Watch out Canada, Nike Fuelbands are Coming This Week.

Canada are time has finally come, we are about to receive the Nike+Fuelbands!! I am beyond ecstatic for this!! I have had my fuel band since about May and I love it!! I am so happy I got it when I did and now everyone in Canada has the opportunity to get one also.

You might be asking yourself what exactly is a Nike Fuelband, while it looks like a bracelet or a cool watch and you wear it on your wrist and it measures your activity level. It is a great way to stay active and compete with your friends who also have fuelbands and who are your facebook friends, I am hoping that we can soon compete with our twitter friends also.

I also love competing against myself and trying to break my last week record. It has a section that lets you know your longest streak, I am on a 110 day streak right now so it keeps me moving even on my rest days so I don't ruin my streak.

While I was in San Francisco I had he opportunity to see the new Fuelbands that are going to come out, the White Ice and the Black Ice. I instantly fell in love with the White Ice when I saw it. It is like they made it for women. It is a beautiful white color, is really bright and has the prettiest clasp ever. I would recommend this one to any women who wants one. I also had the amazing opportunity to receive the first consumer Nike Fuelband White Ice. I have been wearing it ever since the marathon. I have had so many compliments on it and I have had many people ask when it comes out.

Well Canada on Wednesday October 31^st, 2012 you can purchase your own Nike Fuelband at any Apple Store in Canada. Get out there get your fuelband and get moving. I can’t wait to start racking up the Nike Fuel with you, be sure to let me know when you get yours.

Maybe the Nike Fuel Team will do a little friendly competition, who can earn more fuel Team Canada or Team USA.

My Decision to Cut Sugar Out

My decision to quit sugar was a rather easy decision. I have struggle with my weight for most of my adult life and sugar is one of those unnecessary elements in our food these days.

Seriously, you look around and everything has some type of sugar in it, apple sauce is sweetened with it. What happened to good old fashioned apple sauce? 

I actually went off of sugar before, about 2 years ago. It was sugar and wheat I totally took out of my diet. I went cold turkey on both of it. It lasted about three weeks because I didn't allow my body any type of sugar whatsoever, even the natural sugar we get from wheat. I wore an elastic band around my wrist and every time I had a sugar craving or wanted bread I would flick myself with elastic, inflicting pain upon myself. I associated pain with sugar/wheat cravings.

I literally lived off of chicken salads and my hair was starting to fall out in clumps after week 2. I am pretty sure my body was going into shock from not getting any nutrients other than greens and chicken. I was substituting any multi-vitamin for the loss of nutrients.

I actually craved one day and broke down crying because I wanted a piece of toast so bad. I was an angry wreck from restricting my body so much.   

This time I am taking myself off of sugar in a different way. I am still eating fruit, one serving a day and I am eating whole grains because I no longer eat white bread. My body right now is craving sugar but I know this will pass. I don’t fear that I am doing this in an unhealthy way because the only thing I am cutting out is sugar; I have no worry that my hair is going to fall out. I do know that I will probably be cranky for a few days while my body starts to realize it has no sugar entering it but in the end I will be healthier for it.

A few people have questioned my motives, is it a good idea, are you sure you can do it, why would you want to do that?  What I have realized is no matter what you do in life people are going to question your motives. It is best to keep a supportive group around you and let the non supportive people go.

I have no intentions of harming myself this time, rather making a choice that will help me be healthier and a better runner, in turn a better me.

Setting New Goals and Starting New Journey's

I can’t believe I have been back in Calgary for a week. It has been a week since I ran my very first marathon in San Francisco. With no goal in mind in the near future my life has seemed a little empty.

Even thought my Journey to the Nike Women’s Marathon is over it doesn't mean that my Running journey is over, I believe it has just started and NWM just made me even more excited to run and fueled my love for the sport.

I actually spent my first two days home sleeping. After a weekend of not getting very good sleep and running a marathon I needed a lot of sleep. My first day home I slept for 9 hours and the next day I slept close to 11 hours, crazy. Even this weekend I ended up getting a lot of sleep. I guess my body is still kind of recovering.

I have finally gotten over the fact that I didn't even come close to making my Boston Qualifying time. For a few days there every time someone asked me how I did I would get really sad.  Now I realize that I accomplished something really great and I am ready to take on a new challenge.

I have decided that I will be running the BMO Vancouver Marathon in May of 2013. It is a Boston Qualifying course and doesn't have the same crazy hills as San Fran. With my first marathon out of the way I can focus more on my speed rather than just on finishing. I honestly think I put too much pressure on myself to qualify during my first marathon. I plan on focusing a lot on hills and speed this time around. Of course I will still have a distance focus and my Saturdays will still be my long run days but my goal is to get through all my long runs without having to take any walk breaks. My only challenge this time is the fact that I will be running through winter and winter in Calgary can get very cold. Hopefully we won’t have a cold winter and I won’t have too many treadmill runs.

For right now I have set some mini goals for myself. In the month of November I plan on running 100 miles and doing 1,440 NTC minutes. That works out to 5 runs at 4 miles each week and 90 minutes of NTC 4 times a week. I am totally game for this challenge. I have also made November a no sugar month and I am starting that today. I am determined to get myself down to 18% body fat by Christmas. I want abs for Christmas. If you want to join me in either these challenges or just one let me know in the comments. We can keep each other motivated.

I just celebrated my 27^th birthday. I really can’t believe it and what a week I had. It kicked off with running the Nike Women’s Marathon and ended with having supper with Meho’s dad and step-mom. I got some amazing gifts one of them being a “Yonana’s” ice cream maker. This thing is cool!! All you put in it is frozen fruit. You stick it in the machine and it makes it into ice cream. It’s super healthy and only requires frozen fruit. I am super excited to use it especially with No Sugar November coming up.

My Race Weekend - Nike Women's Marathon

Thursday morning I woke up to snow in Calgary, but it didn't bother me because I was going to be boarding a flight to San Fran by noon. Meho and I left for the airport and I was full of excitement. When I got the airport I was told that my flight was likely going to be delayed. I sat in the airport and found out that my flight was yes delayed but only by a half hour. We boarded our flight at 12:40 and sat on the tarmac until 2:15pm!!! We finally landed in San Fran at 3:10pm and I had to wait 40 minutes for my luggage!!! 

Me at the Nike Expo in front of the
Fuel Stream looking at me.

I finally got to meet my Sisters In Nike and I was so excited to hang out with them all weekend. Karen and Elizabeth are amazing an so much fun. I felt like I knew the both of them my whole life. Ranisha was so fun and friendly and nice she always had a huge smile on her face, she totally lit up the room. Nerissa spent a lot of time with her boyfriend and sadly we didn't really get the chance to know her.

Alyson Felix at the Expo, she is beautiful.

Friday morning started with a stretching session with Nike's very own Master Trainer Marie Purvis. She is so friendly and helpful. It was great to finally meet her after tweeting her and following her training plan for months. Our stretching session was down down on Fisherman's Wharf in view of the bay bridge, it was a breathtaking view minus all of the birds that were down there. I am pretty sure Robby ( @TarHellRob ) who works with the Nike Fuel digital team, had to chase birds away from myself and Elizabeth before we had a panic attack from the books. It was a great stretching session and got out all of the kinks in my body from the flight over. After doing a few photo's of stretching and with the Nike Fuel team we met up with Robyn from Team Epiphany to do some more Nike Women's shots. This was a lot of fun, we walked the streets of downtown San Fran and really got to see this beautiful city. I can totally see myself moving there. After the shoot we went to the Expo to pick up our race packets and take in some of the expo. I got to see myself on the Nike Fuel Stream. I was pretty stoked about that. 

On the way back from the race we ran into Joan Benoit Samuelsons
he is awesomeand beautiful, such an awesome inspiration.

Saturday was another great day. Karen and myself went over to the Expo early in the morning so we could check out the Yurbuds and the bra bar. The bra bar was pretty cool, they measured you and fitted you with a bra. They also had a place where they styled you in Nike's new cold weather gear and gave you the names of the clothes you liked. They also had places you could get a makeover and Nuun was there with all the different types of Nuun they had. They had one that had a little bit of caffeine in it. It is beautifully amazing and taste awesome and doesn't have a salty taste. We met back at the hotel for 10am and we met Marie again for a shake out run. We went down to pier 49 where we could see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. We were right by the ocean and a little piece of me felt at home. Afterwards we came back to the hotel and I stayed in my hotel room for the rest of the day hydrating and resting for the big day the next day. 

Race Day

My new Moto.

Sunday morning I was up before my alarm went off. It was 4:40 in the morning when my eyes shot open and I felt sick, at first I thought it was nerves but than I knew I was about to get sick, everything I ate started to come up and I knew this was going to have a negative effect on my run. I was so nervous for my race because the last 5 months came down to this exact moment. I began getting ready for my race because I had be in the lobby for 6:30am and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep anytime soon. 6:30 we all met in the lobby and made our way to the start line, but before we left the Nike Fuel team got a pictures of all of us and I must say it is the best picture of the whole weekend. I can't wait to frame this picture. 

Race Start

Me with my new white ice fuel band and the Tiffany's necklace

The race start was crazy. We were not very far back from the start line but it went super far back. I heard that it took them 45 minutes to get everyone over the start line, for us it took us 2 minutes. The day was a little chilly and super foggy outside with a light mist, this is what I was hoping for because this is my perfect racing conditions. When we started out I knew I was going to fast, but I got caught up in the moment an kept pushing myself. When I started to pull back I just ended up pushing harder. My lungs felt so great and I wanted to keep going at this pace because I knew I would make my Boston goal if I kept that pace up. All of a sudden I was at the 3 mile mark and had no idea where the race was going I felt like it was flying by. Than we hit the dreaded hill. I knew I was going to have to pull back big time on the hills because I needed my legs for the last 13 miles of the race, so I took the hills nice and slow not allowing myself to tire out on them. When I got to the top I let myself enjoy the downhill run and maybe ran them a little faster than I should have but it made up for lost time. It was so great to have community support from the members of San Fran especially when we got into the residential areas. I was feeling great into the 11th mile and was running an average pace of 8'34"/mile and was on track to make my Boston goal. Sadly at around mile 12 my body got really hot and my legs felt like jelly, things around me started going black and I passed out. I was out for only a few seconds I think, but when I came to there were people standing around me. I yelled out "Don't touch me" I wanted nothing more than to finish my race. I got up and sprint/staggered off than walked until I found the next Shot Block station, lucky for me it wasn't far away. Once I got shot blocks in me I felt so much butter, honestly shot blocks are the best thing my body absorbs them rather quickly and got me back on my feet rather quickly. Sadly, around mile 16 I had to start using the bathroom every outhouse I saw because the water was causing my body to freak out. Around mile 24 I wanted to give up, my feet hurt, my legs hurt and I was into my own head thinking I couldn't do this, lucky for me I have an amazing friend in Elizabeth, she met me at mile 25 and ran the rest of the race with me getting me into the shoot and over the finish line. I really don't know if I would have finished without her. I finally finished my race and received coveted Tiffany's necklace. My time was 4hours and 39 minutes. Not what I was aiming for but at least I finished. I was short of my goal for Boston by a big time but I am not going to let that destroy me as I have already planned my next Boston qualifier race, this time it will be in Ottawa.

On the bright side Nike Fuel had a contest that none of us were aware of. We were competing to see who got the most fuel and I won by a hair. I was presented with the new WHITE ICE NIKE FUEL BAND. Kamauri and Robby presented it to me and I was over the moon. Until the end of the month I am the only person who has the WHITE ICE NIKE FUEL. I was so excited about it and I love it. It really topped off my weekend and made me feel better about not qualifying for Boston. 

Honestly, the Nike Women's Marathon is an amazing race and I think everyone should do it. The experience is amazing and the course is breathtaking. I will for sure be back next year. 

You Will Have to Fight Through Bad Days

I remember the day I received the email from Nike Women asking me to be a Nike Women’s Marathon Ambassador, at first I thought it was a joke. I didn't want to get my hopes up and when I realized that it was for real I jumped up and down in my desk and ran around my office in pure joy. 

It rates HIGHLY as one of the happiest days of my life.

As the marathon approaches I look back and realize that not every day of training was glamour’s. There were days that I honestly wanted to give up. There were days that I sat on my bed and cried. Not because my body was tired or because I was injured but because I was physically exhausted. Running long distances is a mentally draining activity. Or a Saturday morning would come and my alarm was going off at 6am and I knew that most people I knew were still in bed sleeping in on a beautiful Saturday morning.

I also had days that I felt amazing and I was so excited to get out there and train, sometimes I would get up at 6am and feel proud because I knew I was one of the few people in the world awake at this time on a weekend and not because I had to be but because I wanted to be. I had days were I woke up and got so excited to train and was super pumped about San Fran. Lucky for me the days that I was excited to train far outweighed the days that I was tired.

Nike Women were also really great supporters. It seemed they sent me a box full of Nike gear when I needed it the most, such as when I needed a pick me up for training. I don’t think I would have been able to do my first marathon training without the support of the Ladies at Nike Women. They have been inspirational and motivating.

One HUGE words of advice I can give anyone who is running a marathon is “You will have to fight through the bad days to earn the best days of your life”. For me these best days have been training for the Nike Women’s Marathon. They haven’t always been easy, but nothing easy is ever worth it, it is only really worth it if you had to work for it. Trust me running 22 miles is not an easy feat but it has been so worth it.

I am beyond excited to cross the finish line with a smile on my face. Qualifying for Boston would be beyond exciting and coming across the line at 3hours 30minutes would probably put me into excited frenzy of tears but truth be told to cross that line with a big smile on my face is going to mean the most.

I have been so honoured to share this journey with you. I am more than over joyed that you have read my blog and shared your experiences with me. Remember the journey doesn’t end until I cross that finish line, so please continue to follow me on twitter @TiaraBeth, ask me questions and give me encouragement because you have all shared this journey with me. I hope you will all be cheering me on while I run my very first marathon.