Tri-ing to be Athletic: 7/21/13

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Ottawa Race Weekend 5k Recap: It's almost midnight and I can't think of a post title

In my family, there's not much I can feel like an expert about. I'm the younger one, which means my sister usually did everything first. So when I got the opportunity to run a 5k with her and her boys, I jumped at the chance. It was fun for me to be the leader for once.

Ahem, sorry about that. Little Sister Syndrome popping up momentarily.

I flew to Ottawa a week in advance. I helped GymSis navigate the race expo and packet pickup and tried to help calm her nerves. To be clear, she is in great shape; I mean, she works very hard at the gym (hence the name). She's like Jillian Michaels, minus the shouting at people part. Nonetheless, she may have been a touch anxious, despite what she said.

Pre-race jitters. We've all been there.

Being the resident expert, I gave everyone very clear and important race day instructions, like "Pin your race bib to the front of your shirt" and "Move to the side of the course if you need to stop" and the most important piece of advice: "You can't wear your race shirt on race day!"

Not to mention, it's super bad luck. I wore my race shirt to my first tri.

Ottawa Race Weekend, if you've never been, is a big huge deal. In addition to the 5k, they have a family 2k, a 10k, a children's 1k to finish a cumulative year-long marathon, a half-marathon, and a full marathon. I absolutely love the fact that my hometown has grown into such a great racing community.

But of course, big events like this come at a cost. Namely:

SwimmerBro and I sat around looking at maps and getting advice from the wisdom of Facebook friends who had been there before.

Once race day came, all our plans were set: SwimmerNephew and I would run together, GymSis and WaterPoloNephew (formerly ChatterNephew) would run together, and SwimmerBro would be the official race photog.

Because of our amazing planning skills, we got to the race venue with plenty of time to get the lay of the land, watch the family 2k, and take pictures.

It was cold.

And windy.

After chatting with some of the family's closest friends who were also doing the race, it was time to start! So, we shuffled off with the thousands of other people around us. And amidst all those people, I saw my friends Jen and Dwayne!

Jen started a team to raise money for diabetes research and was doing her first 5k. Woohoo!

Since SwimmerNephew has been swimming since before he could walk, he has a lot of strength in his upper body.

Which he used to run.

It was impressive watching him use his shoulders to get his legs moving.

He was essentially swimming a 5k.

I had told him that if he wanted to go around slower people to let me know first, so we could stay together. I wanted him to point out where he wanted to go. As a lifelong competitor, he clearly did not want to leave any opening well...open.

He took almost every single opportunity, and it was awesome!

The course was beautiful and it was lined with spectators. I decided to take some mid-run pictures.

Once the finish line was in sight, SwimmerNephew took off in a full sprint, like every true runner over the age of 20 wishes they could.

I was so proud of him; he ran the entire time and finished at a 9:40 minute per mile pace!

After a successful finish, we walked over to our meeting spot and waited for GymSis and WaterPoloNephew. They were right on our heels, with big smiles!!

I was incredibly proud of everyone and I hope we can do this race together again!

It was unbelievably crowded, but we finally managed to find SwimmerBro and head home.

He was a fantastic ~~athletic~~ race supporter.

The next day I got a text from my sister, saying that I was right about "this dumb running thing".
Looks like soon I might have to change her name to RunnerSis.