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recent athletic milestones
so to all you lucky nubert-xanga-followers, i am adding another entry and it hasn't even been 2 years yet!
i thought i'd share about recent athletic milestones which all happened just this past weekend.
let's start with the church soccer league in which we played our last
game on sunday. i can't believe that i managed to get a total of 5
goals this season. a 500% increase from last year. let me tell you
about my "goals" (note the quotation marks)
#1 - dat made a really long pass/shot from somewhere around the half. i
jumped up intending to head it or deflect it or something. i did manage
to deflect it but it was off my arm just a little above the elbow. i'm
not sure if that's a handball but the ref didn't call it, the goalie
didn't call it and i wasn't about to question my first goal of the year 
#2 - johann passed the ball to me from the sideline (can't remember if
it was a corner kick or not) and as it was coming towards me, i flicked
my foot to deflect it and it went in. that goal - i meant to do
#3 - it was dat again making a really long pass to me when i was really
close to the net. my plan was to kick it in while the ball was still in
mid-flight. i kinda did that as it barely (and i mean barely - maybe
just a shoelace or something) skimmed my foot and went in. i get credit
because i did "touch" it last
#4 - the other team had the ball deep in their zone after a goal kick
and i was pressuring the guy who had the ball. i guess he decided to
pass the ball back to the goalie but the goalie was not expecting that
and as he stuck his hand out to catch it, he deflected it into his own
goal. and since this league doesn't implement the own goal stat, i get
credit for being the closest :)
#5 - derrick calls my name as i'm sprinting down the field pass the
lone defender. he makes a really long chip shot that the defender
couldn't reach - i jump up, make contact with the ball using my head,
and the ball goes in. where was the goalie, you ask? he was right in my
face trying to catch the ball or something cuz i could taste the
leather of his gloves when i made the header. this is my last goal which happened this past sunday. it's also my best goal. 
now do you see why i put "goals" in quotes. only 2 of them are deserved
goals in my books. heh - 3 goals out of 5. mind you, nobody else on the
team had even one of these "goals" but yet i manage to get 3.
interesting... 
funny quirky things always seem to happen to me. although i can't name
any of the top of my head but i do seem to carry this persona with
me. if i ever come across any more, i'll will let you know.
so we ended of our season with a pretty good run. the last five games
were loss, win, win, win, and overtime win. maybe that record has
something to do with the fact that all my "goals" were scored within
these last five games or the fact that i just started playing midfield.
maybe i should play midfield next season :)
so that was sunday. let's backtrack to saturday. since i have started
training for the marathon, this past saturday, i ran a milestone 32km!!
 it's the longest i have ever run and the longest i will run until the may 1
vancouver adidas marathon. can hardly believe that just last january,
the further i have ever run was 10km. now i've done 32km on my way to
42.2km. even though i ran half marathons all last year, you would
figure that another 10km isn't too much more but there's a whole lot of
difference. that extra 10km is quite difficult both physically and
mentally. and to think that i will have to run yet another 10km
more...eeks.
so i ran the 32km in 2hrs 44 mins. it's ok i guess - that works out to
be about 5:08 per km. my goal is to be around 5:00 per km. maybe if
there weren't traffic lights...although my body did start to stiffen up
towards the end of that run. i wonder if my body can handle another
10km. i sure hope it can!!
it's amazing how much i've run the past while. all of last year, i did
a total of 4 half marathons. within just the past 5 weeks, i've run
more than the distance of 4 half marathons. in fact, i've done the
distance of more than 5... i've done a 21km, a 14 km (due to ankle
injury), 26km, 29km, and 32km. i'm just surprised that i'm able to do
all this...
now i'm gonna describe the route i ran this saturday and my thoughts during the run:
started off at rackets and runners on oak and 23rd
- feeling good
- was running with ghislaine, and the other girls (cricket, izzy, bonnie)
headed up to king edward
- at some point, i left them all behind. the faster i finish, the quicker we get to go home
west along king ed until cypress
- found josh running at the head of the pack
- ran with him
turned on cypress and headed to 16th
turned on 16th and headed to arbutus
turned on arbutus and went all the way down to water
ran along the seawall/false creek around science world
- left josh at the start of false creek
- still feeling great at this point
turned up on davie street until i hit burrard
- had my first gel pack - mmm...cola
turned on burrard until i hit pender
ran along pender until it merges into georgia
ran along georgia and into stanley park
- had my second gel pack - mmm...more cola 
- still feeling good at this point - i mean i think this is only about 15 km
ran around the seawall
- the portion of the run i think is where i experienced the most ups and downs
- the first little bit was still going good but as
the route curves and winds, it's hard to tell how far you've gone and
how much further to go
- then i think i started to feel the wall coming - the barrier that i would have to overcome
- but before the wall got a chance to hit me the
song "great" by ten shekel shirt started playing on my ipod. i
looked
around me and i can see the lions
gate bridge, the never ending water
in the distance, the mountains, the little bit of sunshine that managed
to break through the clouds. i felt invigorated, i felt empowered, i
felt inspired, i felt relief, i felt peace...i felt the
presence and
spirit of god at that time. and then i felt like smiling so i
did .
i
think i must have run a few hundred meters looking around and smiling.
wonder what opposing pedistrians were thinking...
- the next song after great was a song by usher
(...random playlist...) so i replayed the
"great" song again and again. must
have been around a 10 count
before i stoped repeating it
- then not too much longer, i took a look at my
watch to see how far i've gone and when i saw that it was only about 23
km, the wall hit me mentally  - the winds and curves seem to never end. physically i was doing ok but the mental wall wore me down a bit
- then i finally reached a part of the seawall that
i know of and i knew i was close to exiting it. that got rid of the
mental barrier
exited
stanley park and followed the seawall until the burrard bridge
- had my third gel pack - mmm...coke flavoured is my favourite 
- i had overcome my mental battle but the physical
one had just inched in now. started the feel the stiffness in my legs
creeping in. last week during my
29km, i had a really rough last 2km when my calves started to cramp so i was worried
that the same could happen
again
- got to the burrard bridge but there is a flight of
stairs that i needed to climb and i took a "mini" break by walking
up
the stairs -
that helped
crossed the burrard bridge and continued along burrard until 12th ave
- i ran up and down the bridge with no problems
- legs felt good again
- had my last gel back - mmm...what would i do without cola?
- eeks...started to tire again
- when i ran by 6th and 7th, i was
thinking...hmm...home is only a block away - too bad i don't have the
keys and also ghislaine is waiting for me at starbuck's
- hit a lot of the traffic lights so those provided
me with some mini breaks
turned on 12th and ran to oak
- still tired but again the lights helped me once again
then up oak back to the store
- tired but knowing that the end is near, i pushed
myself and made it back
so that was my 32km...
here are the lyrics to the "great":
I have always wanted to be somebody who is great
To be great in, great in your eyes, is my dream
To be the one who makes you smile is everything
To love my enemies
To serve others until I become the least
To be great in, great in your eyes, is my dream
To be the one who makes you smile is everything
Greatness in this world is different
than greatness in your eyes
To be great in, great in your eyes, is my dream
To be the one who makes you smile is everything
To be genuine in my love for others
and for you is to be great
i will be doing another 32km in 3 weeks...maybe i'll have something interesting to share after
back to work. ciao
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| | Posted 3/23/2005 3:17 PM - 53 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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