Vancouver GJF Historic 5k

I woke up yesterday to a very dark, dreary and wet Sunday morning. It was pretty early, too. Like 5:30am early. I started to reconsider whether this run was worth dragging my family downtown for. After-all, it was "just" a 5k race. They seemed on board with it, regardless of distance and weather. Especially since I told my daughter we'd be going to Science World after to see the dinosaurs. :-)

The race started and finished at the HMCS Discovery Naval Reserve on Deadman's Island. There were close to 500 people participating in the 5k, 10k and half marathon run that followed along Stanley Park's Seawall. It was very damp and cold out so everyone huddled indoors to wait for the race to begin.

We were then all told to make our way to the start line. I've learned to just go right to the back. I find it a lot nicer to pass a bunch of people than have a crowd of people pass me. Plus, it gives me a challenge. Generally, I see 1/2 and 10k runners and just a handful of 5k'ers making their way to the start but this time I was surprised that there were more. There were even a few right up at the front waiting to sprint it. The weather didn't seem to hold them back either. As you can hear in the video below, the rain was coming down pretty hard. You can also hear my daughter cheer me on and see me at the end smiling and waving like a big nerd. :-)

I saw a few water stations on the route along with cheering volunteers and spectators. As my race was so short, I didn't need to take advantage of the aid provided. Unfortunately, about 2 minutes into my race, my mp3 player stopped working and I couldn't figure out why. Grrr!&^&!^@$#@!! Music is a great motivator for me especially when it's a flat, concrete course. So having no tunes was a total bummer. Turns out, I accidentally hit the "hold" button on my player. Woops. Duh-Uh. LOL. Oh well. It's still good news for me as I didn't want to have to buy a new one.

The course was full of puddles so my feet got wet pretty quickly. I've found socks to be a huge factor in whether I'm going to have an enjoyable race or a miserable one. Lululemon has great running socks... and at $14/pair, they better be! ;-) They're thin and wick moisture away well so when my feet do get wet, it's not as noticeable nor too uncomfortable.

About a kilometer into the race I saw everyone stopping and starting to walk. The participants were heading single file around the lighthouse . It was nice to see patience and people being respectful about each others space. ...Until I saw an older lady barge her way past me and the rest of the crowd and bark out some sarcastic comments about it. If she was an elite or competitive racer, I could understand... but as soon as I got through, I blew past her. I can never understand the logic behind a recreational runner being like that. Not really that big deal but it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. :-)

I know I was only running 5k, but I can't believe how fast it was over. It felt like I blinked and I was already at the half-way mark being told to turn around. It was so weird! My time was slower than what I was thinking, though... boo. (28:44 - I was 9th overall out of 38 female runners.) When I made it to the finish line and I received my cute new "anchor" medal, I wasn't out of breath or even tired. Then I realized, I didn't go as fast as I could have. I paced myself like I would doing a half marathon. At the end of all my races, I'm usually spent (so I know I did my best in the "speed" category). This time it wasn't the case. So, I'm thinking that I definitely need to start incorporating speed training into my workouts to figure out my pace. I'll be signing up for more 5k's in the future to keep me accountable.

Five minutes after my race was done, the weather cleared up. Grrrr! On the bright-side, this gave my family and I an opportunity to walk around the park for a while and take some photos.

My daughter liked seeing the swans. They were pretty friendly until they realized we had no food for them and they took off again.

The weather was still a bit dark and there was mist/fog on the pond. By the afternoon, it was sunny. Wish I could have woken up to that rather than the freezing rain! *sigh* Well, I guess I can't complain. We are heading into December, after all. Overall, I was happy with the race and will probably do it again next year. It was well organized and the turn out was great despite the weather - but a little rain doesn't usually deter us crazy runners. ;-) Thanks for reading!