Two weekends ago I took part in the Pride and Remembrance Run 5K race in Toronto. It’s one of my absolute favourite races to run, not only because I literally live around the corner from the start zone, but also because it’s a community event for me in the gaybourhood that has a lot of “feel good” moments surrounding it. I’m running/racing with my community, my friends always sign up for it so we get to hang out at the start (and afterwards) together, and the energy of the event is so welcoming and inviting.
Somewhere in the middle of the race
You may also remember that the Pride Run is also my racing anniversary as this is the run that got me into racing in the first place. I first took part back in 2013, and since this is 2016, this is the fourth time I’ve done this run. Truth be told, it’s not my favourite course I’ve ever done (it’s a double loop and back to the start) and it’s always wayyyy too hot during this run, but I do it because I love my community and this race holds good memories for me. They also offered free photos this year (pictured above) which is really, really nice. I wish more races included that in their signup fee!
Coming up near the finish line
As with the Rat Race, I did far worse that I was hoping to do. But you know what? It was a few seconds faster than my race from two weeks ago, so that’s okay, at least it’s not a downward trend.
Nearly there…
I huffed and puffed my way to the finish line, not even spotting my husband who managed to get close enough to me to get some up close shots! End result? Not my best, but still not my worst!
Happy Fitness Friday! Since this is my third time doing this run, I’ll keep my recap fairly brief. The Scotiabank Rat Race for United Way is a charity 5k fun run (raise a minimum of $100 and you can race) that everyone can participate in. Since Scotiabank is the main sponsor and they’re also my employer, I usually put together a team of people to race in the event. This year I recycled the team name “The Grumpy Cats” and had a fair number of people joining me!
Queuing up for the start of the Rat Race
I’m keeping this post short mostly because I’m fairly disappointed in myself. Here’s a little context for that disappointment:
Last year my fastest and personal best time was 26:10 for a 5K.
On the other end, my slowest time was 26:32.
I had done training runs up to this race that were not difficult (easy to breathe, felt relaxed, etc.) that clocked in at 27 minutes EASILY.
Even my 5K race in March of this year was under 27 minutes.
Coming up to the finish line
So how did I finish this race? With a really disappointing 27:38. I was so, SO sad. I *know* it’s only about 60-90 seconds slower than last year, but that’s a LOT of time in a 5k. (For example, if I’d shaved 60 seconds off my personal best, I’d be ECSTATIC!) So I’m doing what I can to reformat how I’m exercising and training in the hopes that I can get back to where I was. The Pride 5K race is coming up next weekend and I’m really, really worried I’ll be clocking in over 28 minutes. Ugh.
2016 Rat Race Course Map
I feel like I’ve been whinging about slow race times for a while now which isn’t a good thing. There’s only so much whining you can do before you have to change how you approach things. So that’s where I’m at right now – thank you for listening. 🙂
Race Results
Finish Time: 27:38
Pace: 5:32 per kilometer
Overall placement: 519/1441
Age group placement (Female 30-39 years): Not available
I was in Iceland for just over a week last month, and in true Chelle-style, I decided to find a race while we were there!
Starting out!
The only one happening while we were there was the Reykjavik Spring and Autumn Marathon. Thankfully, almost every marathon event has a half marathon tacked on to it as well. Good thing for me since there was no way I wanted to run a full! I was pretty excited to run this one because I had pictures of gorgeous vistas while running and I knew I would love the temperature since it would be somewhere in the range of 0-10C.
Somewhere near the start of the race
Sadly, I was so exhausted the morning of the race that I was very close to saying “forget it, I’m not doing it”. Our rented apartment in downtown Reykjavik was on a decently busy street (Laugavegur) and I hadn’t managed to fall asleep until after 4 am. The race was at 10, so I was up at 8 am to have breakfast and sort myself out. I felt absolutely wrecked. I was near tears I was feeling so awful. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that if I finished this, I could scratch off yet another country on my running list AND the fact that I had told sooo many people that I was doing this that I would’ve felt like such a chump to go back to Canada and told people I had bummed out of it. Never EVER underestimate the power of telling people your plans. Doesn’t matter if it’s fitness related, or something else – telling people you’re going to do something gives you a lot of mental power. I am absolutely convinced that is one of the only reasons I even got my butt out of bed that morning to run this damn half marathon.
And somewhere near the end!
We took the local bus out to the race start zone (David came with me), and I was nauseous the whole way there. I was even worried that I’d get 10k into the race and then just be like “nope, I’m done”. So suffice to say… I had no idea how this was going to go.
So how did it go? Well, not great. The weather was misty and rainy and there was a lot more uphill than I was expecting. It was so foggy/misty that there honestly wasn’t a ton to look at either. It was an awkward temperature that I didn’t really have the right clothes for it (that purple Lululemon thing you see was far too heavy and not rain repellent – and yet, had I not worn it, I would’ve frozen my butt off). I was slow and tired, but I just kept telling myself “just finish it. Just run at a pace where you don’t want to die, and just finish it”. One of my mantras in my head no matter what I’m doing is “just keep pushing” and it really helped me after the 18th and 19th kilometers.
Coming up to the finish line!
I clocked in with a chip time that was easily my worst half marathon timing to date: 2 hours, 19 minutes and 49 seconds. Given my slow pace and exhaustion, I actually thought I’d be closer to 2.5 hours, so I’m happy I managed this in under 2:20! In hindsight, I’m really, REALLY happy I did this race, but my god… that morning was really rough.
Finisher
We came back to the airbnb we’d rented, I took a decent photos of myself with my medal and then I promptly got back into bed and slept for another four hours. What a bizarre experience… get four hours of sleep, get up, run a half marathon, then go home and go right back to bed. Like a bad dream or something!
I have to say though… a huge thank you to the organizers of this race. It was a very small group for both the half and full (under 300 people total), but it was well organized and the water stations were well-manned and easy to access. When I asked one of the organizers about how to get the local bus back to central Reykjavik, he actually found someone who drove us instead. I usually prefer far larger groups for races since there’s more of an “epic” feeling to them, but the size of this race allotted us the comfort of a safe drive home in a warm vehicle with good company. I really can’t thank them enough!
Close up shot of the medalReykjavik Spring Half Marathon Course
And there’s the course above as tracked by my Garmin. It was a loopback course, so we covered the same ground twice. Thanks so much to Pétur Helgason and Torfi Leifsson for some of the photos in this post.
So there we have it! Five countries (Canada, USA, Austria, Czech Republic and now Iceland) on my completed race list, and hopefully many more to come.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to try out Spokehaüs – Toronto’s newest spinning location. Spokehaüs (I love the word play!) is located at 70 Dan Leckie Way in in Cityplace, Toronto, which is not the most convenient location for me to get to from my office (King/Bay), but it was a really nice 30 minutes walk!
Spokehaüs provides you with shoes that fit their bikes
I’ll start this off by saying that I’ve never done spinning of any kind and I can barely remember the last time I was even on a bicycle. So this whole fitness thing is very, very new to me. When I arrived at Spokehaüs they had me sign a waiver and had me fitted for a pair of shoes (the shoes fit neither large nor small and were consistent with normal running shoe sizing, although I would say they were slightly narrower than most running shoes. For reference, I wear a running shoe size 7, and that’s what I was in the spinning shoes). The shoes are necessary because you end up clipping into your stationary bike. You can bring your own, but I believe the clips have to match their particular bike system.
Thankfully my friend (and beauty blogger!) Shawna was there to try out spinning with me!
Thankfully, I wasn’t doing this alone! My friend Shawna of Spill the Beauty was more than willing to try out Spokehaüs with me. Hooray for strength in numbers!
The first thing I noticed was that the layout of the studio was not my favourite. Class sizes are about 30 people or so and the bathroom/changing area gets very, very cramped with even only six people in there. (Plus the door pulls into the room, basically hitting any and everyone in the immediate vicinity.) However, there are handy lockers that you can program with your own code free of charge (and easy to program too!). We were in the early class (5:30) so we were able to change in peace, but once our class let out we were suddenly bombarded with everyone for the 6:30 class waiting to get in and the change room was totally packed.
Spokehaüs spinning room
Anyway, on to the spinning itself! We were assigned bikes and lead into a dark room. A towel and our name tag was on our assigned bikes (super nice touch!). We were shown how to clip our shoes into our bicycles and asked what kind of weights we wanted to use. Not knowing how much we’d be doing with the weights (or even WHAT we would be doing with them), I opted for 3 pounders (this was a good option as there was a small weights segment but it was predominantly shoulder work, so don’t go crazy with the weights). The room was dark and lit by candles on the floor surrounding the center area where our instructor would be.
This was the BEFORE shot…
Once it was time to get started, the doors behind us were closed and the lights were totally turned off (there may have been a single dim spotlight on the instructor, but I can’t quite remember). I really, really enjoyed this aspect because it was enough light to see the instructor, but if you’re someone who is self conscious about how you look or how you feel about exercise, this will alleviate a lot of your anxieties.
The class was incredibly well lead. I can’t remember our instructor’s name, but she was motivating and effective. Even getting off her bike at times to jump around the room and encourage us. Especially helpful when you felt like you were struggling a little bit with the moves! And I have to say… I was totally drenched even halfway through the spin class. I have never felt sweat pouring off my entire body like I did during this workout. I wasn’t necessarily out of breath (I had a little bit of trouble hearing when to turn up the resistance), but I was just totally soaked. We’re talking sweat trickling down your lower back and butt crack, pouring off your face in buckets… to the point where I swear I actually felt my earlobes dripping as well. I run a significant amount of distances every month, but I have never sweat like this before in my entire life. Not even on a run in 35C heat, or at a soccer game in (no, I’m not joking) 49C with humidex.
…and this is the after shot!
You can’t really tell from these terrible phone photos I took (sorry, I forgot my camera at home!), but my hair was soaked through. To the point where my soggy ponytail was actually whipping me during the workout! I was sooo drenched!
You might ask if this is something I’d repeat doing, and for me, the answer is that it’s not quite my cup of tea (there’s something about cycling that doesn’t really get me going, you know?), but I can assure you that I was motivated to work hard throughout my Spokehaüs session. I loved the instructor, I loved the atmosphere (although it could’ve done with a little air conditioning in that room!) and I think it’s a fantastic workout. If you love spinning, I’d encourage you to check out Spokehaüs!
If you’ve tried spinning, tell me what you’ve loved or not loved about it. I know some people are head over heels for it while others feel very differently – but there’s no denying that it’s a hell of a workout!
In what I’m hoping is going to become a yearly tradition for me, I ran the Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K for the second time this year!
2016 Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K
The start/finish zone is by Steamwhistle Brewery in downtown Toronto and last year I clocked my personal best of 26:10 (tied personal best actually… I got the exact same race time in the 2014 Rat Race), so I was hoping for some magic this year and to finally crack into 25 minutes.
2016 Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K – coming up to the end
But, as I’ve been non-stop lamenting through 2015, I’ve been in not so great shape and I (frustratingly) keep packing on the pounds. I look at last year’s racing post and I get a little bit jealous of the body I’ve got in those shots… and yet the weight difference is only 5-7 pounds!
2016 Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K
All moaning aside, I love this race. It’s green, it’s St. Patrick’s Day themed and it’s supported by a brewery. The course is relatively decent (except for that ASSHOLE of a hill near the end as we cross back over the bridge towards the end) and it takes place during a month where the temperatures are usually just above freezing which is my preferred running temperature. (Over 15C? Hate it.)
2016 Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K – finally the finish line!
It’s a loopback course, so you run out 2.5k, switchback and carry on back to the start/finish line. It’s a relatively small race so you don’t have to worry about mass crowds which I love. I felt pretty decent throughout the bulk of the race, BUT I was able to sprint towards the finish line which definitely means I had more gas in the tank that I could’ve used throughout the whole race.
2016 Achilles St. Patrick’s Day 5K – course map
I clocked in at 26:51 – thankfully still in the 26 minute mark, but perilously close to 27 minutes which is disappointing. It’s “only” a 41 second difference from last year’s race, but seconds are HUGE in racing so this is quite a bad drop in terms of racing. In general terms, I dropped from the top 25%, down to the top 32%.
Still, I love the atmosphere and they serve you a beer and insanely delicious spicy chili afterwards. I’m happy to get back into racing this year with this race, but I’ve got a lot of work to do to get back in line with where I used to be!
Race Results
Finish Time: 26:51
Pace: 5:22 per kilometer
Overall placement: 415/1273
Age group placement (Female 30-39 years): 54/245
Gender placement (F): 139/706
By the way, if you’re ever interested in the other races I’ve run, you can always visit my Race Results page for a breakdown by year and by race. Enjoy!
