Elements of Erin 337

Now for something completely different.  Me and 19+ of my coworkers spent the morning pulling a plane for charity.  Check out the news video of the event here

DSCN2043 Originally uploaded by erinlesleylee Weil, the weather could have been better and my time could have been faster but who can complain about a PR? No, it was not the 4 hour marathon I had hoped for but I did manage to pull off a PR at 4:23:05. This was about 1 minute faster than my December 2009 marathon in Clermont, Florida. The day started with a long port-o-potty line and me being in the port-o-potty when the gun went off. No worries, I have my Garmin and the timer doesn't start until you cross the start line. As I left the port-o-potty and started my Garmin, the worst happened. My Garmin (which I had charged all night) was at 0% battery. Yikes! OK, plan B...look for the 4 hour pace bunny on the course. Because I started late, I had to quickly catch up to the bunny. I passed the 4:30 bunny then by about 5kms found the 4:15 bunny. At the 10km mark I found 2 friends who I was planning to run with from the beginning. They said they hung with the 4 hour bunny for a...

I believe that 2010 marks the 5th time I have completed the Delta Sprint Triathlon .  It might be 6 times but 5 for sure.  Every year it marks the beginning of tri season for me and I look forward to doing the race.  I love seeing the all of the tri newbies mixed in with Elite and Pro triathletes.  This year the Race Director was Tracey Shelley (my swim coach) and it was the best run year so far.  Great job Tracey!!! I really felt no pressure going into this race.  I have not had as much structure this year as I did last year with my tri training.  In fact, I have only been outside on my bike 2x in 2010 including the race yesterday.  I did do a spin class once a week from January - March to maintain some of my bike fitness, but we all know that spinning isn't really like getting outside with your bike. My game plan...ok, I didn't really have one.  My husband asked me the night before the tri if I was going to PB the race.  I though...

Desert Dash Originally uploaded by erinlesleylee Ok, so I now have a new respect for Trail Runners. I knew the 1/2 Marathon Trail Run at Bootleg Canyon in NV was going to be tougher than a road race but....whoa! Even though it was super tough and I hurt for a week after, I am hooked. Good thing we have so many beautiful trails in the Vancouver area to explore. Click on this photo to check out our trail running adventure from a couple of weeks ago.

Next weekend we are headed once again to Las Vegas.  Our warm weather and relatively cheap escape from reality for a weekend.  Of course, what do we do when we go to Vegas?  Yes, we do have some great meals and a few drinks.  We even gamble a little bit.  Of course we find a community running race and go for it. For this trip we found the Desert Dash in Boulder City, NV .  There is a 5km, 10km, 21.1km, 30km or 50km trail run option.  Now as tempting as the 50km run is...we are running the 21.1km distance.  The run starts at 9am.  The temperatures in Las Vegas are already reaching 25C so the weather will be warm.  From what I know, there is no support on the course so we are packing the Fuel Belts, Gatorade and PowerGels . Check out the route map for the 1/2 Marathon here . Anyone else going to be there?  Tweet up anyone? Viva Las Vegas Desert Dash!

This past weekend, my husband Tim  ran the first Dallas Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon.  Of course he PR'd his race at 1:38:37.  He was fortunate enough to meet TriBoomer  at a tweet up pre race dinner.  Brian writes for the Dallas Examiner and published this article about the race giving Tim and I a mention. Check out the article Examiner Article . Yes, I have added the San Diego Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon to my race calendar for 2010.  Why not?  I am going to be there anyway cheering for Tim, why not race myself. Happy Training!

On Saturday I ran the St. Patrick's 5km Race in Stanley Park.  The weather was not overly inviting with the wind and rain but a 5km race doesn't take hours...they only take minutes...fast pace and hard minutes. My Dad and I were running the race together.  Well, actually, my Dad is much faster than I am but we did warm up together.  After arriving early to pick up my package and timing chip, we made our way down to the Start line for a quick warm up. After warming up, I ran into my friend Jim from The SAA.  He is faster than me also but closer to my time so we had agreed to run together (for as much as I could keep up).  That turned out to be about 2.5 kms. We positioned ourselves near the front of the starting line and the countdown started.  The gun went off and we are on our way.  I felt great for the first 2.5 kms as I usually do then hit a hill.  The hill slowed me down and took a lot out of me.  I did manage to pick it up again bu...