Better than best

Last year's Toronto Yonge Street 10K proved to be my favourite race. It pretty much defined what made a perfect race. Everything just felt right, felt good, was fun and was rewarding.  It didn't take any convincing for me to sign up for 2015, but I could not imagine that this year could possibly come close to comparing to last...

Spoiler alert...I am happy to admit I was wrong!

So what made this year even more spectacular than last?

Over the past year my awesome support team grew exponentially due to the friends I'd made in the running community. I'd venture to say TYS10K is one of the most popular races in Toronto with the online running community. Of the runners I chatted with regularly on social media, at least half of them were going to be racing or cheering. 

Although the morning of the race was chilly,  I quickly found warmth in the smiles and hugs of many of the friends I saw every time I turned around. It was particularly inspiring to see all of the Justice League Runners gathered for fun photos and media coverage. The Canada Running Series Digital Champions were also gathered, each and every one snapping runfies and tweeting them out. The number of photos that were taken in that little parkette that morning was incredible! 

I was having so much fun chatting with everyone that I almost forgot that I had a race to run. After seeing which corral the majority of my running friends were in, I wished I'd picked a faster finish time. That said, I honestly had no idea how I would do in the race or what pace to aim for. The previous year I'd completely shocked myself with running faster than I ever had. I remember thinking, I'll never be able to keep this up...I'm gonna crash...but alas, I was able to keep going and finished at 59:42. Hence, a big reason for adoring this race! But would I be able to do that again? I had my doubts. Last year's experience was incredible, yet felt somehow unique and not repeatable. I'd spent the winter focused on long distance training for Around the Bay. While I'd done some speed work, I hadn't run more than a kilometer under 6 min/km in a very long time. Regardless, the group of us made our way through the crowds to the corrals, I 'suddenly' found myself in the yellow corral with them. In chatting about our time goals Melly, Karen, Carmy, Allison and I realized we were all aiming for pretty much the same times. Under an hour would be nice. Faster than that would be really nice. Okay, perfect. I'm gonna go for it and see how it goes.

Our corral started and by the time I ran the 'red' light at Eglinton the feeling of last year was back. The feeling of speed and endurance mixed with a little bit of joy. It was on the slight uphill by the cemetery I started having the same doubts as last year...would I be able to maintain this pace? At St. Clair I knew I would be treated to a very special cheering section--my mum and step dad were on the sidewalk scanning the crowd for me. I waved my arms madly above my head until they saw me. I willingly lost a few seconds in giving my mum a big kiss on the cheek and a high-five to my step dad. This was the first time they'd seen me race and their smiles and cheers gave me a  shot of adrenalin. With the slight detour I lost sight of the other girls. I kept on trekking, hearing the kilometer splits on my earphones from my RunMeter running app. I crossed the 5K mat at 27:25 which was almost 2 minutes faster than my previous 5K PB last summer when I felt like I was going to die. Last year my husband had been standing across from Yonge Dundas Square snapping pics of me as I ran by. I remember trying to yell to him that I was on pace to finish in under an hour, which, at the time had been just a lofty goal. Near College I spotted Myron, another running friend who I high-fived as I ran by. Somewhere along this section Carmy suddenly appeared beside me again. We ran together briefly before I lost her in the crowd. At one point the 52:00 minute pace bunny passed me and although I had been hearing my split times, I think my jaw dropped realizing I had been running anywhere near this pace group. As we approached the bottom of Yonge I tried to stay to the right to turn the corner knowing that the course leveled off at this point.  I remember thinking that I'd already put in a faster 7K than I ever thought possible--I just had to dig deep for another 3. Those last three kilometers were definitely harder without the downhill grade to power me along. For me, so much of running is mind over matter, but this time it was my brain telling my body to hold on instead of my telling me it was okay to slow down. I don't remember thinking about much during this race, or even really hearing the songs I had so carefully chosen for my race playlist. But I do clearly remember turning onto Bathurst, then Fort York Boulevard and feeling the intense joy of the approaching finish line and a personal best. 

I scanned the crowds at the sides and spotting my husband and dog just before the finish. I managed a smile and gave it my all, crossing the finish at 55:44--a personal best of almost 4 minutes!

I had no idea I could possibly improve on what I previously thought was perfect. I loved everything about last year's race-- but this year? It was better than best. I have a feeling that whatever races I sign up for each year going forward, Toronto Yonge Street will always be on my list.