Robbie Burns 8k by Richard Westwood

Jan 23, 2011

Robbie Burns 8k by Richard Westwood

Six O'Clock in the morning, my Blackberry alarm goes off with it's usual ditty. What wasn't usual was that I actually got out of bed to make coffee ... on a Sunday! It was race day and I was excited. The fact that I fully expected to walk the entire race seemed not to matter much. I turned on CP24 to check the weather... -15C. Holy crap, better dress warm! Still undeterred though. I woke Jon about 6:45. I should have woken him earlier as we ended up being late for our rendezvous. I texted my running buddy Angela to let her know we were running late but were on our way.

We arrived at Tim's to find Colin and his son, Cameron, ready and waiting. Angela wasn't there though... strange. I called her.. no answer. Jon and I hopped into Colin's SUV and we were on our way. Thirty five minutes later we pulled into the school parking lot where we saw Brent and James hurrying through the parking lot to escape the biting cold. Inside, we found Natalie Wilby, Colin Chung and Simone, Doug, Eric and Sue, “the Dons” Don and Donna. No Angela though. The mystery of her whereabouts, however, was solved when she called to tell me her Blackberry alarm went AWOL and she had just gotten up. It was just over half an hour till race time and she had pretty much written off the race but I convinced her to come and the plan was for me to carry her chip and race bib and (since I was going to walk the course anyway) she could catch me on the run.

At the start line, Cameron lined up near the front, as he was running for time, while the rest of us trudged further back towards the rear. Usually, I'd be up near the front of the field with the rest of the keeners but for today's race injury had pretty much sidelined me. So when the gun went off, I hobbed through the starting gate alongside Colin Moore who was nursing his own ailment.

We turned onto Brant street where we saw Angela, stuck in traffic (damn runners). I yelled at her that I had her bib and chip and shuffled on my way. My gait was pretty ackward at first as, with each landing, I favoured my left leg to help ease the pain in my right glute but after awhile I dialled into a gait that produced more of a dull ache as opposed to a sharp pain. I know what you must be thinking at this point. “Why on earth would you be running with an injury?” I was thinking the same thing and was quite prepared to walk. But the pain wasn't getting any worse and, in fact, seemed to be diminishing somewhat the more dialled in I got and after about a kilometre I discovered I could actually push off without any additional pain. So my shuffling became a lope and soon I was passing people - a lot of people. About 2 km into the race, it occurred to me that Angela wasn't going to catch up to me at this pace so I pulled to one side to wait for her.

If you can believe it, standing there on the side of the road in -15C temperature was actually pleasant. The sun was shining. Runners were waving to me as they went by. A few asked if I was alright. Everyone wore smiles. I got accused of being a flasher. It wasn't long before the walkers started to stream by. I was beginning to wonder if Angela had changed her mind about running the course so I pulled out my Blackberry and gave her a call. She didn't answer to I assumed she was on the course. After awhile I saw a tall runner weaving in and out amongst the walkers. ‘That must be Angela,' I thought. It was.

I had put Angela's bib on my race belt to make the hand-off easier but putting the timing chip on her shoe with gloves wasn't working out so I peeled off both pairs of gloves, got her chip secured and sent her on her way. It took me a few steps to find my magic gait again but once I did I was again loping along at a pretty reasonable pace.

Turning south towards the lake, I had a tailwind behind me and bright sunshine in my face. I'd completely forgotten about the cold by now. I passed a blind runner being led by a blind runner's guide. I thought that was pretty cool. I thought of giving my “well done” but then thought she probably gets that all the time so kept my mouth shut as I loped by. I could see Angela up ahead but it was taking me awhile to catch her as she seemed to enjoy weaving in and out passing all the back markers. At about the 4km mark I finally caught up we ran together the rest of the way.

Much of the Robbie Burns 8k race is along the old Chilly Half race course. The Chilly has changed now and is run pretty much out and back along Lakeshore. It is the Lakeshore part of the Robbie Burns route that I enjoy the most and I found myself enjoying the easy pace along this picturesque section. It was a nice change from the Chilly race where I am usually gasping for air at this point in an effort to improve my finishing time by a few seconds.

We turned north for the final stretch of the race and were hit with a headwind and that's when I remembered how cold it was. But the sunshine made it bearable. Plus we were close to the finish. We were still passing people and with less than a half kilometre to go we passed Sue who was running her way to a PB.

As we approached the finish line, I turned to Ang... “race ya!” I said. She looked at me doubtfully and then took off in full sprint mode. I attempted to follow but was quickly reminded about my injury and so limped in just behind her.

The post-race food at the Robbie Burns is awesome. We had oatmeal which is always very well prepared. There were a variety of toppings available for the oatmeal. They also have the best bagels I've ever tasted. I don't know where they are made but I wish we had some place like that in Brampton. There were also bananas, apples, cookies, pita bread. I stuffed my face. The only thing I didn't really care for at the event was the long awards ceremony. But we stayed. Ang won a door prize as did Sue (as well as a black eye when some guy ahead of her grabbed his prize and quickly turned back in time to catch Sue's cheek with his elbow). Cameron won his age group so he got a prize as well.

After the awards, we stopped for breakfast at Cora's where I watched my son, Jon, devour the biggest, richest plate of waffles smothered in whipped creme, fruit, and custard that I had ever seen before. It's times like those I wish I was young again and could similarly down anything put in front of me. In any case, all in all, it was good times. Can't wait till next year.

-richard