Racing to the finish

First of all, thank you to all of you who left comments -- so nice of you to let me know that I am not writing in a complete vacuum. You did encourage me to start blogging again, so before I become lazy and lose my resolve again, I am writing a post.

 
So, last week-end, I did something I had never done before. I took up running over a year ago and on Sunday, for the first time, I ran my first 5k race (that's about 3 miles for the non-metric population). It was held in Toronto's Sunnybrook Park, which is very pretty, and it was only women. There were two races, the half-marathon and the 5k race. I was in awe of the 1,500 women who ran the half-marathon, some of which were not Spring chickens, as my husband so nicely puts it (he can talk, he's 66). A friend of mine, who is in her 70s, ran it and she did very well, but then she would probably outrun me! Here are a couple of photos from the race:

  
Sylvie was running the half-marathon and her T-shirt said: "The things I do for a T-shirt". Yes, indeed...

The supporters were there:

I don't know who Robin is, but she has some really nice friends!

Here is the start of the 5K race, that had (only) 500 participants:

And my husband snapped a picture of me, when I was still smiling (bib 2090), rather than red and sweaty, as I was, half an hour later... (I do thank him for that)

This is the first arrival in the 5K race, an impressive 18 minutes later... aaaahhh, youth...

 

And this is the picture of me arriving at the finish line (I'm the one at the back, just over the shoulder of the woman wearing the blue top). I was exhausted, but I did my best time ever: 29 minutes 3 seconds. I placed 76th overall, but 2nd in the 50-54 age category, which I did not expect.

I even got a little plaque -- aaaawwww:

So that was an eventful day; the heat was definitely there (close to 28 Celsius by the time we finished), but it was sunny; it seems that last year, it was freezing cold and raining. I'd take the former rather than the latter any day.

I will be running a 10K race at the end of August, and my ambition is to be able to run the half-marathon one day. Next year, maybe...

On the knitting front, I finished the first sock of the pair I am working on, the Dancing Diamonds Socks (Ravelry link). I have been horrifically slow, it normally takes me about 10 days to knit a pair, and it actually took me two weeks to knit one sock. Way to go, Manon.

Now on to the second one, which I sincerely hope will take less than two weeks.

That's it for this time -- I shall leave on a photo of Tigger, who loves sleeping on my legs every evening while I watch TV:

  

 

Comments

[Lucile]

Good Job Manon !!! Waouh !!! I"impressed with your running time !! You did it well !! It makes me smiling because my first race was a 5k too........ And YES you will be able to run a half-marathon.
One of my friend, Karen, (who lives in Toronto too) (blog : http://katoumie.canalblog.com) ran the half-marathon in Toronto too and she told me that it was hard with the heat....... and all the hills........

I ran my first half-marathon this year in March 7th. It was Paris Half-Marathon. I planned 2 hours and I ran it in 2 hours. You can do it with a good preparation running plan.

You can go on the http://runnersworld.com website, and then click on "smart coach". Here you can have a running plan for the distance you want. I used it for the prep of Paris Half-Marathon and it worked well.

I'm sure that you will enjoy your 10 k at the end of August.
Keep me posted on your progress ok ?

Have a wonderful day !!

[Christina Scovel]

Congrats on the 5k. You'll find that soon you'll be doing 10k and then a half and than a marathon. That is at least what happened to me. One 5k .... and then you take off! Happy to see you out hitting the pavement :)