Sunday, June 5, 2011

DONNYBROOK DASH 10K - Runpiker Series #3



Last year, I participated in the 5K race. It was my third 5K race of 2010. I did not have a blog at the time; therefore, I have no written record of this race, but I do have my results:

June 6, 2010
5K @34:12
Pace 6:50/km

So how am I doing one year later?

*****
I am behind on my blog by almost a week ... the upcoming posts may explain a bit why, but for the sake of expediency, here is my post from DailyMile about the race, for those of you who read my blog, but are not following on the DailyMile ...

a.k.a. "I Felt Like a Bag of Toys" Run :(

Well, for the first time since I started comparing my 2011 runs to last year's, I ran at a slower pace. :(

June 5, 2011
10K @1:12:08
Gun start/Running mat finish with bib tag collection

However, when I consider all the factors that were working against me in this particular race, I don't think I did too badly! :)

From the DailyMile:

It was bound to happen and HEY, this WASN'T my goal 5K at Bayfield or my goal 1/2 marathon at Niagara Falls so I am okay with today's performance and result. If anything, similar to last weekend's RP race, I learned a lot so I can't call this a bad experience. Here's my best attempt to edit the ugly, the good, the bad, and the good ... I had a terrible bout of nausea before I left home for Dorchester and hoped it would pass by the time I arrived, but I ended up curled up in a ball in my vehicle between kit pick-up and start time. Instead of warming up, I spent time in the washroom (new and clean - a positive!). I kept telling myself that I might just have a good race still; that this wasn't necessarily an indication of a bad race. I started 'well', and even steadily passed multiple 5K runners on the quiet streets. The 10K runners went right at one point and we were then on a shaded trail (lovely) where I passed 2 runners, Pinky and Miss Purple. This distraction from my tummy was much needed and I started thinking that I would be okay within a few more km after all. After turning left onto a gravel road, I set my sights on catching up to Red Guy and Blue Guy. But this is when it got a little tougher, too, running challenging hills repeatedly on gravel in the hot sun and humidity. I was still on target by the 5K mark, but realized the second half was going to be much tougher. When we switched from gravel road to pavement, BOTH my left ankle and left achilles tendon felt very sensitive (not hurting, not aching, just making it known that they were not happy with the hilly gravel roads). I never did catch up to Red Guy ... instead, this race turned into a concentration of willpower ... willing myself forward when feeling so crappy in the merciless sun on such a hilly course with my old injury starting to act up. I kept thinking, if this were Niagara Falls, what would you do? How would you handle it? Maybe this is happening now so you can learn how to handle situations like this. I refused to look at my Garmin the whole race because I did not want my taskmaster telling me if I had a good pace when clearly the running conditions were sub-par for me today. And this is when the ball on my right foot started to hurt. You.have.got.to.be.kidding.me!! By the 8K mark, I reached a very steep hill and thought about my race next week ... so I stopped running and walked it. Again, at the 9K mark, another steep hill so I stopped to walk. And this is when a runner came up from behind me: "I've been trying to catch up to you this entire race!" he exclaimed, "You haven't stopped running for most of it!" I then realized that, hey, even with everything working against me today, I was actually someone else's 'Red Guy' (literally, as I was wearing my red tech-T)! I then caught up to him at the top of the hill when he started walking. In a shout-out to Terry's suggestion on DM last Sunday, I turned to this runner and asked him if he wanted to pace with me to the finish. Although I started feeling my usual adrenaline rush near the finish line, my new partner needed to walk a few more times so I decided to stay with him. We ran in together to cheers (very nice!) and as the one volunteer stepped toward me to collect my bib number first, I quickly stepped to the right behind my running partner so his was collected before mine. He then shook my hand firmly and thanked me enthusiastically for helping him to the finish line. Complete opposite ending from last week when I outright raced someone to the finish line, but just as satisfying. :) Even after a two hour nap this afternoon, I am still feel very blah. Not sure what is ailing me, but better today than next Sunday when I am going for a PR in a 5K !!! :) :) Race Week/taper week probably is coming at an ideal time. :)

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