This was the first time that I have raced the Ottawa 10km. Usually, I watch the 10km race and then race the ½ marathon the next day.
I am normally not nervous when it comes to racing but this event gave me the butterflies! I felt like I was lining up on the start line of a track race! It was by far the most competitive race that I have been in.
The start of the race was FAST. It was like when the Hunger Games start and everyone runs to grab their weapon. When the gun went off everyone bolted to clear corner that was about a hundred meters from the start. From there it was hard to back off the pace.
I was aiming to run 32 min flat, So was looking to split 5km in 16:00 min and then have a faster 2nd half. Even though I came through the 5km split in 15:58, the first 2km of that were run at a 3:05/km. Those first 2km cost me a lot of energy. Had I just held an even 3:12/km pace I could've split through 5km in the same time without burning so much energy. Although I kept catching people over the second half of the race my pace was slowing. In my mind, there is a little bit of a disconnect between the result, my effort and how I felt during the race. Even tho my pace was slowing I felt strong and in control the whole race. My finishing time was 32:29. That is considerably off of my goal time as well as my PB.
Normally when a race doesn’t go to plan I am disappointed and frustrated and spend the next week asking myself what went wrong? Why didn’t my training add up to the result that I was aiming for? This time around there is no disappointment because I know what went wrong. I allowed myself to get swept away in the race. I let others dictate my pace, therefore, didn’t really run my own race. Knowing what went wrong means that I don't need to question my fitness or training and that gives me a lot of peace of mind.
Next up is the Toronto Waterfront 10km where I am looking to take dead aim at 32… none of this running on adrenaline and exhausting myself nonsense.
I’ll end this by congratulating everyone else that raced this past weekend. Watching the full and the ½ on Sunday morning was so much fun! Congratulations to Brittany Moran for placing 2nd overall in the ½ marathon,
and to Kerri Andreas for killing her BQ and getting a PB. Kerri was well under her BQ at 40km and was still pushing hard and running aggressively over the last 2km!
and to Ellen Mitchell on completing her first Marathon - This moment was awesome!!!! Big props to Michelle & Inge for pacing.
Congratulations to everyone. Enjoy your recovery and hopefully, we will cross paths out on the MGT soon.