Legacy 5km Race
April 26, 2009
Markham, ON
Well after seeing a call to arms on our Team Running Free forum to put together a team entry for the Legacy 5km race, there were 6 people that decided to enter as a Team. They were Ben Kong who put out the initial email, myself, Syd Trefiak, Ali Aasen, Chris (Shamus) Lamont, and Derek Virgo.
Since Running Free is a sponsor of this race, we all felt it would be nice to see a sea of red, white and black representing the store.
Fast forward to the day of the race and let’s just say the weather certainly wasn’t co-operating. It was cold, windy and raining. Wait a minute, that sounds exactly like my Around the Bay race report. Hmm, seems like Mother Nature has a really sick sense of humour.
So I met up with Syd and Derek and we three decided to do a light 2km warm-up before race start. As soon as we started jogging, the weather turned from light, steady rain to outright downpour. I actually like cool weather for half and full marathons as it’s difficult to overheat. But, since I have asthma, I don’t like cold conditions for 5km races as it really sets off my post-race coughing that usually lasts the rest of the day. Having said that, if not part of this RF team for the race, I would have packed it in and headed home. After all, I was on the tail end of 135km training week and was feeling tired. Ok, ok, I get it, enough with the violins already. Well, as we wound up our warm-up the rain actually let up and eventually stopped.
On to the start line, as we are waiting for the timers who have a very slight delay, the sky absolutely opens up again. I look over to the side of the road and see Jeremy Robertson standing there with an umbrella and a Tim Horton’s coffee. I yell over to him, “Hey Jer, give me your coffee, I’m freezing man”. Let’s just say he smiled at me but didn’t oblige. By this point I’m absolutely freezing as I’m wearing an RF singlet, shorts and arm warmers.
Gun, or should I say fire truck horn, goes off and the race begins,and after a sharp right we head north which also happens to be directly into the wind. Now that’s a wake up call. By the 1km point all of the runners are bright pink wherever there they have exposed skin. But hey, runners are a hearty bunch so we all continue on. The body finally warmed up, but not until the 4km point. Fortunaltely that means the race is almost done. At the finish I come in 6th place in 18:03 leading a 3-man RF train as Derek finishes 7th and Syd 8th. Then Chris comes up in 16th place and Ali in 31st. Good finishes too, as I’m first in my age group as is Derek, Syd and Ali. Ben Kong comes in 185th as an injury the day before kept him from his potential. The team results are based on top 5 times and yes, Team Running Free does take the team title so mission accomplished (despite my whining in the report, LOL).
A great little race and normally great weather. Don’t forget, this was a bad summer for weather.
I recommend giving it a go.
Cheers!
Mike Bosch, Team Running Free Athlete
