A New Adventure!

It was a year ago that I launched my Team Diabetes campaign for the Edinburgh Marathon.  With your help, I was able to raise over $13,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and I am kicking off another Team Diabetes Campaign. This time, we are making it a family affair!  I will run in the Kauai Marathon in August 2014 while my wife Amanda and daughter Sarah complete a 17km hike on the island.  We have set an ambitious fundraising goal of $25,000, with all of our fundraising going to the Canadian Diabetes Association's D-Camps for kids with Type 1 Diabetes.  Sarah has attended their Camp Huronda for the last 2 summers, and the experience makes an incredible difference in the lives of families dealing with diabetes, such as ours.  More info can be found on their website at http://www.dcamps.ca.  Our family was recently featured in the D-Camps newsletter.  Here's a great video that shows how important these camps are to families dealing with Type 1 Diabetes.

Would you be willing to sponsor us for the marathon and hike?  Our pledge site is up and running and can be found here:  https://ocp.diabetes.ca/pledge/csPersonalPage.asp?prId=td&tId=20886&oId=15555744.

Like last year's campaign, we had Mariachristina Designs created an amazing poster for us.  We are hoping to have 42 sponsors representing each kilometre of the marathon donate to the campaign to have their name and/or logo featured. Please contact me at jaminacs@rogers.com if you're interested!

Stay tuned as we keep you updated on our fundraising and training progress towards August 2014!

Jack, Amanda and Sarah

Mission Accomplished!

Here I sit with both the fundraising and Edinburgh Marathon behind me and it's hard to believe it is over after all these months and weeks of anticipation!  I couldn't be more pleased with how both turned out!  I just reached $13,200 after receiving 2 more generous donations yesterday.  And last Sunday, May 26, I completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 3 hours and 44 minutes, a nearly 7 minute improvement from my first and most recent marathon over 10 years ago.  After suffering multiple running injuries since mid February, I didn't know how the race would turn out.  I had a great time. The event was fantastic with tons of spectator support and a great route with perfect weather.

I can't say enough good things about Team Diabetes Canada and being part of this event.  Our group of 80 runners and walkers from across Canada at the Edinburgh events raised nearly $600,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Assocation.  I definitely want to be part of another event next year!

Thank you for all your support to help families like ours who deal with diabetes everyday.  Sarah is all Signed up for D-Camps (camps run by CDA for kids with Type I diabetes supported by generous donors like you).  It is such an important part of dealing with this disease.

Jack

Another Injury!

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are in mid-March with about 11 weeks to go until the Edinburgh Marathon.  After achieving my fundraising goals at the end of 2012, I began my final 18 week training plan with the goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2014.  At my age, that would be a 3 hour & 15 minute finishing time, which is pretty aggressive for me.  10 years ago, I ran a marathon in 3 hours & 50 minutes.  I felt as if I could have run it alot faster, so I felt the 3:15 was do-able.  Consulting some reputable marathon training books, I created a plan and started my final 18 weeks.

The first 4 weeks went well, although moving from 5 days to 6 days of running was tough.  I always enjoyed the Mondays and Fridays as rest days, and would do yoga on those days to recover.  But the new plan called for more mileage and more intensity.  Having run a half-marathon in October and continuing the half-marathon distances up to 28km by the end of December, I felt ready.  When I experienced an achilles tendon injury in January, I should have known to modify my plan.  But I was so focused on the Boston qualifying time, I pushed ahead after the achilles injury settled down.

Now, I have developed tendonitis in my right knee.  I should have slowed down my progression but I kept pushing ahead, and now it has become difficult to recover from.  I took some time off, have had treatments, but it still continues to be painful.  I am now about 3 weeks behind my plan after doing so well!  Here I am getting a treatment.

Well, the good news is that I just had a week in Florida for March Break and was able to run 5 times outside in shorts and a t-shirt!  It was an amazing feeling after a long, cold winter.  I'm looking forward to spring more than ever!  One of the things that I have been told about my knee is to listen to my body - don't run if my knee is telling me it's too sore.  After running 17km on Sunday (60% of my long run goal), I have decided to take the week off running and do some cross training until next Sunday so the tendonitis will settle down and I can move up to 80% of my long run goal and hopefully get back on track the week after.  I haven't been giving my knee long enough to recover, so the tendonitis keeps coming back.  I'm ready for it to go away!  The hardest part about listening to my body is shutting out the voices in my head that are telling me to run and making me feel guilty about missing my planned runs!

I've also received my tickets and itinerary for the Edinburgh trip, so that has kept me positive and makes this all more real.  It's kind of scary, too, as May 26 is not that far away!

Thanks as always for reading, and if you would be willing to support my campaign, please click here:  http://bit.ly/SfQ9A0.http://http://bit.ly/SfQ9A0.  I'm at $12,470, and would love to get to $13,000 by the marathon!

I also received an updated poster from my designer, Chrissy, and have posted it here.  Doesn't it look great?!

Jack

Winter Running - Continued!

I'm sorry the posts have been so few and far between lately! After the fundraising goal was achieved and surpassed, the holiday season began and fundraising started to fade out.  I received some more donations in the last few days of 2013 taking the total raised so far to $12,450 with more to come in the coming weeks.  I'm hoping to pass $13,000 next month.

I've been out seeing most of my sponsors for the poster campaign and delivering copies of the poster.  Everyone's been very enthusiastic about how they turned out.

In the meantime, my training has continued to progress well.  I am proud to report that I maintained my training schedule over the Christmas and New Year's holidays without interruption!  There have been many difficult days to run - cold, wind, rain, snow, ice - you name it!  This month, I've run in temperatures ranging from a high of 15 degrees Celsius (January 12) to a low of -17 degrees Celsius (today), in winds gusting to 90km/h (this past Sunday) and driving rain (January 13).  I ran a total of 236km in the month of December.  My longest run has been 28km which I've done twice.  Most marathon training plans peak at 32km with the concept that race adrenaline and strength and speed training will take you the last 10km.  However, I plan to do a few practice runs in the 40-42km range to ensure I am ready.

Luckily, I've been injury-free - until recently!  Last week, I developed pain in my right achilles tendon on a short 7km run after a day of rest.  Worried, I did some research, and decided to take a few days off to prevent it from getting worse.  I switched to spinning for a few days, and iced my ankle at night.  A recommended method was sticking my foot in a bucket of ice water!  It was not comfortable, but it seemed to work.  I went back to running and the pain is gone.  Doesn't this look like fun???

Thanks, as always for following along!  If you would like to support me by donating to the Canadian Diabetes Association on my behalf, I would be grateful. Here is a link to my pledge page:  Team Diabetes Site.

Jack

Goal Achieved!

Two months after signing up for Team Diabetes, I am pleased to report that my goal of raising $12,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association has been reached!  What a great Christmas present!  I am so grateful to all my donors for their generosity.  With your help, more funds can be given to diabetes research, community outreach, and helping kids with Type 1 attend summer camp.  Thank you!

I am pleased to show the final poster that was completed and printed this week as well.  I will be distributing copies to my 42 donors, and around the community.  Please show your support for the businesses who donated to my campaign, and mention that you saw them on the poster.

The Edinburgh Marathon is quickly becoming a reality!  I am really looking forward to the event.  My training is progressing well.  I stepped back a bit this week on my long run mileage to give myself a bit of a break for the holidays.  I completed at 12.5km run this morning.  Back to 22km next week, then slowly progressing to 42km.  I will have to work in some speed drills soon, as well, to improve my race time.  It is getting colder and windier, but I am fully equipped with winter gear.  It is quite difficult on some days to go out for my run, but I just have to think about the cause, and about my supporters, and that gets me going!

Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jack

Poster Complete!

Wow, where has the time gone since my last post???  Between regular work, running and fundraising, the days have flown by and here we are a week out from Christmas.

First, I am very pleased to report that my fundraising poster has been completed!  All 42 squares are now filled thanks to the generosity of my donors.  The final design is being completed, and as soon as it is ready, it will be uploaded to this site, and 200 copies will be printed and distributed.  My fundraising total is now $11,350, with more funds to come in the early part of the New Year. The goal of $12,000 should be reached by mid-January.

Second, my training for the marathon is going well!  It is 23 weeks until the race, and I am well ahead of schedule, since I have maintained the half-marathon distance that I built up for the Detroit Half Marathon in October.  I am still contemplating training plans, and am leaning towards the Hal Higdon Personal Best plan, which is suggested for those trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  I am planning to put together a training schedule using this plan over the weekend.

I will have to decide how far to run this coming Sunday - probably another 22km.  Last weekend, I ran 22km, and 20km the week before.  The weather has been strange for December.  It is supposed to rain this Sunday, and those aren't very pleasant conditions for a 2 hour run.  However, I've always believed you have to train in any conditions since you never know what the weather is going to be like on race day.  This is a picture of me after the 20km run 2 weeks ago.  It was pouring rain the entire time.  My feet were wet within 2km, but I made it!

I am finding that the more I do the long runs, the better and more conditioned I feel to the distance.  I've felt great after my last 3 long runs - I wasn't sore all day like I was in October-November when just getting up to the 20km distances.  That is a benefit to having so much time to get ready for a May marathon - I can increase my distances slowly and be less prone to injury and fatigue.

I've also been incorporating yoga into my training on my rest days, which has greatly helped my soreness.  I've also been seeing a chiropractor once a week (one of my poster sponsors, Dr. Deb Stanley in Stouffville) to help with some imbalance in my hips that have caused me some pain.  After a few weeks of treatments, I had my best running week - fast times and little soreness.

Thanks, as always, for reading and if you haven't already done so, please make a donation to my campaign by clicking here! Jack's Team Diabetes Donation Page

Jack

Winter Running

After a major flurry of fundraising and activities, things went back to a somewhat normal pace last week.  Tasks that were postponed to allow for fundraising had to be addressed.  Now that we are in the last week of November and Diabetes Awareness Month, I am aiming to finalize the last sponsors of my poster campaign so that we can print the posters and start distributing them.  Just 8 more to go and the 42 squares will be filled!

My fundraising total is just coming up on $10,000 now, not including the cash generated from the garage sale and silent auction that will be donated shortly.  I have set a new target of $12,200 which will double my minimum fundraising requirement.

In November, one of my sponsors, Moksha Yoga Stouffville will be donating the proceeds from their Friday evening "Karma" classes to the fundraising.  I still have an unlimited 6-month membership available for bid that was donated by Moksha Yoga Stouffville.  If you live in the area, and are interested, please contact me at jaminacs@rogers.com.  It's an amazing value - 6 month unlimited membership, yoga mat, mat towel and some yoga clothing.  Value of $900, minimum bid is $150.  As I've posted before, yoga is fantastic exercise and a great way to deal with daily stresses.  I continue to practice yoga on my days off from running.  I come in the studio stiff and sore, and always leave pain-free and full of endorphins!  Give this gift to yourself or someone for Christmas!

My training is going well.  I just completed a 26km run on Sunday in winter conditions.  The temperature was in the -2 Celsius range, with a -8 windchill.  About 30 minutes into the run, the clear sky gave way to light snow and visibility was fairly low.  However, being early on a Sunday morning, it was quite beautiful to run in these conditions and car traffic was very light on my route. After about 2km, I was quite warm and the temperature didn't bother me at all.  Having the right gear helps, too.

Here's a snapshot of the map generated by my GPS watch following my run. My average pace was 5:27/km, ascending 483m and descending 470m and burning 1932 calories!  Sometimes after my run, I will drive past one part of the route and try to remember passing a certain landmark - but with such a long run, I can't always remember every landmark!  It sometimes feels like part of the run was a dream, especially when I start so early in the morning!

I also picked up some new shoes before my long run a week ago when I ran 24km.  The week before that, after running 22km, I had a fair amount of foot and knee pain for the day of the run. After examining the shoes I have been running in since February, I determined that a replacement was necessary.  The experts at the Running Room suggested 2 pairs of shoes to be used on alternate days in order to allow the absorption properties of the shoes to recover and provide optimal support.  It made me feel like a professional runner!  So far in November, I have run 18 times and covered 191.72km!  Wow!  I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit that some days it is really tough to get on the shoes and gear and get out there (especially those cold, dark early mornings!), but having all my supporters behind me, as well as the cause I am supporting gets me going.

As always, thank you for reading, thank you for your interest, and if you would be so kind to sponsor my mission by donating to the Canadian Diabetes Association to allow them to continue their great work, I would greatly appreciate it.  You can sponsor me via this link which takes you to a secure website:  https://ocp.diabetes.ca/Pledge/csPersonalPage.asp?prId=td&tId=19089&oId=15555744#.UIqt-D7ImMk.email.  If you have already made a donation on my behalf - thank you, and please pass along a request to someone you know who would be willing to support me, too.  Help me reach that $12,200 goal.

Jack