Another day, another race done. This one was tough to get into race mode as I am just coming down from some pretty intense and tiring marathon training. This past week I have had some soreness and due to my approaching goal race I feel as though I am being hypersensitive to any sign of injury. But I committed to doing the race so I put all of that behind me and headed out the door to the very cold ‘spring’ day.
I have never run Harry’s Spring Run Off before. But knowing it was put on by Canada Running Series led me to believe it would be a well run event… and that it was! I was fortunate enough to be named to the elite list for the event, which is always a great experience.
Let me get back to the cold comment… it was such a beautiful day on Friday sunny and 10 degrees. How could it seriously be back down to feels like -4 on race day? We are in April are we not? Needless to say I do not love racing in the cold… So I stuck it out in my long spandex and long sleeve, although I know I likely looked quite ridiculous, but if my legs were warm I did not care.
So back to the race, I am a sucker for going out too hard… what can I say I like to leave it all on the course. It just happens this course ends with a mountain! Megan Brown, coach of MBP reminded me before the race started not to go out too hard “do not bank time in this race, bank energy”. That was a good piece of advice… that I did not listen to. So out in the first km with the leaders in 3:15. I did not have a race plan aside from going out and racing but a 3:15 opening km was not a part of any plan I should have been partaking in.
This is a tough course… you are pretty much constantly up and down hills (spring rd mountain…whatever you want to call it). Needless to say I did not keep up the 3:15 pace. But I continued to push hard as the first and second females pulled away from me. This is okay because it just continues to motivate me to train harder and stay focused so that I can get better and be one of the women that is pulling away!
The last hill just about killed me, thank goodness for the support on the hill from all the Toronto run crews. It was awesome! I love the run community in Toronto, it is truly something special to be a part of. So I finished the race in 29:15 and in third place overall. Happy with my achievement! I hope everyone else had a great race as well!
Taper starts now for Boston which is in just under 2 weeks!!!!! AHHH!!! I am filled with mixed emotion but looking forward to the experience none the less!
Also just a reminder I am fund raising for the Alzheimer’s Society research department for my efforts of training and racing the Boston Marathon. My dad has early onset Alzheimer’s and it sucks! So I wanted to try and do something to make a difference. The fund raising site is https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=2677043&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.memorymakersforalzheimers.ca%252f#&panel1-2 There is more information about my dad’s story on the fundraising site. I have well surpassed my goal and am so touched by the generosity. I am currently the second highest fundraiser for the Alzheimers society at $5986.00. Help me make even more of a difference!
Please feel free to pass this on to any of your contacts and donate if you would like!
Happy training… or taper for those of your running Boston!
Toronto Running Chiro 