apr 26 - mundy pond 5k - missed due to marathon in Waterloo, the 3rd marathon in 8 days!
may 3 - burton pond 5k - what a shock it was to run as hard and as fast as possible and see a finishing time 4 minutes slower than last year. welcome to the world of being a post-op, estrogen-filled female! the look on my face as i cross the finish line says it all, a combo of satisfaction and disbelief!
may 17 - harbourfront 10k - this time, i was marathonning in Halifax on this same day, my 5th marathon in 30 days! last year at the harbourfront, i ran with a 20 pound backpack, then continued to run all the way to cape spear and back after the race.. 42.2k was enough for me on this day in 2009. the backpack marathon runs are now a thing of the past for me.
may 30 - garnish 10k - i'd love to give this a go one of these years. garnish is a cute little town. it is also about a 3-4 hour drive. no car = travel costs that i didn't want to pay for.
june 7 - mercury 15k - well, this used to be the mercury 15k and eastern marathon, but they cancelled the marathon after only 2 years due to low interest. at this point in the season i was extremely down about my progressively slower race times. after finishing runner up in the marathon last year, the thought of finishing at the back of the pack in a 15k road race just didn't appeal to me. last year's marathon loss (i finished runner up after leading the race for most of it) is something that still bothers me every day, so returning to portugal cove would have been emotionally challenging as well. not to mention, another car rental to get out there would have been costly. oh, and i had just ran 5 marathons and 1 half marathon in the previous 7 weeks, so i was still in recovery mode. lots of good reasons to skip this one. looking back, i feel badly for skipping it and will definitely plan to run it next year if i am still living here in Nfld.
june 20 - canadian light 10k - i was going to run this, but ended up in the hospital for 3 days with resporatory problems. so much for that idea!
july 12 - mews 8k - the resporatory problems continued. meanwhile, i found a new exciting challenge of training a novice runner. this would be her debut road race, a hard fast 8k for her, but a light training run for me. finishing at the back of the pack was a new experience for me, but in this case, it was the happiest moment of my running season to know that the title 'coach' is one i had earned!
aug 2 - gander races - new races, a 5k and 10k. another road trip i didn't want to make, and it was probably a good thing. the course was apparently very poorly marked and many runners ended up off course.
aug 16 - quidi vidi 5k - still suffering from resporatory issues, it was another light run along side my protegee, who shaved off several minutes to set a new PB.
aug 23 - bell island blast 10 miler - i opted to skip this one in favour of doing a 5k charity run this day for the NL Sexual Health Centre. it turned out to be a good move as i won the 5k, posting a time slightly faster than my burton pond 5k time, which is amazing given the resporatory issues. i hope this run won't conflict with bell island next year, as i would really like to run both.
sept 13 - provincial 5k championship - another light run with my protegee, who struggled a bit with this one. this was actually a warm up as we both ran the Terry Fox Run later in the day..
sept 19 - blueberry harvest 10k - another road trip that i didn't want to take. if i can ever afford to buy a car, chances are that i will start to take some of these trips...
sept 27 - newfoundland marathon - running with resporatory problems is not easy. you add in the fact that this was a very hilly marathon, and it really made it tough for me. but i knew exactly where i was at in terms of my ability and executed a perfectly-planned race strategy and ran a very consistent marathon. i can only hope that the doctors can sort out this lung issue. it's really stalled my running progress.
oct 10 - trapline marathon - goose bay - i really want to run this and gave it strong consideration, but when i lost my job earlier this year, i knew that an $800 plane ticket was totally out of the question. maybe next yearoct 11 - turkey tea 10k - gee, two NLAA races on the same weekend. maybe next year i will run them both! but i decided to pass up this one as there was really no reason for me to run a 10k race at this point in the season. i was already in taper mode for the C2C.
oct 18 - cape to cabot 20k - i knew the resporatory illness would slow me down, and it did. even moreso that i thought. again, a consistent run that turned out pretty much as i expected, with the exception of signal hill taking me a few minutes longer than i wanted. i literally could not breath while climbing this hill unless i walked.. my goal of breaking last year's 1.56.11 was not to be, and i was actually just over the 2 hour mark.. which is still pretty good pace for this course. consistently similar to the pace of my 2 post-hospitalization marathons..
overall, this NLAA racing season would have to be classified as a disaster for me. best thing i can do is wipe the slate clean and start again next year, with what i hope will be a much better state of physical health.
Oh well, at least i had fun for the most part and further developed my public profile and positive reputation as a runner and as a running coach.
Jenn
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