Today was a chilly 4 degree start but warmed up nicely for my 5 KM run in the Mercedes Benz 10 K in Oakville. It took me about an hour to get there from my house to the Bronte Go station, and I'm surprised I wasn't more tired from getting up at 5:30 AM. When I got to the GO station, we were told to park there due to the limited parking near the site, I had a bit of a wait to nab one of the shuttles due to the long lineup. But I must say they went fast! The busses were quite evenly spread out and filled up quickly. Once I was onboard I had a short trip to Appleby College.
Upon arrival at the park, with the hundreds of other people, I went to get my bib and race packet. Now I know last minute pickup's are chaotic, but it seemed quite unorganized. I has to ask if I got a shirt, then ask again to get a bag. Good thing I was on top of things! It's all about the goods, :) Once I had everything I put it in my bag and headed to bag check. Note to self, bring a unique bag next time for bag check. I don't typically use bag check, but it was quite easy even with the identical white bag everyone else was using. Here was what was in the bag, minus the medal of course.
I headed to make a quick pit stop then went to join the other 5 KM'ers. The guy who was on the speaker waiting for us to line up was quite funny. The corral's were lettered 'A' through 'D'. He said things like "if you wear something that makes your hips jiggle when you run (a water belt), head to corral A. If you're wearing jeans, head to corral 'D'". The wait wasn't terrible, but it was hard with the slight wind and cold. Not long thereafter, we were off. It was a difficult start with the other runners jammed into road with barriers, but after the first turn onto the open road it was fine. The route was nice and flat with a few downhills. I remember going down them and thinking, "crap, what goes down just go up again" but there really were no decent uphill running bits. So that was nice. Near the 3.5 KM / 4 KM mark I looked at my watch and began running a bit quicker noticing it said 28 minutes. I knew my best 5 KM race time was 33:35, so I was determined to make this one my new PB. I put some extra hitch in my giddy up and I was able to push it to the end. My final time was 32:47 and I am pleased with that! There were some nice Tim's bagels at the end, an Emergent C sample, bananas and water. I collected my medal and goodies then was off to head back to my shuttle bus.
Overall, this was a nice route to run. It was organized nicely. It could have been a bit better with including corral intervals, more organized on for race day registration, and have much more crowd/volunteer encouragement, but I'd still do the race again. Happy Sunday!
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