First off, I would like to apologize in advance to all the people planning to run the half or full marathon at Ottawa Race Weekend this year. I have plenty of evidence to suggest I have broken my “race weather curse” – the one where miserably hot weather seems to follow me to races – but I promise to do plenty of interpretive dances and sacrifices to the weather gods, just in case.
Now that that’s out of the way, you’ve probably guessed that I will indeed be making the trek to Ottawa for Race Weekend again this year. I acknowledge that my experience is limited, but I think this has to be my favourite event of the year. I have never been anywhere else where the whole city is engulfed in a giant running party for a whole weekend.
But this year, it’s even more exciting because (drum roll please…) I joined the Pace Team. That’s right, I am running the half marathon with rabbit ears. For those who may not know what that means, many races have a team of people, often known as pacers, pace rabbits, or my favourite, pace bunnies, who run the race with the goal of finishing in a specific time. These people carry signs and wear rabbit ears to let you know their time, and if there’s a bunny with your goal time, you can just stick with him or her to stay on pace. Another advantage to sticking with a bunny is that you will be surrounded by a group of runners with similar goals, and you can all keep each other motivated.
While it is true that I am very excited (very very!), I am also a little nervous. I’ve paced myself loads of times, of course, and would say I am fairly good – once I get into a rhythm I tend to be like a metronome. However, I have never had anyone counting on my metronomic ability before. So if anyone reading this has any rabbit experience, I would love to hear from you! Please feel obligated free to leave your tips and advice in the comments below!
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That sounds like so much, Karen! I’ve been growing more and more interested in giving it a try myself. So no advice here but how did you get the opportunity?
Whoops! Missing word there: “sounds like so much fun”
AWESOME !!!!!
When I tried pacing a race, I had my Garmin GPS and also a pace band. The other bunny for the same time decided we should stay together. That was fun, but it also meant we were never really sure whose Garmin was right — for distance OR time. We ended up 2 minutes slower than our goal time, but that wasn’t so bad.
So cool Karen – I will be there, but running my first 10k….will watch for your rabbit ears on the Sunday!
(Betty has had me reading your blog since you entered the contest way back when!)
Have fun!
Tara (from your old CS days)
Hey, I’m running that event too. What time are you pacing?