Originally, I wasn’t planning on doing this race but our #STWM training plan had us doing 27km this weekend and since Lisa had already signed up eons ago, she told me to sign up because it’s “free”. Except that it’s not really free because there’s a minimum $100 donation. I didn’t want to put that much effort into asking my friends for donations so I just coughed up the $100. At least it’s for a good cause. Youth mental health is so vital for the health and safety of our society. I think so much of the crime and violence nowadays can be traced back to mental health issues. Anyway, I digress…

Because we had to run 27km, the plan was to do a 10km pre-run and a 2km post-run. However, the night before, they shortened the course distance from 15k to 14k. I wouldn’t have known if Lisa didn’t tell me. I would have been so disappointed/annoyed if I had trained to race 15km but I guess it didn’t matter since this was just a training run for us.

For our pre-run, Lisa, Ravi, and I met at 6:30am and ran to the reservoir. It was early but it was nice to run before it got too hot.

We ran at a comfortable pace (~6:00) for 10km and got to the start line just in time for the 7:30am start. Apparently, I signed up for the wrong corral so Lisa and I got separated at the start line. Fortunately, she waited for me just passed the start line. Thanks for waiting for me! I would have never caught up to you!

Even though this was a training run, we still ran it fast – surprise surprise. 😂 I guess we can consider this our negative split training run since we ended up running at a 5:30 pace for 14km, 0:30/km faster than the first 10km! We’ve never done such a significant negative split before, especially for such a long run!

Enroute, we saw other Ninjas including Maria, Lindsay, Parm, and Kevin. Eric was there as a spectator and took a great photo of us. Look at us, we are so in sync!

We both look so happy here but I was actually huffing and puffing a lot compared to Lisa, especially on the rolling uphills. It was getting hot toward the end too so I drank 2 cups of water/Gatorade at each aid station because I didn’t want to relive my Toronto Women’s Half Marathon experience again. 😨😬😣😵

My official time was 1:17 for the 14km. Our target for the 15km was sub-1:30 so we beat our goal by ~7 minutes. Pretty good for a “training run”!

After the race, we looked for Lisa’s friends who were doing the 5km. We did our 3km post-run with her friend’s 6yo daughter who ended up finishing the 5km in 44 min. She was so cute! What a strong and determined little girl. Another potential recruit!! 😍 😍 😍

The post-race party was very crowded but there was a lot of food (chocolate milk, muffin, apple, banana, Lara bar). The shirt and the medal were nice too so I guess it was worth the $100 donation. 😂

After collecting all the free food, I walked 3km home, took a shower, and took a 2-hour nap. Post-race naps are the best! 😄

Nutrition log:

• Pre-run: PB&J 1 hour before pre-run
• Mid-run: 1 endurance tap, 1 fruit snack, Gatorade, water
• Post-run: chocolate milk, muffin, apple, water