Triumph vs 10km

10km is my toughest distance. I’ve always said that.  It’s so long to run fast. A 5km race is over quickly. 5k hurts but if you can hang in there with it, the hurt can be over in less than 20 minutes.  In a half marathon, you get to run a little slower for a little longer: not so much hurt. 10km requires fast and pain for long: lots of hurt.

10km is the distance in which I’m most likely to hate running and make a mid-race pledge to never race or run again. After the race, I get really mad at myself for going there. For giving in to negativity. When I started racing in my early 20s, 10km was the first distance for which I stopped setting PBs with each race.

I’m doing the Run Nova Scotia Timex Series this summer. Post-baby, I’m in the (still surprising) best shape of my life so this is the summer for me give it my best shot. The series involves running a minimum of four out of seven races across the province.  With a race-heavy summer schedule, I understand that I’m probably going to blow one of them.

Last weekend was the first 10km on the Series: the Amherst Cross Border Challenge. After two 5km races (neither of which I blew but conditions were HOT at one), I felt increasingly confident in my racing and was ready to take on 10km.

My girl and fellow mother-runner Sarah and I have been travelling to lots of races together and on June 22, we hopped into my car at 5:45 am (both with 14 month old babies still asleep. Hello, crazy- mother-land). I love travelling with Sarah. We talk race. We talk life. We mentally prepare and sharpen focus together.

After our last race together, another runner said to me, “Oh, you beat Sarah MacDonald, you must be happy about that.” Not so. I was happy that we travelled to that race together, that we warmed up together, that we saw each other at the turn-around and nodded together (our pre-agreed upon energy-saving communicating method). I was happy that I had her with me out there when the going got tough. It helped me so tremendously to know she was out there gutting it out too. I was so happy that she ran a PB.  Our placing relative to each other was meaningless.

Going into this race, I told Sarah that I would be happy to run together if she wanted to work together and I would be happier if she wanted to go out and run faster than my race plan. On this day, Sarah wanted to do her own thing.

We got to Amherst and took the bus to the start line as the race is configured in a very cool way and you begin in New Brunswick and run to Nova Scotia.  Sarah and I socialized with some runners in the church at the start line (unlike Boston Marathon, commoners are allowed in the church :)).

We warmed up together. The sun was shining warm on our faces but at 21 degrees, not too hot.  We made use of a lovely field for one last minute pit stop and spotted some buttercups. Tonya loves to race with flowers in her hair so we each put one in our ponytail in honour of Tonya.

We lined up together. The air horn sounded and we were off.

The first km was a steep downhill and I ran it as easy as I could. I felt a little scared when my first km split rang at 3:36 because I’ve never run a 3:36 kilometer in my life, even during Vo2 Max workouts. I have no business running 3:36 in the first km of a race. I hope it will be ok since it was downhill.

Now I’m running comfortably and I’m having fun. The part of my brain that wishes to maintain control of hard working muscles and not run 3:36 kilometers is worrying about how long the fun will last and what it will feel like when fun is over. Unlike serious-brain, the fun-brain is enjoying herself.

We turn onto a loose gravel road at 3km. My training pal Paul passes me just before the trail and says, “Come on, girl.”  Paul and I did a workout together just 5 days before the race. Fun-brain is thrilled to see him and so is serious brain.

Just before the race began, coach Cliff grabbed Sarah and I and told us that he had just driven the course.

“It’s not a PB course,” he said. “The gravel road is tough and slow.”

I chose to look forward to the gravel road. It was through farm field, just like much of my run across The Gambia. And on this race day,  Jennifer and Team Love4Gambia’s were on day # 7 of their own 17 day run across Gambia. I chose to believe that the trail would be good to me and that I would have a mental advantage on the trail as I had team Love4Gambia to think about.  No other runner out there had that in their short shorts pocket.

With Paul in front of me, I began to repeat, “Paul. Gambia. Paul. Gambia,” over and over. The trail disappeared behind me.  I made it through Cliff’s theorized hard zone. We turned onto the quiet streets of Amherst at 8km. At this point, I replaced Paul’s name with my daughter’s and I ran.

Cliff was at the top of a hill with about a mile to go and had some encouraging words for me.

I held strong. I set a new PB of 40:56.  Happy.

I turned to look for Sarah. I don’t wait long, here she is finishing in 41:57, under her goal time and a new PB for her too. More happy.

I’m happy with my 10km and happy that I finally ran a 10 where I didn’t hate running. That’s a big win for me.  And I’m happy I got to share this with Sarah.