One Year Later – 2013 Ottawa Race Weekend

This time last year I was in full training mode for the 2013 Ottawa Race Weekend – 10km. I was also in my absolute busiest time of work in my entire life so didn’t even have a chance to blog about one of the best running weekends I’ve ever had!

With the 2014 Ottawa Race Weekend fast approaching, I was reminiscing on that weekend and wanted to capture some of my favorite photos and memories from that weekend on this blog….even if it is a whole year later!

Saturday: 10km Race – Personal Best!

I ran the 10km race on the Saturday evening and had been raising funds for a charity as part of the True Sport Running Team. It was one of my 2013 Running Goals and I was happy to accomplish it and support a great cause in the process.

I remember the weather being a little chilly but ultimately great for running. I had to spend most of my day pre-race at the office working but the good news out of that was that I was able to find some old clothes there to use of my throw away clothes that were key to keeping me warm before the race started.

 

There were over 9000 runners in the 10km and the sight of that many people running together was just amazing!

I had what felt like the best long distance race of my life and finished with a personal best time of 47:30! I felt great the entire time and even managed negative splits throughout the entire 10km.

Of the 9000 runners, my husband some how managed to spot me running by and was able to snap a photo in the process.

Sunday: Marathon Finish Line Volunteer

On the Sunday of Race Weekend, I accomplished another one of my 2013 Running Goals – to volunteer at a race. I was a Marathon/Half-Marathon finish line volunteer, which meant helping out at the finish line distributing medals and race blankets and various other miscellaneous tasks.

I met some great people and had a really fun morning being involved on the other end of a race. One of the perks of working the finish line was that we got front row seats for the finish of the elites.

Those runners were incredible and inspirational. Definitely an exciting experience to be a part of. Throughout the morning, as the thousands of marathon and half marathoners streamed in, I gave away thousands of race blankets and was even more inspired by each of those runners than I could have imagined.

2014 Ottawa Race Weekend

This year’s edition of Ottawa Race Weekend I will be volunteering at the finish line of the Marathon/Half Marathon once again! If you are running, let me know and I will keep an eye out for you at the finish!

M.

MEC Ottawa 10km Race Recap

On a whim Friday I decided to sign up for the MEC Ottawa 10km Race that was held this Sunday, September 8th. I wanted to get a 10km race in in sufficient time before I run my half marathon in October (another post to come about what race that is!) and as I will be out of town for most of the weekends leading up to the half, I knew this was likely my last weekend to get a 10km race in.

I had missed the online registration deadline so had to go into the MEC store to sign up. It was a smooth sign up process as it was only a small race. I got an awesome drawstring bag, a magazine and 10% in store so I purchase a lovely little 4 pack of NUUN.

Sunday morning I had to be up early so was fairly tired. I had a bad case of pre-race jitters but managed to eat half a bagel and a small pack of Welches before the race so I wasn’t running on empty.

It was a bit of a chilly morning but with the temperature above 10c I knew I could still pull off running in shorts and maintain my comfort and warmth. I was cold pre-race but once it got going, I was the perfect temperature with a long sleeve shirt on top.

The field for the 10km was really small, only 37 runners. There was also a 5km and a 15km race going on with a total of about 175 runners out that day.

Once the race started I immediately scoped out my competition. I had a race plan and I knew how I wanted to pace myself but I also knew if there was a chance I could place well I would push myself to get there. When we started I noticed right away there were only 3 women ahead of me, so I made it my mission to at minimum place in the top 3.

The first kilometer people always so go out too hard. I try to hold myself back and maintain my pace and it has typically paid off with negative splits on race day.

I started out by passing the first female almost right away and set my sights on the 2nd place female ahead of me. She wasn’t far and after about 2km I passed her. With that I only had one female ahead of me for the rest of the race – I timed that she was about 30 second ahead of me so I wasn’t sure I could actually reach her.

Nevertheless, I plugged on sticking fairly close to my race plan and passed a few guys through kilometers 3-5. The course was a 5km loop which we had to run twice. At the end of the first loop, I noticed that the female ahead of me was only about 20-25 seconds away, and I then realized I was gaining on her and might actually be able to catch her in the second half of the race.

As I began kilometer 6, she got closer and closer. I struggled with the thought of whether or not to pass her now or to hang back and pass her at the end thinking I would have the upper hand knowing exactly where she was ahead of me.

I then thought otherwise and decided I was there to run my own race regardless of what anyone else ran so I maintained my pace and zipped by her somewhere between kilometer 6 and 7. I didn’t see her again until she finished 1:25 behind me. I was glad I trusted my instincts and ran my own race at that point!

The final few kilometers of the race were my fastest of the entire 10km. I managed to pass 2 males and have a strong sprint to the finish line (which was around 300m of a track – making for a pretty cool finishing experience!) I finished in an official time 48:18.

It was a small race so not much fanfare or cheering at the finish. I didn’t have anyone there watching me so I just smiled to myself after a well-run race and wondered why I had such nerves in the first place!

This was the final race in the MEC race series this year, but I certainly hope to run more of them in 2014 – they were inexpensive to participate in, the parking was awesome because there was not a huge crowd, there were no bathroom lineups, the post-race food was great (cliff bars, bananas, oranges) and there were door prizes to be won!

Stayed tuned for an update on my fall running plans, which include a major half-marathon update!

M.

True Sport Running Team

To start 2013, I decided that one of my 2013 Running Goals would be to fundraise for a cause at a race.

When I heard the organization True Sport (a group I am very familiar with and supportive of) was putting together a running team for a large, upcoming local race to fundraise and generate awareness for their cause, I was immediately interested in being a part of it.

For those who don’t know, True Sport is a social movement that believes in transforming lives and communities through sport. The True Sport Foundation strives to instill character in our youth and strengthen Canadian communities by fostering a quality experience for those involved in ALL sport. They set out to accomplish this through a variety of sport and education programs that focus on values such as fairness, excellence, access, inclusion and fun!

For the first time, they have created a running team to take part in the 2013 Ottawa Race Weekend on May 25-26, 2013.

Race Weekend is the biggest running weekend of the year here in Ottawa. Members of the running team can take part in any of the races being held that weekend (races range from 2km to marathon). I will be running the 10km.

As part of this running team I have set a fundraising role and have been included on the True Sport Running Team Website along with other members of the team.

I began my fundraising efforts a few weeks ago by sending an email out to friends and family members looking for their support and donations.

For an added incentive to get more donations, I decided to hold a contest. For every $10 donated, the donor receive 1 entry into this contest. The contest is “Guess Mary’s 10km Finish Time” and the closest guess to my official (chip) finish time will receive a $50 Bon Appetit gift card (good for Kelsey’s, Milestones, Montana’s, Swiss Chalet, Harvey’s restaurants in Canada).

To date, I haven’t received many entries into my contest, but I still have 6 weeks to go, so am hoping the donations/contest entries pick up.

If anyone is interested in donating, you can follow the following steps:

1. Donate as much or as little as you would like on my Giving Page
2. Email me at marycolleenmacdonald@hotmail.com to indicate you have donated and for every $10, you have one guess at what my 10km finish time will be (ensure you make your guess down to the second, for example 50:51 or 50 minutes, 51 seconds)
3. On May 25th stay tuned for my official finish (chip) time to see if you guessed the closest
4. In the event of a tie, whichever individual has made the largest donation will win
5. The $50 Bon Appetit gift card winning prize will then be sent to the winner (this card is only valid in Canada)

I am looking forward to being a part of a team for this event (with team t-shirts and all!) and most importantly raising awareness and funds for a cause and organization that I support.

As we are just over a quarter of the way through the year, I am happy to have this particular 2013 Running Goal well underway.

Stay tuned for additional updates as I work towards completing this goal, and all of my other 2013 Running Goals.

M.

The Compelling Nature of Race Signups

I know I am not alone here when I say there is something compelling about signing up for races. I have read enough blogs to know that I am not the only one who gets excited at the possibility of signing up for new races.

It may be the goal-driven nature we have as runners where signing up for a race provides us with something new to work towards, to look forward to and to build a new training plan around.

As I mentioned in my 2013 Running Goals I am not working on any performance goals this year, but this still hasn’t limited that inner drive I have to sign up for races and to prepare training plans for them.

With one month of 2013 in the books already, I have been looking at some races that would help me complete some of  my 2013 running goals. Having only officially signed up for one of them so far, I am very close to signing up for a few more.

I signed up for Ottawa Race Weekend 10km (May 25) where I will be on the True Sport Running Team and will be knocking off my 2013 running goal of fundraising for a race.  I have some fundraising plans in the works, and hope to share them in the coming months as we get closer to May 25th.

As Race Weekend is just under 4 months away, I wanted to add some other races to the mix, both in preparation for it and because I can’t resist taking part in some of these fun spring races.

I decided against signing up for January or February races, which ended up being a good choice as I have been sick for the better part of the past two weeks, but still want to get some March and April races in if at all possible. Here are just a few of the ones I am considering:

• St. Patrick’s Day Race (March 16th): Having taken part in this race last year, I really enjoyed it. People wear green and dress up for St. Patrick’s Day, making the run fun and festive. There’s even a prize for best costume. The race is really fast and run along a very scenic route in Ottawa (along the Rideau Canal). Last year, I knew several other people taking part which made it more exciting. The only downfall to the race was that the 10km course was actually longer than 10km, so hopefully that is corrected. This year, I have already prepared my green St. Patrick’s Day outfit so I have little choice but to sign up now!
  

  2012 St. Patrick’s Day 10km Race

• Alive to Strive (April 28th): I ran this race several years ago and loved everything about it. The race kit, the free pancake breakfast afterwards, the door prizes and the great race location. This year, it appears to have been re-located, but to what looks like another beautiful race location in Ottawa, and the pancake breakfast has been changed to a post-race stew. This is a popular tune-up race for the Ottawa Race Weekend making it usually very fast and exciting to be a part of.

After Ottawa Race Weekend at the end of May, I will be extremely busy with work and out of the country for a month on business so have completely written off races for those next few summer months.

Upon my return, I plan to run my most anticipated race of 2013 – the Color Run in Montreal. I haven’t yet officially signed up, but plan to do so while I can still get the early registration fee! The more I read race recaps about the Color Run, the more excited I am to be a part of it.  Anyone want to join me in Montreal on August 17th for the Color Run??

I don’t like getting too far ahead of myself these days, but as I have a self-proclaimed love for race sign-ups, I must admit that I have not limited myself to ONLY exploring races in the first half of 2013.

The second half of 2013 will be an extremely busy one for me, again with work and travel, and so I don’t want to commit to any other races just yet but the options out there for fun races, destination races, and fundraising races are endless….stay tuned for what races I settle on for the second half of 2013!

M.

2012 Running Year in Review

With my final race of 2012 in the books on December 31st, I thought a recap of my year of running was due.

As I only started this blog in October of 2012, the majority of my running this year was not captured anywhere. Hopefully this recap does it justice.

A very foggy St. Patrick’s Day 10km race

2012 Goals

On this blog, I had two goals listed for 2012. I decided at the beginning of the year that training for any long distances was not in the cards for me in 2012, so I settled on shorter races and tried my best to work towards these two goals:

1. Average one race per month

2. PR in 5km and 10km

Having only really decided on these goals in February after my first race of the year, I missed out on running a January race so I had to make up for it at some other point throughout the year. I am happy to say I was successful in both of these goals! I ran a total of 13 races in 2012, one every month, and two in both September and October, and set new PR’s in the 5km, 8km, and 10km – every race distance I ran this year!

I had a third running goal that I had not put up on the blog – potentially for fear that I could not do it. I told a few people about it, but didn’t go fully public (i.e. on the blog) with it.

Not to leave you hanging, this third running goal of the year was to win my age group prize at a small, local running series called Somersault Run Series, in their Champions Challenge event.

I knew I had a shot at it if I ran my best and entered the correct number of races in 2012 – not many other runners in my age group even qualified for it (you had to enter a minimum number of races).

To my delight, I found in October after the Ottawa Fall Colours 10km that I had won my age group and was invited to an Awards Banquet the following month. The banquet itself was nice, but I was most pleased with the accomplishment of working at and completing this elusive third goal.

Stats from my 2012 running year:

• Number of 5km races: 8 
• Number of 8km races: 1
• Number of 10km races: 4
• New 5km PR: 22:32
• New 8km PR: 37:09
• New 10km PR: 48:06
• Number of kilometers total: Over 1000

Running in Transit:

I didn’t do as much travel this year as I have in past years, but I was still fortunate enough to get some travel in. I was lucky to also be able to find time to run on the road whenever possible – here are some of the places I was able to “run in transit”.

• San Francisco, California – A run along the water  from the Embarcadero, through Fisherman’s Wharf and on into the Marina (February).
• Edmonton, Alberta – Snuck in a run on a business trip and took in some of the Edmonton sites (March).
• Toronto, Ontario – Amazing 10km run along the city’s lakeshore (April).
• Montreal, Quebec – A sunny, fall run through gorgeous Mount Royal (November).
• London, Ontario – The 5km Resolution Run on New Years Eve in a foot of snow (December).

2012 Running Q&As:

A lot of other bloggers out there have recapped their year this way and so I thought I would join in as well by answering a few questions to show the highlights of my running year:

What was your favorite run of the year?

I had so many amazing runs this year that it was hard to choose. I have narrowed it down to two runs that I would have to name as my favorites:

1) While on vacation in San Francisco in February, I completed an amazing morning run through some picturesque parts of the city. My recap of that run is here. I loved the water front pathway, the amazing views of the city and the Golden Gate bridge and the perfect running weather!

2) Although I wasn’t training for any longer races this year, I still enjoyed getting out for some long runs on weekends. One late summer day, I had an 16km run scheduled and decided to drive to a spot along the scenic Ottawa River and hop on a trail by the water that would bring me all the way into downtown Ottawa. Along the way, I hit some construction and a small detour. The detour turned into a much bigger one that I expected but I was enjoying the gorgeous views so didn’t mind.

Once I looped back towards where my car was parked, I realized I would be doing more than 16km; it would actually be closer to 19-20km. With the wind at my back, I was feeling great so I decided right then and there that I was going to extend the run even further and officially make it a half marathon…what’s an extra kilometer or two once I have already done 19 or 20, right?!

And that is just what I did. I could not have been more pleased with my running that day. Even though I didn’t complete any half-marathons or marathons in 2012, I am proud I can still say I ran 21.1km once this year!

What was your favorite race of the year/best race experience?

My favorite race was the Bay Breeze 5km in San Leandro, California – it wasn’t my fastest 5km of the year, but it was my best race experience. It was a destination race for me, albeit only a short race. When my husband and I decided to go to San Francisco for a week’s vacation, I immediately looked up races in the general area and settled on this one.

It was put on by Brazen Racing, who did a fantastic job with everything. I hadn’t raced a 5km race in years so didn’t have any expectations of myself. The weather was perfect for running and for my first race of the year, and my first race since 2010, I gave it all I had.

To my surprise, I finished in 23:05, which was good enough for 2nd in my age group (and a nifty silver medal!)

Also, this race had by far the best looking participant’s medal!

What has been your biggest inspiration in 2012?

2012 is the year I really got into reading, following and eventually writing a running blog, and I would have to say that this has been my biggest inspiration. The virtual running community accessible through social media, be it blogs, twitter or Daily Mile motivates me each and every day to stay active and to push myself to be a better runner.

Best running advice I’ve received in 2012?

I can’t say I have received a lot of running advice this year, but one thing that has certainly stuck with me, sort of as a piece of advice, is Saucony’s slogan “Find Your Strong”. I used it more as a mantra in 2012, and I know it has helped me push through some tough runs this year.

My “Find Your Strong” reminder right in front of my treadmill

What was your favorite piece of new running gear in 2012?

Hands-down, my Garmin Forerunner 405CX is my favorite piece of new running gear this year. I got it in January 2012 and I have barely taken it off since.

I love being able to see my pace, time and distance as I run, all in one glance. It has helped me in training and during races, and the post-workout analysis that is available online is a great tool. I don’t know how I ever ran without it!

2012 Running Photos:

FEBRUARY – Bay Breeze 5km in San Leandro, California

MARCH – Decked out in green for St. Patrick’s Day 10km race

APRIL – 10km PR Race – The Bear Run (48:06)

MAY – After the Mother’s Day 10km Race with some prize winnings

JUNE – Leading the pack (not really…there are still another 60 runners ahead of me in the Emilie’s Run 5km but this is my favorite photo of the year)

JULY – Canada Day 5km PR race (22:31) – my friend set a PR of her own too!

AUGUST – Hottest race of the year at the National Capital 5km!

SEPTEMBER – My sprint to the finish at the Canadian 8km

OCTOBER – Rattle Me Bones 5km Race

NOVEMBER – The run that I got Girl Guide Cookies at the finish line!

DECEMBER – Last race of the year – the Resolution Run!

Stay tuned for my 2013 Running Goals – to be revealed in my next post.

M.

Running Advent Calendar – Day 4 – Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada

December 4th – Day 4 of the Running Advent Calendar, where I explore a different running route that I have either run myself or that I hope to run one day from around the world.

Day 4 takes me to a beautiful area to run that is actually quite close to home – Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada

I have done several hikes in the park but have only actually run there once – for a race in April 2012. The race was called the Polar Bear Run, a  seemingly strange name for a late April race, but I can safely say it was the coldest race I ran all year, so the race name was actually quite fitting!

Gatineau Park is filled with trails for running, biking, hiking, walking, and cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter.

The 10km race that I did in the park was actually on a stretch of road (which was great for racing) and had some small but non-insignificant rolling hills. I say non-insignificant because it was one of the toughest races I have ever run – it was there that my love-hate relationship with hills formed.

I dreaded hills because, quite obviously, they were tough, but at the same time, I was strong on them and was able to keep up a good pace, and subsequently ended up running the fastest 10km of my life that day.

The scenery is beautiful there in every season – there are lookouts, caves, lakes and 165km of trails. As the park is only 15 minutes from downtown Ottawa, I hope to return for some trail running next summer and maybe even to tackle the Polar Bear Run again for another PR!

Stay tuned for Day 5 of the Running Advent Calendar tomorrow and check out Days 1, 2 and 3 of my Running Advent Calendar if you missed them:

Day 1: Lakeside, PEI, Canada

Day 2: Loch Lomond, Scotland

Day 3: San Francisco, California, USA

M.