Diakonos 10K St. Patrick's Day Run

It seems like I signed up for this race ages ago and now in a blink, it is over! Since the New Year, I have been running mostly on my treadmill due to the ice. I managed to get outside a few times, but I was a little worried about how I would do running outside.  

The strangest collection of
things in this race package
(chips, rolaids, and a
leather keychain)

My original race plan was to finish around 57 or 58 minutes.  I knew this was a bit of a stretch after a long winter, but I really wanted to run under 60 minutes. However, after this week at school, I wasn't sure if my legs would allow me to do this.  My students have been learning hip hop dance for a big dance performance this Wednesday. I have been trying to learn the dance too. I have also been secretly learning a simplified jive dance during my lunch hour with some of the other teachers as a surprise to the students. Needless to say, I have been using a few muscles that I just don't usually use.  This whole week, my legs felt heavy and tired. So much so that it was a terribly short taper run on Friday.  I reevaluated my goals with this in mind and decided that I would be happy if I was as close to 60 minutes as possible. 

I woke up Saturday morning, opened the curtains and cursed at the light dusting of snow that had fallen over night. Just enough to hide the ice and make the roads slick. (Damn you winter!!) Again, I reevaluated and figured I would be happy with 62 or 63 minutes. 
I followed my normal race day routine of a coffee and oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar.  I was soon  on the road to Sydney's house and then downtown.  We were excessively early getting to the race site so we enjoyed the seat warmers in my car a little longer.
Due to a nervous bladder, we eventually made our way over to Eau Clare where we admired admired the various costumes of the participants and pondered deep questions such as  "How people can run in those hats?!" and "Does that t-shirt need the apostrophe?" 

Who or what do those teachers belong to?

We realized that we were approaching 10:00 and that the rest of racers were heading out.  We scurried out there and just as we got to the start line, the race was beginning. We jumped into the crowd, wished each other a good race and away we went!  
As I half jogged, half walked, half skipped through the start line crowd, I wondered "Does anyone else hate the start of a race?" I tried to be patient for the first km of the race, but I had to do quite a lot of weaving through the large groups and hopping around icy patches to find a spot that I could run in and find my own rhythm.  Finding this rhythm seemed to take much longer than normal.  I kept my eyes peeled for those little red km markers and counted down the kms as I hit them. This is not usually my style.  My first few kms were on on pace to hit 60 minutes so I did what I could to keep it up.  I was struggling though. My legs felt like lead. I carried on and just kept one foot in front of the other and enjoyed the the beautiful scenery along Bow River.  The blue sky, the melting icy river, and the dusting of snow made it a truly magnificent day for a run. 

As I jogged along Parkdale, I squinted my eyes to see that the 5km turn around was coming up.  I rejoiced when I saw this for three reasons: 
1) I hit under the 30 minute mark! (Barely @ 29:36 but still there). 
2) I was halfway done.
3) I would be running into the sun! Oh sun how I have missed you lately! 
I tried to hold my pace steady for the the next little bit and I decided I would pick it up around the 7km marker.  My goal was to run the second half of the race faster than the first half, so I knew I had some work to do.
At the 7km, I added a little juice until my pace hit 5:35/km. Hurray!  Each km I picked it up as much as I thought I could and maintain.  At some point in this process, my jelly legs seemed to disappear. I had a groove and it felt so great! 

Sydney approaching
the finish line

Finally when I saw that 9km spot, I ran as fast as my little legs would take me. The home stretch! I was breathing hard and actually a little self conscious of how hard I was breathing as I ran past some of the other joggers, but it didn't matter for long.  As I turned the last corner, there in front of me was the big, inflatable, finish line and it looked incredible! 
Interestingly enough, my GPS told me I had hit 10km well before I actually finished the race, which was a little strange. I wonder which was off and why one is off by so much! When I crossed, the timer was just about to 59 minutes.  I was so happy!  I was way under my goal and closer to my original goal than I could have hoped for.  Dancing legs and icy pathways, you've got nothin!
The final time on the website was 58:35, which was the perfect time for a season opener.  Just over a year ago, I could struggled to do 10k under 65 minutes.  This race gave me the just the motivation to keep me going and setting new goals for this new race season. 

All done!!!!