Rememberrun 5k/8k Race Review

Background:
Saturday November 8th was the 6th Annual Remember Run. This race is a part of the Waterloo Run Series  and has a Remembrance Day theme. I had wanted to run one of the races in the Waterloo Run series since hearing about it as I love the Kitchener/Waterloo area and miss it all the time. I spent 5 years in Waterloo while attending Wilfrid Laurier University for my B.A. and even did my practicums for Teacher's College in the Waterloo region despite going to Western University for my B.Ed.

Signing Up: 
When toying with ideas for a November girls weekend in Waterloo to visit my pregnant friend for the last time before baby (eeeee!!) I (selfishly) suggested November 8-9 so I could run the Remember Run and since my three best friends are awesome, they agreed.
I didn't know what the expect even though I've been running for about 2 years now and have completed over 30 races. Each race is different and can surprise you in good and bad ways.

Packet Pick up:
I always want to do packet pick up in advance of race day, when possible. It was easy to do as the pick up Friday night was at the local running store in a central location. Pick up was easy, I mentioned my name, got my shirt and my bib with a chip timer. The bib was very pretty! The bib # was quite small which I loved as the focus is clearly on the theme of the run, Remembrance Day. Also love the opportunity to personalize the bib. War has affected us all and I am so thankful for the sacrifice my great uncle Duncan made on D-Day. I am also incredibly thankful my Papa did not go to war. Though he was of eligible age, his father had been injured in a farming accident and as a result my Papa had to stay home to take care of the family and the farm. Til the day he died he was angry about being unable to attend. War affects us all.

The technical shirt was a great size! I never know to pick small or medium as some smalls I've got have been super tiny (and who wants to run in a shirt that shows all jiggles- eek!) and I've got some mediums that are giant. So long story short I chose a small and it fits beautifully! I love it. It is a beautiful shirt with fantastic details.
There wasn't any special additional goodies in the bag but pick up was easy and painless which was great because then I got to start my girls weekend with the besties.

Race Day:
a 10:02 start time was glorious as I'm sure you can imagine catching up with my girls took awhile :) We got to "sleep in" until 7:30 and had a leisure morning with a great breakfast. We took the 20 minute drive to the race location which was the Preston legion. It was a busy place! So many runners in a sea of red everywhere. I started to get quite nervous, to which my friends made fun of me and assured me I had no reason to be nervous.

I wore:
It was chilly, about 4 degrees with a windchill. I had no idea what to wear. I wore long pants and a long sleeved tech shirt. I would have wore the race shirt had it been long sleeved. Also I haven't worn a tshirt over a long sleeve shirt since I was in grade 9 and thought it was cool to wear name brand t-shirts over long sleeve white shirts. The embarrassment haunts me to this day so I won't do it with tech shirts. I then remembered I had nowhere to put my phone and none of my long pants have pockets (curses!!). So I also decided to wear my running jacket so I had somewhere to put my phone. (Seriously, I cannot run without music and mapmyrun. I CANNOT! Well, I can if I have to but I would rather listen to Willie Nelson than my laboured breathing.) I also wore thin red gloves because without them I'd be head to toe black and my fingers would freeze as my extremities always freeze. Always.

Pre Race:
The opening ceremonies were great, bagpipes, O Canada and a moment of silence. I am emotional to start with at races, just the nervousness leading up, the enormity of what we are doing and the group mentality of seeing all these people being active and pushing themselves gets me choked up. So add in thinking of the veterans, my relatives, my country and the recent loses...yeah. But, to lighten the mood a train came through so we had to delay the start a little longer. I was alright with that as I love trains and their symbolism- a different story for a different day).

I should also mention I was tickled pink as about a week previous to the race I read on Krista Duchene's blog that she would be running her first race to get the rust off post femur fracture and that it would be a local 8k. This made me super excited because I am so in awe of Krista's strength, dedication and love of the Lord. The fact that I got to run a race a small race with her was too exciting. She was running the 8k and I was running the 5k so I assumed we'd finish about the same time as one another :). So seeing her line up near the front in shorts and a tank top added to my excitement. I try to line up front-ish. Not front-front where the people do those crazy super fast long "warm ups" (I'd be too tired) but front enough that if the course thinned out to single file I wouldn't feel I had to weave through people, also when I come across the finish line I want my chip and gun time to be fairly similar.

The race:
Off we went and I waved to my three besties, happy to see them cheering me on. I have the best support crew at races.

We made some quick turns and ran down the "main street" of Preston past the cenotaph and the Tim Horton's. We then ran into the local park which was pretty...but the roads weren't in the best shape which made my steps a little more cautious. It was neat to have such a broad view of the runners ahead of me. Our run then weaved down a muddy, thin, grassy trail. This moment annoyed me at first as I knew it would slow my time, but then I looked around and enjoyed the beauty of the run. But, then we ran onto boardwalk which was somewhat slippery due to the weather and fallen leaves. Regardless, it was pretty as well. As we came up a slight incline on the boardwalk an awesome volunteer holding a clear sign indicated the 8k group turned left and the 5k group turned right. I secretly praised myself for choosing the 5k rather than the 8k. It was neat the see the people split into their different race distances as it's hard to tell what people are running elsewise.

I secretly was thankful it was a 5k as I hit the pain train hard at about km 1. I know in shorter races (5 and 10ks) that it's more cardiovascular than legs. I'm not sure why but the pain was real and challenging right off the hop. My splits were nowhere near where I wanted them to be, other than my first but I knew I  couldn't maintain. I'd just have to be happy whatever the outcome.
My thoughts on why I wasn't where I wanted to be split wise:
-I had McDonalds for dinner the night before (don't judge me)
-I had bacon for breakfast the morning of (I said don't judge me)
-I haven't really been running any speed work for awhile
-I wore too much. This seems to be a recurring theme
-Difficult terrain
lessons learned

Came into the finish and was happy to see my three best friends cheering me in. We hurried off for lunch and some shopping so I wasn't around for the "after show" but I hear there were lots to eat and it's nice to have an indoor facility to escape into especially in less than favourable weather.

The bling:
This is a race that doesn't have finisher medals but rather medals for top 3 in each of the 5 year span age categories. Upon researching past years' finishing times I assumed I could place for Women aged 25-29. So once I finished I scurried over to the chiptime trailer and asked my stats. She let me know I had finished second in my age category which I was pleased with. A medal, yes! The awards were at 12 and it was about 10:30 so we decided to go for lunch and shopping and then swing by again to pick up the medal.

Overall:
Free race photos! <<<< this is so exciting!
Great volunteers
Great course marshalling
Pretty course
Chip timing
Pretty Bibs
Nice bling
Great shirt
Great opening ceremonies
Not too expensive

I'd do the race again.
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