Canada Day 2023

On the heels of returning back from St. John's I had one day of work and then literally no prep time to actually plan to race. I managed to go from the 10K to the 5K as I've had zero time to train for a 10K and I'm sure I would have finished, but it would have been ugly. I think I can manage a 5K. I saw a few familiar faces and I said hi to many and then started to get ready as I saw the 10K runners start heading out that in less than 10 mins the 5K folks would be starting. I had not run this race as a 5K in awhile. Not since I was diagnosed with AFIB and before COVID I did the 10K. The last couple of years I had been volunteering as this race was always tricky to get volunteers since it is a national holiday and of course everyone does want to run a race. 

The race itself was fine. Weather cooperated as if you know anything in Ottawa there have been Air Quality Health Index warnings for what seemed to be like weeks from all the forest fires. It seems that the race itself may/could be cancelled as no one wants to run as if there is a lot of smoke in the air and trying to breathe.

In any event everyone that was racing was by their phones and checking email and social media and sure enough the race was a go.

I started off with Christophe but he was also volunteering so he was on a time crunch so he started at the back with me but it didn't take him long to say "have a good race!" and he was gone! 😊👋

I managed to run continuouslyexcept the one waterstop on the way, but after that I made decent time and my back felt fine. Trying to get into se Seb from 613 Physio is very hard. He fills up quicky and does amazing things. 

I did it

Always love seeing Grace.

Flat Dan

With Chrishophe and that's the last time I saw him.

So many firsts in a long time.

Official Race Photos

Heading down Campeau

Kudos to the volunteers and organizers for keeping us informed and the race run on time.

1st Race of 2019

Medal Monday

The last week of February I was gearing up trying to figure out what to do with myself other than trying to do ALL THE THINGS!.

I saw a lot of messages on my social media feed about the upcoming hypothermic race out in the hi-tech sector in Kanata. I've done this that past three years and the motivation to get there was strong!

Needless to say I signed up for the 5K because who doesn't like the post bRUNch afterwards???!! 

I posted that I registered for my 1st race of 2019 and my friend Liisa went ohhh where is this race and what are the deets? Well that perked my day to know that someone was willing to run my moderate pace and keep me in check as if I was left to my own vices you know what may happen! So she checked with her hubs and bam she was in!

Race Day was as expected at the Marshes Golf Club and cars everywhere so I parked at one of the hi-tech buildings close to the start and made my way in. The excitement was mounting as not many knew I would be running so soon...neither was I, but it was 5K I was looking forward to being with my people.

Race Ready

I saw my Team Awesome fellow ambassador Tegan 1st and we promised to do a photo and we forgot! Oh well next time. I connected with Luc as well and Heather from the Grant Crossing RR and then Liisa arrived. We got a group shot courtesy of Heather R.

1st group selfie of the day courtesy of Heather R

Then the girls went off to the bathroom and I connected with another group selfie.

Normal

Not so normal

I went out to meet up with the Run Ottawa crew for 8:45 before the start of the race and saw some familiar faces from the RunYOW crew.

Photo courtesy of Ian Hunter

Photo courtesy of Ian Hunter

At the start of the race Liisa and I went to the back of the pack since I didn't want to be trampled. We met up with Jenn and hung out with her until the official start. You can see Jenn hamming it up while Liisa and I were oblivious.

Photo courtesy of Ian Hunter

Photo courtesy of Ian Hunter

Once we got under way it was  a slow shuffle at the start and I was off on my 1st race of 2019.

Shuffle, Shuffle with Liisa

We kept a nice steady pace and we chatted almost the entire way about all things to keep us moving and motivated around. We actually went around a few people as we moved on the course. The road conditions were great and only a couple of ice patches, but otherwise good weather and decent road conditions. The race itself is just a 5K loop out and back so we all started with the 10K and the half marathon folks. It was fun to see friends as we passed each other.

Hypothermic 5K done

Our average pace was pretty steady and we didn't take any walk breaks. We finished strong and Liisa came ahead of me 😉

My official time was 37:36 and we earned the bling and the bRUNch!!

5K done!

Yum!

Greate race with even great friends (running your pace) and run support crew seeing everyone!

Medal Monday

OTF 200

As well as this weekend I received my official certificate for attending 200 classes.

A big enough milestone that deserved a photo op as the studio makes these huge for members and I'm grateful for the people I've met that have challenged me along the way.

Sunday 3 group class that helped me celebrate 200!

Full class that had a lot of splat points