Gerry & Lois Gate River 15K Race

Hi Y'all,

We were fearful of a hot humid day for our run as we haven't yet acclimatized to our new digs. Fear not, for we were instead introduced to wind. Lots and lots of wind. Up to 45 mph gusts. When we were running parallel with the St. John's River, we were soaked as the wind was blowing the river onto the street and flooding it. When we were running across the bridges, the wind was actually blowing our legs so that we'd land in a totally different place than we had planned. Unbelievable. We were also afraid that we had lost some fitness as we hadn't trained as much as we did for last year's races. Well, here's how we did:

Gerry: 190th overall and 20th (out of 740) in his age category. Overall time: 1:00:03 (and if his pod had been properly calibrated, he would have run a sub-1 hour).Lois: 6023th overall and 173th (out of 603) in my age category. Overall time: 1:35:53.

This time last year we had run the Around the Bay 30k relay (we each did 15k) and back then, Gerry ran 59:40 and I ran 1:35:40. How's that for consistency? The only difference was that our toes weren't freezing with this race.

This is the last big race until the fall, as the hot humid weather will soon be upon us. There are three local half marathons this fall, and one marathon. We'll do an assortment of these. If Gerry runs the half marathons in October and November and one full marathon in December, he'll get a special Tri-2B-Tuff shirt. We'll see if his work schedule leaves time for his running schedule (right now the two schedules are fighting and the work schedule is winning).

We noticed a few differences with this race compared to Canadian races. In Canada, when they mention water stops, it is always water along with Gatorade. In this race, when they mention water stops, it is only water. When the national anthem is sung in Canada, everyone continues to talk (although this is probably because Canadians can only afford the low amp speakers and no one can actually hear the anthem). With this race, people were shushed when they spoke during the national anthem. What was the same? The smell of the port-o-lets after the race. Phew! We didn't take any photos, but if there's any from Brightroom photography, we'll email them.

Hope you're all well and catch the running bug soon!

Cheers,

Lois