Yep - I'm still sick. I've been trying hard to kick it and sometimes I feel like I'm on the mend but, up until last night, I wasn't entirely sure I was even going to be in any condition to run the 5K today. In the end, an early wake up and the lure of a medal got me out of bed and into the city for this fun run.
There had been several inches of snow that accumulated overnight and the roads were incredibly icy to drive on so I didn't have high hopes for good course conditions. If anything, I was grateful that I was only doing the 5K and was feeling pretty sad for the runners in the half.
The gameplan for the race was to run when I could, go as slow as felt ok and to walk when I needed to. No time goal. No watching my pace. Just have fun.
I picked up J at around a quarter to eight and we spent a good 20 minutes driving (skidding) around the Mount Royal University parking lot in search of a spot. Finally, we were parked and trudging through the deep snow to get into the building so we could hurry along to meet up with JS and her hubby.
(I have a pre-race photo on my phone but bluetooth isn't cooperating so I'll need to add it later)
A few minutes later, we were filing out to the start line and it was time to go. JS was running at 5:1s with her hubby and J and I were just going to do whatever. The snow was soft and hard to run in along the road. Several jokes were passed around about my having excellent training from running on the beach in Cancun (though I never did - that would be an injury waiting to happen) - and the conditions today were just like running in that sand would have been. It was snowing and instead of watching my garmin, I found my eyes glues to the ground to make sure that I kept my footing. It's funny, but through all of our cold COLD winter of training, my feet never got as cold as they did today. I think they got wet from trudging through the deepish snow in the parking lot. I just couldn't get them to feel warm at all, but my upper body was SWELTERING!
Five minutes into the race, JS and her hubby took their first walk break, but J and I pressed on. I was starting to get a pretty good cramp, but I kept going. At 10 minutes, though, my lungs and side were screaming to walk, so we did for a minute then got going again. After that - we walked whenever my lungs felt they needed it.
The course took us out of the University and up 50th avenue. Over Crowchild to just before the Glenmore Athletic Park where we turned around and headed back on the same route. The hill up to the overpass on Crowchild nearly killed me each time (though it wasn't a terrible hill and on a dry, non-sick day, it would have been a breeze). J was a saint to walk with me through all of my needed breaks. It's great to have a runner girl who will do that for you! Thanks, J - I owe you one (well, more like a million)!
Just after we turned around, we passed Dawn (The Pink Chick). I shouted out a little cheer to her, but I'm not sure she knew who I was!
In the end, we crossed the finish line at around 36 mins. I was going to lie and say this was my 28 min 5K, but I figured you'd all call me on it! Mr. JS caught us just after we crossed the finish line:
And the medal whore in me is happy to proclaim that there is some shiny new bling on the medal rack this afternoon:
As for the race swag...the bib was nothing to write home about. Printed on plain printer paper - I'm amazed it survived the wet snow today! The shirt, on the other hand, totally awesome! Best race shirt to date! Super soft, navy and completely non-ugly! The picture doesn't show it well, but it it the skyline of Calgary from the race logo.
So that was the Calgary Police 5K Run. Not a bad little race. I wish it was chip timed, but overall it was definitely worth a run in the snow for another medal (next year I hope the weatherman is nicer, though)
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