This is not the run club I went to, but you get the idea. Image stolen from the Eaton Centre lululemon’s Facebook page.

I was told that I needed to run 5k between 26 and 28 minutes. Knowing that this would be tough on my own, I decided to run with the lululemon run club for the second time. Thanks to the time change, it was light out for this run (yay!).

There were five of us this time — the same four girls from the last time I went and a new runner named Jenna (hi Jenna!) who normally runs with the Queen Street group. She’s also running Around the Bay on Sunday!

I’ve learned I’m not the chattiest group runner. It’s strange, when I’m with pubruns or Kate or Kendal or Sarah I do not care, and will chat the whole way. But put me with a group of strangers? I need to dust them. I’m also running so hard that talk is difficult. We ran east this time, to King and River and RIGHT PAST MY HOUSE. Painful, Andie, painful. Around the 3k mark, it starts to snow all Christmas-like. When is spring coming?!!! Over to University and a loop back to the Eaton Centre and we were done. Fastest run yet. Thank goodness for red lights — I couldn’t maintain this pace without the breaks.

After the run, we stretched and I had a chat with Andie about my Around the Bay plan of attack. I’m going to find the 3:30 10 and 1 bunny and hang with them. If I feel strong, I can kick it up in the last 10k and power it home. I’ve been toying with the idea of running with the 3:15 bunny, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. This isn’t my goal race. I just want to 1) feel strong and run well and 2) run faster than last year. I can accomplish both of these things with the 3:30 bunny.

I can worry about performance when it’s time for the marathon.

The run: 5.8k in 29:47
The route: