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!
This year’s racing attire
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.
Prior to getting sweaty
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.
These are cropped from the original photos, so my blurriness is simply because the photographer was focused on another runner (photo credit: Andrew Paterson)
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:
The sad thing with this shot? I remember the photographer and I was like “ohhhh yessss I’ll smile and wave for this one!”. But this is the shot he got… (photo credit to Andrew Paterson)…and this is the shot where I’m waving. Can’t you see me? Bottom left! Damnit! (photo credit: Andrew Paterson)
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!
Pride and Remembrance Run 5K Route Map
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!
So I work for Scotiabank, and every year the bank does a “Rat Race” for United Way. The idea is that it’s a bunch of corporate big cheeses running a 5K through Toronto’s downtown financial core (although the route has changed a few times over the years). I’d only ever run it once before several years ago (I’m thinking circa 2006, but I’m not positive). This was long before I knew anything about running any kind of long distance seriously, what a “personal best” meant or that there was technology to track your racing times.
So when this popped up on an interoffice memo at work one day, I was like “Ooooo yes!” This race is basically a free entry race (5Ks generally cost about $35 to $50), but you’re expected to raise $100 in donations for the United Way which is the charity this race focuses on. Being the cat lover that I am, I knew I wanted to pick some kind of cat theme for my team. In an attempt to find an internet meme that wasn’t too difficult for people to understand, I went with:
It’s all about the red dot
And called our team “Staying Late To Catch the Red Dot”. It even made sense because he’s in a business suit and we’re staying late after work to run this race! I thought it was incredibly clever and his little faece makes me laugh whenever I look at it. So even though I had to explain it to everyone who joined my team or asked about the race, it was still worth it. Some of them thought I was talking about having my period. I even tried to make the meaning more clear at work:
Moar Red Dots. MOAR.
Although I may have gone a little overboard! In the end, I managed to recruit 12 Rat Race team members from the office and we raised over $1400 for United Way.
On to the actual race…
Bib number
I was really nervous for this one. REALLY nervous. Because my last 5K had gone so poorly, I was worried that maybe I was just naturally that slow and that there was really no use in working on my running times. Shitty mentality, but there you have it. This race felt very much like I needed to prove to myself that I could run faster than I had before and if I didn’t, I was going to be immensely disappointed.
This was a smaller race (under 2000 people) so there would be a lot more space to get around other runners if I needed to (unlike the disaster starting zone of the Ottawa Race Weekend 5K). I was also slightly worried about the 2k incline at the start of the race. The remaining 2k would be downhill, but it’s really nasty starting a race with an uphill incline like that for such a long stretch.
Bathroom selfie
All 12 of us headed over to the starting line around 7 o’clock. Since most of us worked in the downtown core, it wasn’t a whole lot of hassle to get us out to the start line close to Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.
The race started with very little fanfare, not even a starting gun bang, and we were off. As I’d said before, the first two kilometers of this race was a 25 meter incline up University Avenue until we hit Bloor Street. The start of any race is always the most unpleasant for me – everything always feels wrong. My breathing feels wrong – I feel out of breath and like maybe I’m not strong enough for the pace I’d set out for myself. I also managed to get a stitch in my side that didn’t help matters. But I just ignored it and tried to regulate my breathing a bit better. I really didn’t start to feel solid until I finished the incline at the top of Bloor Street when the ground evened out.
Oddly, the entire road wasn’t closed down for the race – only one lane was shut down so we had to maneuver around people through a single laneway of traffic. But with only 1500 people in the race, it didn’t make zigging and zagging too bad. I caught up with one of my team members at the 2k mark and whacked him on the shoulder (this is becoming a trend) to let him know I was there. Afterwards he told me that I set his pace and he just stuck with me after that to ensure he stayed on track. That was really nice to hear because I never really thought of myself as much of a pace setter. (I was, however, glancing constantly at my Garmin to make sure I was personally on track for a finish time under 27 minutes.) It’s also pretty rare to find a person that you can run beside at the exact same pace, so it was really nice to have the extra motivation whenever I got a glance of him over my shoulder.
Rat Race 2014 Map
As we finished the Bloor stretch of the race, we made a turn onto Yonge which (blissfully) was the downhill portion of this race. I could easily make up for any slowness on the uphill by pushing it on the downhill. The run down Yonge remains a blur in my mind except for the wayward pedestrians who would try to cross the street amongst the racers and the one very small child who jumped onto the street in front of me that I had to grab in order to steady him from falling over (including myself!).
As we made the last turn onto Queen Street and saw the finish line, my team member pulled ahead and started the sprint to the finish line. Once again, I couldn’t do that last sprint, and while that frustrates me, I’m content with the fact that it meant I was pushing for the entire race instead of just at the very end.
For once I finally managed to spot the clock time at the very end, which logged me in at 26:28. I knew I had started a bit further back from the start time so I knew the chip time would be shorter. The Garmin was logging me in at 26:13 so I was getting VERY excited to find out what my time was. When I checked online later, I discovered my chip time had clocked me at 26:10!!! OH HELLLLLL YES! A very solid 26 minute 5K, and a HUGE 75 seconds cut off my previous fastest 5K race (which had been in Baltimore, Maryland). I’m so close to being in the 25 minute range!
I hung around at the end of the race watch my other team mates finish. One super power woman on my team had done an INSANE 19 minute 5K, but the rest of them trickled in after me. For some of them this had been their first 5K race and I was excited to see that they were really happy to have done it and were looking forward to doing it again next year!
I was on such a high after this race – I was incredibly excited to have finished with a much better time than my last race and I’m on target for getting into the 25-26 minute range for a 5K. Having a solid race like that gives me so much more motivation to keep pushing myself every time I train.
I travelled to my hometown of Ottawa to do a 5K race with my dad who decided he also wanted to jump on the racing bandwagon I was already on. Unfortunately, I had a pretty terrible race, but he did really well!
Pre-Race Selfie
I took the train to Ottawa the night before the race and stayed overnight at my parents. Unfortunately, the race wasn’t until 4 pm on Saturday so I had a lotttt of time to kill on Saturday. Most of which I spent it stressing out over the race. I wish the race had been early in the morning!
This disembodied bib shot seems to have become a tradition amongst my racing posts
The 5K route would take us through part of Ottawa’s downtown core, down the canal, and then back up the other side of the canal with the finish line somewhere near city hall. The start of the race had a pretty sharp incline at the beginning, but it levelled off and was going to be pretty flat after that. I was hoping for a race time between 25-26 minutes. I knew this would mean that I would really have to push myself since my previous personal best was 27:25 and even taking a minute off that time was going to be strenuous. I was in the 25-30 minute corral, while my dad was one behind me with an expected timeslot of 30-35 for completion.
Unfortunately, things turned sour right off the bat. As the gun went off for the first corral to take off (the <25 minute group), they ushered the second group (mine) right after them with zero break between the two groups. This resulted in a crushing wave of people that FORCED us to walk for the first two and a half minutes of the race right after we crossed the start line (which is when all our chip timers started). A 5K is not particularly long, and 2.5 minutes is a HUGE loss of time on such a short race. We were so jammed together that it was absolutely impossible to run past anyone. I felt completely helpless and I knew that my chances at getting a good time were quickly dwindling.
Completely frustrated, when we finally got moving, I tried to move fast enough to make up for lost time but as soon as I got up to a decent pace, I noticed two things:
One, it was kind of hot out.
Two, I was completely dehydrated.
I had completely forgotten to drink anything in the two hours prior to the race and my throat was PARCHED. And it was hotter than anything I had run in throughout the current season.
Just great. This wasn’t going to end well.
When I try to smile for the camera during a race… I make what I call the “frog face”.
Just to give you an idea as to how horrible I was feeling; I almost stopped three times throughout the race. My throat was dry to the point where I couldn’t even spit any of the gunk that was forming itself in my Sahara-like throat. And I really and truly… I just wanted to keel over. There was no water station in sight kilometer after kilometer. And there were also no kilometer markers anywhere, which my dad also complained about at the end. Thankfully, I had my Garmin so I had an idea of how far I had gone, but he decided not to wear any kind of tracker and had to guess as to how far along he was.
Dying…
The shots above were taken in the last kilometer of the race, before reaching any kind of water station. You can’t really tell, but my eyes were closed. I was actually try to stave off the nausea by closing my eyes while running. In a race. /cringe
Unfortunately for me, there wasn’t a single water stand until 800 meters before the finish line. Why this was set up this way, I’ll never know. I’ve never been one to grab for water on a 5K since it’s a pretty short distance, but since I had set myself up so poorly for this race, I really would’ve appreciated one much, much earlier in the race.
By the time I got to the last 500 meters, I honestly thought I was going to throw up. 200 meters before the finish line I was holding up my hand to my mouth because I really thought I was going to retch at the finish line. I was feeling woozy and completely out of my head. I don’t know if it was lack of water, heat exhaustion (it was hot, but not THAT hot out there!) or what the heck it was, but I knew I didn’t feel good and I was terrified I was going to throw up in front of the throngs of people at the finish line. (My aunt and uncle apparently saw me cross the finish line and said I looked just fine to them, so hell if I know what was going on!)
Finish line photo… what a beauty
As I crossed the finish line, I came to a dead stop. I was convinced I was going to pass out, but I knew that if I sat down, I’d just make it worse. So I kept moving along, knowing that after the Gatorade stands, there would finally be some water. As soon as I got some proper water in my system, I started to feel better.
After it was all said and done, I didn’t have one of those moments where I was angry at myself for not doing better. I mean, fundamentally I was pissed off with my finish time (which was somewhere around the 28 minute mark) but I knew how awful I had felt throughout the entire run and I realized there was zero chance I could’ve pushed myself harder throughout the run without either throwing up, or passing out.
When I look back on my Garmin’s information regarding the race, I can see that my average heart rate was 189 beats per minute, which, for my age (31), is 100% of max. I even peaked around 196 beats per minute, which is practically through the roof. (Most races I’m in the high 170s.) I have no idea what caused me to feel this horrible throughout my run, but it happened and I guess I just have to move on from it.
I finished in the top 10% out of all the women and out of my age group, and top 20% overall. So it’s not like I totally bombed out of the race, but I’m really displeased with just how crappy I felt. Oh well, I guess you can’t just keep getting personal bests every time you run!
My dad, on the other hand, completed his first 5K with a time of 32:36 which he was dead pleased with! He’d like to run the 10K next year during Ottawa Race Weekend. And while I’m definitely amped about racing, I have to say I am not impressed with the organization of the start zone of Ottawa’s Race Weekend. I had two friends who ran in the half-marathon the following day and they said that the first four kilometers were so jammed with people that they were essentially walking it. There really needs to be much larger time gaps between corrals. For example, the Sporting Life 10K that I did two weekends prior to this race had more than double the number of people running (twenty-two thousand in that race versus the ten thousand in this one) and yet there was zero clusterfucks at the start zone.
As a side note, I saw both my friend and his girlfriend around the 10K marker during their half-marathon the day after my race (I had planted myself on a street corner and warned them well in advance as to where I would be) and I was soooo happy to have seen them out there racing! Since I’m eventually working my way up to a half-marathon, I find them both very inspirational!
My second 10K race and one I also felt ill prepared for. The week and a half prior to the race I was like “hang on, you only ran TWICE last month and you think you’re doing a 10K race in 9 days? Are you crazy? Or just stupid?” Seeing that I’d only run two days in the previous month was slightly shocking. I knew I’d pulled out of running a lot since I was playing a lot of sports (soccer and frisbee were both ramping up and down at that point), but I didn’t realize I’d scaled back on my running THAT much. So the week and a half prior to the race I was running almost every day in an attempt to cram for the run (something you’re told NOT to do…).
The timing on everything that happened in the nine days prior to the race was just awful. Not only was I suddenly trying to bust out faster paces and longer runs, but I’d also had a wart frozen off one of my toes (nothing big, I just wanted it gone) at the same time. What an idiot. Two days prior to the race, I could barely even walk. I was out with a friend and the amount of hobbling I did to get home that Friday night was not only embarrassing, but it was so bad that I had to pull out of my soccer plans for the rest of the weekend in the hopes that I could ice and elevate my swollen toe enough to be able to even stand on it come Sunday morning, let alone run.
Anyway, on to the actual race!
Sporting Life 10K – Somewhat close to the start line
The start time for our corral was 8:40 a.m., and I knew I needed to eat something prior to run lest I feel like absolute death without some kind of fuel in my system. I woke up at about 6:30 that Sunday morning and it was absolutely beautiful outside – no wind, sunny, and about 14C degrees. I had half a small bowl of Quaker oatmeal mix and a bit of water, but not too much as I didn’t want to risk having a full bladder throughout my run.
About to head out for the race
Of course, race jitters kicked in and I must’ve gone to the bathroom about four times before I even left the apartment. I met up with my friend at 8 a.m., and took a cab up to the starting area around Yonge and Eglinton since the subway doesn’t run until 9 a.m. on Sundays. It was PACKED. We watched the corral before us take off (8:20 a.m. – Blue) and even though I had some friends running that group, I could’t see them at all because there must’ve been about seven thousand people taking off in that group! We lined up for our time slot (Green Corral) relatively close to the front and waited for the start time.
Bib Number
My previous 10K time was 59:37 from my race in New York City back in March, so I knew I wanted to beat that but I wasn’t really sure if I’d be any quicker since I felt slightly more out of shape than last time. I’d also been having a lot of late nights lately and was definitely running a sleeping deficit. Thankfully, and perhaps this is somewhat of a cheap move, but the bulk of this course is very much downhill down Toronto’s Yonge Street so that gave me, and everyone else in this run, a very decent step up. My friend didn’t think he’d finish in under an hour, but he’s fairly fit so I was pretty certain he’d do better than he expected.
The race started and we went our separate ways after we finally broke free from the crowd – and it was certainly busy since there was about 22,000 people running this! I was pretty certain I was ahead of him, but I didn’t see him for a very, very long time and figured I’d gotten way too far ahead.
Two kilometers into the race I suddenly got that feeling (ladies, you know what I’m talking about) that I had gotten my period. I was NOT prepared for it. Another half a kilometer later, the cramps kicked in. All I’m picturing at this point is getting to the finish line soaked in blood and looking like a damn idiot. There wasn’t even any point in stopping at a porta potty because it’s not like I was carrying a tampon with me. Praying I was wrong, I did my best to try to forget about it, ignore the ever increasing cramps and keep going. (I don’t care if that’s TMI for some people, the reality is that this could happen to anyone.)
The cramps eventually did dissipate somewhere around the 4 km marker and body-wise it was pretty smooth sailing from thereon in. Nothing felt tight or cramped, my legs felt loose and everything else felt in tip-top shape.
Zoomphoto Shot
Running down Yonge is pretty interesting. You can see how far off everything is and you really wonder how the heck you’ll ever make it there. Seeing the tall Bay tower on Bloor Street far off in the distance and realizing that’s not even the halfway marker is pretty bracing. As it’s a course I don’t often run (I’ve only ever gone up Yonge Street since I live south of Bloor) it made for an interesting route. When I run, have a habit of staring at my feet, or directly in front of me, since I’m usually looking out for potholes or people to pass, but with this run, since it was on a downhill slope, there was a lot more opportunity to look up and off into the distance. It was really neat to take in more of the surroundings than normal. Once again I wish I’d had a camera with me so I could take in the sights and post them on this blog, but ultimately my racing time matters more to me and carrying a camera while taking pictures would’ve cut into my time.
As I hit Bloor Street and moved closer into the downtown core, I started to pick up my pace. I started checking my Garmin to make sure I was on track since I definitely didn’t want to run slower than my previous race. I was fairly certain I was on track for a 56-57 minute finish, but I didn’t want to suddenly falter and drop down to 58 or 59 minutes. It’s funny to think that a few minutes means so much, but shaving off time in running always feels important, even if the numbers are small. At least then you know you’ve accomplished something and done better than you did last time.
I actually ran into my friend around kilometer 7 and was shocked to find him ahead of me! I thought I’d left him far behind! I was pleased that he was keeping pace rather well (this was his first 10K) and clapped him on the shoulder to let him know I was there and gave him a big thumbs up and a smile. That being said, I got annoyed with myself for thinking I was in the lead (not that it was a race between us, but clearly I got cocky) and put on the burners. You can see my sudden pace increase between the 7th and 8th kilometers.
You can see the speed increase in the second half of the race (be aware that my Nike+ tracker is off significantly for speed and distance when compared to my Garmin)
The final kilometer was hard. It was one of those moments when you’re like “why am I even doing this? You can just walk the rest of the way and it won’t matter.” But I persisted. Physically, at the time, I’m pretty sure my body was telling me I couldn’t up my pace to finish a little bit faster, but when I look back on my speed grids at the end, I was definitely increasing my pace in the last kilometer. So I suppose I was pushing it, but at the time I felt completely lethargic. I also didn’t feel like I could suddenly sprint to the finish line either, which is something I had always felt in my other races (and was kind of an indication that I hadn’t been pushing steadily enough throughout those races). I mean, if you can bust into a full sprint at the end, you clearly weren’t utilizing the last 9.5 kilometers appropriately for pace.
I crossed the finish line and then headed off to the right hand side to look for my friend. I wasn’t sure if he was ahead or behind me at this point, and I kept getting ushered towards the awards area. In the end, he came in two minutes behind me and he was soooo happy with his finishing time. I clocked in at 56:23 and he was about two minutes later than that. Since he hadn’t expected to finish in even under an hour he was very visibly excited about his time! As for me, I was dead pleased with mine. With a race time of 56:23, I had managed to shave off 3:14 from my previous 10K!
2014 Sporting Life 10K Route
It wasn’t until the very end that I realized that my foot problem hadn’t even remotely bothered me and that I definitely had not gotten my period (eeesh… thank heavens for that – although I’d love to know what the heck those cramps were because they were definitely time of the month cramps).
It was an awesome day and I’m really pleased with my finishing time. Now to work my way towards a 50 minute 10K!
10K Race Summary
Finish Time: 56:23 (new personal best)
Pace: 5:39 per kilometer
Overall placement: 7901/21751
Age group placement (Female, 30-34): 557/2102
Gender placement (F): 3166/12739
Next up is a 5K in Ottawa during Ottawa’s Race Weekend!
FINALLY! After a horrifically long winter that is still sort of hanging around, we have *finally* had some decent weather in Toronto. The very last day in March was beautiful, so I yanked on my running gear and headed out.
Awkward attempt to show you what I was wearing… suddenly made better by Nemo coming in the room and then running away as I tried to snag him!
So it was about 6 degrees, sunny, and I had some vague idea that I was going to head down the Don River Trail. This was a mid-distance run day, so I had to get in about 7 kilometers.
Waiting for my Garmin to connect to a satellite
With all my devices connected (Garmin, iPod with Nike+), I was ready to go!
Headed out through Cabbagetown
I first headed out through Cabbagetown since the area is really pretty and the houses are quite beautiful.
Riverdale Park West
Made it down to Riverdale Park West…
Riverdale Park almost flooded and completely muddy
…where it turned out to be totally soaked. I couldn’t take the path to the left because it was flooded and the baseball pitch was equally muddy and soaked. That little plank in the bottom right shot? Total saviour for getting across to the dry-ish pitch. Then I had to climb through the soaked dug-out to get to the other side and up to the bridge. Eesh. I’ll be avoiding this park until this city is a lot dryer.
Down the bridge and onto the Lower Don Trail
Off the bridge and onto the trail, where hopefully it’d be smooth sailing for a long while. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, but there were some flooded areas that caused a few problems.
Midway through the Lower Don Trail
I think this section is right before the trail loops back to the downtown core. There were a decent number of runners and cyclists out on the trail as well. I love running past other runners as they come towards me – there’s always the mutual recognition of “hey you, you’re doing a good job out there exercising!” – whether it’s a nod of the head, a wave, or a full blown smile, it’s always nice and super encouraging!
Yep, that’s the CN Tower, and yep, that’s snow on the left side of the path!
My favourite part of this trail is where it crosses the train tracks and then runs parallel to them. I used to rollerblade on this trail to work every day when I worked in the Beaches and there were a few times when the train would cut you off and you couldn’t cross. OR, the fun times where you’d race the train and try to beat it to the crossing! This sounds more dangerous than it actually was… because this is so close to downtown, the train was barely crawling along the tracks. Still fun though.
Trail run by the Gardiner Expressway
Finishing up along the trail alongside the Gardiner Expressway.
Off the trail and back through downtown
And headed right into the heart of downtown to run back to the apartment.
Garmin mapping of my run
Job done = 7.3k completed.
David’s Tea in Peaches & Cream
I spoke about tea the last time I blogged about a run so you’re going to think I do this every time, but I really don’t. That being said, I recently tried out Peaches and Cream from David’s Tea and it’s by far the best flavour I have by them. I could go on and on about it, but really… just go get some. It’s delicious and helps to rehydrate after my run.
I’m hoping the weather stays good in Toronto and doesn’t drop into the negatives again. The bright sunshine was really, really nice on this run.
