Monday, May 03, 2010

Sporting Life 10K Race Report (+Winner)

First and foremost, I am ecstatic to announce that Nolan's Dream Chasers collectively raised over $12,000 for Camp Oochigeas this year.



It was a pleasure to fundraise with the team again and I am so grateful for everyone's support. Many of us got together for dinner on Saturday evening and it was wonderful to catch up with everyone and see how well little Nolan is doing this year. He's such a champ!

Nolan got to finish the race once again this year, this time with his big brother Jacob who completed his very first 10K at 9 years old!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to enter my fundraising giveaway! I entered everyone's name in an Excel spreadsheet once for every dollar donated, scrambled the names, then asked Nolan to choose a number, which is how I randomly selected the winner:

Congratulatons Aron at Runner's Rambles


There will be a box of goodies coming your way!


***

Yesterday was my third consecutive year running Sporting Life 10K, but my first time not racing. Dave and I decided to run together once again and since we both have a marathon coming up, we knew we could pull the reigns on one another as needed.

We arrived just moments before the race was starting (oops!) to find nearly 15,000 runners crowded in the corrals on Yonge Street. We settled into the yellow corral (wave 2) although we had been assigned red (wave 1) since we had arrived so late. There were 5 waved starts this year for the first time, and this helped immensely with course congestion. We found there was a lot more room to move around this year, particularly at the finish. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

It was a humid morning and the forecast was calling for rain and possible thunderstorms. We brought along our mylar blankets from the Montréal Half Marathon to stay dry-ish before the race, but we didn't end up needing them; the only logical thing to do was tie them around our necks like superhero capes! Humidity and thermal blankets... hmmm, maybe not such a bright idea. We enjoyed them for a while (and got lots of "Superman! "Superwoman!" comments, and also ended up chatting with someone from Montréal who was at the race) but we had to ditch them at about 3K. We were sweating enough as it was and did not need the extra layer... not to mention that they aren't very aerodynamic. :)

At 8:05AM, we were off. The plan was to "just run" and not worry too much about pace, enjoying the sights and sounds of this massive race instead of barrelling down the street with a specific goal in mind. It was refreshing! We found that we had seeded ourselves appropriately and found a comfortable pace within the crowd quite easily, without too much weaving.

I remembered that last year my Garmin was way off due to the highrise buildings all over the place, so this year I decided to turn off AutoLap and keep track of my splits with each kilometre marker. This is something I've never done before in a race, and I only missed one. Not bad.

The kilometres were ticking by comfortably and before I knew it, we were at the half way point.

5:11, 5:01, 5:05*, 5:05*, 5:11.

Missed the 3K marker - kilometres 3 and 4 combined were 10:10.
We were sweating buckets in the humidity, but felt good and chatted away the entire time, which is how I know I wasn't pushing too hard. This is right around my half marathon pace, and I was just fine with that.

With 2K to go, we decided to pick it up a little bit and before long, we were running by the 9K flags. Dave looked at me and said, 'You wanna go for it?' I thought he'd never ask! I turned it on and started weaving around people all over the place, Dave trailing just behind. On the home stretch I cranked it up as much as I could. Is there any better feeling than sprinting through the finish line?

5:09, 5:12, 5:12, 5:01, 4:23

Final chip time: 50:31

Not a PR (in fact, it's a PW for SL10K), but another positive race experience and another medal for the collection!



ETA: race pics

34 comments:

Unknown said...

congrats both for the race raising so much money and for staying with the plan to "not race"

Boris T said...

Well you didn't plan on racing so it not a big hit to the ego. Congrats on the fund-raising!

ajh said...

Oh we are all so different! I would kill for your PW!!! Good job not racing.That is tough to do!

Heather said...

Congrats on the race, and on your great fundraising! Sounds like a fun time.

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

Great job on the fund raising! Doing good feels just like a PR anyday.

PW? Maybe it was a BRE (Best Race Experince)? Not every race can be defined by the number at the finish line!

You did great!

MCM Mama said...

Nice job on the race! I love that you got a medal. They only give them out at halfs and marathons around here.

Jill said...

That's awesome you raised so much money, congrats! And congrats on a fun 10K....and very cool medal!! How very fun!

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

So fun....love the mylar superhero..

I cant believe you got ANOTHER medal, we just dont do medals often around here and you get one for a 10K, Canadians are AWESOME

Jamie said...

Nice job on not racing (although I would love that to be my 10K time!) And congrats on the fundraising!

Anonymous said...

congats!!
i love that u guys wore capes!!! hahahhah awesome!
u r a superwoman!

chris mcpeake said...

good job sticking with the not racing it plan (which can be a lot harder then it sounds)

TNTcoach Ken said...

Sounds like a 'fun' run!

Anonymous said...

The PR will come in marathon form soon enough ;) glad you had fun and a good race!! Congrats on the $, that's amazing!!

J said...

Congrats on the race and fund raising! That is great! IT really was humid this weekend!

Unknown said...

congrats to the younguns on their run and to you on the 10k and new bling.

Pining for Pinterest said...

Way to go!!! I would love your time too :)

RunKathyRun said...

Congrats on making such a huge contribution to a worthy organization, and getting a run in to boot!

No Longer Using said...

you run sooooooooo many races and have such a fabulous running community!!!!!! i think if i was going to live somewhere else i would be your neighbor :) this sounds like an amazing race and cause. congrats to aron! i totally forgot to chip in :( i promise promise promise next fundraiser to contribute!!! hold me to it!! i just need a reminder.

this also makes me miss big races with seeding and lots of people!!! i haven't run in one for so long. the NYC half marathon last year in august (before they moved it to early spring) was a really great time, being caught up in all the fun + enthusiasm + good weather!! hot + humid is definitely hard to run in, but i love the sun and sweating and feeling like it's SUMMER and it's time to RUN :)

Denise said...

i love that it was a PW for this race yet you had such a great time and it was a positive experience. that's a great race to have!

Robin said...

Congrats on a great race and great fundraising!

RunToTheFinish said...

congrats to aron...but really I wanted to win ;)

I love your attitude, maybe it wasn't a PR but it was a great day and that's the whole point!!

Emz said...

Excellent.

Way to go on the fundraising. incredible. And impressive race too! awesome.

Gotta Run..... said...

I bet you have a wall of medals :))))

Aron said...

yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy i won!!! :) haha this just made my day!

nice job on another race and getting another medal to add to the collection :) also for raising money for a great cause!

Heidi said...

Can I borrow your PW for my 10K this weekend???? ;)

Congrat on raising so much for this race. Awesome!

Nicole said...

Congrats on the race lady!!! You rocked it!!! :)

Tricia said...

congrats on both!

Lindsay said...

ok... boo on aron. i could use some more m&m's! ;) jk jk.

congrats on holding back! that is almost as hard as trying to pr, if not harder. glad you had a good race and got to finish strong.

Anne said...

Congratulations to the both of you!!

Sarah said...

Excellent!

rinusrunning said...

Good running race time and next time a PR!.
Rinus.
www.rinusrunning.nl

Runner Leana said...

Congratulations on the race, and on such a great fundraising effort!! How is your knee feeling now? Hopefully it was a once off thing!

ShirleyPerly said...

Fun race!! Glad you were able to raise so much for the cause.

Claudia said...

Congrats on the fundraising, that's excellent.
Great Race Recap.