Green Germann Sakran Canada Day 5k Race Report!

That's right, folks! On Monday, July 1st, also known as Canada's 146th birthday, I ran a 5k race.

And I ran it well!

Let's back up a bit shall we?

When I failed to met my basic PB goal at the Bread & Honey 5k I wasn't too upset.

Not really.

Then, the next weekend, Sam, Patty, and Emma ran the Moon in June 5k, all PBing, all placing in their age groups.

Jealousy is not not a good thing.

Sam mentioned this race and I consulted with my husband and presto-magic, for the cost of $35 I was ready to go after sweet, sweet revenge redemption.

I had to buy a new buff because I had nothing else to wear:

Of course, Fergus really wanted to run the Kids 1k and tried to convince me that he had the perfect outfit:

Alas, everyone was still in bed when I left for the race.

I got free parking, got my timing... thing (hey, it worked but it was a flat plastic thing held on to shoes with twist ties) and bib and swag bag (amazing stuff for the cheap entrance fee!) and then met up with Sam, Amy, Emma and Patty. Patty joined me for a 1k warm up and it was nice to run the first/last 500m of the course and discover that the food trucks there for the Canada Day festival would be spewing exhaust upon us as we kicked toward the end. Awesome.

The 1k kids race started (Patty ran with her 3 year old son) and I saw right away that Bella's daughter, Marina was in the lead at the start. I was so excited about that. I headed to behind the finish line and about 4 minutes later I heard the announcer say, "Wow. We didn't expect this" and the first place finisher in the kids race (a girl) came in, followed seconds later by Marina and then a THIRD girl! AMAZING job ladies!

I watched Patty come in with her son, and my friends Sarah and Sara come in with their kids as well and tried to take some photos. Then it was time for us 5kers to line up and race.

My plan was to only display the KMs on my watch. I knew that anything else would be playing with my head and would end in a disappointing result. I had my watch on auto-lap so I was able to check my time every kilometer anyway.

Off we go.

Amy, Emma, Sam and I lined up together but as soon as the gun went, we all headed to our own races. I saw that Sam was ahead of me and knowing that she's a faster runner than me, I decided to keep her in sight, but not to push too hard to catch her. This ended up being a perfect plan and once again, Speedy Sammy ended up being my personal pacer and target in a race.

1k - 4:32. Check. I feel fine. Don't push the pace either way and just keep Sam in sight. Run on, run on and there's 2k and then there's.... some ... s a n d ? WTF?

So we ran on sand for maybe 750m-1k. Out to the turn around and back. It slowed me down no doubt but I just concentrated on the effort and Sam. We saw each other just after her turn and I gave her a thumbs sideways which was supposed to be a thumbs up and then I laughed at myself because I was having a good race. I wondered if she noticed my less then positive thumbage? Was she worried about my race? Probably. I mean its not like she was racing herself. I hope her worry for me doesn't ruin the rest of her race. Damn, I need to control my thumbs more next time.

At the turn, there was water and I grabbed some and walked to drink it and that gave me just the boost I needed to continue to deal with the freaking sand.

It took forEVER to get to 4k and it was then that I realized that I had the PB as long as I kept running at the same effort (remember, I can't see my pace). I'm running behind a girl in pink who is struggling with her hand on her hips. Because I can no longer see the actual Sam, Pink-Girl becomes my new Sam. Around 500m to go a man calls out to her and she waves him off and keeps going. Then I see her begin to kick for the end and so do I.

I'm getting that PB:

And so I did!

My official chip time was 24:11, earning me a 3rd place age group finish! Emma and Amy also had PBs (we're all in the same AG, and they came in 6th and 5th) and Speedy Sam placed 2nd in her AG! Here we are with our bling (thanks to Emma's hubs who took the photo):

Amy, Sam and I headed to the prize area so Sam could get her dinner for two gift certificate and I could get my running room hat. Which is the hat that Fergus DIDN'T choose at the Mississauga Marathon Expo LOL!

I'm happy about this race. I do feel like I could have run a lot faster, but I loved not having any mind tricks at all because I had very little feedback from my watch. My splits aren't pretty, but I'm only in week three of hard training, so lots of time to sort them out:

4:32-4:44-5:01-4:57-4:52-0:06 (last 20m)

The scariest thing about this race is that it is only 10seconds per KM faster on average then my target half marathon pace. Wow! I've got lots of work to do between now and October 20th!

I hope you had a great Canada Day!