Sunday May 20th 2012 was the BIG DAY.

Big day for those participating in the Bluenose Marathon in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It was the perfect day, cool morning but warmed up quickly as the sun started to rise across Citadel Hill.

Thousands of runners….11,800 was a number I read in The Chronical Herald in its 9th year! I’m pretty sure next year is going to be a BIG year for the Bluenose. 10 years old in 2013.

• 3,483 Youth Runners on Saturday for the 4.2km race – BIGGEST EVENT OF IT’S KIND IN THE COUNTRY!!!!
• 338 FULL Marathoners
• 2,364 1/2 Marathoners
• 3, 445 10k Runners
• 2,171 5k Runners

Congratulations to all the Runners and a BIG THANK YOU to all the volunteers involved. Such a great event! This was my 4th time participating in the Bluenose. I have run the 10km (twice) and the 1/2 Marathon a number of years back, this year was the 5k and now I’ll have to do is the FULL Marathon. Ha ha – I’m pretty confident this will NEVER happen.

But then again, that’s what I said after doing my first 10k – I would  NEVER run a 1/2 Marathon. Guess I proved myself wrong. Maybe someday I will prove myself wrong by doing the FULL. We’ll just have to wait and see…

Pre – Race Day:

I was doing really great running last fall and into the Winter months. I know – crazy to run in the winter – in the SNOW and sometime with my dog! Not really, it’s my favourite time of year to run.

I was running and working out 3-5 days a week – while my husband was away at school in Prince Edward Island. I managed to fit in my running or workout’s while our toddler slept at night or during my lunch hour at work.

This year, I had 7 – yes 7 colds. Two of which took me off my feet – literally. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t workout…I couldn’t do much of anything. I originally set a goal of running the 5k under 29:16 but after missing almost 3 weeks of running, I realised I simply could not pull it off. And, I was okay with that.

I signed up for the Bluenose 5k with a friend who recently started running. And, I also signed up for another run in June (Sole Sisters 5k for women) that’s more of a fun run – no timer and chocolate on the route – woohoo!

Runners / Sneakers:

I struggled with my sneakers that were older than they should be and finally bought a new pair of Asics. I bought them the day before my 5k and then struggled to make a decision on whether to wear them or not.

In the end, I stayed with my old faithful’s and they held up for one last run – they are now retired to working around the house….until they fall apart…which is not that far away.

Before run in my too small of a shirt, apparently I ordered the wrong size 😦

Race Day:

It arrived rather quickly. My daughter, who is almost 2 came into Halifax with me and spent the morning with her Aunt Laura while I ran. My husband was working the night shift and was driving to Halifax as I was running. I had a cheering squad of one – my mother. It was just perfect. She ran into a friend of her’s who was running – I ran into no one – funny.

We got up early, out the door and into the downtown area in record time.

I met up with Jennifer and her cousin Robyn and we made our way to the start area on Sackville Street.

The Full Marathoners went first at 8:00 am and then the 5k’s at 8:10. There were so many people in purple shirts and lots of spectators gathering on Citadel Hill to cheer on the runners.

It was 8:10am. It took us 1 minute and 15 seconds to walk to the start area – kinda crazy … and then we started to run slowly in the sea of purple shirts.

I managed to run 10 minutes and walk 1 minute – which is how I train and have run in the past. I had to slow my pace down a bit as I knew I couldn’t maintain it the whole run….and that was okay. I told my running buddies to go ahead without me – which they were very hesitant to do – but I really didn’t want to keep them back from running the race that they had come out to do.

All was good.

I saw Citadel Hill and knew I would need to shorten my stride and take it one step at a time. What I wasn’t quite ready for was the number of runners who would be running up the hill at the same time I was in such a small one lane road surface. I managed to pass a few people who were not following my pace and ran up 90% of the hill.

I was happy.

It wasn’t until I came down Citadel Hill that I felt my posture was great, my stride was perfect and I finally felt comfortable running. Not that I was having any pain, as I did in my previous runs – sciatic pain. It just didn’t get into a good grove until around the 3k mark.

Photo from Marathon-Photos.com

I finished the run in 35:29 – my worst time ever …. but that didn’t bother me at all.

I had a great run.

It was a perfect day.

I have no complaints about my run.

Photo from Marathon-photos.com

Post Race:

Jennifer and Robyn waited for me at the finish area – they were 2 minutes ahead of me. They too had a great run.

We found our family members and went inside the Halifax Metro Centre; got some food – banana’s, cookies (a little weird), water, Gatorade. We hung around for a bit and then decided it was time to pack it in and head home.

My mother and I walked to a local store called Pete’s – which I just blogged about here. The Pete’s Frootique in Halifax is way bigger then the one in Wolfville. We got a few groceries and a smoothie to go….and walked to our car. This smoothie was the best smoothie I’ve ever had…it was gone in a flash.

I run for Lilly – so she get’s my medal.

We got home and Lilly was so excited to see me – big hugs all around.

A quick-lunch with the fam and then I took a 3 hour nap – it was heaven.

Future Running Plans:

I plan on continuing to run throughout the week. This is something that I cannot just simply give up – especially since I just invested in new runners! Oh – I can now cross THAT off my 12 in 2012 (almost forgot about that one).

I am running another 5k in June but haven’t decided on what 10k’s to run in the Fall. I have a few in mind but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I plan on running in the 10th Bluenose Marathon in 2013  May 17th – 19th and will focus on one of two runs:

1. 5km under 29:16 OR
2. 10km under 60 minutes (It would be cool to run 10k during the 10th year)

Happy Running!