I ran in the Manitoba Marathon today, as part of a 5-person relay team, running the full 26 mile course. I ran Leg 5, which was 5.75 miles. It took me one hour, and my average pace per mile was 10:33. I was pretty pleased with that, as lately, I’ve been running closer to 12 minute miles. Our team name was “Woot! Woot!” and it sounds like we all had a pretty good run. All told, it took us 4 1/2 hours and we finished 266 out of the 392 teams. It was a gorgeous day for running, sunny but breezy and good cloud cover as the day got hotter.
Of course I can’t compare myself to the half and full marathoners, but I’m really happy that I took part in this… the run went great, I had lots of energy at the end, had fun sprinting towards the finish and never felt as though I was running out of air. This is the furthest I’ve ever run, and I’m proud that I trained up to it. Originally, I had planned to take the shortest leg, and ended up with a longer one. I’m happy about that, as it made me push my body further.
I’m not really interested in training up to even longer distances (6 miles or 10 kilometres suits me just fine), but I am definitely interested in running some 5 or 10k races. I’m not going to lie, I kind of enjoyed passing people as I was running, and loved putting in the extra effort right at the end to speed up. So I think races will be fun.
Worst part of the day: stressing about the logistics of getting to my relay exchange point on time, and then waiting for well over 45 minutes because I got there way too early!
Best part of the day: the way Winnipeger’s participate as spectators, whether it’s setting up their sprinkler for us to run through, cheering us on, performing (I got to hear a great punk band, as well as an awesome polka on accordian — actually caught myself whistling that tune, and kinda wanted to stop and dance for a minute). Loved the funny signs and the little kids handing out high-five’s.
Also got a kick out of running through the finish line. All in all, a fun time.
Next official running event: 8k trail run/race at Birds Hill Park in September… yay! A reason to keep training.