It was such a perfect day for a run! The sun was shining, it was 8 degrees, and the wind came at all the right times during the race. Not so strong to blow me over and just enough to cool me down. Perfect.
I got to my sister’s flat with my race kit waiting for me:
After digging inside to find all of my snacks, I attached my race bibb to myself and got all suited up. Just like Barney Stinson. After a cup of coffee we took our warm up walk over to High Park:
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| Julia, Ken, Mumsy, and Dad |
I’ve never actually introduced you to my dad and now he is going to be like the neighbour on Home Improvement where you never see his face because it is always blocked by something. It’s ok, you’ll meet him someday. In the meantime, here he is walking behind Ken! This was going to be my dad’s first race too but he popped his knee playing soccer last week and now he is kind of gimpy. But- my dad made excellent photographers!
On the way to our corrals we took a group shot before the race started. Don’t worry we all took our cell phones so that we wouldn’t get lost like the Wine and Dine race in Disney. Lesson Learned.
Along the way to the corrals, I ended up running into two of my old cheerleading coaches who are also crazy runners. They were there cheering on another cheer coach/runnermama at the gym. I love that! I also ended up seeing them at the 4K mark and then again at the last 200m. It was hearing them yell to me that there were only 200m left that made that killer hill worth sprinting the rest of the way for. Have I told you how much I love the cheer section along the sidelines at races? They are ahh-may-zing! The high fives and the encouragement is just so contagious!
One of my favourite action shots is of Julia. I mean look at this beauty:
Why can’t I get pictures like that?! Instead I get the ones where I am attempting to drink water:
It looks normal, right? Well, this is where I didn’t smush my cup in half to easily drink water and I ended up splashing my entire face with water. Look at the guy holding the cup of water at the far right- he’s laughing at me. And just so you know I’m not lying, here I am wiping the water off my face and hoping my make-up didn’t melt and give me raccoon eyes:
And yes, that guy on the far right is still laughing at me. Awesome! I’ll show him with this action shot of me with my eyes closed:
After crossing the hilly hilly finish line– I mean seriously, who puts a huge incline at the last 400m mark? That was just mean! I got my medal and hat; took out my cell to figure out where my fam jam was happening.
We even had enough time to escort mumsy to her first start line to begin her 5K!
Her ipod was loaded with some awesome tunes and she was ready to rock it. Lucky for her, it was warm enough for her to loose her jacket!
After the first km we caught this beauty of a picture. Look how happy she is:
And then on the last 400m we got an action shot of her going up the dreaded incline:
I was so proud to cheer her on crossing the finish line.
It was an awesome day for a run and we got the finishers picture that we were all excited for- Me and Julia with our 8K medals, and Nancy Love with her 5K:
On our walk leaving High Park, we decided that we had our Harry hats on and should take a picture with those as well:
Post race we went back to Julia’s and made a big pancake breakfast with eggs, bacon, chocolate milk, and coffee. It was deeelicious!
And the something sparkly I said I would wear for Tin? Well, I made a sequin tie but it was hard to see in the pictures:
After going back to Julia’s and seeing her Garmin 405CX in full action– I knew I needed one. I tried it on and it even fit my tiny wrist. A Cinderella Story?! I would say, yes.
I may have gone to Costco after the race to buy one:
More on that story later!
Stats of the Run
Distance: 8K
Time: 41:02
Age Category Place: 16 15/261
Gender Place: 84/1129
A personal best! Well, I knew that going in because it was my first 8K race ever. I think I will be making the Harry Race a yearly event. I literally loved everything about it!
Siobhan McCarthy.ca 
