Achilles St. Patrick's Day 5K
Sunday, March 17, 2002Race report from Julie...
Date: Sun Mar 17, 2002
Subject: Re: St. Pat's 5K runner report (Toronto)
Hello everyone, This morning, I ran my first ever race at the Achilles St. Patrick's Day 5K here in Toronto.
This was a day of many firsts for me. It was my first time running outside in the cold, my first time running 10/1’s this year, my first organized race and the first time I truly experienced the runners high everyone is always talking about.
I was terrified signing up for this race. I remember walking into the running room approaching the table and handing over my registration. Terrified at the thought of actually showing up! The
volunteer asked me if I was walking or running? I said a bit of both but you better put me down as a walker. There was another volunteer sitting off to the side and he looked at me and said ‘no put her down as a runner, she’s a runner’. At that moment, I did feel like a runner!I had arranged to meet a girl from one of the groups I belong to. She ran a ½ last year and then stopped running. She’s just getting back into running and offered to run with me. She warned me that she was slow and running 10/1’s. We had never met, but she knew what I looked like and we exchanged bib #’s just in case.
We walked over to the foot of the CN Tower and was overwhelmed at the site I saw, so many
runners, all ages and running levels, and all of them had big smiles on their faces. I had butterflies but they were good butterflies! I later found out that there were something like 1800 runners and walkers. WOW!I found my friend and we arranged a meeting spot for our husbands and then walked to the
starting line. We started midpoint closer to the front. My friend warned me that people would start off quickly and not to get discouraged. I reminded her that there is no such thing as fast or slow and we were running against ourselves and noone else. I didn’t feel bad as people passed me, I rarely noticed them as I was so focused on what I was doing and looking straight ahead. The first km passed quickly and so did the second and before I knew it we were at the water station. I remembered all your reports about volunteers and I accepted the water and thanked the volunteer and gave the little girl a smile and I passed Glenn about this time and said ‘hey Glenn’ and continued on. A few minutes later I realized I didn’t tell him who I was (too caught up in the moment I guess) The next 2 kms passed by quickly and we had reached a point that wasn’t too windy, actually felt like I was running on a warm summer
day. I was feeling great, no cramps, no stiffness, I was feeling really good. It’s true training does pay off! Before I knew it, we could see the finish line, I was a little sad because I didn’t want the run to be over. But the closer we got to the finish line the more I wanted to cross it and before I knew it we were seconds from reaching it. My friend told me to look up and I saw the clock, our time was 37:35.The route was a nice easy route, flat and comfortable and the volunteers were great. At the
last km. They were shouting out things like, ‘you are doing great, I have a beer waiting for you’ or ‘you are so close to the beer, keep focused on the beer’ LOL, I guess I’ll have to start drinking beer! I’ve realized running and beer go hand in hand.All in all this was an Awesome experience! I wished I could’ve hung around, ate some chili,
tried some beer and chatted with some runners, but I had to dash home b/c I too had another function to go to that afternoon. I have a feeling that this run is going to be a yearly run for me!I can't wait for the Dupont 8km!!!!
hugs,
Julie
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