As usual, I went walking this morning. The plan was to do 16K but we only did 13K. Before I left home, I knew it would rain but for some reason I thought I heard them say it would rain later. Well I packed my disposable rain coat and thought if it rained I would be ok.

When I reach my destination (High Park), one of the walkers reminded me keep my light walking jacket because it may rain. Stupid me didn’t think to take out my disposable rain coat….I left it in her car.

So we set off and we are walking at a fairly fast clip like we normally do. Only I am taking some photos as well. The park is beginning to come to life and looks pretty so I thought why not take some pictures. The next thing I know it’s getting darker.

Someone had said to me earlier that they felt raindrops but I laughingly told him it was his imagination. Even before we started out I had felt a drop or 2 myself and yet I forgot my rain coat.

Anyway, half way down the Lakeshore it started raining, and I mean seriously pouring. The group of us who were leading the pack (about 6 of us) are walking happily in rain not knowing the others are turned around and returned to High Park. Not that it would have matter to us one bit.

I was a bit worried about my camera and MP3 player in my waist pouch, but lucky for me I had a Ziploc bag which was big enough to fit my electronics, so I stuff them in there. I gave my mobile phone to a friend to place in her pocket because her jacket was water proof.

As we walked along I remember the song from one of my favourite movies…I am Singing in the Rain, so I started sing at the top of my voice and doing that little dance that Gene Kelly does. Then it suddenly hit me…we are either a really dedicated bunch of people or just plain crazy. Either way we had a grand time walking in the rain.

After our walk, two of us went shopping at the market for organic veggies and fruits. The return journey home was somewhat uncomfortable because I was soaking wet from head to toe and I was also a bit cold.

As much fun as it was, I am very happy to be home and relaxing. That’s all for now, until my next bout of madness…walk good!

Yep…I got my first medal today for participating in the 10K Sporting Life race. It was a darn good race too, especially since I walked/ran 21K yesterday during training. In fact training didn’t go so well since I struggled through it and didn’t think I would be able to finish it. I was able to get through it though but felt kind of demoralized that it was such a struggle.

So today when I was able to do the 10K and at perhaps my best time ever I have to say I am not only very happy but proud too. I walked 7.53/K and finished in 1 hour and 18 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if I hadn’t done the 21K yesterday and was more rested if I could have gone faster.

That’s water under the bridge now though and this will give me incentive to continue to work on my technique. I did more of a race walk today than power walking and I find I am much faster and I like it too.

The race itself was fun with some 12,000 participants of which over 300 registered as walkers.  It was amazing to see all those people running/walking down Yonge Street. There were several bands playing along the way and water station every 4K. We started the race at Yonge & Castlefield and finished at Fort York. The top three runners were all from Nairobi but the top three walkers are all Canadian.

So now I have to prepare for my next 2 races in June… a 5K on June 13th and a 1/2 Marathon on June 14th. I may do another race the end of this month but that is dependent on whether someone drops out. If not I will just go and cheer my fellow team members on and take pictures.

Well that’s all for now. Take care and walk good!