Toronto Women’s Live 5 km Race

Just 6 days after racing the Waterfront Toronto 10km, I found myself at the start line in the Wilket Creek parking lot, just north of Eglington, getting ready to race the Toronto Women’s 5km race. I was in the first corral with the elite athletes (one of which I am not), trying not to be intimidated. Trish, Cilla and I had arrived early, so I had a chance to warm up and get myself situated. It was cold but the winds from Sunday had died down and the air was still.

 

This was my first 5 km race ever. I’ve run charity runs that distance, but when I started racing 9 years ago, I forwent the shorter distances in order to run the longer distances.  I enjoy the full experience of racing and with the 5km being so short, it feels like it’s over before we even started. But with limited in-person races, I was glad to race any distance.

We were given a countdown and then the first 2 runners were released. I was up next with another runner and I took a deep breath in anticipation. After a few seconds we were released, and I ripped my mask off and crumpled it in my right hand, having nowhere else to put it and held it the whole run. As I ran, I watched the faster runners overtake me. I couldn’t even imagine the pace these women must have been running. It amazes me how fast some people can run—I can’t even imagine being able to maintain a 3 or 4 minute pace. I have to work hard just keeping the pace I do.

 

We travelled south on the trail, looped around another parking lot just before the Bailey footpath bridge and made our way back. The course was slightly different than previous years to avoid the narrower parts of the trails that would make it impossible to distance ourselves from other runners.

 

My first kilometre was at a pace of 4:42/km, the fastest kilometre of my race. After that I slowed down and was able to hold my pace around 4:55, sometimes slightly faster or slower.

 

The last half kilometre was tough. My body had started seizing up and I was having trouble with maintaining a smooth gait. Trish said she was really concerned when she saw me running toward the finish line. She said it looked like I must have really been hurting. Because I have arthritis in my SI joints and spine, my balance and equilibrium are sometimes off. I can be walking and then fall over—I’m sure people think I’ve been in the bottle. Because I was really pushing myself out there I was putting extra stress on my joints and the muscles and tendons surrounding were spasming, which totally destroyed my gait.

 

But even with my somewhat maniacal run I managed to beat the time I set for myself of 25 minutes. My time was 24:43, my pace was 4:56/ km and I was 7th out of 30 in my age category and 39/207 overall. Madelaine Kelly, an 800m Olympian (who represented Canada at the Toyko games this summer), won the race with a time of 17:17 and Sasha Gollish, finished 2nd with a time of 17:29. Somerset Jarvis finished third in a time of 18:15.