This year’s VIRA Island Race Series Westcoast Sooke River 10k took place on March 27th. It was a very nice Sunday morning. The weather was absolutely beautiful for a run. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold either.
My goal was to just have fun and chat with some of my running friends. Given the circumstances leading up to the race, I believed I would finish anywhere between 44 and 46 minutes. I decided to run this one without a watch, so that I could learn to pace myself without having to rely on a device.
Above: My warm-up outfit, looking like I just rolled out of bed (which is not far from the truth). Photo by Joseph Camilleri
I started quite a bit further back than I normally do. The first 3km were a bit challenging for me. It took me a while to get going so I went slower.
Above: Starting the Westcoast Sooke River 10K. Photo by Lois DeEll
Once I got past the 3k mark, I started to speed up a little bit. However, I also kept in mind that we would be going back up the big hills after we turned around. Given how I was feeling the first 3k, I was a bit nervous about the hills on the way back.
After the turnaround, I began to feel a little bit better. I took advantage of the slightly flatter sections.
There was a gentleman running beside me and we encouraged each other as we went up the hills. When I got to the biggest hill, I noticed that I was able to maintain my pace and even speed up a little bit.
As we proceeded towards the finish line, the race seemed to be getting easier and my legs felt a lot better than they did at the start.
With about 200m left to go before the finish line, the gentleman that was running beside me and I decided to pick up the pace. We crossed the finish line at the same time and congratulated each other.
Above: Finishing the Westcoast Sooke River 10K. Photo by Meredith Rose.
My time was 45:24, which was good enough for 5th place in my age group and 19th (out of 174) women overall.
I want to thank the volunteers and the organizers for putting on another great event!
The final race of the series is the Synergy Management Ltd. Bazan Bay 5K on April 10th and you can register here.
Stay tuned for my race preview and insights for the Bazan Bay 5k. I hope to see you there!!