lady di

as the alarm goes off, I roll over the look at my watch - 5:04am...no big thing, that's a sleep in, except we haven't been getting up this early for well over a week now.
a knock on the door and an light early breakfast arrives. we need to get a little food in us before we head to the temple to begin the half marathon - one of the many reasons the group from west van innovative flew half way around the world...
we all pile into the van...the sweet smell of cambodia is alive and well. the darkness is being lifted by a soft glow from the morning sun. the streets are not as busy, but one would never really feel this because of the tuk tuks, mopeds and civilians doing their thing - really, this happens all night long.
a short drive we arrive with another couple thousand runners - we are all starting at angkor wat, one of the wonders of the world (when you please visit, you will know why)
the 3 coaches lead a group warmup with temples as our backdrop. we all have chips on our shoes for the race. lucky for us because as we are warming up the start gun goes off! - time to go!

it would take me hours to write only some of the short stories from our experiences thus far - we will prefer to share these face to face, but I will do my best to bring light to one of the best feelings for a coach with a brief look into a moment in time during the race..

months back, dianne was challenged to come to cambodia, she was thinking that she would run the 10km and see some temples - she was a little off in thinking that would be the case. we had just finished the 10km fall classic in ubc less than a month ago and coming this far only equals challenging oneself to the half marathon

the start gun went off and we all made our way through the mass crowd and over the timing mats. I was by her side and our pace was light as most of the field ran away from us. with temples all around and many children cheering this was it - she was starting on something way out of her comfort zone.

'we are doing ten and ones di', I repeated.
'ok', she replied. she was uneasy and was out of her element. her stress level was high as she changed her pace throughout the first moments of the run.
'nice and easy', I said, 'we will take this slow'

before we knew it the first ten minuets we up and we had to now walk for one minute.
'lets not stop', she asked, 'I can still run'
'nope, lets stick to our plan', I replied...

we kept this pace and started to reel in other runners. the kilometers were passing us by and di's stress level was disappearing. as the first hour went by the mileage was getting into new territories for di. we had done our training by time in vancouver - the heat was not there and the half marathon was not as real as it was right now.

the ten and ones worked so well. there was only one moment were my hand grabbed hers to start her up after one of them and as we roughly had two more to go, I suggested that we skip the last one and run straight through. it was at this moment when I told her, 'you know, it's ok if you are emotional at the finish line - I cried when I ran across the line after the half ironman'
'no, I'm not like that', she said between breaths, 'Ill be fine'
'It's ok di', I smiled back at her...

we were now getting so close, the crowds had been huge the whole way - kids running with us with no shoes - cambodians lining the roads with their hands out trying to touch us as we ran by. the sun was out and as we passed elephants, pigs, frogs and pure culture we pressed on...

'we're almost there', I shouted, 'it's only a light warmup run at the gym until we are done'
she was working so hard during this race - way out of her comfort zone, but she was tough and driving this thing home.

the finish line was right in front with a slight right turn - the crowds were massive and the cheering was intense...

with twenty meters to the line I fell back and cheered her on, 'go di!, you can do it, go, go!'

she sprinted across the line with her arms raised high. I ran through and right up to her. tears were streaming down her face and her arms wrapped around me, 'nice work di, you rock', I said, 'amazing job'




it was at that moment - to experience such a victory through someones eyes is the most powerful thing in the world. to be honest, words can't really describe it - and I will not sit here and try to type it out...


the whole group had their own success - no injuries only beautiful memories

that story is only the tip pf the iceberg of this destination

please ask and we will all share - one of the greatest times in our lives..

'way to go di - we knew you could do it!'
xoR