For two of the roughly 50 local runners that took part in the 83rd Tely 10-Mile Road Race on July 25 in St. John’s, the feeling of finishing was like that of a nine-month journey.
“I knew it was going to be hard. For me, it was the hardest thing I ever did besides having a baby,” said Gambo’s Jennifer Howse, who finished 87th of 236 runners in the female 35-39 division. “When I was running I was thinking it was kind of like labour. You don’t really think you’re going to get through it, and you think you’re never going to do it again, but when it’s all over you think, ‘That wasn’t that bad. I can definitely do that again.’”
For Appleton’s Tina Timmons, who was the 101st runner to cross the finish line in the female 35-39 division, crossing the finish line was inspiring. It was the first official race Timmons competed in, but has participated in the CIBC Run for a Cure before.
“Almost through the whole race you’re thinking, ‘I’m never doing this again,’ but at the end you’re thinking, ‘Maybe next year I’ll do this again,’” said Timmons. “One of my friends said running the Tely 10 was like labour. All the way through labour you think that you’ll never have another one, but when the baby comes out, you start thinking what if you have another one.”
It was the first time Timmons and Howse ran the Tely 10, and if both are able, they plan on running it again next year, too. Both runners said they ran the race with the goal of just finishing.
“I did it to cross the finish line. That was my goal. The course was great…the 10 miles alone is a good run,” said Timmons with a laugh. “I’m not an experienced runner by any means, so just completing the 10 miles was a challenge in itself.”
“I knew it was going to be hard. For me, it was the hardest thing I ever did besides having a baby.” - Jennifer Howse
Howse said she had a good idea of the course layout in her head, but once she started running it, the feeling of knowing where you are and how much further you have to run goes out the window. But after finishing, was it really that bad?
“It was…interesting,” said Howse with a chuckle. “It was my first time, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I kind of knew the course in my head — I was familiar with it — but when you’re running it you don’t really know how much further you have to go, so you’re talking to yourself the whole way through saying, ‘You can do it…you trained for so long, you can do it.’ You kind of get to the point where you say, ‘I don’t think I can do this again,’ but when the race is over and you’re reflecting back, you think, ‘I can probably do this again.’ Obviously it wasn’t that bad because we’re talking about doing it again.”
Howse said it wasn’t always easy to prepare for the 10-mile run. Like a lot of the runners, Howse works and is also a mother, so when it was tough heading out for a run, she tried hard to keep herself motivated.
“In my head, I knew going into it that it wasn’t going to be a breeze. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but when you resolve yourself and get a few people who are signed up with you, you can’t back out,” she said. “It’s hard to get your butt out to run when you work and have kids, but you think, ‘I have a 10-mile run in a few weeks. Nobody else is going to run it for me.’”
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