When I train with Comet, we usually run between 5 and 6 km up the mountain, or 5 to 7 km around Parc Lafontaine. So I approached my first endurance circuit race of the year, which took place this weekend, with little apprehension. The race, after all, consisted of a simple 5 km on flat terrain.

Got to Île Bizard early enough to catch the end of the 2 km race, and happily cheered the runners at the finish line. This, along with the crowd, the music and the festival atmosphere got me really psyched. Although speed is never my goal, I was secretly relieved to see that their times were similar to mine, so I wouldn’t come in dead last.

After the 2 km race was over, I stood eagerly at the start line among a few hundred other runners, staying warm by lazily jogging in place. At long last the siren blasted, and we started off slowly. We quickly left the cheering crowd and music behind, and were soon running through quiet country roads, the only sounds around us being the plods of hundreds of feet and our careful, determined breathing in unison. It was a beautiful, warm day and I soaked in the sun.

Then, about 5 minutes into it, my treacherous body betrayed me. My nose blocked completely, forcing me to breathe through my mouth, breath that quickly became a wheeze that made my lungs ache and burn. It was then that it all came back to me: how I had neglected to have dinner the night before, and skipped breakfast that morning. How, having been sick, I hadn’t run for two weeks before the race. How I let Nika talk me into going to the Jupiter Room the night before. As the sun’s previously welcome rays became uncomfortably blinding, I realized the race would now punish me for my hubris, by transforming itself into half an hour of Absolute Pain.

But hubris be damned, I finished it in under half an hour! And I’d be quite proud of that, if I could walk this morning.

UPDATE: Great. The next race is the day after the big Yulblog party. I doubt my experience the next time around will improve much!