10k race report

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXcBineybhM

Well, now you got it. My triumphant finish in my first race of 2011. That's all you need to know. (Kidding!)

The good sides of the race :
1. Well organized, lots of volunteers, Japanses drums at the starting line (fun but we couldn't hear the organizer's speech nor the names of the elites).
2. Fast flat course through a very large shopping center, so early on Sunday morning, the only cars there were the ones from those racing the 5 or 10k.
3. Some runners had brought litteraly busloads of supporters who spread out on the course. They were cheering everybody like there was no tomorrow!
4. The weather was perfect. Coolish in the morning when we got there (I had a Polar sweather on and felt OK). It warmed up a bit for the start but it stayed overcast for the entire race. Then, the sun burst through the clouds and it got really hot but sooooo nice!
5. Can you believe everyone who raced got a lunch box! With real food! Sandwiches (ham, egg salad and chicken salad) with a piece of cheese, carrots, a V8 and a muffin. Oh and we could take as many juice boxes and bottles of water we could carry! This is much, much better than T-shirts!!!!

On the other hand :
1. We ran through empty parking lots and empty streets of a shopping mall. How boring can it get? Well, very in my humble opinion. No trees, nothing to look at to help you pass the time. I like scenery when I run, it takes the edge off running hard.
2. The race started late by about 15 minutes which meant that runners wouldn't finish before they opened the shops. We had a few mishaps of cars turning into the runner's lane and coming really close to us!
3. Did I say the course was boring?
4. There was only one bathroom with 3 stalls for about 250 women!!! Can you imagine? The last time I had to wait so long to pee was at a James Taylor concert at the Forum in Montreal! Don't they know about Porta potties?

Now, on a more personal side, I get really nervous before a race. On Saturday, I was so besides myself that I had diarrhea all day. So, come Sunday morning, I was pretty dehydrated. Although I drank lots of water in the morning, I still felt parched. I really need to get this side of me in check! And you know, sometimes when someone want to help you but ends up making you feel really cheap, well that happened Saturday afternoon. I told my husband that I was feeling very nervous about the race on Sunday, thinking he would take me in his arms and tell me it woule be OK. Well, that didn't go as planned at all... He just plain out told me that he didn't understand why I was feeling nervous because it wasn't like I had any chance to win this race... I know he meant well but I just felt like manure.

Oh, and another thing, when I run, I just feel fine (most of the time). Thoughts come through my head, spin around a little and leave the way they came. It's mostly blissful running for me. BUT, when I'm in a race... All that pops into my mind is negative! I try to let the thoughts and feelings come and leave as I do when I run but they are like quicksand and I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into negativity and self-defeat. The funniest thing about it is that I could see myself getting stuck but I had no way to get unstuck. So, instead of battling this dragon head on, I decided to go sideways. I put on some very upbeat music in my Iphone and made a deal with myself. I would run hard for the lenght of one song and then I would walk for 20 seconds and repeat. And that's how I spent the last 4 kilometers.

My husband and my darling son were at the finish line up on a 4 foot flower box so I could see them and that was the most beautiful thing that happened that day. If you look in the video, you'll see arms waving at me, that was my son! He usually doesn't care about these things and only wants to know when we can leave but I could see he was really excited to see me run to the finish line! I was so happy I could have cried! (But I didn't because then I would have to explain to him that I was crying happy tears and he just doesn't get that...)

Well, that's it for this race. The next one is another 10k on July 22 at the same place. I just hope I handle that one better. Oh, and my official time : 1:01:03.