Lululemon 10K Race Review and Recap

I haven’t raced a 10K in at least 5 years, but probably longer as the last one was part of the Runner’s World Hat Trick where I did a 5K, 10K and half marathon that weekend. Which meant my initial thoughts about the Lululemon 10k was it’s a good chance to test myself.

Then I arrived in Edmonton a few days early thanks to Visit Edmonton and went about doing what I always do in a new city… exploring!

Day 1 I walked a bit on my own,
Day 2 I went for a 6 mile run, walked around town all day with the ladies and then did a couple hour ebike ride.
(See my next post for the low down on this town!)

Which is all to say by the  morning of the race, I wasn’t fatigued, but I wasn’t in taper ready let’s kick some major race day butt mode.

And I was sort of excited because that also meant I could take a little  more time to whip out my camera and snap photos during the race!

Thanks to The Lost Girls Guide and AVibrantMind for helping me out with photos since I was running  my tush off. And thanks to TrackClubBabe for her seriously positive attitude and Fight For Growth inspiring me by running her freaking first!!!!

Lululemon 10K

For all of you who thought that Lulu pretty much only put on Seawheeze, hey I get it, me too. But they actually do a couple of 10K runs which also sell out the second that registration opens!

The Edmonton 10K is currently capped at 7,000 runners and the Toronto version is now 10,000 runners.

Per usual I’ll break this down in to a little bit of a race review Pros and Cons and follow it up with my actual race report.

Pros

• You get to run through some super pretty places and see the River Valley of Edmonton
• Lululemon knows how to put on a freaking party during a race
• The race tank is one you’ll 100% actually wear because it’s just a cute Lululemon tank
• Cheer stations galore
• Nuun on the course for those who love that
• Post race yoga and donuts
• Post race Saje giving you some essential oil love for your pains
• Easy walking distance from any downtown hotel for visitors like moi

Cons

• Hills make it not the most PR friendly course
• Rough road so you need to pay attention for potholes
• Lots of turns, which could slow you down if trying to PR
• Crowded course, so again if trying to PR get to the front
• Banana and donut are the sum total of food (works for me, but others love the killer finish line food)

My Lululemon 10k  Race Report

As always the information you want first:
Official: 50:30
My PR is from 2011 – 49:35 — clearly I don’t run these often.
615 out of 7392 finishers (odd since they said it sold out at 7000)
55 out of 1031 in my category

Because this was part of a bigger trip to really explore the area, I’m glad I didn’t try to leave it all on the course. I wanted to do those extra runs and bikes and walks and everything in between without worrying about the fatigue or soreness.

Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well the week leading up to the race, so even the morning of my pre-workout wasn’t making much of  dent in the bags under my eyes. But then I walked downstairs to see this lovely group of ladies and we walked to pumped up starting line…it was going to be a good day.

Then of course the race starts and your body knows what to do!

Pacing
I 100% knew that I was working hard because the race starts on a uphill. And that did play with my head because my first mile was my half marathon pace, ha! I was able to dial it down to sub 8’s for a few of the miles and keep everything else below my current half pace.

So ya know, I consider this overall a fabulous workout and it was a fun opportunity to play with reminding yourself how to pace for 6 miles and not 13!! I’m not great with pushing to that red line, which means I may never be the fastest runner…but I can still push myself and enjoy that effort.

Fueling
I didn’t take anything during the race and maybe could have taken a small amount of carbs to help power up the hills since my HR was higher, but ehh…I don’t know if I could have done anything without stomach discomfort either.

Pre-race I was set with my normal protein drink and some pre-workout. Plus a packet of almond butter!

Recovery
Post race I did take advantage of Saje for the essential oils, but then it was pretty much time to head out to brunch. So I will say not a normal stretch, relax, compression pants kind of day…which has me very interested to see how I feel tomorrow. As of right now the body feels fab!

Overall I’m just freaking enjoying the whole experience here in Edmonton and this gave me a great boost to look ahead to my next race.

Have you ever done a Lululemon race?

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