Halloween Howl 10K–Race Report

For the purposes of telling my story (and in the interest of full disclosure) I probably ought to fess up on what my race times have been like lately.  Since…you know…I casually forgot to leave that out of my Melissa’s race report.

Back on September 24th I finished Melissa’s in 1:16:57.  Now granted, there was a huge hill to climb in the middle of the race and it was my first race in awhile so I’m not disappointed.  That was the fastest I could run that day and Kelly and Pam were amazing company on the race course.  I don’t think I would have wanted to race without them.  Quite honestly I was about ready to bail on doing the race until Kelly asked me to run it with her for fun.

Three weeks later on November 9th I toed the line for the Thanksgiving Memory 10K run in Calgary.Given that this course was a lot flatter than Melissa’s I just really wanted to do better than that time.  I didn’t really have a plan for how to race it but I knew there would be walk breaks in there.  Starting out I was in with a big shmozzle of people.  There was someone who had evidently set up some kind of a workout or goal in their Garmin (be it following pace or heart rate).  Whatever they were doing, they weren’t doing what they were supposed to do and their Garmin yelled at them about every 30 seconds to either speed up or slow down.  Boy that was annoying to listen to!

Anyhow, the route was a straight forward out and back.  I felt pretty good on the way out but I definitely slowed down and had to walk more on the way back.  I finished in 1:12:02, a definite improvement over Melissa’s three weeks ago.

Two weeks later it was back to the line to race the Halloween Howl 10K.  The route would be almost exactly the same as the Thanksgiving race, except this time I had some friends for company.Once again I didn’t start out with much of a plan, just goals.  Pam and I figured we’d hang out together and I figured I’d see if maybe I could keep up with Kelly.  Kelly planned on running 9:1s with her husband Mitch helping to pace her.I got a bit caught up in the excitement and the crowd and started a bit fast, but Pam reigned me in.  Soon we settled in behind Kelly and Mitch.  The pace was a bit faster than two weeks ago so I made it my mission to just hang with her and not focus on much else.  I felt strong on the way out but I was still a bit worried.  I fell apart a bit on the second half of my previous race and I really wanted to run the entire thing as consistently as possible.

At the turnaround Pam decided it was time to aim for a negative split so she took off with our friend Danny.  Kelly, Mitch and I hung with them for a bit but then we decided to settle back in to our previous pace.  I think Kelly and I were both a bit worried about blowing up.  Pam and Danny were strong all the way through the second half of the race.Kelly has been super supportive and encouraging and we’ve been running a lot together recently.  She thinks I’m back to my old speedier self although I’m not quite convinced that I’m entirely there yet.  As she started to struggle on the way back I wanted to stick with her and to try and encourage her as much as possible.  I tried to focus on remembering the great runs we’ve had lately and to try and emulate that same feeling.  I was hoping that she’d hang with me on the final sprint to the finish but unfortunately I think I took off a bit too much.When it was all said and done I was really happy with my race.  I felt a lot better on this race than two weeks ago…plus I beat my time!  I finished in 1:07:54 which was a definite improvement from the Thanksgiving race.  I owe many thanks to my friends who kept me company along the way. 

Next up is the Banff Winterstart 5 Miler next weekend!

*PS – If you are reading this post in Google Reader I have finally updated my header and blog layout ever so slightly.  Have a look and let me know what you think!  Here’s the old header, so not too different….

Melissa’s 10K Road Race–Race Report

Can you believe it – I have a race report for you!  I have run Melissa’s every year since 2007 so it feels like a bit of a tradition.  I signed up way back in February and almost forgot about the race last weekend.  Truth be told, I also contemplated not running it this year.  I was almost ready to bail when my friend Kelly asked if I would run the 10K with her as a fun run.  Who can say no to that?

My friend Pam was swayed by the idea of a fun run and my mom also snagged a bib at the last minute.  It was a gorgeous day in Banff – definitely the warmest I’ve ever seen at the start of the race.  We met all of our friends at the start and grabbed a quick picture between trips to the porta-potties.  Kelly was awesome.  To keep things fun she brought Pam and I baggies of gummy candies as little rewards for each kilometer finished.Soon it was time to line up for the start!  We had agreed to run 3:1 intervals and to walk the big hill.  Gotta keep it fun!  We were on our first walk break when I spied my dad with the camera so we picked it up to run for the photo op.The route was different from previous years with a different climb up Tunnel Mountain.  No matter how you slice it, the hike up Tunnel Mountain is a long one!  We agreed to run the downhill and to keep our minds occupied we started playing a game.  We all went through the alphabet, coming up with different foods we wanted to eat once we crossed the finish line.  Apples…burgers…quesadillas….x-tra crispy fried chicken!

Before I knew it we were down the hill and I spotted my husband and my dad.We had a short out and back section left to go, then it would be on the the finish line.  I was fading here.  How long has it been since I ran 10K??  A long time.The girls were awesome and we stuck together.  We would cross that finish line together!!After we were done we managed to find the rest of our friends, plus we found the beer line too…While I may be a long ways away from my 55:10 10K PR pace it felt great to race again.  In fact, I went home and signed up for a couple more 10Ks in October!

Thanks again for making this race fun Kelly and Pam!  I really appreciated the company and motivation along the way!

Whose legs are these?

For those of you who are friends on Facebook, you may know that I ran the Thanksgiving 10K this weekend.  That’s right, it was Thanksgiving in Canada here last weekend!

Well, there isn’t too much I can say about the race.  My legs were still super tired.  I ran faster than Melissa’s, but that was mostly thanks to the flat pathway we ran along the river in downtown Calgary.  Post race was fun as my mom ran the race as well along with my friend Pam.  We met at the finish line and grabbed our free mini pizza from Papa John’s and gabbed over food.

I ran for 30 minutes on Tuesday and the legs still felt awful.  Tired and still so far from the paces I was running before Ironman.  Today I had a 45 minute run on tap and it was the first time that my legs actually felt like they were on board!  My pace was still slow but I’ll take it.  Just the fact that my legs felt like they weren’t going to collapse under me was a good start!

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!!

Thanksgiving Memory 10K

I distinctly remember saying at one point that after I finished the Melissa’s 10K this fall that this would be it for racing for me for the rest of the year.  How quickly things change since I’ve got three races on the go in October alone!  I’ve been told that racing 10Ks will help me to get faster…so…we’ll see how that goes!

Today was the Investor’s Group Thanksgiving Memory 10K.  I woke up to temperatures of –8C and threats of snow.  This week has felt downright winterish in Calgary, which is in pretty stark contrast to the record high temperatures we were having at the end of September.  Crazy stuff!  This morning wound up being a total gong show.  As I sat in the car I realized that the play/pause button is no longer working on my iPod.  Hmmm.  Then as I was driving down the highway towards downtown I was attempting to take the top off my water bottle.  As I finally got the cap unscrewed water wound up coming out over top spilling in my lap and now it felt like I just peed my pants.  Oops!  Thank goodness for moisture wicking fabric because I was nice and dry well before start time!

I parked my car, picked up my race packet and my timing chip, downed a gel 30 minutes before go time, then found my friend Pam.  We stuck around indoors for as long as we could, but finally we made our way outside and I ran into Making Waves at the start line.  It was great to see that despite the cold temperatures and dreary day that quite a few people showed up for the 10K run and 5K walk. 

September was just a dismal month for running.  During a lot of my training runs I was struggling to hold sub 11:00 miles and any form of speed work just totally wiped me out.  Then October hit and I really lucked out and had a very solid week of running leading up to the race.  I had no idea where things would line out for today but I was really hoping my good running streak would continue.  As we took off from the start line I wished Pam good luck and started in.  I wanted to hold a pace I thought was somewhere in the gray area between comfortable and uncomfortable.  The route was a familiar one as we ran the pathway along the Bow River west away from downtown, where I do most of my lunch time runs.  It was a pretty straightforward out and back route. 

Every time I would glance down at my Garmin I noticed that I was holding a pretty steady pace.  I was feeling really strong and like I could keep this up for the entire race.  I hit the 5K mark around 28:21.  If I was going to PR today though, I’d need to hustle a bit and go for a negative split.  I realized as I turned around that there was a good chance that I was in the first half of the pack.  That never happens for me on a 10K!  I worked to apply a bit more pressure and slowly but surely speed up.  I wanted to push things but I didn’t want to push so hard that I blew up.  Somewhere around the 4 mile mark I realized that my left shoe was feeling a bit loose.  A glance down confirmed it, my shoe lace was coming undone so I had to step over and retie it.  Doh, 9 seconds lost!  The brief stop messed with my momentum slightly and the push was hurting just a wee bit more.  As I raced toward the finish line I realized that a PR would be tight, but if I could just keep this up I would have it.  I was running in with another guy and he and I were both breathing so loudly, just pushing to get to the end.  And there it was!  According to the Garmin my final time was 56:21, good enough for a PR by 11 seconds!!!  Despite being chip timed the final results only show gun time, but here are the stats:

Females 30-39: 11 out of 46 (although, really out of 47 because Pam was missing her chip)
Females Overall: 30 out of 131
Overall: 90 out of 251 (well, really out of 252)

Garmin Time: 56:21.94
Gun Time: 56:34.8

Once the race was over Pam and I grabbed our lunch which was included (a personal Papa John’s pizza, cinnamon bun, and a juice) and went indoors to eat and catch up.  Not a bad way to end the race!

Overall I am really happy with my race – I progressively got faster (with the exception for the mile split where I had to stop and tie my shoe), I hit a negative split, and I PR’d.  And I think I could have kicked it up maybe another half a notch.  We’ll see…I have a 10K rematch in two weeks at the Halloween Howl!

St. Patrick's Day 10K - Race Report

The St. Patrick's Day Road Race, put on by the Calgary Roadrunners, is quickly becoming an annual tradition for me. This was my third year running the race. I like this race because we get to run around the University of Calgary (which is a different route from most of the races around here), plus you get stew and rolls at the end...plus you have your chance to win your weight in beer at the awards ceremony. Who wouldn't want to win their weight in beer?

The last two years the race has been chip timed, but apparently there was a bit of a snafu with the timing company changing hands shortly before the race, so no chips today.

I've sort of felt so so this entire week. Not necessarily really sick, but not entirely 100% either. Waking up this morning I could tell that this was the worst I felt all week. I was getting winded going up the stairs in my townhouse. Oh no... So I rooted around my bathroom and finally found a thermometer. 100.1 deg. Enough to qualify for a low grade fever. I debated my situation. I could throw my pyjamas back on and crawl back into bed. I could run with the fever. Or I could pop something and see if it did anything to my slight temperature. My choices were Tylenol PM or ibuprofen and I went with the ibuprofen since I didn't want to get sleepy in the process... A recheck told me that I was down to 98.7 deg when it was time to leave the house. I was running late for meeting my team for the warm up run though. Oops.

I pulled into the parking lot for McMahon Stadium and headed over to the Red & White Club where all of the runners were congregating. There was a shoe drop for the Mustard Seed and I took the advantage to donate four pairs of gently used sneakers - 3 pairs of Nikes and 1 pair of New Balances - that were all purchased around the time I thought my feet were a size 9 until a running store told me that I was actually a size 10. So no sense keeping those around... I was also able to exchange my t-shirt for a smaller size...whew! I also ran into a teammates and friends milling around. Then coach Angie found me and told me to head out for a warm up run...then it was time to start.

The route has been adjusted this year and they had us starting on top of a slight incline behind the stadium, running down a pretty icy road. As we got going there were people elbowing and jockeying for position and I just wanted to not wipe out on the ice. Once we got out onto University Blvd I was able to settle in to my pace. Because I was obviously not my healthiest I didn't want to focus on racing a PR, I would just run and see what would happen. And I didn't want to look at my heart rate because I figured it would be pretty sky high.

At one point about 2 mi in I was trying to run past a couple of girls decked out in Lululemon gear and wearing their iPods. First there was room on the right between one girl and the curb, but as I made my move she drifted towards me and I very nearly tripped her. Oops! I was finally able to get past them, but they surged back ahead. Not that I have anything against girls in Lululemon gear wearing their iPods but I wanted to pick them off. I wasn't feeling too bad as we neared the point where the 5K folks were supposed to turn off. My pace was dropping, and finally on a hill I got past the Lululemon girls and never saw them again. They may have been 5k runners but at least I succeeded in picking them off! When we hit the 5K point a lady caught up to me and asked me about what pace we were running. It looks like we hit the 5K mark around 28:40...so that was pretty good. The trick would be if I could keep the pace up or negative split. As we started on the second loop I was really feeling any incline in the road a whole lot more, and I wasn't able to generate as much momentum on the downhills. My pace dropped slightly, but I was still going fairly strong. I didn't want to pick it up too much for fear of tapping out before the end. Anytime I looked down at my Garmin I noticed that my heart rate was in zone 5 so I figured a complete blow up may be possible.

Finally we hit a turn towards the stadium and there was some glorious downhill. I saw Karen and found more room in my legs to really pick it up. As we hit the parking lot for the stadium we were routed around it for the extra distance thanks to the route change. I really wanted to try and keep the pace up but the road was extremely icy. I figured I'd rather slow down a bit rather than run the risk of wiping out, but I was able to kick it into a higher gear for the final straight shot into the finishing chute. No idea what the clock said but my Garmin read 57:25. 6.26 mi. A brand new PR (on a slightly long course). On a morning where I probably shouldn't have been racing. No negative split, but I'm okay with that.

After finding Angie and a few teammates (and running into Dawn) I grabbed my sweats from the car, then headed indoors to get my stew and roll. I ran into my old favourite Bikini Boot Camp instructor Sheena, and it was really great to catch up. I also noticed Susan's husband and kids cheering her on, but by the time I saw Susan she was leaving the hall to head home. Susan, sorry I didn't have a chance to meet you!

I stuck around for the beer drawing and sadly I am 0 for 3 on winning my weight in beer. Shucks. Maybe next year!

Forzani Mother's Day 10K

If you've been reading this blog for a bit you've probably figured out that I love entering races - as evidenced by my crazy schedule these past few weekends! A couple of months ago someone mentioned that the race expo for the Sport Check Mother's Day 10K was the place to get running gear for cheap so I figured I should sign up for the race. The race expo definitely did not disappoint on the gear side (at least for the women...there was a ton of gear for us, probably less for the men). I picked up a pair of Sugoi capris for hiking, an Asics Thermopolis half zip top and a Sugoi tank. There were discounted shoes, Fuel Belts, socks, hats...all kinds of stuff. I also have to give a major kudos to the race - everyone gets a one use only timing chip so that they don't have back ups at the finish line trying to get them removed. After the race you can give your chip back and $1 gets donated to the NICU and special care nurseries at the local hospitals. What a terrific idea, eh? Spolumbo's Sausages were having a cookout at the expo as well - $5 got you a fantastic Spolumbo's sausage, a bag of chips and a pop with all proceeds going to charity.

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There were about 13,600 participants for this 5K and 10K event. With a generous time limit before opening the roads up this event is walker friendly. All walkers were asked to start at the back with reminders that thanks to your chip your official time wouldn't start until you crossed the start mat. There were folks holding pace signs up so you could seed yourself accordingly. It drives people here nuts, but I do all my running thinking in miles so it took me a second to decide which km pace group I should be in... The first 2K of the race was spent dodging the large groups of walkers who apparently didn't get the memo about starting in the back. Definitely frustrating. I had absolutely no goal in mind (remember I ran hill repeats the day before?) so I just wanted to run at a pace I felt was easy and have fun. I felt like I was going pretty slow...say an 11:30/mile, so imagine my surprise when my Garmin was telling me I was running a 9:45/mi. I just kept running though with minimal thoughts. I only stopped to walk during the two water stops mostly so I could make sure the water actually made it into my mouth. The course had some pretty good hills, but luckily the last 3 to 4K were pretty well downhill. I was concerned about what would happen when the 5K folks merged with the 10K folks for the last couple K. It was so well managed though as they were kept to the left side of the street so the 10K folks could run unimpeded to the finish line. It was a really well organized race. The final result?

1:02:14

1381 out of 2220

Females 20 - 29: 176/332

Wow...I cut almost a minute off from the Vancouver Sun Run when I was actually trying... Apparently this "no goal" thing works for me, eh? After the race a great lunch was in order, followed by an 18.5 mi bike ride. I was pretty wiped after all that, but it was a fabulous day!

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Also, that was my final race in the F**-29 age category!

St. Patrick's Day 10K

Sunday was the 21st annual St. Patrick's Day Run being put on by the Calgary Roadrunners. I had somehow or other convinced Neil that he should run it with me but the fellow was in need of some proper runners so on Friday night we went down to the Tech Shop to get him fitted in some fancy white and orange Adidas. After that we made our way to Strides for the packet pick up. I love the race shirts - they have women's and men's cut shirts, and they are a really great quality Puma cotton shirt. The logo is on the front with no mention of the race, and the back has the race name and sponsors on it. It is definitely a nice, wearable shirt. The weather here has been pretty nice for the last few weeks, but all of a sudden on Saturday night it started to snow. When I woke up Sunday morning to let Finlay outside it was like a winter wonderland out there with -13 deg C (8 deg F) temperatures to boot. Lovely... I got dressed up in pretty well every piece of green running gear I own - green Smartwool socks, my Feeling Lucky tech shirt (because if you can't wear this to a St. Patrick's Day race, when can you?), my green Under Armour zip up hoodie and a green tuque.
One of the main selling features of this race is the opportunity to win your weight in beer from this year's sponsor Mountain Crest. They had all the beer piled on the stage to tease you before the race. I tell you, in the picture above it looks like I was already dipping into the Mountain Crest... Luckily you don't have to win the race to win the beer, they draw for names instead. Whew!
After pinning our race numbers on it was time to head to the start line and at 10:00 am sharp we were off. It might have been chilly outside but once I got moving the temperature felt comfortable. Thankfully there was no wind, the only bad part was the ice and slush on the road. At the 1 mile mark Darryl Janz from CTV News was calling out our times - very neat! The race started and finished at McMahon Stadium and we ran two laps around the University of Calgary. Neil and I hung together for the first 5K but after that we parted ways and I was on my own. All of a sudden snow started coming down in buckets. I was happy I'd left my glasses in the car but I kept having to brush the snow off that was clinging to my eyelashes. Given my spotty training I had no illusions of glory and inside I hoped that I could at least come close, or maybe even beat, last year's time of 1:07:03. My pace picked up a bit and I was passing people but it was going to be tough. At least I was feeling half decent on the run - I had a bit of shin pain at the 1 mile mark that quickly faded. As I turned the corner to run through the parking lot of McMahon Stadium towards the finish line Karen was working as a course marshall and hooting and hollering encouragement at all the runners. She told me that if I had anything left inside this was the time to dig down deep and leave it all on the course. I ran across the finish line and turned off the Garmin - 1:07:12. Okay, so I didn't beat last year's time but it was pretty close. I started walking back up the way the runners were coming in and Neil appeared soon and crossed the finish line maybe 2 minutes after I did. We headed inside the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium to get our Irish Stew, some rolls and some coffee. We found Instructor S, her husband and another runner I recognized to catch up on the race. Sadly we didn't win any door prizes and despite wishing hard we didn't win our weight in beer either. If you did win they had a teeter totter set up on the stage and the 6 packs of Mountain Crest were piled on until the teeter totter was even. As we walked back to the car the snow had let up and the sun was out...go figure!
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As an aside, the founder of Mountain Crest, Ravinder Minhas, seems like a pretty interesting guy. He's 24, has a degree in Petroleum Engineering and he built the company from the ground up. Pretty impressive, eh?

Well that sucked...

Only one word can possibly describe today's run over lunch - terrible. Well, maybe you could throw awful, stupendous or miserable out there as well. Things looked promising at the beginning - the weather was reasonably warm and sunny and I was raring to go. I was raring for about the first 0.1 miles though. After that my shins started to ache. I've been having some shin splints for the last couple of weeks and I know it isn't my shoes because I've swapped around a few pairs with varying amounts of mileage on them and it hasn't made a difference. The kicker was about 0.25 miles in when I developed some sort of weird cramp or stitch in my abdomen that only hurt when I ran, not when I walked. So I wound up running 2-4 minutes, walking for 1....it was such a disaster until the final 0.2 miles and then it felt almost half decent. I guess that is what I get for taking a couple days off...from mojo to pure suckage in the space of a few days. Can I tell you guys that I'm a bit nervous about my 10K next weekend?

Seattle Ryka Iron Girl 10K

I love to travel, and I have a flex day coming up that I'm just not sure what to do with. I dislike the idea of sitting at home when I could be going someplace... I looked to see where airfares were cheap to - Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Seattle. Coincidentally I found a neat 5K and 10K event in Seattle in September so that sealed the deal - The Ryka Iron Girl. So look at me go, I have another 10K coming up. This is perfect since I feel like I have some unfinished business on a 10K course, and it fits in well with my training schedule. Plus it is a weekend away in Seattle...

It sounds like a great event though: a women's only event, a double loop around Green Lake, a post race Breakfast Cafe, tech shirts, a personalized racing bib, and a finisher medal. I'm looking forward to it!

Banff Citizen's Race - a final wrap up

Results were posted for the Banff Citizen's Race on Sunday. My official chip time was 1:00:05 with a 10:20/mi. That makes the official distance for the race 5.8 mi, and my projected finishing time 1:04:13. I measured 5.88 mi, but who is counting pennies anyways... This wouldn't have been a PR, but hey, that would have been over a minute faster than the week before! Not bad, eh?

141 people completed the 10K, 74 folks completed the 4K...so they had about 60 or so no shows due to the weather.

**A side note: It would be helpful if I could remember what my PR actually is. I raced it years ago and the result was never recorded, but I seem to remember it being somewhere in the 1:02-03:xx range.

Banff Citizen's 10K - Race Report

Well, the race out in Banff today was a wet one. This race was supposed to go through Sundance Canyon, but thanks to a recent spotting of a grizzly with her two cubs we were sent out on the backup route instead. Probably a good thing too, because even running along the roads, things were WET.... It was a pretty cool morning - I don't think it got above 39 deg the whole time I was out in Banff this morning. There was to be no parking at the start (or so we were told), so everyone was supposed to park at the CP Rail station and catch a shuttle, departing every 15 min starting at 8:30. Or so we thought. I was there right at 8:30, got on the shuttle with another fellow, only to have the driver step on board and inform us that he couldn't leave until the shuttle was full. Some 22 more people later. Some more folks showed up and we contemplated all driving to the start regardless as the shuttle driver was basically informing us that if not enough people showed up, he wouldn't take us at all. Hmmm. We were a bit worried that the rain would keep a lot of folks away, but luckily within 30 min we got our required number and took off for the start. Only to see a bunch of other people filling into the parking lot at the start which we thought we weren't supposed to do...

Anyhow, I grabbed my shirt right away as there were only 201 shirts available, but 275 people had entered. Didn't want to miss out on my shirt! The great thing about wet weather start is it really brings the camaraderie out in people. I had a great time chatting with new friends as we waited in the shelter for the race to start.

At 10:00 we were off, running the streets of Banff on a sort of double loop course. Like last week we had some issues with cars, some folks driving too fast past us runners. There were great, enthusiastic volunteers. I especially liked the "last runner" pace bike - every time I passed him he would shout out to "Go number 26!"

Thanks to the cool weather and the rain I was running pretty fast, but even still, I wound up in sight of the finish line much sooner than I anticipated. It turns out that when they had to rework the route it came out a bit short. The worst part about the route was the track we were supposed to run on at the very finish. It was kind of black sand and it was over saturated with water, as was the grass around it. I tried to run on the grass, but kept sinking in, making it hard to sprint for the finish line. I couldn't believe it when I finished in 1:00:09 (according to the Garmin, still waiting for the official results), a PR for me, but unfortunately on a short course. I measured 5.88 miles.

Here we go...the good, the bad, and the ugly from today's race:

The UGLY:
- My shoes!! Check out the photo of our route into the finish line. I am glad I made a last minute decision to wear my trail sneaks instead of my new running shoes.

The BAD:
- Not quite the 6.2 mi for a true PR....
- The shuttle at the start - and then the shuttle at the end! The driver never showed up, so a few of us had to take a cab back to the parking lot.
- So overcast you couldn't see the mountains.

The GOOD:
- The race volunteers, and all the enthusiastic runners that were out there.
- The swag bag was awesome, and the shirt was really nice. Hopefully with no shows thanks to the weather there weren't any disappointed people who didn't get their shirts.

All in all, it was actually a really fun day. Afterwards a few of us met in Canmore at the Grizzly Paw micro-brew pub for a rewarding lunch. What a blast.

Footstock 10K Race Report

Packet Pick Up
I drove up to Cochrane Friday evening to pick up my bib and t-shirt for Footstock. It was a pretty small expo, just a few booths. When I got my t-shirt I asked if I could use my own timing chip which seemed to create some confusion. Luckily a lady was able to help me out and we changed my chip number in the computer system. After that was sorted out I walked over to the HSBC Calgary Marathon booth to scope out the medals from last year. While I was there two other ladies came up to the booth and started talking about how tough and hot the full was last year. Fingers crossed it won't be that warm this July... We started chatting and they just ran a marathon in Rome this past March. Sounds great! Apparently they love signing up for races to get the bling. I had a good time chatting with them and it sounds like they run a lot of races, and they are interested in the Goofy Challenge one year. After that it was time to head home, carbo load and get some rest!

Pre-Race
I was actually scheduled to run 8 miles today, so I headed out to Cochrane a bit early to get in that extra 1.8. I wasn't as early as I wanted so I tried to get it done quickly and finished in 19:17. As I was heading back some of the volunteers were out getting the water stops set up. Time to drive off to the race start!

The Race
They had quite a few events going on today - a full and half marathon, a 10K and a 5K. Tomorrow they are having a kids tri and an adult du as well. The marathoners started off at 8 am, then all the 10K folks started lining up for our 8:20 start. The race started off on the road, and the one and only hill was in the first mile for us to climb. Only one side of the road was shut down for us, and unfortunately some drivers were impatient and didn't understand the need to slow down as they were driving past us. Luckily we made it off the roads pretty quickly and were on to Cochrane's red shale pathway that runs all along the Bow River. It was absolutely beautiful out, sunny, but not too hot. The 10K course overlapped a bit with the full and half marathoners which was pretty neat. There were also great spectators and volunteers out there. I really appreciated all of their cheering! We did an out and back on the pathway, and it started to thin out quite a bit.

When I realized we were close to the finish line I kicked it into overdrive for what I could muster for a last sprint. I passed a couple of people, but all of a sudden....whoosh....past me....flew the 4th place half marathon finisher. Holy smokes he was fast!!! I'm not sure of the official results yet, but I recorded 1:05:39 for a 10:36/mi average pace. I shaved a bit of time off my last 10K, and that was with the 2 mile warm up beforehand!

After the race was probably one of the best spreads I have seen...a pancake breakfast with sausage and coffee! They also had bagels, bananas, oranges, cookies, juice boxes and yogurt as well. I saw the medals for the half and they were super cute, plus they got really nice technical tees. I may add this one in for next year. I got to see the medal for my upcoming Calgary half (well, last year's medal anyway), and I have to say that the Footstock medal greatly trumped the medal from the Calgary half...sniff, sniff.

All in all, a great morning!

A confidence booster

So I decided not to blog about my run on Tuesday. I did run...a little...but it was such a debacle. I blame the impending thunderstorms that were set to arrive that night as I could see how dark the clouds were while I was out. The bad part about that run was that it left me feeling a little worried about running my 10K this weekend (not to mention that I plan on tacking on 2 mi before I start the race in order to total my scheduled 8 mi). I was definitely needing a confidence booster last night for my planned 4.5 mi run. So I drove down to Shouldice to run the loop around the river - a loop that would be nice and flat. An hurrah, the run felt great. I am now ready for my Footstock 10K in Cochrane on Saturday. Tonight I hit the expo and pick up my race packet..!!