This past Saturday I ran the Toronto Women’s 10km. Not only is this a great event and run series, but my very good friend Cory Freedman is the race director and founder, so it is always fun to hang out and help out as well . 

The day started bright and early when the alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. My husband and daughter also volunteer at each of the TO Women’s events (there are 3), so it makes for a nice family time too. Jada and I did kit pick up as I usually do before each race. 

It was a bit of a cool morning as it usually is down in the park and for some reason I NEVER dress appropriately whilst handing out kits. Next time I wear my winter coat no matter what! Honestly, I spend more time shivering and getting wet feet, that I really need to dress for being in a forest weather and not bright sunny day weather. 

I did a warm up for the race about 20 mins before, and felt okay then headed over to line up for the start. It was a perfect day for a race, just not perfect for standing still! My goal for this race was to run sub 42 mins and win my age group. However, I only did a 1 day taper…:). Not ideal, but in the whole scheme of the importance of the race for me it was not my main goal race for the year. That is coming up in 2 weeks and then in October. So I will make sure I extend my taper for those ones . Once the gun went off I felt sluggish and out of sorts for the first km or two as I usually do no matter what I do for warm up. I am old, and so it always takes me longer to get my body going and into a rhythm. By km 3 or so I knew I was not hitting the splits I had wanted to, so I switched off my Garmin’s virtual partner screen which was set for 4:09 /km and back to main screen to see what I was currently running and tried to gauge my effort for strong but still saving some for the last 7 km! I usually get to 7km and feel I have gone too hard. This time I actually did not feel that at 7km but felt stronger as I went along. 

There was a girl up ahead of me that I caught and felt like if I just kept pushing I may be able to catch her as I was gaining on her. At about the 8km mark I went by her and then just kept going. I knew I was going to win my age group as the girls ahead of me were much younger:). Then I just wanted to get as close to 42 mins as possible. At one point along the course I thought I had gone the wrong way, but when you are running on your own it is sometimes hard to figure out where you should be even though I followed the signs. I always have that moment of “have I gone the right way”? . Then I saw the course marshall up ahead and knew I was okay. Oh maybe I also need to look at course maps ahead of time…..I seem to like that element of surprise for some reason! 

Once I got back to the parking lot part of the course I knew I just had 500 m to go. I saw the clock too and it was just clicking close to 42 mins so I went as hard as I could. Just missed it by 5 seconds. But I was happy to have come 4th to some very fast girls (the winner was 38 mins and change!!!). I won my age group by about 4 mins too. Overall I was really happy with how it went. My daughter presented me with my medal too so that was pretty cool and cute! 

I came home with some hardware (Mizuno hat and a plaque). I ran in my Mizuno Wave Ekiden which I just LOVE for 10km races and longer speed workouts. They are so light and comfortable but still give me that little bit of something underfoot. I feel like I have nothing on my feet yet they are so responsive. Thank you Mizuno!!!! 

Next race : Yorkville B and O 5km. My goal is to finally go sub 20 mins. I think I will taper better this time :).