Tuesday, April 27, 2010

(Almost) Rockin' the TC 10K

I'm hurting just a little from Sunday's big race, the TC 10K, one of the biggest runs in the country. this year over 13,000 people registered with over 11,000 finishing.  My ranking?  9,080 - I actually made it into the top 10,000!  I finished in 1:40:34, beating my previous best finish by nearly 17 minutes, but missing my goal time by a mere 34 seconds.  No pee breaks to blame this time - I stuck to one small pre-race coffee, but I think I lost some valuable time manoeuvering my long-sleeved shirt out from under my short-sleeved shirt a la 13-year-old girl, at around the 7 km mark.

And there was the iPod incident.  After spending over an hour on Saturday night creating the perfect 2 hour walk-run playlist, I left the pod on overnight and the battery was dead when I went to turn it on at the starting line.

Disaster - I'd told JTM the night before that I could probably crawl across the finish line with a compound fracture, but that I wouldn't make it without tunes. Anyway, a frantic call home had JTM barrelling back downtown with his own iPod, madly making me an "on the go" playlist at stoplights.  He met me at the corner of Cook and Dallas Road, at the 3 km mark, with a hug and a kiss and the all important music machine.  And that, people is why I am married!

Once I got going again, I made it my mission to not let these two old grannies pass me - one was marching along in full workout gear, complete with fanny pack water bottle holder. And the other one (part of a different group) was wearing an irritating puffy white hat.  And they were NOT going to pass me - (okay more than five or six times) - nor was the woman wearing jeans and cheap sandals, her timing chip flapping in very "Eff you, I'm just out for a stroll" way.  And there was no way anyone with nordic wallking poles was getting past me, or any very old people, or very small children.  Or (and I'm being really honest here) anyone that looked bigger than I used to be.

Now if that were really the case - if I really didn't let those people get by me, I would have placed much higher in the race.  But it turns out I'm a really slow walker.  Really slow.  Because I'm - well- much fitter and healthier than before - but that doesn't mean I'm actually fit and healthy.  Not at all.

Still I'm proud of my accomplishment, even if I have much, much further to travel.  Onward!Where's Mary?

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