Mind, Motion & Matter

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Walk Don’t Run, By the Lake

I missed my fourth post of the year due to gala related work and an evening celebration of International Women’s Week and the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day.  This offered me a very rare chance to walk by the lake, rather than run.

A Harbourfront Winter Sunset

I ran 8.5 miles yesterday, with a 4.5 mile warm-up run to Grand and Toy where I ordered toner for my printer.  Then back to the YMCA for about 30 minutes of tempo running, a bit less than previous weeks but I was strapped for time and was not feeling too perky.  I did upper body work but skipped the lower body lifting again because of feeling a bit lackluster.

Harbourfront Skating Rink

I met a couple of friends at Il Fornello at the Terminal Quay and having arrived a bit early enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the boardwalk from Queen’s Quay.  I enjoy the tourist bustle of the spring and summer but also enjoy the quieter winter mood and the bonus of a beautiful sunset.

Dinner View at Il Fornello

After dinner we walked along the boardwalk to the Brigantine Room at Queen’s Quay for Nightwood Theatre’s FemCab.  FemCab is a terrific way to get caught up on a year or more of entertainment.  It was a heady brew of irreverence, political history, screaming guitars, dance and an intense monologue written and performed by Judith Thompson.  Judy Rebick reminisced about the 1985 IWD march which took a detour into the Eaton’s store.  And yes, I was there!

We were most impressed by blueswoman Donna Grantis whose presence was iconic, similar to Lisbeth, the girl with the dragon tatoo. Check out her performance below with Shakura S’Aida who also performed at FemCab.

The next 10 weeks will be busy as Gala planning is really heating up and I apologize in advance to my friends for my sometimes ridiculously constrained schedule. There is however one friend, who I am seeing a little more of as she has joined the Gala organizing committee. Chung-Yee, an economist by profession, embraces all she does with passion be it knitting or running or helping with fundraising endeavours. And I’m very pleased to say that she is going to be my very first guest blogger, tomorrow!

You will hear about how she celebrated her 40th birthday by challenging herself to run four marathons in one month. Imagine that!


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The Bend at Boylston

Yesterday was the 3rd day of 2011 that I did not post.  And no, it was not because I was watching the Oscars.  Although I’ll jump on that theme and mention that  movies were something of a topic on the Saturday run.  The DVD of my favourite movie Ugetsu Monogatari by Kenji Mizoguchi is now making the rounds of our group  albeit slowly.  And next week, I’ll hand off another favourite, Johnny Guitar a Nicholas Ray film, beloved by Truffaut and Almodavor to name a few.  If you love film, you owe it to yourself to click on my links to information about these two classics.

Mainly the absence of a post was due to a thematic vacuum.  Jumping off from a point I made in my last post about how lovely those long straightaway marathon finishes are I’m going to assign a 5 star rating system to final mile of some of the marathons I’ve run.

Boston Marathon *****
Detroit Marathon ****1/2
California International Marathon (Sacramento) ****
Columbus Marathon ***1/2
National Capital Marathon (Ottawa) ***1/2
Chicago Marathon ***1/2
Mississauga Marathon **1/2
Toronto International Marathon **1/2

I like the finish on Ford Field of the Detroit Marathon and the separate finish for men and women and the California International Marathon but nothing beats the final mile of Boston with the final turn onto Boylston Street, a slight downhill grade and the stupendous crowd support with the finish line in sight. Check out the this footage of the turn on to Boylston.

And this exciting footage of Dire Tune and Alevtina Biktimirova battling it out in the 2008 Boston Marathon. I’ll be there in 14 months and counting!