Straight to 10 KM's!

After running the Oasis Zoo 10 KM Run on Saturday, I have come to the conclusion (through my own experience) that I need to focus on doing my 5 KM distances first. I am taking the soreness of my legs, including the painful task of even sitting down on a chair, as a sign!!! Clearly I am not nearly fit enough to jump into 10 KM run's as of yet!

In March, I started running and my goal was to try and see how far I could run doing 1 and 1's. I slowly realized that it wasn't about how far you can run, but about the best time you can physically run it in. After that I started following the Running Room's 'Learn To Run' and '5 KM Run' programme schedules my mom gave me from her courses. I put them together and tried to do my own thing. It's been about 6 months now and I'm only up to 7 and 1's. I've had a busy summer schedule where I didn't run for weeks on end, but overall i'm getting there. I really wanted to try and motor through the programme, but I'm finding I might need a clinic to participate in. It will be interesting to see if I have time to sign up for the clinic, as I also have soccer on Thursday nights, and if I can continue to run through the winter schnanighans!

Oasis 10 KM Zoo Run - Race Report

Boy am I sore today!! Note to self, don't not run for a week before the race. Also, get more in shape before doing 10 KM races!

Yesterday was the perfect weather for the Oasis 10 KM Zoo Run. It was chilly in the morning, about 12 degrees and cloudy, but there was no rain, wind or beating sun! I wore my capris and a long sleeve shirt at first, then opted for a t-shirt after. I hate feeling cold, but I knew i'd warm up pretty darn fast once we started running. I say we because I ran the race with my mom :)

For this race we got up at 5:30, left at 6:30 (got there via the 407, THANKFULLY!) and arrived there shortly after 7:20. It's a good thing we took the 407 to get there, because Meadowvale northbound from the 401 was packed to get into the parking lot. My friend Kelly took this other route and she got there JUST in time! So be pre-warned for that if ever you do this race! Allow lots of time to park if you take the 401.

Once we got there, we took a quick trip the ports-potties then went back to the car to stay warm. As we walked back to our car we saw the first corral go off and cheered on Lanni Marchant. Around 8:15 we lined up for the ports-potties again, in a longer line this time, then went to our corral. The gun went off around 8:45 for us. 

The route was pretty decent. This was NOT an easy downhill Yonge Street route, and definitely had definitely had multiple hills, but overall it was pretty good! It starts off going around the parking lot, up Meadowvale, around the north side of the Zoo, then makes an entrance into the zoo. I started running 10-1's with my mom, attempting 10 and 1's for the first time, but that was a bad idea and I was unable to keep up with her pace. I ended up trying to do 6-1's but didn't really stick to that either. I did, however, complete the race in 1:13:24.4! Just finishing was an accomplishment for me! Especially having not run in about a week (bad idea!).

                                     this ^ (double blue line) was the longest hill.

                                    It goes up the boardwalk in-between the trees.

One thing I did enjoy about the race was that you passed back through some parts. I liked this because my mom was ahead of me, and Kelly was behind me, so I was able to say hello or cheer them on as we passed each other!

At the end of the race you climb another big hill then go downhill a tad to reach the finish line. After that we received our medals and made our way over to the food area! There were lots of treats here, Realfruit barries, treats from our race kits, bagels, bananas, oasis juice, and Liberte yogurt. There was also a few running gear tents here too. Had I brought a wallet with me I would have taken a peak, but I didn't.

The walk from the finish line to our cars was not anywhere near each other. We had quite a distance to trek. Luckily we survived! On our way out we could have exchanged our shirts, but we didn't feel the desire to walk even further, so we just picked up Alison's race kit and made our way out. The lineup to get OUT of the park was brutal, but bearable. 

Overall, I did enjoy this race! It ended up being about $72 to register for the race but I think we got our money's worth! I wish I had been a little more in shape to do it but nonetheless we both finished. My mom finished in 1:08 and I in 1:13. I knew she would beat me and I'm totally okay with that. I'll let her have that, for now ;) The race was well organized, there were lots of bathrooms, great food and great race kits. I definitely recommend this race to anyone wanting a unique 5 KM or 10 KM run.

Here was my post-race shirt and medal.

    

The medals!

My running race plaque is slowly filling up. So far this year I've received 6 medals and completed, 8 races!

Oasis Zoo Run race kit

Today my dad picked up our race kits for the Oasis 10 KM Zoo run that takes place on September 20th, 2014. It wasn't the location of the run where he picked them up from. (He paid $4 just to park, then trekked fairly far to get them. So i'm told). In future years, maybe they could have the race kit pick-ups in a better location! Just a tip.

Included in our kit, we received:

• a shirt that fits EXTREMELY small (this is a medium, I fit into an XL nicely)
• a juice box
• running magazine
• personalized bib
• pain reliever
• and two snacks!

The women's shirts were yellow and the mens were green. It's difficult to see here, but the shirts have zebra stripes on them which are kinda cool.

The weather is getting cooler out, much nicer for running in. Let's hope the weather stays like this for the weekend!!

Parkinson's SuperHero 5 Km run

Today I got up and ran 5 km with the Parkinson's Superwalk/SuperHero Run. It was $35 to sign up, you can get a registration reimbursement and run for free if you raise over $150, and donations go toward Parkinson's research. A friend of mine has early onset Parkinson's disease so I thought it would be a great cause to run for aside from being a ton of fun! 

I decided to throw on a costume for the fun of it and dressed as Superman. Costumes were encouraged I might add!

A quick trip to Walmart for the t-shirt for $10, a red poncho from dollarama and some red sparkly stars was all it took to do the trick! I give my friend Meghan some credit for the help!! 

I picked up my race kit the morning of as we weren't able to so it any earlier. With my race kit I received a tech tshirt and some goodies!! I loved the shirts because they were green and looked like the Incredible Hulk was trying to rip through my chest. There were several activities for te kids to participate in, making this a family fun event. At one of the tables in the park you were able to fill out who you were running for to receive a Parkinson's Superhero cape. I obviously did this because who doesn't love a good cape! Today I ran for Victor. :)

The run was really fun! It was a 5 km loop with an out and back at the end. And a HUGE hill at the end I might add. But I did it. And in 35:41. (http://rrresults.com/results/021.Parkinson5K.2014.htm) Not a PB by any means but it was a good run and we had fabulous weather! I ran the whole way with my superman cape on. I secretly think it got me to the finish. Lol. 

At the end of the race we got finishers medals, freezies, and nice water bottles. For lunch we were provided with  a 6" sub from subway! 

Overall this was a great race! It was the first Parkinson's  SuperHero race and I am so glad I got to be a part of it. They did great with the organization of it all! I plan on doing it again next year. And watch out for my costume! I've got a year to prepare now!

Here was the finishers medal:

Electro Dash 5 Km

Two fun runs that I signed up to do were Run or Dye and the Electro Dash. Both had their own element of fun for different reasons.

A while back I signed up for the electro dash with my friend Meghan and had our race packs delivered to us for a small fee. I thought this was worth it instead of havig to drie to downtown Toronto to pick them up. Turns out that was cancelled for whatever reason and we has to pick em up at wonderland. I didn't find that a huge deal since it was way easier to pick it up there then the Metro Toronto Convention Centre!  So, Thursday I picked up our race kits in the Wonderland parking lot (wonderland is closed weekdays.  Here was what owe got inside:

There was a pair of glow glasses and four glow sticks to wear. I added the glow pair for an added few that we could add to our fun outfits. 

Race Day:

Before we left home there was a severe thunderstorm warning. We knew it was going to rain but unsure if they would postpone the race because of it! We got to wonderland, and free parking since the park was closed, around 7:45 to race at 8. As we got there the torrential downpours decided to come. We were guided Inside a tent inside the park to keep dry. We were going to wear our tutus, but decided against them with the rain nuisance.

The lightening was plentiful and it didn't seem to want to let up! But thankfully they let us run. It ended up being 40 minutes later, but we did it. In the pouring rain nonetheless! Here was the route we were to run. 

The run wasn't bad. It was very wet, somewhat lit up with glow ligts but fun. It you were 14 years old and ran with a bunch of friends I'm sure it would be better. But we had no problem making or own fun by jumping through puddles in the park. There was lots of room to run compared to Run or Dye, so that was enjoyable. Due to the rain we only ended up running a shorter 4 km race, so my watch tells me. After te race we were guides back into e tent we were initially under to continue our 'rave'. Not really something I'm into so we just headed home. Especially after we were soaking wet. 

Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience. Would I do it again? Probably not. But it was fun while we were there.