I kind of slacked off this weekend (and the last two for other reasons with an update soon) and that’s because I was away in Ottawa for the Marathon Race Weekend!
Let’s make one thing clear! I was away in Ottawa this weekend but for the third year in a row, I was there as support for my good friend. He’s kind of like my brother and he even volunteered as my photographer at my wedding last year! He usually does only the half marathon BUT this year, he did the 5 km run as well! I’ll get more into detail a little later on the going on of the weekend. There’s food, race starts and shopping haul! Its a nice little getaway from Montreal even if I did miss my husband and my kitty a ton, as I always do. Its nice to be back home even if today is another work day and there’s a deadline tomorrow! 😉
Friday Evening
We left for Ottawa after work on Friday evening. On the road there was a lot of heavy rain here and there. However, somewhere nearing Ottawa, the road was clear and the sunset was clear. It looked so beautiful! I couldn’t resist a picture.
Our first stop was to T&T Supermarket to grab some dinner to take to the hotel. Here’s what our dinner was.
There was two different glutinous rice. There was some dumplings, some rolls and some chow mein. It was all really good. The only one was the rolls there that was something we never had before and it was pretty good.
Saturday
Its almost routine at this point since its the third year that my friend has joined into the race weekend. Morning is always for picking up the race package and walking through the running convention and see what other races there are and what new products and sales on running gear and whatnot.
After that, we head out to grab some breakfast. Like last year, we went to Zak’s Diner. We enjoyed it quite a bit.
I decided to have a little healthier dish so I replaced the home fries with a fruit salad. My friend had the banana pancakes and he said it was really good: fluffy and delicious.
After that, we went off to do some shopping around Rideau Centre. He left a little earlier than I did to gear up for his 5 km race at 4pm. I stayed about an hour more. The really great discovery is that this August, there will be a Disney store there. We’re super excited about that! 🙂
As for the shopping, I found some pretty great deals! I’ll have the haul at the end. Let’s skip forward to the 5 km. There was a huge issue with the heat that day so the morning was mostly also waiting for the times to see if all the races were on time. The 5 km was not affected but the half marathon was changed earlier for the next day. However, the arrangement was that they would provide more water stations and mist to cool down the runners for all the races.
Before 5 km race, kids cooling down
5 km start
The 5 km; Ravens controlling the start; Drone filming
According my friend, he ran the 5 km in a decent time. Slight more than he expected. His one complaint, which I’m sure he will address more on his own, was that there was no water station until the 4 km mark when there was supposed to be at 2.5 km. That’s a big deal because it was unexpectedly humid and hot at around 35+ degrees Celsius. Even if its a short run, its still dangerous to be out running in this weather without more hydration available. I wasn’t running it so that’s all I’m going to talk about this, because they did manage to regulate it for the other races.
Sunday
Half Marathon Start
The highlight of Sunday was the half marathon. The race was moved up 45 minutes to hopefully ease the heat. The lucky part was that the weather did ease up a little and it was less humid and had moment of cool breeze. At least, it was so until a little later in the morning for the end of the race for my friend. I was tracking him on Sportstat so I had a good idea where he was. Good news is that with the very well done job on cool down and hoses from residences and businesses along the running path, my friend did his personal best in a half marathon. Congrats to him!
Dimsum at T&T Supermarket
After checkout, we headed to T&T Supermarket to pick up some dimsum for lunch before heading back to Montreal.
Before I end this post, as I promised here is the...SHOPPING HAUL!
PS4 Games: Thief, The Evil Within, Until Dawn
Hiking Pants and Casual Shorts at Eddie Bauer
Victoria Secret Sports Bra
V-Neck Tunic Tank at Dynamite Clothing
Gummies and Nerds at Sugar Mountain
While this is quite a bit of stuff, it actually wasn’t too expensive and everything had a good deal. The highlight would be the great find at EB Games (or Gamestop) for Until Dawn which was pretty much half of what it is sold online. And I’ve been wanting to play it since last year and review it on That Moment In. I’m pretty excited to play it after Life is Strange (for the next Game Warp Podcast soon). Although I do need to finish Little Big Planet 3.
Also, I was pretty impressed and surprised at the Victoria Secret’s new Sport Bra design for medium support since it doesn’t have the wire support anymore but still is equally as good and comfortable. This is the one thing I always get at Victoria Secret because its expensive normally (there was a sale this weekend) but its so much more durable and comfortable.
Everything else was a necessity since I’m a little short on summer clothes since I haven’t bought much in the last few years. 🙂
Overall…It was a really fun weekend as usual! It was really hot but also extremely nice to know that summer is on its way. I am still thinking about joining either the 5 or the 10 km next year. I’m absolutely motivated to do more running this year. So far I’ve only ran once.
That’s it for the Ottawa Race Weekend recap!
Have you been to Ottawa? Have you run in any sort of marathon (5 km, 10 km, Half, Full)?
Tranquil Dreams 