Saying good-bye to status potatus

My journey to go from Couch Potato to Kenyan runner – or at least become kind of speedy – is striding forward. Yesterday, I ran my fastest 10k ever. Finishing the Toronto Yonge Street 10k in 48:16.

Of course it’s easy to PB when you’ve never actually raced a 10k before (the almost entirely downhill route helped too), but I’m still pumped. Here’s why:

— I averaged a 4:50/km pace (normally I’m lucky to hit 5:30)
— I finished in the top 9% of female racers (usually, I’m just one of the best looking)
— The top 11% of my age category (OK, so I’m also among the youngest in the category)
— The top 20% overall (apologies to the 80% of people who had to look at my butt).
— 16th of 100 Oakville runners (the other 15 handily qualified for the London Olympics)
— 2nd “Rebecca” overall (but not if you ask my Mum).

Blam!

A definite step up from the middle-to-back-of-the-pack results I was achieving  when I first started writing this blog  ( See here and here for details).

Yup, it was a great day. Overcast, wind at our backs and a chilly, but not freezing, six degrees celsius.  Dr. Stevil’s pre-race advice was something about feeling as crappy at the end of the 10k as I do at the end of a marathon, so I made that my goal – to just push it until I couldn’t. And, while I can’t say I felt quite as bad at the finish line as I did, in say, New York (no leg cramps, side seizures or nausea), I gave it my all, and just for today at least, I feel like I’ve shed a bit of my couch potato skin.

On the elite level, Reid ‘everyman’ Coolsaet squeaked out a very exciting  3/10ths of a second win over Kip Kangogo (See it for yourself) finishing in 28:35.7 and Tarah McKay-Korir won the women’s race in 32:06 (Tarah is married to Wesley Korir, last week’s Boston Marathon winner. What would it be like being their kid?) Awesome.

Next stop? Peterborough triathlon. Bring it on!

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