Baby It’s Cold outside! Well today I learn what 27,000 entrants can do the dreams of a PB. It was only a few weeks ago that I ran Yonge Street 10K where I had a PB. Granted this is a great slight downhill 10K, I figured this is an identical course that I am now familiar with. I thought here is an opportunity to have another great day. Well I should have realized when I woke up and heard the winds a howlin and the temperature near freezing, that this day would not be mine.
A few RF folks and me carpooled down to Ontario Place and hopped on the shuttle. To our surprise we were given an extend tour of the City. Not sure why we drove by the Science Centre but hey… we got there. One truck for the entire bag drop off of the 27,000 chilled adventures! I hope no cell phones in those bottom bags! Yes… I guess I am expressing a little frustration with such a publicized event.
Well, there I was finally finding my place in the sea of folks all raring to go. Wow, I thought… well “wow” is a substitute for another word (children might read this). That’s a lot of people in front of me. I believe I heard the “go” word somewhere, but it appeared no one moved…. Ah yes… this will take a few more seconds before we all get going.
Well here I go… as I look up and see the mass crowd in front of me I realize this will not be a straight 10K, be prepared to weave I thought to myself. It was at the 2K mark that I looked at my Garmin and saw that my 2K was reading 2.2K, really I thought to myself… maybe it’s a little off building, weaving… but I was happy that now there was room to run. The pace was slow during that first 2K, but now there was only 8 to go. I knew I had to make up some ground so I pushed a little harder as I felt great. Being the selfish guy I am, all I thought about was “wow I’m passing a lot of people” (and yes I’m sure people thought that as they ran by me too. lol) But the point was I was making up for lost time.
Next thing I know I was at the 8K mark, still feeling good about how I was feeling, I figured why not push a little harder, might not hit the PB today but then again, why not try. Well no PB was realized on this day but 35 seconds off, not to shabby in my book.
I’m not sure a race this big is for me. Overall I was not impressed with the planning and preparation for the event; then again I’m picky, or the Yonge 10K spoiled me earlier on this year. But this event is for a great cause and I guess it’s important to remember that too. There are a lot of kids who will benefit from this event, and I’d encourage anyone to at least give it a go.
