Ottawa Moose Miles 2010

Last Saturday Justin and I participated in the second annual Ottawa Moose Miles 5K run (3.1 miles). Last year was the first time either of us ran a 5K race and we didn't do too bad. I placed third in my gender age group with 27:22 and Justin placed third in his gender age group with 24:03. Not considering ourselves runners, we trained for a month or two leading up to our first 5K race, but after finishing were beat and sore. So, throughout the last year, we have been running regularly and even ran a 4 mile race on Thanksgiving.

However, in this year's Moose Miles, Justin finished in 24:08 and I finished in 26:30. And even though there were double the runners this year (just shy of 300, compared to about 150 last year), I shaved almost a whole minute off my time and placed first in my gender age group!

Justin's parents also participated in the race, but it was even more exciting that I did so well this year because my parents were visiting and joined in on the fun by walking the 5K with Justin's mom. In fact, we recruited a few other people to run as well and two of them placed in their age groups too.

But no matter if I placed first, fourth, or last, the course was extremely challenging (featuring 2 hills both ways) and Saturday was so cold and windy that I was happy to complete it under my goal time of 27 minutes. Now I'm looking forward to the next race!