast, we did not have enough time to talk to everyone and we had the best time.

A lot of the people I went to HS school with were also at the same Elementary school as me so we have known each other for ....37 yrs now.  Our Elementary school was the one with the most people at the reunion, more then 30.  Here's 4 of us.  I am still close friends with the girl.  She came to visit us here in California with her family.  We always visit them when we go to Quebec also.  This is my OLDEST friend hands down.

and a few more pics from the reunion...not bad for a bunch of 42 yrs old right?!

I am on this one in the middle towards the left

My trip part 2 lots of pics!

Before I get to my trip...I want to thank my GENIUS friend Emz for helping me solve the mystery of why people could not comment on my blog. 

Also I got a few questions about my diet and the restriction I have I did talk about it on a post a while ago it is right here
http://journeytoahalfmaraton.blogspot.com/2010/11/could-you-eat-same-thing-every-day.html

The short story is...my gallbladder was not working, I had surgery to have it removed.  It had been misdiagnosed for a while and I developed GERD because of it.  Some people are lucky and go back to a normal diet after surgery, some like me not so much.  I cannot eat FAT and anything spicy or acidic.  No alcohol either.  So a lot of good stuff is a big no no for me.  If I eat it, I get sick.  For several days.  No food is worth it so far.  I tried.  So I eat pretty much the same thing every single day.  It sucks but some people have it a lot worst then me and have to eat ensure all the time.  That diet made me loose a lot of weight,  I did need to loose weight but not 70 lbs!

I went running yesterday, 6 miles outside.  It felt a lot better then running inside and my sore throat is gone, I just cough now.  Today I had to rest, the kids gym is closed on Sunday and Bill left for the week this morning.  I called these trips vacation and he insist on calling them work trip.  Whatever.

GO MAVERICKS!!!!!!
Now only need the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup! (That is HOCKEY Chris)

Tomororw I officially start training for my next Half Marathon: The Disneyland Half Marathon!
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My trip part 2.

I thought I would show my family.  They don't read my blog but I am sure they are OK with this!!!

Bill is my Mom's favorite...don't tell the others!!

The whole family on my side,
last time we were all together was 3 yrs ago.

 

With my nieces, the older one is my God Daughter
she is 13 and 5'8" (!) and the younger one is 10.



That is my brother.  Who do you think is older?



My brother got the boys proper Hockey T-Shirts. 
We are ready for the return of the Quebec Nordiques!



In town, this is La Porte St Jean (St-John Gate) one of 4 gates to the fortifications of the city.



This is in front of a candy store, that bike is all candy!

Shirt they were selling in town..

In front of the Chateau Frontenac, nicest hotel in Québec.
It is 118 years old

Séminaire de Québec:
 Private school where I coached for several years.
This building is 156 yrs old.

Inside a Cafe where we had lunch

Racing at home

Ran 4 miles outside today, felt OK but I cannot wait to get my new shoes!  Since the half marathon I get pain under my foot, I think it is my current shoes.  Soon we will see if I am right.

In June I will be going HOME!!!!!
Home is Quebec in case you did not know yet.  My favorite place ever.

June 4th is my  25th High School reunion and there is NO WAY I am missing this.  I have not been back home in over 2 1/2 years.  This is the longest I have gone without going home.  Finally the price of the tickets are going down ..from 860 to 550.  I found a 10k race that I could do while I am there. 

Only problem is that it is the day after the reunion.  I still want to do it.  I have never raced in Quebec yet.  This will be the 58th year they have that race and the course is in a beautiful part of the city, running by this:

The Montmorency Falls: The falls, at 275 ft high  and 150 feet wide are the highest in the province of Quebec and 98 ft higher than Niagara Falls.

Free Geography lesson of the day over.

Now I want to convince a few of my classmates to join me for the race.  That won't be easy.  They will have an open bar at the reunion.  I cannot drink so I don't care about that part!

To be continued...

Now I must decide on a training plan for my next race: a 10k.  It is in 4 weeks, I am going to have to modify one I think because training for next half starts next Monday.
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Training for this week

MON: 4 miles
TUE: 3 miles tempo at gym
WED:  4 miles
THU: 3 miles + strength
FRI: rest
SAT: 2 easy miles + 30 min elliptical @ gym
SUN: 5 miles
TOTAL: 21 miles