Not Exactly a Moderate....

Here's my horoscope for today:
You're not exactly the soul of patience, diplomacy or moderation at the moment -- and that's putting it very, very lightly.

And here's the travel schedule I organised yesterday:
(I've been sitting on my keister for months, and I am going a bit looney. So..... the Tara Travel Schedule is starting again!)
Nov 30-Dec 15 Jamaica
Dec 16-19 Vancouver for a course
Dec 21-27 Whitehorse
[New Years - probably skiing at Powder King]
Jan 6 - Feb 4 Britain - shopping for real estate and looking for contract work
Feb 8 -13 Snowbird Ski Area, Utah
Feb 13 - a night in VEGAS!!
Feb 16 - 20 follow up cancer testing in Vancouver
Oh, and I've decided to train for a FULL 26.2 mile marathon in June, so my training will be increasing in the New Year!

Trip Tips

This is based on an email I wrote to a friend the other day.... I figure some of my travellin' skills should be shared. Feel free to use this info, share it with others, ask me questions, whatever.

So, when you have a cool trip coming, first thing is have you called Public Health yet, and asked about shots? Even if you're just going to the States, you should make sure your basic boosters are up-to-date. And if you're going anywhere tropical.....Discuss it with the nurse or doc, and they'll tell ya. Oh, and do this really early, like at least a couple months before you go.... You might have to get a buncha jabs, and your shoulders will be thankful if you don't do it all at once.

Next: look into travel insurance. Did you know your regular medical coverage isn't totally in place when you leave the Province? And if you're leaving the country....well, that's obvious. Worst-case scenario is being medevac'ed home, and the cost of that is equivalent to the price of a small house. Oh, and I found out that if you leave the Province for >6 months, you have a serious problem. (Again, determined that thro' tough circumstances. Ooops.)

And stuff to bring with you on your trip: I have pared down my medical kit to the essentials, and here's what I bring: gravol, imodium, ibuprofen, antibiotic cream, duct tape.

When I get sick, with some sort of tummy thing, (which is a good probability, even at an all-inclusive), I first let whatever it is leave my system. So if I'm vomiting, just giver for a while. And if it's the other end, same..... Whatever it is that made you sick, give it a chance to get out of you! Then after a while, take 1 gravol every time you puke. And 1 imodium every time you go to the toilet. (This stuff will REALLY bung you up, so be cautious.) I've been known to get hideously sick, but would never take more than 3 imodiums, as it takes a while to recover.

The most important thing is to stay hydrated, as much as possible. Be VERY careful with your water and ICE CUBE sources. If you are sick, gatorade or coke are excellent choices. Water them down if it's too much on a flippy-floppy tummy. I know lots of people who travel with rehydration salts, but I prefer just to stick to gatorade, OR get some juice, water it down, and add salt. That's basically what the rehydration salts are. You just need fluid, some sugar, and some salt.
If you do get sick while gone, especially if there is blood or scary mucus in your poo, see a doctor, either while you are there, or when you get home. Here's a great website to find a Western-trained, English-speaking doctor ANYWHERE http://www.iamat.org/

The antibiotic cream is for cuts/blisters.
The ibuprofen is for any inflammation. This includes sore muscles, hung-over headache, or FEVER if you get sick. It can be used for nasty sunburn too (your skin is swollen and inflamed). Wear lots of sunscreen, and wear a hat if you go exploring during the day....Watch out for burns AND sunstroke.

And the duct tape? Well, that's for millions of uses, from suitcase repair to blister protection to creative costume use. Maybe the guy in the seat beside you on the place is too damn chatty? Employ the duct tape solution!
Happy travels!

An Early Christmas Miracle

As I mentioned a while ago, I am planning a trip to Jamaica to celebrate the start of my [yikes!!] Fifth Decade. I'm travelling with my superstar acupuncturist, Dr. Tough Love aka Jenn. We'll be staying at the Negril Yoga Centre, across from 7 Mile Beach. It sounds amazing!!!!! Yoga on offer daily, staying in a rustic cabin for super-cheap, walk lots, snorkel daily, and of course we'll run in the Reggae Marathon. Oh yah, and nightly live reggae on the beach. And rum punches. Etcetera. Yah mon. Irie.
There are a couple other activities available too. Jenn wants to try parasailing, which I think sounds like a lovely opportunity for a marine colonic. And I hear the SCUBA diving is terrific too.... which leads me to today's happy miraculous occurence.

I got my dive certification on a holiday to Belize in, ummmm, 2004, and haven't had a chance to use it since. And let's think about how many times I have moved since then.... Yikes! And let's also reflect on my situation - in Smithers I had a house with 3 floors, and about 2500 square feet of space. In Fort St John, I was down to 1190 square feet and a crawl space. Here in Kamloops, I have a bedroom (12x14 feet), and a number of boxes. Oh crap......that's a lot of nooks and crannies where a little plastic card could hide!
I had a few guesses where I'd locate my certification card, but..... yikes. Hmmm, in a drawer in my desk? No. With my old passports in Cousin Kenny's safe? No. Maybe I left it in Africa, thinking that was where I'd most likely use it? Hope not.
OK, so things started getting serious. WHERE was that dang card?!?!? As we already know, I'm not one for pristine organisational systems, so I was really turning over every rock.... I have emptied (and now cleaned out) every drawer in my bedroom. Still nuthin'. Under the bed? Nuthin'!
This morning I tackled my closet. I moved out 6 empty backbacks and other bags, a couple dozen pairs of shoes/boots, a carpet from Turkey, clothes hamper, shoe rack.... and then found a duffle that contained some of the contents from my underwear and sock drawer in FSJ. (Even my dresser drawers here are smaller than I've had in the past!) So, of course I start going through all that stuff, sorting and chukking out, and seeing the stuff I forgot I had. And HEY, there was a bit of paper....
OMG, it was my Dive Log AND my diver certification card!!!!! WHY I would throw that in with old socks and underpants is beyond my reckoning, but.... YAY, I GET TO GO DIVING IN JAMAICA!!!!
I'm on the plane to Montego Bay Sunday, and back in BC on the 15th. The Reggae (Half) Marathon is Dec 6, starting at 5 AM. That's 4 hours ahead of Pacific Time, for insomniacs who want to track it in real time.

Oh, and P.S. Remember how I've been training for bikini photos? I am proud to say that I weigh the same at my 40th birthday, as I did for my 30th. I even have to buy a new bikini, as the ones I bought in July are TOO BIG FOR ME now. FYI, I ran 20km last Sunday. And 8km last night. I'll do 1.5 hours of yoga today, and run 15km tomorrow....Fithotness at 40 is no gimme.

Visa Bought me New Shoes!

When I got back from Europe in August, I had a notice from Visa that they were sending me a new card. By mid-September, I still hadn't received it, so I called to report it lost, and he said, "Ooooh, it's been mailed. Be patient a week or 2." Alrighty.
Then I tried to shop on-line, got sent to the 'Verified by Visa' site, and it wouldn't work! So I called Visa again, to report that I was having problems. "Ooooh," he said, "Your new card is linked to that account, so you can't use verified by visa until you get your new card. Give it another week. Things are a bit slow on this." (This was right around when the credit market was crashing, so I figured maybe the Bank and even Visa was about to declare bankruptcy. Or maybe this was an example of WHY the banks were falling apart. If they can't even get organised to send out new cards so people can wrack up more debt, then they are in pretty dire straits.)
So I finally got around to calling last week, and again reporting my new Visa card lost. "Oh," he said, "Your card was sent a long time ago. It's never been used. I'll cancel it, and send you a new one." [long conversation ensues] The result was that I could pick up my new card at my local bank branch in 5 business days, which was today!

So.....yesterday, my aunt called to let me know that Visa left me an urgent message on her machine. (I receive messages at her house, as things are a bit disorganised with the 2 bachelors.) Anyway, I told her I don't need the number, as I'm going to pick up my card, and I'm SURE there won't be a problem! She wisely convinced me to take it.

Today, I trundled down to my bank, big smiles, to collect my shiny new Visa card. It wasn't there!!!
OK, so I went into the mall to buy some groceries. As I headed for the grocery store, I passed the shoe store. So obviously I went in....
Excellent sale! I found the most awesome black, high, waterproof, leather Rockport boots for $25 (down from $215 - I'm starting to hyper-ventilate just thinking about it!). They also had some really, really great black leather wedges, absolutely work-appropriate, perfect for that sexy librarian/evil negotiator look, for $80. They are also by Rockport, so these 3 inch heels are totally comfy and fabu. Considered not getting them, but because the boots were only $25 but should have been over $100, this meant the shoes were virtually free, so I had to have them. (Girls: I know you understand Shoe Store Math like this very well. Guys: accept this is how it works, so no need to try to put some Outside Shoe Store Logic on this Gordian Knot.)

Anyway, when I got home, I went through some papers in my room. I hate going through all the crap the bank sends, there's always tomes on the Great New Services they offer, yadda yadda, blah blah. In sorting what could go into recycling....I found my card that they sent 7 weeks ago. Ooops. :-0 It's already been cancelled, so I still hadta call, and find out where the replacement card is!
So....... I called Visa. Aaaaah, the guy didn't know why I was calling, so transferred me to Customer Service. I finally talked to a woman, and told her my long story. (Obviously I DID NOT mention the fact that I finally located my new/old card, as it would not be helpful for her to think I'm an idiot.) "Oh, it might take more than 5 business days for these new fancy cards to come. Might be Monday or Wednesday next week." I'm planning a trip next week, and told her such. She got a little stressed, and wound up putting me on hold for approximately a decade. Or a month. Or half an hour. Whatever. She said, "Oh dear. If we'd known you would be a on a trip, we would have sent the card with a rush. Oh dear." The hand-wringing was audible.
[long conversation ensues, involving my saying that I have not been able to shop online for 2 months, seems excessive, perhaps they should have rushed the card to me, blah blah. More hand-wringing from her.]
OK, so it turns out that my trusty OLD Visa card (which I've been using in stores all this time)was set to be inactivated 75 days after they decided to send me a new card. So it could die at any time. And then I really would be left without a Visa. And this is Very Important in Visaland. Hence all the hand-wringing. She informed me that if it stops working, then I must call back, locate a supervisor, and get Special Permission to Use My Old Card, until the new one comes. Aaaaah, well, that would be a pain in the patoot.
So, she suddenly offered up that this is an inconvenience, so she can compensate me with either a) 2500 aeroplan miles on my card, or b) a $75 credit on my balance.
Me: "I`d like the $75 please. That means Visa just bought me new shoes today. What a wonderful company!"
Her: "Thank you for calling Visa."

The Power of One?

For those who did not know, I had thyroid cancer in 2000 and again in 2003. This is a cancer of inconvenience. It is sooooooo not a death sentence. So my doctor amped up my stress levels and scared me, but really, it's because I know what a huge drag it would be to go through it again. Many types of cancer seem to be considered "cured" after 5 years cancer-free, but mine can recur for years, decades. I am 5 years cancer free, and I have no intention of having a party about it.... Luckily recurrence does not affect survival rates for my cancer, so that's good. My biggest "fear" (not really a fear, more like the thing I most want to avoid) is that my physical conditioning would be absolutely demolished if I were to be treated for cancer again. Like, lose all my coordination, gain 25 pounds in 7 weeks, take years to get back to where I am now..... Not a really serious problem, but hey, let's face it - women are judged by our physical appearance, and if I'm fat, people will assume I'm a lazy, undisciplined overeater. The judgement is cruel.

Anyway...... dropped into the doc's office on Tuesday, refusing to leave the Lower Mainland until I got my results (or at least knew that the correct test had been done). As luck would have it, there was a cancellation, so had an appointment. The results are in and they are....... INCONCLUSIVE!!!!!! Yeesh! For the cancer marker, we want the number to be <1. And it's 1. If the number were 5 or 6, we'd be making a treatment plan.

So what does 1 mean? Well, we're not sure, so he wants to do more in depth testing in the near-ish future. Hmmmmm. I am free to take off, do my thing, go where I like, etc. etc. and he'd like to do more in-depth testing sometime. Like in a couple months.

Royally Victorian

On Thanksgiving Sunday, I ran the Royal Victoria Half Marathon. For those paying attention, yes, that`s my second in 2 weeks! No, I haven`t gone mad. I don`t have a hopeless running addiction (there`s still hope for me). My friend Susan was doing her first Half, so I went along to support her and run with her.

The run was AWESOME. Susan thinks this must be "her distance"! She did really well: 2:38.32, which is really great for a) anyone, but especially, b) a first timer, and c) someone who's never gone farther than 15 km before. We were happy, had perfect weather, got hugs from a good friend on the course, no pain, no hard effort, AND she stopped for a beer with the Hash House Harriers on course!!!! WHAT AN ANIMAL! I would have barfed. Apparently Gatorade should come in beer flavour too...

I felt really bad though that her family were not aware what a big deal the race was, so she had no spectators. But I was so proud of her achievement, plus we had a great talk with her younger son about the great feeling of working toward, and then achieving, a goal. (I think that's a really important life lesson, myself.) And her husband did give her big hugs later, so that's great.

She was hardly stiff the next day, and biked to work on Tuesday! An overwhelming success!

Looking great at 15 km!

My next running goal: Reggae (half) Marathon on Dec 6 in Negril, JAMAICA!!!!!!!!

My acupuncturist/running partner has invited me to join her. She's staying at a yoga centre on the beach, and she'll be doing the 10 km race. It's a week before my Big 40, so my intent is to train super-hard, be very strict with diet, and be SAH-MOKIN hot!!!! Oh yes, there will be pictures to memorialise my Hotness at Forty! (The ones with the bikini will be for public consumption, but the others....by invitation only. HA!)

Stressssssssss

I am hung over today. Tough few days. Got summoned to Vancouver to see endocrinologist re: cancer test results. Obviously, I was freaking!! He told me he was just being careful, and that although the ultrasound results were classed as ok, there were some lumps in my neck that he wanted to look at himself. Sent me for second set of blood tests in 3 weeks..... I told myself he was just being over-cautious, but....was totally freaking out.

So......had the appt yesterday. He said that 2 labs in a row had done the wrong test! He said the ultrasound shows (I think) 3 lumps, and that these were all present last year too. 1 is bigger, 1 is smaller, and last one stayed the same compared to last year. The problem is that the blood test result we need is the actual cancer marker.....If THAT number goes up, then we have trouble.

So I went for my third blood test yesterday.

And I wait.

Running HIgh in Banff

As mentioned earlier, I travelled to Banff, Alberta for a 22km race - Melissa's! It was, without doubt, the toughest event I've done. I don't know really why - probably a combo of NO flat ground; very, VERY windy; potholes and cambered roads; high altitude; plus I hooked up with the folks from my runclub who are at my next time goal so pushed myself really hard for a long time. Really, I cannot compare the effort to do a training run, compared to a race. But with the incredible scenery, it was a terrific course!!!! In that sense, I cannot complain.

I was really disappointed that it took 2:30 for me to do 22 km - a long way slower than I thought I'd finish!!! However, Kerri was at the race as Kamloops Team Support (thanks!!), and told me she was surprised to see that at 2:20, no one from Kamloops had finished yet. She knew I was hoping for a PB, so she expected me by then. Turns out none of the Kamloops racers finished before 2:25. The reason this is significant to me is that last year, the people from my club that I was 10 or 15 minutes behind......now I'm only 5 mins behind. In fact, some people who were 15 mins ahead of me last year..... on Sat, I was only 3 mins behind!!!

Kerri said lots of people said the race was really, really hard. So by Tara Math, despite the actual time being slow, I have made an improvement relative to my peers of 5-10 mins. I feel pretty awesome about that!




But here's the most interesting part of the whole thing: at the 20 km mark, I suddenly had the sensation of being insanely STONED. Truly, I was giggly, excited, high energy, and definitely felt really really out-of-it. All while running fast UPHILL. Unfortunately it only lasted 500m, but it was one of the strangest sensations I have ever had. (And all the more weird as I'd been off alcohol for 6 full weeks, so there was NO outside influence.)

[Look what else I found out!! Gatorade should come in champagne flavour! Aaaahhh, my first alcohol in 6 weeks. :) ]

I know we've all heard of Runner's High.....But I always thought it was that nice sensation of just feeling less stressed, happy to be outside, rosy cheeks, fit body, so happy I reached my goal, nicy-nice, etc. etc. What I experienced was NOTHING like that. I was hurting - my lungs, my feet, my legs; my arms had been completely pins-and-needles numb for about 8 km; and I was filthy grouchy......and then suddenly it was like a Saturday night at university!! I failed to notice Cheech or Chong slipping me a bong, but that's how it felt! WHOOOO-HOOO!!!!
I did a little online research, and found a bit. Apparently, there is some science that it IS indeed a similar effect in the body to THC from marijuana....but it's hard to dig out.So I'm wondering what experiences are out there? Have you experienced anything like this? Know anyone who has? Know any stories about it? I'm really curious about this.

Hey, maybe that's Cheech in the bushes back there?

Bling! Bling! Flowers

Last year, I ran in the Las Vegas Half Marathon. So they send me emails, trying to get me to participate again. On one of these emails, they showed the most gorgeous running shoe - it had a big swirly paisley on it, done in sparkley gems. I went, "OMG!!!! How did I never realise that I needed to pimp my shoes?!?!?! How can I possibly have survived till now, without sparkley shoes?!?"

Luckily, it was easy to remedy this travesty. At Wal-Mart, I purchased some Liquid Stitch and found product entitled 'Bling!Bling! Flowers', 'Bling! Bling! Butterflies' and 'Sparkley Gems'. I have NO idea how I possibly got to this stage in my life without this stuff!Obviously, I would share the wealth with my runpals, Susie Sunshine and Carol. Are these shoes things of beauty or what??

Now, there was some concern that problems could occur... what if we lost sparkles on the course? We were Pimping our Shoes for a run in a National Park, after all. What if a sparkle was lost, and we got busted for littering? Or worse, what if a squirrel ate that lost sparkle, got it stuck in its little rodent bowels, DIED, and we wound up in the hoosegow for Endangering Wildlife??? Those federal rangers don't have much sense of ha-ha when it comes to squirrels.

Or, here's a different scenario: what if our shoes were so sparkley and wonderful that we were attacked by magpies and ravens? Everyone knows they are mad over bling! Visions of Hitchcock's 'Birds' loomed...

And the final risk: what if our shoes were so gorgeous that WE were entranced by the gorgeous bejewelment (magpie-like, all 3 of us!), and could only stare at our shoes throughout the race? Surely, we could trip and get hurt?

Well, it all turned out fine. :) NO sparkles were lost during the running of this race. I thought it might be a problem that I cheaped out and got Liquid Stitch, rather than the more up-market Speed Sew, but the LS held! [In fact, a week has passed, and I've run 30 miles since pimping my shoes, and have only lost 2 sparkles per shoe. Pretty good. Have not noticed any squirrels in intestinal distress near my home, so looks like the coast is clear.]

No problems occured with magpies, ravens, or any other bird..... No doubt the laboured breathing of the runners scared them all away.

And, finally, I did stare at my shoes quite a lot during the race. They were just so pretty! Somehow managed not to trip over my bejeweled feet though. (Gives a whole new meaning to Tripping the Light Fantastic!)

who wouldn't enjoy this view? Really!

Susie Sunshine, Calamity Carol, and Terrible Tara: manic pre-race smiles

Where I'm From

Last weekend, I went to Whitehorse, Yukon to chill, to see my Dad, to see old friends, to hang with the Doggies. It's great to go home, to where you were raised. Really great.


fall colours and a snow squall coming

getting a call, at the fire pit! (might be considered bad etiquette, but I LOVE my cell!)

Mackenzie, me, Gabby