For the last three summers, we have packed the car to the rafters with kids and beach toys, strapped the bikes to the rack and headed to Hornby Island for a few glorious days for a holiday.

For those that don’t know, Hornby is one of the southern Gulf Islands, home to the warmest beach on the west coach and a two ferry commute from Buckley Bay just north of Qualicum, and across Denman Island. A drive across Denman takes you to the next ferry, which deposits you on the sunny sandstone shore of Hornby Island. The commitment to BC Ferries is not to be seen as an obstacle: if you know Hornby, the ferries are like a pilgrimage, the farther you get from the mainland (mainland Vancouver Island, already known at slowsville of the west) the more relaxed you feel. Hornby is unique: a warm, dry land of organic farming, artists and writers, water shortages, and sublime beauty. Even the Hornby Ferry is unique in the BC Ferries line up, with a custom engraved wooden bench and the ferry dock has a hand painted sign, unlike any other in the ferry system.

Hornby for me, is the land of the running Goddess. Every time I go to Hornby I reconnect with running on a pure and free level. Every run is awesome, full of wonder and beauty and a love of the moving body.

I am a lover of the trails. I run on trails whenever I can. It’s not just the softer surface that I love for its therapeutic effect, but trails are quiet, away from cars. Without intersections and cars, lights and curbs, I can run unencumbered in the trail, with my attention focussing on my footsteps, by breathing, my rhythm and the flow of my stride. Hornby is covered in trails. On the hottest days (and it gets over 30 there on hot days) you can run in the shade of the trails, under the branches on the huge Douglas firs. The trails are full of wildlife too. On one run last week, I saw eagles and ravens, herons and a woodpecker tapping its way up a tree. Also deer and fawns, scattering gracefully into the brush as I go.

Some mornings I started with a run on the rocks with Ross, running in circles and jumps around the famous formations, watching and laughing as he leaps and swerves, sprints and rests. If you are a runner, there is nothing more fun than running around with your kid. After the warm up run, I head out for an hour around Helliwel Park and the high cliffs overlooking Denman. This is the run of surreal beauty that I do as many times as I can when we are on Hornby. Eagles soar past my head, I run through tall meadows of waist high golden grass, and make my way up and down over rocky paths along the cliffs above a glittering sea.

After a run like this, it’s off to the Cardboard House bakery for a fresh raspberry muffin and a latte, a chocolate croissant for each of the kids and then a day spent outdoors chasing crabs.

Ok, so I left that chilli recipe up just a little too long. But that is what happens when March Break comes around, a trip to the Philippines, a bout of the flu, coaching the kids at Sidney elementary and then a crazy two week book deadline.

When the minutes in my day are whittled away by the tasks of life, I am a master only of running and time management:  the need to go for a run pushes the blog to the corner. I write entire blog posts in my mind while I run, but of course, the moment I come in the door, the words mysteriously disappear from my brain and no one ever gets to read them.

While the period of time since the Chilli post has been crammed full of the aforementioned life events I have once again experienced wonderful insights into the running life:

Valuable insight # 1. If I can’t run, the world doesn’t fall apart. For the first 5 days of our stay in the Philippines, we were on holiday in the Palawan area, a beautiful, natural paradise. The temperature was 35 degrees+ and humidity was about 100% each day. We were staying on an island resort called el Nido. The hotel consisted of cottages and rooms and restaurant built onto the only flat part of the island, the beach. Behind the beach was thick jungle, black limestone cliffs with jagged edges. The beach was 150m long. As a family, we ate three meals a day together, we kayaked, rock climbed, snorkelled, swam and played games on beach. We climbed into caves and saw orchids growing from the rocks cliffs. We took a gazillion boat rides and we saw a turtle, monkeys, clown fish, lizards and other amazing wildlife. I didn’t miss running.

Valuable Insight # 2. That’s all very well, but if there is an opportunity to train, I will go for it. On the fifth day we switched islands in the resort. The second island had the newer part of the resort and was slightly larger but still no trails or running, unless you wanted to run the 400m path between cottages about 10 times. Beside the pool there was a tree house gazebo…an open air room built up on stilts that overlooked the lagoon. When we went to explore, we found a treadmill up there. It was pretty basic, but suddenly there was an opportunity to go for a run, and so I figured I better get a little run in. So I ran in a tree house room, on this little treadmill overlooking the blue sea, while the hotel staff looked up at me with curious expressions.

Valuable insight #3 Getting sick doesn’t make you slower. I got home from the Philippines and was hit immediately with a bout of flu or something horrible. I couldn’t eat for several days, and was totally wiped from the fever and stomach issues. I could finally run about a week later and hopped on the track to give Magali some company for the series of 40 x 400m she was running.

I had no problem running 30 x 400 at pace (remember I was rested!) and it was great reminder that no matter how unfit you feel when you are sick with a cold, your brain is wrong.

Valuable insight # 4 Proper preparation is key. So I managed those 400’s, but I was sore for a week after them.  I didn’t warm up properly for the session: I was sick and writing the book and just rushed to the track. No drills, not enough stretching. After the workout, I didn’t cool down properly, waited a little too long to eat. For someone with the experience I have, I did a terrible job or setting myself up!

Valuable insight # 5 Stressing about something is way worse than actually doing whatever you are stressing about.  My book deadline was looming and all I could think about was how I was going to complete it in between coaching, looking after the kids, and all the daily tasks I have. Finally, I had to do something. I stopped stressing and just started. Started committing time to writing, managed my time so I could get it done. The deadline was still there, but at least I was working towards it!

Valuable insight # 6 Saying yes can be better than No. I wanted to say yes to the above book project; my inner anxious voice wanted to say no. I am glad that I said YES. All kinds of positives came from that. And not just that fact that I wrote a book.

Valuable insight # 7 If you want kids to run, make it fun. I have been coaching cross country at my daughter’s school. Running is hard for kids: it makes their legs hurt, and their lungs burn. My number 1 goal as the coach is to make it fun. Twice a week at 11:05AM I stand at the picnic tables and wait for the recess bell. Within seconds the doors burst open and kids come racing across the playground, big smiles on their faces. My goal is to have them finish the practice with those same smiles.

Valuable insight # 8 I still love to race. The TC 10k is this weekend. Once again I will be there, sharing the road with the thousands of other runners in Victoria. What a gift!

Valuable insight # 9 Check to see if your childhood dreams have come true! I always wanted to write a book. That’s why I said yes. I always wanted to be an athlete. That’s why I am still racing.

Valuable insight # 10 Anything is Possible

Finally, after the hours training and the thousands of footsteps run, I get to toe another start line. This is the best part of all. Not the racing so much: it’s something much bigger than that. It is the feeling of courage and optimism within me because I have made this happen for myself. It is the elation of being a part of something even larger than myself, a shared experience with all who have put themselves on the line to make this day happen. When I am racing, anything is possible.

Lucy Smith

For as long as Lance and I have been together we have been hosting dinner parties. Our parties started off as a Potluck get together for our friends (OK, that was really our triathlon training group) in Vancouver. After a huge Saturday of training which included a run workout and then an afternoon bike session (and most likely a swim in there too but I seem to have blocked out all that) we would have a social gathering in our tiny False Creek apartment (the one that was so close to the next high rise you had to go out onto the balcony and look WAY up to see what sort of day it was). In our bright yellow kitchen (it was always sunny inside), I would make a big bowl of roasted vegetables and sausages, or a spanakopita, mesmerized with layering sheets and sheets of phyllo pastry and concocting a huge Greek Salad. If I was feeling busy and didn’t have much time, I would prepare a massive pot of Chili.

Over the years, we have moved several times, and changed cities, and gathered a new circle of friends (OK, more training buddies, and athletes and their parents or partners) but I still continue to make the Chili. In fact, Chili is my big pot dinner of choice, because it’s easy, healthy and feeds a crowd and sadly, there is no time for layering 100 zillion sheets of phyllo in my current Transformers, dancing and singing filled kid centric home.

So once again, with a full household that included my Dad and brother Dan, athlete Jodi from South Carolina, Magali and her mum, I pulled out the biggest pot and cooked up a Chili.  Christiane told me she had never cooked chili so I told her I would post it on my blog.

So, here it is Christiane. How to make Chili. I never actually use a recipe and it changes every time, but here’s sort of what I did last night. (In fact, I doubt this is really Chili at all, but just a sort of spicy southwest style stew.)

Chili

2 lbs of ground beef (I use lean and last night I used 1 lb of Chorizo sausage as well, just for fun), 2 green peppers chopped, 1 lb chopped mushrooms, 1 tablespoon chili powder and cumin (or more, to taste). 2 cans of beans, rinsed (sometimes I use black beans, sometimes I use kidney beans, sometimes I use both. You can use chickpeas, but then it’s not really chili I don’t think), 1 jar medium salsa, 1 jar spicy pasta sauce, 1 can chopped tomatoes.

In a big pot, brown the meat  and cook it thoroughly. Add the chopped green peppers and the mushrooms (you can also add chopped onions and garlic too at this stage, or any other veggies that suit your fancy: corn, chopped carrots and red or yellow peppers work well). Add the spices and let it all cook for 5 minutes. Add all the rinsed beans, the sauces and the can of tomatoes. Bring to boil, stir and let simmer, stirring occasionally for 1-3 hrs. Test for seasoning, but with the salsa and the jar of pasta sauce this is usually salty and good enough.

Serve in big bowls with sour cream or plain yogurt and grated cheese. Fresh chopped cilantro makes it divine. Plain cheese quesadillas and corn chips on the side make it decadent. In my past life I would have made home made corn bread as well. If you can get Dan to come to your place, he makes a killer Caesar salad that goes great with this meal, but that’s his recipe to share.

Bon appetit!

Lucy

New Years Day Run

I had a few moments of time the other day. I was in between writing an article on Peak Performances, and picking up Ross from his preschool. I had already had a coffee (or 2) and didn’t need anymore caffeine. I shunned the full baskets of laundry sitting in the hall and headed into Sidney and went for my other comfort spot, the bookstore. Tanner’s is our own local Sidney bookseller, privately owned, one of a kind, and very friendly. They have an antique table as you go in the diagonally offset front doors, loaded with new books. The current owner is also a runner so the place has double the charm.

I went in with a mind to look for Lorraine Moller’s book, “On the Wings of Mercury”, which my friend Chris told me about. I love memoir and well, Lorraine Moller was one of the greatest Kiwi distance runners of all time. Little did I know when I stood (unknowingly) side by side with her on starting lines back in 1990 that she was really my role model, twenty years older than me, and part of the history making years of the  ”woman who went before”. When I raced her, she would have been over 40.

At 42, I am now where Lorraine was when I raced her in my 20’s. I am now the one, twenty years into a career in running, on the starting line with women half my age, using my twice as many years of experience to compete. I don’t come out on top as much anymore, but I still seem to be in the mix.

In between coaching and writing, playing with Playmobil pirates with Ross, reading Harry Potter with Maia, and driving to drama and swimming, soccer and school, the training still happens. Sometimes it happens at extremely early hours in the morning, and in the dark and pouring rain, but it’s always good. The funny thing is, that both running and parenting have a lot in common: both are extremely gratifying and purposeful for me. With kids, your days are very obvious: you just know exactly where to be and what needs to be done. Sometimes of course, you have no clue whatever if you are doing the right thing, but you still have to go with your gut and do something. Training is the same. After 30 years, I just seem to know what to do.

When I head out the door at 6AM in the dark, I just don’t over think the run. I just do it, whether I feel tired or not. if I waited until I felt awake and rested, it would never happen, just like if I waited for it to stop raining in Victoria. Usually after warming up, I feel OK and light and then the run is filled with gifts: the silence of Horth Hill and the soft mist draping around the mossy ancient trees, the smooth ocean shining silver in the dawn, running tempo as a Jet takes off beside me at the airport. My legs turn over, my lungs work and the training gets done. I come home to a house waking up and my mom day starts.

And so, after a not so perfect week of sleepless nights, a lingering cold, and a tight hamstring, I got to the start line of the Central Saanich 8k, put myself in the front with the youngsters and set off to do what I know best: race. And sure enough by 4k it was me and Natasha, with Kirsten right behind. I waited until 6k to pounce, wanting to use my late race mental toughness and endurance to see what I could do. I turned it up in the last k to go, but Natasha out sprinted me for the line. I was 2nd overall woman, was faster than last year and it was a great start to the season.

After the race, I helped with the awards ceremony and there it was all put in perspective. While one young women asked for my autograph, I got to hand 80 year old Maurice Tarrant his winner’s medal…he broke the course record in his age group by 6 minutes or something.

He got a standing ovation.

And so, as I wait to read Lorraine Moller’s book I carry on running into the new year, getting through book 6 of Harry Potter and trying to figure out those annoying Transformers. I didn’t think to set any resolutions this year. I don’t need to lose weight, drink less or cut out coffee. As always, I will continue to find each ordinary day extraordinary for either its gifts or it’s frustrations.

And I will continue to race into the next chapter of my life, because racing is one of most extraordinary and exciting things to do.

Lucy

cross training!

Some of my favourite runs have been on Christmas Day. I have escaped the warm gift wrap strewn living rooms and twinkle lights to run in the snowy white river valley in Edmonton and to jump the slushy snow banks in Halifax. One year, I enjoyed a fantastically blustery seaside run along the hilly roads of Gabriola Island in British Columbia. There is little traffic on Christmas Day and I love the feeling of being outside alone for a while. It doesn’t feel like training to run on Christmas Day; it feels like a gift.

While the holidays are a joyful and restful break for most people, they can present athletes with restricted training times and an interruption in an otherwise predictable routine. Holidays can be a challenge to training if you are travelling a lot, visiting friends or relatives in a snowy, chilly climate or visiting people in a small town whose only pool is 50km away in another city. Here are some tips to help you enjoy training and the holiday.

1.     The holidays are an obvious time to take a week or two of active rest, or to take an easy week, falling as they do at the end of the season before the start of your next cycle of endurance training. Planning to have a down week is a good way to give yourself a break from having to fit in your training around the schedules of others or pool closures due to Christmas and New Years.

2.     Plan your training ahead as much as possible taking into account that you will have to be flexible. Even if you can do little else, it is realistic to plan a week of only run training. Running is the easiest and most time-efficient of the three sports to fit in, with merely running shoes and the outdoors necessary. A week of running will be enough for maintaining fitness. If you can travel with your bike and stationary trainer and your swim cords, you can easily perform minimal bike and swim maintenance workouts over the holidays.

3.     Gather support. Organize group training with the people that you are with. That way you won’t seem like the only ‘nut’ that wants to go for a run on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve group runs to look at Christmas lights in the neighbourhood can become a tradition, and a Boxing Day  hike for friends and family is healthier than going to the Mall.

4.     If you are doing endurance training in December, organize two heavy weeks of training leading up to the holiday and make the holiday week an easy one. That way you will feel satisfied that you have done good training and can relax and take it easy on your holiday.

5.     You and always arrange to give yourself or to receive new training toys at Christmas and then declare that you have to learn how to use them before you go back to work. This justifies spending 2 hours a day on your Computrainer and swimming laps testing out your Tempo Trainer or new paddles in the pool.

6.     Do advance research on the holiday pool and recreation center schedules in your hometown or where you are visiting and plan your swims ahead as much as possible. (Check to see if they have a treadmill while you are at it). Be prepared to be flexible with your swim training and have workouts printed up and ready if you won’t be swimming with a group. Even if you can’t get in your usual sessions, 20 minutes in the pool doing drills and maintaining feel is better than none.

7.     If you are a parent of young ones who relies on childminding or pre-schools for time to fit in your training, the Christmas season plays havoc with your carefully crafted schedule. Planning for time to yourself is crucial at this time of year. You might have to get up earlier, train at odd hours or ride on the stationary while watching “Dora the Explorer” videos to get your ride in. You might have to choose between last minute Christmas shopping and that 45 minute run. Chances are, if you are an athlete parent, you have already mastered the skills of “creative time management and childcare”; here’s the chance to test out what you have learned.

8.     Be aware of the perils of cross training activities while on Holiday. Triathletes have strong engines and boundless enthusiasm, which allows them to play harder in activities at which they lack the proper conditioning and skills. Playing once-a year pick up hockey with relatives on Christmas Eve is going to leave your sore for at least three days. Even cross country skiing or snow shoeing will leave you aching if you never do it. Plan the duration and intensity of your sessions according to your skill level not your fitness, or plan for a good massage and rest days after.

9.     Eat only when hungry…(good luck!)

With some advance planning, creative time management, and an easy going mindset it is possible to have a fit holiday!

I have been observing the Twilight phenomenon unfold in our midst for over a year now. If Bella was a runner, the Twilight books would be much better. That’s my theory anyway.

I didn’t mean for Twilight to enter my life, but like all pop culture and vampires, it snuck in when I wasn’t looking. I am a 41 year old mother of an 8 year old girl and a 4 year old boy and I thought we were outside the Twilight net for now. But Maia came to me one day asking if we could please buy the book. I looked at the fat novel with its glossy black cover and its image of white hands holding a red apple on the cover, and came to an instant conclusion. I wasn’t that interested in the book, not being a vampire fan or lover of creepy thrillers, and I could tell by the unoriginal cover (Poison apple? Wicked stepmother? Cinderella?) That it wasn’t the sort of thinking literature I was about to read. But I was intrigued by why Maia was choosing a book well beyond her reading ability and one aimed at teenagers. Not surprisingly, she had heard about the book at school and about the movie and the actors through youth television commercials. We bought the book. She struggled through several pages that night and then declared that it was too challenging for her reading level. We returned the book, exchanging it for Volume One of the Sister’s Grimm series by Michael Buckley. She was happy, and I shrugged it off. Ironically, a houseguest brought me a copy of Twilight as a gift only a week later, exclaiming that I just had to read it. I ignored it for several days, continuing to read Singled Out, a book about the shortage of men after the First World War and how the millions of women who never married or had children as a result affected the women’s movement. Finally I picked up Twilight. I struggled through the first several pages, but not because it was too challenging. It was just plain bad writing and I value my reading time too much to waste it one something banal.

I gave it another chance the next night and soon I was hooked. The story crashes along breathlessly, and inexplicably, I found it addictive in an American Idol sort of way. It is not profound literature by any stretch, and basically is just another retelling of a scary vampire/love story, but the story has its inventive moments and it has suspense. Every morning Maia wanted to know what happened. She made me recount the story with as much creepy detail as I could. She hung on every word and hounded me to tell everything. So this was the pattern for the first two books. I read every night, and retold the story every morning. Being her mother and being alert to “silly princess gets saved by handsome prince” stories, I (unfairly to Ms Meyers perhaps) retold the story from my point of view. I made Bella stronger and more interesting and downplayed her dullness. I explained about vampires and mythology, souls and death and we talked about how the story events could even be happening. She asked lots of questions which I answered using all the historical and feminist theory I could find. I couldn’t tell her the story without a discussion of why this sad teenage girl was willingly flirting with disaster.

My main complaint about the book is that it is chock full of all the usual stereotypes: boy saves girl…boy teaches girl…girl gets in trouble for being daring…girl gets attention for her beauty, the part of her she has no control over. In fact, the book is so rife with commonplace and demeaning stereotypes of girls and women, not to mention weak and transparent metaphors, that it is almost a parody of how not to write an original  book. It isn’t funny, because girls and young women and adult women will be reading this book uncritically and thinking the events are normal. Readers are unconsciously ignoring the sheer violence of the vampire part—and they are because the writer has downplayed the horror of the killing—and going to bed dreaming about having a lover like Edward. The more I read about Edward, the more I want to yell out from the rooftops: WAKE UP GIRLS!

The story is and Edward is, creepy, weird and beyond creepy and it’s presented as a good thing in the books. I can laugh at all this because it is all so ludicrous and DONE and I read this stuff and over and over I roll my eyes at our sick and twisted pop culture and what brainless idiots they think our girls are. The only good that can come of this book is that maybe a bunch of parents of young girls can have a conversation about it.

Edward is good at everything. Edward is not only perfectly beautiful, he is athletic, smart, rich, a talented musician, and very perceptive since he can read people’s minds. He has impeccable manners and perfect diction. He has great clothes. He has a supportive and close family.  In the sunlight, he gleams like diamonds, the opposite of evil. He’s also very cold and actually dead. Oh, and he’s a monster, but it doesn’t matter since he never really wants to kill Bella (it’s only his vampire instinct), and he is very gentlemanly in every way (except the killing part), based on the fact that he is 107 years old and from another era. But, don’t be fooled: he knows he should stay away from her because she tempts him to kill for human blood. She is not afraid of him even though he could kill her. Is this cool or stupid?

Bella is also beautiful but like Cinderella, nothing else is going well in her life until Edward comes along. She wears baggy clothes and sneakers most of the time and isn’t interested in fashion. She doesn’t have a strong relationship with her mother or her father, and even when she goes to live with her Dad, they barely talk outside of discussing meal options. She is neither athletic nor sociable and has no interests outside of Edward. She makes a lot of bad decisions (outside of the obvious one of getting close to a vampire), including walking in the woods by herself and getting lost and walking through a deserted city at night by herself. She doesn’t try to connect with anyone at school and rarely smiles, but the boys love her anyway because she is so pretty. The girls hate her because she is aloof and because she is pretty and provides too much competition for the boys’ attention. But at the least the girls at school have a healthy wariness of the Cullen’s. Her only power seems to be her looks and the smell of her blood, not the sort of powers I would like to role model for my own girl.

The other thing though, and this is interesting because it comes up over and over again in the book: Bella is really good at school. She gets top marks and she always shows up for class and knows everything and does all her homework. I am not sure if the author just intentionally made her this way to balance out her lack of any other interesting characteristics, or the insidious sexism in society made her create a female lead that is stupid and smart? Acts boring to hide her intelligence? Is gorgeous but detached?

Of course, the most interesting female character in the book is Victoria—the bad vampire– who is both empowered and highly intelligent, wears really cool outfits and show lots of personality. Strong women are almost always evil in popular culture.

In a society that prizes women for how they look, not for what they do, the book perpetuates the stereotype about active boys and beautiful but inactive girls. Bella is a klutzy and uncoordinated young woman who hates both sports and gym class. Bella’s female school mates (not friends) all care more about boys, the upcoming Prom and fashion than sports. Edward and his brothers, and Jacob and his werewolf clan (In book 2) are all super athletic (I mean superhuman athletic). They play mega baseball on a field the size of a runway, they run faster than the wind and can rip out trees. Edward even stops a sliding minivan and Jacob can lift a motorcycle. Bella meanwhile, can’t even go for a walk without tripping over a root.

Oh, Edward is also a highly skilled driver, to add to his impressive list of things he excels at. Bella drives a beater red truck and drives slowly and once again the stereotype takes over: bad female driver versus aggressive male speeder. Edward repeatedly expresses frustration at her driving ability and usually takes over at the wheel (even in her truck) and he drives exceedingly fast without a seatbelt as he is obviously unafraid of death. In one of the book’s contradictions, putting mortal Bella in danger by his reckless driving doesn’t seem to cross his mind, even though he claims to need her alive

Oh, and speaking of beauty stereotypes, there’s the whole other part about why she wants to die and become a vampire. Bella wants to die because she doesn’t want to get OLD, because then Edward won’t desire her anymore (she thinks). She wants to die before she turns twenty, so she can be a teenager like him forever. She is petrified that if she doesn’t become a vampire and she remains mortal, then she will grow older and he never will. She even has a nightmare about getting old like her Grandma. She is afraid of getting old and undesirable. Is that ‘creepy?’ or is that ‘sick’?

I also think that picking up on the very frightening way that fear and love are woven together is a really important discussion. The first book is sold as a love story but throughout the book, the fear is thrown out there as normal. Edward has nothing to fear, not ever, since he is dead anyway. Bella, as you might have figured out, is not afraid of Edward, only afraid of losing him. That her love for him has blinded her to that fact that she ‘should’ fear him makes me, as a mother, a little worried. It’s just not safe. Not psychologically, not physically. By the second story, Bella is also attracted to the local pack of Werewolves (also monsters) and I suspect that there is a reason Bella is thrown into the midst of these two warring clans (the Vampires and the Werewolves) and she has some other power that will be revealed. There is actually a reason that Edward has to protect her and stay with her and I haven’t found it out yet at the end of the 2^nd book. That being said, most people are not going to read the books as interesting interpersonal relationship stories to talk about. The message is that Bella loves a guy who she can’t really have until she’s dead. She loves men who want to hurt her! (She loves Jacob the werewolf too, but he could very easily maim her if he gets mad and changes into a werewolf and scratches her eyes out). OHMIGOD. She loves these men who are actually very violent people underneath their compelling exteriors. Did the author really intentionally write about violence against women?

Why are so many girls and women unconsciously attracted to this subtext? As a woman, it’s easy to see how quickly the emotional switch to ‘perfect romance and true love’ can get flipped, but it is compelling that hordes of preteen prepubescent girls are caught in this creepy web. Along the way I have become most interested in why the books are so popular and why such young girls—who can’t read the books—have been targeted in the movie advertising. How can a book that is so violent and dark, so full of twisted love and anger be turned into a movie for preteens?

So, I finally watched the movie with my daughter. I think her curiosity was satisfied as watching the movie is something a lot of the girls in her class are doing and she wanted to be a part of that. She didn’t comprehend the love/fear theme in the movie, which is part of the poison of exposing girls to this unintelligent story without some critical discussion about it. Girls that are eight, nine and ten seem to be trying to understand what love/crushes/kissing/’hot’/romance/passion’ is all about. Only very advanced eight year olds can actually read the big books, so they are watching the movie and getting this misogynist version of traditional male power, violence and dominance.

Within five minutes of reading the movie, after a comment about Edward’s red lipstick, Maia was up in her bed reading her awesome series, The Sister’s Grimm, about two really cool and adventurous sisters who solve intriguing mysteries and fend for themselves. The stories are also really clever, drawing on the fractured fairy tale genre and pulling in other myths (hence the Grimm last name) to add intelligent layers to the story.  In a market with a dire lack of great books for 7-10 year old female readers, these are a thinking mother’s dream.

I’ve always been an optimist. I’m hoping Bella turns out to be better than she appears to be in the first 2 books. I’m hoping Ms Meyer’s has some great turn of events up her sleeve. But the damage is done. The rest of us mortal mothers are left to clean up after Edward and his coven and show our girls that love built on fear is not the path to inner strength and a happy life.

Lucy Smith has been a Professional athlete for 20 years. She is a Canadian Champion runner, writer, coach, and advocate for girls and women in sport. Since the day her daughter was born she has collected books with strong, adventurous and clever girl characters. It has taken some effort.

BC Cross Country 2009 Tony Austin Photo

 That’s the habit part. Just like you can be biting your nails and not even aware that you are doing it, I can suddenly find myself swithed on and focussed on a race without even trying. Thats’s not to say I blindly stumble my way from race to race, but sometimes I sincerely wonder to myself “who is in the lead here?”

In 1989, I might have been the Canadian Cross Country Champion, but at 22 year of age, from a small town and inexperienced amongst this high performance atmosphere, I was overwhelmed by the level of competition, and the magnitude of the event itself. Endurance runners from the 1500, 3000m, 5000m, 10000m, and marathon all converged in this one mass start cross country event. The races were an elite smorgasbord of World, Olympic, and European distance champions. The World Cross Country Championships were so competitive that Phil Ligget, the popular sports commentator, called it the “fiercest foot race on earth”.

It rained all week leading up to the event, and the ground was sodden and soft. At the race site, all countries were assigned an outdoor ’room’ in the sprawling centre of green army tents that had been put up for the event. We Canadians arrived and silently, nervously, we found places for our gear off of the wet ground and out of the rain. Team members came and went from the tent, quietly performing their pre-race rituals. By the time the junior women and men had raced, the hilly course was deep mud. As I paced alone nervously through the warm up area of tents, I could hear singing and laughter coming from one of the rooms and as I walked past I could see it was the Kenyan team tent and a large group of runners (Juniors, senior, women, men) were in there. They were laughing and singing and some were even dancing together in a circle! I was amazed and intrigued by the sound of joy and the happiness that was coming from that tent, before such intense competition! Like children playing, the Kenyan athletes possessed a magic that was completely alluring. I was enchanted by the evident joy and the camaraderie that existed between then… there was something about the attitude that suggested a far greater importance than the races about to be run.  I have never forgotten that laughter, those smiles on the faces of the relaxed runners, or the singing and I have witnessed it at many events since.

Although I was too young and far too nervous at the time to fully understand, I learned a lesson that day that became a huge part of my path as an athlete: that I need to be serious and dedicated to training, but light-hearted about my career. There is a passion, and that passion comes from softness, not hardness. That running for joy is a childlike freedom. I realize now that my whole athletic career has been a process of moving closer and closer to finding that place of joy and fun again. I am forever grateful for the way those Kenyan runners sang freely out loud in the rain before the World Cross Country Championships in 1989.

Lucy

Marathon Weekend. What a blur of activity and a buzz of adrenaline.

In the course of 24 hours, I gave 2 talks, watched Maia in a soccer game, got both kids to two different birthday parties, and ran a marathon. All on very little sleep. Not the marathon prep I would have chosen 10 years ago, but this just wasn’t one of those marathons.

It’s all over now. For the record I finished in my all time slowest 26.2 miles at 2:55, but scored my all time best for running for a purpose. I was out there with the whole Team Jack crew and all along the course people were cheering for me and calling my name. 

Thank you to everybody who supported Team Jack and the other important charities in the marathon.  To be able to run for joy and help others is the greatest triumph of all!

Lucy 

This is for a brave kid named Jack.

In just under three weeks I am going to run the Victoria marathon. I have run so many races in this city, and have only dreamed of doing the marathon. After my long injury last year, I decided that this was the year to do it. My first long run of the summer was on Hornby Island where we were vacationing with the kids. After I realized that I could run for two hours and not perish under the strain, I started training in earnest and set up a program for myself. I do want to be on the start line prepared. My marathoning program is a far cry from the intense schedule that I used to run back when I was 26. I fit my running in around the kids, school, programs, Lance’s work and coaching trips, and available childcare, but I have been able to follow a program and it is with delight that I can say I am enjoying every step.

My running is infused with a purpose far greater than anything I could have imagined. I am running this marathon not to prove anything: I have been there and done that. I am running this marathon because I want to and I am running for JACK.

Racing a 5K in training with the great Jon Brown and rockin' master Marilyn Arsenault.

Jack is a little kid that I know who has Leukemia. Jack’s mom Mena wanted to run the marathon for Jack but she got injured before I could start coaching her. Mena told me that she wanted to run a marathon because if Jack could endure four hour blood transfusions, she could run a marathon. So, I told Mena that I will run for her and for Jack and for all the kids who are sick and can’t.

Jack is one of four boys in Mena’s family. Whenever I see Mena’s kids they are playing some sport or other. Soccer, biking, floor hockey…you name it they are out there playing. Mena and her husband even put a sport court in half their back yard for the boys to play hockey on. The month before Jack was diagnosed I was out at Mena’s legendary run clinic–the Sole Sisters, giving a talk to the 100 women there. Mena has organized child care at her run clinics and while I talked, Ross spent the time in the gym, playing Floor hockey with Jack and his brothers Andy and Jake. Ross was pretty upset that my talk was over in twenty minutes because he didn’t want to stop playing. The next time I saw Jack, it was in a photo and he had just lost the last of his hair from the cancer treatment.

When I hit SUBMIT with my registration for the marathon, I didn’t feel nervous. I have run all my life. I know that at mile 20 my legs are going to hurt but I am excited and overjoyed that I have trained this far for Jack. What is a marathon when I know what Jack has to suffer every time he goes to the hospital?

If you want to know more about Team Jack or for more information on how to donate so that all kids CAN please visit http://www.westhavers4kids.com/.

Jack will be happy!

Enthusiasm: Strong interest or admiration for a purpose or a cause. Great eagerness.

I was looking for a word to describe those people who always seem thrilled to be training, who look forward to competing and who always have a smile on their face because, to them, sport is fun. I have always admired the athletes who maintain high levels of professionalism and consistency in their sport, a champion’s mentality and a commitment to being the best athlete they can be. We can all experience, on our own level, the true essence of athletic success, by focussing on the experiences and by allowing ourselves to tap into the joy and possibility of sport. Enthusiasm for a chosen path means we approach our endeavours with an energetic attitude of learning and never-ending challenge.

I saw this quality once when I watched world class divers from Britain training at my pool. They were doing intense dry land skills, practising on boxes and mats, displaying phenomenal focus, strength, balance and grace as they coiled and flipped into the air. Their faces were full of concentration as they prepared for each practice flip, but immediately afterward they would visibly relax and look towards the coach and their peers for feedback. One woman executed her back flip then stumbled awkwardly on her landing. She accepted this gaff with a wide laugh, not a self-conscious giggle, and it occurred to me how light-hearted the athletes were, even while training such difficult skills. They seemed to be playing, like big kids. I thought to myself how lucky they were to be so skilled and so competent, yet be so able to enjoy it.

So I started to explore what is the quality that allows some athletes to be focussed on the process of success in a positive, creative way. I say creative, for there will be anxiety and distraction in most athletes’ lives, but athletes can learn to view so-so days and setbacks in a way that is not crippling to their path or their self-esteem. Being an athlete is hard sometimes: there is discomfort and goals unmet. Being a parent is hard too, but nobody said that you can’t enjoy the things that are hard. Most athletes and parents will tell you that the positive payback from what they do far outweighs the negative aspects.

There are those athletes who show up to workouts and march through the drills and sets with discipline and pith. Unsmiling, never satisfied with themselves, their environment, or their coach, they can’t work hard enough, and are rarely satisfied. These are the athletes that in races are fierce, grimacing and uptight, needing to produce a great result to justify their dedication and path. Then there are the athletes who can create a fulfilling career out of serious play and keep it in perspective.  I have watched kids run. They run invigorated and full of the joy of pumping their little arms and legs, full of a joy for what their body is doing and how fast they are going. Kids don’t think about what anybody else is thinking of them, there is no self-conscious focus on outcome. Watching young children play, during that time of their lives when they are not yet cognisant of the concept of win or lose has got to be the clearest illustration possible of the joy of human movement. Running is fun.

When I think about my career as an athlete, I think not about the countless races that I have won, nor the money that it pays. I don’t even focus on the many disappointments anymore; they are now experiences that made my career richer. I reflect mainly on the path, and the process that has led me to this point in my life right now, the reason for the many decisions that I have made along the way that have kept me in sport and not moved me out of it.  In many ways, I could say that I have found my niche. Being involved in personal excellence, either my own or through coaching others is my mountain to climb. Being part of a vibrant healthy community of athletes and coaches gives me great joy and sustains my enthusiasm for this lifestyle.

I see enthusiasm amongst new and young athletes, both recreational and elite. When I start working with new athletes, I sense this enthusiasm in their voices as they receive their first training schedules and complete their first training sessions. They are proud of themselves for getting out there, are intoxicated by the sense of goals and possibility that they have placed in front of themselves. The first few times we talk about training and racing I wish I could capture their spirit and energy in a bottle.  I remind them often of the feelings that they have now; I ask them to remind themselves about this passion during hard training weeks or times when things are not going so smoothly.

I believe that training for success requires a certain amount of discipline and a good work ethic, and that it is impossible to sustain this dedication without really enjoying your path. But how can we as athletes train so hard and with such dedication while maintaining this lighthearted attitude? How can we keep working so hard day in a day out? What drives us to take such care of our bodies, to get enough sleep, to eat well and keep planning seasons full of intense competition? I believe it is more than discipline and determination, hard work and effort. I believe that work ethic is derived from a sense of enthusiasm and that comes from feeling that your training and racing has a purpose, even if you are the only person who knows what that purpose is. It comes from having dream goals and from believing that no matter what happens you are on the right path.

I look at great athletes, and I see a people who are dancing with the challenge of competition and improvement. I see people who have taken adversity and obstacles and made them into part of the path, not walls or prisons. I see athletes who share enthusiasm willingly–not hoarding their successes–and who reap the rewards of having a hugely supportive community who share their passion and enthusiasm for life. I’m sure you know someone like this in your life, someone who you admire and look up to, not for their success, but for their attitude.

As you look toward the biggest part of your year, I urge you to remind yourself of your goals and dreams for yourself in sport. Your sense of purpose in your training is what is going to fuel your enthusiasm for what you do, it is what is going to give you mental energy to train during the day when it doesn’t come to easily, or the to run on when the discomfort sets in, and the times when you feel busy, tired and pulled by any of life’s great demands. When you see enthusiasm in your peers, recognize it and name it, and hang around that person in practice, learning from them. Just because someone is smiling and having fun doesn’t mean that they aren’t serious.

Lucy