I made the short trip to Vancouver last weekend to race in the famous Sun Run 10k road race. My mom came with me so it made for a fun weekend hanging out in a fancy hotel and shopping downtown. The race was only a week after Sydney so I was still feeling a bit jet-lagged and sluggish, but I love the energy and atmosphere of the race so I was very keen to do it! My only goal was to run faster than last year, which would be a PB for me. There were 2 African girls competing, one from Kenya (Lucy) and one from Ethiopia (Emebet), and I found them sitting on my shoulder for the first 4 km. It was a quick pace, but I was fairly comfortable. I felt silly running ahead of them since I was expecting them to be significantly faster than me. At about halfway, Lucy surged ahead and Emebet dropped back quite a bit. From that point, I maintained the gap of about 6 seconds for the rest of the race. I really regret not trying to close the gap and run with her, and looking back I feel like I could have. I was satisfied with being so close to a Kenyan that I just settled in and accepted that she SHOULD be ahead of me. I settled for second place instead of racing to win. Bad decision. I still managed a PB, 33:47, which was faster than last year despite a less-than-ideal lead up to the race. I was the first Canadian and second overall- but man I hate losing!
After the race I travelled home to Edmonton to visit with my family and friends that I haven’t seen for a few months. I also had to sort out lots of grown-up stuff that I shouldn’t have to worry about for at least another 5 years! I don’t want to deal with taxes and banks and corporate accounts and lawyers and accountants. I don’t want to have a ledger books and keep track of all of my receipts. I don’t understand any of it... but my mom says I have to pay taxes or I’ll get thrown in jail. So I sat at the accountants office and wrote a cheque for a ridiculously large amount of money to the Government of Canada. Major down-side of winning prize money. I’m lucky that my mom is helping me so much with this, I basically just have to sign on the line and write cheques, but it’s definitely not fun! Welcome to the real world.
On a more fun note, a got a new Macbook Air yesterday and I love it! I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while and I finally decided to do it. It’ll be nice and light for traveling and it’s so much faster than my old one.
I’m heading back to Victoria tomorrow morning, with a little less money but a lot more happy! Definitely needed that little break.
Happy Easter everyone!
Paula
6 comments:
Doing it like a boss. Good work, but its prolly best that you didn't go balls to the wall on a FUN run. You still have a few races left, I assume.
Oops, I read "fun run", not "sun run". My bad....but still.
hey Paula, nice work and great 10k PR. Why didn't you go for the win?! Oh and great job in Sydney.
Dear paula, I am doing a project in school about who is my role model. at first i was stumped but then i thought of you. we have alot in common. You used to swim...same as me (well kinda i still swim. i started competitive swimming when i was six and im still doing it 5 years later), you are from edmonton... same as me.
This project im doing calls for 5 different character traits which my role model posses. I can definately add talented to my list but i cant find anything about your personality. If you could tell me some positivve traits you have i would really appreciate it. I was really excited when i found your blog cuz nobody in all of grade 5 is able to get in touch or contact there role model so this is a really great opportunity for me.
Good luck in your next race,
hope i'll hear from you soon:)
Better get use to paying a lot in taxes. I have a feeling that you will have a lot of prize money coming your way in yeard to come.
Good luck in London(this year and next).
Kent
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