Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Canada Day 5K

On Friday we headed north to Barrie with our friends P and U for the Canada Day Races. We arrived extra early, as usual, and had plenty of time to wander around the waterfront park and goof off a bit after picking up our kits.




Eventually I got brave enough to put running shoes on for the first time since my toe issue, and thankfully it felt pretty good with just a padded bandaid.

The 4 of us ran a slow 5K warm-up along the race route to scope things out. It was a nice and flat out-and-back on the waterfront trail.


Pretty soon a crowd was gathering in the starting area, so we lined up and got ready to run. It was quite a clusterf*ck with no actual start "line" and a massive crowd of people bunched all over the path. We couldn't find our way into a good position, so we stayed off to the side on the grass along with many others. 

It was chaos for a couple hundred metres once we got started, so we took off as fast as possible to find some space. It seemed like their were young runners all over the place who were fast, but not quite fast enough to be up at the front. They started slowing down and getting in the way after an initial sprint, and it became a game of 'dodge the little ones.' Definitely not a very smooth start.

Fortunately it thinned out quickly and we found some room as we settled in with runners closer to our pace, although I still found I was passing constantly. 

I really had no idea what to expect after not running all week. I knew I had fresh legs, but I also felt sort of stale and out of shape. I knew I just had to run hard and hope for the best.

P and I had planned to stick together as long as possible, but I knew she would be faster and had to let her go after about 1.5K. Our pace from the start was aggressive (for me), mostly from trying to work our way through the crowds.

I struggled through the middle section before the turning around and I knew I was slowing down, but just couldn't keep my legs moving. I focused on getting to the half way mark, knowing that I would be on the way to the finish from there. P wasn't too far ahead of me, so it helped having her to focus on up ahead.

I was dying for a drink and tempted to grab water at the turn-around, but I knew that slowing down would kill any momentum that I had; making the hair-pin 180 degree turn was hard enough.

There was a slight breeze on the way back, which helped cool me down a bit - the morning had heated up quickly and the sun was pounding down.



I continued plugging away, looking at my Garmin constantly and thinking that 5K sure can feel far. Kilometre 4 was my slowest and looking back, I think I allowed myself to slow down more than I needed to, knowing I could push it on the last one. 

Sure enough, I found myself picking it up after the 4K marker. There weren't a lot of people around, but there were 2 ladies just ahead and I made it my mission to catch them, knowing there were probably only a couple ahead of us. I could also see P just up ahead and focused on chasing her down.

I ended up passing the 2 ladies on the final turn toward the finish, but couldn't catch P who ended up finishing 7 seconds ahead of me. 

We didn't even plan the matching tops!

Overall, it was a great way to kick off Canada Day. I'd definitely run this race again, even with the crazy start. It felt good to find some speed in my legs after a forced recovery week and I loved racing in my Saucony Kinvara 2s.

  
Official time: 21:25 - a 9 second PR!
Pace: 4:17/KM (6:53/mi)
Overall: 16/272
Females: 3/184

We stayed for the awards since P and I had both placed in the female division - 2nd and 3rd for a whopping $25 and $10 Running Room gift card respectively. Better than nothing...



37 comments:

Robin said...

Congrats on your race, I think you did awesome. It was nice to meet you afterwards as well.

Anonymous said...

hey u PRed with a bad start, a bad toe and a slow kilometer? thats awesome!
u r becoming so speedy!

great job!

Denise said...

nice job!!! and 3rd female, awesome! i bet that week off helped, you were so well rested and ready to run.

Laura said...

Congrats! Tell your toe to suck it after another great race.

kristen said...

Yaaay! I'm glad it went well after all the toe drama! Congratulations on another great race.

Meg said...

You are a winning machine! :D It's your year!!!!

Still Running said...

Wow. Faster and faster.

Unknown said...

Nice job. You are on fire lately!

TMB @ RACING WITH BABES said...

Too funny with the matching tops!

Yay for the PR and the win. You could go get some GU?

Runners Fuel said...

Great minds think alike to match! great job on the PR!

Anne said...

Okay I must be the only one with a 4 year old mind, but "my friends P and U" made me smile :) ;)

Congrats Marlene! A PR and a 3rd place finish...you are rocking the races this year! :)

Johann said...

Wow, you are fast! Well done to you and P! Here in SA 5k's aren't official races but fun runs. Always lots of small kids running those. I've never done 5km.

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

You keep getting faster and faster and have smashed all my PRs.. AWESOME!!

Congrats on the win and running smart. Wonder what you would have done with some organization and less kiddo obstacles?

Beth said...

NICE JOB!!!!! I love reading your race reports and seeing all your new PRs! It's exciting for us too! Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS! No running all week and a PR? You're unstoppable. :) I love you totally downplayed this...you ran, it was tough, 5Ks make you tired, you pushed it at the end...then BAM! PR, duh.

J said...

Congrats on the PR! That is so awesome! And the gift card is an added bonus! It feels so great to win those -almost like free money!

Anabela (Bela) Neves said...

Congrats, awesome time. I also ran that race and agree the start line is terrible but you did great regardless.

Maia said...

Great job on a PR and 3rd place! WAy to go! I was in London for Canada Day and they went CRAZY over there!!!

macnic said...

Amazing! You are such a speedster! Also, I've never pegged you as a clusterf*ck kinda gal, but sometimes taht is the best description, isn't it!

Julie D. said...

so awesome, Marlene!! Congrats on your PR!! so fast. yes, I think a 5K can feel longer than a half sometimes. Not my favorite race. :)

Anonymous said...

Score! A win. Congrats Speedy McSpeedyPants... and better a gift card than a pat on the back! ;-)

Jason said...

Why hello speed demon. You rocked a 5K, you qualified for Boston....you got nothing left in the running world so come on over......triathlon is waiting.

Char said...

Just fantastic. But don't go spending that gift card all at once.

Q said...

Congrats on the PR and placing!

Anonymous said...

Wow, congrats! I was just telling my running buddies that I want to do a Canada Day race next year since 4th of July races are too darn hot.

ajh said...

Wow! You are fast. And 3rd overall rocks.

MCM Mama said...

Woohoo!!! WTG! You are rockin' the races lately.

5 Miles Past Empty said...

Nie job!!!! Totally awesome PR!!!

And Happy Canada Day! LOVE all the flags!!!

yumke said...

Hey! Checking in after being sucked into work. Very very impressed, great job on a summer run. I'm still in awe of your City Chase placing, happy racing! (I say this as I take a three-month break from the start line).

Rad Runner said...

Sweet PR! Oh oh oh ! and i live the foe tattoos on the calf, im debating puting foe red bows on my calves for the san francisco marathon.. (to totally play up the matchy match ness with my new MM shirt :) Now that I know how cool the look, I have 3 weeks to find some fake red bow tattoos!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the 5k! A PR! Woooo hoooooo!!! And those pics with the canadian flag tattoos were so cute!

Richelle said...

Congrats on the new 5K PR and the award! My gosh, I wish I could run that fast!

Cute photos, too! Glad you had a fun Canada Day!

Mark said...

Hooray!!! No toe issues and a great PR!!

H Love said...

You are my hero!! Woo Hoo!! Nice P.R.

dawn @ running the dawn said...

congrats on the PR!!!

and giftcards to boot? holla!

RunningLaur said...

yay, PR!!!!

Nicole said...

congrats on the pr young lady!!!