Race Report: Sport Chek Mothers Day Run & Walk 5K

Let me begin by saying: Funnest. 5K. Ever!

When I signed up to be team captain for the Mother's Day Run this year, I had no clue so many people would be up for joining the team.  We ended up with 18 members plus a whole schwack of honourary members.   A few of the official team members didn't actually come for the race, but it was still quite a large group we had gathered in the hall outside of Chapters before the race!

The day dawned rainy.  It wasn't terribly cold, as far as the thermometer was concerned, but a steady drizzle was falling as we headed into the city to meet up with everyone.  We had to be in the parking lot at Chinook by 7:30am so we could have onsite parking secured before they closed the roads.   As luck would have it, we were running late AND had been stopped by a thousand car freight train on Glenmore, but we still squeaked into that lot at 7:30 on the nose!  Once there, we had plenty of time to get things ready for the race.

With the twinners in their Valco, we headed to meet everyone.  We weren't even the first people there so it was good to see so many team mates excited to get going - especially since it was in the rain.   My friend, V, had brought her daughter and her Chariot and, though she was registered for the 10K, had decided she would likely just run the 5K with me.  I'm so glad she did (more later).

Our little NICU Graduates...it's been almost 2 years now!

Me and V

Me, V, and the midgets we'd be pushing

We spent the first little bit, hanging out inside where it was warm and dry and chasing toddlers up the length of the mall (mine, of course - V's daughter is much better trained at staying close).  At around 8:30, the loudspeaker was announcing that everyone should head to the start line for the warmup.   We quickly took a group photo and then headed out to line up.

(there is a pseudo team photo..I just need to track it down)

Those racing (including my hubby) headed up to seed themselves with the runners and we steered our strollers to where we figured was between the walkers and the runners.  Turned out that it was smack in the centre of the walkers, since many millions of people had decided that the "Walkers" sign was something to line up IN FRONT OF!!  As we waited to get going, the rain started to fall in earnest.  We were soaked and cold and the twins were starting to really complain.  Loudly.   I think I fed them 10 fruit bars just to keep them quiet (unsuccessfully).  Since they cried the entire race last year - I felt this overwhelming sense of dread wash over me.   Luckily the crowd was also loud, so i wasn't getting all of the "you're a bad mother" looks that I usually get when they wail in public!

Shivering at the start line

The crowd

more crowd

Finally, a little after 9, the crowd began to move up Macleod Trail.  V and I were itching to run because the faster we finished, the sooner we could be warm and dry again.  The crowd had other plans though.  These plans were along the lines of "let's just stop here" and "Maybe if I cut this stroller off, she won't mind and will take care to not smash into my ankles!"  Running was not going to happen any time soon!

I managed to do the entire race with only smacking into one lady's ankles...unfortunately, she was an older lady who cut me off and when I profusely apologized, her bitchy old lady friend turned and started to berate me for it.  I might have told her off.  Maybe a little bit.   I really hate it when I am genuinely remorseful for something I accidentally did and it gets thrown at me that way.   As luck would have it - for the first kilometre and a half - everytime we'd pull ahead, these two would keep appearing in front of us.   We didn't lose them until we turned off of Macleod and decided to move to the outer edge to find a clear path to take the strollers on.   By this point, a quick check on the twinners showed they had cried themselves out and were now crashed!  The fun could begin!!!

That first turn brought us to the first hill of the race.   Figures that we can finally run hard and it is all uphill!   Felt good to break away, though, and we had a lot of laughs as we leap frogged through the crowd pushing our babies.   After the next turn, we started to head straight for the sidewalks, where people would actually move for us (and where we had the grass to run on if the sidewalk got too cramped).  We zigged and zagged.  Sidewalk, grass, street.   Weaving our way through the crowd and laughing our heads off!   It was so much fun that I didn't even feel like I was pushing 50lbs worth of twins in a 40lb stroller (plus all of the other stuff people from the team had crammed into my stroller basket).  The race course meandered back and forth in the residential neighbourhoods around Chinook Centre so there wasn't much to see, but it was a well planned course.   At around the 3.5-4K mark, I saw a coworker and shouted out a greeting...then we could see the mall in the distance.   We said "let's finish this" and turned on the speed.   A dad, pushing a double chariot, was making nice headway through the crowd, so V said "Let's follow him!"   He wove around the pylons like a pro and we were soon in the mall parking lot and coming in for a finish.

Hubby was looking for us as we turned by the theatres...and totally missed us until I shouted to him.   He then joined us on the course to run us in (after having completed a sub 29min 5k, I might add).  We crossed the finish line in 41:35 (official chip time).  None too shabby.  I'd been vaguely aiming for 45 mins so am very happy with that time! The only disappointing thing was that they didn't hand out roses to the moms this year :(

Me and Hubby - soaked but happy with our races

Sleeping Buggie

Sleeping Doodle

After the race, we gathered up our goodies and headed over to the Little Legs race, where we had said we'd meet everyone.  Several of our team met up there, though it was super cold so many just went home.  We saw other friends who we knew were running.  It was a fun and very social atmosphere.  At 10:45, we entered the toddlers into the Little Legs race (it was so fun to run with my little Doodle holding my hand - Daddy ran with Buggie).  My only regret is not having someone take pictures for us!

After the kids race - Doodle was shivering so bad that we knew it was time to head inside and then go home.   I hope everyone on my team had as fun of a time as I did!  I have a feeling Team Wood n' Nicholls will be back again next year for more fun and laughter!