Kia Kaha: Great weekend in Ottawa!!!

The Tamarack Homes Ottawa 10km run was held this past Saturday. It was a great opportunity to test how the training was going, get some speed in to my legs, and hopefully give me some confidence. Also my body needed a drop in the volume from the heavy training for the world marathon champs. I really enjoyed going back to Ottawa. Even though we are enjoying Houston I really miss the Canadian running community. It is very close and everyone knows each other so well. I hope to run in Canada more often in the future. It was great to catch up with some old friends and to meet some new ones. I had a lovely time rooming with with another marathon mum Krista Duchene. She is such a lovely lady and good friend. We are always emailing each other about problems we are having or questions relating to running which is very helpful as marathon running can be a pretty lonely sport sometimes. I also enjoyed running with Lanni Marchant Sunday morning after the race. We have both lived in Ottawa so it was nice to re visit the Ottawa river and the lovely pathways that Ottawa has to offer. Definitely something else I miss about Ottawa.

Now to the race: The women's race started at 6.26 pm and the men would start at 6.30 pm. We had 4 minutes to get a head start on the guys and try not to get passed. We were off and at a very quick pace. I missed the first kilometre mark but apparently we went through the first kilometre in just over 3 minutes!! Too quick considering there was still 9km to go. I was with the front pack for just over 1km until they put on another surge. I decided not to go with them as the pace was too quick and I was pretty sure some of the ladies would drop off near the end. I tried to stay as close as I could and felt as though I got in a good rhythm even though I was running by myself. It was encouraging to see that every kilometre I was not losing any ground on the front pack and maybe even catching a little.

I went through 5km in 15.53!! A new pb in the 5km even though it doesn't count as one. I was a little worried when I saw my 5km split and hoped I had not pushed too soon. However I felt so strong and I could feel I was making ground on the lead group. I knew once we hit 6 km there would be some head wind so I really tried to mentally prepare for this and push through it. By 7 km the front pack was falling apart and I started to pass some ladies. Always very motivating and gives you a little extra energy. The crowds were great and really behind the runners. At 8.5km I passed the lady who was in third and was really starting to feel the pace. I was not sure if I would be able to hold on to third place. In other races this is the point I normally lose focus and seem to almost give in. However in this race I found I could really push my body and mind to keep going and pick up the pace. By 9km I had made a bit of a lead on the lady behind and was just wanting the finish line to be closer. Then I heard some heavy breathing and very fast foot steps and vrooom the leading mens pack went flying past and made me feel as though i was standing still. I even managed to laugh at how fast they went by. They were really moving. This gave me an extra kick and I really tried to sprint. I could see the two female leaders up ahead and was making ground on them but I was too late to catch them. I crossed the finish line in 3rd place with a time of 32.08 (average 3.13min/km or 5.10min/mile). A 45 second personal best which I am thrilled about. I was also really happy to hear of the great performance by Lanni Marchant and Krista Duchene (first and second placed Canadian runners) who ran huge personal bests :-) Good sings for Moscow girls!!!

There is a replay of the Ottawa 10km that can be found at the following link. You can see shots of me in the background.
https://marathon.isiglobal.ca/index.html

There are 71 days to go until the world marathon championships in Moscow!!! The time is flying by but I still have a lot of work to put in before that. My next race will be the Grandmas half marathon in Duluth, Minnesota on June 22 as a tune up race.

My next post I will focus on water running. How to perform it effectively and why it so beneficial.

Happy running everyone. I will finish with a few photos from the race and of course little Lucas :-)