My most recent race was the Chocolate Race, held in St. Catherines, Ontario on Sunday, May 13. It was a little far from my home base of Toronto to go for a 5K-10K, but I went at a clients request. Juliane, had heard about the race that served chocolates at the finishing line and insisted that we do it together to celebrate one of the sweetest reasons to actually go for a 10K run. How could I say no to that?
The funny thing was, I remember promising to do the run with her some months ago, but I have to admit, I totally forgot what weekend it was happening on, May 13, the weekend after the Toronto Marathon! When I realized that I only had seven days for my legs to recover from the marathon I told her that I would have to drop from the 10K to the 5K event, but that would still be fine for us. We still had our road trip and celebration together at the end, so no biggie.
But to be honest, I was really doubting what my quads were going to be able to do that day. I hadn’t run all week, just some walking and lap swimming (and hot tub epsom salt soaks, of course). On the Saturday before the race, I ran just 2K with Eric, another client of mine, to warm up before a workout but my quads still felt a little twitchy. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. But a promise is a promise, and if I can help it, I will never let a client down, so off we went to St. Catherines running for chocolate.
The kids 2.5K run was first up in the morning, and all the little kids running so hard for chocolate covered candied apples was super cute. The announcer was dressed up in a super hero costume and rallied all the participants up - like you needed to get the kids any more hyper with all the chocolate about, but it was all for fun. It felt a little like a halloween party actually. It was a nice way to get the whole family involved for a Mother’s Day event. After the kids had their race, the 10K runners started, and the 5K runners left 15min after that.
I enjoyed running the course, the first and last 1.5K especially, as it was in the wooded area of Malcomson Eco Park and the Sunset Beach area of Lake Ontario. Eventually the trail gave way to some smaller city streets for 2K, but ended up looping back at Cindy Drive to the same start/finish line in the Eco Park.
It was a nice course, a mixture of trail and pavement. But what made this run truly unique was the chocolate covered strawberries at the aid stations. I don’t take any water or snacks during a 5K sprint, but I have to admit, I did glance back longingly at all the sweet snacks that I blew past. I can't help my competitive streak. I was very relieved to see more chocolate covered strawberries at the finish line and then I did not hesitate to indulge!! Mmmmmm!
On a personal note, I surprised myself with my performance at this event. When I lined up at the starting line I really did not place any expectations on myself, I just told myself I’ll do whatever pace my quads would allow. I jumped out to a quick lead, and managed to hold down an average pace of 4:39/km, just tagging behind a few speedy teenage boys. At the 3K mark, one of the race officials told me I was the lead female and I told myself to just hang on for two more km. I crossed the finish line at 23minutes 20seconds.
While I had other age group victories within the last couple years, it was the first time I had been the overall first female to cross the finish line, and it felt really great to finally accomplish this. Woohoo!! The race organizers awarded gift baskets to the overall male and female finishers of the 5K and 10K events. It was filled with chocolates, sweets and baked goodies that looked so beautiful I decided to give it to my Mom for Mother’s Day - how appropriate.
And if all that wasn’t enough, once Juliane finished her 10K run, we headed over to the Grantham Lion’s Club, where they were serving the runners chocolate martinis to celebrate (only the adults of course, the kids had chocolate milks). I’ve never ran a race quite like this one, but it was fun, festive and family oriented. If you’re looking for an active way to celebrate Mother’s Day, or just a big fan of all things chocolate, I highly recommend checking it out.
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