Seek the Peak: meet our model!
Introducing Alison, a first-time Seek the Peak runner
Posted by Jacqueline Blackwell May 13, 2014
Tell us a little bit about yourself…
I grew up in Victoria and moved to Vancouver eight or nine years ago. I’m a grade five French-immersion teacher and a single mother of two boys. One is seven the other is four. I’m living a bit of a busy life right now with two young kids. My life is my kids, their sports, and their activities…soccer, baseball, all that kind of stuff. If I have a moment, my stress release is getting outside and going for a hike, a run, or hot yoga.
How do you manage to balance your responsibilities and find time to exercise?
To be honest, it feels just like survival. Everyone always talks about finding a balance but I’m not sure that I’ve found that. Some days are easier than others, but you just try to see the positive in things and fit things in so that everyone’s getting what they need – if you can.
How did the Seek the Peak photo-shoot come about?
I’d never done anything like this and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. But then I thought, “life’s too short – I should try something new.” It’s a really great event for a really great cause, so I just felt like I had to. What was the shoot like? It was exciting and fun to get up on Grouse Mountain. It’s something I’ve never done before and it was actually a beautiful day in the fall. It was one of those days of inversion where it’s foggy in the city and beautiful and warm on top of the mountain. The photographer just directed me to a few different locations where I had to run up trails and escarpments. To be honest, there was just a lot of repetition called for while trying to get the right light – running up and down. It was fun!
Are you looking forward to Seek the Peak 2014?
Being on the North Shore, I’d definitely heard of it. It’s a big event and for a great cause. It’s pretty cool and getting bigger and bigger each year. My youngest child, Theo, was born three years ago, so it’s only recently that I’ve found the time to get back into this sort of thing. It was just a couple of weeks ago where I was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this.”
Do you have a specific training schedule for the run?
I’m not a hardcore hill-runner. To be honest, this is a bit of a challenging event and I didn’t commit to it until recently. I’m doing it as a relay because I’m not really into draining myself. For example, I like to ski, but you’re not going to find me on black diamonds, I like to just go out and have a good time.
What music keeps you inspired while you’re training?
I usually just listen to Songza. I guess it depends on my mood. Mostly I’m only listening to kids songs or whatever is on the radio. Whatever my kids get going, those are the songs I seem to know now.
I grew up in Victoria and moved to Vancouver eight or nine years ago. I’m a grade five French-immersion teacher and a single mother of two boys. One is seven the other is four. I’m living a bit of a busy life right now with two young kids. My life is my kids, their sports, and their activities…soccer, baseball, all that kind of stuff. If I have a moment, my stress release is getting outside and going for a hike, a run, or hot yoga.
How do you manage to balance your responsibilities and find time to exercise?
To be honest, it feels just like survival. Everyone always talks about finding a balance but I’m not sure that I’ve found that. Some days are easier than others, but you just try to see the positive in things and fit things in so that everyone’s getting what they need – if you can.
How did the Seek the Peak photo-shoot come about?
I’d never done anything like this and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. But then I thought, “life’s too short – I should try something new.” It’s a really great event for a really great cause, so I just felt like I had to. What was the shoot like? It was exciting and fun to get up on Grouse Mountain. It’s something I’ve never done before and it was actually a beautiful day in the fall. It was one of those days of inversion where it’s foggy in the city and beautiful and warm on top of the mountain. The photographer just directed me to a few different locations where I had to run up trails and escarpments. To be honest, there was just a lot of repetition called for while trying to get the right light – running up and down. It was fun!
Are you looking forward to Seek the Peak 2014?
Being on the North Shore, I’d definitely heard of it. It’s a big event and for a great cause. It’s pretty cool and getting bigger and bigger each year. My youngest child, Theo, was born three years ago, so it’s only recently that I’ve found the time to get back into this sort of thing. It was just a couple of weeks ago where I was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this.”
Do you have a specific training schedule for the run?
I’m not a hardcore hill-runner. To be honest, this is a bit of a challenging event and I didn’t commit to it until recently. I’m doing it as a relay because I’m not really into draining myself. For example, I like to ski, but you’re not going to find me on black diamonds, I like to just go out and have a good time.
What music keeps you inspired while you’re training?
I usually just listen to Songza. I guess it depends on my mood. Mostly I’m only listening to kids songs or whatever is on the radio. Whatever my kids get going, those are the songs I seem to know now.
