I wanted to make sure I kept up my monthly races, as I have been keeping up with my training always having a goal in mind. This race was only $10 (normally $15) because I got a discount from doing Rugged Maniac. I look forward to doing more of the MEC races because of the super cheap entry fees! Plus, you get 10% off inside the MEC store on race day/packet pickup day only. 🙂

This race was intense. For one, there were no waves based on projected speed, only based on distance. The 15K wave went first, followed by the 10K wave, followed by the 5K wave. There were many people and children to pass, and so I began the race quite tense. I was so tense that I felt like I was choking on the air during my first interval. I kept counting my steps per minute to focus and tried to slow down the pace of my breathing because actually choking is not how you finish a race! By the time I made it through my second interval, I had already passed a couple of km markers and felt more at ease. “I run this 3 times a week!” I told myself. “Today is NO different!” I had to keep repeating this mantra inside my head to calm myself down. At this point, the runners became more staggered and I was free to keep whatever pace I felt like.

I managed to huff it up the tiniest little incline with a lady that looked like she was going about as fast as me in the last km. She says to me “Man, those little inclines really kill ya, huh?” “Yup,” I grunted. “Just keep going, just keep going, you are not choking, just keep going,” the words I kept thinking to myself, as I counted off my foot strikes.

I see the finish line ahead and all the people and I keep moving. I make it to the end and think “hooray now I can finally pee!” and I redeemed my free banana, water, electrolytes and all the other food type things they were handing to us. I ran into the lady I passed on the incline, and her time was about a minute faster than mine. *high5* She said her next race wasn’t until March, and she said she wasn’t going to race again until then, and I said “no way! You HAVE TO race again before then to keep your training up. Do one in January!” So I left her contemplating more races.

I need to keep racing. I need to learn to relax at the start line and feel better navigating my way through swathes of people. And keep up my training.

This was by far my fastest race, ever. I ran it in 35 minutes, doing 7:1 run:walk intervals. I had no idea I could run that fast!