Blue Nose Weekend Recap

This is a long one!

I just got home from Halifax. It was a pretty great weekend!

Saturday morning I met the driver at her place, we all squeezed into the car and off we went. They are all friends, and I didn't know any of them so I felt a little awkward and out of place. We stopped at Mic Mac Mall (bought a running shirt to match my skirt) and then went for lunch. We were quite a large group at one big long table. Once again, I was the only "outsider". I was also the only one doing the 10k. One woman was doing the 5, and everyone else was doing the half.

After lunch we headed over to the Expo to get our race kits and browse the goods.

 I talked to the people at the Team In Training booth, and she asked what I was running. I said, "Oh, only the 10k" and she said "There's no such thing as ONLY a 10k". I mean... I know that, and I've said that to lots of people... but when you're at a MARATHON with people running halfs and fulls, 10k seems minor! Anyway, the Team In Training sounds awesome, and I'm thinking about signing up. How cool would it be to run in some other country?

I listened to John Stanton, the guy who started the Running Room, talk about running in cold weather (wear a garbage bag) and running hills (shorten your stride).

After getting a few little free things, I went over to visit my brother who was in Halifax for a teachers conference. Coincidentally, my cousin Mer, who I stayed with, worked at that hotel, so I walked home with her after her shift. We made spaghetti for supper, and I drank lots of water.  I went to bed at about 9:30, because I knew I'd be up way before my alarm.

5am. Up an hour and a half before my alarm! Showered, and dressed. Ate 2 muffins, put some vaseline on my toes and borrowed socks from Mer.  Gathered all my things, and fretted about what to wear because it was about 1 degree outside. I ended up wearing my jacket down to where Mer would turn off to go to work, and then I gave it to her. I put on my garbage bag and headed to Scotia Square for a bathroom stop where I ran into the girls I did the learn to run class with. They looked at me REALLY strangly when i walked in wearing a garbage bag! but John Stanton said to do it, it MUST be valid! I was going to meet up with them anyway, so it was a lucky coincidence. We made our way to the start line, but we couldn't see any pace bunnies anywhere. So we basically picked a spot and waited for the gun. I literally couldn't SEE the start line unless I jumped.

The gun went, and we... stood still. It took us 3 minutes to get from our spot to the start line, but then we were off. It was a HUGE crowd, and there was a lot of jostling for position. I was running with Jen, staying one or 2 steps behind so that we weren't a block to people behind us trying to pass. Once we started running, I warmed up and the weather turned out to be perfect. We turned the corner to go down to the bridge, and there was Mom, with my bib number painted on her face, and she had a blue nose with a red spot in the middle (red to represent PEI mud!). I stopped for a few pictures, and lost sight of Jen. Boo. I continued, and as we went down the hill toward the Bridge, it was amazing to see the sea of people in front of me. I took a few pictures as I ran along.

It was really exciting for me to run across the bridge. I loved it! I didn't even notice the slight incline! The slight decline was noticeable  though, and I let myself go on the downhill. Then came Nantucket... the hill I was dreading. I followed John Stanton's advice, and shortened my pace. I focused on the shirt in front of me (a Hope For Wildlife shirt) and made it all the way up the hill, no stops! I couldn't believe it!

The rest of the race seemed to go by quickly. The first u-turn in Dartmouth was a surprise to me, I didn't think we had gone far enough! On the way back I kept looking for Nantucket which would let me know how close I was to the second u-turn. But apparently I missed my cue, because there was the second turn! Running through the residential area of Dartmouth was pretty nice... people were sitting out on lawn chairs watching. Kids holding their hands out for high fives. Bands playing, and radios blaring. Bells and noise-makers and cheering. One lady handing out kleenex.

And then the wonderful downhill toward the bridge again. Once I crossed the bridge, mom and Scott were there to take some pictures. I had no idea how much of the race was left. So I just kept going... I don't remember any specifics from this part, other than wondering how much further we had to go... we turned a corner and I was surprised to see the red finish line! I didn't give any last heroic effort... I didn't pick up my pace or anything.

Official Finish Line Photo

When I crossed the line, I slowed to a walk because it was REALLY crowded as people made their way around the corner to the medals and the Metro Center. I thought this part of the race was a bit of a disorganized mess. It was slow, crowded, no water in sight, and everyone was being shoved through this narrow bottle neck of fences. I got my medal and made my way into the Metro Center, because the crowd carried me along... once inside, I was like... "what now?" After a few frustrating attempts to call mom (note to self: when headphones are plugged in, the sound will only come out of headphones... Holding the phone to my ear and saying HELLO?! wont work. duh). Finally I got out of the MC (a good 10 minutes) and met up with everyone at Grand Parade. I called Red Fox to find out my time, and was pleased to hear that my chip time was 1:03:33. That's 6 minutes off of my Run Without Borders time! My official time is just over 1:06. I'm super pleased!

After the race, I went to lunch with Mom and Scott, and then went back to Mer's to charge my phone. I went over to Alex's hotel, and then met up with Dennis, a friend from Acadia. We had a great visit with lots of laughs and a big giant step out of my comfort zone: sushi. We went for sushi. I tried everything, and liked some of it! We had seaweed salad (like chewing rubber bands, but tasty), some sort of soup (good!), octopus (kinda freaky, tasted good, a little chewy), different kinds of seafood in tempura (half was good, half I didn't like), and I ordered some sushi off of the veggie menu, thinking there wouldn't be any fish involved. I forgot that they use seaweed to wrap it, so it was still very fishy tasting. :(

I was stressed out last night and early this morning because I hadn't heard from the lady who was driving me home. I tried texting her, but didn't get a reply until about 7:15 this morning. I was going to give her until 7:30 and then I was going to call! We had a quick trip home, until we were about 10 minutes from her house when BAM... flat tire! I called Red Fox and he picked me up while they waited for CAA to arrive.

I had a really good weekend. Although, I wish I had a close friend or family member who runs and could go to these things with me. I would have hung out at the expo for much longer, but I felt awkward following around the girls I was traveling with... if I lost them in the crowd, I wouldn't have been able to get my suitcase or even get in touch with them. I'm glad I stayed with Mer and visited with Alex and Dennis so I could relax a bit!

Overall, I thought the race was excellent. Water stations well-placed, great crowd, awesome volunteers. As I said, the post-finish-line was a bit of a congested mess, but I supposed there is limited space. Can't wait til next year! Maybe I'll run the half next time...