The Oasis Zoo Run (10km run, 5km run/walk and 1km cub run) was held Saturday morning, Sept 20 at the Toronto Zoo in Scarborough. This race sold out in advance with 3500 runners competing in the 10km, 2000 in the 5km, and 500 kiddies in the cub run.
This unique race was part of the Canada Running Series, and was definitely one of the more adventurous courses on the circuit. It was by far, the hilliest course I’ve competed on this season (and by that I mean lots of uphill). The 10km of paved roads and trail circled outside the zoo grounds then had the runners weave through the hilly and winding trails inside the zoo grounds amongst all the lions, tigers and bears! Oh My!
Besides the exotic and speedy creatures of the jungle, I was also running in a more elite pack of runners on this course. This race was also hosting the 10km national championships, so I was excited and humbled to be running in the same corral as the Canadian marathon record holder, Lanni Marchant, and course record holders, Eric Gillis and Rachel Hannah. Even though Marchant and Hannah blew past me after the first hill (as the elites tend to do when they can pace at 3:20min/km) it was still cool to know we were competing on the same course that day.
While I had done lots of run training this season, the conditioning and prep work I did for this course was a little different because of the hilly terrain. Jogging on flat surfaces wouldn’t cut it here. In the weeks leading up to this race, I spent more time running hill sprints up the slope of Riverdale Park East and setting the treadmill on an incline to get those leg muscles geared up for the climb. I was so glad for that hill training once I reached the first hill (of many) at the 1.5km point!
I felt the first 3km of the course was the hardest. I’m not sure if it just took me that long to find my groove, or if it just took me that long to look up and around and enjoy the company of the wildlife around me. Somewhere around the halfway mark I felt more settled into the rolling hills pattern, and starting pointing out the jaguars, flamingos and foxes to my fellow runners, which always gives way to a smile despite the lactic acid building up. The run seemed much more fun then.
The race organizers had some interesting music playing at different points along the course to keep us going. First we passed a Caribbean inspired steel drum band around the 3km point, next was a more heavily inspired percussion and didgeridoo duo near the 6-7km point, and then I believe I heard ‘Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are Over’ playing on the loud speakers as I crossed the finish line at the 10km mark. All of which seemed to be fittingly good choices for a zoo run. I might also have added in Iron Maiden's - Run to the Hills, run for your life - which seemed appropriate for this course as well.
According to SportsStats (http://www.sportstats.ca) I held a pace of 5:08, and finished in a time of 0:51:18, which was over 12min faster than the average 10km run time of 1:03:28. Overall, I placed 131/1557 (top 8.4%) in my gender category, and 21/276 (top 7.6%) in my age category. I’m feeling pretty good about those results.
Overall, if was a really fun road race and I’d highly recommend it to others in the future. Although its challenging due to the hills, you can choose to do either the longer 10km or the shorter 5km if you prefer, and its fun for the whole family as it also hosts a shorter cub run for the kids. Many racers also dressed up in animal inspired costumes so there was always something catching your eye along the course, including my ziger (zebra/tiger inspired) patterned leggings. Racers also get free admission to the zoo so you can check out all the wildlife you were going too fast to notice earlier ;)
What else can I say besides it was a grrrrrreat race!!!
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