Sporting Life 10K - First Race of the Year

This year, my training has been on and off, but mostly off.  I could blame it on the long winter, on getting really sick that I had a hearing impairment (gone now though, yay!), or on feeling a bit lazy, but in truth, it probably was a combination of all three.

Despite this, I still went and did that 10k run I signed up back in Feb before falling ill, and surprised myself with managing to finish it within I guess I could say reasonable time given zero training, but also with the gift of two blisters.  All I can say for myself is, when new shoes are needed, new shoes are needed :) I feel so sorry for my feet sometimes.  I put them through hell, be it forcing them to hike 100k within 40 hours, running through marathons, and most recently my peru excursion 4 days of long trekking up the mountains of the inca trail.  

Next stop for me:  The Running Room for a new pair of runners.  Especially if I am planning for the Niagara race.  

Day before 10K Race

What was suppose to be a relaxing day of boardgames, turned out to be fairly busy.  I met with my friend Susan who was doing the race with me, to meet with a few of her friends for boardgames.  Plans suddenly changed from boardgames to the Driving Range, which I managed one putt, and then afterwards, two games of basketball.  Basketball.  I've really never played it before, at least not with a team.  Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant experience.  But an experience no less lol.

After basketball, we headed back to my friend Maggie's house and we played a game of Telestrations.  I discovered how interesting everyone interpreted pictures.  We went from "Sand Dollar" to "Explosive Beach", or in one other case, "Hair Stylist" to "Blow Dryer"

After 3 rounds of it, my friend and I headed to one of my friend's babies 1st birthday.  Suffice to say, by the time we arrived there, it was already pretty late into the evening.  Instead of having our usual pasta dinner, we were invited to eat the amazing food my friend and her sisters had prepared for the birthday party.  So delicious.  After eating, we stayed for a bit and played with my friends baby girl Aleyah (so adorable!) and eventually had to call it a night since we had an early day next day.

We arrived at my friends house around 9:45pm, and freshened up, prepared clothing for next day, setting alarms and music playlists on our phones.

I ended up sleeping around 1:30am, although I had intended to sleep by 12am.

Race Day - May 12th, 2014 - Mother's Day

Morning came quickly, I woke up at 5:30am, and woke my friend up to get ready.  Quickly we got dressed, ate our breakfast, which consisted of a piece of toast, peanut butter and half a banana.

We left my friends house around 6:20am, and arrived at the Sporting Life 10k baggage check in area around 7ish.  Parked the car and walked down yonge street to the starting line.  We waited for our friend, Gordon, to arrive.

Time was ticking and he still had not.  My friend started to give him a play by play as the baggage check-in trucks started to leave.  Quite funny :)

Gordon had been waiting for his bus, but somehow there was a diversion of the buses, so he had to take a cab.  There was apparently a lot of people waiting when he left.

He arrived in time to check in his bag in the last truck.  We headed then to the blue corals and waited for the race to start.  It would be about a 20 minute wait.

Finally the blaring start signal sounded and we started the run.  A quick wish of good luck and off we went on our separate ways.  Our meeting place at the end of the race was at the baggage area.

The race itself was a bit tough for me.  With no training and I an agitated knee, it wasn't the best way to start. 

But I guess what took me down another notch was the fact I had no water on me.  Normally I have some water on me, but I thought I would try without, two water stations at the 4.5 mark and the 6.5 mark I think was noted, and so as long as I got there for my water, I would have my hydration.  

However, not true.  I needed more water than I anticipated.  By the 3 km mark, I was parched.  So I couldn't wait till I got to the next water station.  

After that, it was just a battle to make it to the next station.  It didn't help that I kept thinking I should have brought my waterbelt.  lol.  Crying over spilt milk really doesn't help.

Finally, I reached the finished line, and I was so relieved because that meant: water! lol  

It was quite the spiral to get to the gathering area where we would receive our medals and then, water and food (banana's and bagels).

Once I got it, I met up with my friends.  We chatted for a bit and then we decided we should go grab our lunch since we all had to go home for mothers day.

We decided for korean at Ka-chi in China town, and so we made our slow walk there.  By the time we got there, we changed our minds and went to Asian Legend instead.

We had such a feast there!  To think we only did a 10k together.  Imagine if we did a marathon haha.  The food was delicious though :) Peking Duck, Tofu, Xiao Long Bao, Chive Dumplings, onion pancakes and duck soup.  Yum!