Canal Days 5k

I have to admit that I am starting to like this “no pressure to perform” running attitude I have adopted over the past couple of weeks.  Normally I would go into a 5k set to run my ass off and kill my time, hopefully beating as many people in my category as possible; instead I went into today’s race looking to push at a pace my body could maintain without killing myself.  What a change!

We arrived at the park early as always.  Registration was still being set up so there was a bit of confusion as to where people were to sign in and pick their race kits up.  We watched a few people go through the lines before us and then followed their lead.  Both myself and my husband, and our two kids were running.  It was MK & BK’s first ever running race 🙂  We picked up our kits and headed to the park so the kids could play.  Thankfully for us Grandma was along for the morning so she entertained the kids while we got ready.

We got ourselves together, got the kids numbers pinned to their shirts and waited around for friends (who were also running) to arrive.  We had a good group of friends out, all with kids running in the kids event, and a few first time runners (husbands).  The kids run was a 600m lap around the park, they got official numbers (no chip), and each child was guaranteed a finishers medal when they completed the race. What a great opportunity for a positive running experience!

Ben warming up for his racing debut

As the start time approached KK and I headed out for a quick warm up.  I was anxious to see how my abdomen was feeling after Wednesday nights mess. My warm up was short, and other than my legs feeling very heavy and tired, my body felt okay.  I was still really hoping that I would be able to finish the race without any major injuries acting up.

The announcer asked all the kids to head to the start line.  Our daughter was sooooo pumped!  She had her best friend at her side and she was ready to go.  The gun went off and we were on our way.  My husband ran with my daughter and BK and I took on the course together.  Before long I knew BK wasn’t going to finish the whole course 🙂  So our race went like this, walk together, me pick him up and jog, walk together some more, me pick him up and jog, BK sees the park I tell him we can’t play there now, BK starts crying, I try to convince him to run to the finish line (now 50m away), he cries some more, Grandma joins us and we swing him through the finish line.  We finished in last place, but we still finished!  MK was overjoyed with her race.  She ran the whole way (which neither my husband nor I thought she would do), and she got an awesome pirate medal.  As soon as she was done she wanted to run again, and run faster.

Next up was our 5k.  I still felt fine mentally.  I put zero pressure on myself to perform and really, truly, honestly just wanted to finish the race.  I can’t believe how much my state of mind has changed recently.  Usually everything in my body is tense from head to toe because I can’t stop my thoughts from sliding down the slope of “what ifs”, but now that I’ve stopped the negative thoughts and just decided that what will be will be, I feel relaxed and calm; like I’m just going to run.  I think I’ve finally accepted that my injuries and current situation in life have kept me from training, which has kept me from staying fit.  All of those things have made it impossible to race at the level I want to, and rather than trying to pretend that isn’t the case I’m learning to embrace it and deal with what is real and current rather than what I wish would happen.

I lined up about mid way through the pack.  The gun went off and I moved myself left and headed up the outside of the main pack.  The first 2 kms went fast.  I was trying not to worry about pace, but the few times I did look down I was running 4:20-4:30s.  I knew that was likely going to kick me in the ass shortly, but again I just wanted to run where my body could for each km, and so I kept on.  The course was a strange figure 8, weaving back past the park and then out into a residential area.

Me moving along

It was HOT.  I kept waiting for the water station, or rather wishing for the water station, at about the 2.5k mark I was so hot and my legs were so heavy that I stopped and walked for a few feet.  If you’ve been keeping up with me, you know if I do that once I’ll do it again.  So sure enough the water station came at about the 3k mark and I stopped, drank some, threw some down my neck and walked a couple of steps.  I started to feel guilty about all the walking and heard myself saying “if you can walk, you can jog” (a mantra I often repeat to the women I train) so I started moving again.

Thankfully the back part of the course was mostly shaded.  There were nice big trees on the residential street that took away some of the heat.  I looked down at my watch at about 3.5k and saw 5:12 pacing, eww.  I sure was slowing down.  I promised myself that at 4k I would speed up a bit, and at 4.5 I would push with whatever I could comfortably do and finish strong.  As I said, I wasn’t out to kill myself.  So the 4k marker came and I told myself to push, well my legs didn’t want to go.  To say I am out of running shape doesn’t do my lack of fitness justice.  I am out of shape, badly.  I haven’t run consistently in months and today just proved that.  My injuries were there, dull though so they weren’t holding me back, it was lack of fitness that was my biggest issue.  I was just tired.  My breathing was okay, but my legs were gone.

Thankfully we came around the corner and I could see the finish line.  I knew there were quite a few (I know there were 6 now) women around my age ahead of me, so I wasn’t in it to win it 😉  I pushed with what I had left and managed to come in at 24:23.  Not my PB but a decent time since I haven’t been training.  I was happy to be under 25m.   Every one was given a finishers medal, which is the first I’ve ever had and a nice touch for first timers.

Physically I felt good after finishing.  My legs recovered quickly and because I wasn’t going full-out my HR and breathing came down quickly.  I got some cold water in me which helped to bring the body temp down and then headed back out to cheer our friends across the finish line.  Mentally I also felt good.  I was happy I didn’t kill myself, but felt like I ran at a pace that challenged me.  I didn’t beat myself up through the race, or wish that I was doing something different, I just ran and thought of it as just any other run.

After the race there was a playground and splash pad for the kids to play in.  There was fresh fruit, muffins and freezies as well.  Everything was clean and well-organized.  There were several rounds of draw prizes (to be honest it felt like they would never end), and we managed to win 3 of them which is always a bonus.

Then we waited, and waited, and waited.  One of the major drawbacks of winning (my husband finished 1st in his age group) is having to wait for awards.  This time it was even worse because they were having timing difficulties with the chip time system so it took FOREVER!  By the time they finally announced the winners half of them had left.  That part was very disappointing, however they did own up to it and apologized for the delay.

All in all it really was a great family event.  We will definitely be doing this race in years to come as a family and hope to get an even bigger group of friends out with us next year.  I will post pictures once they get them up 🙂