Race morning - get up and shower, just to warm up my muscles a bit to stretch. I don't know if it works, but it makes me think it helps because my last two races have went well when I showered in the morning. Next, traditional race morning breakfast of oatmeal. Next, check the weather while eating breakfast. Finally, get dressed.
I left the house at 8:15 am to pick up Racer Girl (Susan) at 8:30. 9:30 am - race start and off we went. The run started at Sir Winston Churchill Square and along 102 Avenue down to Stony Plain Road and back. At the 2 km mark I looked at my watch and it was 11 minutes. I said to myself "self, you better start running faster or it's gonna take you 55 minutes to run this race." I picked up the pace and at the 5 km mark I pressed the lap button on my watch - it said 26:43. OK, if I manage to run the last half at the same pace, it's going to be a 52 and a half minute race. That's average for me. I kept up the same pace for the second half, or at least I thought I did, but when I finished I was pleasantly surprised that my second half was 26:09 - 34 seconds faster - WOW! This is my sixth race this season and I'm pleased to say 'the races have improved my performance.' I came in sixth in my age group and Susan came in sixth too (sixes all around, anybody?). At the time the results were posted there were 28 people in my age group and 12 is Susan's, but don't know how many more came in after that.) Here are the results. I don't know what's up with the results saying I came in 7th when yesterday the results said I was 6th, but I guess I'll settle for being 7th out of 64 women in my age group. I'm also pretty pleased that I came 55th overall out of 345 women.
I was hanging out and eventually made my way back to the finish line to watch Susan cross it, only to see that she had already finished. She was only three and a half minutes behind me. She totally under estimated her ability to run that distance. After the race, we stretched and checked out the expo, but were particularly interested in the compression socks - I'm going to purchase a pair. They will be great to wear on the airplane to Australia because I'll be sitting for so long. I might even wear them for the 1/2 marathon - I've seen a lot of runners wear them in long distance races.
We went to the YMCA for a soak in the hot tub and then shopped at Holt Renfrew. Of course I didn't buy anything. I kept telling myself that Australia is more important. We went to Zenari's for lunch, and that put me back $12.
It was a totally relaxing day. Susan called it a "spa day" and the best part - it only cost us $2 to park underground because I have a membership at the YMCA that entitles me to three hours free parking, but we extended our parking to about seven hours.
All in all, a great day. When I woke up this morning, I found out Paul Tichelaar was in the race (it was in the paper). Paul is a friend of mine who was in the 2008 Olympics competing in triathlon. I told my Dad "I bet I'll pass Paul". He said "I bet you won't." Well I did pass him, but unfortunately it was when I was on my way out and he was way past the half way point on his way back. I passed him going the other way.
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