Alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I dozed back to sleep, waking after 7 a.m. and having to be out of the house for 7:30 a.m. I considered deferring this longer run to Sunday but roused myself and plodded up the hill to St. Clair. I was late but had sent an alert by email and BlackBerry Messenger to my companions. It was only around mile 12 that I began to feel perky. Miles run for the day, fifteen.
The cause of early morning sluggishness was a later than usual night due to my first ever bake-a-thon. Leading up to our May 3rd, Gala my calendar of activities will be severely constrained to Easter dinner or event planning task sessions or meetings or runs.
Get set . . . bake!
My dear friend Dolores and I over the course of nearly 6 hours baked about 28 dozen cookies! We discovered this to be a relaxing and rewarding way to spend time together. Although early on as I exercised some quality control advice from my 30 years or more of making this particular cookie type, Dolores may have wondered what she had got herself into. But she patiently heeded my instructions with appreciation for the fact that magnification of a slight over-size cookie could result in a shortfall at the end of the evening. Our minimum target was 300.
Batch #2 with 2 1/2 pounds of butter.
It didn’t take long for us to get into a groove and the afternoon and evening flew by, punctuated by a vegetarian dinner of Spanish Bulgur, a classic recipe from Diet for a Small Planet. Together we were able to nearly finish the whole mega-batch of 11 times the usual recipe for Mexican Tea Cakes from a Betty Crocker Cookie Book that was given to me by an aunt around 1967.
The Finished Product
We lamented the fact that our friend Robyn who is suffering from the severe sleep deprivation of mom-hood was unable to join us but felt good that the two of us had pulled it off. And where will these cookies go you may ask? Each gala guest will receive in their goodie bag two cookies,lovingly prepared by Dolores and Lynn.
Yesterday, making all the pieces of my day fit together meant arriving at work super-early, running from work, along the lake, through High Park and a brief interlude at home followed by dashing off to a meeting at C-5 with the bandleader of Ethio Fidel Jazz band who will perform at our gala People4Kids.
The day got off to a sweet start as we got an early morning delivery of chocolate from CAMINO fair trade, organic chocolate destined for Gala goodie bags. We received this note from CAMINO. WooHoo!
Thank you for considering us as sponsors for your event. We are truly impressed with all your hard work and dedication towards orphaned children affected by AIDS in Ethiopia. We are happy to be able to contribute a small gift for your gala. We are able to offer you 300 chocolate minis (55% dark).
I just popped a chocolate into my mouth and yes, yum, it is superfine stuff. Thanks Camino chocolate, you are the best! I’ll also be seeking out their chocolate coconut bar.
Western Horizon seen from Sunnyside Beach
The foggy dew of the morning evolved into an atmospheric mistiness over the lake in the afternoon. I took the beach shots just before starting the 12 x 200 meter pick-ups with 75 second recovery. When I remarked to my coach that it was a fun workout, he confided that it is one of his favourites. My coach, a former Olympian also holds some world records for his age group in the 800 meters. I gather that one of his training secrets is circuit training which includes hopping up stairs on one foot.
On the heels of my workout I bounded breathlessly into our local Starbuck’s at College and Dovercourt to be greeted by the manager who told me that yes, Starbuck’s will donate a $75 gift basket to the Gala. This manager is very excited about the opportunity she will have next week to meet Howard Schultz of Starbuck’s.
C5 Charcuterie Plate
As for food I added shredded apple and orange juice to my carrot oatmeal to improve on the “fruitlessness” of Wednesday. Also consumed through the day was; 1 bottle YOP, Activa yogurt (2.9% MF), peanut butter and banana sandwich, portion of a large charcuterie platter and that is it. Not much really as my appetite is still a little curtailed and I’m feeling about 90%. A nurse who is part of the team looking into the illness incurred by me and many last Friday was quite interested to hear that I had previously been struck down by the Norwalk virus.
Apple, Carrot, Orange Juice Oatmeal
After returning from C5, I was inspired by the sight of 4 very ripe bananas to bake banana bread for a friend’s visit. Well, actually she will put to work, helping me to bake 30 dozen cookies. After baking I was completely out of gas. Time for bed – blog or no blog.
To Blog or To Bake Banana Bread
p.s. I just got off the phone with Dufflet pastry and they are donating a cake certificate to the silent auction. Life is sweet! But — will my friend feel the same way after helping me bake 30 dozen cookies?
Included on this list is the Great Ethiopian Run, Africa’s biggest road race. Here is what they say.
For atmosphere, energy and even anarchy, the Great Ethiopian Run simply can’t be surpassed. In a country where running is the national craze, this mass-participation 10K is a colourful, lively and sometimes chaotic race but also a tough challenge thanks to a handful of climbs and the altitude in the capital Addis Ababa. More than 30,000 runners line up at the start each year and if you join them you’ll be one of the few foreigners enjoying this amazing cultural experience.
Great Ethiopian Run
Earlier this week I mentioned that Chung-Yee and are thinking about doing this race in 2012. The elevation is not the 2500 feet I mentioned but 2500 metres!
Last night my husband and I went to a performance of the Ethio Fidel Jazz Band who will be playing at the People4kids gala. They had a guest vocalist, Fantahun Mekonnen who along with the renowned Girma Woldemichael on saxophone just blew everyone away. Mekonnen also played the krar a traditional instrument.
Krar, Traditional Ethiopian Lyre
I’ve been a bit lax lately about tracking my training miles but I’ve been fastidious in updating my ticket tracking spreadsheet. As Gala chair I challenged the committee to try and sell out by Sunday, April 3rd. We have 28 tickets left, if you would like to buy a ticket, donate a silent auction item contact me at people4kids@bell.net — This is going to be a very special evening in support of an excellent cost-effective sponsorship program that enables *some* of the over 1 million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia to go to school.
I took today off from running, my second day off this year, as I had done back to back hard days, Thursday and Friday.
With six weeks to go until the gala, life is speeding up and I will have to discipline myself not to try to get too much done in a day. That is my excuse for not posting yesterday, though do I need an excuse? I ran three miles on Sunday along West Queen West, that strip of Queen West from Trinity Bellwoods over to Dufferin. the highlight of the run was to run for the very first time through the newly built underpass connecting one part of Dufferin Street to another. Dufferin street just north of Queen, used to do a U-jog east, then south then west but now it goes straight through Queen street down to King and southward. Exciting times for Parkdale. In addition, Gladstone avenue is being extended and I think there was talk of building a foot bridge over the GO Train tracks to connect Queen and King street.
Connecting Dufferin to Dufferin
In the spirit of cutting back mileage to rest up for speedwork, I ran three miles again, this morning and it most certainly did feel like the first day of spring. Yippee! On the way to work I spotted these beautiful snowdrops which made me wonder whether my single snowdrop from last year survived the winter. This bunch was quite developed, so maybe my less mature snowdrop is just taking its time.
Snowdrops
I took a coffee break at the Tampered Press, yet another espresso bar in the downtown coffee zone. This place has a view of Trinity Bellwoods park which makes you feel like you are in smalltown Ontario.
Gala Committee on a Roll
After work, our People4Kids gala committee met at a Kokyo Japanese Restaurant at Alexander and Yonge. It was our first restaurant meeting and the mood was frisky as all are pleased about ticket sales and the response to our event. We are feeling confident that we will sell out. A couple of committee members from Ethiopia recall attending parties at our place and feeling somewhat embarrassed to be part of the very small minority of party attendees who did not run. They were however encouraging Chung-Yee and me to visit Ethiopia and take part in the Great Ethiopian Run in November, the largest 10K in Africa. We both decided that it is something we will consider, probably not this year but maybe in a year or two. But, even more compelling, we would be able to visit the little girl whose education we help sponsor. Considering all the dire news these days, most recently from the Ivory Coast, it feels good to be closely connected to this program.
I attended a birthday celebration for Ed Whitlock held this afternoon.
Ed is most proud of the 2:54 marathon her ran at age 73. His all-time personal record (PR) is 2:31:23 run at the relatively youthful age of 48. While in the 75-79 age group he has run a 3:04:54 marathon and a 39:25 10K. He is still the only 70 year old to have run under 3 hours for a marathon.
All were encouraged to share Ed anecdotes. I told the story about the pre-marathon lunch with Ed that I had blogged about earlier this week.
Ed's Birthday Bash
Yesterday I had a free cupcake at Starbuck’s to celebrate its 40th Anniversary. Today, I felt I could not say no to a piece of Ed’s 80th birthday cake. We went to a Scottish pub for dinner and my husband insisted that since he had given up alcohol for Lent I should use up my one night of the week for a drink and order a drink given the pub ambience. I’m going to have to rethink my lenten sacrifices as I don’t think I’m off to a good start here.
Earlier in the day I ran 14.5 miles but in spite of the good conditions never felt great on the run although I did feel good about the run afterward. Good things happening in the Gala department. My sister and her family are going to be Family-Patron Sponsors and Franklin Templeton is going to buy ten tickets and the Royal York is donating a certificate for a one-night stay to the Silent Auction. WooHoo!
I found my 9.5 mile run with speedwork, done yesterday, tough. My legs have been feeling quite heavy lately, which may well be the effects of the Maximum Strength (MS) phase of weightlifting that I am going through. I’ve done squats with 110 pounds on the Smith machine and 210 pounds on the leg press machine. My goal is to squat about 1.2 times my weight and leg press, 2.3 times my weight of 110 pounds.
Walking on Water
I stopped during the run to watch geese on Lake Ontario walk gingerly over the ice, which due to the very temperature was covered with a thin layer of water. There was quite a bit of slipping on the part of the geese, which led my husband to remark that Toronto geese are urban critters, who have lost some of their natural coordination.
The day was full and with evening plans, a post about what is keeping both my husband and I very busy seemed appropriate. This being, People4Kids, a Gala to Benefit AIDS Orphans in Ethiopia. The idea to create this event came out of my experience with gala events, including the Grocery Foundation SuperGala at one time the biggest gala in Canada with over 4000 guests and over $3 million in funds raised. The Beach Boys (or what is left of the Beach Boys, post-law suits) and Nelly Furtado were the headliners during my years of involvement.
Our gala is a baby Gala and a labour of love. We were motivated to get involved with People to People AID Organization Canada as one of my husband’s workmates, who came to Canada as a refugee from Ethiopia many years ago, works tirelessly as a Board member towards the sponsorship of greater numbers of orphans.
Subaru Concept Car
In the evening we were off to attend a preview of the Auto Show as special guests, along with the 8,000 or more other special guests. This is an educated estimate as the SuperGala took place on one floor of the same venue and this crowd seemed at minimum, twice the size, using three times the area.
What a spectacle! The show is not about the legions of women wearing the most sparkling of dresses and the highest of heels, it’s about the cars, cars and more cars. The evening involves a lot of walking so by the end of it, many women were seen in stockinged feet, carrying their shoes. One woman remarked to me, “You are doing well, you’ve still got your shoes on.” I consider wearing heels over two inches to be something of an athletic accomplishment. One of which I am not capable. If those men who admire the high-heeled “look” knew what it feels like to wear high heels, I think their appreciation would be greatly diminished.
Car Painter
The event is sponsored by the Toronto Star. Throughout the Metro Toronto Convention Centre are drink and food stations. A few years ago some of the Japanese auto makers were serving sushi. The fare this year was fairly standard with one exception. Tucked away in a quieter corner, Rodney’s Oyster House was serving four different types of oysters. My dad has always loved oysters and as kids we used to have them with shoyu (Japanese soy sauce).
Thank you Rodney's Oyster House
Signs are that automakers are feeling optimistic about business and have done a big paradigm shift, post-meltdown, adapting to the need and demand for high efficiency vehicles. There was an area highlighting cars earning national kudos for efficiency.
Here is a photo of us in front of a sign at the Mini-Cooper display. The screen behind us was flashing various words and I was hoping for the word SPORTY. However my eyes were closed for that one. But at the moment the word INSPIRING makes me think of my husband, who has pushed himself very far outside his comfort zone to ask a lot of people to support the Gala with tremendous results. Well done my love!
People4Kids
a Gala to Benefit AIDS-HIV Orphans in Ethiopia
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
C5 Restaurant at the Royal Ontario Museum
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Tickets $150 Sponsorship details available on request
Imagine spring. The cherry trees in bloom, and an evening party in the elegant and sophisticated lounge setting of C5 at the ROM. You will enjoy artisanal cuisine, a silent auction, stunning views of the city and an internationally flavoured musical backdrop of melodious, soulful jazz-funk performed by the Ethio Fidel Jazz Band. As the evening evolves, the sun sets over the Toronto skyline and a very special guest vocalist provides a musical flourish with an inspired rendition ofSomewhere Over the Rainbow. Over the Rainbow is our vision of how this friendly gathering of concerned individuals will contribute to improving the lives of “some” of the over one million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. It doesn’t take much to make a dream come true for one of these children. We are inspired by their resilience in spite of the unthinkable circumstances of their life journey. The simple dreams of these orphaned children are firmly rooted in very basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and education.
Imagine free-flowing goodwill, camaraderie and friendship as you meet, mingle and establish a sense of community with others who wish to enlarge the hopes and dreams of these young, resilient souls. Imagine, the hopefulness you will feel knowing that the orphan sponsorship program you are supporting makes a difference – that you are directly connected to leadership within Toronto’s Ethiopian community who have created cost-effective links between orphans and North American sponsors.
Please mark Tuesday, May 3rd in your calendar, for this first-time gala event and commit now to purchasing tickets. The volunteer committee is hard at work and every ticket sold brings us closer to our goal of 500 orphans sponsored. You are invited; in friendship, in hope — join us please. You are needed!
Today I lunched with a friend who is helping my husband and I organize a gala for a sponsorship program for AIDS-HIV orphans in Ethiopia. The program is supported mainly by volunteers, here in Canada is run by People to People Aid Organization, Canada Inc. . Thus I thought it would be timely to profile one of Ethiopia’s finest runners, Fatuma Roba who was the mother of five children when she won the Olympic gold medal.
Born in 1973 and raised in the village of Cokeji in Ethiopia’s mountainous southern region—also home to internationally known 10K champion Derartu Tulu—Roba was one of seven children born to a farming couple who raised and herded cattle. Like most children growing up in rural Africa, if she wanted to go somewhere, the quickest way to get there was to run. The daily run to and from her school—much of it going up and down hills—trained the young Roba in the art of sprinting. As a child her hero was 1960 and 1964 Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila, a fellow Ethiopian. After completing school, the five-foot-five-inch Roba decided to train to become a police officer after her performance at a national cross-country championship caught the attention of members of the Adis Ababa prison police athletic team.
Fatuma Roba, Fluid Grace
Roba first gained an international profile in 1990 when at age 18 she placed fourth in the 3,000 meter and 10K competition during the African Championships. Three years later she decided to attempt the 26.2-mile marathon distance in her home town of Addis Ababa, and had reached a personal best time of 2 hours 35 minutes 25 seconds by 1995. Roba continued to reduce her marathon time throughout the spring of 1996, helped along by the coaching of Yilma Berta. To train to excel at the 26.2-mile marathon distance, the 22-year-old Roba logged an average of 125 miles a week, most of it at high altitude, thereby forcing her body to use its resources of oxygen efficiently. She ran and won two marathons early in 1996, the first in January at Marakech and the second in Rome, Italy, two months later.
When Roba joined the field of the 1996 Olympic women’s marathon in Atlanta, Georgia, in July of 1996, she was ranked only 29th among the elite women athletes assembled there. Surprising almost all onlookers of that years’ Summer Games, she managed consistent five-minute miles, gained the lead by mile 13, and left behind Japanese runner Yuko Arimori, who had won the silver at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. At mile 19 timers clocked her race pace at 5:21; relaxed and alert, Roba waved as she passed, the crowds cheering on the first woman in the pack. She went on to cross the line in 2:26:05, her lead a remarkable two minutes. “This is not only a special thing for me but also for my country and all African women,” Roba was quoted as commenting by Amanda Mays in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The Ethiopian women are coming up in the marathon. This was the breakthrough and now we are ready to challenge the others.”
Roba’s success in Atlanta was balanced by an equally notable performance in 1997 at the 101st Boston Marathon. She gained and held an easy lead by mile 20 to win in 2:26:23. The first African woman ever to win the historic Boston race, Roba bested an elite field that included defending champion Uta Pippig, Japan’s Junko Asari, and South African runners Colleen de Reuck and Elana Meyer. “She ran with the same smooth stride and placid, dispassionate look on her face that she carried through the Olympic race,” reported Runnersworld.com. “Race commentator (and fellow Olympic marathon champion) Frank Shorter called her ‘The most relaxed-looking runner I have ever seen.'” Roba’s performance at the World Championship Marathon held in Athens, Greece, the following fall was a disappointment when she was forced to leave the course after being injured.
One for Ethiopia!
In 1999 the 25-year-old Roba took her third straight win at Boston, her time a personal best of 2:23:25 that set a new women’s overall course record. She won the silver at the Tokyo Marathon with a time of 2:27:05, but at the World Championships in Seville, Spain she finished a disappointing fourth. Roba’s winning streak at Boston ended in 2000, when she fell to third, barely losing the Boston gold to Kenyan runner Catherine Ndereba in one of the closest finishes in Boston Marathon history. Like Seville, the summer heat in Sydney, Australia proved hot enough to stall Roba, who finished a disappointing ninth at September 2000’s Sydney Olympics with a time of 2:27:38.
Like her hero Abebe Bikila, Roba has become a role model for African runners, women runners in particular. Her own younger sister, Sennaito Tekru, has followed in her path, and has embarked on a course as a competitive marathon runner. With her grace and seemingly effortless performances, Roba has broken the barrier for African women with her triumphs at both the Olympic Games and the Boston Marathon. Despite her disappointment in Sydney, she has continued to rank among elite women marathoners, handily winning the San Diego Marathon in 2001 with a time of 2:27:22.
This is my 30th year of running. My first goal was to run a marathon when I turned 30 but I ended up running a marathon a few months later at age 26. It was my first long-distance race ever! There were no run clinics back then so I used the 3 month marathon training program published in Runner’s World.
Sunday September 12th is the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Run. The Terry Fox Run was the first measured route that I had ever run. Years later I organized Terry Fox run sites at my son’s school and at our neighbourhood YMCA.
Behemoth
Tiny
30 years ago the Sony Walkman which played cassette tapes, first began to appear in North America at high-end electronics stores like Brack Electronics. One of my brothers worked at Brack Electronics and I was the first kid on the block to own one.
I wonder sometimes if I was the first runner in Toronto to run with a Walkman. This thing was huge, about 10 times as thick as an IPod, 5 times as wide and 5 times as long. Imagine the ingenuity required to strap this thing on without the help of special belts and carrying cases. Now I run with a camera and IPod that together are barely 10% that size.
Mind, Motion & Matter 