Summer officially settled in the week leading up to my second 5km race of the season. When I woke up on race day morning, I knew setting a new PB for this distance was going to be challenging. As I drove down the escarpment to the race venue, the city of Hamilton was blanketed by a haze of humidity. Great.
The Dundas Valley Cactus Festival 5km is held on one of the days of the festival (which my family and I enjoyed the day before). It starts in a wonderful, newly updated park called the Dundas Driving Park. Kit/chip pick up was well orchestrated and it was so nice to have access to ‘real’ washrooms prior to starting the race.
The day featured a kids’ 1km race before the 5km and it was fun to cheer on the little athletes as they ran (very red faced) across the finish line.
Right after the last participant of the 1km race exited, the race volunteers had the 5km participants line up. After a few quick words from the sponsor (a local Pharmacy), we were off!
The race starts with a loop around the actual park (approx 800m) which was great because it afforded us quite a bit of shade. My first km was a little too quick (4:38) and I guess I made the oft made mistake of following the pace set by other folks. The second km I got myself back under control, even though it started with quite a steep descent.
The third and fourth km I found to be the hardest as we were running in the direct sunlight almost the entire time. Mentally, I was finding this stretch very hard as I had hoped to prove that my last few weeks (since my last race) of training were positively affecting my speed and pacing capabilities. Then I realized – while I felt I was going so slowly, no one was passing me! Perhaps everyone was feeling the effects of the heat and humidity too? Maybe my training was paying off and was evidenced by the fact that I was still running, relatively strongly, and not melting into a puddle of running despair. At that point, I created a new plan – just keep running and don’t let anyone pass me!!
After passing the 4km marker, we re-entered the park. Ah, blessed shade! My legs responded when I asked them to and I clocked a 5min km for the last km. I passed two ‘young’ guys in the last km and stuck to my plan of not letting anyone pass me.
After finishing, I grabbed a water, made a quick pit stop (once again, love having access to real washrooms!) and went to check out my official time. SHELLY KROES WATERDOWN SF30-34 26:32 9 – what? 9th? I didn’t see that many women my age in front of me and they got my age wrong? Better check again (my eyesight is not the greatest) – SHELLY KROES WATERDOWN SF35-39 26:19 3 – woo hoo!!!! About a minute slower than my PB but I did hold my own in the heat and received my first age group medal!!
Post race festivities included a beautiful park setting, a BBQ (compliments of M&Ms), water/pop, juice from Booster Juice and a Naked Grape wine cooler (to be taken home to enjoy!).
Once the last 5km runner was finished, Kelly started the awards ceremony. The best part of the ceremony was the presentation of a special award to anyone who had just run their first race – what a great idea! It was awesome to see that the race has attracted the participation of quite a few accomplished athletes. The woman who won the Masters division had just come back from representing Canada at a World Masters track event! I was quite proud when Kelly called out my name and noted that I was from ‘Team Running Free’ as I accepted my medal.
On a personal note, my family and I moved back to the greater Hamilton area last summer. I really miss the group that I used to train with in Whitby but I am starting to feel much more at home with my new running family (the Burlington Runners) and it was great to see quite a few of them at the race too. Another ‘running benefit’ of moving has been that I am closer to the events held by the VR Pro race organizers. In my opinion, these races are some the best organized events in Southern Ontario and the race director works extremely hard to keep our great sport stocked with great races.
Count me in for 2010 at the Cactus Festival 5km!
