Category: Racing

Racing, Running, Travel, Triathlon

The list

Christine Cogger

Everyone seems to have a bucket list, a 100-things-to-do-before-they die/get married/have kids/etc. I don’t have a life bucket list (yet) or a 100 things list (yet) but I guess I have a bucket list of races, events or adventures I’d like to do before I kick it. Or stop being able to do these silly things, whichever comes first. Herewith, my list.

(Ed note: This list changes on a daily basis, per my mood and general interest level).

NYC Marathon

Yes, I’ve run this one before, but this time I’d like to do it without being 4 months pregnant.

Boston Marathon

The sand in the Vaseline here is that I’d have to qualify. I’ll work on that. Hmm.

A Marathon or trail race in Hawaii

It’s bound to be hot and humid. Fun!

The Transrockies Run

For my 40th. Or thereabouts. Right Lizzie?

An Xterra race in Utah

Why Utah? I have no idea really, other than it seems like a nice course with the added challenge of altitude.

The Mid-Mountain Marathon in Park City, Utah.

This trail is stunning! Why not run it?

An Ironman or Marathon in Europe.

Huge crowds, historic cities, lots of beer.

The Across the Lake swim in Kelowna

I have never been brave enough but figure I should do it one day.

An Ironman that gives me an outside shot at qualifying for Kona one day.

Maybe when I’m in the 80-85 age group.

What about you? What’s on your list? I want some suggestions and by suggestions I mean invitations. I realize this list is mostly running, time to work on my biking and adventure list – primarily more Chicks in the Sticks!

—

No big adventures planned for the weekend (unless you call getting up at 5am to volunteer at an the Squamish 50 and then heading home for a wedding and dancing on a mildly sprained ankle an adventure) so I’ll leave you with some random pictures.

Have a great weekend! The last weekend of Olympics 24/7… cue the withdrawal.

Biking, Racing, Triathlon

What makes you an Athlete?

Christine Cogger

It’s kind of baffling to me that I ever got into triathlon or endurance sports at all.

As a child, I was obsessed with ponies.

Giv’r

I absolutely HATED swimming lessons (my mother still has the scars to prove it) and I distinctly remember swimming so crookedly in one lake meet that I hit the dock we were meant to be swimming parallel to head-on.

Cycling was something I did to get to my summer job and subsequently something I took up when I sold my first love, an Arabian pony named Macgyver.

Weeeeeee!

I had a boyfriend who was passionate about biking so I think I took it up just to be cool.  I sucked, but I was stubborn and did it anyway.  Although I thought nothing of piloting a 1000-pound, fairly disobedient animal over immovable obstacles (but let’s face it, I was 17.  I didn’t think much about anything), riding down a mountain side (or up one, for that matter) usually had me in tears of frustration and/or fear.   The second time I took my road bike for a spin, my front wheel came off while riding over some train tracks and my face absorbed the impact.  Beauty.

I was probably thinking about what I was going to eat for lunch at this moment.
Now those are some SWEET shades.

Running was just as foreign to me.  The first time I went for a run was in university and it lasted 5 minutes.  I think I was too haunted by those Canada Fitness Awards ParticipACTION badges we had to strive for in elementary school.  I never did get the gold one, dammit.

Haunts me to this day.

Today, it would be hard to imagine life without the release of endurance sports (although I still harbour a fantasy that one day I’ll win the lottery, buy a million dollar steed and represent my country as an Olympic equestrian, by I digress).  Despite this, in no way, shape or form do I consider myself an elite athlete.  In fact, I struggle with the term “athlete” in general.  What makes you an athlete?  Are you an athlete because you do a sport every day?  Are you an athlete because it’s your career?  What if you are just doing something for fun?  What does that make you?  I used to consider myself a “recreational triathlete” – but I haven’t been on my tri bike in an embarrassing number of months and the last time I was in a pool I was in a hotel in a bikini and I think I’d just had a beer.  Does that make me a retired triathlete?

I’ll do almost anything if you dare me. Including racing without pants.

I love reading how triathletes and other elite athletes got their start in their sport of choice.  So many of them were high school track stars, NCAA All-Americans, Olympic hopefuls, etc.  It’s always so interesting to follow their trajectory to where they are now.  So how about you?  How’d you get your start?  What do you consider yourself?  Pro?  Weekend Warrior?  Gamer? All of the above?

I can’t believe this was 5 years ago!
Racing, Running, Whistler

Team Red… FTW!

Christine Cogger

Last night at dinner, the conversation turned to this morning’s race.  I was explaining to the kids that as I had to be in Whistler super early, Uncle Pete was coming over to make pancakes and turn on cartoons.  After a few seconds of pondering, Will says: “Mum, how come you never bring home any trophies from your races?”

Hmm.

“Well, it’s because I don’t win, sweets.”

(…)

To which he and Rory concur that “Mum, all you have to do is run faster, ‘kay?”

Thanks, mini-coaches.  I’ll bear that in mind next time I enter a half-marathon with little to no real training.  Moving on!

The goals for this weekend’s race were simple:

  1. Make it to the start line.
  2. If I accomplish “1”, make it to the finish line.
  3. Enjoy wearing matching shirts.  People were so stoked to cheer for Team Red!
  4. Keep pace with Yenny and Lizzie.
Mission accomplished, and I got to drink chocolate milk at the finish.  
Did I set a PR?  No.  Did I feel good?  Not particularly.  Did I get a blister?  Yes.  Did I enjoy it and smile and did it go by fast?  Yes, yes and yes.
So thankful to have good girlfriends to do this with.  It wouldn’t be the same without you ladies!
And of course, a big thank you to Pete and Kevin for handling the breakfast rush…


Day-to-day life, Family, Kids, Pemberton, Racing, Running, Skiing, Travel, Triathlon

10.

Christine Cogger

Oh!  Right!  I have a blog.

Where was I??  It’s been *crickets* around here lately, haven’t been very inspired to write.  Fell off the training wagon (that big THUD you heard a few weeks back).  Trying to claw my way back on, but it keeps rolling about 3 feet away like that annoying big brother would do when you were trying to open the car door to get in and all the cool kids were watching.

Anyway, moving on.  I was thinking about something to write and figured that if the expression”a picture is worth a thousand words” is still true, then I’ll do a photo post and be miles ahead.

Ever wonder if you can define your life in photos?  In 10 photos or less?  I pretty much can, I think these sum up my day-to-day nicely these days.  What about you?

Edited to add:  I wrote this post on Thursday of last week… On Monday I started a new job.  So!  Add a shot of a different deskin an actual office with humans and a water cooler and a boardroom and a shot of an alarm going off at 5:30am and there you have it.  My life.

Racing, Travel, Triathlon

Kona

Christine Cogger

In my humble opinion, there are very few redeeming qualities to the month of February. Possible exceptions are the skiing and the fact that it has fewer days than other months.  I tend to find myself willing the days to lengthen and surfing the inter webs for last minute travel deals to warmer climes, despite knowing I’ll likely never book one.  This winter has been particularly grey in pemberton, which isn’t helping my relationship with February.
This time last year I knew I had a are in Kona to work towards and look forward to.  Thinking about this the other day, I realized I have never posted the race report…which I wrote on the place ride home from that race!  I then considered posting it on the anniversary of the race but that seemed silly, even for me.  So without further delay… Kona 2011!

We’d been planning this race for about a year… So to finally get on the plane and head to Kona was a bit of a relief.  Training had been different from what I had hoped.  I am generally pretty good about following a training plan to an 85% “t”: I do exactly what I am told 85% of the time and the next 15% I either blow the training off completely or do exactly what I feel like it, which is frequently nothing.  This time, however, it was more like 60/40.  A combination of life, kids and some pretty atrocious spring weather conspired to make it a little harder than I had anticipated to get everything done that I had hoped.  That said, I know that when I race I pretty much never want to make a fool of myself or let myself down so I knew what I had to do come race day.

Our trip over was smooth and we were completely spoiled by the ultra fantastic accommodation thanks to Sarah allowing to share her beautiful Kona home.  W arrived, settled in and rested up.

It was my first time in Kona and it was pretty great to see the infamous ironman sites that I had seen so many times in magazines and on tv.  Lava Java did not disappoint!  The days leading up to the race were spent getting race ready, getting in a few last minutes sessions,  taking in some of the scenery, getting Sarah immersed in the world of triathlon and basically turning her into a tri nerd.  2 things during the lead up stand out: my most favorite was without a doubt swimming next to some dolphins at the pier ( this despite the fact that when I first saw them I thought they were sharks, oops.  Swallowed a lot of water there).  Next was attending the pro meeting which Chrissy convinced us we would enjoy and “blend right in!” Uh, yeah.  We didn’t exactly blend in (hi, Chris Lieto! You’re pretty cute) or learn much but it was fun…

Race day morning came, as it always does, much too early for my taste.  I always have to fight the desire to roll over and say ” meh, I’ll just race later”.  We did eventually all pile into our sweet minivan and make our way to the transition in the dark.

A few last minute tweaks, load up nutrition and check the bike and it was finally down to the beach for body marking and the swim start.

I dazzled with my focus at the start.  So much so, in fact, that I was so intent on looking at my watch that I didn’t even notice the big wave that rolled in and literally knocked me into a sweet backwards somersault!  Awesome.  That certainly took the edge off.

It’s no secret that I am not exactly Summer Sanders and I did not disappoint!  I came out in a nice casual time of that which shall not be mentioned in print.  If you care, you can google it.  I certainly didn’t care, I was just so damn happy to be done (and see my friend Danny and his son Tyler!) That swim was rough!  Crowded and messy.  Oh well, I managed to run up the long hill to transition and get to my bike relatively quickly.

Once onto the bike I knew it was important to stay conservative until the turnaround and I did.  I didn’t particularly enjoy the ride and found it hard to kick my own ass on the way to Hawi.  I saw Sarah on her way home from Hawi and decided I should probably put my head down for a while to try to catch her.  I finally caught her on the hill back to the Queen K and was happy for us to ride back to the transition together.

Handed off my bike in a rather disorganized fashion and put on my shoes and grabbed some sunscreen to start the hot-very-hot run.  The first 2 miles felt amazing.  I can do this!  I am winning this thing!  And then… Miles 3-7 not so much with the winning… I was hot, kind of over it, my mind was wandering.  Saw Chrissy running just back of Bree and cheered her on, it was great to see her running strong.  I was also quite jealous that she was almost done.  By the time I hit mile 8 I got some energy back and had quite enjoyed weaving up and over and through the golf course.  5 miles? Pshh.  I got this.  So easy. And then, I went to what Danny affectionately calls “hell’s kitchen”.  Yeah, pretty much the most miserable stretch of pavement anywhere.  A brutal 2 or 3 mile out and back that seems to never end.

Well, end it finally did and I made it back out onto the golf course and could taste the finish line. However, not before a lovely little Japanese racer passes me whilst running in his crocs.  Sigh.  That was humbling.

Finish chute!  So long! Such a teeny finish arch!  So happy to take off my damn shoes!  Race done and dusted.  I was happy with my time but not ecstatic.  Pleasantly satisfied?

I did thoroughly enjoy the post-race-beer-and-chips-lying-on-an-ocean-side-massage table.  Doesn’t get much sweeter than that…
So there you have it.  That was the last real race I did in 2011!  That was a bit unusual for me, but I was ok with it.  After several years of racing, it was time to give my mind and body a break and focus on doing sport for fun.  Which isn’t to say I didn’t miss it somewhat because I’ll be back out there this summer… As tanned as ever!

Doha, Racing, Running

Race day in Doha

Christine Cogger

One of my producers here had the bright idea (with perhaps some slight coercion on my part) to sign us up for an Aquathon, behind held at the Aspire Zone this past Friday.  The race was the first in a series of 5, part of their winter race series.  Team BesterCogger pulled it together for a respectable finish!  Rocky led us out with a solid 500m swim, I brought it home with the 5K run.

For the bargain price of 50 Riyals (about $15), we were treated to a safe and super well organized event that included photos, official timing, a full spread of food, medals and a goodie bag stuffed with swag.  WTC, take note…

The swim was held in one of 4 (!) pools at the venue and the run went around the outer edges of the Aspire Zone.  This was a great way for me to see the venue!  Because we go there early enough, I also got to check out several of the indoor venue sites for the upcoming Games, including boxing, fencing and gymnastics.  It’s all coming together.

The Aspire Zone is Doha’s version of Whistler’s Meadow Park.  The major difference, besides the incredible facilities themselves, obviously, is that they are virtually empty.  No one uses them… a shame really.  What we wouldn’t do to have such an incredible facility at our fingertips!

 

Racing, Random, Running, Travel

New York!

Christine Cogger

It’s hard to figure out where to start to describe this race and this experience! I can safely say that EVERY ONE of my runner friends should put this race on their “must do” list. It was fun, hard, eye-opening, humbling and exciting. There’s nothing quite like running by 2.5 million people to make you feel like some kind of hero!Jay flew to the East Coast a few days ahead of me and met me in New York. I landed in the evening so after checking in, we had to walk around and see some sights. We had yummy Chinese (not readily available in Pemberton…) and went to Times Square to check it out. Even at 11:30pm it was crawling with people.

Country folk in the big city

I broke every “pre-marathon” rule I could think of: stay off your feet, don’t eat anything new, rest, hydrate… didn’t matter though. It was NYC, I had to plans to spend the day in a hotel room watching Oprah! Friday we walked around, did some shopping (first stop: F.A.O Schwartz!) and ate a hot dog. We had dinner with some friends and met up with Erin who was in town to run, too. Her first marathon!

Big Piano at FAO Schwartz

Yummy

Scoping out the course on Friday. It didn’t look anything like this on Sunday.

Couldn’t do this Sunday!

This looked a little different on Sunday, too…

Sub-Elite and me.

Times Square

Saturday was reserved for marathon stuff. We went to pick up our packages at the Javitz Center (our plans to get there first thing were slightly foiled by more shopping…) The closer we got the more the sidewalks got clogged with runners. I couldn’t believe how huge the center was and there were big line-ups to get to registration. Amazingly, we blew through there in about 15 minutes: you can tell the organizers had done this before! After a quick tour through the expo it was a bit more sightseeing then back to the room for some rest and race prep.
The international flavour of this marathon is undeniable. Our hotel was filled with Italians, Germans, Andalusians (!) and others, all there to run the marathon. Every official kiosk had translators available. It certainly makes it feel like a big race.

registration!

Race day! We had a 4:30am wake up call for a race that started at 9:40am. Slightly bleary-eyed we made our way to the lobby (as Jay rolled over and went back to sleep – smart man) which was teeming with people. Grabbed a coffee and headed to the subway which took us to the ferry to Staten Island. It was dark and raining and the best part was that there were as many people coming home from Hallowe’en parties as there were marathoners headed to the start.

Sub-Elite E and me. See that behind us? That would be DARKNESS.

Statue of Liberty in the dark

Verrazano Narrows bridge, the first part of the race
Getting off the bus to Fort Wadsworth. I had to pee and had my pick of locations…

A fraction of the UPS (“oopays” in spanish, apparently) which carried our gear to the finish

Again, lots more line-ups but everything went amazingly smoothly. Erin and I settled in for a long wait when we got to Fort Wadsworth. Drank some water, read the paper, people watched. We had over 2 hours to kill till start time. The funniest part was when 2 Italian ladies sat next to us, opened up their coffees and lit their cigarettes. Runners!

Elite women headed to the start
Everybody else headed to the start

Erin and I parted ways about 40 minutes before the start – she was classified as “sub-elite” and I was a lowly “local competitor” (a source of endless comedy for us), so we were in different corrals. I dumped my bag at the UPS truck that would deliver it to the finish line and amazingly, met up with Mel Day – another Whistler runner. I couldn’t quite believe that amongst 47, 000 runners we found each other! More standing around until finally the national anthem played and the canon sounded and we were off!

Me and Mel

Minutes before the start

Course map (click to enlarge)

The first thing we do is run up and over the Verrazano Narrows bridge. The first mile is uphill, the 2nd downhill. During the downhill people went sprinting by me. Needless to say, I caught them about 3 miles later as they started cramping! As soon as we turned into Brooklyn we ran down the main boulevard and the crowds started, it was truly amazing. Loud, boisterous, encouraging… People in their jammies, kids, babies, people “cheersing” us with Champagne, music.

Brooklyn!

1st ave. That’s Jay over there on the left in black.

The race itself is a bit of a blur. I felt really great until about mile 20, when the wheels promptly and rather painfully came off the bus. I was very conservative with my pace (I am afflicted with a condition commonly referred to as “pregnancy” and as such had to keep my heart rate, body temp and such things in check). It also probably didn’t really help that I think I had done a grand total of 4 long runs leading up to this race. I grabbed a 4:10 pace bad and was well on track until Mile 20 when I started having to walk a bit more than I would have chosen. It didn’t matter though – I knew I wasn’t in this race to set any records, I was there to enjoy it.

Amazingly, I was able to see Jay and Bobby on the course twice. I had arranged to see them around mile 17 so that Jay could give me some real food and again 2 miles before the finish. When you come off the last bridge down into Manhattan and run onto 1st ave the crowds seemed to swell, to the point that spectators were anywhere from 2 to 6 deep behind the barricades. I was able to spot Bobby and Jay right away and grabbed my food. Smiled, kept going. When I saw them again at mile 22 I was walking but still smiling! Everything hurt at that point and I was looking for a piggy back to the finish! I saw the best sign at that point: “stopping is not a fucking option” – ain’t that the truth!

In the last mile, there are signs that countdown the yards… 800, 400, 300, 200, 100… literally the longest mile of my LIFE. The crowds were truly deafening and it was amazing to run by them. In true “me” fashion, I had to jump across the finish line, haha!

Finally!

This is what finishing the NYC marathon sounds like!

This was the first time I finished a race like this that I felt truly great once it was over – no stomach issues, legs and feet were tired and sore but I was able to walk around, head to the subway, eat, etc… a novelty for me, really. Back at the hotel I had my ice batch, some chips and watched Oceans 11 in bed!! Same thing as my last marathon! I think this is a fantastic tradition to try to maintain.

I was actually looking forward to this.

I can’t say enough about how well run this race is run. Even though there were always crowds around, I never felt crowded, everything went so smoothly. Kuddos to New York Road Runners.

Monday was spent forcing Jay and Erin to get up early so we could go buy some finisher souvenirs , then I met up with Karl for lunch and spent the rest of the day walking and, as promised, shoe shopping!

And how did Erin do in her first marathon? Oh you know, a 3:30. Amazing!

Time to get on the plane home, more pics and details to come as I can think of them!
Day-to-day life, Racing

Overdue but perfectly undercooked

Christine Cogger

Sporadic… that’s as good as it’s going to get these days! Since the last post I did the Squamish XTC race, went to Las Vegas for Interbike, celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and family and have been counting down the days till New York. Only 10 days till we fly out!

XTC was great. Cold and crisp in the morning made for a fun swim start. It was about 6 degrees when I left my house on race morning but warmed up to about 12 degrees by the time we took the start. For some reason organizers started the sprinters halfway through the first lap of the full course racers, which made for an “active” start. I had a decent swim, considering I had barely been swimming and couldn’t feel my face until I went around the 1st buoy.

Transition was FUNNY. It’s no easy feat pulling a cycling jersey over a wet bathing suit (“Squeak”!) By the time I finally got out onto the bike I was pretty relaxed. I managed to pass a whole bunch of people before we hit the single track and that was a good thing – triathletes don’t make for exceptionally talented mountain bikers, so say the least.

Off the bike onto the run was the best! A few hundred meters of flats to get my running legs under me and then it was a full 1 km uphill and a super fun/super sketchy, wet, rooty downhill. Not my forte for sure but it was fun. The lead male passed me like I was sitting on the sidelines cheering, not racing.

Capped the day off enjoying burgers and a visit with friends on the beach at Alice Lake… and a few hours later I was Vancouver-bound for a week in Las Vegas at Interbike. I was excited to go to this show but it was a bit of a disappointment this year. Highlights did include checking out some of the incredible euro brands that we never get to see around home, CrossVegas, heat and most importantly, pool time!

Shortly after getting back from Interbike we ran the Inaugural D’arcy to Pinecrest 100K relay, a huge success! My leg was 14ish K, run with Christine S. and John B. Good company, good weather and good times. Really looking forward to doing it again next year!

Last but not least, looming in under 2 weeks is the New York City marathon! I wasn’t thinking about it too much in the past few weeks but I did my last long run today and now I cannot WAIT to go. I haven’t run as much as I probably should have to be 100% prepared (hence the undercooked) but at least I am not injured and I think that it’s going to be amazing! T-minus 13 days!

Racing, Triathlon

Vancouver Sprint

Christine Cogger

There are 2 things I swore I’d NEVER do when I first took up triathlon. First, I’d never race a sprint (too intense, too crazy, etc). Secondly, I’d never race in a swimsuit (for obvious reasons – I’m no Baywatch lifeguard!)

Well, Sunday I did a SPRINT in a BATHING SUIT. Gaaah!

Actually, both were super fun. I made lots of mistakes during the race (most notably treating the run like some kind of Sunday stroll through the park, which, wait… it was Sunday and we were in a park…) but those mistakes simply made me want to do another one and improve! Wasn’t such a bad day after all, since I ended up 3rd in my AG and 9th overall. I should have stuck around for the podium, I would have stood up there with Linsey Corbin, who won the race! And of course, on the other side of her was my partner in crime for the weekend, Marie-Anne.

Now it’s time to put triathlon aside for a few weeks and focus on bikes, cheese, wine and France! Departure, tomorrow 11am!

Marie-Anne “fueling up”…

Pretty nice place for a swim

Pre-race. I’m so tall all of a sudden!

Done and DONE!