Downtown 5K Race Recap

Little bit of the little bit of an expo...

   Yesterday, I ran in the Downtown 5K, here in London. The Downtown 5K is the second race in the series of six races sponsored by London Honda, in affiliation with Runners' Choice.
   I was initially a little worried about what the weather might be like as the forecast was calling for rain right about race time but, as luck would have it, the rain did not materialize. The temp was about 8C, pretty overcast so, all in all, a pretty good morning to run.
   The race both started and ended downtown (naturally

Was my race bib a foreshadowing...?

enough) in Victoria Park. It involved about an eight block loop on city streets which we ran twice (there was also a 2.5K category and they ran the loop once). It was kind of cool because they had traffic stopped for us at all the major intersections. As a driver, this would have annoyed the hell out of me but, as a runner this one time, it was sweet!
   As I always do, I lined up for the start of the race at the back of the pack. This somehow or other only seems like the right thing to do---even when I was back in school I always headed to the back of the class when picking out seats for the first time. Anyway, it's a heck of a lot less claustrophobic back there!
   I woke up that morning feeling pretty good and ready to run. The previous couple of days I had substituted walking for running as part of my #RunToCanadaDay streak and this had left me with a little extra energy. The only thing that had me worried was the fact that it had been ages since I had actually run 5K. On top of that, during the streak we are required to run only 2K and I was finding that I was pretty tired after just that, so hard to say what a 5K might do to me!

The start of the Kiddy Trot.

  

The bandshell in Victoria Park.

At any rate, I started the race and was feeling just fine for the first couple of blocks. I very quickly noticed a speedwalker up ahead of me, a tiny elderly lady, dressed in neon, with brightly coloured compression stockings. I thought to myself "how cute", as I prepared to pass her. Well, I had quite a while to prepare as I soon realized that that she was speedwalking at the same rate I was running! I was running at what I thought was a good pace for me at the beginning of a race so that I might have something left at the end but this pace would not allow me to get past this little woman. Slightly against my better judgement, I picked the pace up a notch and was soon even with her. I complimented her on her pace and she thanked me sweetly, as I slowly pulled away.

Crowd at the starting line.

   Further along, I came across another runner who had stopped for a walk break. I passed her and then a little ways up the road, I stopped for my own little walk break. At which point, she passed me. We then started taking turns passing each other as our walk breaks alternated and soon we were joking about it. It was only at the end of the race that we realized we actually knew each other through work connections many years ago! Small world!

My Sweetie, seeing me off.

Nearing the finish line, forcing a smile. Nice
pic by my Sweetie, Doralyn!

   Toward the end of the race, I was feeling pretty whipped. I had ended up taking way more walk breaks than I thought I should really need. By this point, the neon speedwalking lady had actually passed me for the last time and did, in fact, kick my ass at the end of the race. With the finish line way up ahead, I had decided to take one last walk break so that I could at least finish the race running. It was here that she pulled so far ahead of me that there was no catching her. As it turned out, I took that last walk break a little too soon and almost had to stop and walk right in front of everyone at the finish line! Fortunately I was able to tough it out but it wasn't pretty...

The start of the race. Me at the back, yellow shoes, white cap. Up ahead, near
the curb, neon top and coloured stockings----Demon
Speedwalking Lady!!

   Anyway, here are some observations: 
                                                                                                                                  Someday, somewhere, somehow...I need to get a little more serious with the training. I ran this race in a touch over 35 minutes and that just doesn't cut it. Big goal, for me, would be to get that down below 30. (tee hee) (and that "tee hee" might be part of the problem)
                                                                                                                        I thought it would be kind of cool to enter this race series because, at my age (61), I figured I would be near the top of my AG. So, so, SO wrong on that account! The handful of other guys in this AG who run this series are all experienced runners who do 5k in the mid-twenties. Laugh's on me!

  I need to calm down a little before a race. The last race, I couldn't remember how to start my Garmin. This race, I wore a short-sleeve tech shirt over top of a long-sleeve cotton one. Bad form, I realize. WORSE form, however, is that I put the short-sleeve one on backwards....(giggle) (and that "giggle" might just be part of the problem)

Finally!