Plain Can Be Lovely

Six days after running our first marathon, Arlene and I headed out to run a 5k race with the goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. The weather was terrible, cold, wet and pouring rain. We were both glad that we didn’t have to deal with these miserable conditions during the marathon. I know I still would have finished, but I’m also sure I would have struggled a lot more. Because of the rain, I don’t have any pictures from the run. I spent a lot of time hiding out in the food tent and I when I got too cold I participated in the Zumba warm up. Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t do Zumba for a reason. I’m completely uncoordinated so when I did the warm up I was crashing into people and making up my own moves because I couldn’t follow along.

Arlene and I after the 5k. This is the only picture we took because of the rain.

Jason was going to run the 5k with us (while pushing his son in his running stroller) but he forgot his race bib at home and the weather was too awful to run with his son. He still came to support us (and take the one picture that we took after the race).

The race started so Arlene and I ran to join the other runners and took off. We were laughing because we didn’t have time to do a proper warm up (other than my Zumba warm up). We took it easy for the first part and could see somebody running in a mascot costume (some sort of giant head). They were pretty fast too. I joked that if we ran behind them there would be some wind resistance. The first part of the race was an out and back and we hit the turnaround faster than I thought we would. Then I realized that there weren’t any pylons set up so people had been moving inwards making the turnaround move from where it was supposed to be. My Nike Running app said we did 4.85k instead of a full 5k, so we missed .15k because of this turnaround. Oops! By the time we realized it we were already in the crowd on the way back.

We were both eager to run a PB so we started running faster. We reached the first small incline and two guys in front of us were walking up it and blocking the way. We finally got around them and ran faster. There was another incline (I call them inclines because after all of our hill training I don’t think they qualify as hills) where people were walking or running to the top and then walking to catch their breath. I felt so good running up the inclines and passing people. The rain was horrible though and my nose kept running. The volunteers were really nice and kept telling us that we were doing good and “You’re my hero today!” They were very encouraging and I can only imagine how much it sucked to stand in the rain. At least I was running. So I really appreciated them.

I lost Arlene as we ran down a hill (she was right behind me though). She was more cautious on the hill because she was worried about slipping. Meanwhile I didn’t even think of that. I just thought of how many more people I could pass. When we rounded the second last corner I passed a guy. Arlene said it looked like we were running together for a long time. As we rounded the last corner I thought we it was further to the finish line so I slowed a little to conserve some energy. Then I saw that the finish line was just up a small incline and the guy who had been running with me passed me. I sped up and finished in 26:33! Arlene was right behind me with 26:35. We were really pleased. Even if we had run the extra .15 it still would have been a PB. My previous PB for 5k was 29.23 (run 1 week after my second half marathon).

As we were headed to the food tent, the guy who had been running with me said to me “When you passed me I wanted to catch up to you so thanks for the motivation!” That’s the first time anybody has ever said that to me before.

After the run we ate like kings. The food tent had the most food I had ever seen after a run, with bagels (with packets of jam), juice, water, bananas, apples, granola bars, Tim Hortons coffee, chewy fruit snacks and more.

With our 5k done, Arlene and I began to mentally prepare for the 10k the next day. More on that soon.

Note: I should also mention that this race was organized by my workplace. I entered it as a regular participant (paid for my entry myself etc.). All thoughts and opinions on the race are my own.