Race Day!

First race of the year for me!

This is my first year running Harry's Spring Run Off and my first 8K race. I entered this race with a bunch of my co-workers. It's the first race for most of them.

I'm looking at this race mainly as a testing ground for my upcoming half marathon. I'd like to run this at my goal half pace (7.07/km) or faster so I'm hoping for 56:56. According to MacMillan running calculator, if I can run a 2:30 half (which remains to be unseen) I should be able to do an 8K at 53:23. This would put my overall pace at 6:40/km which would be a bit of a stretch for me, especially with the hills on this course.

Either way, I'm just going to have fun, enjoy High Park and do whatever I can to make sure everyone else from my group has a good time.

Back....

Anyone still out there?

I've decided its time to come back to blogging.

So what have I been up to?

• Ran my second Waterfront Half Marathon in 2:37. I'll write a more detailed post later. The short story - I raised $1000 for rheumatoid arthritis research and limped the last 8 kilometres. 

• Started training back in January for spring races. I'm rather over winter running now and very happy that the weather has finally started to warm up. I have my first 8K coming up in April, followed by a half marathon in May, a 10K in May and another half in early June. I'm training a bit more hard core than I have in the past because I want a sub 2:30 half! For the first time, my training plan includes scheduled speed & temp runs as well as hill training and 4 runs per week.




Source: Andrea on Pinterest

• Decided it was finally time to progress beyond running 5/1's. I've been running 3 years now. Time to move on. I followed the beginner "Learn to Run" plan in John Stanton's  book and finally got myself up to running 10/1's.

• Started P90X in January and kind of loving it. My husband gave me a pull-up assist  for Christmas which has made a HUGE difference in being able to get through the work-outs while also feeling like I'm making progress. I'm following a modified plan, mostly focusing on upper body strength, that works in with my half marathon training.

Pull-Up Assist. Hooks onto a pull up bar.

I'm feeling super motivated for the spring!

Midsummer Night’s Run - 15K

I shouldn't wait a week before posting a race recap - I'm having troubles remembering things. Eek!

 

Rocked out in my new pink Team Sparkle skirt.

I also covered my upper body and face with various forms of glitter- body glitter, glitter eye shadow and three different eye liners – hot pink, turquoise and glitter. I don’t normally apply make-up specifically for a race, but I was going for a sparkle theme so why not?

Met up with my co-worker that I convinced to sign up for this race. He was a bit freaked out by the distance, but left me in his dust after 10 minutes and finished 10 minutes a head of me.

The course itself was great – flat and scenic. It started off hot, but got cooler as the race went on. My cousin was running the 30K and we passed each other on the course – he picked me up, spun me around, set me down and ran off. Bit disorientating, but a nice on-course boost.

The whole starting a race at 6:45 didn’t well for me – I didn’t eat properly throughout the day and kind of paid for it during my run with stomach cramps. Slowed me down quite a bit and I was ready for the finish line. 

Finished in 1hr 53 at a pace of 7:35/km. I didn’t make any of my time goals, but this was still a better pace than my last half marathon (barely – 7:39/km) so I’m hopeful that a 2.5 hour half is still in my near future, but we’ll see.

At the finish line, we were giving aluminum water bottles and giant medals.

I think if I had run the 30K, I would have been disappointed that all 3 distances (5K, 15K and 30K) were all given the same medals, but I’m okay with it. It’s a serious piece of bling and the biggest medal I have!

Things I liked about this race:

• Course – beautiful. Fabulous views of the sky line.
• Giant medal
• Post race party seemed good, but I wanted to head home so didn’t get any food or drink
• Well organized shuttles that brought me to and from the subway
• Festive atmosphere – loved all of the people dressed up for the fairy theme.

Things not too crazy about:

• Time – need to prepare better for an evening race
• That’s about it.

Will definitely do this race again, maybe with lower expectations and a more elaborate costume.

Midsummer Night's Run Goals

This is one for my bucket list - Midsummer Night's Run 15K.

Very excited and this should give me an indication of whether or not I'm on track for a 2.5 hour half marathon in October.

Goals for this evening:

A - 1 hr 46 min (7:07 pace which is what I need for a 2.5 hour half)

B - 1hr 53 min (7:30 which has been my best pace on my long run)

Overall goal - have fun and sparkle!!!!

Toronto Spartan Sprint – Spectator Recap

My husband and a couple of friends ran the Spartan Sprint a week or two ago. This was the husband’s second Spartan Race and he also ran Warrior Dash last year. Seemed a bit too hard core for me, so I tagged along to take pictures and hold stuff.
They were all in the 2:30 heat and we arrived about an hour early. We had to park about 5 km away from the actual race site and take a shuttle bus over. Getting there wasn’t too big of a deal thankfully – we only had to wait about 15 – 20 minutes. We were warned though by people coming in from the earlier waves that bag check was a disaster so leave everything in the car. We left most of our stuff and I ended up carrying a back pack with water bottles and towels.

Lots of people

Race kit pick up was onsite and everyone got their timing chips as they entered. No race bibs – they were told to write their numbers on their arms and either on their cheeks or forehead.

Before. Everyone is clean.

As a spectator, there was a $15 charge. Pretty steep if you ask me and I had gone back and forth a lot deciding whether or not to come. I did get a $5 voucher for merchandise but I couldn’t find the merchandise tent so that was pretty useless.
At 2:30, the Spartans were off.

Husband is in the light blue shirt

I knew I wouldn’t be able to see much, so went over to catch some of the end of the race. It had started to rain at this point. Waited out in the rain for about 40 minutes or so. It was kind of fun though talking to the other spectators.

Here he comes.

Notice that the mud is up to his chest.

Climbing over the wall.

My husband finished first out of his four friends. The course was supposed to be 5km but ended up being closer to 7.
They were supposed to pick up their shirts at the end of the race but seems that the shirts get held up at the border so they didn’t have the right sizes. The shirt is supposed to be mailed out so we’ll see if it ever arrives (I’m kind of doubtful).

After - covered in mud.

The line ups to wash off were pretty ridiculous so they decided to skip it and we headed to the shuttle bus line up. AN HOUR LATER – we got on a bus. Bit ridiculous especially since it was pouring rain.
My husband had a great time but was a bit disappointed in some of the organizational issues of the race. Since I’ve done more races than him, he asked for my opinion on Spartan Race. Here’s my list of things that need serious improvement:

• Shuttle bus situation needed big improvements. Took way too long to get back to the parking lot.
• $15 spectator fee was pretty lame. I don’t think I would pay it again. At the same time though, it was good that I went and took photos because….
• Not having bibs ended up not being great. The race photos came out this week and because no one was wearing a bib and they were covered in mud, there’s a ton of pics in the “lost and found pile”. I looked for pics of all 4 guys and could find one photo that was labelled with their bib number and it was of two girls so not the right person. We’ve done some hunting through the pics and found a couple, but wearing bibs would probably have helped matters. Or writing their number on their forehead but who wants to do that? The only pics they have are the ones I took.
• There was no post race food included. You could purchase tickets for fries and hot dogs, but the runners didn’t get anything, not even a banana. I’ve never done a race that didn’t have something for the runners.
• Whole issue with the shirts. I hope my husband gets his eventually but who knows.
• Husband got an e-mail saying results are ready! Yay! However – here’s a bit from the e-mail: “For some participants you will find the Letters TBA by you name, some of the Data stored on the timing box suffered damage there was a small electrical fire (!!!!) by the finish line, we have sent the drive off to see if we can extract the information in the meantime we will keep you posted.” So far, no data so husband’s time is TBA. Sucks. I did check my water when he came in so we think his time was about 48 minutes.

Things that were good:

• Nice medal
• Everyone had a lot of fun.
• I can use the “I paid $15 to stand in the rain for 4 hours” line against my husband to come to the rest of my races for the year!

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 Half 2012

This past Sunday, I ran the Toronto Women's Half Marathon. My 3rd half marathon and my 6th event in this series.

I arrived at the Park about an hour before the start time. I mostly hung around the bag check area trying to find Jennie. Gave up as there were too many people there and got into the start corral. Managed to find Jennie and Lyndsay right before we started.

We ran 5/1's together for the first part of the race. It was fun having people to talk to and made the time go by.  We split off around the 9km mark or so. I needed to slow down my pace a bit. I threw in my earphones and turned on my nano and continued on.

I had set my garmin for 8 repeats of 5/1's which wasn't really going to work for 21km. I ended up resetting it about an hour into the race and again about 10 minutes later. So I was kind of running blind for the last hour and a half. I had no idea how long I had been running or where my overall pace was at. I only had the route markers to tell me how far I'd run. It was kind of refreshing. I just ran at a pace that felt good, walked when I needed to and hoped for the best.

While I really enjoy the park setting of all of the TO Women's races, the narrow paths are a bit bothersome. Often got stuck behind other slower runners because the path wasn't wide enough to go by them.

I started struggling a bit around kilometre 13. Just felt very tired both mentally and physically. I ate a bunch of chomps and drank as much water as possible and struggled on.

Around 19km, I passed the chocolate station where volunteers were handing out cadbury thins. The thought of chocolate at that point was disgusting. I took one and managed to fold it up small enough to stuff into my fuel belt. Was much more enjoyable later in the day.

I was very happy to get to the last leg of this race. I saw Jennie near the end and she cheered me on to the finish and I managed to pick my pace up for the last bit and finish strong. My chip time was 2:40:27 so I met my goal of a 2:40 half and beat my PR by 3 minutes.Yay!

Overall, very happy to finish my third half marathon and three races in a month.

Things I liked about the Toronto Women's Half:

• Size - running a smaller race was nice after the 20,000 people at Sporting Life
• Finishers necklace - while I love a giant medal, I like being able to wear my necklace around.
• Park Setting
• Lots of inspiring women runners
• Running with friends
• The friendliest volunteers that I've encountered at any race

Things that could be improved:

• More water stations. I think there were 5 stations. I think at least 2 more would be good. Thankfully ran with 4 bottles on my fuel belt.
• Narrow pathways that are open to the public