Calgary Police 5k April 17, 2011

All set!

I had been going the gym and working with a trainer since my birthday in Feb – a present to myself?  By April I had lost 13lbs and discovered out of the blue that I could run on the treadmill for 15 minutes.  VERY SLOWLY.  As an incentive to keep going I thought it would be really interesting to try a race and the Police 5k was at a perfect time.   Plus, it was a different way to celebrate our 11^th wedding anniversary.

Race day we drove up to Mount Royal through a snowstorm.  We parked in a distant lot and joined a bunch of other runners trekking through the snow to the start line.  I tried to run and couldn’t breathe after about a minute, not the best omen.  Thank goodness there was a gym inside with heating, seats, facilities and later on – muffins.  I walked out to start, it was strange to be surrounded by other actual runners.  I felt like they’d discover me and I’d have to leave!   The ground was either slushy, snowy or slippery the entire race.  Kevin very helpfully ran behind me and took pictures of my arse. 

My rear end finishing the race

I did not achieve my goal of running the entire distance, but I felt great.  We watched the Half runners coming in for a while, there were a lot of bloody knees and injuries – their course around Glenmore was extremely slippery.

Happy 11th anniversary to us!

We were spoiled with cookies, muffins and fruit afterwards in the MR gym.  I'm not sure I was hooked just yet but thoughts of trying a 10k were certainly in my mind.  This race was untimed but according to our watches and the race clock, my time was around 37 mins.

And a medal too