Twenty Valley Challenge Weekend Recap - Pic Heavy

This weekend was the 1st Annual Twenty Valley Challenge Weekend in the Niagara region. Its a unique event that features 11 wineries, food vendors and the challenge medal. There were 3 challenges. The Gold Challenge involved running the 10K Saturday night and then the Half marathon Sunday morning. The Silver Challenge involved running the 5K Saturday and then the Half Sunday and the Bronze Challenge involved running the 5K Saturday and the 3K Sunday. I decided to run the Silver Challenge.

The first race was Saturday with a start time of 6pm and it was th 5K. Now it was almost 6pm and the weather was still at 35 degrees C (that is 95F for my American friends), it was very HOT. The sun was still shinning very heavy and the air was extremely heavy. I knew this going to be a very hot and sweaty run.
Here I am just before the race enjoying some shade so not to start heating up too soon:

We headed to the start line which was right on the road but I did find a tiny bit of shade and sat there for a bit with my daughter before we were all called to line up:

As my husband calls it, I am doing my modelling pose and I am awaiting the start:

And I am off:

And as I start, I see this IDIOT runner (who by the way did not stop to see if my daughter was okay......seriously you ass, perhaps if you were on time you wouldn't have to run over small children to get to the start line on time.....IDIOT), anyways he ran over Marina getting to the start line. Ofcourse I stopped dead in my track to tend to her and hubby yells at me to GO, GO, GO. She seemed okay so I did go but it was heartbreaking to keep going and not hold her in my arms and comfort her.

The run started with a hill which was not appreciated especially since I was so upset about my daughter but my anger made me get up that hill with minimal damage. I hit the 1K mark and I was sweating profusely and so was everyone else. There were a few more hills, some shade which was nice and when I hit 2K there was a water station which I decided to stop briefly to drink. I was really worried about overheating and I was also thinking of needing to run a half marathon the following day in the same heat. Yes I lost a bit of time doing that but I felt good when I started again. The rest of the course was still hot and sweaty but knowing it was a short 5K really helped. Here I came down the hill that lead to the finish line:

Making my way down this steep hill:

I couldn't wait to see the finish line:

WOOHOO 5K DONE!

Here are my race stats:

Chip Time - 26:53 - definately not my best but with the heat I will take it

Category Rank - 2nd....woohoo and I didn't stay for my prize....unfortunately they did not have the times posted (atleast I didn't see it) and my family was hungry for dinner so we left to go eat

Gender Rank (out of 73) - 14th

As I mentioned, after I finished we left and headed back to our hotel for me to clean up and we headed out for dinner. I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable time since I needed to be up early for the Half Marathon the following morning.

The Sunday race started at 8am and you would think it would be a cool morning, NOPE, it was already hot at 7:30am which is when we got to the park. As you can see here, the sun was shinning heavily and all I could think of was that first hill that you get as you start...argh:

The race started and here I am crossing the start mat, let this HOT bad boy begin:

Okay this race was HARD. The first 2.5 K were the same as the 5K, we then did a bunch of turns, we passed beautiful rose farms, I really wished I could have stopped to smell those roses but I knew my 2 roses were waiting at the finish line for me so I had to keep going. We then turned right into very dust/dry grape, peach, pear orchards, also through some other flower farms. Yes it was beautiful but it was hot, dirty, dry, very uneven ground with lots of twigs and holes, not my favourite running conditions. We also had ALOT of hills which at times I did walk up the last half of the hill, so were so many others and I thought if that is what I need to do to not overheat even more and finish this bad boy that is exactly what I will do. I also made sure to stop at all water stations and drink a good cup of water to help me keep going. I also made sure to keep the sponge that they gave us at about 8K (I think), many people commented on me keeping it and what a great idea....yes it was. I got two cups of water at all the following water stations, one to drink and one to soak my sponge in. And if this is too much info I am sorry BUT I would put my sponge on the strap of my top and the water would drip down my body and it was heavenly, yes I was soaked but it felt great :)

At about 15K I thought I was overheating big time and will not make it but I kept saying different mantras in my head and that kept me going. Its amazing what your head tells you when you are running alone for 2 hours. As I was running this hot race I told myself I was going to be happy with a 2:10-2:20 race time, even though that time would really bum me out if it wasn't a hot race.

So I finished....here I am soooo happy to see the finish line:

Here is myself as a sweaty mess:

Here are my two medals....one is for the half marathon and the other is the challenge medal, there was no 5K medal unfortuantely and you can see my sponge that I kept:

And in Niagara fashion, we were given yummy Niagara cherries when we finished. They were delicious and yes in a Tim Hortons cups....totally Canadian:

I went back for more cherries because they were so good:

Also had to have a banana, finishing a race and not having a banana is not normal for me:

One more pic, I think I deserve lots of pics after this race:

Here are my half marathon race stats:

Chip Time - 2:12:19 (blah I know crappy but I am proud of it for THIS race)

Category Rank (out of 14) - 6th

Gender Rank (out of 76) - 36th

Overall my stats aren't the greatest, I always like to be in the first quarter or third but I guess first half is okay for this race.

One good thing is that it was great training for my next very hot race, atleast it was very hot last year. In August I am running the Acura 10 Miler again in Toronto and it was my hottest race last year so hopefully these races this weekend will help me with that race.

How does everyoen else feel about running in extreme heat?