In the beginning of 2012, I set a goal for myself to complete a few distance races throughout the year. I wanted to do a couple of 10K’s, a Half Marathon and a Full Marathon. I wasn’t sure how fast I would finish, since it wasn’t until 2012 that I was able to get back into running after my foot injury, which I will talk about in future posts as well as give tips on how to prevent it from happening.
My very first race of 2012 was the Times Colonist 10K, aka the TC10K. In 2012, the race had over 10,000 participants according to the results posted by Race Day Timing. I actually entered it to see if I can do it. Prior to my foot injury, a 10K would have been no problem at all. However, after the foot injury I had to ease into my training in a way that would leave me still able to complete the race even if that meant finishing a little slower than I would have liked.
When I signed up, I didn’t have a lot of expectations of myself in terms of how long it would take me to finish. I had only trained on the treadmill at that time and any time I ran 10K on the treadmill my times would be around 47-49 minutes. Not bad for someone coming out of an injury, but definitely far from finishing anywhere near the top.
So, I wrote down 46:30 as my goal time. I said to myself, “If I finish under 45 minutes, I will be ecstatic. If I finish slower than 50, I will be a little disappointed.” To make sure that I wasn’t disappointed, I did some speed work on the treadmill as well, which warrants a whole new post.
It was the day before race day when my former running club coach from nearly 5 years ago, who was also in the race said to me: “You will probably finish around the 50 minute mark since I haven’t seen you running for a long time.” He trained me back in high school and helped take me to first place victory in the NWASAA Zone Championships in both Track & Field and cross country running on several occasions.
Race day came and I stood excited and nervous in my 40-49 minute time group at the start line with thousands of other excited runners in front and behind me. As the gun went off, I must say that I went off a little too fast trying to chase the sub-40min 10K runners. That was my mistake that I won’t repeat again. Finished the first 3k of the race faster than I would normally do a 3k.
What ever happened to “try to run a negative split?” and “run the first half of the race slower than the second?” On race day, these things went out the window for me.
Although, the good news is, I still finished the race in 43:31 (chip time), gun time was 43:42. I was VERY happy with that time especially because I wanted to beat 46:30. Despite starting too fast, I still managed to achieve a time that’s almost 3 minutes faster than my goal. I was also 15th out of 585 for my age category and was 429th overall (out of just over 10,000 people).
Overall, it was a great race! The weather was good and the temperature was just right. I got to see my former coach and some of the people that I used to run with. We had a great time!
If you’re thinking about your New Year’s Fitness Resolutions for 2013, then yes, this is a fantastic race that’s worth doing. There are many clinics and trainers available that can help you reach your goal and run your 10K. This race is great for all levels of runners!
Remember if you’re just starting your fitness journey…”the greatest victory is in reaching a goal that you set for yourself, rather than coming in first”.
[…] a week after I completed my TC 10K, I decided that I was going to sign up for the CFB Esquimalt Navy 10K. Since the TC 10K was on […]
[…] sign up for a shorter and faster race just to see where I was at. Last year, when I ran the race, I finished in 43:31 (chip time). Last year, I only wanted to see if I could finish the race without any pain, but my sub-45 minute […]