Canada Day 5K

Burlington ON

Bib # 1212

Chip time: 23:57

Official time 23:49

Pace 4:45

Place 75/274

Gender Place 17/?

Category Place 2/25

 

 

I'll be honest. The entire reason that I ran this race was because I had the perfect outfit for it (red Scotia half shirt, white Lulu Pace Setter skirt & red and white stripped socks that Leana gave me in Courtney's sock swap at Christmas) and I really wanted the Canada Flag medal. 5K's are the work of the devil and after running one a few short weeks ago I was not really into racing another one quite so soon. TBH I was perfectly ok with running it easy, just for fun. Then Nicole told me that if I raced it I wouldn't have to do speed work during the week this week. Sold! My main goal going into this was to run sub 25 minutes.

 

I arrived downtown shortly after 7:45am and was easily able to find free parking. Plus! I then made my way to the race kit pickup area. There were two lines with no real direction as to which one we were supposed to be in so I took my chances in the first one and waited. A little while later a lady came up and said that the line that I was in was for last names A-H. Really?!?! Is it that hard to post a sign? *sigh* I then went to the back of the other line and stewed and waited. I saw Amy & Nicole while I waited in line and eventually got to the front where I got my bib and then timing chip along with a couple of garbage bag twist ties to attach it to my shoe with. Fail! After making a man in his Team Canada Tri Onsie show me what was in the swag bag I decided against taking that and the tshirt. I hate to take things that I will never use and the shirts were over sized and ugly and we have more than enough shoe bags and race pamphlets. I'm actually surprised that all of this was included with a medal and post race food for such a cheap price! Plus! Could have been an A+ if the shirts were decent VRPro! ;o)

 

Nicole and I strolled down to the start line (making a bathroom stop along the way) and met up with Amy, Emma & Patty (Patty wasn't racing but her son was doing the kids 1K). We chatted for a little bit and then Amy and I went for a quick warm up along the 1K route. Coming back we realized that there was a headwind that wouldn't be that great at the end of the race. Boo. The kids 1K race started and we cheered for all the children as they raced. We saw Bella's daughter come in second overall (atta girl!) and Patty's son finish with a look of utter confusion on his face. It was pretty darned cute! After the final child crossed the finish line we were called to the start. I still had no real plan at this point and I was really not looking forward to racing. Too late now I thought as the gun went off. The beginning was pretty congested and some people (like usual) didn't heed the rules to not start at the front if you are slower. Or walking!!!! After almost taking some old girl out who was out for a stroll I was able to finally move up and around people. I lost all of the girls fairly quickly and wondered through most of the first half of the race how far they were behind me. I made an effort to not let myself go faster than 4:30/km, really just to see how it would help me feel at the end. Usually my first km in a 5K is around 4:15-4:20/km and I'm dead at the end so I was hoping that if I went slower I'd have more gas in the tank for the finish. Guess what. It makes no difference. Balls to the wall from now on it is! LOL We followed the waterfront trail out of Spencer Smith and onto the beach strip and I was feeling pretty good. There was a man pushing a woman in a suped up racing wheelchair that was covered in running stickers. The 26.2 one caught my eye and I wondered if he actually pushed this lady through a marathon?! I felt bad for him when the sandy part of the course came along. For as many times as I've run this route in the past I have never paid attention to how long the sand trail is until trying to run a race in it. Yowza that sucked! Good on him though, he kept pace and we pretty much ran side by side until I decided to stop for water at the turn around. As I was drinking the water I saw Nicole and gave her a wave. Shortly after I saw Amy & Emma. They looked to all be having great races. The 2.5k back was pretty uneventful. It was as it is in every 5K, just trying to convince your legs to keep moving. The faces of the runners coming the other way kept me occupied for a little while until I passed by the last runner but by then I just had about a 1.5km to go. Thankfully I didn't sound as terrible as the man who was trying to pass me did and I knew that while I wouldn't be getting a new PB I would be hitting my sub 25 min goal so I was happy with how things were going. Coming back through Spencer Smith a young boy ran past and a lady yelled out to me "You're not going to let a kid beat you are you?!?!". Pfft. Obviously this woman has never tried to outrun a child. Frickin' right I was going to let that kid beat me! As I was coming down the home stretch I saw Patty and her family cheering everyone on..... If you can consider yelling out to me "Puke. Puke. Puke." cheering. LOL I turned the corner to see that the clock had not turned to 24 minutes yet so I turned on the jets and got in just under. Yay! Not long after Nicole, Emma & Amy crossed the finish line, all 3 of them getting new Personal Best's! Awesome! We got our medals and posed for a picture then went and checked out the results. I had come second in my age group winning a free dinner for two and Nicole came third in her age group winning her a Running Room hat. Yay us!

Emma, Me, Nicole & Amy. Too bad you can't see my socks.