It took me some time to put this together. Not because I couldn’t gather my thoughts, {maybe a little} but I just haven’t had the time to sit down at the computer and write about it. That’s the life of this mother runner…sometimes things get put on hold….blogging, dishes … ya know!

As I mentioned before, the Bluenose 10k hasn’t been the main focus this spring but more apart of my half marathon training. It was a great race to start off the year and that’s why I was running it, oh…it’s also pretty awesome event to be apart of.

Saturday night I did everything I could do go to bed early, at 10 pm. I managed to do so but while laying in bed realized I hadn’t foam rolled and my left glute was bothering me. Nothing new there…so I foam rolled for a bit. I couldn’t fall asleep for a few hours which was so frustrating as all I wanted to do was sleep.

Sunday morning I got up at 5:55 and started to get ready. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps  bounding down the hall way above me (I was staying at my parents place) and realized it was my Dad. The girls were sleeping upstairs and I thought something might have happened to them as he was walking with some passion in his steps for 6 am. No, the girls were fine. He just wanted to make sure I was up for my run!!! Love him!

Make Your Myles Matter

“Make Your Myles Matter” was the slogan on the t-shirts this year. “Myles” being the Bluenose guy. This year, my brother {Paul} was running the 10k as well, so we headed down to the run together. The weather was PERFECT! Overcast with no sun beaming out but just a little humid.

I’ve never run a race with my brother and for the past few months we’ve had the sibling rivalry going on. One of us finished before the other but I’ll save that for the end. I met up with some friends I knew (former soccer team mates) and some I’ve met through blogging (Tanya) and the RunAtCan twitter group (Natalie).

The 10k

1 – 5 km

I starting the race with Paul and Natalie.  Just after the .5 km mark my brother said “okay, see ya later”…and I took off from there. I felt comfortable running and it was great chatting with Natalie who just had her 3rd baby 3 months ago! There were roughly 2000 runners for the 10k so it was super crowded.  I started to weave in and out of the crowd ahead of me and lost Natalie for a bit. I was super happy when she popped up beside me again and we ran together for a little longer.

At the start of the race.

Photo credit – By Bluenose Marathon.

As we entered Point Pleasant Park (crusher dust under foot) and continued my pace as I new some inclines and a nasty hill was awaiting me. I actually had no problems on the inclines or nasty hill. This was encouraging but took a moment to walk fast and calm down a bit after that climb!

As we left PPP, I felt stronger as I usually do on the road vs crusher dust. We weaved around a few streets and up another hill, again I felt strong and passed a number of people – encouraging! Up to this point, I was feeling really good and confident I’d finish around 1:02.

10k Bluenose Course

5 – 10km

I felt great between 5-10k, even managing to pick up my pace a little. Around 8ish km, I started to feel crappy. I was on South Park Street for what seemed like days! This was the longest, slowest stretch, not to mention an incline. The longest, slowest incline where you can see people for days along the course ahead of you. I tried hard not to focus on the distance but putting one foot in front of the other.

I ran over an American penny and literally stopped in my tracks to pick it up…which followed by “sorry” to the guy close behind me. I told him that “I found a penny and I had to pick it up for Good Luck”. It was such a random thing do to but I guess I had checked out at that point and figured why not. It didn’t bring me any running luck.

I managed to pick up my pace again and enjoy the last 2k. I glided down the last hill but was cautious as I knew one more hill awaited us to the finish line. I felt strong at this point but conserved my energy for the top part of the hill to the finish line.

My Garmin read: 1:04:22. My first thought was “relief…I’m done” but then I quickly went into “disappointment mode” with my time. I even had a few moments when I was running of “this isn’t fun anymore”. I’m not sure if it was because I haven’t been focusing on this run or if I’m just not loving running at the moment, who knows but I wasn’t overly happy with my pace and struggle along the long incline.

Lots of fun!

My brother finished in 1:11, he did great! We went inside and grabbed some food, then chatted with more people we knew. It was fun to be there with him. My running buddy, Krystol, did the half in 2:04 – she looked strong when I saw her.

Overall, I’m glad I did this event. I love Bluenose Weekend, running with my girls (recap to come) in the kids run, seeing my runner friends from all over NS, NB, PEI etc. It always reminds me what an awesome community we have. Supportive. Encouraging. Motivating.

I need to be proud of each an every race I get to do because this time last year I was in so much pain with my hamstring and could barely run 4k outside without pain. I’m lucky, I’m thankful, I’m inspired and I’m grateful for Sunday’s 10k.

Now to focus on training for Johnny Miles (June) and Maritime Race Weekend (Sept) and think about a few other races I might do.

Anyone else run Bluenose or another race last weekend?

What do you do when you fail to meet a goal?

Ever run with your siblings?