Race Breakdown

So I made it through the 5K. Proud of myself. I did have to stop. A lot. Much much more than I anticipated/wanted. I had this idea that I could do it without stopping. I probably could have if I had ran more consistently in the past 3 weeks or so. But with developing shin splints about a month ago because my shoes were worn out I had to resort to other forms of cardio because it was just too damn painful. I got new shoes, but they too hurt my feet. So I didn't get as much running in as I would have liked. A month ago I did 5K (on the treadmill but still) without stopping. So I knew I could do it. It just didn't happen this time. That's ok. I'm gonna do the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon 5K in October and I'm going to do it without stopping.

My time was 35:58 (bib time, which I count as my official time). I was 152/364 in my category, and 555/1300-ish in my gender. So I was above the 50% mark which I was pretty stoked about. I sprinted to the end, lol. It was a beautiful day to run along Toronto's waterfront. My two friends I ran with both beat me but I don't frickin care, lol.

So that's the good stuff. The bad stuff...the race (with 3000 5K participants, who knows how many half and full marathoners) was baaaaaaadly organised. All the 5K ppl were wandering around asking where the start was. The directions on the web site were abysmal. We had no idea where we were going, there was no signage at all. But we finally made it to the start. Second, they didn't use the corral system the way that the Scotiabank Waterfront 5K does (you line up according to your pace). Now, the Scotiabank one has 6000 5K runners, but still, 3000 is a pretty decent number of people to have them jammed in willy nilly. Let the fast people stand at the front, I don't care. I don't want to be the one who hinders a speedy gonzales just because I happened to line up before him/her. Third, there were no race markers. The only race markers were at 3 and 4K. I am goal oriented. I NEED to know how far I've come and how far there is left to go. I know it's only 5K, but please have markers for each km. I don't know if this is just me. But personally I need it for pacing. I don't want to go all out if I have 4 bloody km to go. I also want to know if I can afford to walk at this moment or if I should push through it. That was friggin annoying. But the piece de resistance? THERE WAS NO WATER on the course!!! NONE! You know what there was? A water table set up at about 3.5 km with people with HOSES and those plastic milk jugs (the ones that usually hold the milk bags)...uh, what am I supposed to do with that? Again, I realise that this is not a huge distance, but there were kids and older people doing that run. It was also pretty warm, full beating sun since we started at 12:00 pm. To not have water is beyond comprehensible. It appears that they ran out of cups or something. Inexcusable in my opinion. I just kept going. I didn't want a frickin hose, I just wanted a cup of water. When I finally saw the finish line I gunned it...felt like my legs were gonna fly right off, lol. Got my medal and picture, and tried to find water. Was it in the tent with the bagels and fruit? Nope. Was it in the tent with the chocolate milk? Nope. It was set way off in the corner with about a million people between me and the water table. Not cool. Apparently some people were really pissed off. I was too, to be honest (ahem, in case you couldn't tell).

So running wise it was good for me (besides the too much walking)...but the organisation sucked. I kind of expect more when I pay $50 for a race. My next task is a 10K train run in July. I'm starting the training on Tuesday. Inside cause I'm still trying out shoes and if I wear them outside I can't take them back. My biggest challenge is that I am going to Vegas on the May long weekend. I'm not worried about when I am there...I am worried for when I get back. It's always so hard to get back at it following a vacation.

Time for bed...it's been a loooong day :) Time for some rest.