It was a gorgeous day out there! Sunny and a bit warm at the start. Lots of wind and the route took us through some hilly parts in Toon Town. Who knew I would have flashbacks of that little marathon I did down east exactly a year ago with the hills? Up, down, up, down, down, down, up. I am changing my running routes as I had no idea we could tackle those hills in this town!! The bottoms of my feet were sore from running some of the downhills...specifically Pembina and the Broadway Bridge. Omgosh...
The first 5kms were fun. It was warm, and chatty, I felt like I was at a cocktail party. Lots of people to talk to and some good laughs about this and that. The route started and ended at the Police station so we got to run through downtown...and my downtown parking spot was a block away from the start/finish...bonus.
The second 5km were also fun. I love running along the river in this town. There was no wind (yet) the 5 and 10km runners had turned off so it was just me for most of the rest of the route. I would like to thank the girl in the light blue top with pigtails...I chased you the entire way. She did not stop once. I made it my mission to stare at her back and if she stopped, I would take a walk break...but darn it...she ran the entire way!
The third 5km were starting to get a bit hard as the route took us all the way out to Whiteswan Drive and turned back and then up a nasty, long, windy and winding path. I knew this path existed, but had no idea how tough it was to get up. Or maybe it was the 15km in my legs this morning...hmmm... Through some residential areas in River Heights and then down, down, down Pembina...wow, the bottoms of my feet hurt!!
Finally back onto the riverbank, the bridge coundown started. We have several bridges in this town so whenever I am on a tough run, I just count them down...Circle Drive...Train bridge...through some more residential North Park areas...more friggin hills...UP the College Drive bridge (frack I hate running up that bridge...its long and slow and a nasty sharp uphill just as you get off at the top)...UP to the Broadway Bridge...and back DOWN Broadway to the Police station. That last bridge was ridiculously windy...like gusts of that Saskatchewan wind...with all the dust from the prairies included. Yak. The nice thing about the Police organizing a run event is that they just close streets down...so we had one lane of each the College Drive bridge AND Broadway Bridge...kind of cool...I chased a white van in traffic the entire way down the Broadway Bridge...hahahahah!
Anyway, it was a great run for me! I was in a super mood the whole way, chatted most of the first 10km...never felt bad or tired...my legs loved running today. Finished in 2:06 which is a bit off my personal best, but I will take it! Considering I only started training for this in early March (had ran only a handful of times between September and March...) when we were on our trip to Disney and Phoenix...I had no cold weather excuses...took my run gear and ran nearly every second day...with this race in mind...so I am super happy and a bit proud that I toughed those hills out and ran most of the entire way!!
Happy Easter weekend to everyone!
1 comment:
Clearly I am going to have to visit Toon Town. The swim lessons, yes, we all know about my need for that. But HILLS?? In Toon Town????? Not that I've been there a lot, but I don't remember any hills. Well, maybe the little dip that the river is in.
Great race!
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