The Pride and Remembrance Run marks my very first racing anniversary. It was one year ago that I got talked into doing the 5K Pride Run by a friend and since then I’ve become a rather rabid racing addict!
My last year’s 5K was a flat 28 minute run. Since then I’ve managed a personal best of 26:10. While I would like to go faster than my pb, my only real goal with this run was to stay under the 27 minute mark.
June 28th was a hot and incredibly sweaty day. Thankfully, the race was at 10 AM and the starting point on Church Street and Wellesley was only minutes from my apartment. I was doing this run with a rather large group of people so we met up in advance before heading to the starting area together. Unfortunately we got to the start line very late, and ended up situated behind the walkers. There was no chance we could push our way through the crowd to get into a more reasonable zone.
So this race’s route is a straight run out to Queen’s Park from the Gay Village, a double lap around Queen’s Park, then straight back to the Village. It’s not a a great course, and there’s immense potential for cheaters to cut their race short by doing only one lap around the park. However, the thing I like about racing is that realistically this is never going to be a race between me and the other 1300 people out there. Since I’m never going to come in first (let alone even in the top 100), the only person I’m competing against is me and what race times I’ve put out in the past.
When the event started with a large bang of rainbow confetti, I broke away from my group quickly and pushed on ahead. Getting around the walkers wasn’t fun – for the most part they were five abreast, causing huge walls to get around. I started out really strong – my first kilometer clocked in at 4:52, but I quickly realized I was not going to be able to maintain that pace.
This was a pretty uncomfortable race for me. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom the entire time and it was about 23C degrees outside (“feels like 34C with the humidity” – I only wish I was kidding). I don’t perform particularly well in the heat, I never have. I find it really taxing on my body. And now that the excuses are out of the way…
While I had started the race hoping to get a decent time, throughout the run I quickly amended that to “just don’t drop down to a walk”. It was hot, I felt like my bladder was going to wimp out on me, and all I could think about was ‘I’ve done this course, I know where the water station is and you can get that tasty delicious, refreshing water TWICE on this route… just. keep. pushing!”
And so I ran.
It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t fun, but I ran.
And when I say it wasn’t pretty, I mean it REALLY wasn’t pretty:
I grabbed water twice at the stations and did the “run and drink”. Which basically means I got about a teaspoon of water in my mouth and the rest of it splashed up into my face and up my nose. But that was okay, I just needed the refresher.
The thing I don’t like about this route is that it feels suspiciously uphill on both sides of the park. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but that’s what it feels like!
I really don’t remember the tail end of the race to be perfectly honest. I remember thinking it was grossly hot out. I remember thinking I didn’t like how slow I was going. And I remember being like… can I please just finish now?
I clocked in at 26:48 which is not the time I wanted, but it wasn’t over 27 minutes, so that was something to celebrate for sure. Bizarrely, I came in the exact same place (575) as I did last year! Although I believe the race had about two-to-three hundred more people in it this year.
To anyone considering this race in future years, it’s definitely worth doing. The atmosphere is welcoming and happy. It’s also not too large of a run so there’s plenty of space to move around. Definitely worth adding to your racing schedule!
Race Results
- Finish Time: 26:48
- Pace: 5:22 per kilometer
- Overall placement: 575/1333
- Age group placement (25-34): 74/247
- Gender placement (F): 175/667