Running Back to Saskatoon

Picture this: its May 26, 2019, its 2 degrees C and here we are jumping around trying to keep warm at the start line for our first official Sisterhood of the Travelling Shoes 5k. Yes, we are in beautiful downtown Saskatoon and you may be wondering why Saskatoon? Well, I’d like to say it was after careful analysis of the race course, amenities, and if they gave out medals (they did) but really, it fit Mag’s work schedule (she being the only sister who is still gainfully employed) and so Saskatoon it was. Little did we know the adventures that would await…

So, What Brings You to Saskatoon?

From the minute we stepped off the plane we knew we were in a friendly town. As we walked to get our bags we noticed a picture and welcome imprinted on the floor of the airport terminal. Not something you see every day….

Everywhere we went people were interested and impressed that we were there “for the marathon.” In keeping with Sisterhood guidelines we did not specify that we were doing the 5k walk portion of the marathon (remember, minor falsehoods are permitted). This is our first race as members of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Shoes and we want to build the right image…. The concierge at our hotel was so impressed he took our picture and said he was going to show it to all his friends. Not sure what this says about us. Did we not look like fit, energetic racers??

When we arrived at our hotel Shauna was suitably impressed, she being the one who insisted that we had to stay at “nice” hotels. And if she wasn’t convinced by the beautiful building, the pillow on our bed sealed the deal. She was so impressed she took a picture…

Preparation is Key

Everyone knows preparation is the key to success. And this being our first official Sisterhood event we wanted to do it right, so being the detail oriented athletes that we are, we developed a somewhat unorthodox pre race plan:

• Use our hard won experience riding the bus to West Edmonton mall and ride public transit to pick up our race packages. We sisters are after all environmentally conscious ( and too cheap to pay for a cab)
• A trip to the lounge for one drink to calm the pre race nerves so we can get to bed early. (Oops! after a few drinks we realize our curfew is long past but we don’t care)

• A phone call to our brother in Montreal for some encouragement and support. We are going to have to revisit this part of our plan as he wasn’t encouraging or supportive at all. Perhaps it was because it was after midnight and he thought we were calling with news of a family emergency
• We review our playlists and decide that none are appropriate, although Shauna tries hard to persuade us to use hers…..

Its Go Time!

We set the alarm early on race day knowing that we must have time to focus and visualize and hey, three women and one bathroom….. Our plan to coordinate our race outfits goes out the window when we realize that our official race shirts are too small and that they are a color of green that does nothing for our complexions.

As we are leaving the hotel we are wished well by:

• the reception staff who at this point still think we are doing the marathon
• a few innocent bystanders who are just friendly Saskatoon people
• the waitress who served us in the bar last night
• the concierge who hugs us, wishes us luck and tells us again how impressed he is that we are doing the marathon

We nod, smile and graciously accept their good wishes…..

As per our plan we arrive early to the race site. This gives us time to scope out where the bathrooms are (we are in our 60s after all….well two of us are anyway) and to find the all important post race snack tent (all the good snacks are gone if you don’t get there quickly).

As we are wandering around trying to keep warm, a couple of things dawn on us

• we do not have the typical (ahem) marathoner runner profile and this possibly explains why the race shirts did not fit
• while we do have a little more “insulation” than said marathon runners, we need to rethink our race attire as we are freezing
• we do not look as focused as other racers (the marathoners again…) and are approached by a kindly looking woman who proceeds to tell us in great detail not only about her relatives who are participating in the race but also her life story in excruciating detail. We manage to get away by telling her we must do pre race visualization before we are called to the start.

Finally it really is go time. We 5k walkers proudly hold our heads up high even if we are the very last group to start and no one is paying any attention to us. The last thing we do before we line up is silently thank Betty for inspiring us to embark on this great adventure.

Betty Would Love That!

We plan to publish a new post every Monday, so stayed tuned for part two of our Saskatoon adventure entitled “We Did It!“