Beresford 10km road race

Weather on route to the start

 

It was a wet, raining, grey Saturday morning. I woke up, dragged myself out of bed and headed to the kitchen. I was surprised at the amount of sleep I was able to get the night before. 'Am I really running another 10km today?' I think to myself as I weigh out the options for breakfast. I could be brave like my sister and opt for pancakes, or stick with something I am more familiar with. In my normal fashion, I play it safe and end up eating an English muffin with peanut butter.

Unpredictable weather meant lots of consideration on what to wear. Ended up with capris, long sleeve, hat and a headband. I felt good, ready to go. Driving to the start point was filled with fun music and an anticipation for what was ahead. The race started later than most, at 11am. Thankfully the clouds covered the sun and prevented it from getting too hot.

Gathered with the other 280 runners (of the 400 or so that were registered) under a white tent, trying to avoid the rain for as long as possible. Eventually the crowd started moving forward towards the road, it was time. And just like that we were off. I decided to move to the middle of the pack for fear of being the very last person. I was running ahead of my sister Nikki, her friend Miranda and my dad. After about one song, I see a race marker in the distance. Is this 2km? 3km? Wow that flew by!! As I approach the sign I am disappointed. 1 kilometre. How is this possible? I must have gone farther than that by now. Regardless, I push on. 2 kilometres, 3 kilometres, 4...  I feel like my running partners are right behind me but don't want to turn around to check. Must keep going forward. Rain is pounding down on me but I am warm. Rain on my face is actually a relief and I try to catch a few precious drops in my mouth as I saunter along. I jump over and around puddles. I feel like a trooper. 'I'm sure no one else has ever run in the rain like this before! I am a pioneer. A real go getter.' I run out of music around 8km. I sigh and stop as I frantically try to remove my iPod from my makeshift rain proof plastic flyer bag protection. Press play. And then I'm off again. Pick it up with 500 metres left. Turn one corner, turn another. See the finish line. Hear people cheering. Run, run, run. And it's over. Another race is over. I watch others cross the finish line and cheer them on. Back at home, I peel off layers and have a long hot bath, and think about the next one.


Miranda (pushing baby Sahen!) and Nikki finishing
Time: 1:08:11



Dad finishing
Time: 1:09:01

 

Me after the race with my favorite post race drink, chocolate milk
Time: 1:05:03
 

hello again!

I have not disappeared! I promise! I have still been here, thinking about updating. MEANING to update, but then it just didn't happen. Until now!

I have been maintaining my gym routine; however have become more relaxed than I have been in the past. I've been attending Zumba, Body Combat and Body Pump on a regular basis. AND I even went running this week... MIRACLE! It has been quite awhile. I was definitely sore the next day but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, which I was very thankful about. I went at the KC Irving Center in Bathurst, which I have posted about previously. And for extra motivation it was a gorgeous day here in Halifax. Hoping that this continues so I can start to feel comfortable running outside again.

I wanted to update all of you with some food I've been eating lately. I recently did some experimenting with a sweet potato burrito:

I boiled and mashed a large sweet potato, adding to it both cumin and cinnamon. I put it in a tortilla wrap, topped with black beans, salsa and spinach. And it was FANTASTIC!! It was super filling and delicious. You definitely need salsa with this wrap, as the beans and sweet potato can be a little dry together. Sassy salsa is a locally made salsa that I discovered at the local market, and I am in love. Going to pick up more this weekend. It has a spicy sweet flavor that it just perfect.


I will be updating more soon with more recipes, food I've been eating, and upcoming races! And stay tuned, I'm going to try to make my own hummus this weekend. Should be exciting!

holiday runs

So I went on a few runs while I was home over the holidays. It was wonderful to run with my family again, it's been awhile!

I did a 5km run at the KC Irving Centre in Bathurst. It's an indoor track that surrounds a hockey rink:

It's a great place to run. It cost $2 (or you can buy a pass), and since it's beside the rink it stays pretty cool around 14C. And if you're lucky there may be people playing hockey which provides some free entertainment! Another plus is that you go the opposite direction of the walkers, therefore you don't have to be continually passing people. I went to this track and had an awesome run! I ended up running 5km in about 29 minutes.

A few days later I went on an 8km run with my dad, sister Nikki and brother in law Ray. It was super warm out so we decided to run around town. We were faced with some melting snow which lead to some wet feet, but it was warm enough that we didn't mind. Afterwards we took some photos: