My summer "vacation" and why I'll be sad to see it end

I was feeling quite weepy as I headed out the door for my long slow run at 6:45 this morning.

First, because I was thinking about the brief email I received from Jon’s mother yesterday – which, in turn, got me thinking about how unimaginably hard it must have been for Jon’s family to lose him to cancer at such a young age. It has been such a privilege to be able to spend my summer celebrating his life by training and raising funds for LLSC. And I hope knowing that I and so many others remember him with such affection and admiration brings his family some small measure of comfort.

The second reason I was feeling a little sad was that my run today was the longest I will run before the marathon itself. Though I have two other reasonably tough weeks ahead before I start “tapering” (i.e. reducing my mileage so that my body can heal in time for the race), today’s run was the peak of more than five months of training. I have never in my life before run 67 kilometres in a single week, and my total weekly distance will decline steadily from now until race day.

Of course, in some ways it will be good to have the marathon behind me. Training and fundraising have taken up large chunks of my life over the past four months, and it's time I got back to other projects. On the other hand, I'll be really sorry to see the training come to an end.

I’ve genuinely appreciated the opportunities it's provided to explore beautiful and unfamiliar paths through the city, and have revelled in spending so many hours alone with my thoughts. I’ve also been happy to run with a purpose other than just keeping myself in shape.

Motivated by the love, support and encouragement I’ve received from family, friends and sponsors, I’ve trained harder and more conscientiously than ever before and, as a result, am physically and mentally stronger than I have been in a long while.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’ve been deeply affected by the many stories my sponsors and others have shared with me -- of battles fought and of loved ones lost to leukemia and lymphoma -- all which have brought home to me just how sweet life is, how fortunate I am, and how really important it is to find ways to give back.

Whatever happens Thanksgiving weekend, my TNT experience has already exceeded my expectations. I’ve met some truly inspiring people, raised a lot of money, and enjoyed many wonderful runs. Needless to say, I’ll have a lot of people to thank when I finally make it home from Chicago, finisher’s medal in hand.

PS I couldn’t resist stopping to snap a few photos with my phone as I ran past some astonishingly beautiful flower beds in a park near Dow’s Lake. Too bad the quality isn't better but I hope they nevertheless give some sense of how lovely the flowers were. The other photo is of me arriving home at the end of my 36km run.