Fin

We’re done! Shif and I did 12 Stupid Things (plus 5 or 6 more “bonus stupid things”) over the course of 2009 and we had a great time doing it. We ran 51 km in races, orienteered on snowshoes, climbed the CN Tower, canoed 6 km, did a duathlon, dragon boated, and biked 250 km!

Thanks to everyone who joined us or followed our fun. The first thing that we found out was that people hate saying the word “stupid”. People would ask about our “silly things”, “exciting things”, “crazy things”, or just our “things”, but would refuse to say “stupid”. We must have extremely polite friends.

Speaking of friends, we want to thank all of you who joined us at various events over the year – Missy, David and Paul, Nancy and Clare, Melinda and Diane, Lucy and John, Steve, Lesley and Maureen, Fahreen, Maria, Lisa, Dave, and Madeleine, all the Flaming Dragons, Nicki, Adrianne, my mom Nancy, brother Doug, and sister Lorna. Missy was there at the beginning and the end, the Resolution Run and the Santa Jingle, and two other events in between. David, Paul, Nancy, and Clare were in for three events each. And my sister, Lorna, did the Turkey Trot and what was probably our stupidest unofficial Stupid Thing (which Ashifa was supposed to blog about!), a 220-km (135-mi) bike ride from Boston to Provincetown in September.

The whole project was great for us. We not only got to do a lot of fun things together and with wonderful people, but it was tremendous motivation for us to get in shape and especially to become better runners. (Although oddly, despite all this healthiness, I was actually sick for three of the events – flu, vertigo, and gall bladder attack!)

Lots of people have asked if we’re going to do the 12 things again next year. We definitely won’t be so formal about it, but we plan to do lots of events. We’ll probably repeat some of our favourite events from this year, like the Snowshoe Raid, Pride Run, and Santa Jingle. We'd love to have you join us! Our biggest adventure will be the Ride to Conquer Cancer, a 200-km, 2-day bike ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls in June. We’ll be trying to raise $2500 each for cancer research (I'm sure you’ll be hearing more from us about this!).

Inspired by this year, we’ll also be upping the ante a bit next year. We’re both toying with the idea of training for a half-marathon. I’d also like to try a few new things, like a trail running race. And I’m looking for a partner to do the Muddy Buddy! Any takers? Ashifa will be starting the year off with the Toronto Polar Bear Dip, along with some friends. She's trying to convince as many people as she can to join her (maybe so she doesn't back out).

Thanks for following us this year!

Stupid Thing #12 - Santa Jingle 5K

We saved the best for last.... I think the Santa Jingle 5K was our favourite event of the year! Shif and I and our friends Missy and Adrianne were among 2,400 Santas running a 5K through the chilly streets of Burlington, Ontario, last Saturday.

Santa Shif

Santa Missy gets a calf stretch

Just a few of the Santas at the start

Adrianne displays her new facial hair. The beards made
nice neck warmers, which was good considering it was -7°C
at the start.

The Santa suits were part of the race kit and you had to wear the suit to run. It was really fun to part of a herd of Santas. There were a few people out cheering us on (and probably a few very confused children). You heard lots of jokes like "catch that guy in front of you - the one in red".

Santas rolling up Maple Avenue

I decided toward the beginning that this was not going to be a terribly serious race for me (the fact that I had hardly run since the Turkey Trot may have had something to do with it). And the pictures taken in the middle of the race are evidence that I wasn't trying too hard. I did kick it in a bit over the last two kilometers. I still had a decent time, but this was the first 5K of the year where I didn't set a personal best. Shif was still in pursuit of her 30-minute race, but figured the cold and the Santa suit would probably keep from getting there. She managed to get pretty close, though - still under 31 minutes.


This was definitely one of the funnest events we did all year. The fact that we got a nice hot breakfast afterward helped! I think we'll definitely try to do this race again next year. We already have the suits, after all! We've also decided they'll be useful for future Halloweens if we want to go as a gang of Santas.

So, we're done! 12 stupid things are done (plus a few extras). I'll be back with a little wrap-up in a day or two.

Stupid Thing #11: Trotting with turkeys - and reflections on safety pins...

(posted by Ashifa)

Our eleventh stupid thing found us in Ohio on Thanksgiving (US) morning with about 7,000 other “stupid” people. In a feeble attempt to justify the gluttony that was to follow at that evening’s dinner, the mass of us lined up to run 5 miles (8 km, for the Canadians in the crowd) at full-throttle, through the streets of Miamisburg. Some of the participants even managed to purge some of their breakfast while running, thus making even more room for their forthcoming turkey feast (yes, sadly I ran through someone’s regurgitated corn flakes before I noticed the puddle my shoe was in).

While we’ve recently been doing training runs of 5 miles and longer, this was our first 5-mile race. The psychology of this race was definitely different from our usual 5k races. Jen’s family did the race with us, and on our way to the race her brother Doug make a very astute comment – he said “the only problem with racing 5 miles is running it too fast”. Given he knows what he’s talking about (Doug has run marathons and relay ultras, so he’s been around the block a few times!) – I decided to take his advice to heart. My strategy was to scale back from my usual 5k pace a bit, to think endurance, and to keep reminding myself that pain is temporary!

So for this 8k I was aiming for 52 minutes – a 10:30 min/mile pace, which is a fair bit slower than my 5k race pace. I made it in at 51:42 – well under my goal time – so needless to say I was very happy! Jen also made it in very close to her goal time and came in at 55:58! Doug of course was back, well-rested, hydrated, and waiting for us at the finish line by the time we sauntered through (he probably even had time to run home and throw the turkey in the oven!).







Hopefully one of these days, if we keep training hard, we’ll manage to give him a run for his money! Jen’s mom, Nancy, and sister, Lorna, joined us at this race too by participating in the 1-mile walk option. It was great to be cheered in to the finish line by supportive faces! I think it was the first time that we’ve had that, and it really was quite a treat!

• 
  
  The 31st annual Turkey Trot was organized by the Ohio River Road Runners Club – and by organized, I mean ORGANIZED! By far the largest event we’ve attended yet, it was also the most well-organized race we’ve participated in as well. Race-kit pickup was smoother than you can imagine, pace markers were clearly visible at the start-line, and each mile marker had a digital clock with a running chrono. And of course we cannot forget the long-sleeve technical t-shirt with the picture of a giant turkey! Other race organizers can learn a thing or two from these folks!
  
  Of course with any race kit comes a number bib, and the safety pins with which to attach the bib. We figure that between the two of us, we’ve probably amassed over 100 safety pins over the course of this year. Aside from the one or two that are used to hold up our pants that are now too big on us, most of these sit in a container on Jen’s desk, collecting dust, and waiting to be put to some use. Fortunately, today’s safety pins had a much more utilitarian destiny – they were promptly used to fix a broken toilet lever chain at Jen’s mom’s cabin (can’t have a broken toilet on Thanksgiving day!). But this got us to thinking about other innovate ways to rescue our other safety pins from their dusty destiny. Here is the start of our list – feel free to add new ideas of your own!
  
  1) Impromptu date and have no jewellery to wear? Easy – string together safety-pins to make a dashing necklace/bracelet set!
  
  2) Keep a few in a first-aid kit to use for closing gaping wounds if you’re too far from a hospital to be able to get stitches
  
  3) Emergency landing feature for a hot-air balloon – if only that little boy in Colorado had one in his pocket…oh no, wait…never mind!!
  
  4) If you happen to lose a body piercing and want to keep the hole open until you buy a new one – a well-sanitized safety pin could be your best friend!
  
  5) Find yourself hungry and near a lake full of tasty fish just waiting to be caught? A safety pin can make a perfect fishin’ hook!
  
  Till next time folks!
  

Stupid Thing #10 - Toronto Marathon 5K

When you tell people you're doing the "Toronto Marathon 5K", they often only hear the first two words. Which is kind of funny.

Our "stupid thing" for October was supposed to be something far cooler than a regular old 5K - it was a night-time Halloween trail run in a conservation area. But that event was cancelled, so settled for running up and down Toronto streets again, which is spooky in a different way. The 5K is an adjunct to the bigger events, the marathon and half-marathon, and is probably largely designed as a moneymaker for the event. But, hey, we had fun. One of the perks of running in a big race is that you get a lot more free stuff. :-) Coupons... product samples... we got free cereal, energy bars, hair elastics, menstrual cramp heating pads, and more magnets than you can fit on a beer fridge. Plus a t-shirt that has a map of the marathon route on the back, so we can pretend that we ran the whole 42 kilometers.

One serious drawback of this race was that it started at 8 a.m. I learned from our last race that not eating before I run is not really a good idea. But you also don't want to be too full, so we needed to eat a significant amount of time before the race. Plus, we had to ride our bikes to the race because the subway doesn't run until 9 on Sundays. All this leads to the unfortunate requirement that we get up at a ridiculous hour on a Sunday morning. I will let you guess whose breakfast is whose.

There were about 2600 people doing the 5K, a lot of them walking. This is the biggest race we've done thus far. It's fun to be part of such a big crowd. Well, except for the walkers who refuse to heed the organizers' pleas for them to move to the back at the start line so the people who are actually running for a good time don't have to weave around them. Walkers also have a habit of traveling in packs and walking 4 or 5 abreast. Shif and I both probably lost a minute off our times just trying to get around people at the beginning of the race.The start

The race is pretty straightforward - run from Queens Park (the site of the Ontario legislature building) straight down University Avenue to Wellington, turn around, and come back. The tricky part of this is that the first half is downhill and the second half is a long consistent climb. We both tried to ride the downhill as much as we could and build up some time before we started the slog back to Queens Park. I missed the marker that indicated the 1K point, so I had no idea what my pace was until the 2K marker, when 40% of the race was over. I felt slow and sloppy, but it turned out my pace was pretty fast. And that included 15 or 20 seconds to stop and retie my shoes.

The secret to success for me when I'm running is to not think about running - to try not to think about how heavy I'm breathing, and how my form feels like crap, and how my shoulder is cramping, and how I can't possibly run anymore. If I can just distract myself a bit I can get into a rhythm. Right before the turnaround I successfully ignored myself for at least a minute because I was trying to spot Shif on the other side of the road after she made the turn. One of the good, or bad, things about out-and-back courses is that you can see how far ahead of you others are. It's especially interesting (inspiring? demoralizing?) to see the leaders (people who can run a 5K in 15 minutes) in the homestretch when you feel like you've barely started.

There was a water stop between the 2K and 3K marks, shortly after the uphill started and my heart rate had accelerated. I decided to walk through the water stop, drink the whole cup without spilling most of it on my shoes, and get my energy back. Then I was back at it and felt pretty strong. The 4K marker, we later learned, was in the wrong place. I noticed that my time for that kilometer seemed exceptionally fast, but I thought maybe I had kicked it in a little more than I thought. Based on that time, I knew I would easily make my goal 33:45, and at the same time I was getting a weird painful stitch in my shoulder (this happened in the Island Run too), so I backed off just a little bit.

As it turned out, that bad bit of information meant I didn't actually make my goal, but I still finished at 34:03. That's 39 seconds faster than at the Island Run three weeks ago - and that course was totally flat, so I was pretty happy! Shif was gunning to get under 30 minutes and didn't quite make it (30:36). 30 minutes was her goal for the end of the year, so she still has two months to break it, and I know she will. We have both come soooo far since that pokey Resolution Run in January.

After the race, we wanted to hang around and watch the half and full marathoners come in to the finish. We watched the winners of the half cross the finish line, but it was freezing (1° and we were wearing just our running clothes), so we took a warm-up break at Second Cup.


We made it back to see the half-marathoners who were finishing in more than 2 and a half hours. Those people are more inspiring than the winners. Most of them are probably first-timers and you can see how much they've suffered to get there. That's a lot of running! We got a nice spot in the sun at the last turn and cheered them on.

Shif has a big smile at the finish!

So, 10 stupid things in the books and two more to go! We already have several family members who are going to trot and/or walk the Turkey Trot with us in November. And a couple other friends have already signed on to don Santa suits with us in December! This is your last chance to be stupid with us - come along!

Stupid Thing #9 - Tour de Greenbelt

Our September Stupid Thing was a cycling tour of part of Ontario's Greenbelt. The Greenbelt is a 1.8 million acre protected area that encircles the urbanized Greater Toronto Area, stretching from Niagara Falls to far east of Toronto. The land is preserved for agricultural and recreational use. The Greenbelt Foundation sponsors the Tour de Greenbelt, a series of bike rides through various parts of the Greenbelt. We chose a 23 km ride through bucolic and only-somewhat-suburbanized northern York Region. And maybe because it is our employer, the fine government of Ontario, that created the Greenbelt, several of my friends from work joined us!

Touristes de Greenbelt at the start

There were 23, 50, and 100 km options for the ride. We opted for the 23 km in hopes of enticing more people to ride with us (it worked!). This ride was billed as "mostly flat" and perfect for families and beginners. This assessment was probably made by either someone driving a car or some serious cyclist who is used to riding 100 km up and down the Niagara Escarpment. It was not mostly flat. Ashifa and I had rather stupidly decided to run hill sprints the night before, thinking this ride would not be so hard. Shortly after the ride started, we began a very long, gradual uphill where my quads told me the hill sprints had been a serious mistake. And the hills kept on coming after that. Considering we had completed a 200 km, three-day bike ride about three weeks before (our stupidest thing of the year, which Shif seems to have forgotten to blog about), it was a little embarrassing that I was the one chugging along at the rear of the pack.

David, Ashifa, and Maria at a rest stop

Paul and me, resting and stopping.
The green shirt makes it easy for friends
to locate me should I ride into a ditch.

Most of the ride was through pleasant rural areas, but there was an alarmingly high proportion of the ride on suburban roads that I wouldn't exactly call cycling-friendly, especially since this route was promoted as being great for families. But we all survived and it was actually a nice ride, just challenging enough.

Not-so-scenic Newmarket

The ride began and ended at the Newmarket farmers' market. After the ride, we were treated to a great lunch made with all local food - organic burgers, corn on the cob, fruit, and homemade cookies. And we all did a little grocery shopping at the market before we headed home. Shif and I got the best strawberries we've had all year and I spotted a purple cauliflower in David's bag.

Toronto Island Run

Just a quick little report on a 5k we did yesterday. Some of our dragon boat teammates invited us to do the Longboat Toronto Island Run 10K. We aren't quite up for the 10K challenge yet, but the run sounded fun so we opted for the 5K. We took the ferry over to Centre Island, along with a thousand or so other runners and others enjoying a beautiful fall weekend.

Ashifa, Nancy, Nicki, Clare, and Jen before the race
(vintage-looking photo courtesy of us having
our camera improperly set after one of
Shif's artistic missions)

The run was on a beautiful (and beautifully flat) path around the Toronto Islands. For those of you not from Toronto, the islands are a few wee little islands in Toronto's harbour. The islands are car-free and most people get there by ferry. The run featured nice views of downtown Toronto and included a section on the boardwalk facing out onto Lake Ontario. The 10K ventured out to Hanlan's Point, but didn't detour through the famous clothing-optional beach there.

Shif and I both had great races. Shif bettered her 5K personal best by more than a minute and a half and is getting very, very close to her year-end goal of 30 minutes! I improved my 5K time by a minute and 20 seconds despite having only run three times thus far in September. I like this training method - the less I run, the faster I get! Our friends also had good races - Nicki set a PR in the 10K, and Nancy and Clare outran us all.

Shif after the race
(a brush with fame... we realized afterward that the woman
behind her is on the Canadian TV show Metropia)

Our September "stupid thing", the Tour de Greenbelt, is next weekend. We have a fine bunch of urban planners from my work joining us, along with their partners and kids. Should be a great fall ride! Come join us!

Stupid Thing #8 - Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon

Unfortunately, our August stupid thing required a little modification. Ashifa had a scheduling conflict, so sadly we missed the Flying Chicken Run. :-( I think we'll definitely have to try to do that one next year. So instead, for our August event, we did the Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon.

When we originally made up the list of stupid things, we added this event as a possible bonus "stupid thing" if we happened to possibly maybe be in good enough shape by August. Of course, at the time, we were thinking that meant if we were in good enough shape for each of us to do the whole duathlon (or triathlon) by ourselves. So, uh, yeah.... We have improved a lot since January, but, uh, yeah, not that much. Fortunately, though, you can do the event as a team! So we recruited a third person and - there you go, we were a duathlon team! We had originally thought about doing the triathlon (750 m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) but Shif, the swimmer, thought twice after hearing stories of the chilly summer they've had in Sioux Lookout. In the best of summers, the water there isn't very warm. This summer it's really chilly and there were actually several people that switched from the tri to the du for that very reason.

It was an overcast, chilly holiday Monday morning (Happy Civic Day!) for the race. Perfect weather for a race (seriously - I hate sun)! The event is part of a whole week of Blueberry Festival activities and there was a nice crowd there to cheer us on, despite the dreary weather (and lack of blueberries this year).

I (Jen) started off with the 2.5k running leg, which replaces the swim for the duathlon. The run was a pretty simple out-and-back run on the main street into Sioux Lookout. Out-and-back courses are fun because you can see just how much better real runners are than you. :-) Inspiration, this is called.

Lining up at the start of the duathlon

Me cruising into the transition area to hand of
to Fahreen, our cyclist

Me, sucking wind after my run. Dead last runner, but my
fastest race pace ever! I wonder what this triathlon volunteer
would do if I passed out.

Fahreen heading out on the bike leg, 20k on the road
leading to the Sioux Lookout airport

Shif, keeping a lookout for Fahreen

Fahreen cheerfully heading into the transition area

Fahreen handing off to Ashifa. Shif seems to be
explaining the process of removing the timing
chip from Fahreen's ankle

Our anchor! Shif heads out for the final run.

Up the hill for a tour of Sioux Lookout
(I love the fully slickered family in the foreground)

Team 353 after the race!

Mission accomplished - we finished the race in a respectable fashion. We were the slowest team, but we were all very happy with how we did. Shif set yet another personal best for the 5k! There were lots of snacks afterward and friends there to root us on. Hopefully we can try this one again individually in a year or two!

Stupid Thing #7 - Sweet Corn Challenge

We've managed to get all of our stupid things in so far this year, with only a slight alteration or two. Our July stupid thing, however, was almost a no-go due to a special guest interruption by Jen's gall bladder! We were driving down to Ohio Friday night when I was beset with intense abdominal pain. We thought it was only reflux resulting from a poor (in hindsight) decision to have nachos for my birthday dinner that night. By 5:00 a.m. I could hardly stand the pain, so Shif drove me to the ER and we spent most of the rest of the day doing a comparison study of the American vs Canadian health care systems. It was a bit surreal because, after hours of intense pain, within an hour of being given some magic pharmaceuticals, I felt completely fine. It looked for a bit like I was going to become a temporary resident of Akron, Ohio, while I had gall bladder surgery, but the doctors determined the evil gall stone had moved and I was fine to head back home and have surgery in the land of socialized medicine.

This put us in a bit of a quandary regarding the July stupid thing, which was the reason we had traveled to Ohio in the first place. I felt fine by bike-ride time Sunday morning and the doctors said I couldn't really make the situation worse by exercising. I was fairly tired from lack of sleep and a wee bit of stress, and more than a little gun-shy about the whole thing, so we decided that we'd skip the hilly 25-mile route we were supposed to do and just do the much more relaxed family 10-mile ride. We even got a police escort.

Us, our friend Missy, and some of her friends before the ride.
They did the serious ride while we were pedaling
with the 6-year-olds. There were four route choices - 10, 25, 50,
and 100 miles. The century ride also featured 'optional
horrendous hills.' I think we made the right choice.

Lining up for the start of the 10-mile ride. We heard that the
Sweet Corn Challenge is the biggest one-day bike ride
in Ohio, with around 2500 riders.

On the road.

The photographer is obviously trying to make another
trip to the emergency room.

Woo hoo!

Some other highlights of the trip. Who says
rural Ohio is all cornfields and white bread? Above, a
Serbian Orthodox monastery. Below, a Sikh temple.

The best part of the Sweet Corn Challenge - lunch! Pulled pork,
fresh sweet corn, and more. And you get more sweet corn
to take home. Sadly, the gall bladder diet meant I
wasn't allowed to eat the cookie and I could only nibble
on the pulled pork.

Thankfully, the gall bladder still hasn't caused any trouble. I probably won't have surgery for a few months yet, but I'm feeling fine. In fact, we've already finished our August stupid thing.... pics soon!

Pride and Remembrance Run

Finishing up our June festival of 5ks was the Pride Run, which is becoming an annual event for us. We first ran it in 2006, when we were so slow we came in right before the band that was bringing up the rear. Last year, we wimped out and walked the 3k instead of running the 5k as planned. This year, we're happy to report we were even fast enough that the police still had traffic waiting at the cross streets when we passed!

The Pride Run is always a very fun event. There are always people in costume. There have been groups of (male) brides, (male) Dorothys, and cowboys in the past. Several of our friends did the race with us. Missy went as Wonder Woman. Our dragon boat teammates including Ashifa wore rainbow grass skirts. Sadly(?), I got there too late to grab a skirt. We decided to ride our bikes to the run and Missy's bike had a pedal malfunction and I ended up having to wait for the bus with the bike and got to the race just in time (to avoid the skirt).

Ashifa points out our bib numbers and wonders who

the keener was that signed us up so early. I don't know.

David and Paul also did not partake in the grass skirts,

but got into the theme with their Hawaiian shorts. They were

walking, so they offered to be our sherpas and carry

our backpacks so we could avoid the gear check line.

It was a hot day. Unlike most 5ks, the Pride Run starts at the civilized hour of 10 a.m. However, in late June, that usually means it's a little warm. But we managed to do quite well in the race. Shif came in at 32:22, which was exactly one minute faster than her time at the Runway Run two weeks ago! I arrived in 36:05. My goal had been 37 minutes, after my 37:49 finish at the Runway Run, so I was very happy. It was a great way to kick off Pride weekend. We celebrated with the crew at a patio with a pitcher of sangria and breakfast!