Sunday, May 12, 2013

Race Report: Day Before Mother's Day 3K

If it wasn't for the fact that I shattered my 3K PR, I would be really unhappy right now. I have numerous gripes with today's race -- all of them were logistical.

1. The race kit pick-up was at the most inconvenient time last night (4:30-6:00 pm). There's no reason to have a pick-up literally across town in the middle of traffic. No way was anyone from west of downtown going to make it to that. Instead, we had to show up almost 2 hours before race time to get our kits day-of.

2. The pick-up was at a middle school almost a km from the start line. It was kind of good in that it was a bit of a warm-up to the race but it seemed really disconnected. You crossed the finish line and just sort of had to stand there. The paths were muddy from the rain and the area around the course was way too small for the amount of people there.

3. Don't have 12 year olds working the chip tent. They can't answer questions and after my mom and I picked up our chips after finding them ourselves, some little shit working there took them from us and put them back. We told her that we needed them and she said "Oh... I thought you were done" in a snotty voice. And I said "No, do we need to sign them out?" and she's like "No.. uh.... just go away". WTF!

4. We got crappy-ass finishers medals. The 5K/10K people got nice big flashy ones. We got generic ones about one square inch with a listing of races on the back of it and our race was not even on the list. They wouldn't even give my mom a Mother's Day flower at the end of the race because she hadn't done the 5K or 10K.

5. My chip didn't work. I went to check my results and my name was missing from the list. I knew my time had been 15:29 because I started my Garmin right as I crossed the start line. It read 1.87 miles as I finished (marginally longer than a 3K). They add my name to the list and I get home and my time reads 16:04. That's when it dawned on me that we never crossed start mats for our chips. My mom and I started waaay back because we were doing the smaller race and didn't want to get caught up with the hordes of U14 soccer players. Turns out this cost me 35 seconds on my official time. If I had started with everyone else, I would've been in 4th place OA women. Now I'm showing 15th. Kind of frustrating.

To summarize the good:

The race was on the Rockcliffe Parkway which is always a nice run. It's got a great river view (a little Scottish-like today as everything was wet, sky was grey, and the water was even kind of grey-looking) and it's a relatively flat course. The cold front moving through meant some high winds on the way back which made my second mile around 20 seconds slower than my first split, but it was alright. For the billionth time, I went out way too fast and struggled a little towards the end. My pace was only 4 seconds/mile slower than my PR 5K so I was expecting a bit more from myself given the 3K distance. I'm running another 3K next weekend so I'll try a bit harder there. I'm happy though.. my goal was to break 16:00 and I did that just fine, even if the official results don't agree.

Some pics from the race:


I was running in some pretty serious 80s gear. I completely forgot I had my new purple rain jacket, so I wore a bright neon orange (in real life it's literally pylon-colored) shirt with some blue and highlighter-yellow Lulus. I actually like this pic... it shows how much better my stride is than it used to be thanks to the double ankle bracing, and I've got a stronger kick at the end of the race than usual. This is also the least-embarrassing photo of my hair.



After finishing my race and getting my finisher's medal, I walked along the course until I found mom and jumped in to finish with her. Don't we look related? 

My mom's face cracks me up in this. She came in first in her age group (1 of 1) and told everyone that she was a gold medallist. I think she really liked racing!


So that brings me to my next point... I need to lose some freaking weight. I'm hovering around 164 lbs which is only about 5 lbs heavier than this time last year, but I haven't been keeping up on my cardio like last year, mainly due to the fact I have about 3 simultaneous lower body injuries. It's really not an excuse... I can do things other than run. My muscles are quite a bit stronger than last year due to the workout plan I'm on but I haven't seen the benefits because I haven't been as diligent with my cardio. I'm having a beach wedding shortly and I really want to look as good as I can for that, in addition to being great for race season. Here are my goals for this summer:

1. Lose 10 lbs by July 1. On the Canada Day Road Races, I'd like to weight in at 155 lbs. It's a good racing weight for me and I feel confident.

2. Stick to my training plan. I've made too many excuses... too tired, I've got class, etc. It's only an hour, I can make the time.

3. Add a bit more cardio. I have a solid training plan but I need some longer easy sessions to get the heart/lungs stronger.

4. Hot yoga twice a week. I've been going consistently on Thursdays for the past 3 weeks, but I'd like to add a weekend class or something to the mix.

5. No desserts until Goal 1 is complete and I'm in maintenance mode. It's harsh but I will allow myself some frozen yogurt now-and-then. It's my favourite dessert and I would gladly give up cakes/brownies/muffins for life if I only was allowed fro-yo.

That's it. Very simple, very achievable. I do sometimes get anxious when I think of losing weight because I really don't want to slip into the bad habits of my past, but I know I won't. My husband wouldn't let me and I need too much fuel for my workouts. I'm hoping that, as usual, when the workouts are good, the eating's good, and it continues in a cycle. I will just have to make sure I'm eating to lose a couple pounds and not for maintenance.

'Til next weekend!

- Anne

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