1. If you’re doing an out-of-town marathon, pack instant oatmeal (or an equivalent breakfast). Races are early and it’s nice to have it in your room.

2. Doing a race really is a completely different experience than going for a run on one’s own. I see why people get hooked – I may be.

3. Marathon, half-marathon and 10k runners come in all shapes and sizes. And are really friendly – on and off the race course.

Also, if you can run your first race at the Reggae Marathon you are really lucky. It was beautiful and fun. And although I might occasionally complain that in today’s world everyone gets a medal for showing up…I am kind of glad I got a medal for finishing (not something you always get for the 10k, I have learned). Look for the fuller piece next week!

The above is not my favourite picture of myself from a beauty perspective but hey – I did it. And I am going to keep running too. In fact, I might have to ask Santa for a Nike+ Fuelband – check it out in our gift guide and remember you could win.

Jenn

That’s what producer Paul Kemp thought when he pitched his documentary The Real Dirt on Gossip to CBC. “My wife would pick up the celeb magazines…I started thinking what is it about celebrity gossip? And I realized it’s bigger than that. It’s the way we communicate.”

The Real Dirt on Gossip examines the role of communicating through gossip and I recommend it. It’s a neat look at the history of perceptions around gossip as well as what the research tells us about today. For example: Although gossip is sometimes associated with women, in fact men do too – their voices may just not become as animated.

What’s more, gossip can be essential to your business. When I asked Kemp what surprised him most about doing the show, he said “The workplace gossip. 75% of everything that happens is communicated through the grapevine.”

Gossip is also a critical way to learn social mores, and good gossipers tend to make more money. If you just winced, don’t: Only 10% of gossip is actually negative. Most is neutral or positive.

Of course when it is negative it can be devastating. Bonnie Fuller, who has some experience with the down side of gossip, appears in the documentary; you can catch extra footage of her right here.

For more of the scoop catch the show on CBC tonight, November 8 at 9:00 p.m. — then come back and chat about it!

This:

plus

equals me here?

(photo courtesy Reggae Marathon)

I headed to one of Toronto’s more venerable runner shopping spots, The Runners Shop. It’s not the easiest place to find, located inside what looks like an office building, but it is worth finding. Here’s what I learned:

Bra and shoes
This is all the essential gear you need, saleswoman Selina Abetkoff informs me, which is one reason to patronize a shop that really specializes in running. Here’s what I learn about both.

A sports bra that works
To run you really do need a sports bra that works. It’s worth investing in one that has:

Proper support: up-and-down and side-to-side as well as fabric that breathes.

Proper fit: Any bulging may result in chafing, and anything too loose will end up making you sore, not just across the front but also can impact on your back muscles.

I discovered there are indeed sports bras with adjustable straps, so look for that, and there are even ones with individual cups to minimize the “uniboob”.

I ended up with a Moving Comfort bra which cost, all in, about $50. But it really is very individual so pick a shop, go in, and be prepared to try on a lot of bras – and jump up and down in them.

The shoes
I did not have time, dear readers, to become an expert in shoes, and I’m guessing you probably don’t either, so that’s why I’m about to say: When picking shoes, go to a real running store. Set a budget, and then let them guide you.

I would have chosen my previous brand that I have been wearing for years, and then chosen anything labelled “running” that looked pretty. Instead I spent a lot of time running up and down the hallway in different pairs of shoes as Selina asked me questions about what felt right, what didn’t, and watching me run. Apparently I had no major issues to address, but if I had, there would have been shoes to address them.

The winning pair fit my narrow heel, have room in the toes, feel light and are – well – “bouncy”. They are also the most comfortable shoes I’ve owned in about my life, and I’ve run about 50k in them so far and have no pain anywhere, nor blisters. The Runners Shop, and I presume others, keeps track of them for me so down the road they can recommend similar styles. I spent about $140 on the Brooks I ended up with, but there were choices at the lower and higher end of the price scale.

They were not the prettiest though, in my opinion. Something had to give.

So here’s the deal with gear. Get the basics first rather than the cool GPS watches that practically monitor your brainwaves. But take the time to go into a specialized store, and find the proper fit and style.

Do you have favourite gear or a tip to share? Comment below!

Jenn Gruden is the web editor for More.ca, and has been in love with the Internet since 1991. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Secret Garden and [Morton's last book]The Distant Hours both centre around murders, but in The Secret Garden it’s quite clear who is murdered and who the murderer is from the first chapter; the question is why. How did you find writing this book was different from the last?
It was great actually. I had the idea for the first chapter first, which doesn’t always happen. I had a really clear vision of what I wanted to do. I think in The Secret Keeper more than any of my other books the first chapter is almost a stand alone story, and that was really important to me. I really wanted to take it from this perfect, almost too good to be true idylll and then turn it on its head. I loved playing with that throughout the first chapter.

Secrets are a big theme in your books, obviously. What draws you to that theme?
Who doesn’t love secrets? Who doesn’t want to know the thing that they’re not allowed the know? But I was thinking about this recently because people have asked me about it.

When I was growing up, my mum’s a second hand dealer and so she used to buy old objects and they would come into our house. So I was aware really, really early that objects have secret lives that I didn’t know about, that they went through other people’s hands before they came to me…that started me thinking about what might have happened to them before they came to me.

And I think all narratives are secrets really, because you don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of the book. Mine are just more explicitly secretive.

You’re Australian but your books are always set in England. Did you grow up in England?
I didn’t, no. I don’t know if it’s similar in Canada but I grew up reading a lot of English books like Enid Blyton. So I had a very clear vision of what England might be like. I was 17 when I first went to England. You know that feeling when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve known them forever? I just felt instinctively that I knew it. I feel very at home there, and more than that, I love it. I love the landscape, I love the houses, I love the history. In Australia there isn’t the same depth of history for me to explore. And it’s such living history, people still living among the buildings. I just find that so interesting.

And this book’s set, in part, during World War II…how do you approach your research?
A lot of it I do anyway; I love to read non-fiction, I love to read about people and families and houses and history, social research especially. There’s unconscious research, which is sort of my favourite because I just read what I like…and then there’s the conscious stuff, like in The Secret Keeper when I had to know what sort of postmark might be on a letter sent in the 1950s, I had to actually contact people and find out. Because if I didn’t, somebody who knew would contact me later and say it wouldn’t be like that.

For The Secret Keeper, my family and I went to London for 3 months in 2008. We lived in Kensington, and we stayed in an old granary in a Suffolk farm, and I was reading a lot of diaries and memoirs set during the war. Something was attracting me to that.

I even did a Blitz-time London walking tour which was incredible. Streets I had walked down hundreds of times before, my guide was able to say “look up there in the bricks where they’ve painted, if you look closely: — and so I did — “you can see the S for the shelter sign and the arrow pointing down the stairs.” And for me, that actually gives me chills. Because all of a sudden I see people running for the shelter and the women, in their skirts and everything…that’s very inspirational for me.

On the topic of inspiration – there’s a very powerful moment in the book where Laurel’s mum Dorothy tells her that she doesn’t think Laurel would have liked her when she was younger. What inspired that moment?
A lot of the relationship between Dorothy and Laurel, I was of course able to draw on my own experiences as a mother and as a daughter. When Laurel makes the point earlier that children never imagine that their parents have a past before the moment that they were born. I certainly remember feeling that and I know my children will. As a writer I find that such an interesting thing to write about, because of course people have enormous pasts before they have children. But I don’t usually draw on people I know for my characters. And of course that scene helps set the stage for the end of the book.

Laurel does become an actress where her mother didn’t. I wondered how that related to your own creative journey.
Perhaps not so much as a novelist…I had no idea that people could become writers. I don’t know where I thought novels came from…I grew up in a small village and it felt like the 1950s when I was growing up. Where I feel the difference in generation between me and my mum is that I was expected to go to school. Going to university is such an incredible thing…as a person it’s incredibly expanding. So I feel very fortunate to be born in a generation where that was the norm.

So what did make you become a writer?
Growing up in Tamborine Mountain, where I grew up, the only extra-curricular really available was acting lessons because there happened to be an ex-actress who gave classes. I decided this is what I wanted to do, to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. So I went to RADA in London to do a summer course, and my boyfriend who was in a band came too – he’s now my husband…While I was there in London I got a scholarship to do a Masters…. I made a friend who was a writer. And one day she made this off-hand commentto : She said a lot of people want to write but they don’t stick with it, but you’re the sort of person who’d stick with it.

So a few weeks later I bought a notebook and started to write…and from the first moment it was like finding that one thing that everything within yourself and everything from your past conditions you to do.

I wrote two manuscripts. The first got me an agent but no one published it, the second no one published it – this is taking years of life – and then I had a baby. So I decided to forget about what was being published and markets and all of that and I took all my favourite things and put them in a book. To cut a long story short, that was The House at Riverton. [Morton's break-out book.]

And you’re on the trail of your next book.
I am, with the fabulous title of: Book 5.

Any hope for a book set in Canada?
I would love to come back to Canada for longer. In my mind Canada has always been one of those places on Earth that are too beautiful to believe.

The Secret Keeper
Atria Books
$29.99

Enter to win a copy of this and Kate Morton’s other books before November 12, 2012!

Inspired by the legendary starlet, choose from a selection of deep rouge lip shades, fiery red nails, a beauty powder compact or some serious false lashes to get her look. We like the False Lashes Extreme Black Mascara for giving us flutter-worthy lashes perfect for our next close-up.

Find it for $24 at maccosmetics.com

Associate editor Kate Daley (pictured at right) shares weekly beauty junkie picks here on the blog. You can follow her on Twitter: @katedaley1

Arboleda Sauvignon Blanc
Aconcagua Valley, Chile

Fresh and herbal with crisp aromas and flavours of lime and happiness. Medium-bodied and thirst-quenching. Perfect for quiche, vegetarian dishes and seafood.

Drink: 2012-2015
Product No: 510339
Price: $16.95
Score: 90/100

Natalie MacLean is the author of Unquenchable: A Tipsy Search for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. Check out more of her wines and pairings at www.nataliemaclean.com .

By creating three limited edition versions of their lust-worthy La Crème of course. Available in blue, pink and yellow crystalline packaging, we know these are a serious splurge — but the well-known formula chock full of powerful anti-agers and antioxidants makes it worth it, if you’ve come into a bonus lately.

Find these beauties for $950 at Holt Renfrew now.

Associate editor Kate Daley (pictured at right) shares weekly beauty junkie picks here on the blog. You can follow her on Twitter: @katedaley1

Comment on this post before midnight ET on Wednesday October 17 with any
health tip for women¹s health to win two tickets to the Joy of Aging show
at the Bellvue Manor Vaughan (8083 Jane St.) on Sunday October 21, 9am -
1pm! (Value: $150) Please note: To ensure we can get the winner all the
information about how to pick up the tickets, the winner must check her or
his email Thursday October 18.

All transportation, parking etc. is the
responsibility of the winner, and you cannot be a resident of Quebec. You
must accept this prize as awarded, although we do reserve the right to
substitute a prize of equal value. And you have to be of the age of
majority for your province.

Les Genêts Chusclan

Côtes Du Rhône-Villages, France

Cedar forest and black raspberries gathered around the tree in the deepest part of the woods. Some sunlight shafts of red raspberry run through it. Pair with hearty meat dishes.

Drink: 2012-2015
Product No: 245399
Price: $18.95
Score: 89/100

Natalie MacLean is the author of Unquenchable: A Tipsy Search for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. Check out more of her wines and pairings at www.nataliemaclean.com .

“I think kids can handle a lot” says Catherine O’Hara. “They’re more accepting and open than we think. A story about a dog dying, they’re with it. It’s not like “A dog died. Oh my God, this is too much. It’s beyond my years!”

O’Hara has faith in kids and in Frankenweenie writer director Tim Burton. She and long-time pal Martin Short play six roles in Burton’s signature dark but amiable horror comedy, including the parents of a boy who brings his beloved dead dog back to life through electric shock. O’Hara, Martin Short and I met in Toronto this week to mull over this strange subject matter.

Short remembers his first brush with death. “The first loss is invariably the loss of a hamster or a mouse or a … (sob) … goldfish. I loved my goldfish. He could say his own name. It was [glub glub]. But one day my father had had a gin and ginger. Or two. And he was cleaning it over the sink and he said “The little sucker just slipped right out of my hands.” Gin and ginger, no ice. My father used to hate that we would go into the fridge and take one of his cold ginger ales and put ice in it. “There’s warm ginger ale in that room! You can open it up but if you’re going to put ice in it doesn’t matter! Take the cold one!”

You can also find Anne on Twitter @annebrodie and at her own blog.