Sporting Life 10K Recap!

On Sunday it was my birthday AND Mother's Day and instead of being lazy and sending a card, I got my mom to run a 10K with me! Ok, technically she joined of her own free will after seeing that I was going to give it a shot. My stepdad signed up as well!

I was very nervous because it was my first 10k run and a few weeks prior I had run into terrible leg pains and I had to decrease my training and run slower. I was so worried about being able to run the full 10K. And then, to make matters worse, I woke up Sunday to near-freezing temperatures and warnings of rain and HAIL. I really need to reconsider this living in Canada thing, because that is just ridiculous.

Mom and Lee showed up at my place at 6am and we walked the short walk to the finish line, where we were catching the shuttle bus to the start. We got on a bus right away and tried to warm up a bit! You had to get to the race an hour early so we were stuck standing in the freezing cold. It was so nice when a bit of sun poked out, but mostly it was looking very ominous and feeling very cold (dark clouds rolled in fast, eliminating any sun relief). I don't think I stopped moving for the whole hour in a weak attempt to stay warm.

Smiling out the outside, freezing on the inside

Lee and I were in a different corral than Mom so we said our goodbyes about 30 minutes before the race and went to our different groups. Finally at 8:20am Lee and I were off! It felt so good to run because it warmed me up. For the first two kilometres I had no feeling in the toes of my left foot, but thankfully that cleared up and I was feeling very good for most of the race. It was a great route with only a couple of hills in the first couple of kms and then smooth sailing.

At kilometre 6 I had a couple of friends staked out to see me at two spots and we were worried about finding each other but I saw them both and I even got to give my friend Sarah my gloves and toque (I had warmed up a lot from the run) and we squeezed in a quick hug. She got this one action shot of me, but since I am reaching into my pockets for some gloves, I kind of look like I am out for a Sunday stroll :)

She even saw this crazy character while waiting for me! I don't think I could have run in that!

I also got these shots from the professional race photographer. I can see how tired I was at whatever point this was! haha

I was feeling great for most of the run, but I felt like I just wasn't going to make it for the last 2km. I blame my dip in training for that and was just exhausted and there was a terrible cold headwind. Thankfully the rain and hail never arrived so that was all I had to deal with. But in the end I powered through and I never stopped going! Then finally I saw the finish line and I bolted, but when I got to it there was a HUGE backup and I was stuck behind a crowd and couldn't actually cross for 30 seconds to a full minute (not exaggerating!)! It was so frustrating to finish like that, but Lee and Mom said that didn't happen to them so it must have just been bad timing for me.

We met up at the end (after a bit of effort since we neglected to pick a meet-up spot) and got our finisher's medals!

My official chip time was 1:00:14, but because of that delay to cross the finish at the end I am going to call it under 1 hour!!!! My goal was to run in under an hour, but I am still surprised I did it because the weather was terrible and I had to pull back my training.  Lee ran it in just under 55 minutes and Mom hit her goal of 1:10 so it was a successful day all around!

After the run it was so cold again so we ditched the after-party, hightailed it back to my place and then drove out to Pickering for lunch. We ended up going to The Port, where they were able to squeeze us in for their fully-booked Mother's day lunch (the perils of having a birthday on Mother's Day!). The food was amazing and we stuffed ourselves silly :). We also got to watch all the rain and hail we missed in the morning come slamming into the waterfront.

Toasting our success!

All in all it was an amazing birthday and Mother's Day and I am so happy I hit my goal, so proud of my mom for running her first 10K, and so proud of Lee for breaking an hour on his run! I think I will definitely challenge myself to get a better time next year! Let's hope it is a little warmer then.