Our two pace bunnies from Waterloo 10 KM Classic were such a hit, we’re expanding the program for Fall 5 KM Classic!
We’ve got an experienced group of five runners to pace you to your goal time on October 6.
We will introduce the group at 8:20 at the start line. Look for the ears and hop along!
UPDATE: Alex is an injury replacement for Merzi at 22:00.
Introducing …
20:00: Fraser. paced the 50:00 10k in June
22:00: Merzi. “I’m really excited to be able to help others reach their goal. And I hear I look GREAT in bunny ears!”
25:00: Rebecca. paced the 60:00 10k in June
30:00: Tom. “Happy to be a pacer For the 30 minute racers!”
35:00: Carolyn. “I know I love being a cheerleader so hopefully I help other runners reach their goal of 5km in 35 minutes!”
Note that breaking the 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and 22 minutes (women only) barriers are RW Member Achievements.
June 10k Recap
We’re excited to expand the program from our two pacers in June. Here’s how it went:
Fraser: 50:00
“I absolutely loved the pacing experience. Rather than a bit of nervousness before the race, I was excited. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve participated due to injury so it was the perfect way for me to get a taste of racing again. I got a little caught up at the start for the first 300m but soon settled into my pace 5:00min per km.
“The weather was perfect and around the 3km mark the field spread out enough that there was no need to zig zag through. I had a good group of runners following me up to the 5km where most finished right on the predicted time of 25:00. The next 5km I had a group of around 6-8 runners running with me and it was fun to have a little chat and share some race banter. With 1km to go I encouraged my group to give it one last push to get in front of me run some PBs. It was extremely rewarding to see them push away and cheer them on as they pushed themselves. I finished in a time of 50:01, and I was pleased with my even splits.
“It was a great experience and a really well organized event as always. I would love the opportunity to pace again in future races. The “thank you”s I received at the finish line and following the race were also extremely rewarding. Thank You Run Waterloo for a great experience!”
Rebecca 60:00
“Being a pacer was a new experience for me, but I’d run with pacers before – including the first time I qualified for Boston. My pacer that day had given me the right mix of stern direction and encouragement to keep me going.
“I’ve heard that once you think you cannot keep the pace in a race any longer, you’re only 40% depleted – and I know that’s proven true for me. So I tried to create that experience for my group.
“I was not actually sure how many people were running with me but by early in the second loop I knew there were at least 6-8 people running with me and another small group a bit further behind. The Bearinger hill was tricky to keep pace the second time around but I used the types of strategies that have worked for me on countless hilly races and they all made it up, holding their pace (possibly annoyed with all of the nonsense chatting I was doing but it seemed to work!)
“The really gratifying moment was reaching the turn onto Hagey and seeing my pacing group take off and leave me behind! I kept my splits dead even, hoping that the smaller group behind would catch up to me – and they definitely managed to close the gap and got in with just under 10 seconds to spare!
“Got lots of “thanks” and high-fives after the finish line and that was amazing. I think one of the group had run 1:08 before and managed a sub 60; another managed a sub 60 10 km training no more than 20 km per week. I’d do it again! Any time!”
See you on October 6!
