Second Ever 10km Race!

Joy here...well my second ever 10km race couldn't have been more different than my first ever one.  Putting aside the obvious differences - that one was in Singapore, this one in Canada; that one was at night; this one in the morning etc. - when we stood amidst the 5,000 women at the start line in Singapore, the sun was setting behind us, and we could feel the sweat trickling down our backs.  As we began to run in the ever darkening sky along a lit piece of road, we could feel the heat of the tropical day radiating upwards from the asphalt.  Not so much on November 6 in Ottawa, Canada.  Instead, at this race (called the "cookie run"), as we stood at the start line, we were moving around and jiggling ourselves, not just to keep our muscles ready for the run, but, quite literally to keep warm.  With sub-zero temperatures, the tip of my nose and the edge of my ears were frozen.  And then, before the start, a slight dusting of flurries blew about us, like white sand on the air.  Luckily, it was only for a moment, but as I gazed around at the snow floating on the breeze, I knew that my days of running and worrying about the heat are over for quite a few months now.

My little visitors at the start line...

The race itself was comprised of two 5km loops with two hills thrown in.  Since the race was actually both a 5km and a 10km, the 5km finishers just ran through the finishing chute at the 5km mark, while those of us carrying on to complete 10kms stuck to the left lane and just kept on running.

The race began with about a 700m hill.  I felt good at the start and tried to keep my pace even and comfortable, but quick.  Even with that, people were just blowing past me as if I were standing still.  And then I looked at my Garmin, and realized that I was running at around 4:30min/km (UPHILL!), and with my target of about 5:00min/km, I knew that I wouldn't be able to sustain the pace, despite it feeling good, and slowed myself down.  More people blew past me.  I had to swallow a big piece of ego pie.

By around kilometre 3 I felt as though I had hit my stride and was keeping steady at a 5:00min/km pace, with my breathing feeling just fine, and my mind free to wander.  I remembered how good it felt during my half marathon to think happy thoughts, and so I tried to do the same.  The flurries had blown clear and above me was a crisp, blue sky and the sun peeping out gamely from the clouds.  I thought about my friends and family, and I thought about what running has given me.  There are the obvious benefits of routine and fitness, but for me the benefit of signing up for races and finishing those races is really key for me.  I'm one of those "ahhh...it's good enough..." kind of people.  And what I mean by that is that I do most things to a standard of "good enough."  Which sort of means that in life's 10km races, I usually pull the chute around 9kms, because, well, that's "good enough."  But in actual races, I don't give myself the out of walking to the finish-line.  I don't let myself go to that place where I would allow myself to say "well, you've run around 8kms, why not just walk to the end?  This is good enough."  Instead, in a race, I just keep on running right to the end, despite the heavy breathing and cramps that inevitably show up in the final kilometre or so.

I've run and finished four races this year.  I've never run a race before in my life (excluding high school track meets), and I have to say that I'm happy to have discovered this sport, even so late in the game.

And once I finished those thoughts, I was at about the 8km mark, and by then, I knew that I was on track to making the 10km finish in 50 minutes (which was my aim), and I just kept my pace steady, and lo and behold...I was the one blowing by other people.  All those racers who began the course with gusto, leaving me in their dust, got a good view of my backside as I ran past them while they ran out of gas.  In the final 200m or so, I gave whatever I had left and just ran ran ran to that finish line.  In the end, I beat my 50 minute goal!

Here are my race stats:
Ran for a total of 49:30 for 10km with an average pace of 4:57min/km.

I'm pleased with that, as that's a good 5 minutes faster than my Sundown 10km race results!  Now I can officially start my "off season" and enjoy some easy peasy runs with my friends and with The Man with no training goal in sight.  Then we'll sign ourselves up for some other races in the spring as our motivation to begin training again full-on in mid-winter.  Who knows?  There might even be a full marathon in my future!

Over and out,
Joy

PS - I just looked at the official results as posted on the website, and I came in 7th out of 26 women in my age category, and 17th out of just under 100 women in total.  Not too bad...