My First 5km Race

About this time last year I decided that it was time to get healthy. Part of this new lifestyle meant getting out and being active as often as I could. I figured the time spent lying in bed and listening to the morning news on the radio could be better spent going out for a walk. On weekends I would go a little bit further and would start telling myself to run to the next lamp post or tree. As that started to become easier, I found that I could run a bit further to the tree after that, and so on. Eventually, I was able to incorporate more and more running (be it, slow running) until I could do a whole circuit without stopping to walk. I must mention that this all happened over maybe around 6 months.

Once I could say that I was a "runner" and not a run/walker, I needed a new goal. So I decided to aim to participate in the October Partner Re 5km women's race. 5km probably sounds small to many, but it took me quite a while to be able to do this distance without stopping – let alone actually run up those lovely Bermuda hills.

In the week before the race, a friend and I ran the route a couple of times so that we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Doing this meant that come race day, I knew I'd at least finish, which was actually my goal – oh, and also to not finish last.

Race day came, and I lined up to get my number to attach to my shirt, as well as a tag to put on my shoelaces so that we could be timed. I felt like a real runner now! I found my friends and we made our way to the starting line. There were hundreds of people all there, so we found a spot at the back, in front of the competitive walkers (whom we also said that no matter what, we would NOT finish after any of them!).

When we first got going, it was all quiet except for the sound of feet hitting the pavement. I was off to a good start, but I was thinking that I should remember to pace myself. Throughout the race, I tried to remember this, but as people come up from behind and pass you, it's difficult. Often, someone would pass me, and then I'd pass them up ahead when they decided to walk. Being in a race was definitely a different mentality to just running on your own. I found a lot of people often walked where I usually try to keep running, even if it is slowly. However, when people around me kept walking, I started to think it would be a good idea if I did too. I confess, I did walk for about 30 seconds at the top of Tee Street (a nasty hill in the last leg). But, given that my goal was to not come last and to not have a speed walker pass me, I knew that walking wouldn't help me achieve this. The race was almost over, and I needed to push on.

At the entrance to the Botanical Gardens I picked up to a sprint to the finish line in order to gain some extra seconds and pass some of those people who had just passed me. But I'm not competitive or anything! I finished the race in 33:16, which is about 3 minutes better than my old time. I guess that the race mentality worked!

My next race will be the 8km Bacardi Run in November. I've got some training to do!

Storm Season 2010

Hurricane season this year seemed to hit late. In the last 2 summers I've been here, we've had a big storm July or August. Although, both Bertha and Bill turned out to just be tropical storms where we just "battened down the hatches" for a few hours, and ate non-perishables and drank rum/wine. However, this year, once the season did pick up in September, it threatened us with about one possible storm per weekend (notice that they always came on weekends?!).

For Bermuda, first there was Colin, who wimped out and fell apart. As it was the first storm warning we'd had, everyone braced for it. Businesses (such as the dvd rental store) closed, tennis games were cancelled (for me, anyway), and it turned out to be a rather boring weekend of sitting and waiting. Although my friend's karaoke birthday party went ahead, thank goodness!

Next there was Danielle. She didn't even bring us clouds. Just wind and great waves in which we spent a couple of hours body-surfing at Horseshoe Bay.

Then there was Igor...
In the week prior, people in Bermuda were glued to the storm tracking websites such as stormpulse.com and weather.bm. What scared people was that until the day before, it was a category 3 direct hit. That would have been worse than anything anyone's ever seen here – even worse than 2003's Hurricane Fabian.

Igor was supposed to be at its closest point of approach by Sunday evening when it would be as close as 10 miles from the eye. But as it was a whopping 1400 miles across, we'd be feeling the effects of the storm for many, many hours before and after that.



Friday afternoon I had a bit of a panic attack when I realized that I had no food in the house, let alone any batteries or water, or whatever else one should have. We got out of work early to take care of things and I stocked up.

Luckily though, it was downgraded to a category 1 by Saturday. Saturday was overcast and windy, but everyone was still able to get ready. People were busy putting plywood over windows, trimming branches and bringing things inside. I went for a pre-storm run in the afternoon just in case I ended up being sat inside for a couple of days eating and drinking – as you do.



Sunday was the big day. I could hear the wind and rain gradually pick up as the morning went on. My friend and I were invited to spend the storm at some friends of his. We made a break for their place in Paget it around lunch time.

The power went out mid-afternoon, but they had a generator so we were completely spoiled. We had lights, watched dvds, and were able to cook dinner. At around 6pm we ventured outside and walked to the end of their street to see the ocean. The waves were bigger than I've ever seen!

The next morning, it was all over except for a bit of wind. There were lots of branches down and leaves were everywhere. Also, from the force and length of the the strong wind, many of the leaves on trees have been burned brown. It kind of looks like fall. I attempted to go for a walk on the railway trail that afternoon. I realized that it probably wasn't the best idea I'd ever had when a few metres in, there was a fallen tree blocking my path. Still, I climbed through, and went a few more steps only to come to another, etc. Eventually I had to give up and turn around.

I think that the hurricane season is probably over now. This storm made the sea-surface temperature go down 6 degrees! As the water cools down, so do the number of storms. To be honest, it's probably a good thing that none of the storms amounted to anything.