2013 St. Patrick’s Day 5K Race Report

This morning I ran the Calgary Road Runner’s St. Patrick’s Day 5K!

 

No doubt with my ankle issues I was a little worried about the race.  Somedays it has felt okay, others not so much.  I’ve been taking care of it with foam rolling, rolling with a trigger point ball and stretching though so I was hopeful it would be okay.  It was also a delightfully balmy -13C (-22C with the windchill) and snowing.  A perfectly lovely day for a little race outside!  I figured since we were doing the 5K there was no excuse to bail.  We could make it through a little old 5K in that kind of weather!

We got to the race start at Central Memorial High School and found friends and teammates.  There was enough time for a quick photo op before our friends left to run the 10K.

 

Unfortunately my special St. Paddy’s ProCompression socks got held up in Canada customs for five days so they didn’t make it in time for the race.  I put on as much green as I could though!

Time for one last photo op inside the warm school and then we made our way to the start line with one minute to go.

There were no plans for my husband and I to run together.  I watched his bright orange toque bob off among the crowd ahead and tried to settle in to a pace.  There was so much snow on the ground that footing was difficult.  The course is also full of ups and downs that makes it tough to get in to a rhythm.  That being said, I was really happy that my ankle felt good when I took off.  A positive start to the race!

The route had quite a few turns so at times we were sheltered from the wind and pelting snow flakes and at other times it was hitting us right in the face.  I was a little worried that maybe I was under dressed but I wound up feeling just warm enough.  If anything I wish I had left my scarf behind!  I made it to the halfway point without stopping for a walk break, but the deepening snow was starting to take more of the juice out of my legs.  I saw Cori and my husband just a short ways ahead of me and I tried to give them a wave as we passed each other.  Finally about 20 minutes in my legs were crying uncle and it was time to walk for a bit.  Up until this point my ankle was still hanging in there!

The final push to the finish was tough.  The wind was hitting us strong and it just felt completely unpleasant out.  I kept telling myself that the faster I went, the faster I would finish, but it was so hard to smile on the push to the finish line!

 

Thanks to my friend Dawn’s husband for catching this photo of me on the push to the finish line.  My husband was there at the finish cheering me in after he rocked his race  My eyebrows and eyelashes were frozen by the end of the race!

After we congratulated each other we went inside the school for our post race grub.  There was also a photo booth!

The beef stew was delicious, plus there were also authentic Irish lucky charms and mint and chocolate chip scones.  And did I mention there was beer available too?

We hung around waiting to see if we’d get lucky and win our weight in beer, but unfortunately no free beer for us.

This is the first time I’ve done the CRR St. Patrick’s Day race since it moved from the University of Calgary.  While I miss racing around the university I really liked that the route was different from the one we usually wind up running at so many races here in Calgary (even if it was hilly!!).  The volunteers were phenomenal and it was so great of them to come out on such a nasty day.  The post race spread is one of the best ones around, plus the t-shirts are always great.  I love the dark green!  All in all a fantastic race.

 

Official Stats

• Chip time: 34:34
• Overall 162 out of 281
• Females 30 – 39: 32 out of 59