Bluenose 10k review

Well, I did it! I completed the 10km race in the Bluenose for the first time!

Surprisingly, I fell asleep pretty easily on Saturday night. I don't really have much of a pre-race routine. Just tried to drink some water and go to bed at a decent time. Laid out what I needed in the morning as I didn't want to have to wake up super early. I then woke up at 2:45am (probably because of the water I drank...) and then was up for about 45 minutes with pre-race jitters. Annoying, but not really unexpected.

I woke up at 6:45am, as my sister was picking me up around 7:15am. Her mother in law and sister in law were walking the 5k, so we needed to be there for their 8:10am start time. As a pre-race breakfast I had an english muffin with peanut butter. Managed to eat the whole thing! We dropped them off at the start and then went to warm up. My parents ended up staying at Cambridge Inn which was basically AT the start line. It was perfect! I was able to dump my warm clothes there, warm up inside, use the bathroom (crucial) and relax for a bit before our 9am start time. I was running with my sister Nikki, her husband Ray and my dad. Nikki and I had planned before hand to stick together, whereas the guys went their own pace.

The race was definitely worth any pre race anxiety I felt. It's just amazing to see thousands of runners and walkers. Everyone was having fun and there was so much energy. I think my favorite part of the race was going along Agricola St. It was at the beginning of the race, I was starting to warm up and feeling really good, lots of people out to watch us go by. It really made me feel like a superstar!

I felt good during most of the race. I was a little unsure of what to wear because of the weather, but decided on shorts with my knee high socks, the race tshirt with a long sleeve over it. I had cheapo gloves that I lost after the first 2km or so as my hands were warm enough. I managed to run up all of the hills and only had a few short walk breaks just to stretch out my quads and to readjust my hair (note to self: buy new hair elastics that have some elastic left in them!). The first half of the race was definitely faster than the second, as I felt myself slowing down upon going back over the bridge to Halifax. I think what did it was the incline on the bridge followed by the incline up North to Gottingen, brutal! But I managed to hang on. Unfortunately I did get a side stitch during the last km of the race which is the worst!! I was kind of bummed about that because I can usually pick up my pace at the end and finish strong but I didn't feel up to it during this race.

I managed to finish with a time of 1:06:25. Not my fastest 10k, but I'm happy with the time considering the amount of training I did.

I thought the volunteers and organizers of the event did a fabulous job. I really can't comprehend how they pull off something of this magnitude. I think they will have to consider changing things next year if they expect this many participants again. Trying to get food and something to drink was almost impossible due to the sheer amount of people. Maybe different waves of start times to avoid a huge rush following the race?

Anyway, a few pictures of the event (click to enlarge):

Nikki and I coming up to the finish

Dad, me, Nikki, Ray, his mom and his sister

Dad & daughters

Silly posing to celebrate our accomplishment!

Next up for me is another 10k in Beresford, NB on June 8th. Only two weeks away! ACK!

less than a week!

Well it's less than a week until I run 10km in the Bluenose Marathon here in Halifax. Looking forward to it!! It's definitely one of the best runs I participated in last year. Just so much energy and so many people! This evening I ran this route with my running team; my sister Nikki and my brother in law Ray. If you are familiar with Halifax then you know this run incorporated A LOT of hills. Although my legs were feeling pretty heavy near the end it made me feel confident about next weekend! And it gave me the chance to try out my new running sneakers!

The model is Saucony Kinvara 4s and I love them!! I purchased them in Maine while there for my graduation ceremony. They are very light weight but it still feels like you're wearing a sneaker. I'm not a fan of the shoes that are so light weight that you can't even tell your sneakers are there... I think if I purchased those I'd end up leaving the house without any shoes on at all and not even realize! Speaking of which, Nikki and Ray saw a man running COMPLETELY barefoot earlier today. In my eyes that is INSANE but hey, whatever you want to do!

I'm super excited to wear my new shoes next weekend at the Bluenose along with my new Reebok running socks:

Needless to say it will be a colorful event! I also managed to get some cute new exercise capris! Love the ruching on the sides!

I picked up a few other treats at the grocery store:

Let me tell you, this peanut butter is DEADLY!! It basically tastes like a peanut butter cup. It is going to take all of my will power not to eat the entire jar this week. No promises that I won't! So good. I'm not really sure what to eat it with... so far I have opted for directly out of the jar and into my mouth. Any other suggestions? I purchased some coconut water as it's been pretty popular lately and I haven't tried it yet. I'm interested to see how it tastes and if I like it. I'll keep you posted on what I think!

makeshift 10km training

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I have decided to do the 10km in the Bluenose Marathon this year. I ran two 10ks last year and want to get some more under my belt. I haven't given myself much time to prepare. I told myself I would run ALL winter. NO matter what the weather. Well... that definitely didn't happen.

So I've decided to do a condensed version of a 10km training. The last month I have been running 5ks so I really need to up my distance. I also remember last year that the only time a 5k run felt easy was after I started training for 10!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wed.	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Off	7km run	Yoga	5km run	Body Combat	Off	Body Pump
Week 2	Zumba	10km run	Yoga	6km run	Body Combat	Off	Body Pump
Week 3	Zumba	8km run	Yoga	7km run	Off	Off	Yoga
Week 4	Zumba	5km run	Yoga	3km run	Walk	Off	10km RACE

This training program is designed around my likes and my schedule. I'm going to Maine at the beginning of May for my graduation ceremony which is why I took a Friday and Saturday off in a row. I'm really hoping to keep up my strength training while running this summer. The program I followed last year when training for my 10k was one I found online that did not have any scheduled time for strength or cross training, and I really regret not sticking with it!


Do you make up your own training schedule or stick to a plan you got somewhere else?

game of life run!

I participated in my first 5km race of the year! My sister Nikki and I ran the Game of Life race this morning at the beautiful point pleasant park. The event supported Commonwealth Games Canada's grassroots sports programs in Africa and the Caribbean.  This program uses sports as a means for social development of people in these countries. When I was younger I played basketball and soccer in city leagues and in school, and also coached a basketball team of boys aged 9-10. I believe that participating in sports gives children confidence and team work skills that can extend to multiple areas of their lives. SO of course I thought this was an awesome cause!


I love that the event was held at Point Pleasant Park. The route followed the perimeter of the park which is a wide trail with great views of the ocean. Thankfully it was bright out (cloudy) and not too windy. A breeze off the ocean can be mighty cold, so I was glad it wasn't too bad today! They had tons of volunteers that were helpful in guiding the way. It was a simple out and back, with the first half being up hill. This made the second half of the race a treat! Knowing the last half was downhill was definitely something I looked forward to.

A few negatives were that the 10km race was an out and back, TWICE. Maybe some people don't care as much as I do, but I think that would be extremely boring. I think they could have taken advantage of all the trails in the park and made it a loop or something. This would have meant more volunteers though, which maybe wasn't possible. My only other negative were the other people at the park. Since the race was small (I would estimate 100 participants in the 5 and 10 combined) they did not close the park. The park is notorious for people bringing their dogs, and some areas are off-leash. I believe these people had every right to be in the park; however I wish some people had shown a little more consideration and tried to move their dogs out of the way of the runners. Nothing that could have been controlled by the race coordinators though!

Overall it was a great start to run season, and I'm happy with the result. Nikki and I ran together (except for the final sprint). The clock time when running through the finish said 31:47, yet my chip time was 31:55 or something. This doesn't really make since to me as usually the chip time is lower? Either way I'm happy with that time!

Now I just need to get my butt in gear as I decided I'll be doing the 10km in the Bluenose! IN ONE MONTH! Ack. Stay tuned for my procrastinator training plan.

p.s. I returned the sneakers I posted about earlier. Still on the hunt for ones I like...