Both my friend and I officially signed up in June, and both mutually felt that it was a mangeable race. In fact, my friend wanted to do the half-marathon, but I eventually roped her in to do the relay with me since that was what I wanted to do :D (After this race, she was thankful she did not sign up for the half).
The last race we had completed was the Sporting life in May, this island girl race was in September. Plenty of time to train for it.
So we thought.
Things got busy and neither of us did any training, only some on and off running when we could put in the time. And to add more to measure, I caught a terrible cold about a week and half before the race. Thankfully I 'mostly' recovered by the day of the race. I dislike getting sick before my races, but often I find it unavoidable.
I picked up the race kit for my friend and I on the Saturday and I was quite pleased to find in my race pack a free hand cream from Jergens! I needed one and hadn't had the time to get a replacement for the one that I had run out of previously.
I also got free gummie vitamins. Yes. haha, I like freebies.
While there I also saw a woman asking to switch from a half-marathon to a relay, as her friend and her had not enough time to train for it. I unfortunately didn't get to hear if they allowed it or not, but I felt for her too. I wished we could switch from a relay to a 5k!
I called my friend as I left the pickup area and gave her the headsup on the ferry time that we needed to catch, I was advised with great emphasis to catch the 7:00AM ferry.
Ok. 7am Ferry. Got it. I passed this message to my friend who had to drive down the next day, do a pick up at my house, and then get ready at the island.
Done. Meeting time was for 6:00AM. We both got up around the same time having made the rule the night before that we text each other when we're up, if the other does not respond, then call until the person responds lol. Good thing this time around we both were up at the same time, 5:30am.
My friend arrived around 6:15AM and we made our way to the harbour front to board the ferry. We made it in time to catch the 7:00AM ferry to which was emphasized.
We arrived at the island and had literally an hour and a half to kill before the race. The weather report had shown that it was suppose to rain... it didn't appear it was going to. But we counted on our luck too soon, because as it neared towards race time, it started to rain, and then pour!
When the 5k runners started (at 8:30AM), it literately was pouring rain. I felt so bad for them while at the same time was worried that it was going to keep raining when we started. Finally, it was time for us to race. Thankfully, the rain had dissipated slightly. My partner wanted to run first so I would take over after her. I wished her luck and off she went in the light rain.
I met another runner as I walked towards the transition area where we would do the change in running, and we both pretty much prayed that the rain would let up soon.
Nope. Rain didn't let up, at least not completely. It rained off and on again for a while, but no where as hard as it did when the 5k started.
Until of course, around the time I had to start... While waiting for my partner to come to the transition area, it literally started to pour again. As I high fived my relay partner to start the second half of the run, against the rain, I started running like the wind, well...I tried to :) I still had a bit of residual cough -- yes yes, in retrospect definitely not a good idea -- so I took it really easy. Some walk breaks and water breaks when I needed.
The funny thing was yesterday, I also wore my new runners for the first time. Normally I would say: never wear new shoes to a race, break them in first! But. My current pair was really not a good pair, I had suffered a series of blisters from using them. And wearing those old runners on race day guaranteed blisters...
I took a calculated risk. And it luckily worked out for me, though I know that wouldn't always be the case. The new shoes were comfy and so wet after the race.
The race itself was quite nice, it was an easy loop around, the directions were pretty easy to follow:
During the race, I did see the woman I saw that wanted to switch from a half to a relay; sad to say, she was still doing the half-marathon. I guess it didn't work out for her because it was too late to change over. Good on her to try, though hopefully she doesn't sustain any injury.
No matter the distances in my run, my mind tends to do a lot of.. thinking. Music becomes background music while my mind kind of reels through everything that's going on in my life. This time, my thoughts went out to Isabelle, a fellow runner that had passed away on Friday. I had met her during my Canada Flex Team in Training back in 2012. She was a lovely woman that I wished I could have gotten to know better. She was kind and had the brightest outlook to life despite how tough things were due to her diagnosis. She was a fighter and her love for running was a great inspiration. We lost a bright star, but she will always remain in our hearts and in our memories. Rest in peace, Isabelle. This run was for you.
I met with my relay partner after crossing the finish line, suffice to say, 10.5k felt like a long time. Afterwards, we headed off to change, and then went to the ferry docks to head back to the main land. At the harbour while waiting for the ferry, I was surprised by the call of my name. I was greeted by an old teammate from Team in Training; Janine! I had met her when I was training for my first full marathon, and she and 3 other teammates had gotten really close after running and training together for 4 months.
We caught up quickly and it turned out she had done the island girl half marathon. Good on her :) Amazing to have completed it. I was pretty happy with making through with a 10k. Maybe in the future sometime we could get the whole team together for a little reunion. Though it would be difficult since everyone is very scattered (one in HK, one in NFL, one in Ireland... just the two of us in TO :))
After we parted ways, my friend and I stopped by Starbucks to just relax a bit, warm up and basically veg for a bit before getting some real food. We were both pretty exhausted - hence the reason for training for races!
We debated for a while whether for Korean food or for mediterranean food.. finally the latter won out. We went and got some really delicious food at Green Eggplant, had lobster spinach artichoke dip with tortilla chips, and we split a chicken shish kabob dinner. We walked for a little to kinda stretch out our legs and then we headed home and rested.
I was happy and pleased to have completed my 2nd race of the season though. There were so many that I wanted to do, but I wasn't able to make them happen. Now... for the next race, run for the cure in October! And then... the last one. Niagara Marathon, right now you are scaring me. Ai.
Pre-race selfie, waiting at the ferry docks at 7am!
Until next year, island girl!
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