A twinge in her knee is not going to stop an Okotoks woman from participating in what is now a labour of love.
Andrea Siqueira will compete in her second Sheep River Road Race on Labour Day at the Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks.
“My first big race was the Sheep River Road race when I did the 10 kilometres so it will always be close to me,” said Siqueira, a mother of three children. “I was hoping to get under an hour and I did it in 59 minutes. The whole experience was great.”
However, an injury forced her to cut her run in half.
“I have hurt my knee a little bit, so I am dropping down from the 10km to the 5km, but there is no way I am going to miss it.”
She realized she had to walk before she could run the Sheep River race. She started her training for the 2011 Sheep River Run with jogs around the block and adding distance as she went along.
Siqueira can now run the equivalent of two Sheep River road races — plus a bit more.
She has completed two half-marathons (21.1km) both of them in Calgary, in May and July respectively.
“My time was two hours and 11 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for the first time,” she said.
She has started running Saturday mornings with the Big Rock Runners, the organizers of the Labour Day race.
“Usually, I run alone, and that’s why I joined the Big Rock Runners,” Siqueira said. “Running with others is a whole different ballgame. I love the energy and you push yourself more. They are also so nice and they can help you so much.”
Computer age
When Siqueira isn’t running with her pals with the Big Rock Runners, she’s often running on Okotoks’ elaborate pathway system by herself. She is alone, but well connected. She’s got technology with her every step of the way.
She recently purchased a Garmin GPS watch which does everything for her but tie her laces.
“It’s a running watch that goes directly to the satellite,” Siqueira said. “It locates where you are, it tells you how far you run, what pace you set and it keeps a record of all your runs.”
The watch will also display the route she has taken.
If her Garmin watch should breakdown, Siqueira has a back-up plan.
She has a Nike app on her iPhone. Once you program the distance or the time you want to run in the app, a voice will tell you how far you have run, how much longer you have to run and encourage you along the way.
It keeps track of her runs and she can download the results on facebook for her friends to see.
The iPhone also helps her on the long run — The Eagles’ Long Run that is.
“I like to listen to music — anything that is fast,” she said. “I have a running play list, I like The Eagles, Move Like Jagger, Michael Buble, Footloose from the 1980s anything that is fast.”
When you’re running footloose and fancy free, you built up a thirst. Siqueira brings water in her utility belt for any runs longer than 5km.
Although Siqueira has some cool modern stuff, she initially went old school when she began running. Inspired by the bestseller, Christopher McDougall’s “Born to Run” and the fact she ran barefoot while growing up in her native India she initially chose a minimalist shoe.
“I used to run barefoot all the time — I even did the long jump in bare feet,” Siqueira said. “So I first got the Nike Frees and I ran the Sheep River Road Race in them.
“When I started running longer distances, I switched to a shoe with more ankle support.”
You won’t need a Garmin, iphone app or even a water bottle to participate in the Sheep River Road Race. The course is well marked, there are plenty of marshals and there are water stations for both the 5km and 10km runs.
The 5km and 10km runs start at 9:15 a.m. Sept. 3 from Foothills Composite High School.
There is also a 2km Kids’ Run at 8:30 a.m., which allows parents and grandparents to run with little ones before participating in the 5km or 10km run.
All 5km and 10km runners will receive a technical shirt with a cool logo of sheep running on the front.
Registration can be done through the Big Rock Runners website at www.bigrockrunners.com. There is a map of the route on the website as well.
Runners can also register the day of the race from 6:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. at Foothills Composite High School.
