Color Me Rad 2013

Been pretty quiet around the blog. I've had three weeks off between spring training ending and fall training starting so haven't had much to say.

Until today!

I first heard about Color Runs last year but couldn't find any in Toronto. When Color Me Rad announced a Toronto date, I was all over it and harassed a bunch of people until they said they would register with me. T

Than it sold out :(

Luckily, they opened a second day so I quickly convinced a few people to join me and we were all set. I don't think either of them were too sure about this race, but I thought it would be a ton of fun.

And it was!

Color Me Rad was held at Downsview Park and very easy to get to by subway, followed by a shuttle bus.

Sitting in the back of the bus with our crazy glasses on.

Found the rest of our group. The event seemed quite organized. My only complaint - no bag check! Seems silly for a run that's all about getting messy.

Before. We're all clean.

We had registered for the 11 a.m. wave but no one really seemed to care when you went and waves were going out about every 10 minutes so we started a bit earilier.

Waiting to start.

The run pretty much starts off like this:

Color Bomb (not my photo)

so you're already covered in the first colour.

Having fun! (My friend isn't convinced yet).

Lots of people walking this race which was alright. The event isn't timed and you're just doing to have fun. It was ridiculously hot so we took more walk breaks than we normally would - also we wanted to stay together throughout the race.

This was seriously a great way to transition from one training period to the next. No expectations, just a good fun day to remind me why I love to run.

After.

I would do this again. Many times.

In case anyone is wondering - the colour came off my skin very easily. The buff I'm wearing kept it out of my hair for the most part. My old shoes are quite colourful now, quite like it. My shorts have a pinkish tinge to them now that might not come out. The shirt was an old cotton one that I cut the arms off. I might leave it colourful. Also - my phone was in a ziplock through the run - I took it out for pictures.

GTAA Runway Run

Last Saturday, I ran the GTAA Runway 5K. I signed up for it with two of my co-workers. It was a first race for both of them.


As the name implies, the run took place out on the Runway by the planes.
 
There were quite a few people and lots of families out (there was also a 2K walk).
The race started a bit late and it was super hot.
Being on a runway, the course was completely flat. It was an out and back and honestly, a bit boring. I need scenery. I so like the map from my Garmin:


I had a goal of 35 minutes in mind and I managed to come in at 34:57 so super happy with that. My previous 5K PR was 36:23 so I met my spring goal of setting new PR’s for half marathon, 10K and 5K. Yay!

I’m super proud of my co-worker David. He quite smoking last August (after smoking for many many years), started running in March and ran his first 5K in 30 minutes.

Overall, I enjoyed the Runway Run but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. I’d rather save my money for longer races.
Things I liked:

• Flat course!
• Lots of food at the finish area
• Great shirt and medal

Things I didn’t like:

• No water on course and it was super hot
• Started late
• Flat course= bit dull.

Toronto Women's 5K Recap - October Edition

This past Saturday was the final race of the year for me - The Toronto Women's 5K and 8K.

My original plan for the year was to run the 8K. But I ended up signing up for the 5K for two reasons - It was two week's after the half marathon and I wanted an opportunity to improve my 5K PR.

Saturday morning was quite chilly but Sunnybrook park was lovely with fall colours. I met up with Running Jennie who was also running the 5K. We've been blog/daily mile friends for a while so it was great to meet in person. Jennie contacted me the week before and asked if I wanted to run for her and she would help me get to my goal of running a 5K in the 38 minute range. I've never run with anyone else (other then my husband who is much faster then me and we both end up annoyed) but thought this would be fun so we meet up.

Racing with a buddy was super fun. We chatted the whole way and kept up a decent pace. Having someone to chat with made the race go by fast.

We did 3-1 run/walk intervals most of the time and had enough energy left at the end to finish strong. Completely crushed my goal of running a 38 minute 5K.

New 5K PR

36 minutes 23 seconds

I'm flying! Weee!

This was pretty huge for me. Let's look at my previous 5K times, shall we?

August 2010 (first race) - 41:26

September 2010 - 40:31

October 2010 - 40:17

May 2011 - 39:36

I'm pretty happy with cutting over 3 minutes off my previous 5K time.

Thank you Jennie for pushing me out of my comfort zone! 

Running Jennie's Photo

I learned a couple of things at this last race. First, that I'm not pushing myself hard enough. I've been coasting in my 8min/km zone so I need to work more on my speed. Also, running with other people is fun! I'm going to look into a running room clinic for the spring.

Toronto Women’s 5K May 2011 Recap

This was my third time doing this race – I did the 5K portions on August and October of last year.
I picked up my race kit from the Running Room on Saturday. A couple of good samples in the kit – a mini luna bar, chap stick, Immunity FX (I keep getting this in race kits and I can’t use it – my immune system wants to attack my joints so it’s not getting any support!).
Fabulous blue long sleeved shirt. I requested a medium but the shirts ran a bit small. Luckily I was able to exchange it after the race.

Sunday morning, I was up early and left my place around 6:45. Had no issues with Sunday morning buses and got to the park by 7:30 (half marathon started at 8, the 5K at 8:20).
The half marathoners went out first in 3 waves. Than all of the 5K’ers were clumped together. There were around 1500 doing the half and 700ish doing the 5K. So not a huge race, but I wish that there were at least signs saying “under 30 minutes”, “35+ minutes”, “walkers”, etc to split everyone up properly. I tried to position myself further back, but there were lots of faster runners dodging people to get ahead and lots of walkers ahead of me that I had to get around.
The race runs through Sunnybrook park which is pretty and green with winding paths. Only problem with this is that you have a ton of people all on a smallish path plus whoever else is in the park that day. There were narrow sections where it was really hard to pass people. This didn’t bother me last year but after running down Yonge Street in the Sporting Life 10K, I appreciate having some space.

The course is and out and back. It was great seeing the leaders coming back. Everyone on the other side of the path cheered for them.
Just before the water station, volunteers were handing out Cadbury Thins chocolate. As much as I like chocolate, it was so not appealing while running. Some people just took them to carry, but I didn’t particularly want to carry a chocolate bar for the rest of the race.
I was slowing down on the way back, feeling kind of tired. As I was approaching the finish line, I looked at my Garmin. I was at 39 minutes – I just wanted to break 40. So I sprinted to the end. Looking at my Garmin splits, the last 500 metres I was running between a 4.5 to a 5 min/km pace. I hit the mat, looked at my watch, saw it was under 40 minutes and leapt into the air. I may have yelled something.

Got my medal and a brown bag full of snacks (more chocolate, a banana, bottle of water, a breakfast pita and a bag of chips) than headed home.

Overall, I really like the Toronto Women’s Races. They’re well organized, not too big and the post race area is always well laid out. The volunteers were great, the energy was fantastic. I’m planning on doing the 10K and either the 5K or 8K in October.
Thinks I liked:

• Shirt (and easy size exchanges)
• Medal
• Beautiful park setting
• Post race food

Things I didn’t like:

• No start corrals for the 5K
• Narrow paths