2018 Valley Harvest 5k

Another gorgeous weekend in Wolfville, NS.  The leaves are changing from green to vibrant red, orange, and yellow and it marks the perfect time to head to the valley.  The Valley Harvest run is always on the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend.  For most, that means you run your heart out in the morning, and then savour yummy dinner later in the day.  This year, I chose to have my dinner the day before the race.  Turns out that may have not been the best choice.

Anyways...I woke bright and early Sunday morning (5:15am) to get dressed and on the road.  You know you are a runner when you wake earlier on the weekend than you do during the week for work, right???  Right away, I knew I was having tummy issues.  I had originally planned to run the 10k but knew that was probably not in the cards today...so much for eating thanksgiving dinner the day before.

I was a little paranoid driving the hour away, as the previous weekend, we had unfortunately hit a deer...not seeing it until it was too late. :-(  So I kept looking everywhere to make sure it didn't happen again.  We arrived at the race, gathered our race kit, and then did a small warm up.

Obviously taken after the race

The warm up music was less than motivating to say the least...I wish you could hear the video I took of it but it's just taking way too long to upload.

I was all smiles before the race started, seeing some familiar faces and wishing everyone luck.

We lined up and were off right on time....have I said how much I like that in a race???  I wasn't really sure how this race was going to go.  A...my tummy and B...I had literally run nothing in two weeks...I mean...I don't think I had even put my sneakers on.  I lined up by the 30 minute pace bunny, just hoping to keep them behind of me.  My first kilometer came in at 5.22...I was like...whoa...that is faster than my others in prior races.  I knew the course was fairly flat so I might be able to push it a bit.  Around the 2km mark, I looked at my watch and it said 5:15...and that's when I felt a bit of unease...and then I kind of had an epiphany...I was putting my own fear in my head of 'I can't keep this pace'.  Until I had looked at my watch, I had felt pretty good while running...no shortness of breath...just about right.  The minute I looked at my watch and saw my pace, I thought "I can't maintain this" and the unease started.   At that moment I said "No!!!   Stop convincing yourself you can't do this pace...you can!  Don't look at your watch the rest of the race...just push yourself...be comfortable with being uncomfortable for the next 2.5k...you can do this."  And you know what??  It worked...as I came into the finish line, I could see the clock and was pretty sure that I had set a seasons best.  I stopped my watch at exactly 5k and it read 26.04!!   I am inching oh so close to that 25.59 mark!!! 

Anyone else just want to collapse after a race?

It wasn't until I got home and checked the race stats on line, that I saw that I had placed 2nd in my age category...out of 105.  I was shocked and excited.

That's right...age class 40-49!!

photo credit:  Bob MacEachern

When I first saw this photo, I was like 'oh god'...but then others quickly pointed out that I look focused.  Yup...that is me, looking at the finish clock trying to do mental math to determine my finish time. 

This race ends the 'planned' race season for me.  Now time to maintain and build over the winter months.  I say planned as you never know what last minute decisions I'll make.  LOL