Just over 6 weeks earlier, I had finished the very last of my school obligations, and decided that since I had a little time on my hands and needed the motivation to get off my butt for some more regular exercise, I may as well sign up for Team Diabetes to run the 10K at the Bluenose Marathon. The fundraising deadline was just 30 days away, but I was certain I could raise $500 in 30 days, in fact I did it in just over 2 weeks! I have raised a total of $555, so far – and can still collect more if anyone missed their chance to donate before the race.

Training was still tough. My ankle will never be the same, and most weeks that I ran consistently at least 2 days, cycle-commuting 1 other, I felt it in my ankle afterwards. It swelled and it ached, but it rarely gave me any pain while I ran, and I really do love running, so I did what I could. I’d built up form a limit of 20 mins/run, to about 45 mins, or 6.5+km. I also walked additional time, so that my longest distance on my feet accumulative, the week before the race, was 8km.

The day before I jog/speed walked with Payten as both girlies ran the Youth Run, a 4.2km event with more than 2800 kids participating. This event was a blast. I was so proud of my girlies for doing so fantastic and I woke up on my race day felling like I’d already run my race. I wasn’t feel motivated, and with a lack of sleep the previous week due to insomnia clinic changes to my routine I was seriously tempted to DNS.

However, I was confident leading up to the event that I could finish 10km within a reasonable timeframe. While I went into the race with no time goal whatsoever, there was a little voice saying go for one hour, and an even smaller voice saying, hey wouldn’t it be amazing to pull a PB out of your @$$ ?? I didn’t PB ( My PB was just under the hour), but it was a slightly tougher course and I wasn’t far off in the end.

DVH, a buddy of Ian’s was visiting from SJ’s for the long weekend and had registered for the 10k, hoping to run with Ian who was pacing a 55min. finish. He didn’t get the training in that he’d hoped, and wasn’t sure what he’d do after all. I’d told him he was welcome to run with me if he felt so inclined, I knew my own limits and with the little devil-voice firmly pushed under, I planned to push it without hurting myself. As it turned out, we ran together for almost the entire race, a little chitchat, a little time to enjoy the view, and a little discussion of heart rates and pace.

At about the 8km mark my body was telling me “Woa! You haven’t pushed us this far, or this hard for an eternity! Are you sure you want to do this?” I let myself take a couple of walk breaks when another part of me was saying, just push through it – you can do it! The twinges in the knee were enough excuse for me, and who knows without those walk breaks early on, I may have been crawling through the finish. In the last 700m it was all I could do to keep pushing through. I kept hearing this other evil voice in my head saying, you COULD just walk it in! I was determined that I could make it and that I would do it running, but when I finished I had nothing extra left in me, not even the slightest sprint. I was confident that at 1:04:21 chip time, I had run as hard as I safely could.

Thanks to Caro, the girlies got to come out and cheer once again. They seem to be really getting into the whole road race lifestyle.

But the best news of the weekend was when I suggested to the director of Team Diabetes that they really ought to include some youth events (I just know Breanna would eat that up) and he told me that they are in the works for next year, including the Bluenose! As it turns out Breanna has already decided she can handle a 5k anyway, so we’ll be signing up for more Team D events in the near future. 🙂