Race Report: Robbie Burns 8K

This is the 3rd year in a row I have participated in the Robbie Burns 8K. This fun race is sponsored by the Burlington Running Club, and is one of my favourite winter running events.  I enjoy running it because it is a great value chip-timed race, has  great swag,  and being in the 3rd week of January,  it helps beat the winter dull drums and get me motivated for the upcoming spring races. The Scottish theme of the event is really fun:

This year did not disappoint.  The race registration was 30 dollars,  and for that fee every runner received a dri-fit running vest:

It's unisex, and a little boxy,  but cute!  I love when race directors think outside of the box and provide participants with unique useful swag!  The two previous years were fleece pajama pants, and a cotton plaid towel.

Unfortunately leading up to race day, the side of my left foot had been bothering me all week. I sat out my long run scheduled for Saturday,  and I iced and took ibuprofen like crazy in hopes of being able to participate in the race.

Race morning was freezing cold,  and I am not joking. Yes,  I live in Canada, and yes it can be cold,  but it was abnormally frigid race morning.  It was -17C/1.4F but with the wind chill -27C/-17F!!!  Brr!! (insert explicits)
Wanting to roll over and go back to bed,  I instead decided to assess my foot.  It was much better and there was no pain either, so I was ready to run!  My friends M and M came over to my house,  and Hubs drove us about an hour to Burlington to the race.

We picked up our race kits,  and enjoyed a little pre-race entertainment.  Thankfully, the runners are able to keep warm inside a local high school gym,  complete with flushing toilets.  There is not a porta potty in sight for this race!!

There is a bag-pipe procession outside to the start line signalling that it is time for runners to line up at the start.  We decided that since it was a cold day,  and my foot was iffy, to line up towards the back and treat the race as a harder training run rather than a race.

I was happy when we started running that I felt no pain, and we settled into a comfortably uncomfortable pace.  The race sold out in November, so the field was crowded,  and although we were trying to take it easy,  we had to weave around many runners,  so we were speeding along faster than anticipated.

Surprisingly we all felt quite warm.  I had worn two layers on the bottom (long johns and fleece tights) and four layers on top (tank, base layer top, fleece top, and running jacket).  I also had a double layer of mitts,  hat, and a neck warmer!  (I don't mess around with -30C)

The Sun came out when we turned South and ran towards Lake Ontario. It was absolutely gorgeous out!  As much as winter running can be tough to get out the door when its cold,  once you are out there, there is nothing like it,  it really is beautiful.  I enjoyed the beautiful homes along the lake shore and tried to take my mind off of the pain of a shorter faster run.


Before we knew it,  we were crossing the finish,  done! (can you see the icicles on my hat?)

Time:  44:04 -5.31km/min (8:52mil/min).  It was a course PW,  I ran this course last year in 41:xx,  but I was happy with the result,  considering the temperature, my foot, and my current fitness level.  Thanks to my fast friends M and M for running with me!

After the race,  there was a full breakfast - oatmeal, bagels and cream cheese, cookies, bananas, hot chocolate, coffee.  They also have the awards in the school auditorium with door prizes. There are some serious fast runners for this small race.  The top three females in my age group finished under 34 minutes,  and the winning female finished in about 27 minutes!

The race has me ready to up the intensity of training for the spring,  and I am so glad I did it.  Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Thanks for reading!