The Really (no, I mean REALLY) Chilly Road Race Recap

   Before I get to the actual recap, I should probably let you know what's been going on the last couple of months, as I have not been very present here in the blogosphere!
   My last post was at the end of December (welcome to 2015, Brian) and in it I described some issues I'd been having with pain in my right foot after long runs. Well, I've done so little running since then that the pain has disappeared and in the the couple of 5Ks I managed last week, I was pain-free afterwards. I did mention the foot pain to my doctor, who thought it might have been a compression issue in that foot and that I should maybe go back and forth with my shoes on long runs to see if any one shoe is better than the other. I may try this.
   One of the main reasons I got out a couple of times last week was that I knew I had a race coming up this weekend and I wanted to fool myself into thinking I might have actually trained for it. The race is the aptly-named the Really Chilly Road Race. It is the first in the series of London Honda Road Races this year. I took a bit of a leap and signed up for the whole series, and saved a little money at the same time.
   This morning, I was greeted by this weather update:

   This confirmed what the weatherperson had been telling us for the last few days----that it was gonna be cold! In conjunction with this morning's race there was also supposed to have been a bunch of musical entertainment and things for the kids to do but, rightfully so, those things were cancelled, due to the temps.
   

Before heading off.

Thankfully, the snowsqualls we'd been warned about did not materialize and it was actually beautifully bright and sunny this morning. Mentally uplifting, if nothing else.
   I got there about half an hour before race time as I'd waited until then to pick up my bib. Generally, I head downtown to Runner's Choice to pick up the race packet the day before but yesterday wasn't a whole lot nicer than today so I'd decided to skip the extra trip.

The pre-race warmth!

   The race begins from the Western Fair Raceway, a harness racing track, and wends it way through the surrounding neighbourhoods for 5K. There is a 10K as well and they just do the same course twice. The race actually begins and ends on the track and I wanted to get a pic from the track before the race actually began. Big mistake. I got the pic but then could not zip up the pocket I put my phone back into. Well, when the windchill is -40, it doesn't take long for bare skin to get into trouble and when the pain hit I just stuffed the phone into my pocket and didn't bother with zipping it up.

Somewhat ill-fated pre-race pic!

   I quickly got both pairs of gloves back on just in time for the race to start. Before we even got past the grandstand, I was in major discomfort. We began by running right into the little bit of breeze there was. About the only part of my body that wasn't protected was around my eyes and no amount of angling my body provided any relief. The thought in my head at the time was that if the whole race was like this then I was probably gonna be dropping out real soon. I also knew, however, that after we got off the track, we would then head in a different direction and hopefully the windchill would not be the same issue.
   In fact, this is what happened. We turned out onto Dundas Street, headed east, and the wind became a non-issue. In fact, I found myself running on pavement for the first time in a long time and it actually started being enjoyable. The city police had cordoned off a running path and were also commandeering traffic at major intersections, making for non-stop running. I went out of my way to thank every volunteer and police officer out on the course, at least we were able to keep warm by running!
   I'm thinking that the little bit of running I did leading up to this race actually did help. I probably could have run the whole thing, which is not something I would have been able to say about my recent training runs. In fact, I only took a couple of brief, 30 second walking breaks and ended up feeling pretty strong at the finish. And damn glad I was at the finish!

SO happy to be back inside!

   I stuck around for the awards ceremony afterwards. There are so few runners in my AG in this series that it almost guarantees someone a third, second or first-place finish and today I took away second place! Out of two runners! Yay me! This resulted in a ten dollar Runner's Choice gift certificate. The bling was actually nicer than last year's race, as well. Everyone got a finisher's medal and a Really Chilly toque. Can't actually remember the last time I got a race medal in London!
   This afternoon, I feel good. No foot pain and the legs feel fine, I almost feel like going out for another run but I might just wait for a balmy -10 or something.....

The spoils!