SportingLife 10K Personal Best

A glorious personal best of 56:52.9! What can I say? I am thrilled!

The morning started off chilly at approximately 7 degrees with a gentle breeze. The sun was brilliant and I anticipated a good run. I ate oatmeal with brown sugar and peanut butter for breakfast an hour before the race started. I'm lucky...I can eat anything prior to a run without it affecting my stomach. The starting line presented approximately 9000 smiling faces eager to achieve their personal goals set for that race. I confidently positioned myself in the first third of the pack. I had been running enough over the last few weeks to accurately assess my pace. My previous 10K PB was 58 minutes during a training run. I wanted to try to achieve that in a race. I kept a steady pace along the rolling hills of Yonge Street, trying not to twist an ankle in the potholes or on the uneven road surface. I did not stop for water--that's my time to overtake my competition. I had to stop and walk three times when my heart rate ran over 180bpm...which makes me that much more proud of my finishing time. I think of what could have been had I not walked. Ah well...I am very happy.

What's interesting is that as soon as I stopped running, I started sneezing and have not stopped all day. I am hoping this Neo-Citrin I am sipping will help. To top the rest of the day off, I went for an amazing group ride on my motorcycle to Port Perry, followed by a savoury BBQ get-together with friends where my 11-month old pup got to romp with a 14 week old black lab.

It's been a marvelous weekend.