I ran Biovail's "The Hazel" 5K yesterday, my first race of any kind since primary school. It was the first notch in my marathon belt as I seek to transform an out of shape me into an in shape dude who can finish a marathon.
It was a blast. I threw a bunch of my fellow "Learn to Run" clinic graduates into the party wagon and we drove to Port Credit for an inspirational speech by Hazel McCallion herself before Sportsnet "celebrity" Brad Fay announced the start of the race.
This Mississauga Marathon was my first race, so everything was new to me. I had to pin my tag to my shirt and put a chip on my shoe so my time could be accurately measured. This chip records the time you cross the starting line and the time you cross the finish line and feeds that info to this website. My time was 27:50.6 which was quite a bit faster than I ran on Thursday and not bad for a guy who just started to run ten weeks ago. I'm sure I can break 25 minutes later in the summer, but my next goal is a 10k.
Following the race you're awarded a medal just for finishing and the juiciest orange you'll ever have in your life awaits you. That banana was awesome too and the water tasted like nectar from the gods. Throw in a post-race BBQ and you've got yourself one helluva great day.
My buddy Mike took some fantastic photos of the experience with my camera, and here's the Flickr photoset you're dying to see. I'd also like to thank Ale for not crashing my car as she sweetly drove it from the starting line to the finish line. And finally, I'd like to thank Hazel for not running her race and kicking my ass.
