A few months ago, Shoppers Drug Mart asked if I’d like to run the Shoppers Love You Run for Women 2017
, which took place on June 10th, and given that it’s in support of a cause I think is important — women’s mental health programs — I agreed right away. I had missed running the race last year as I was out of town, but I did run it the year prior and had a lot of fun.
I wasn’t planning on racing it, but to run it for fun. I’d taken a long break after running the Barbados Half-Marathon in December, and was only running about once or twice a week for several months, so my pace has gotten much, much slower. Although I have been training more consistently for the past month or so, it’ll take awhile til I get close to the running shape I have been in before.
So my approach to this Run for Women 10k was very relaxed. I didn’t stress leading up to it. I wasn’t even quite sure where the race start was when I looked it up at 9 p.m. the night before. I also didn’t get my nails done for it. I KNOW. I never race without my nails done!
My friend and fellow iRun colleague Anna Lee agreed to do the race as well and we met up before the race started. Saturday turned out to be a sunny, hot day, I believe it was about 18 degrees when I stepped out to head to the race. We started the race together and my plan was to run it as a tempo, that is for it to feel comfortably hard. Anna Lee was faster and I knew I had to dial back my pace or I’d be miserable and hurting the entire race (and I had zero desire to feel that way) so she went ahead and I could see her about half a block ahead of me most of the race.
There is little support along the route. Much thanks to the cheerful volunteers smiling and encouraging runners, and thank you to the man standing at Queen’s Park with a neon bristle board sign that read “You are a life-changer.” Because it’s always nice to have a reminder that this is about furthering such an important cause.
As for the route, it was flat and interesting enough as it was through midtown Toronto so stores and buildings for scenery. Because I’d only glanced at the map, I didn’t realize until during the race that the 10k is the 5k route done twice. I spent much of my time behind one runner, who each time I’d catch up to her, she would speed up. In fact, after the race, she found me and thanked me for helping to pace her, haha! That’s another favourite aspect of this race, it’s a pretty friendly, feel-good kind of race. Oh, and the medal is a cute bracelet that reads Love You.
Because I had zero plans to aim for a PB, I didn’t work my way to the front of the corral for the race start. But I wish I had, because when I looked up the results, the results are based on gun time, not chip time! Doh! Oh well. In any case, I finished in 54:01 gun time (which is about 30 seconds longer than the time I recorded on my Nikeplus, which is 52nd out of 291 runners, and 29th out of 229 women. Which I’m fine with, I actually expected to be slower, and there was the hot temperatures that day, too. How I’ve run the same distance about 7 minutes faster boggles my mind…but it’s helping to inspire me as I have to kickstart my Chicago Marathon training soon and it’s nice to remember that it is possible for me to run a much faster pace. I just have to put in the training.
I’d be remiss if I did not mention the very generous swag bag. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a swag bag like this before. I stuffed it into my backpack for the 4k walk home from the race, and it legit started to hurt by back, it was that heavy! If swag is a motivator, ladies, you need to get in on this race next year. We’re talking full-size hair products and chocolate and more. This photo doesn’t even feature every item from the bag.
Congrats to everyone who ran the Toronto edition (and all of the other cities, too!) of the Run for Women, and good luck to you in St. John’s running it on June 25th!
June 13, 2017
Well, it’s one week later and I’m not looking back on the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-marathon any more positively than I did right after the race. It just plain wasn’t very enjoyable for me.
Thankfully, I ran it in support of Toronto Cat Rescue and my generous friends sponsored me in the run so I do feel good about that. And the team raised more than $18,000! (And if you’d still like to support the cause, which helps hundreds of cats get healthy and find forever homes, my sponsorship page will be up until the end of October! Sponsor me in the Charity Challenge, whydontcha?!)
But as for the actual race? Here’s the thing: I didn’t plan to race this race. My plan all along was to run it very, very easily and to walk whenever I felt like it.
My running friend Shawna registered for the race, and I was thrilled to have someone to run it with. That is until she told she thought we should aim to run it under two hours.
I haven’t been training for a half. Yes, I’ve been running, but not regularly and I certainly haven’t been building distance and mixing in speed work and hill training. I think in the past two months, I ran a total of maybe 10 times. I typically run at least three times a week when I’m training for a race. So I knew how out of shape I am for the race. Thus the plan to run easy.
But I added this race to my schedule in late September because I took part in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge and also because I do like taking part in it (there’s so much support now for it along the route, it’s very different from when I first ran the half-marathon in 2008 and ran it as my very first marathon in 2012. But I don’t see the need to be uncomfortable when I will not be PBing.
Then a week prior to the race I ran a decent 15k with Shawna . So I thought maybe 1:59:59 could be within reach or not entirely impossible in any case. The weather that day of our 15k was ideal, though: cool, almost even a smidge cold, and that’s what I prefer to run in.
Lucky me, five days before the STWM, I caught a cold. And three days before the race, I had a long shoot that started early (so I was sleep deprived) and that called for me doing exercises that left me sore; I coughed and sniffled through the day (but hopefully that doesn’t show on camera!) and crashed as soon as I got home.
I rested as much as I could pre-race but spent a lot of time wheezing through the nights and feeling worn out. I was still sick Sunday morning of the race. There’s the added issue that for several months I’ve also been suffering from allergies that, when I run, occasionally causes me to have coughing fits. When it’s a particularly bad instance, the coughing can escalate into dry heaving because I can’t get control of my breath. Sorry, TMI. I do have a nasal spray for these allergies but I often forget to use it daily…so it hasn’t had a chance to kick in and do its magic on relieving my allergies.
Anyhow, I agreed to try to start the race with Shawna with sub 2 hours in mind. But I knew very early on it wasn’t going to be doable. I think by kilometre 2 my legs felt tired (uh oh) and my breathing was laboured since my cold was still lingering.
Now, I truly don’t remember this but Shawna said I asked her not to leave me around the 8th kilometre. I have a feeling I was thinking ahead to the long and rather boring section along Lake Shore going west and then turning to take it back eastbound. At kilometre 12, and every kilometre after that, I kept asking her, pleading with her to leave me. She was chatty and full of pep and was obviously being held back by my pace. But she insisted on staying with me. She said (and she’s 100 percent correct) that if she left me, I’d sandbag it and walk. I have no problem with that. I was fully prepared to finish around 2:15 or even longer.
But that damn Shawna wouldn’t leave me! Hahaha! So I had to try to maintain a faster pace and being not in race shape, it felt awful. My legs felt heavy. I felt like I had to really work to get enough air due to my cold. And often when I start thinking too much about my breathing that causes a coughing fit to happen. I can normally chat at the pace we were running but I was quiet most of the race (other than when I begged Shawna to leave me!). But that Shawna is a stubborn one! And she said she knows what I’m capable of and so much to my semi-dismay, she stayed with me. I was happy to have company but I was pretty much shooting daggers with my eyes at her (good thing she didn’t take the selfie of us that she considered!). Add to this that the weather was quite warm and very humid. And although I’d worn just a sports bra to run all summer, for the race I had on a tank as well and I felt hot in the unexpectedly warm temps.
The finish line felt like it’d never come but it did, and we crossed it hand in hand with a time of 2:05:33. Which is decent for me considering I’m not in race shape and was sick. I was so very very grateful to not be running 42.2k that day. Thank you to Shawna for sticking by my side. (But note to self: Going forward, be clear about my race goals when asking a friend to run a race together!)
After grabbing food and some pics, we went to cheer marathoners at the finish line, who were so inspiring to me in all of their pained and anguished steps toward the finish line. But we got a few smiles and that always makes me happy because I know how much it can help to have cheers, especially when someone shouts your name. But there were many runners had rough races that day; I saw many who needed medical attention, I think the humidity had a lot to do with it.
(Also, how wicked were this year’s race t-shirts? Love this design by Mango Peeler of Parkdale Road Runners. Sad I didn’t get it personalized, which they were offering at the expo, but they wouldn’t let me swap the size on Saturday and I think I’d prefer a roomier fit).
Seeing these marathoners reminded me that I was (am?) capable of running a marathon, twice the distance I’d run that day, and at a faster pace. When I train properly. So, while I’ve been forced to put running on the back burner for the past year due to my travel schedule, I think I need to try to focus on a marathon for next year. I’m feeling that urge again. More on that in this blog post from earlier this week.
Come to think of it: could my shitty race have to do with the fact I didn’t get a “marathon mani” like I usually do?! Drat! (I skipped the nail art this race because of that shoot I had to do a few days before the race called for bare nails.)
What are your next run goals? Any races for the remainder of 2016?
And btw, Shawna and I are still friends. Barely. Tee he he…
October 23, 2016
I don’t think I’ve ever run a “fun run”, as in a race that isn’t timed, but I guess there’s a first for everything, and my first fun run was the Famous Canadian Beer Run held on September 18, 2016.
Having run the RBC Race for the Kids 15k the day prior, I wasn’t gunning for a fast 5K time anyhow (that plus the fact I haven’t been training consistently). The weather was very hot and humid that day, which always brings me down in speed by a ton. but I wasn’t focused on pushing to go fast by any means anyhow. But I did in small stretches find myself pushing myself to go a little harder, motivated by the mere factor of just wanting the race to be over with (I was uncomfortable in the sunshine, and I had a puppy I was sitting for the weekend waiting for me at home). I ran most of the race with my running pal, Shawna, who was pacing the last wave of the race, I lost her a few times as I kept stopping to take photos, but I could always hear her shouting how close we all were to beer at the finish. And she was always easy to spot given her fun run pacer outfit:
There was a frustratingly slow race kit pickup (which was only held on the day of the race) but there were lots of positives to this run including the drumline along the route, being able to see the city from Ontario Place, and of course, the beer, cider and vodka cocktails at the end of the race. The “medal” being the plastic beer stein was a fun touch, too. I didn’t get to hang out at the finish long since I had to get back to puppy-sitting, but I’d consider running the race again if the race kit pickup is improved (I should add that the organizers sent an apology email immediately after the race, and a survey for feedback recently, so they are making the effort to improve from their inaugural race this year, which goes a long way in my books!).
For more of a recap, check out my post on the iRun website here.
September 28, 2016
