AFib Asian: 2026 Race Around the Place

Finding My Mojo: How Consistency Took 4 Minutes Off My 5K

Most of you know I’ve been checking off the workouts on a Garmin training plan. What you might not know is the mountain I had to climb just to get to the starting line. After being sidelined from running since Ottawa Race Weekend, I found myself at a crossroads on Canada Day. I made a definitive commitment to myself: either walk 1K every single day, or dive headfirst back into training.

I chose to go all in. I signed up for a half-marathon plan, and let me tell you—that absolute commitment was exactly what I needed to find my mojo again.

Training is a battlefield. It is never easy to balance life, energy, and the sheer time required to stick to a plan. It’s even harder when your watch decides to play mind games with you. Fellow Garmin users know the crushing feeling of seeing your status drop to "Unproductive" or desperately trying to claw your way back to "Maintaining." We are all out here chasing that elusive, glorious "Productive" status! Silly Garmin. But I kept showing up anyway.

Then came race day. My friend Kathy (Special K) picked me up, and we embarked on our journey to the starting line. After a quick parking dialogue—shoutout to the homeowner who politely saved us from getting a tree dropped on my car—we spent the time staying warm and chatting strategy. Kathy generously offered to pace me, but I knew I needed to internalize this battle. I wanted her to crush her own tempo run, and I needed to focus entirely on my own race. After conquering the New York Central Fitness trail Parkrun in Russell the week before, we knew we were ready.

Of course, a race wouldn't be a race without a little chaos. While waiting in the corral after a final porta-potty stop, a fellow runner dropped a bombshell: they changed the course. It wasn’t on the website or social media, so we just had to trust the pylons, rely on the course marshals, and run by faith.

The route served up a fair share of rolling hills. They weren't mountains, but your legs definitely felt them. As we navigated the course, Kathy was running the perfect tangents to save seconds. Me? I couldn't be bothered with the geometry. I locked my eyes on the centre lines and just kept moving forward.

As we approached the turnaround, I locked onto a runner maintaining a wonderfully steady pace. I looked closer and realized, I know her! It was a familiar face from the Stittsville Parkrun, also crushing the 5K. A quick wave shared between us, and the steady rhythm continued.

By the final stretch, the exhaustion was real. I had taken three planned walk breaks, and a local walker named John kept wiggling ahead of me to the sounds of roaring crowd cheers. At the end of my last walk break, with my lungs burning and legs heavy, I told myself it was time to make a move. I was already gassed, but I saw a tiny opening between a gentleman and two women ahead of me.

I took it. I dug deep, found another gear, and sprinted with everything I had left across the finish line to meet Kathy.

My Garmin clocked me at 34:04. But when the official chip times came in? 33:59.

I cracked a sub-34 minute 5K with an average pace of 6:48/km, and I am absolutely ecstatic. To put this in perspective, I looked back at my 2025 race on this exact same course. I ran it in 38:45 with an average pace of 7:45/km.

That is 4 minutes and 46 seconds faster in just one year.

They say talent wins genes, but consistency wins races. I can’t say that training is ever easy, but I can tell you that showing up every day makes all the difference in the world. I am incredibly happy with how today went, and even happier that I got to celebrate the breakthrough with KB.