Ottawa Race Weekend Fun!

This weekend I went to Ottawa to participate in the Ottawa Race Weekend. First I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon to get my race kit and was surprised by how many people I saw that I knew from Peterborough! After getting my race kit I went to the Mizuno area and met some of the people that work with me and the rest of the Mizuno Brand Ambassdor athletes. They were so welcoming! I feel so fortunate to be supported by them.

I had registered for the 10km even that night at 6:30pm so between the expo and the race I went and spent time at the hotel suite of Roger Burrows and the Bytown Walkers (http://www.bytownwalkers.ca/) before I had to warm up for the race. It was really nice to be surrounded by other racewalkers. Since I am away so much from Canada, its always nice to get to see the other Canadian walkers and get to know them. They were also racing the 10km that evening.

I always getting worried when I enter a running race if I decide to racewalk it, especially when there are a lot of entrants because either I can get trampled on or have to weave through everyone to pass the slowing runners. My bib number said that I could choose the corral that I wanted to go in so I decided to go in the first corral, that way people that were faster than me could pass me and I wouldnt then have to do as much passing. It ended up being the right decision too!

Before the gun went off, I was looking all around me to see if I could see Tim Berrett, who I knew was also participating in the 10km race but I couldnt see him. So I started and funny enough, almost a km later I hear a familiar voice behind me and it was Tim! It was a really nice surprise and we ended up walking together for the whole race. We were talking the whole time, catching up since I hadnt seen him since Nationals last year and when I saw the first split that I caught, which was at 4km's I thought oh no we are going to walk 50 minutes! Coach Tim wanted me to walk around 49-49:30 for a good solid tempo pace workout. So we went through 4km's in 20:03 and then when I caught the next split, 9:58 for the next 2km's I thought ok maybe we can get it back on track while still having a full on conversation. Finally I felt like we were getting into a better rhythm and then the next 4km's was great. My splits were: 4:53, 4:53, 4:46 and a shocking 4:40 last km uphill that felt great! So I ended up finishing in 49:15 (25:02 first 5km, 24:13 second 5km). So I was happy with how it went and it was really fun to walk with Tim!

Usually when you enter a running race and racewalk it, you always hear different comments but to my surprise, everyone was saying "look at those racewalkers". I cannot believe how much I heard the word racewalkers out there! Usually you always hear speedwalker, power walker, etc. So it was awesome to see that the crowd was educated on the proper name for our event!

Here is a picture of Tim Berrett and I at Nationals last year when we both won.

Tomorrow I have a speed workout, my only "hard" workout this week since I have the Art Keay, Ontario 10km RW Championships on Sunday.

Keep on walking,

Rachel