The Hottest Day of the Year (a.k.a. the day we ran the Bushtukah Canada Day 10k)

On July 1st, I had the pleasure of running with my sister in her first 10k (It was my first 10k too, for that matter!)  Amidst a great deal of excitement, we had signed up for the Bushtukah Canada Day race some months earlier.

Thankfully correct pronunciation was not a requirement for racing.

I am used to the chill of early morning races on the west coast and planned accordingly.

My mother talked me out of it.

That was a good thing as I was already feeling comfortable, dare I say warm even, when we arrived at the venue.

While we were waiting for the race to start, someone I have known for 20 years (but haven't seen in almost 10!) ran over to me.

He was in my wedding party!

It was fun to catch up, and we remarked that it was a hot day.  Hot and HUMID.

GymSis and I found our spot at the starting line and headed off!  We went out a little fast and uneven, but slowed down to a comfortable pace by the first mile.

As we ran, it got hotter.  There was one lady running behind us for awhile who had me pretty concerned.

She fell back into a group after a few minutes and I was relieved she would be with a large group of people.

We were running through quiet neighbourhoods, but there were some people out spectating.

We were enjoying the banter with other racers, waving to the neighbours, and trying desperately to ignore the heat.

At one point, there was another woman running behind us.  I mean right behind us.

I could feel her breath on my neck.

We spread out a little to give her space because apparently running around us on an empty suburban street was not an option, and she didn't budge.  Finally I sped up a bit to try and put some distance between us.  At that point she sped up too, ran past me for 5 seconds, and then stopped.

And walked.

By then we were beyond hot.  Somewhere around 6.5 kilometres, GymSis wavered slightly.  We started walking.

Translation: "I don't want to be walking."

I gave her some words of encouragement.

I'm clearly not used to giving pep talks, but literally everyone was walking.

I tried another, hopefully more productive tactic:

We kept walking.

After a couple of minutes GymSis was feeling better.  I then employed the age-old runner mind-trick:

And off we went for the next 3 kilometres, calling out any marker we could think of.

On our way we mugged for the photographer:

But he did not take our photo.

We saw GymSis' family holding up some excellent signs:

Then we saw our mom right before the finish line!

And there was!  Thanks mom!

We grabbed some Gatorade, water and orange slices.

It was rehydration at its finest.

After the race, GymSis decided to hang up her running shoes to return to her first loves (Spin, BodyPump, Flow, Super Strongbody 3000 or something--it makes her super strong anyway, etc...).  I enjoyed getting to race with her, and I'll be ready if she decides to dust off her kicks again someday.

Plus, I'll work on my cheerleading skills.

UPCOMING POSTS: A REVIEW OF OOFOS SHOES,  VOLUNTEERING AT A RACE, PORTLAND MARATHON RECAP, MARATHON AFTERMATH

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Ottawa Race Weekend 5k Recap: It's almost midnight and I can't think of a post title

In my family, there's not much I can feel like an expert about.  I'm the younger one, which means my sister usually did everything first.  So when I got the opportunity to run a 5k with her and her boys, I jumped at the chance.  It was fun for me to be the leader for once.

Ahem, sorry about that.  Little Sister Syndrome popping up momentarily.

I flew to Ottawa a week in advance.  I helped GymSis navigate the race expo and packet pickup and tried to help calm her nerves.  To be clear, she is in great shape; I mean, she works very hard at the gym (hence the name).  She's like Jillian Michaels, minus the shouting at people part.  Nonetheless, she may have been a touch anxious, despite what she said.

Pre-race jitters.  We've all been there.

Being the resident expert, I gave everyone very clear and important race day instructions, like "Pin your race bib to the front of your shirt" and  "Move to the side of the course if you need to stop" and the most important piece of advice:  "You can't wear your race shirt on race day!"

Not to mention, it's super bad luck.  I wore my race shirt to my first tri.

Ottawa Race Weekend, if you've never been, is a big huge deal.  In addition to the 5k, they have a family 2k, a 10k, a children's 1k to finish a cumulative year-long marathon, a half-marathon, and a full marathon.  I absolutely love the fact that my hometown has grown into such a great racing community.

But of course, big events like this come at a cost.  Namely:

SwimmerBro and I sat around looking at maps and getting advice from the wisdom of Facebook friends who had been there before.

Once race day came, all our plans were set:  SwimmerNephew and I would run together, GymSis and WaterPoloNephew (formerly ChatterNephew) would run together, and SwimmerBro would be the official race photog.

Because of our amazing planning skills, we got to the race venue with plenty of time to get the lay of the land, watch the family 2k, and take pictures.

It was cold.

And windy.

After chatting with some of the family's closest friends who were also doing the race, it was time to start!  So, we shuffled off with the thousands of other people around us.  And amidst all those people, I saw my friends Jen and Dwayne!

Jen started a team to raise money for diabetes research and was doing her first 5k.  Woohoo!

Since SwimmerNephew has been swimming since before he could walk, he has a lot of strength in his upper body.

Which he used to run.

It was impressive watching him use his shoulders to get his legs moving.

He was essentially swimming a 5k.

I had told him that if he wanted to go around slower people to let me know first, so we could stay together.  I wanted him to point out where he wanted to go.  As a lifelong competitor, he clearly did not want to leave any opening well...open.

He took almost every single opportunity, and it was awesome!

The course was beautiful and it was lined with spectators.  I decided to take some mid-run pictures.

Once the finish line was in sight, SwimmerNephew took off in a full sprint, like every true runner over the age of 20 wishes they could.

I was so proud of him; he ran the entire time and finished at a 9:40 minute per mile pace!

After a successful finish, we walked over to our meeting spot and waited for GymSis and WaterPoloNephew.  They were right on our heels, with big smiles!!

I was incredibly proud of everyone and I hope we can do this race together again!

It was unbelievably crowded, but we finally managed to find SwimmerBro and head home.

He was a fantastic athletic race supporter.

The next day I got a text from my sister, saying that I was right about "this dumb running thing".
Looks like soon I might have to change her name to RunnerSis.

I'm linking up with Yeah Write this week.  Click on the badge to check out some amazing writing!

UPCOMING POSTS:  DILETTANTE TRIATHLON AND SEE JANE RUN RACE RECAPS, MARATHON TRAINING (Did you guys know I'm training for a marathon?)

I Got My Shred On with My Sister (Because she forced me to go)

A few weeks ago I went to visit my family.  Before I even got there, GymSis (that's my sister)  started talking about all the classes she wanted to take me to.  She was throwing around words like shred, flow, and "spin".

We facetimed and she gleefully described the Body Shred class.

What?  We're sisters.  We look alike.

She continued to try and convince me.

I wasn't excited yet.

She tried harder.

It didn't help.

She finished it off with some sisterly advice.

Awesome.

The first day of my vacation I flew into town and had a quick visit at Gymsis'.  She was more than happy to show me just what we would be doing in class.

As she went on about resting with planks I looked to my mother for support.

The last thing GymSis said to me the night before the class was:

Awesome?

The next morning I convinced myself to somehow get in the car and drive to the gym at the appointed time.  I would love to tell you all the fabulous exercises we did but my brain stopped working after about 5 minutes.  I also spent a lot of time putting my head down. But here is what I remember:

1.  Side to side burpees.  I grunted through them.

2.  Dancing crabs.  I needed a lot of one on one attention.

3.  High knees.   I wheezed.

4.  Planks with alternating arm and leg lifts.  I begged for mercy.

5.  Some sort of Superman thing.  I almost passed out.

We may have used weights at some point but don't quote me on that.

The muscle soreness set in after about 20 minutes (never a good sign) and lasted the rest of the week.  That made for a lot of fun when I had to go with my sister to RPM class a few days later.

I'm linking up with the fabulous  Yeah Write this week!

UPCOMING POSTS: RPM CLASS, RUNNING A 5K WITH MY SISTER AND NEPHEWS, DILETTANTE TRIATHLON RECAP