I haven’t written anything for so long! Wow… I didn’t write race recaps for IronGirl, Mama Yu’s 5k, Donut Run 5k, Bold & Cold 5k, amongst others, and all the Dopey Challenge races!!

Well, so much has happened over the past week with COVID-19 and now we are pretty much in unofficial lock-down mode. So I have lots of time to recap what I can still remember of these races. Here goes…

Irongirl

This was supposed to be my first triathlon but I’m so glad it wasn’t because I might have given up on triathlons all together if this was my first. It was an awful experience. The only thing good about it was that I got to do it with Lisa and Tracey and Jeremy were there as our cheer squad.

Since signing up for the race many months ago, we had always known that the swim part was along a beach and the good thing about that is you can’t drown. The bad part, which I didn’t realize, was that people walked/ran the swim because the water is so shallow. As soon as the swim started, so many people were passing me and at first, I couldn’t figure out why. I’m not fast but I’m not that slow either. Then I realized people were walking past me while I was trying to swim! I became very annoyed so at one point, i just stood there waiting for them to pass me. I was so frustrated. Oh well. I finished the swim and ended up passing a lot of people during the bike and run. I ended finished 16/190 in my AG so woot!

It was Lisa’s first (and probably only) triathlon. She had a leg cramp during the run so didn’t do so well.

We went to a BBQ place for lunch afterwards but I don’t remember much more about the race…

Mama Yu’s 5k

This was a race organized by a couple who used to run with us. Jon’s mom passed away suddenly and him and his wife Vanessa organized this race in her honour. I don’t know how they can both have full time jobs, a young daughter, Vanessa was marathon training, and organize a race. It was one of the most organized races that I’ve been to too!

A lot of ex-RunNinjas ran this race, including Jim. It was nice to have the old crew together again.

This was supposed to be my last race of the year. I was just coming off of the Army Half and I hadn’t trained for the 5k distance but I gave it everything I got. For warm-up, I ran with Gary, Chris, and Justina who are way out of my league. Gary gave me some tips on how to run a 5k. He basically told me I will feel like I’m dying half way but you still have 2.5k to go. It actually happened.

At the end, I was chasing Elena and caught up to her just as we crossed the finish line. Despite wanting to die, I was pretty happy with my ~9min PB of 22:40. It was the fastest 5k I’ve ever done (by far) and with no specific 5k training.

After, we all went for brunch and had a great time.

Donut Dash 5k

As I mentioned, Mama Yu’s 5k was supposed to be my last race of the year. But then, Jim convinced me to race a 5k with him. So we signed up for Bold and Cold 5k and he started giving me 5k specific workouts. Then I realized that Bold and Cold is not chipped timed so we signed up for the inaugural Donut Dash in Hamilton.

On race day, we got to Hamilton and it was cold and super windy, not ideal racing conditions. I felt bad for Jim because he really trained hard for it. We did a quick warm up jog and then went to the corral. It was a small race and lots of people were dressed up. Jessey the Elf was there dressed up as Santa and he was expecting to run it in 16min.

The race started promptly and off we all went. There was a cross wind and a head wind for most of the race and I missed PBing by 3 seconds. It was pretty brutal but since it was such a small race, I was the 2nd place female and 8th overall which was pretty awesome. Jim was 2nd overall male, after Jessey the Elf.

After the race, they gave out pizza and a donut to all the finishers. The donut was surprisingly good. We stayed for a bit and then went to have a proper lunch before driving back to Toronto.

Bold and Cold 5k

Parm, Jim and I drove down to Bold and Cold together. The plan was for Jim to pace Parm and I would just do an easy 5k since it wasn’t officially chip-timed anyway. We did a warm-up together and off they went. On the course, I was able to take a photo of them running back toward me. Parm looked like he was dying.

After the race, the plan was to run to SanRemo and back. Parm was clearly injured and didn’t make it all the way there. Jim and I had a donut and brought a donut back for Parm, who was waiting in the car for us.

We dropped Parm off and went for a yummy lunch at the Burgernator, a halal burger joint owned by my colleague’s parents.

In total, I did 15 races in 2019. Wow, that’s a lot of races!

1. Mar 31 – Hamilton ATB30K (2:47:26, 5:35/km)
2. Apr 6 – Spring Run-Off 8k (0:44:16, 5:32/km)
3. Apr 14 – Shape Women’s Half Marathon(1:55:29, 5:28/km)
4. May 5 – Toronto Marathon (4:09:52, 5:55/km)
5. Jun 23 –Rose City sprint triathlon (1:33:45)
6. Jul 20 – MEC Trail Race 12k
7. Jul 21 – TTF Olympic distance relay – 40k bike
8. Jul 28 – Beaches Jazz half (1:53:45, 5:23/km)
9. Aug 11 – IronGirl Grimsby (1:21:06)
10. Aug 25 – Superpower 5k
11. Sep 22 – Ottawa ArmyRun Commander’s Challenge 5k+21k (PB 1:49:56, 5:13/km)
12. Sep 29 – Mama Yu’s 5k (0:22:40, 4:32/km)
13. Nov 15 – Runcrew relay 5x2k
14. Nov 16 – Doughnut Dash 5k (0:22:43)
15. Nov 23 – Bold and Cold 5k (24:45)