Skirtchaser 5k Race Recap

Tonight was my first race of this year: Skirtchaser 5k.  While it's true I ran the Vancouver Sun Run 10k with my sister, I was not there to run my race, but to encourage and support my sister in her race. I was so glad to be so encouraging there. She calls me a slavedriver, but I know she really means that I'm just so supportive in her efforts to run a good, solid 10k - which she did. Yay!

Anyways, I was excited. Very excited, in fact. Ever since Beth of Shut Up and Run wrote about her experience at the Skirtchaser 5k a couple of years ago, I have been looking forward to this race coming to town. And this year, they finally did just that. Yay! Thank you, TransRockies Events, you're awesome!

To honour this special occasion, and remind me of how I got hooked on this race, long before it came to town, I made sure to put on my SUAR tee and pair it with my Skirtchaser swag, my new running skirt!

Rockin' the SUAR and the skirt

Did you notice my bib number?  It's nothing special - it's only bc I was the first one to register - THAT's how excited I was for this race!  This will probably be the only time I'm ever "number 1" in the context of running, haha!

The timing of the race was perfect for me.  After work It was at Confluence Plaza, in the East Village area of Calgary, which is just east of downtown.  A lovely place for a fun race!

At Confluence Plaza, at the race starting/finish line

At the time, I knew a couple of girls from my run club had registered but that was it, and I hadn't seen them yet.  Then I ran into Cori of Read.Run.Write.Mom. and I was so happy to see her again and find out she was running this race as well!

Cori and I, we meet again - photo by Cori

She told me that several of our blogger/twitter friends were running this race, and before I knew it, we met up with Tina of Fabulosi-T, who I had only previously met through Twitter. It was great to finally meet her after chatting on Twitter for a while with her. A photo was imperative!

Me and Tina, so happy to finally meet an online friend!

After that, friends of Tina and Cori also came up and we all introduced ourselves and chatted. It was such a comfortable group of women! Finally it was getting close to the start time, so I snapped a pic of their Skirtchaser arch at the start/finish line:

The Skirtchaser 5k start and finish line - before we ladies moved up to it

Once the clock hit 6:00:00 pm, we were off and running! The guys were to start 3 minutes after. I needed every head start advantage I could get, so no complaints from me!  Once we started running, it seemed like everyone was passing me. right, left and centre! I looked at my Garmin and I was like, holy crap! Everyone's running a 5:30 min/km pace, I can't sustain that!  I actually had to force myself to slow down...very painful when it hurts to see so many run ahead of me. I thought to try to maintain a 6 min/km pace but after starting out too fast, it was too hard...before the turn around point, I was already at 6:30 min/km pace. And it was a struggle to maintain that, but I did.  And I made sure to run non-stop for this, as any walk break I took seems to push me into the 31-32 min range.

During my run, I did notice that a LOT of guys stopped to stare at all the women running in this race.  It is, after all, a lot of eye candy that just happened to run by.  I ran by this very questionable looking person who had 3 police officers standing nearby and chatting with him, and as I ran past him, he exclaimed:  "Hey, I would do her!" Yeah right, thanks buddy.

The last km I did start speeding up again. The last few hundred metres I started sprinting like crazy.  It was incredibly tiring at first and then suddenly my own legs took over when I heard that the girl ahead of me made it in 29 mins...and I was so close to the finish.  They announced my name and said I was under 30 mins. Hooray!  I jumped for joy across the finish line. I hope they have a professional photographer or something there who took my picture. I want it!!!

So what was my result?

Skirtchaser 5k - May 2, 2013 - finally broke 30 mins. New PB!

It may or may not have been a true 5k but I got in under 30 mins, and that's all that counts!  I actually despaired at one point of ever breaking 30 mins, so I'm feeling pretty good tonight. :)

I wish I could tell you all about the party and stuff, but after giving Cori a hug and trying to find Tina (unsuccessfully, sadly), I just grabbed my stuff and went home.  And on the way home, one of the guys who was cleaning up the race course, saw me walking home with my bib and said, "Hey, aren't you gonna stay for the party?" My reply:  "Sorry, I got kids. Thanks for the race!"

It was a fun race but I missed hubby and my daughter. I hope they can cheer me on next year!

Vancouver Sun Run Recap

When I got up Sunday morning last week, race day, I felt so many mixed emotions. Up until the Boston Marathon bombings, I had anticipated the Sun Run for so long that I was excited for weeks. And then to be there to race with my sister, who was inspired by me to take up running, in her 1st race and a goal race, made me so happy. Plus to be in Vancouver to visit family was really icing on the cake. But now...it was with an excited mood tinged with sadness that my sister and I put on our blue and yellow running outfits for Boston.

Opposite yet the same colours for Boston

 I felt better when we got to downtown and met the rest of the Robson Rebels corporate team. There were all kinds of runners and walkers, different ages and fitness levels but we were united in our excitement to begin this race. But before we headed to the start line, we took a group photo:

Robson Rebels Corporate Team

Then we made our way to our corral on Georgia Street. It was in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, here's a signpost that was in our corral:

The signpost - tells you everywhere except here

We had to wait 50 very overcast and very windy minutes before our corral even reached the start line. In the meantime, the streets were filled up with so many people that it was just crazy trying to comprehend what 48,000 even looked like:

In front of us

Behind us

Eventually we got to the start line:

Finally, at the start line!

And after a few rousing exhortations from the MC, we were off!

Here we're a few places we came across during our 10k run:

West End

English Bay

Lions Gate Bridge. Almost at Stanley Park at this point.

Burrard Street Bridge: I've always wanted to take a pic of this structure.

For me, it was probably the most relaxing 10k I've ever run. I didn't push myself like I usually do, and so a lot of the pictures I was taking while running past them. I got really good at keeping a steady hand while running and taking a pic. I'm pretty sure there were a few who grumbled at that "crazy stupid running tourist". ;)

There were a lot of signs and people on the sides cheering us on.  The white sign in the middle particular was very relevant for our situation:  it said "GO RANDOM STRANGER GO".

GO RANDOM STRANGER GO

For my sister on her first race, it was tough slogging. She kept with her 10 and 1s (10 mins running, followed by 1 min walk break), but then after 4k, it was getting tough for her: she kept asking if her 10 mins were up yet. She never did complain, although a few times she had said she was getting tired. I encouraged her to keep running for the full 10 mins, which she did. But once she realized at the 6k mark that she was running the longest distance ever in her life and was still there running strong, she quit asking about the 10 mins and seems to show more confidence in her steps. We continued with our 10 and 1s.

Slow and steady, we finally made it to the finish line, hooray!!

It was nice to see the finish line at last.

We went into BC Place for post race stuff. Got a bag from Goodlife Fitness, which we gave to Evie, had bananas and bagels and oranges from SPUD, a Powerbar, and smoothies too!!

Me and my sis at BC Place post-race. Yes - lots of pple but nowhere near 48,000

We had a fantastic time and I was so proud of my sister for not giving in to the fatigue and pressing on to the finish. Our time? 1 hour and 19 mins.

Would I do it again next year? I hope so!!

Run for Boston

It's been a rough week in the running community with regards to the Boston Marathon this year. My first inking there was something very wrong was through Twitter, from a tweet from a Vancouver running group, asking those participating in the Boston Marathon to check in so that the group knew they were ok.

After a tweet like that I went to Google, and my heart sank to see Google suggesting terms like "Boston Marathon explosion". In fact, I was muttering "no no no" like some kind of chant, in total disbelief.

But the pics I saw put me in shock. I couldn't even click on the videos...it was horrible enough to see the pics, I don't think I could handle anything further.

But since then, the shattered pieces of my of my innocent and joyful simplicity of running have melted under my anger against the perpetrators and cooled and hardened into a spirit of determination and resolve.

I'm running for Boston. I'm running for my fellow runners. I'm running for the race directors and volunteers and charities. Because damn you, you frakken cowardly bombers, I'm gonna keep on running and entering races and sharing the joy of running!!!

/rant over

The next day, our little family wore our race shirts to work and preschool in a show of support for Boston. Even my 4 year old daughter was insistent on wearing her race shirt from the Stampede Road Race. Of course she did not understand nor did I even attempt to explain why hubby and I wore ours but it was nice anyway that she was eager to be in solidarity with us.

Daughter in Stampede Road Race tee; hubby in Calgary Marathon's AstraZeneca 5k tee

I ran a 5k Run for Boston with my Run Club at the Eau Claire Running Room on Wed night, over 200 pple came out as well as a couple of TV crews. We had a few runners who were actually running in Boston and thank goodness all of them are ok and got home safely. It was a beautiful evening for running, sunny, slightly cool but not cold so that you didn't need winter layers. Running buddy R and I slightly detoured from the planned route to cross the bridges a few times.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I am starting to do negative splits in my runs without even consciously trying. Not only that about 1.5k were run at below a 6 min/km pace!

Now I'm off to the Vancouver Sun Run.  Looking forward to a fun race!