The morning came way too early for those of us who had stayed up to enjoy a beautiful Friday evening in June, but it was well worth it as we pulled into Earl Rowe Provincial Park just after 8:00 on Saturday morning. The 1/2 marathon had already started so we trundled slowly past runners as we made our way to the parking lot.
We had decided to do this race just the two of us, so we were signed up for the 5K.
We got our race bibs and made our way over to the starting line. Lots of Runninjas were around to high-five and wish a great run to, so that always sets the stage for a great race!
The 10K group got off just after 9:00, and the 5K kicked off about five minutes later. We had decided to aim for a 4:30 pace, and were able to hold it very steady for the first kilometer, but as soon as the hills showed up we realized that there is a huge difference between pushing the stroller on a training run by yourself or a race with another runner and doing the whole thing on your own!
We eased up the pace a bit over the next few kilometers as we trundled through wooded patches and around the lake. I’m working on figuring out how to best encourage us along, and have realized that helping to keep us on pace is probably one of the best things I can do. I don’t tell Trevor to run faster or slower – I just call out our splits as they shift, and allow him to do what makes the most sense for him in response. On this note, I have to say that I wish that Strava showed not only your overall split average, but your current split, as I felt like the further along in the race we got the more difficult it was to tell where we were at.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, however, and this was the first race of the year that I was able to run without a blanket! I even took my shoes off so that I could work on my tan!
In the end we ran the 5K in a time of 25:50 – almost exactly half of our pace at the SportingLife 10K, which we had had additional runners for. I was very pleased!
To top it off, the crew from the Runninjas and MEC had put on a bar-b-q after the event to raise money for my chair. With their donations of $300, I am pleased to report that we are now 100% of 100% of the way to our goal, and the chair will be paid for this week!!!
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One response to “MEC 5K Earl Rowe – Race Report”
[…] was one of the races we had participated in last year – in fact, our first independent race. It was also thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Runninjas last year at this race that we were a… So this was a day to celebrate and have […]
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