Race Recap: Bowness Centennial 10KM

Last Sunday I ran the Bowness Centennial 10km! (and yes, it took me a week to write a recap). Here's a pre-race pic of me. Man I look nervous! I was kind of worried that my leg pain would flair up and I really wanted to beat 50 min.

Every time I race, I try to take a lesson out of it and this time the message was pace yourself! It took forever for the race to start once they got us organized at the start line. First they had a few speeches, then a blessing from an aboriginal, and just when you thought that was it, they sang the anthem! It was too much, especially when you have pre-race jitters. So once the race finally started, I was anxious and went out too fast. I was feeling great at that pace, so I decided to keep it up. If I wanted to beat 50 min, I figured I would have to push my comfort zone anyway. The problem was that at about 7km I realized my pace was maybe a bit ambitious and I totally ran out of gas. I thought I was either going to pass out or puke, and the last 3 km was killer. When I rounded the corner saw that I had about 500 meters to go, I have never been happier to see a finish line in my life. Usually I pick up the pace and finish strong but as soon as I saw the time was at 47 minutes, I slowed down, fixed my hair (I had to look good incase there was a photographer at the finish line), and finished in 48 minutes on the dot. (There was no photographer. Major boo) I was so happy that I beat my time but immediately felt like I was going to pass out. I made Bill raid the post-race snack goodies while I walked it out. Once the dizziness passed, I realized I had run my first sub-50 min 10km and was soooo happy. We peaced out on the post-race events and went out for Vietnamese Pho afterwards to celebrate. I'm guessing Pho is probably not the best post-race recovery food but I felt like I had earned it.

In other news, Bill ran his 10 km in 41-something minutes. He also had the same epic fail as me and went out too strong. So lesson learned, next time I'm pacing my self properly right out of the gates and then if I can pick it up around 5km I will do so.

Race recap: Breaking Ice at the Icebreaker

Last weekend I ran my first 10km race of the season, The Glencoe Ice Breaker. The race was on Sunday and on Saturday it started to snow. A lot. Oh and it wasn't a nice, light dusting of snow, that would make running no problem. It was a lovely 20 cm of the thick heavy stuff. Sunday morning we woke up to this:

Part of me thought that the whole thing would be cancelled, but as I have learned in this city, no amount of crazy weather can stop runners. We are crazy like that.

The course was icy, really icy in fact. A guy beside me slipped and fell on one of the corners and at that point I figured this was not going to be the race to get a personal best. I really didn't want to get injured before my half marathon in a few weeks. My final official time was 50:18, which I'll take, seeing as most people were around 3 minutes slower than their personal best. New game plan: find a race in the summer and use that to get a personal best. Now back to the half marathon training.

Moving, Running and Eating

My life is in boxes right now. Yup, that's right, boxes. The papers are all signed, the moving van is booked, and the count down is officially at 5 days to go until we move into the new house. Did I also mention that I'm running a 10km and hoping for a personal best item in 6 days? oh right, forgot about that. I seriously think race organizers should send out a reminder a few weeks prior to the race saying, 'hey, remember that race you signed up for? well it's coming up so you better start training!" I've been so focused on the half marathon that I forgot about the 10km I signed up for next weekend. ooops. Well at this point, I'm just assuming that my training for the half is good enough for the 10km. That logic makes sense, right?

With the big move coming up, we have been attempting to clean out the fridge and freezer of all the leftovers. The meals have been really random and there have been a few flops along the way (tip: pasta in the slow cooker does not work). It has also been tough to keep to a clean eating plan as the leftovers tend to be some of the packaged and processed goods that made it to the back of the fridge. Despite the challenges of eating well with minimal food, we have had some really tasty meals. Bill and I have healthy fall-back stir-fry recipe that we both love and could probably eat every single day, so that has made a few appearances in the last few weeks.

Spicy Peanut Butter Stir-fry

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Chili Hot Sauce Paste
1 tbsp Peanut Butter (Natural)
3 tbsp low-sodium Soy Sauce
2 Chicken breasts, cubed

1 bag frozen Asian-style vegetables
1 cup Brown Rice, cooked

Directions:

1) In a large frying pan, on medium, heat oil and chili paste

2) Add chicken and cook

3) Add PB, once it melts, add the vegetables and soy sauce
4) Cook until vegetables are soft
5) Dish over rice

Serves: 4