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Run Walk Ride with me at the @HSFRide this year & let’s #CreateSurvivors together!
Did you know:
Heart disease and stroke kill one Canadian every 7 minutes, making it a leading cause of death and disability in Canada.
Today, more than 90 per cent of Canadians who have a heart attack and more than 80 per cent who have a stroke and make it to hospital will survive. Last year, the Heart and Stroke Foundation helped create 165,000 survivors.
As a Paramedic I, far to often, see the devastating effects of these two conditions on my patients and their families. So when I was asked to be an ambassador for the all new run component of the Becel Heart and Stroke Ride for Heart I agreed without hesitation.
This year they have a goal to raise $6.8million. Funds rasied will support world class research as well as health education and advocacy to help the Foundation meet its mission to prevent disease, save lives and promote recovery from heart disease and stroke. I plan on doing everything I can to help them meet that goal! But I need your help by either joining me or donating!
DONATE
REGISTER
ps. if you are registering for the run use the discount code AMB05 for $10 off; you’re welcome 🙂
If you’d like to participate with me, then free up your calendar on June 5th for this unique opportunity to ride, run or walk on a traffic-free Gardiner and DVP, help create more survivors from heart disease and stroke. Join 15,000 cyclists and ride 25, 50 or 75km traffic-free on the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway. Or participate in our new 5km/10km Run or 5km Walk. It’s a whole new way to experience the magic of this landmark Toronto event.
Your selfie game will be strong with a backdrop like this!
By supporting the Ride you will be helping to create more survivors. Over the past 60 years, with the Foundation’s help, the death rate from heart disease and stroke has declined by more than 75 per cent, with nearly 40 per cent of this decrease occurring in the past decade.
By deciding to participate and train for this event you will also be taking charge of your own health and help to prevent a cardiac event or stroke from occurring to yourself! Lack of physical activity is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, and cycling/running/walking is a great example of a physical activity that is fun and easy to do. It is recommended that Canadians get 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-physical activity each week so get signed up and start training! Here are some other videos to help motivate you!
#KeepSmilin!
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The Wine & Dine Half-Half; Sergio’s first #runDisney experience
The plan was to go back and conquer the #WineDineHalf, the goal race that planned all our very first running around. A race that we were literally soaked to the bone from head to toe, colder than the flash freeze of Arendelle at the hands of Elsa. But wait a minute it wasn’t that bad! You had a lot of fun and really enjoyed that race! You said so right here!
Okay, okay so we did have a lot of fun 🙂 But we were not happy with our time and how we felt physically after that race. So after our bump in confidence from #PrincessHalf and wanting to give our good friend Sergio ( who came up with the crazy idea to run Dopey before we turn 40) a runDisney experience before Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, we decided to sign up for Wine and Dine Half.
The weekend was planned to be done on the super cheap so we drove down (spending on $80 US on gas one way!!), stayed off property at a cheaper hotel, and didn’t get Park tickets. We arrived Thursday after lunch and were VERY hungry! So where’s the best place to go? Well Earl of Sandwich at Disney Springs of course! I highly recommend eating at one of their many locations if you ever get the chance! You wont be disappointed!
Friday Sergio treated us to tickets to Universal Studios!!!
Karen and I had never been before and Sergio wanted to be our guide for our first trip much like he did for our first Walt Disney World trip! 🙂 We really enjoyed these two parks and all the crazy ride but we were really glad we tried it without the kids first! While Universal does have quite a few rides for younger kids it felt to us like this place is more geared to the pre-teen and older category. Perfect for us 3 since it meant we could go on any and all the crazy rides that were open. We started the day at the main park and rode: The Simpsons Ride & Men in Black Alien Attack. Then we went off to see Diagon Alley! Wow did they ever put a lot of thought into the detail of this! We were in aw from the moment we stepped into it!
Saturday!! Race/Expo day!! I always like going to the runDisney expos, mainly because we get to see Jeff Galloway and also because we get to checkout the latest runDisney & new balance merchandise. We learned the hard way, however, to never go to an expo on the second day! There was hardly any runDisney gear left at all!! From now on we will always go first thing in the morning on the first day! We did get to see Jeff Galloway though which we always loves! I was so busy listening to him give us advice though that I forgot to snap a pic with him 😦 oh well I will definitely do that during the Dopey expo. Changes with the speaker line up meant though that we missed Jeff’s formal talk! We were very sad about this! (Jeff didn’t even know until the morning, I think there were a lot of unhappy people that didn’t get a chance to see him since his talk was pushed earlier than what was printed). We still got great Dopey advice though when we spoke to him personally at his booth.
Always love checking out the New Balance booth!
I’ts almost go time!!
With bib in hand it was time for some lunch and a nap! 
Man sure is nice to run a race in shorts and a t-shirt! After we all ogt dressed we drove over to Epcot to park the and catch the shuttle to EPSN. We got of the bus and headed over to bag check and got that all taken care of. We had some extra time so we checked out the entertainment and the host for a while then went to the beginning of the line at the entrance tot he corals. We had this wicked plan, since we were in the last coral, to get to the very front so when they released everyone to the corals we could be at the front. We stood at the front for a good 30 mins before the wind picked up. and I mean PICKED UP!!! The palm trees were bending over like crazy, a-frame signs were tipping over and cups and debris were blowing all over the roads. Then we get word from the race official that the need to evacuate us to shelter???!!! What the heck is going on??? All the runners were then escorted from the parking lot area back to ESPN zone to the baseball stadium.
Waiting here for what seemed an eternity allowed us to scan social media and find out there was a big storm that was coming close to the route. We later found out that there was a lot of lightening and the storm passed right over Animal Kingdom. We were very worried that the race was going to be cancelled all together! We didn’t get too many updates either and the ones we did get over the loud speakers we couldn’t even make out! I like always tried to remain positive unlike someone I know …..
Finally the time came for us to go back to the holding areas so we goes filter into our corals. During the time while we were waiting in our coral we heard the dreaded announcement 😦 The race officials thought it safest to cut out the Animal Kingdom loop. They were essentially cutting out 6 miles from the half marathon which essential made this now a 7.1 mile race! Bummer …. Not the worst news but not the greatest! It was comforting to know that runDisney had our safety as their number one concern!
Our coral made it to the start line so that meant it was time for one last selfie! 
One of my favorite things about Disney races is the fireworks they blow off for every coral of each race and I finally caught ours on video.
We began to weave our way forward snaking our way through other runners and came to one of the character stops Lilo and Stitch! Lets stop here and get a pic guys!
Later on we found Woody and Buzz and stole a selfie with them out side the line since we didn’t want to wait!
One of my favorite things about running Wine and Dine is running through The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights!
After the lights there isn’t that much farther to go as you run along the boardwalk and into Epcot to get your medal! We were really disappointed to not see any Star Wars characters this year though! 😦
Medals in hand were were off to finally get the chance to see what the Epcot Food and Wine Festival was all about! We sampled some amazing food and drinks and even got to go on some rides at 330 in the morning! Not too many people can say they rode Soarin and Test Track at that time of day! 😉
Just about to ride Soarin
Overall we still had a great time. It was a severely shortened course and left us feeling a little unaccomplished at the end and I wish Disney would have moved some of the characters from the eliminated Animal Kingdom loop to soften the blow o the shortened course. I really loved getting to experience the Food and Wine Festival this time since we couldn’t last time. I also really loved getting onto some of the Epcot rides in the middle of the night! Now that we’ve done this race twice I am not sure when we will be back. I still highly recommend this race to people when I talk about it. Its the only runDinsey race, so far, that happens at night, allows you to ride the rides at that time, gives you access to amazing food, its the only one that gives you a drink voucher for beer or wine and is the only place licensed to serve alcohol so you can sample so other cool world drinks! I can’t wait for Dopey in January and Star Wars in 2017!!!
Cause you gotta wear your medal around on the next day!
#KeepSmilin 🙂
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Profile Picture Auction
How would you like your logo or a picture of your choice to replace my Twitter profile pic? This past month my account had an impressions count of over 51k! Thats a lot of exposure! For the week starting at midnight on September 7th 2015 until midnight on September 14th 2015 I will auction off my Twitter profile picture to the highest donor to my current fundraising efforts for the RBC Run For The Kids! It’s simple just click on “DONATE HERE” below to make a donation and be the highest donor! It’s a win-win situation! You will be ensuring more youth get connected with the specific resources and treatment they require for their specific needs AND you get the chance to promote your brand!
DONATE HERE
All images will be reviewed and approved by me prior to posting. I will need to screen the submitted picture to ensure there is nothing illegal or damaging to my own personal brand. I am confident that what is submitted by the highest donner will be perfectly fine to post but I do reserve the right to reject the image based on its content up to and including but not limited to: vulgarity, nudity, discrimination, harassment, and or anything illegal.
Here’s how it will work! During the contest period noted above, you can make as many donations as you like and I will add them together. Who ever has made the highest total combined donation at the stroke of midnight on the 14th will win and I will notify them via the email address they used to donate on the morning of September 15th 2015 and ask for an image to be submitted. I will then use that image as my Twitter profile image for the duration of one week commencing 9 am September 17 2015 and ending 9pm September 24th. During this week I will also post the image to my twitter 3 times announcing the winner.
So good luck everyone and I cant wait to see who wins!!
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Review @TeamTiux Compression Socks; not just selling socks but doing social good as well!
Have you heard of the compression sock company Tiux? Well don’t be worried if you haven’t because I didn’t either up until a few weeks ago! That’s when Heather Gardner from Run Soul Cycle held a give away on her Instagram profile to win a pair!
https://instagram.com/p/4W66q-mZjR/
TBH I had only entered the contest to support Heather, totally not even thinking I would win! But low and behold a few weeks later I was notified that I was the winner of a pair of their socks!
https://instagram.com/p/4cQJCfGZpc/?taken-by=runsoulcycle
I immediately went to their website to see what they were all about and what colors they had. Except when I got there I didn’t immediately go to the shop section of the website. Right away I was drawn to the Tiux 1% Social Mission section. I am a big fan of companies doing social good and love supporting the ones that do! So when I read that Tiux:
will donate 1% of our revenue to help save lives and protect communities from landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other weapons remaining after conflict
by partnering with MAG (Mines Advisory Group), I was even more happy that I had won these socks! Mind you since my socks prob came from their marketing budget I don’t think the 1% came from my socks; I am hoping that by writing this some of you will check out their socks and buy a pair 🙂
Now onto the socks! After a quick look at their “Why Graduated Compression Socks” you can see that they provide:
- Muscle Stabilization
- Enhanced Proprioception
- Increase Arterial Inflow
- Increase venous return
After reading this I don’t know why I didn’t try compression socks before. Seemed like a no-brainer to me! The Tiux business model is a little different that some other fitness apparel companies that you may be used to. Everything they do is centered around keeping the cost to the consumer at a minimum. They offer 3 colors Black/Neon Yellow/Dark Grey, Neon Yellow/Blue/Black, and Pink/Neon Yellow/Lavender. They sell directly to you online (you wont see them in any stores) and they cut out the wholesalers and distributors. The best part is they don’t charge you shipping! So what do you call that? A win-win-win? lol
As for my experience, I’m not gonna lie, I was was checking the mailbox like everyday to see if they’d shown up! lol Then the sexy black box finally showed up! Not gonna lie I was super excited to finally give these things a whirl. I tried them first while doing 10k on our local high school track then a few days later on a 15k long run. At first I thought that since they were such a slippery material that I would be sliding out of my shoe. I did have to tighten my shoes a little more than usual since they are a little less bulky than my reg socks but not once did I never slipped out of my heal. Once I had them on they immediately felt like a second skin to me and my lower legs felt more stable and secure. I am very lucky in that I have never had issues with my arch, tendons, or my calf’s but I would imagine that these would work extremely well for that with their added stability. Running with them on my long run felt extremely well. My legs felt lighter and it was like I couldn’t really feel them at all but not in a bad way, like they were going numb or something, just like they weren’t there. I usually don’t have any issues with recovery I guess because my long runs really haven’t gotten that long yet but I’m really confident in the science behind these that It will aid me in that department.
I am really looking forward to future runs in these socks and I anticipate buying another pair in the future!
Do you own a pair or compression socks? What do you think?
If you do buy I pair od Compression Socks from Tiux I’d love to hear what you think as well!
Until then run happy and #KeepSmilin 🙂
This just in!!! I can offer all my readers a discount of 10% off your next purchase! But hurry this code is only valid until July 31st 2015!
Click here!
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Running the #PrincessHalf with my Princess
It was finally time for the Princess Half Marathon presented by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and just like our Wine and Dine experience we were certainly not disappointed!
430 am we arrived at All Star Music though some crazy rain and hydro-plaining but safe and sound
We drove down again this time with just the 4 of us and because of that, we made really good time! So, silly us, we thought “hey we could spend money on a hotel somewhere in South Carolina or Georgia or we could just split up the last 8hrs of driving and stay at Disney an extra night”! One quick call to The Disney Travel Company and BAM a room would be waiting for us upon our new arrival date!
Ahh the health and wellness expo! This is beginning to be one of our favourite parts of runDisney weekends! We always start our racecations with this and we always get to meet our favourite people!. This time, however, was extra special because we took the time to meet and speak with Jeff Galloway the training guru for runDisney.
None other than the famous Jeff Galloway
The expo is always filled with lots of cool running stuff! You could literally spend a whole day there! I esp like meeting my new running peeps and checking out the runDisney branded gear for the run!
My favorite purchase from the expo!
Its going to take a long time to get through this!
The shoes! The shoes!
An autograph from Jeff Galloway!
As always, a trip to Disney would not be complete without a meet up with Carrie Burrows from www.carrieburrows.com and Kristin Long from BamagirlRUNS
Gotta love Carrie and her #TeamBlurrySelfie pics!
Ok so enough about the expo lets talk about the #PrincessHalf!
It’s almost time! I’m only really pretending to be nervous runDisney events always fun!
This was our first time running early in the morning! Kinda sucks setting the alarm for for 330 but not totally unusual for two shift workers! We got up, got dressed, ate some protein bars and headed over to Epcot. Wish I had eaten some more! I found myself quite hungry for the last few miles; very thankful for the Gu stations near the end! Now that we’ve done this once before it was not so overwhelming to see the mass of people, the stages, the rows and rows of porta potties and the line for bag check. We did not have any bags to check thankfully so we picked a spot and plopped ourselves down on what used to be a section of parking lot for Epcot. My wife began to stretch her hurting knee 😦 and I just paced around back and forth. I always find myself so excited before a half marathon that I cant sit still on the ground or stand in one place. Some distraction; a text from Carrie that she was in the holding area as well! “Who-Who” Time for a pre-race selfie!
With that it was off to the sea of porta-potties and into our coral! They gotta find a better word for these holding areas! It just perpetuates the feeling of being a bunch of animals being herded into a pen! This is the place where you get your music ready, head phones on, all your clothes (costumes) adjusted and wait for your turn to start! Each Disney race has many corals that all start in succession to one another spaced by about 10 mins or so. As each coral starts the next one is moved up to the starting line. And in true Disney fashion each coral starts with a bang! Literally!
As you can see it is still quite dark out and the first coral gets started at aprox 530am but it doesn’t take long for the sun to come out and light the way! The first few miles are pretty uneventful as you leave the Epcot parking lot and head along the roadways that interconnect the parks. Somewhere between mile 1 and mile 2 was a character spot for Jack Sparrow. We decided not to stop at this point since it felt like we had just and really the line was just too long! Thankfully we didn’t since we found out that we would be running right by them again on our way back! Mile 2-3 was Wreck-It-Ralph and Vanellope; again didn’t stop. Next was all the evil queens together in one spot! We had to stop and get a pic here:
While we were waiting in line for this one I noticed Brittney Smith from Main Street Memories. I stopped her and we chatted for a bit but now I’m kicking myself for not getting a pic with her cause she is awesome!! After we got our pic with the evil queens we carried on running through the expansive Magic Kingdom parking lot. We then began to hear some of the most amazing drumming we have ever heard and saw this!
“Just needs a little more cowbell” please tell you me you get the reference
This is just one of the many reasons we love running runDisney races! Disney just does such a dam great job entertaining you! Next it we ran past the Contemporary resort and entered the park via some secret employee entrance I’ve never seen before. Magic Kingdom has now opened and there are seas and seas on spectators cheering us on! No words can describe that feeling of running through Magic Kingdom and having all those people cheering you on! I heard lots of “Who-Who” (I think I was the only Oaken on the course btw SCORE! {props to my wife for the idea}) and wonderful cheers of encouragement!. After running up Main Street you make the right turn into Tomorrow Land where there was a character stop with Buzz Lightyear. We trudged onwards across the top of the park so as to enter the Castle from the rear side. What an amazing sight; Elsa Anna and Kristof were standing at the top of the Castle waving a cheering everyone on. They even took the time to have a conversation with me! I think they liked the costume ;). Don’t ask me why I didn’t take a selfie with them in the background!! I must have been too distracted with the castle and they fact that those 3 were just talking to me from the balcony lol! There are no words to describe running through the castle as a #DisneyDad and runner other than to just experience it!. We stopped for a big hug, a few kisses and a selfie and we continued on!
Photo bombed! no time to wait for people to clear! theres a big line to get pics here!
From here on you run towards the outside of Magic Kingdom through Frontierland where you could stop for a pic with the locomotive from the Walt Disney World Railroad. This section along Floridian way is quite boring esp being this far into the race but at least they had members of Reedy Creek Fire Department posted at one spot along to route cheering us on and “Protecting the Magic” as they say 🙂
Had to google search for this pic; credit to https://smilesthroughmiles.wordpress.com/
From researching this pic I discovered that this was the halfway point of the race; We were still feeling great here. Again one would think that me being a Paramedic and being a friend of Jeff Armstrong I would have snapped a pic here but sadly I failed again lol. Onward! From here on out the route follows the roads and is not through and Park. So to keep you motivated there are more character stops: the Glass Slipper, the Gene in his vacation outfit with a Mickey Golf Cart, the Princess and Jack Sparrow with Barbosa.
Some of the Princess were more interested in our selfie than the professional photographer!
I think Sparrow was plotting a way to plunder my Princess
From here on in its the last push along the roads that lead back to Epcot helped along by a Toy Story soldier ordering everyone to keep going! The section with the Children’s Miracle Network cheer squad had some really amazing encouraging and uplifting signs just before the entrance! You enter Epoct and there’s a character stop for Sophia the Worst uh Last uh I mean first :). Keep running! Lots of cheering from spectators at Ecpot as well; it was very uplifting and motivating! Disney fans are amazing!! From here you run past the Ball to the beginning of the world showcase. We ended up seeing Carrie and Bama run past us going the other direction. This very encouraging for us since this meant we were running a great race time even with the stops that we had taken. We met them again at the choir and stopped for another selfie with them 🙂
Prise the Lord we’re almost done! Thanks for the pic Carrie
Now its a very short run to the finish line where Mickey is there to cheer you on and give highfives!
As usual we were blown away by the quality of the medals!
The next morning you gotta go to the park and show off your medal
Starbucks and a Medal! Note the name on the cup 🙂
at Splash Mountian
at Splash Mountain
Gotta show the bling off at the Castle with our bestie!
So in review I really don’t have anything bad to say about this race! It was yet another amazing memorable experience with my amazing Princess wife that I will cherish forever! The whole experience was amazing from start to finish, for all aspects! The one thing I would change is to stop and take more pics to enjoy/remember the experience after. We did make more stops this time under the advice of Carrie and very thankful for that but in hind-site now I don’t think we stopped enough. We paid enough to be there for the race and to have the characters out we may as well enjoy it!
Well how bout you? Did you run #PrincessHalf? Have you ever run a runDisney event before? Do you have any questions about a runDisney race? Let me know in the comments section.
#KeepSmilin 🙂
.
Paramedic Mike 