10k Saturday.

En route to Oka National Park

Clear and frosty morning.

Getting our race packets.

Warming up by the lake.

Ready to go!

Excited at our results!

A bit chilly afterwards.

Part of the course.  Definitely going to be hard to find a course as beautiful as this one. Look at that clear blue sky.

Back at home with our bibs and medals. 

And those cardboard boxes are free pine tree starters that they were giving to participants!  I think they'll be our mini christmas trees this year :)

The run was great but FREEZING at the beginning.  The first four kilometers were on a dirt trail through the woods and then we opened up onto the park road.  Running through national forest was great.  Very calming in comparison to running through Montreal city streets for the half-marathon.  Although there weren't nearly as many supporters as there were in Montreal, it was a different dynamic being alone with my thoughts and the windy cool morning air.  There was what seemed like a huge hill at kilometer 6 which I was SO relieved to be done with once we climbed it.  It was a hard one!  I began dreading the gatorade stations, because they always handed them out right before a hill.  There were three :)

Stéphane and I were together for about the first 3 kilometers and the last 3, and he was quite a bit ahead of me in the middle.  We finished strong, I was so surprised to see 48 minutes on the clock as we came up to the finish line, I was aiming for under 55.  Final time was 48:57 with a sprint to the end.  That was definitely a big difference with the half marathon- I had close to nothing left when I was nearing the finish line in September, whereas this morning I was able to dig deep and finish fast.  The last time I ran a 10k in 2004, I finished it in 58 minutes!  9 minutes off my personal record!!  Don't know if I'll be able to replicate that one again :)

I would definitely run that race again, it was gorgeous and calm and refreshing.  Off to the movies tonight and drinks with friends.  How was your Saturday?

xo 

alli