Sunday, October 01, 2006

Running and crawling for the Cure...


I did the Run for the Cure this morning, as a member of my work team. Prior to the run, we had discussed whether we were going to walk together as a team, split into running and walking groups, etc...but didn't decide on anything. This morning when I woke up, I dressed to "jog." I figured that I would be waiting around a lot more than running, and it wasn't very warm, so I wore my running capris, a long-sleeve and my RR jacket. And a fanny pack to hold my junk, including my camera. I knew that I would have to wear the race shirt as well (which turned out to be an XL and came down almost to me knees), so I wasn't exactly dressed for top performance. I also wore my old running shoes.


I confess to eating 2 timbits this morning :(
A few of the team members decided to run, so Tony and I ran also. We lined up with the masses of runners. The horn went off and we slowly made our way to the starting point. The beginning was of course very crowded, and we were jogging at best. I didn't try to weave too much (except around the walkers, who shouldn't have been there in the first place), since I wasn't exactly expecting to get a good time. The first half the race was pretty rocky, as Tony and I lost each other a few times and stopped to look for the other. I checked my watch and was surprised to see that our pace wasn't too bad...under 7 min/km for the first 2 km.

There was a water station at the halfway point. As I scooted away from the water tables towards the middle of the road (since I wasn't going to take water), I tripped over an uneven part in the pavement and stumbled. I tried valiantly to save myself, but my quads were sore from the 16.7 km that I ran yesterday, and they would not co-operate. I crashed to the ground, scraping my knee in the process. "Are you okay??" several people around me asked. "It's all good," I replied. "It's gotta happen to me during a race at least once..." So I lost a few seconds and a bit of momentum, but kept going.

The run went by so fast. The second half was downhill, and it felt like were we flying down University ave. As we approached the finish line, I glanced at my watch. 29:20?? Are you kidding me? Even with the putzing around and the fall, I could still finish under 30 min?


So, I kicked it. Tony chased after me and we crossed the finish line together...in 29:48!!! Technically, a PR for both of us. Tony has never run a timed 5 km, and my only other 5 km was the same run 2 years ago, which I did in about 33 min. The fact that I came so unprepared, had a bad start, fell on my butt...and still finished under 30 min blew me away. It also blew me away that Tony kept up with me, because he hasn't been running at all :P

The biggest news about the event was that our team raised about $4000 for the cause :D Yay team!

1 comment:

Cliff said...

So what lesson do we learn here..

timbits + falling down makes u run faster...