Yesterday I ran the 10k St. Patrick’s Day Run on Colonel By Drive in Ottawa, completing race #4 in my 14 in ’14 challenge. Two years ago this was the race that was going to be my first 10k race. I remember being so excited, not to mention incredibly nervous, about it. Then my first ITB injury occurred and I ended up dropping to the 5k and my introduction to the 10k had to wait for almost 2 months. This time however, this little race was sort of the ignored event in my schedule. With only two weeks until Around the Bay and with plans officially forming for a trip out west for the Vancouver Half, I spent little time even thinking about this race. I had no plans for time or pace and was simply looking at it as a training run that would hopefully be a little faster than what I have been doing lately.
I admit it was nice to start a race with no expectations. When my Garmin somehow stopped during the first km, and I didn’t notice until it turned itself off, I just reset it and figured at least I could keep an eye on my pace for the rest of the run. Unfortunately by the third km my head was full of negative talk (that came on quickly even for me) and once again I had to remind myself to just run in the moment. My legs felt sluggish and I was reminded of the fact that in the previous 7 days I had done not one, but 2 long runs (24.5k and 27k) so I was already making excuses to myself as to why I would just take this slowly. I was pretty convinced that I just no longer had any speed in me and perhaps I should just learn to accept it.
Somewhere after the 3k mark though I started to feel good. Even better, I was feeling comfortable. After 5k I felt really comfortable at a steady average pace of 5:42. I kept backing myself off a bit – or so I thought – in an attempt to save some energy. What a pleasant surprise when each time I checked my watch thinking I was a little slower, I was always in fact at the same pace or faster! And while I was definitely working, I did not feel I was working ridiculously hard. That just doesn’t happen enough to this average runner. When I hit an average pace of 5:39 I did force myself to avoid another increase of speed but when I had a couple of hundred metres left I let myself go. Final 10k time – 56:30, only 16 seconds slower than my P.B. set at Ottawa Race Weekend almost two years ago. I admit there is a little part of me thinking I should have pushed just a little harder and I would have beat that P.B. but in all honesty I couldn’t even remember for sure what my best time was. I hadn’t looked at previous 10k race times prior to the race because I had intended to finish around 58 minutes. This race did leave me knowing that I have a sub 56 minute 10k in me if I actually choose to work on the distance. Generally speaking when I run a 10k it is as a part of a longer run. As a result, it just isn’t a distance I focus on. Now I am thinking maybe I should put a bit of work into this distance and give it some respect. I also feel fairly confident I could have held on to that pace for a few more km’s, making me think a sub 2 hour half marathon is a little closer than I thought.
As for the race itself, the main appeal is probably the fact that it takes place in March. Not that March is a particularly nice month in terms of weather, but it is lacking in organized races so a mid month race is a nice addition to the calendar. As with my January and February races, I love the fact that the St. Patrick’s Day Run offers a large indoor space (Immaculata High School) so no need to hang around in cold weather before your run. At this time of year that makes it so much easier to decide what to wear; if you get to wait inside you can dress for the run rather than for the long wait before the start gun.
There were 365 10k participants and 386 5k runners, making it a nice sized race without being overcrowded. It was an out and back course along the canal, which always makes for a nice run. I have to admit I never realized that there is some noticeable incline on that route at around the 4k mark. I was cursing that a little, especially as there was also a headwind at that point. Of course it being a winding route, the wind managed to hit you on both the “out” portion and the “back” portion of the run, though thankfully never for long. The 10k runners headed out about 15 minutes before the 5k race. The only slightly awkward part about this is it leaves average 10k runners like myself having to pass 5k walkers (of which there seemed quite a few) during the last 2.5 km of the race. These weren’t race walkers or Nordic walkers, so they were definitely not looking for speed. I love seeing walkers out on a course and I love the fact that often those walkers are taking the first steps to a new life of fitness. I just wouldn’t mind it if they were asked to stay to the right if runners are coming up behind them rather than spreading out in a group of 2 or 3 (often deep in conversation) forcing the runners to go around.
The race was well organized with no shortage of cheerful volunteers. Parking, at least when we got there, was easy and I ended up parking only a couple of hundred metres from the doors. I opted to not drive all the way downtown the day before to pick up Evan’s and my race kits, despite the fact I usually hate leaving it to the last minute on race day. There were no line ups however an hour before the race so I am glad I saved myself a drive.
Of course another advantage of races with an indoor venue is the indoor bathrooms … no porta potties 🙂 As always though, the ratio of women’s bathrooms to men’s wasn’t working (as in one set of bathrooms each). Realistically if a race is going to provide marked men’s and women’s washrooms there needs to be a 2 to 1 ratio. At the best of times at any event you need more bathrooms for women; let’s face it, we take longer. Throw in the fact that many races, including this one, have more female participants than male, it is a given that there will be long lineups for women right until the starting gun and this race was no different.
No medals are offered at this race but there were lots of draw prizes plus prizes for the winners of each age group. When Evan, who was I believe one of only a handful of kids running the 5k, finished his race a very kind volunteer just handed him a prize – a $25 gift certificate for the Royal Oak Pub. Needless to say as his driver I get to share the prize. This is actually the second time Evan has been handed a prize at a race, proving that if you are young and cute running races can pay off! As Evan pointed out, people always seem really excited to see kids or grandmothers running a race, the rest of us just aren’t as exciting.
A tech shirt came with this race too, I’ll definitely put it to use but can’t say it is one of my favourites. It kind of looks like they forgot to put the name of the race on the shirt since the entire black shirt is blank on the front with all the sponsors on the back along with a small race logo. It seems kind of odd to not have the race name emblazoned on the front of a tech shirt.
Evan, as always, appreciated the food: bagels, bananas, oranges, granola bars, water and my personal favourite – chocolate milk. For me, any race that provides chocolate milk gets bonus points!
So, for $35 is this a race I would do again? Why not? It is good timing for kicking your race season into gear, particularly if you aren’t into doing races in January and February. With only 11 weeks to Ottawa Race weekend it is a perfect training run no matter what distance you plan to to in May. My guess is I will be there next year, particularly since I do not plan on running Around the Bay again next March, or at least that is what I said to myself over and over again when doing my last long run!