If you would have told me a month ago that I would be able to run 20 minutes, or 3.5km without buckling over and crying like an baby without its bottle, I would put down my bag of corn chips, take a sip of my beer and laugh you out of the room. Yet, two days ago, at 6:43am, I slid on my 10 year-old runners (too old), my black basketball shorts (too long) and a cotton t-shirt(just right) and, after a five minute warm up, started jogging for 20 minutes straight to satisfy exercise three of week five of the couch to 5km program I am using to train for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure on September 30, 2012.
Sure around the 18 minute mark I thought I might throw up (which led to the conundrum that literally bounced around my brain: Do I stop to throw up on someone’s lawn or do I just try to road honk and act like this happens to me all the time? It’s a brave new world), but I managed to reach the 20 minute mark without losing my cookies. Actually, truth is, I reached the 20 minute mark and realized I could do more. But don’t kid yourself, I did exactly what the Iphone app told me and began my cool down, drenched in sweat, proud and a bit amazed my bulbous body pulled this relatively mild feat off.
The UrbanMoms team is 21 people strong and about $500 over our fundraising target, so everyone will be ramping up their efforts in the next little while. For those following along, take some time and peruse the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario’s site to find some compelling statistics as well as the many stories of hope which surely can help inspire you to donate or get involved somehow.
My research based motivation also continues during this journey and I found it inspiring to know that the CIBC Run for the Cure is the largest single day community-driven event with 60 locations in Canada, 22 of those in Ontario alone. To think that I will be part of that in a few days is pretty awesome.
Beyond the research, another thing that has truly helps me during training is music. At first I started with my own Ipod and let random songs come up and keep the legs pumping. But I found that Careless Whisper by George Michael or a scratchy Bing Crosby holiday favourite really did nothing to energize me. Although I do have a soft spot for George and it turns out guilty feet have rhythm after all.
So I made a playlist. And here it is.
Good Times & Rappers Delight Chic & Sugar Hill Gang Mix
Shake Your Rump Beastie Boys
Rush Big Audio Dynamite
A Little Respect ERASURE
Big Wheels Down With Webster
Money City Maniacs Sloan
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk
Amsterdam Peter Bjorn & John
A-Punk Vampire Weekend
Peter Piper Run DMC
99 Problems Jay-Z
This or That Black Sheep
love like this before Faith Evans
Highway To Hell ACDC
Feel So Close Calvin Harris
Get loose Benny Benassi
Mash Ups – Daft Punk vs. Michael Jackson
Funk mixed with AltRock mixed with Hip Hop mixed with Rap mixed with 80’s gay nightclub. It’s set on random so I don’t know what song will keep me motivated during the almost vomiting stage and I kind of like it that way. The other benefit is I know when I finish running through a song, I have completed about three minutes of the jog and 10 songs will be very closely aligned with running five kilometres.
So apologies in advance to all my teammates who thought we would be chatting during the CIBC Run for the Cure, truth is, I will be very strategic on the 30th, choosing each song for each stage of the run. From a Chariots of Fire elated, inspired commencement track, to steady big club beats of Mr. Benassi to get me into the groove, to the light hearted Let’s go Surfing of The Drums to keep my spirits up to something epic near the end, like Ennio Morricone’s Mission soundtrack to dramatize the whole thing in slow motion. Yes, I know it’s only 5km, but it’s pretty epic for me.
So from dread to curious to excited, this journey gets better with every run and every post.
To register for your own team, or find out more about donating or volunteering, click here
You can also join the CIBC Run for the Cure conversation on Facebook o
r Twitter.