Yesterday my boyfriend Kirk drove from Cape Breton to meet me early in Halifax. We spent the morning wandering around a craft fair and shopping for Xmas presents, then headed downtown in the evening to find our race host hotel. After checking in, we found the race kit pick up area and grabbed our swag. The kit came with a nice bright long sleeve finisher shirt a magazine, a race sticker and our bibs. We were super excited when our race bibs all were personalized with our team name (Captain Kirk and his Crew) as well as our own names.
Holy moly they actually spelt my name right, haha. #impressed
I'll more than likely wear this shirt again, it's pretty nice.
After we picked up our race kits, we decided to head out to a restaurant downtown, and found a place called The Wooden Monkey. The food there was all organic and local, with plenty of vegan options. Kirk and myself both got the lentil burger and roasties (potato wedges with spices), if only I had taken a picture.. I need to work on my white girl skills.. Sorry.
It was delicious and just what we needed pre-race.. pretty healthy too, and while we were there we decided last minute to head over to the Scotiabank Center to catch the mooseheads hockey game (they won in overtime.. GO MOOSE GO!).
After the game we were pooped so we walked back to the hotel to catch some zzz's.
The next morning we woke up at 7am (my 630 alarm didn't go off.. Opps). Luckily the hotel was right by the race venue, and they had free breakfast, so we popped down to the lobby for some food, grabbed our jackets and blankets and headed to the hill.
The race was done in teams of 3, with each team member running 6.5 laps around Citadel Hill. This equals out to be 7km each. My leg was first at 8am, Erika was running second at 9am, and Kirk was our anchor running at 10am. We got to the top of Citadel Hill to see a big crown (with many people in costumes), music playing, and a generally excited and buzzing atmosphere! I instantly got pumped up to run. We found the Atlantic chip vehicle and strapped on the ankle for our timer.
It was clear skies with a slight chill from the
very strong wind. I stripped some layers down and handed them off to Kirk to take care of while I ran the first leg. Standing on the start line, a mixture of pre-race jitters and excitement.. The horn blew and we were off. I wanted to open up and go full speed ahead, but remembering what Kirk had taught me, I held back at a steady pace to maintain energy and keep my heart rate under control.
Im behind bat girl in the white.. took my sweater off and threw it to Kirk after the first lap.
The race was going great, it was very scenic up top of the hill, and the route was relatively flat. Every lap around I would get excited all over again when I saw Kirk, Erika and our friend Lee there cheering me on. It was great motivation to carry on and keep pushing every lap. Only problem was one side was SO windy I could feel it pushing against me, and losing seconds off my pace.
My goal coming into the race was to finish in under 45 minutes. Checking the clock every lap, I knew I was close, but right on pace to hit my goal. Coming around on lap 6, the final lap, I was halfway and saw the clock timer was at 42 minutes. I had less than 3 minutes to get across the finish line on the other side or I wouldn't make my goal. Muttering a quick couple curse words under my breath, and knowing that my team was waiting for me at the finish line, I put the pedal to the metal and pushed my pace.
I reached the finish line just under my goal of 45 minutes! It was such an amazing feeling knowing I ran the entire way, and that I accomplished my goal.
Acting like a goof reaching the finish line.
Getting that medal put around my neck was a pretty good victory!
And it's a sweet medal (the 3 teammate medals attach at the bottom by magnets). Plus it makes me laugh that it says Hampton in is where I got lucky (we stayed there the night before haha).
Once my leg was done, we switched off and Erika took the timing strap and she was off to complete leg 2. Standing by the finish line cheering her on for every lap she did was super fun (even though we were freezing our asses off by this point). Erika finished at 38 minutes! By this point, the wind had picked up a lot more and was really strong on one entire side of the course. Luckily, speedy Gonzales was our last runner.
Kirk is the one leading the pack there in black (don't let the sunshine fool you, it was like 3 degrees and thousand km winds haha).
He cruised through his leg of the race,running the 7km in less that 29 minutes, even with the crazy wind (hello top 10 finish for Kirk!!). Now you understand why he was team captain.
It was such a fun day spent with friends, and everyone had an awesome time!
Go team Captain Kirk and his Crew! Erika ran with us again (she joined us for the Valley Harvest Half as well, and is a pretty strong runner). It was great to be reunited!
Here's us with our friend Lee, who I met at the Halifax spartan race in June. Oh the people you meet through running!
Victory is sweet! Especially when it's with people you love.
After the race, we walked back to the hotel to have the complimentary post race meal, then packed up, checked out and headed home.
Overall, the Lucky 7 Relay was a day well spent, and I would definitely recommend it as a fun relay to do with a team. Until next time..
Stay lucky friends,
The Rural Runner
Hahaha this was me last week.
