A New Distance: My 10-Miler Race Recap, Part 1

I DID IT!

I had SO much fun at the Acura Toronto 10-Miler & 5k race today!!!!!

I have a new distance record today- 10 miles, baby! Previously, the longest distance I have ever run was 8 miles. It felt so freaking amazing to run in this race!

WAKE-UP CALL:

5:15am. I should have been up at 4:30am, but I just wanted more sleep. Total sleep time = 4.75 hours! Boo! The funny thing is when my alarm went off this morning I LEAPED out of bed with a huge grin on my face. Only a race could make me do that!

Here I am packing up my bag! I was excited, excited, excited. All the nerves left me last night!

I decided against the Green Monster Movement tee because I felt like white material + me sweating might be a bit see through by the end of the 10 miles. ;)

The race was held in Toronto’s ‘Distillery District’. It is such a unique and funky part of Toronto!

The following photos are credit of Eric! He took these while waiting for the end of the race.

Last night he was joking around with me and he goes, “Wanna give me a call when you are a few minutes from the finish line?” LOL :D

 

Cool area, eh? :)

I have new RUNNING BUDDIES!

Meet Emily, Jon, Alex, and Gillian (l to r):

It was SO cool to meet all of them!!!! We have been planning this for a while now, so it was great to meet them in person. They are all super cool, down to earth, and very fun! It felt so good to be at a race with other running friends. My last 10k was a bit lonely! lol. ;)

LOOK –> OPERATION BEAUTIFUL sighting!!!!!

 

Alex made it for the back of her tank!

It was nearing 8am so we headed over to the start line to find our corrals.

Gillian and I chatting away:

 

Thumbs UP!

And then we were off! Eric was so sweet and created a totally new + fun playlist on my Ipod Shuffle last night! It was a LIFESAVER! Totally pumped me up. New music = more energy.

Course map:

Miles 1-2:

Of course I ran too fast for the first couple of miles- about a 7:30min/mile pace. I knew I couldn’t maintain this speed forever, but I just couldn’t hold back my excitement!!! It is so hard to start off slow and steady for me. I used to run short sprinting distances in school, so I am used to giving it my all for a short amount of time. I always used to suck at long distances if you can believe it! Just goes to show what some training can do.

Mile 3:

Teared up. Classic Ange! Was thinking about how lucky I am to have my health. I also started to get a bit scared of the distance that lay before me. I think because I ran so hard at the start it made me feel a bit burned out early on.

5k:

I made sure to check my 5k time so I could compare it to my previous 5k time on the hilly 10k course from June. My time for the 5k today was 25 minutes and 15 seconds, beating my previous 5k time by 3 minutes approx!!! Just shows what some major hills can do to speed!

I stopped at every water station I passed…I think there were 7?? At the 3rd water station, I accidently took GATORADE and immediately gulped it down and then I thought…OH NO! I was worried it was going to make my tummy upset. New things on race day = NOT good, right?

Well, guess what?

The Gatorade was awesome for my energy! While I hate the taste I got a huge shot of energy compared to the water. It was Gatorade from then on! I found myself looking forward to it at each water station too.

Miles 4, 5, 6: Tommy Thompson Park:

There were things I liked about this park- it was surrounded by water and had beautiful views of the Toronto skyline- and there were things I didn’t like. For one, it was quiet- no spectators except for a few race workers here and there. It was also very windy. I thought that the wind would be on my back on the way back, but it wasn’t- it actually got WORSE! I found myself praying for a decline.

One thing I discovered about flat courses is that they are pretty boring and require lots of mental discipline to get through them!

I thought that a flat course would be ‘easy’, but what I didn’t consider was the fact that since I was running on a flat course, my pace would be faster. So I didn’t notice any decrease in intensity, I mean, DUH I was racing of course!

10k:

Teared up. I thought to myself, ‘A 10k is such a PERFECT distance for a race!!!!’

LOL…never good, right?! I was ready to dust myself off and call it a day! The thought of running more than 6 more kms did not appeal to me. I was pushing hard during the entire race and I was starting to feel tired. The thought of my Cliff Shot (in my cleavage- oh no she didn’t!!) almost made me want to gag. I stuck with my Gatorade.

My time for my 10k surprised me as well- it was around 51 minutes, which beat my previous 10k time by about 7 minutes.

Shortly after I reached the 10km marker, this lady was cruising past the finish line!!!! LOL!!

That’s the outfit you wear when you want to be the first female to cross the finish line. Her time was approx. 59 mins for the 10 miles! MY GOD! Puts things into perspective eh? haha. Kudos to her!

Mile 7:

Was not that great. I was tired, tired, tired. Pushing hard. My music volume went way up. Luckily, I had some ROCKING good tunes to play and they honestly saved me! One of my favourites was ‘Fire Burning’ by Sean Kingston (I think?). That song rocks my socks!

Mile 8:

Teared up. Realized I was now in new territory. Each step was another distance I had never run before- AWESOME!

I thought to myself, ‘ONLY 2 MILES, whohoooooo!’ and then I realized that still meant 3k left. Sure, it doesn’t sound like much, but it did to me at the time! ;) I kept asking myself, ‘Where is the last street!?’ I guess it helps to know the course and that I did not.

Mile 9:

Homestretch. I wanted to say that I sprinted my last mile, but I knew I would burn out if I tried to sprint. My pace went from around a 9 minute mile (from miles 5-9 approx) to an 8 or 8.5 minute mile. It was everything I could give!

A lady working in the race, was cheering us on from the sidelines. I told her thank you and I smiled. She said, ‘Such a beautiful smile!!!’ And that honestly got me through the last couple kms. I wish I could thank her again for encouraging me because I needed it badly!

15k-16.1k:

I think I ran the last km at around an 8 minute mile pace. Gave it every last ounce I had left. Then I saw the finish line and I SPRINTED. My pace got up to a 6 minute 43 second mile. Me and three other runners crossed at the same time.

Clicky:

After the race Eric found me and we high fived! lol. I love high fiving. Nothing brings me back to the 80’s faster.

I did lots of stretching immediately after the race. I was SO happy and proud of myself for finishing the race.

We all met up shortly after and congratulated each other! We were all so happy. Emily wasn’t there because she ran the 5k and obviously finished way sooner! I heard she beat her time by 3 minutes- go EM! :)

After getting some food, Eric and I eventually left for home! We had about a 10 minute walk to our car. I periodically stopped to stretch. :D

The lovely CN Tower:

Before we left I did some leg stretches lying down in the back seat of the car. I am so glad I did all this stretching, I feel so good right now!!! Much better than I felt after my 10k race.

POST-RACE GLOW: :D

Numbers, numbers, Numbers!

Luckily, the official numbers are already up on the website (that was quick!):

My Official Chip Time: 1 hour 26 minutes 43 seconds

(I was SO happy with this!)

I placed 178th out of 830 women.

I placed 27th in my division of 157 women aged 25-29

My average pace was 8:30 min/mile

My max pace was 6:43 min/mile (finish line)

My max heart rate was 180 bpm

My avg heart rate was 171 bpm

I couldn’t be any more proud of the progress I have made since my injury. Treating the body right = PROGRESS. I took more rest days off lately than ever, and I think it only helped me more!

Oh, and PS- Being a spectator is HARD WORK!

        

He’s been sleeping since we got home. lol.

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Ok, my next post: FOOD, GLO-RIOUS, FOOD! I bet you were wondering where it was, right? I purposely left it out.

YES, my food needs its’ own post! hahaha.

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR WONDERFUL SUPPORT! I don’t think you realize how much YOU all inspire me!