I’m thinking next year will be the year of the 5km.  I really wanted to do another out of town race somewhere in that country that’s not far from here, just down below. Sometime in the Spring or Summer because I enjoy visiting other places.  Maybe a trail 5km?  But either way, it’s gonna be the year of the 5km. It’ll probably be tough to resist going bigger but I need to practice patience and focus in training.  Then after the half - I hate 10km because it’s an awful race distance - and then marathon and then ultras. I want to build myself back up stronger than ever. I really really really really really really really want to run a 100 miler someday. Because it terrifies me, because it scares the running socks off me. But I know that I’m too slow for that right now. So I want to improve my marathon and 50km times first. What better way to do that then build back up from the bottom. REBUILDING THE PYRAMID BABY.  A pyramid with guns hopefully. GUNS OF STEEL  (Not real guns. My awesome biceps obvi.)
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I’m thinking next year will be the year of the 5km. 

I really wanted to do another out of town race somewhere in that country that’s not far from here, just down below. Sometime in the Spring or Summer because I enjoy visiting other places. 

Maybe a trail 5km? 

But either way, it’s gonna be the year of the 5km. It’ll probably be tough to resist going bigger but I need to practice patience and focus in training. 

Then after the half - I hate 10km because it’s an awful race distance - and then marathon and then ultras. I want to build myself back up stronger than ever.

I really really really really really really really want to run a 100 miler someday. Because it terrifies me, because it scares the running socks off me. But I know that I’m too slow for that right now. So I want to improve my marathon and 50km times first. What better way to do that then build back up from the bottom. REBUILDING THE PYRAMID BABY. 

A pyramid with guns hopefully.

GUNS OF STEEL 

(Not real guns. My awesome biceps obvi.)

Training & Race Report

Excited to get started with training this week. It was like Christmas morning checking my inbox for this week’s schedule from my coach. 

My exam is this afternoon so I want to maximize study time. I’m going to make myself some breakfast, hopefully have a little time to do some yoga (I’m actually quite sore from Sunday’s race), and study, head to school and then after my exam I’ll head home to do my perscribed workout. I’m already appreciating not having to think so hard about what to do for the week. It’s a nice mental break. My thinking needs to be focused on my studies now anyhow. Saving brainpower for math, physics and chemistry!

And speaking of Sunday’s race. I suppose I should write a race report for reference in the future. My mum came along with me for the weekend to Ottawa, and we had a blast trying out different restaurants, walking around town, looking at cool ice sculptures, drinkinig hot tea and laughing about the awful hotel. On race morning I let us sleep in a little later than usual. Since it was just a 5k, I decided not to bother eating anything, I knew it would upset my stomach. We got to the race site and waited around for the start. It was delayed because of a back-log with people arriving late to collect race kits etc.

I met some running friends there, we lined up at the start and off we went when the cannon went off. This year I decided to line up closer to the start line. ALL the distances head off at the same time so it’s a bit of a traffic jam if you are running 5km and get stuck behind a bunch of marathoners and half marathoners. The start went a bit smoother this year but I was still a bit blocked to start with.

Getting to the half way turn-around was easy enough. I didn’t wear my Garmin, just my regular sportswatch. The only time I checked my watch was at the halfway - 13:28. Not sure if that’s accurate or not. But it does mean that I slowed down a little bit and lost out on a PR. I started getting a cramp at the turn-around. But just tried to breathe through it. I was NOT stopping for anything. My legs felt heavy after the turn-around. I guess it was the long uphill that did that. My lungs were burning and I was working but I felt like I was going SO SLOW.

Rounding to the finish was again crowded, trying to pass was close to impossible but I passed a few people anyhow. A lot of them were just going on to do more laps, so it was frustrating to have them in the way and lose out on a few seconds.

As I crossed the finish I looked at the clock and shook my head. I muttered “Impossible”, as I crossed the finish. I asked the man taking off my timing chip if the clock was correct and he said yes. I still didn’t believe him. It said “22:00 minutes”. No way. Absolutely no way. I’m not stupid. And I know my abilities. There’s no way in hell I could shave off 5 minutes off my PR with almost zero interval training. Nope.

My mom had watched my zoom into the finish (she kept saying “you were so fast!” haha) and she rushed over to see me and congratulate me. I was of course telling her the clock was totally wrong. We waited around the outdoor fire (so awesome) for the results. Eventually staggering inside to find out they were posted indoors. I checked my results, and found my name on the list. 3rd place in my age group. 24th woman (out of 186 I believe?) and 55th overall. A small and not too strong field of course, but I still can’t believe it when I win a medal or ribbon. I was never ever a winner in sports in elementary or high school. So it’s neat to win awards and it sure makes my parents proud! I was there in time for them to call my name. I thought it was nice that they did that for all the award winners and not just the top performers. And of course, after receiving my bronze ribbon I went to check the time, because I hadn’t even bothered to do so before. I had been correct and had clocked 27:44. Of course despite placing in my category I was disappointed (I realize I was unjustly disappointed considering my training up to the race had not been geared toward a fast 5k, I had been training for a half marathon and neglecting speedwork altogether!). So in retrospect, 27:44, which is not too far off from my 5K PR isn’t so bad considering I didn’t work that hard for it. So now it’s time to work hard and see how I can push myself during a race.

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