On Sunday, I participated in the first running event of my spring/summer running schedule. It was the first running race I've run since I ran a 14km event in Hangzhou, China, back in 2009. It was held in downtown Calgary, a 10km out and back course along the Bow river. Being so close, my warm up was the bike ride to the event. It was a smallish event, with just about 200 people running the 10km race and a few more running the 5km race. The week before, I'd been reading in magazines and on blogs about the importance of sticking to your race plan which is a tricky thing to do when everyone seems to bolt out of the gates as soon as the gun goes off. It is very tempting to take off with everyone else but I know only too well that demoralising feeling that comes when you get overtaken later in the race. It's much better to start slow and then be the one doing the overtaking later towards the end. Which is exactly what I did. I still started out a little fast (having the Garmin GPS is amazing because you can see exactly how fast you are running) but managed to maintain that pace and overtake lots of people on the returning 5km. The fastest I've ever run 10km is 58 minutes, but with the competitive atmosphere, I figured that I could run the race in about 55 minutes. So, you can imagine my surprise when I crossed the finish line in just over 51 minutes! Sixth female in the whole race and second in my age group. Wow! I was absolutely stoked and am still on a high, two days later. More 10km races, here I come!
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