Halloween Howl 10K – Race Report

Holy smokes, it was a busy weekend!  Let’s start at the beginning!  I was signed up to race the Halloween Howl 10K on Saturday morning.  When I woke up it was about 4C and raining.  The temperatures were supposed to climb so I kept checking wx.ca.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that the temperatures kept dropping.  I looked out the window and all of a sudden the rain had given way to SNOW!!  I decided to go out on a limb and dress in capris, a long sleeve and a half zip top.  Plus I brought a vest just in case.

The roads driving out to the race were nasty!  If I didn’t have Tara’s and Pam’s race packets then I might have considered not racing.  And thanks to the nasty roads I wound up getting to the race start just a few minutes before go time.  Stress!!  After passing the race packets off and saying hi to friends I stepped outside in the snow to let my Garmin catch a signal.  As people started pouring outside Garmin was being finicky and wouldn’t locate the satellites.  Okay, so now it was mushy and gross out and Garmin wouldn’t cooperate?  Ugh.

We were counted down and off we went.  A few steps in Garmin asked it I was indoors.  Guess I wouldn’t be running with numbers today!  The pathway was just icky.  Normally when snow falls here it is really dry and blows around.  This was wet and thick and challenging to run through.  I wasn’t having fun and without a doubt I took off faster than I should have.  We headed out from Eau Claire and west along the Bow River.  As we followed the pathway alongside Memorial Drive cars were driving past us and splashing us with water.  On the plus side I heard cheering while I was out there as we ran past Tri-It and it was Richelle!!

After the turn around I ran along a bit further.  I looked behind me and there was Pam.  I held up for her and told her I was having a rough day.  We ran along in silence for a bit.  I started to drop back a bit and at first she pulled away but then she stopped and said that we were finishing this run together.  After plodding along I looked at my watch and I realized I’d need to boot it if there was any chance of coming in under an hour.  It wasn’t to be though and we crossed the line in 1:01:16.

Sure, it wasn’t an ideal race…and it definitely wasn’t under ideal conditions so I’m not going to beat myself up about it.  I owe Pam for pulling me through the the finish line though!  I ran into Making Waves at the race and it was good to catch up.  After changing into some dry clothes Tara and I caught up over breakfast, then I had to jet!  I had to quickly gather gear for my Sunday expedition, then head out to Airdrie for my friend Susanne’s stagette (also known as a bachelorette or a hen party depending on what part of the world you are in).

Stay tuned for my Sunday adventures.  It is pretty exciting!!