Race Report

Time to recap yesterday's race!

I went into the 5k with high hopes of a new PR, my previous one being 30:43 with a chip time of 30:37. I was also set on breaking 29 minutes, which I considered to be a reasonable goal but still challenging enough.

I am happy to announce that this was fully accomplished! I crossed the finish line with an official time of 29:31, chip time 28:45. Woohoo! Overall, I'm happy with the race, but there are a few things I know I could improve on in order to cut that time still further. For instance, I pushed the pace very well through the first 3km, but started to fade a little towards the end. I didn't slow down too much, and managed to make a strong finish nonetheless, but I was definitely "feeling it" around 4km. Interestingly, it wasn't my legs or my lungs which held me back, but rather my stomach started to feel a little queasy if I pushed too hard, and I figured, no fun 5k is worth hurling over! There may be three factors involved in the stomach issues: #1 - okay, so I did drink the night before. And you know what, I don't regret any of those 3 glasses of wine - they were fantastic, as was my night, and good times were had by all. I stopped drinking at 8:30 just as I promised I would and began tanking up on water for the remainder of the night. I did a good job too, if I may say so - I went to sleep sober and the pee flowed free and clear, a sure sign of success! Ha ha. I'm not saying it was a great race strategy, only that the fun was worth it. Also, I feel that factors #2 and #3 were on the whole probably more to blame, #2 being the fact that I ate cereal with milk for breakfast, and I'm pretty sure it was the milk that was the main source of ickiness. I'll have to try a bagel or something next time. And #3 - the water that they handed us along the course was so frickin' cold, it made my stomach clench right up as soon as it got in my system. I probably shouldn't have bothered to drink in such a short race anyway, but I grabbed those cups regardless. Oh, well, it's all hindsight now, and a good learning experience.

At any rate, the event was really well organized and dead on time, which was impressive, and the weather, although overcast, was very seasonable for a Canadian March. The course itself wasn't much to behold, basically a tour of the Exhibition Place "grounds" (i.e., the whole place looks like a giant parking lot!), but it was blessedly flat and wide enough that there wasn't too much bottlenecking, except of course at the very beginning. We also doubled back to the starting area a couple of times, and my official cheering squad (my dad!) was able to snap a few action shots. Most of them didn't turn out, but I think there were one or two keepers. I'd love to post them now, but he hasn't sent me the pics yet, so I'll put them up when I get them.

So overall a happy race, a good time (for me!) which placed me in the top quarter of my age group and the overall rankings. Fun run! Plus, the day was made doubly awesome by the fact that I went home to visit the parents afterwards and had a scrumptious home-cooked meal, and then got taken out for the evening to see David Copperfield live... SOOO unbelievably cool. I swear that guy really has magical powers. At one point during the show, he "reappeared" from a trick on a pedestal about 2 rows behind where I was sitting - oh baby. I love that man. But I digress :)

Next up, 10k!