Pounding pavement, pounding heart

Me at the finish line of the Friends of Crystal Beach 5-kilometre run,
half smiling, half wincing. 

It's one of my favourite Monty Python skits.

It's the one with the fat guy sitting in a restaurant, gorging himself, and with each bite demanding the waiter 'Get me a bucket,' before he eventually explodes after eating a wafer-thin mint.

I could relate to the gross glutton as I neared the finished line today at the Friends of Crystal Beach 5-kilometre run. I felt like I was going to hurl and explode all at once.

My apples and peanut butter were eaten two hours earlier — a safe distance, I thought, from my race start time at 11 a.m. But with each step, I could feel what was left of them churning in my stomach, apple-flavoured burps bouncing out of me as I bounced along Erie Road.

With each stride in those last two kilometres, my feet felt heavier. My chest felt more and more stretched by every quickened heart beat.

But after 28:44, I crossed the line, took a deep breath, put my hand to my mouth and asked the powers that be to spare me the embarrassment of spewing in front of hundreds of people, and relished in the fact that I ran the fastest 5k of my life.

I high-fived my husband Steve while giving him heck for running too fast for his slowpoke wife — a point I quickly recanted when the urge to throw up passed and the endorphins had fully kicked in.

One race down and at least eight more to go as I pound the pavement for the broken ground at the LCHS where a spay-neuter clinic will soon take shape.

So far, I've raised $70 and that makes me happy. Thank you to the awesome donors who have contributed. Tax receipts will soon be in the mail. While I've set a running goal in my run for the cats, I haven't set a fundraising goal. But with nine months to run, I'm hopeful I'm not too out of line to aim for $1,000.

Next race: the Casablanca 8km Classic in Grimsby Nov. 12. Here's to the next month of training and fundraising.

Lacing up my running shoes

Otis, adopted from the Lincoln County
Humane Society.

So, normally, I write about food. It's a passion.

But so is the four-legged crowd. As the owner of three cats and the occasional pit stop of the neighbourhood stray, which I recently had neutered, microchipped and given his shots, I have a real soft spot for animals.

All of my guys, Sonny, Maya and Otis, have been adopted from animal shelters or families who just couldn't keep them anymore. The neighbourhood stray, Louie, was clearly dumped. He was a scrawny runt when he first pathetically mewed at my back door. Now he's bulking up and divides his time between two backyards in my condo complex.

Sonny, adopted from a family
that couldn't keep him any
longer.

In September, when the Lincoln County Humane Society launched its capital campaign to raise $1.6 million to build an addition that would house a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, I couldn't help but cheer. Louie is evidence that something like that is desperately needed.

Being that the shelter's executive director is also a friend, I was also asked if I wanted to help fundraise. So, this was my idea: being a tad lazy when it comes to physical activity, I have decided to run at least one race between five and 10 kilometres long each month until June.

For some, that probably sounds laughable, but with winter coming, I don't think it's going to be easy. And I've only run 10 kilometres three times in my life — all this year.

Maya, adopted from the K-W Humane
Society.

I'm also upping the ante. There may even be a half marathon in the mix come spring.

So, for my efforts, I'm asking you to sponsor me. All donations go to the LCHS capital campaign and all endorphins go to me.

My first race in this series is Saturday in Crystal Beach. It's five kilometres. I will use this blog to post updates, race recaps and photos for you to track my progress.

Thanks for reading, sponsoring me and helping the animals.

Louie, the neighbourhood stray who I recently had fixed.