{"id":2058,"date":"2016-05-09T20:27:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T00:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2016-05-09T20:27:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T00:27:44","slug":"last-long-run-done-for-ottawa-marathon-pace-bunny-duties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=2058","title":{"rendered":"Last Long Run Done for Ottawa Marathon Pace Bunny Duties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The tulips are coming!<\/p><\/div>\n

O.K., I think I might be really liking this slow-down-the-long-run thing!<\/p>\n

\"Had<\/a>

Had to stop and take a picture of this beautiful tree.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the past I have made an effort to slow down my long runs, but when you are not a particularly fast runner to begin with, it can be a struggle to slow things down even more. \u00a0But in training to be\u00a0an Ottawa Marathon pace bunny, I have had no choice but to keep a slower pace. \u00a0I have now done two 32k runs and a 30k run around the pace I should be doing to lead my group to a\u00a05 and 1\/2 hour finish. \u00a0Here’s the amazing thing – those two 32k runs were two of the most enjoyable runs I have ever had. \u00a0I’m not saying they weren’t hard work – they were – but I truly felt happy during\u00a0the runs. \u00a0In fact, the first one was only meant to be around 27k, but I just didn’t feel like stopping and so continued on. \u00a0These runs allowed me to do that thing that eludes so many of us – to simply be “in the moment”. \u00a0There were times when I was so busy enjoying what was going around me that I stopped thinking about how many kms there were to go and just enjoyed the ride.<\/p>\n

This past Saturday I had to pick up race kits for the Sporting Life 10k that the kids and I were running on Sunday. \u00a0The kits were downtown so I decided to combine pick-up with a long run. \u00a0I really only run in downtown Ottawa during races, and while I always enjoy the routes, race day isn’t always the best time to take in the sights. \u00a0For this run though, doing my 10 and 1’s and my pace bunny pace, I happily took it all in. \u00a0The sun was out, it was somewhat warm and Ottawa was alive with runners, cyclists and tourists. \u00a0Even the first tulips were blooming a little ahead of the upcoming Tulip Festival.<\/p>\n

\""Maman"<\/a>

“Maman” outside the National Gallery.<\/p><\/div>\n

And so I ran, but I ran as a tourist. \u00a0I stopped and took pictures and took in the sights. \u00a0Ottawa truly provides constant changing scenery for a long run. \u00a0I was never bored, not for a moment. \u00a0There is no shortage of waterways to follow; I traveled along the Rideau Canal, Dow’s Lake, Mooney’s Beach, the Rideau River and the Ottawa River. \u00a0I ran past Hog’s Back Falls and the Rideau Falls. I saw the historic buildings of\u00a0Parliament Hill and the beautiful modern architecture of the Convention Centre and the National Gallery. \u00a0I stopped and looked at the bizarrely beautiful “Maman”, the giant spider sculpture outside the Gallery. \u00a0I crossed the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and completed a loop in our neighbouring province, Quebec. \u00a0All this and more in one run. \u00a0Why don’t I do this more often? \u00a0Then again, maybe it would lose its charm, or rather I would lose an appreciation of what the city had to offer, if I headed downtown regularly.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Rideau Falls<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The National Gallery of Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

As for my training, I find this almost scary to say, but I feel really good about pacing this marathon. \u00a0I have adapted to the 10 and 1’s, would even go so far as to say that I like them, and I feel like I have done a good amount of distance work. \u00a0Besides the 3 long runs mentioned around bunny pace, I also did the 30k at Around the Bay and there were of course all the runs leading to that race. \u00a0Last week I ran 70km, plus about 10k of orienteering and overall I am feeling pretty good. \u00a0I’m rather proud of myself that I ran 32.2k on Saturday and then on Sunday ran with my 10-year-old at the 10k\u00a0race. \u00a0And yes, I did 32.2 specifically so I could say that on the weekend I ran a marathon…just not all at once! \u00a0 (Just a note, I am even more proud of my kids. \u00a0It was Luke’s first 10k and he did it with no walk breaks, had a huge sprint in him at the end and finished in 1 hour and 24 seconds! \u00a0For Evan it was his second 10k and he took over 6 minutes off of last year’s time, finishing in 55 minutes!)<\/p>\n

It is taper time now, though I admit I don’t really think of it as a taper until there are only two weeks left. \u00a0I’ll get a run in around 23km this weekend and then will start resting up in preparation for wearing those bunny ears.<\/p>\n

Ottawa Race Weekend…I’m ready!<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @AverageRunnerK<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I refrained from eating a Beaver Tail and poutine during the run!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O.K., I think I might be really liking this slow-down-the-long-run thing! In the past I have made an effort to slow down my long runs, but when you are not a particularly fast runner to begin with, it can be a struggle to slow things down even more. \u00a0But in training to be\u00a0an Ottawa Marathon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3amQ2-xc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}