The day before the race I picked up my race package. There was a numbered bib, a timing chip, 4 safety pins, and a zip tie. What was conspicuously absent was instructions. I couldn’t believe there were no instructions. What was I supposed to do with this stuff? I checked the event website and there were no instructions there, either. How ridiculous. I finally found instructions on the BC Athletics website. The bib was to be attached to the front of my shirt and the timing chip was to be attached to my shoe or ankle. I never would have guessed the timing chip part, but apparently there are sensor mats that pick up the timing chip as you run over them and they need the chip to be close.
On the day of the race…..
6:15 Woke up and had breakfast. I went online and checked the current temperature for Kelowna. It was just one degree above freezing. With the race starting at 8:15 I knew it was not going to warm up at all before then. How was I supposed to survive waiting for the race to start wearing just a shorts and t-shirt? I decided to wear a heavier shirt but there wasn’t much else I could do.
7:15 Arrived in downtown Kelowna and needed to find parking. I decided to be optimistic and start looking right near the start area. Much to my surprise there was plenty of parking and I was able to park nice and close. Since it was Sunday, all Kelowna city parking was free. Bonus!
7:45 After killing some time just sitting in the car (staying warm!) I walked over to the race starting area.
7:50 Lined up to use a port-a-potty just to make sure I wouldn’t feel the need to go during the race.
7:55 Went over to the start area. There were surprisingly few people there. Over the next 20 minutes, however, a large crowd gradually gathered. There were about 700 runners.
There were loud speakers blaring music near the starting area. The music was way too loud. Why do they always feel the need to play overly-loud music at public events?
8:05 Ten minutes before the start of the race I suddenly realized I was wearing my glasses. Darn it! I never wear my glasses when running. There was nothing I could do about it at this point, though. I was stuck with them.
I was surprised to find the cold was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It was certainly very cold, but it was tolerable. No shivering.
8:10 They played Oh-Canada.
8:15 The run starts! It quickly became clear to me that I had started way too far forward in the pack. Lots of people were passing me by. I found myself naturally wanting to match their pace and had to concentrate on not running too fast, or I would burn out.
After about a kilometer of running I was pleased to see a 1km marker. I had been wondering if the distance would be marked along the way. This was good. As I kept running, however, I became confused. It seemed there were two of every marker, about a half kilometer apart. It was totally confusing. Which one was the real marker?
As I ran I was trying to figure out where I should start pushing for the finish. It turned out the answer to this question would be ‘nowhere’. At first I thought maybe the 7km mark would be a good point, but when I reached 7km, I decided to wait until 8km, then 9km, and finally 9.5km. I guess I did push at 9.5km, but it wasn’t much of a push. I just didn’t have the energy left to increase my pace. It also didn’t help that I was unclear on how far was left in the race. In fact, I passed a 10km marker! What the heck? What did that mean? Was I finished? Should I stop running? I knew what the finish area looked like, though, and this wasn’t it, so I kept running.
As I reached the finish line I saw that my time was around 1:02. I had mixed feelings about my finish time. I felt my pace had been fast enough to finish in under an hour, so I was a little disappointed to see I hadn’t done so. On the other hand, before the race I had been worried my time might be a lot worse, so I was pleased to almost hit the hour mark. I hadn’t quite achieved my goal of finishing in under an hour, but it was close. Next time!
After the race there was food for the runners so I decided to check it out. They had apples, bananas, 3 types of cookies, snack size bags of potato chips, two types of juice, bottled water, and coffee. Not a bad assortment. The cookies were delicious.
So that was my run. I actually had a lot of fun and am planning to do it again.
The next day my official time was posted:
Chip time: 1:01:40
Gun time: 1:01:51 (includes time it takes to get to the starting line)
At the finish of the BMO 10k
vanTopia 