After our fabulous race on Wednesday, Captains Justin, Jaxon and myself decided we were gluttons for punishment and we came back this morning for another race – this time the Barrie Waterfront 5K!
We packed up the car in the rain, with the wind picking up, and at 6:30 in the morning a race in that weather can feel like an awfully daunting prospect! However, by the time we got to the race, the rain had stopped at least, so now we only had the cold to deal with, not the rain!
Unloading for the races that happen at Heritage Park is a little more effort than at the Southshore Centre. There all the cars are nice and close together so we only have to unload the racing chairs and our chairs and transfer over when the time comes. At Heritage Park races we have the bigger job of getting all of the racing chairs from the parking lot to our set-up space, so it takes a bit more time and effort. However, we found a great spot out of the crowd to set up, and the fact that we’ve had access to a dining shelter tent for the last two races makes a huge difference, as we have a spot we can park our everyday wheelchairs in while we run.
We had the privilege of working with some new Angels today, and they were fantastic keepers! Alison and Holly joined Christina and Lisa to give Captain Jaxon a four-Angel-powered team. Lewis, Richard and Chris joined forces to provide the power for Captain Justin a fantastic race, and of course Trevor the Amazing continued to not only shift wheelchairs (a massive tetris and muscular effort if ever there was one) but also run me like the wind!
Again, we had the privilege of working ahead of time with Multisport Canada and the race directors for this event, so we started at 8:20, between the 10K start and the 5K start. This was almost an amazing setup – the start was brilliant as we looped up to Bayfield, up Bayfield to Dunlop, along Dunlop to Mulcaster, and then down and around past the starting line to continue around the bay.
Unfortunately at this point we were all making such good time that we caught up with the tail end of the 10K racers, but they were pretty fabulous about making space for us to come by.
We did run into a little bit of trouble at what should have been the 5K turn-around point. There was no race marshall or signage for the 5K at that junction – probably because they were still in 10K mode – and I hadn’t read the race map well enough (I was counting on the usually excellent signage) and as a result we and the other two teams ended up adding an extra 500m to our distance before realizing our error and turning around to double back.
Apart from that, though it was a fabulous race – the three teams came in neck and neck, and we posted an incredibly solid 4:53/k pace over 28:37 minutes (including the bit where we had to stop to try and figure out where we were supposed to turn around!)
We got our lovely finishers medals, thanked everyone and got packed up on our way home to warm up!
Heather R. Morgan 