They say time flies when you’re having fun, and if the fact that it’s already September is any indication, I’ve been having a lot of fun!

For instance, I had the opportunity to attend a talk by elite Canadian runners Matt Loiselle and Andrew Smith a few weeks back. I love attending these talks. While, for the most part, they tend to be along the same lines (training, eating, racing, etc.), there is something very motivating and inspiring about talking with guys who grew up in Windsor and Toronto now training for Olympic marathon qualifying times. Their 160-200km of training a week puts a new perspective on my (somewhat less) weekly distance, while at the same time making me want to go out and run it better. During the talk they shared some stretches that they’ve been using after their runs to help with recovery — if you’re interested, they’re all from The Wharton’s Back Book. I’ve been using them after my runs for the past week and have noticed improvements. I’m going to keep at it and we’ll see how it goes.

The second fun thing I’ve been up to was facilitating an aid station last Sunday for the running clinic I’ve been crashing for the last month or so. This all started last winter when I was taking the marathon clinic at the local Running Room, and several of the people involved started setting up aid stations along our running routes during our long runs. Like mirages, these aid stations always seemed to show up just as I was out of water and starting to get a little loopy.

So to pay it forward I set up a table along the route and filled it with bottles of water, pretzels, orange sliced, banana slices, and a few Gatorades and cans of coconut water. I even grabbed a blanket we got in Mexico — check it out:

This was a fantastic experience, and it was great to be able to be of service, even if only in a small way. Syd (my dog) also came out as the table mascot and devoured pinecones (and a few pretzels) to encourage her favourite runners (she’s in the back seat in the picture).

The third fun thing (yes, all great and horrible things come in three, even on blogs) was getting to go for another run with the Canadian Running Magazine Marathon Quest group last night. Once again we met in High Park (I swear, one of these days I’ll actually go for a long run there – it’s really beautiful!) and set out for a 5k-7k loop on trails and pathways. It was great to see some of the same people and the progress they’ve made in their training over the last couple of months. Everyone is getting excited for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, which is just over three weeks away! We were told a few details about what the “VIP” area for us was going to consist of, but I’m holding out on writing about those until race day.

After the run there was a draw for a prize pack that Brooks had sent along, including a brooks hat, bag and certificate for a free pair of shoes. Here’s a quick shot of the group post-run:

That’s it for now. Happy training, and even more important – happy tapering!