Sooke River 10km Race Report

Has it really been 10 days since my last post? Oops. Sorry about that, but my life has been anything but interesting lately. I am envious of all you bloggers out there who have things to blog about daily or even every few days.

Since my last race (Dave Reed 5km), my legs have decided to hate me. It has been a long 3 weeks of me begging and hoping that my legs will one day return to me. An updated blood test showed my ferritin levels now at 14 (beats the under 5) but still considered not normal. My white blood cells were also out of range on the high side, which meant when I had the blood test taken my body was fighting something. It makes sense as last weekend my nose was running like crazy.

With less than enthusiastic legs and the Sooke River 10km coming up, I was hesitant to officially enter the race. Last Monday was the final day to enter before the race fees went up, so I made the choice to enter and prayed that my legs would return before Sunday. A different race approach was taken this time and I slowly felt as though my legs were coming back to me at the end of the week. I kept up hope that I wasn't imagining things and that my legs were truly coming back.

An extra shift at work on Friday, a friends BBQ dinner last night (Saturday) and that brings you to today. I opted to car pool down to Victoria to save money on gas, which in turn also helps the environment right ;) We arrived mighty early down in Sooke, leaving Nanaimo around 8am with a detour to pick someone up before officially leaving and arriving just before 9:25. Our driver made good time, even in the thick fog on the malahat (sorry no photos).

I was very sleepy when I arrived, not really waking up until I started my warm up. I felt okay on the warm up which was a good sign. I went into this race expecting to come 3rd in my age group and felt no pressure or nerves. I had planned to go out and do what I could. If I felt horrid, I would use it as a half marathon workout.

The race started at 11am and I stayed conservative on the first 3 km's. It is a bit uphill on the way out, then some downhills before half way, which is a turn around, then uphill and then some downhills with a final slight uphill finish. My 4th km turned out faster, which the downhills likely helped. I missed the 5th km marker though I did notice it on the way back at the turn around.

I ran the entire race in 3rd place (both overall female and in my age group). I kept contact for the first 3km but then they pulled away on the downhill. They continued to pull away until we hit the hills on the way back. At this point, the hills gave me strength and I started to feel much better than in the first half. I started to gain some ground and continued to gain right until the end of the race. In the end, my final 2km's were my strongest out of the entire race. That leaves me with the feeling that I did not push myself hard enough in the middle portion of the race, specifically km's 3-6.

Overall, as I said I finished 3rd female and 3rd in my age group (25-29) in a time of 38:20, which technically was a 46 second pb. The feeling at the finish makes me aware that I need to be more aggressive than I have been. I need to push myself to that next level as I tend to keep things a tad too comfortable. Having not raced a 10km since September 2009, I was a bit out of touch on pacing.

It is a good sign for my next race though, where I plan to work on pushing myself into the next zone. I finished strong with some left in the tank, I simply slacked off in the middle portion of the race and ever so briefly doubted myself. Not a huge deal though as I am satisfied with this result. I found my legs, even if I didn't make them work hard enough, after a long 3 weeks without them. Welcome back legs. Thank you for arriving home at the right time!

Here is one photo (no idea if any race photos were officially taken) of myself and Melissa who won the race today in 37:44 just ahead of Care in 37:49 and also took over overall series champion for the first time. Congrats Mel!

Results can be found here.

Also a shout out to the Westwood Running Club, who won the smaller club title overtaking the legendary Bastion Running Club in the series standings!

PS. One quick photo of the kitties earlier this week!