RunTO 10K
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Maureen N, Julie and Marcella at the Island restaurant post-raceRace report from Richard...
Date: Sun Jul 27, 2003
Subject: Runto Report
Hello all, Here is my quick report of the RunTO race today. For me the transport to the island went pretty smoothly especially taking the large number of runners into account. Since everybody was divided in 'waves' before the start of the race, the first kilometres were not that hectic as I have seen in the past with other races.
I didn't feel great. Although I was maintaining a pace of about 5 min per kilometre I felt that I was going faster than my body liked even though I have run that pace before. Especially between kilometre 4 and 8 I had to take extra walking breaks. In the last 2K I was able to recover some of the time I lost but I finished just above the 50 minutes. My goal was to finish in the 48-50 minutes range but hey, you can't have it all I guess.
Richard on the run! He's fourth from the leftUnfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate today. We walked around for awhile but it felt like it got colder instead of warmer. I was more in the mood for coffee than beer!!!! We walked around the area between the food tent and the beer garden but no penguins :( Feeling cold, we decided to take the 1 PM ferry back.
Hope everybody's race went great! All in all it was fun to participate in Toronto biggest running event ever and Nike provided a lot of advertising for 'our' sport.
Richard
PS All that blue running around was pretty cool but the interesting was that since everybody looked the same from behind, you didn't really have anybody to fight with if you know what I mean.
Julie and friends, including Steve at the far rightRace report from Julie...
Date: Sun Jul 27, 2003
Subject: ATB-Completed at Last!!!WHO HOO:) We did it and it was A LOT of fun:)
I found the whole experience to be fantastic:) and very well organized considering how many runners they had:) Mind you I'm not a fast runner so I didn't notice too much of a bottleneck & I didn't check a bag;)
My friend Shayne & I walked(with a bit of running) the entire race together & had a blast:) My hubby even got a pic of her finishing (this was her first race) I'll post it once he uploads it:) and me with both feet off the ground when I had a STRONG finish (of course I did, I had walked a lot;) and I had Steve to run in with me) Thanks Steve and to Una for lending him to me:)
The only downside is by the time we finished (we walked a good chunk of the race) most of the food was gone. So we met our friends & went to the Island Restaurant near the ferry docks. I couldn't find any penguins:( BUT then Marcella called me & her & Maureen joined us at the restaurant! We had fun & we snapped a pic to be uploaded soon:)
I also saw Tracy C on the route & called out her name but I don't know if she saw/heard me)
How did the rest of you do?
Most of my friends finished under 60mins and couldn't be happier! I think it was a nice flat route perfect for a Personal Best!
I have to be honest I am a little bummed that I walked & didn't run, I wanted to run so badly BUT I have done something to my knee I'm not sure what & with 8 weeks to the weekend to end breast cancer 60km I don't want to risk anything. I'm honestly not sure what is wrong it just hurts. I went on a boat cruise on Wed with work & danced to some 50/60'songs & then woke up Thursday with a sore knee:( I have been icing & resting but I'm not sure what is wrong:(
It felt fine after the walk even with the slight jog at the start & then a run for the last 100m or so. Now after I've been home for awhile, I feel a dull ache?
hugs,
Juliep.s. Richard I can't believe you have your photos up so soon, you ROCK!!!
Marcella and Christine after the raceRace report from Marcella from Sault Ste. Marie...
Date: Mon Jul 28, 2003
Subject: 10,000 run 10K!Hi Penguins,
I wrote a detailed race report last night, went to send it off and received the message that my time had run out and I needed to log in again. I tried to save my report as a draft but it didn't work, and when I logged in again, my report was gone!
So here is a sloppier version:
Smooth sailing down the DVP and Gardiner. Virtually no waiting for the ferry. Saw Running Guy taking pictures with some of the racers. No problem getting my chip and wave band. Saw Christine and group right away (yellow headbands) and had a great time chatting with them until race start. Ran into Richard and Catherine(sp?) on the way to the waves.
Interesting conversation: While waiting in line for the port-a-potty, this lady was telling me that her friend talked her into signing up a few days ago. The farthest distance she had run was 1Km, and her intention was to run slowly, but to do the whole 10Km without stopping!! She was desperate to get into the port-a-potty because she had drank so much coffee. She didn't want to drink water because she'd have to go to the bathroom. I told her to take it easy, and maybe to consider walking most of the race, and to make sure she drank lots of water at the water stops. I think she was crazy trying to do a 10Km race with only having run 1Km as her farthest distance, but I just tried to caution her to take it easy.
My race went as follows: Ran the first 2Km, then took a one minute walk break. I had intended to do the whole race this way, but by the 3rd km, I decided to just walk whenever I wanted and run whenever I wanted, because I really didn't feel like over-pushing myself. I was thinking, "Heck, I just want to have fun!". I really hadn't trained properly for this race, so between the third Km and the 8th Km, I probably walked 1/2 the time, and ran 1/2 the time. When one of the volunteers would announce a water stop or misting area, I would start running and make myself run until I got to that destination. When I arrived at the fireman's sprinklers, I SLOWLY jogged through the water and enjoyed every second of getting soaked! Luckily, I was running when I heard Tracy call out my name.
After drinking some water at 8Km, I decided to run for the rest of the race. When I turned the last bend and saw the Finish line, I picked up the pace, but I still had approx. 500 metres to the end. Distance is deceiving when you're staring down a straight line! I almost ran out of steam, but then the crowd's supporting cheers worked their magic and I actually sprinted the last few metres to the finish line. I think my time is 1:09, but I can't find the results yet on the RUN TO site.
After stretching, I easily spotted Christine and her group due to the yellow headbands, then I proceeded to wait over 40 minutes in line for my bag! At least I got to chat with some of the other runners while waiting in line.
On my way to meet up with Julie and her gang, I ran into Maureen and we had a great chat on the way to the restaurant and later on the ferry ride home. It was great to see Julie again and meet her husband and friends.
All in all, it was a good day, and the race organisation was for the most part, excellent. I'm sure by next year they will work out the bugs with baggage retreival and bottlenecks during the race and at the finish line.
See you at Tuesday's run!
Marcella
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