MEC Race 5, 2016 - Shubie Park 5 km

My final race of the year as far as running goes, and truthfully had I not paid for this in advance I probably would have stopped at my last race. I have the end of a cold and I am still rehabbing my IT Band issues. Luckily the cold is mostly gone and the IT Band has been behaving well. I have even managed a few pain free runs over the last week and a half, though still some tightness. But the physio and work I am doing is making things progress really well and I knew I wouldn't hurt myself by dropping down and doing the 5 km race today.

Yesterday was windy, warm and really wet, and I opted not to run the annual BLT 5K fun run to save my knee. Instead I was the bike marshal and had a blast cheering others on. This day was a bit drier but so much cooler and very windy. I knew the cooler temps were going to be great during the run, but they always suck at the start.

Eventually the half marathon was off and we lined up for the 5 and 10 km race. Having not run hard or fast for any distance in awhile I didn't know how well my lungs would be able to survive this race, but hey, what better way to find out, ha ha.

Soon we were off and I quickly tucked in behind Drew, knowing he was probably going to take the lead. I didn't think I would be able to hang with him too long, but getting dragged to a bit of a lead over the rest of the runners in the first kilometer would be handy.

At about 1 kilometer in a new player passed us both and I fell to third. My breathing was getting worse, but I was able to manage it. Looking back into my Garmin data I see that my average heart rate was 173, which explains the breathing. That is mid Zone 4 for me.  Regardless of the breathing my hip and knee were feeling just fine at this point, though I knew the big downhill was coming.

Kilometer 2 through the turn around turned out to be a crazy mess. An entire area was flooded out so that meant running uphill through a nice little river. Nothing feels better than soaked feet. 

I hit the turn around still in third, right behind Drew and had a hint of a lead over 4th place. No time to rest now!

I managed to keep on Drew until about the last 500 m of the race. He had a little kick left and started to pick up speed.  I managed to hold my pace as we approached the finish line.

I crossed the line a few seconds behind Drew for third place in a time of 18:47. It was a tough run, but I made it through. No pain in the knee or hip either. And as I type this many hours later, all is good. So I am definitely on the mend.  It was nice to finish the season with another medal, even if I wasn't at my best I still had a little oomph in the engine.

It was also a privilege as well to cheer on my fellow run club members, a few of whom we got to snap some finish line shots with.  And that banana was great. Thanks also to Christine from MEC for putting on a great race series.