behindtheax

the run

We took the ferry over with a crowd of other runners, all in orange shirts. The sky was mostly slate grey. The breeze coming off the water was cool. Once on the island it started to rain. Greg and I just wandered around for a while but when the rain began falling in earnest we found a big maple tree to stand under until it let up some. It smells so wonderful on that island compared to the city, lake wind fresh.

They say that there were 12,000 runners and I can believe that, it felt like we were a part of a great orange snake slithering around the island. I enjoyed the run very much. The rain stopped just before the start and there was live music playing every few kilometers along the route and it was all park land, lots of trees, nice smelling grasses, and the north side of the island gives you a lovely view of the city and on the south side it is open lake. I lost Greg right off the bat and didn’t see him again until the end. For the first seven kilometers I felt great but at that point runners around me were picking up the pace and I figured I should to, which was a mistake for me because by the eight kilometer I wanted to stop. I didn’t, although I slowed right down. I thought once I saw the finish line I could push myself into a faster pace but I had nothing left. Oh well. I finished and that is the main thing but my time was over an hour –1 hour, 3 minutes and 8 seconds. Greg, I think, said his was 56 mins and something which is great considering he went for a jog maybe six times (if that) to get ready for it.
After the run, we hung around on the island for a short while and then went home. It was a fun weekend. Saturday morning we went to a driving range and hit a bucket of balls, lazed around the house and back yard in the afternoon and in the evening Monica and I went to see the movie Madagascar and had such a great laugh together over the Lemurs.

posted by mary j. @ 10:12 AM