10 km Run - Defi du Printemps

Well well, I should be careful what I wish for! Early last week Jen informed me that there would be a 10 km run in Maisonneuve Parc which is very close to me and which I run in all the time. I thought it would be a great opportunity to fix my pace and to try to run a comfortable race. The weather was supposed to be rainy and cold so we planned to decide on the morning of whether we would race or not. Jen and I talked around 8:30 (the race started at 10!) and we decided we should just do it. So we did. We showed up, signed up and tried to keep as warm and as dry as possible before the race. I was a little nervous about racing because we had just ran the 10km in Quebec City less than a week ago and I had trained pretty hard on my bike Tuesday, ran 10 km up Mont Royal on Wednesday and had done 4 km swim on Thursday. I felt a little sore and not "in the zone." My goal was to start the race very slowly and if I had more energy at the end I could take it up a notch. Jen started out faster than me and was ahead of me for about the first half of the race. It was pouring raining, cold and windy. I managed to catch up to Jen just before the 5 km mark which was the same time my ipod shuffle decided the wind was enough to change songs and play lists. Luckily I was still mentally focused so this small set back (although doesn't seem like much, but trust me can really get to you if you are already experiencing frustration) didn't get to me. I checked the clock and found my 5 km time to be about 26 min, not such a bad pace! I continued running and felt more energy coming to me and I realized I could easily finish the race and this comfortable pace. I decided to pick things up a bit after I passed the 8km mark. After the 9 km mark I pretty much sprinted to the finish line and was able to finish just less than 1 minute slower than my Quebec time, but trust me, the race was wayyyy more comfortable and if it adds less than a minute I'm prepared to take that! Thanks to Jen for getting me out to another race and I am really looking forward to the next one!

Info from SportStats:

http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=46213&first=KRISTIN&last=DAWSON&city=MONTR%C9AL

I also want to thank everyone in the lab for their awesome support!! I just counted the money we have raised from bake sales and other items and was able to add another $74 to my fundraising goal! Thanks everyone!