Melissa's 10km, Sept 25, 10

42:16

....not really what I was expecting in a stand alone 10k after consistently running sub 43 mins in triathlon 10's this sesason. However, considering that giantic, huge hill I think I am supposed to be happy with that time.

Let me back up....I started coming down with a cold on Tuesday, and I knew about the hill, so I knew it wasn't to be a superbly fast day, but still, I was looking for something around the 41:30 mark. Between finding parking, race number line up, and porta potty line ups, I didn't really do the warmup I am used to, but hey, it's just a 10k right?

I found my running buddy from the 10k at Footstock in June. There I ran the last 4km with this nice guy who kept encouraging me and I ran 40:48. He told me he had ran a sub 40 two weeks ago and we talked about running together and not taking the first km out too hard. The start went well despite the huge crowd and the tight turn and we were able to stay together. At the first km marker we were 3:55--a good first km. At the hill we stayed together and pushed through it. There was a short out and back on the down hill and I got to see Marty, we tried for a high five and missed, which is funny, because we tend to do that on purpose. I flew down the long hill thinking about making up time and wondering how much this fast downhill running was trashing my quads. Missed the odd km marker through out the whole race, which was good, because with the hill my splits were not at all where I wanted them to be...better to not know in a race like this. I used hr to guage my effort. ONce we started the down hill my running buddy and I got split up a few times. He walked a bit as well, he was having a rough day. With 2km left to go I saw that I was closing in on 4th place. This was encouraging. I was hurting and really needed something to focus on! With about 700m to go I passed a couple guys on a tight corner and yelled out that I was coming on their left. The girl in front heard me and just took off! On this day, I wasn't going to catch her! I came crusing into the finish line hearing my kids and family cheering me in. 42:16, 5th overall, 3rd in my AG.

Once I finished I headed back out to cheer in my hubby in his first 10km, he had a great finish, 49 mins!!!! But we both agreed this race hurt and maybe was too soon after the Banff tri to bring the pain.

We gave away our free beers to our brother in laws, Marty headed back east to Airdrie for Liam's soccer tryout and the rest of us? We went and hiked Sulpher Mountain...and yes, my legs are very sore today!!!