My Sixth 5k (Toronto Zoo Run)

translated from my french blog

warning, the following post is really long... phew!

Today (as in Oct 17th. I didn't feel like translating for the longest time! :P) for the first time S ran a 5k with me!!! It was the Oasis Zoo Run. Wheee :) We ran in our neighborhood a few times to practice together and I noticed right away that he is well ahead of me when it comes to speed - oh la la! It's crazy how easy it seems for him! When we train together he is nice - since I'm much slower than him he runs ahead at his own pace and then he loops back to meet me so that I always have him in sight. For his very first race though, I wanted him to give all he had and not wait for me, I was really curious to see what kind of time he could finish in! :)

It was 2 ºC outside (35.6 ºF) this morning - I didn't have the 'courage' to run in shorts - brrrr. But S decided to be brave and do it. Let's just say that getting there an hour early and having to wait in the cold was not very pleasant - I was so cold myself, I can't imagine how cold he must have been!





Unfortunately, these are the only 2 shots that made it to the memory card, even though I thought I took a bunch of shots before the race. The batteries were really low, that must be why... Too bad, I had some better shots in there - but I guess they just don't exist anymore :( oh well...


At the start line, they had organized people in 'waves' based on how long it would take to finish. We went to the 28-32 area, the second wave to start, one minute after the official start (the course was just too 'small' to let all the participants in at the same time...)

When we finally started running, S asked for my help to start his iPod, a few clicks and it worked, as soon as it did off he went... He ran so fast, he quickly disappeared in the crowd ahead of me, I was so proud! Go S GO!!! :)

There were a lot of hills on the course - oh boy oh boy - pretty difficult! (Hills that I inexplicably didn't anticipate even though I was right there visiting the zoo with my co-workers back in april... pffff!)

There were some 'loops' during the race where you got to run facing the runners that were ahead of you (how do you call/explain that? does it make sense?) anyways... So at the first 'loop' I kept an eye on the oncoming runners to see if I could spot S, I eventually saw him, all focused and concentrated! So concentrated that he didn't evn react when I yell woo hoo at him and waved :) It took me what seemed like a minute to a minute and a half to get to the point where I met him - I was so impressed when I realized that! WOW!

Somewhere around the 3rd km I started having cramps :( I tried to breathe calmly/deeply/slowly to see if it would go away, but the air was too cold, which kind of made it worse (exercise induced asthma/coughing etc.) But I was hanging in there... a few minutes later I started to feel pretty intense 'TOM' cramps - ouch So I ended up stopping twice to walk a little bit, it was brief, but it was needed...

By the time I got to 4km, I was really giving everything I had to this race - you're doing fine, don't pay attention you're not in pain... don't stop! don't stop! Eventually I heard a volunteer yell ''100m to go!'' So I started pushing and accelerating. I sprinted to the finish line... oof! this had to be the toughest sprint I ever ran, more difficult than any other race I did before - but I did it!!! The clock said '34:13' when I crossed the finish line (so 33:13, if you remove the extra minute we waited for being in the 'second wave') My HRM says 32:30 though... and I really clicked a bit before the start line and really waited until after the finish line to stop it... So my time was ok I guess, somewhere between 32:30 and 33:13. Not too bad...

I quickly spotted S in the crowd after finishing, faster then my stomach/lungs recovered so I had to collect myself before asking him how he did, hee hee... after a minute I said 'how........ long... you....?' He said that theclock said 28:30 when he crossed the finish line!!! (As in 27:30 if you remove the 1 minute offset...) WOAH!!!! I was so proud of him!!! His very first 5k and he does it in 27:30!!! Imagine if the course would've been flat - he would've been even faster!!

ok now I'm jealous! hee hee, just joking ;)

It's our last race before our wedding on Nov. 4th... in a little over one week... We plan to run on our honeymoon at Disney World, I looked it up and there are a few paths available... it's going to be so much fun to run there! Like a little bit of extra summer time to enjoy running outdoors :) From now until the wedding we have cut out all activities to avoid getting any injuries hee hee do you think we're being too 'safe'? :) Let's just say I'd rather be safe than sorry...

Last Sunday, we went to cheer on our soccer team (we're officially on the team but we're not playing until after the wedding...) and a girl from the opposite team fell on her wrist, you know, a typical fall where you would just get up and forget about it. Well, when she checked her wrist with her other hand she immediately lost all color in her face - the pieces of her arm were not in the right place anymore. Both teams were in shock to see what happened to her. I'm pretty sure she must have broken the bones in her forearm, her arm was like a 'Z'. She left in an ambulance and the game continued - everybody was slightly less, um... competitive after that... I think it really traumatized everybody - she kept repeating (please forgive the swearing...) ''My arm, it's fucked! It's fucked!''

so yeah - maybe it is a good idea that we're not playing after all... :)

Anyways, I'll keep an eye on the web site for the race to see if they post some photos, I'll update this post if they do...

A thing I meant to mention though is that both S and I have been sneezing like crazy since we got back from the Zoo, S more than me (he tends to be allergic to a bunch of things...) I wonder if it has to do with the animals at the zoo, or if it's just that we caught a cold or something...

Also, go see Marie's video of the 'finish line' on her blog - she ran the 10k at the zoo this morning! WOO HOO Marie!!! If I run today, it's in big part thanks to her - she persuaded me to try a race, which led to me 'training for the race'... And she always generously encourages me... I am totally addicted to running now - wheeeeee!! :)