I ran an EIGHT KILOMETRE race today!

I ran an 8K race today and it was GREAT! It was not as hard as I thought - I'm sure I experienced the advantage of being in my first group run, the momentum of the crowd and the emotional excitement of accomplishing a personal goal. Those definitely helped me get along that extra distance - longer than I've ever run before.

The weather was great - although it was just a few degrees above freezing when we left - there was no wind to speak of which is rare for Victoria and the course ran right along the ocean.

I thought of a lot of my CK inspirations during the run and a lot of my local peeps too. I wore a bracelet from my parents and a necklace from my BFF during the run and had a temp tattoo on my wrist from my girlfriend Eve (who wore the same tattoo this weekend in my honour!) that was the Chinese word for "courage".

The starting line was about 100 yards from the finish line and the course was "out & back", so we turned around at the 4km marker. I didn't quite know what gear to wear, I had a tech tank top, a jersey hoodie, and my tech running jacket.  I should have had gloves because my hands were SO cold!! By about Km 3 I had to tie my tech jacket around my waist.

The countdown to the starting announcement was energizing and at "GO!" this throng of people all tried to start running at once - which was amusing since clearly we couldn't all move at once - the crowd kind of lurched 2 or 3 times while we all figured that out. Then eventually we were all able to start moving... slowly at first. We started to space out fairly quickly and a lot of people started out really quickly but I had been warned about that so I didn't try to overtake anyone - I just ran my own speed, mouthing the words to PINK's "So What!" as I went.

I felt like I hadn't been running long, I guess I was distracted by the whole experience, when I saw the 2km marker. 25% done! WOOHOO! My hip was still feeling okay and my cardio was great, Bon Jovi was telling me that "It's My Life! It's now or never!". The three km marker came up fairly quickly as I was running along by the ocean & enjoying the early morning sunshine. Then the long slow hill started... I slowed down a bit and tried to keep my stride strong & long. It was a bit of a slog but suddenly I was at the top and found myself rounding a single pylon in the road with the crowd. That came up quickly!

The next stretch had some downhill, a nice treat to start the second half but I think that's where my hip started to bug me. It's hard not to let it get jammed up in the socket when you're plodding downhill. I was trying to run with control but I guess I wasn't being as cautious as I could have been. I hit the 5km mark at 31 minutes! NICE! I had to slow my pace a bit at this point due to hip pain. I "pulled over" and pulled my knee up to my chest and then stretched it back a couple of times. That loosened it up for a bit but I could feel the tension returning fairly quickly. ASIA's "Heat of the Moment" came on and made me smile & sing along, chin up!

I did some quick math, while mentally shouting lyrics to Warrant's "Dirty, Rotten, Filthy, Stinkin' Rich!", and figured I'd be coming in at less than an hour!! I'd guessed I'd be just over an hour so I was pretty excited by that! I knew my parents & sis wanted to see me finish (I wanted it too) so I slowed up and hauled out the phone to send a message with my ETA... but it was too late. I was at the 6km and was picking up that exciting momentum of the group! I thought of Jeff's marathon, Sarah's marathon, Amanda's Tri, Nadine's & Gina's wicked runs today... and all my other inspirational running friends. Suddenly I was at the 7km marker!!

Now I was down into the hundreds of meters left... we started rounding the tight corners in the old residential neighbourhood coming into the inner harbour. So exciting! A quick stop for a stretch of the ol' hip again and a text msg to my sister and I was picking up a bit of speed, tuning out that irritating hip and makin' a run for the border! Time to skip through the MP3's and find AC/DC's "Thunderstruck!!!"

My peeps were with me in spirit, I was enjoying the weather, the experience, the atmosphere, the other runners... it was all AWESOME!

The last few hundred meters were in sight and I pulled out the headphones so I could hear the announcer talking about the folks coming in ahead of me. The meters just zipped past me and I was getting closer and closer, the end was in sight. It was hard to take it all in. I heard the crowd cheering like crazy - for all of us - it was frickin' cool :) And then the announcer was saying, "And these folks are all finishing in under the 57 minute mark..." and I looked up and realized there was a clock. (LOL!!!) And I rushed those last few strides to get in under 57 minutes. Why? Dunno... just self-competitive instinct I guess. :laugh5:

Then I was in the chip-removal "chutes" and the water & gatorade station & the bagel/cookie/fruit/doughnut station...  and then it was all over. I was standing around in a crowd, in front of the Legislative buildings, and realizing that it wasn't all that bad! I did a quick self-portrait to post on FB and then heard someone shouting my name: our friend (& C's business partner) Jeff and his sister were nearby. I had no idea they were running! Very cool :) I chatted with them for a bit & got some congrats for my first run from these very seasoned racers (not elite runners, just lots of runs to their names) and then was off to find my parents.

It was anti-climactic in a way, I'd worked it up in my mind and considered so many of my negative factors that I anticipated a much tougher experience. I also had NO concept of how much of a benefit the experience of my first group run would impact me.

I had FUN and loved it. It was awesome and I will do it again.

In fact, I think I should find and commit to something soon because with all the emotional stress I've got going on right now, it'd be wise to have something to keep me in training mode so I don't stop all together and sit my (_|_) on the couch for the winter!

It really was a wonderful and rewarding experience. I'm still riding a bit of a high from reaching this personal goal and I'm loving it! I ROCK!

Be soft, but rock hard. \m/