The Day Is Finally Approaching: A Live Race!

Live races feel like such a thing of the past. Looking back to the “before COVID” times, I took advantage of so many things and never realized how important they were to me.

Back in 2019, I joined my first run clinic and embarked on training for my second marathon. I was prepared for what I was about to put my body through after my traumatizing first marathon. I was riding high and nailing most of my runs, with the odd horrible run here and there, and of course, making new running friends. The winter and early Spring were flying by incredibly quickly, and soon race day was here. While the run didn’t go according to plan, I escaped unscathed, and just your normal “holy crap I ran 42.2KM soreness” and was feeling much better in time to fly to Europe.

We flew to London and then embarked on a trip to Italy for 3 wonderful weeks. Towards the end of the trip, we went to Rome before heading to the Amalfi Coast and winding down our trip and heading home.

Upon returning home, I was ready to start running again, slowly and looking forward to a fall half marathon.

Running Dreams C R U S H E D

Upon going out for my first 5k run, I had immense pain in my right foot. Like so much so that I barely managed to hobble home and woke up the next day unable to walk at all. I was able to get into physio (bless Christian for making it a priority to get me into the office) and I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. Running was off the table for the foreseeable future and I was bummed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to train for any live races that fall season.

I signed up for the Chicago Marathon aka I put my name in the draw thinking surely in a year I’d be in a much better place. The announcement came out in December – I GOT IN! I was over the moon and we booked flights and started figuring out where we wanted to stay. A World Marathon Major live race – heck yesssss!

After months of recovery and rehabbing, I signed up for the BMO half marathon in Spring 2020. I joined up with the new Striderz Run Club and kicked off training in January 2020. There were still little bouts of pain in my foot, but nothing a little extra TLC with the lacrosse ball couldn’t fix. If I could get through a half-marathon training cycle, I’d feel better about training for the Chicago marathon.

Hey There, Covid

Now I know what you’re thinking, COVID put an end to that, and while that is true, I also wound up causing myself shin splints when we were under lockdown. I was running too fast, for someone who hadn’t been able to run much at all in 2019 and with no physio or massage offices open, and my inability to stop, they only got worse. BMO was cancelled, obviously but they switched it to a virtual race.

As we all know I’ll do pretty much anything for a medal, I ran the half in July anyway. Shin splints are an insanely irritating injury and can take forever to heal. I’m sure Christian and Molly would say here that if you just stopped and slowly rebuilt your milage, recovery would be faster. *insert eye roll here*

The Chicago Marathon was cancelled and I was able to defer to 2021, 2022, or 2023. I knew I wasn’t going to defer to the following year, because who knew what was going to happen with COVID variants and vaccines.

I slowly rebuilt my mileage, running every other day in November and December to end off 2020.

New Year, New Me – Live Race Making a Comeback?!

I kicked off the new year with a New Years Day 5k which was just the thing I needed. We were in the midst of another lockdown so there was no run club, and the only thing keeping me going was my ability to run with minimal pain. I knew there was no chance any Spring races were going ahead, but I just wanted to be able to run with my run fam again.

After what felt like the longest Winter and early Spring on the planet, our cases were finally dropping and there was a glimmer of hope that I’d be able to get a vaccine in the Summer. A hope that I could run with someone other than myself, and sometimes my husband, and positivity that we could slowly start the transition back to normal.

Run club started again in June and our province had an outlined plan for what a slow return to normal was going to look like. I had just received my first vaccine dose on the May long weekend here in BC, and they were shortening the period between doses.

In June I saw an announcement that made me jump up and down with excitement and have myself a dance party (sorry neighbours, but also, not the worst thing that has happened this year ;)).Live raceswere back! Toeing a start line with thousands of other runners makes my heart sing!

The Victoria Marathon announced they would be hosting an 8km and 21.1km run in October 2021. I signed up immediately. Like I don’t think I could’ve grabbed my credit card fast enough, and I set my sights on PR’ing a fall half-marathon.

Run Training With a Purpose

Because of the uncertainty surrounding runs/races, Striderz had set out a plan to do a club race in November and started a run clinic in mid-July. This meant it was going to be a shortened half-marathon training cycle for those of us that signed up to race Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada), but who cares?!

I knew I was ready for this; I had spent all year running consistently and easing back up to where I had been in the 2019 marathon training cycle.

As race day crept closer and closer, I felt more and more positive. I didn’t miss a single hill training session (making up the ones I had to miss) and I was running faster. I was ready to crush my half-marathon time (2:15 currently)

At the end of hill training, I headed to Calgary to visit my sister as they’d just moved. I did get in a run at the track to run a tempo, but it was SO COLD and I wasn’t prepared. This Vancouver gal doesn’t do Prairie weather, especially when they skip Autumn. I had done a 21.1KM run the weekend before getting there as I didn’t think I’d be able to find a long enough route near her that didn’t involve running around in circles. That and I have no one to run with, so less accountability when it’s freezing outside!

What’s a run training cycle without a hiccup?

The following day I had a meeting and then my sister and I were going to head to Ikea to grab some stuff they needed and get a new tree for their cat at a PetSmart. On our way home we were rear-ended as we were about to get on the highway. I didn’t have time to worry about myself; my sister was driving and I needed to help her navigate her first car accident.

She was shaken, so I drove home and we called Jason to let him know what happened (I had called Brett while my sister was exchanging information). As the shock wore off, she started to seize up so we put her in a hot bath after dealing with insurance.

At this point is when I realized that I was less than four weeks to my first live race in a year and a half, and also that this accident was 16 years and 3 days exactly from my only other accident. I just tried to keep moving and stretching and felt OK at the time so I hadn’t opened an injury claim. I wanted to be a part of that live race, dammit! There’s just something about the race day atmosphere. If you’re a runner, you know what I’m talking about!

I did wind up opening a claim the following day as I felt stiffness in my mid-back and shoulder. After a weekend with Jason (he flew into town to see their new place) I made the drive back to BC breaking it up and staying with friends so I didn’t have to do the 12-hour drive straight.

I saw physio twice that week and at the second appointment, Molly felt more positive about my ability to run the race in October.

But, Ihad to adjust my expectations. I was not going to be able to run as fast as I had been training for. In fact, I wasn’t supposed to be running fast at all. I think we both knew I wouldn’t listen to that.

LiveRace Day Nearly Here

Yes, I will still be running the Victoria Half-Marathon. No, I won’t be able to PR. I’ve had a couple of good cries about it, typically when on a run and running feels so much more difficult. While I’m disappointed, I am just so excited to run a live race with other people again.

Were there some moments when I panicked about our rising case numbers, and how that would affect the live race? Yes, I sure did.

Most of the core group of our run club will be there and as they all pass by me, I will be cheering so hard for them. We all worked so hard, and I know that there are some definite PR’s coming on Sunday.

I can’t wait to run with people again and have people out on the course cheering for people they don’t know. There’s just something about a live race with thousands of strangers that just makes me so happy. I’ve never run in Victoria before, and I am so looking forward to it.

I’ll be posting on the gram all race weekend so make sure you’re following me over there if you want to see how this live race goes for me and my run fam!