Ottawa Race Weekend

Well, it's the Ottawa Race Weekend time of year! We and some friends have been practicing for some weeks (well, we were supposed to). Five of us ran the 10km race, and one of our friends ran the 5k. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing, having heard bad stories of human traffic jams at the starting line and such. Here's a picture of a recent year, for an idea of what it's like:



Yeah, a little crowded. Fortunately, you can specify how fast you want to finish the race, and the faster you specify, the closer to the front you get to be. Four of us guys were fairly close to the front, and it took us 20 seconds from the starting gun to actually crossing the start line. Carrie was a tad further back, and it took her 6 minutes to get to the start line! That's what happens when 8500 people are starting in the same race. Over the various races this weekend (2k, 5k, 10k, 21k half marathon and 42k full marathon, and perhaps several more), a total of 39,000 people were expected to participate.

Most of us were quite impressed with our individual race results. I got a personal best time, at 47:24. My lungs were hurting for most of the race, as they usually do when I run, but I managed to do the whole thing without walking, which is a first for me as well. During training I've managed 10k twice, and I must say that having strangers cheering you on can be quite helpful when you really really feel like walking for a bit.

I placed 637th out of about 8500 runners, and only a few guys over 60 beat me! The numbers can be a bit depressing, but considering I put a total of 9 hours into training for this over the past 6 weeks, I'm rather satisfied with my results (found here or here).

Some idiot started his race with a Gatorade bottle, another water bottle, a chocolate bar, a phone, and other random stuff. Yeah, that idiot was me. I think I will travel a little lighter next time around.

Carrie did great too, beating here desired time by a good margin. She would have been happier doing the 5km run, but she finished what she started which was wonderful.

Everything hurts now, so we have yet to decide whether to continue running during the summer. We could run for exercise and just avoid the races, but what fun is that?