The finish line I didn’t think I’d cross… and here I am coming up on it… This was probably one of the hardest 10km’s I ever ran.
I did everything wrong for this race which was on one of May’s hottest day. Apparently we hit 40′ that day. I spent it outside fundraising for the Great Glebe Garage Sale, did not really drink anything, or eat much other than a cupcake and some gatorade.
Still, at about 5pm I headed down to Confederation park with 8998 runners to run the Ottawa Race Weekend 10km. 
I was afraid of this race, I knew that the clock would not show me what I wanted to see, what I knew I was capable of running. I felt defeated before it started. As I got started, I knew this one would be a mental game. By 6km in, I hit the mental wall… why am I doing this, it’s okay to miss one… I really don’t want to keep going… But I kept going.
Why? Because Geoff sent me the following txt messages to get me motivated with a few minutes before the start…
“Remember: sometimes 90% of life is just showing up, I am proud of you regardless of a time on a clock” and “Look for me with 200m’s to go”
So as I hit that wall, and I pushed off every stride I kept repeating to myself over and over, just make it to 200m’s. Everytime I passed a “km” mark I knew I was closer… then came 750m, 500m, 300m… finally there it was, the 200m mark, the smile and cheer that I kept saying I would make it to for the past 4km’s.
The last 200m were amazing, nothing hurt, I was floating people were cheering everywhere, there were hundreds of people gathered around.
The highlight of my race? Finally passing by the camera guy without the “look of pain, torture and death”
Final Results, not as bad as I thought, especially for running in such a large crowd:
Bib# 32455 Chip time: 59.11 Overall: 3471/8998 Category: 239/802 Gender: 1330/5020
