Sporting Life 10K 2016 Race Recap!

Another race in the bag and a new PR to boot! I ran my 4th edition of the Sporting Life 10K in 52:42, obliterating my previous times of 1:00:14, 55:14, and 55:15! Woo hoooo!! AND I also PR'd the 5K distance, running the first half of the race in 26:13 (unofficially it was actually somewhere in the 25:XX range since with weaving I actually ran farther than 10K by the end). Go me!

I run this race every year with my Mom and Stepdad and I didn't want to miss out this year just because I had a silly little marathon to run the weekend before. So I signed up, but had no intention of pushing the pace or anything. After the marathon I took Monday-Friday completely off from running and I had a massage and saw my physiotherapist for my very last appointment (I will miss her! If you need a physio for running in Toronto, just message me because she was amazing!). I also stretched and foam rolled and stretched some more! By Saturday my legs felt completely normal and I went out for a 5K that was actually pretty tiring.

So Sunday rolled around and I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:00am, but I probably got 4 hours sleep, which is a solid sleep for me before a race. My parents stayed in my building's guest suite downstairs and Cam and I met them at 6:00am downstairs! Cam didn't run, but he was kind enough to drive us to the shuttle bus and save us a 20 minute walk in the cold morning.

We got there and it was freezing!!!! There was a lot of hugging and trying to stand in the sun while we waited almost an hour for our start time. Finally at 7:50 we were off!

I was feeling good so I decided to speed up and see how I felt as I went. I had no shame in walking if I needed to!! The first kilometer was really slow as there are soooo many people in this race. But around km 2 or 3 it opened up a bit and I was able to get a steady pace. I was shocked when my watch was telling me I was running roughly 5:10 minutes per kilometer! I have never ever run that fast in my life and that is a whole MINUTE faster per kilometer than I ran in my marathon! That's huge.

(Mom's Picture)

But it was only 10K so I wasn't worried! I did finally warm up around Km 3 and I removed my arm warmers (made of a pair of Cam's old socks). It was actually a perfect day for running this race- around 10 degrees, sunny, and no wind! I felt great and I was able to hold onto my fast pace the whole way. I was definitely pooped at the end though. No way could I have run the marathon with such speedy legs!

I met Mom and Lee at the finish (they both did amazing too- Mom PR'd and Lee came near his best time from a few years ago!).

After the race we walked on home, showered, and rested for a bit before heading out to brunch/lunch! I had booked a restaurant near me a few weeks ago because brunch is impossible to get a reservation for in Toronto (most don't take reservations for brunch), and it was Mother's Day to boot! Lo and behold, when I looked up the restaurant's address before we left I realized it was IN the Skydome, and we were seated next to the window and got to watch the Blue Jay's warm up while we ate! How neat is that?? We opened the small gifts I got Lee for his birthday (which was on Saturday) and Mom's for Mother's Day and then we toasted to a race well run and happily ate back all the calories we burned!

All in all it was a great day! Now I can actually rest too, because my next race isn't until the end of June! Crazy to think how it was just 3 years ago I decided to run my first 10K for my 27th birthday and now here I am! I can't get enough!