Canmore Rocky Mountain 10km race ...

What a spectacular location for a race! (photo courtesy of Canmore Rocky Mountain Half Marathon)

This race had been a long time coming for me.  I first entered it in 2010 but was unable to participate since I was on Salt Spring Island at the time.  I entered again this year, hoping to run the half marathon, but lack of training over the summer led me to drop back to the 10km.  It was worth the wait.  The course involved some running through the town of Canmore and on some lovely trails through the woods and along the river.  All with the beautiful Rocky Mountains in the background.  I felt pretty confident going into this race because, despite lack of training, I feel like I'm getting my race plan fine-tuned each time I run.  At the start of the race, I checked my watch to set my pace and set out to enjoy the run and the scenery.  At the 5km mark, I started to speed up and was thrilled to finish with a PB of 53.17 minutes.  It was probably the biggest race I've done, with over 907 people competing in the three events (half marathon, 10km and 5km).  There were 160 people in my gender-age category and I was stoked to finish 27th out of that group.  The run was just so much fun and the scenery and atmosphere were wonderful ... I'll definitely be signing up for next year!