From Sea to Farm

 We headed to British Columbia for an extended week to attend Amber & Eric’s wedding, some swimming in the ocean and even managed to do some running! We left with great memories, but since this is a running blog I’ll just mention details about running from the trip: The first morning in Vancouver I joined Anais, Amber and Lisa for a 10-mile run along the sea walk around Stanley park in Vancouver..ah the ocean, amazing!  The next day I went for another run along False Creek to English Bay and back for about 7 miles or so, it was very hot for the West coast but oh-so-nice.  I think those runs were on Saturday, Sunday and I didn’t run until Thursday next – just a quick 5 miles in the surprisingly hilly Cedar area on Vancouver Island. A couple of days later and we were back home in Ottawa; landing late in the evening we got out the airport and were greeted by the most humid heat. Crazy hot, what a difference from B.C! 

Kids' dryer is my favourite Stanley Park attraction...

At this point, the big race of the autumn was about two months away so I realized it was time to get training again. So I jumped straight into training for the big race in September and ran Monday and Tuesday, even though on Wednesday I was due to race in the most anticipated Experimental Farm 10-miler. On the day, we were spared the humidity but it was still some 25 degrees at the time of the race. I was really looking forward to measuring myself against the three guys who had finished ahead of me in last year’s race and figured a time around 1:04 (last year’s winning time) could be accomplished, but with the humidity gone, the mind started to wander believing I could go down towards 1:02. At the starting line I was disappointed to see that the runners from last year hadn’t entered this time around. So who would be the competition? Difficult to say because concurrent with the 10-miler a three-person team relay was taking place and it was impossible to know who was racing the relay or the 10-miler, well, until lap 2 I suppose. Yes, we were about to run 3 laps along the beautiful Experimental farm, so I suppose I was half-expecting a centaur or two to toe the starting line, but what I wasn’t expecting was to see this monstrosity of man beside me with muscles like the Hulk, surely a triathlete and a serious one of that, just hope he’s part of the relay…  Immediately, he took off at an unmaintainable pace, and many runners followed suite, but I was thinking “too fast, I’ll catch you latter” and settled into my own pace around 6:15 min/mile, hoping to step it up during the later miles. Sure enough, before the first of three laps was over I had caught a number of runners, but the monster man had kept on running and clearly was part of the 10-miler, darn. To make matters worse, right on his heels was a veteran runner with an unorthodox running style, who looked like he was barely breaking sweat and chasing him were two other runners that I thought I recognize from past races, then a gap and then there was me. The second lap was agonizing as no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t find the next gear to step it up! I just didn’t have the jump in my step and my pace stayed pretty much even.

The finishing area of the 10-miler at Experimental farm with me coasting home in the center in white and VIP spectator area to the right. I heard floor seats were going for a $1000 on the black market.

 The course has two short out-and-back turns where it is possible to gauge how close/far other runners in front and behind you are, but the distance is deceptive and you feel like people are closer than they actually are. Anyhow, when we passed each other by these points the guy ahead of me kept saying something to me which I think were words of encouragement. Or perhaps he was just trying to confuse me.. No need, after two laps I wasn’t any closer to the guys ahead than after one lap, and when I ran by my superfan Anais I told her I didn’t know what was wrong with me but I just couldn’t get my legs going. Ridiculous, I shouldn’t have been able to talk that much! I prepared for a final push but when I counted how far ahead the competition was, about 35 seconds, I realized I wasn’t going to catch anyone ahead of me apart from people being lapped, so instead of pushing hard I simply cruised for the final 1.5 miles or so finishing in 1:03:14, and 5^th place in the race. Although I was disappointed at first, later on I found out that I had been beaten by two guys who have run 1:13 half-marathons and two others with 10k PBs under 35 min (I did however finish ahead of the 3^rd placed guy in a 10k in April). Most disappointingly is I didn’t enjoy myself anywhere near as much as I did last year when I stepped it up for a final fast lap to sneak into 4^th place with an inferior time of just under 1:09.  I haven’t been doing almost any fast running lately, which I contribute to my rustiness and what I perceived as a lacklustre performance, but with the heat and all it was pretty decent showing after all. If I had just stayed with the faster runners from the start maybe things would have gone differently…In the end I just wasn’t going to dwell on this result; perhaps it wasn’t the result I wanted, but the result that I needed as I immediately ordered myself some “punishment training” and so far so good but more about that later… 

See this link for race results: Official Experimental farm 10-miler race results

Turning back the feet of time

In 30 degree Celsius temperatures you have to alter your speed and go by feel, much like during the winter when the freeze made running at a regular pace difficult. About a month ago I was laughing at all the Kenyans who were competing in the Stockholm marathon, and firm favourites to win the race, had to drop out with only 10 km to go because the conditions were too cold for them...This lead to a Swede finishing 5th, which is unheard of these days in international marathoning, and curiously enough, an Ethiopian winning the race (how do you explain that?). Well, let's just say as of late the Kenyans would have been laughing at me, but I'm about to put an end to that! This week has been a step in the right direction towards acclimatizing to the summer heat with finally some consistent running, and that feels good I have to say. On Saturday, I run 13.5 miles in the heat with focus on not running too fast. I kept to the shade when possible and managed to keep it at a around 7:30/mile pace. Then on Monday, I ran about 6 miles with Anais, and the next day I wanted to run 5 miles at tempo pace. I went by effort and found 6:20 pace to be reasonable. For some reason I'm quite good at consistently holding essentially the same pace mile after mile and I ran almost even 6:20 miles for the duration of the run, albeit I had to push a bit extra towards the end. The 1.5 mile cool-down was nearly pedestrian, evidence I had to dig deep, but it was so satisfying to complete the run as  planned! The next day I ran just over 10 km in my new Saucony A5 and, in spite of the heat, I managed to find an almost effortless stride at around 6:45 pace, which was very satisfying. So now I'm back!

Moving forward, the main goal will be September's half marathon, but there will be a few other highlights along the way and after for sure. For example, next up in mid-July is the 10 miler at the Experimental farm. Previously, I mentioned my last race was a disappointment, but really I've been putting ridiculously high expectations on myself. I've only been running for just over a year and I can only improve, while many of the runners I've been competing with have been running for years. We're going on holiday next week, and although we plan on doing some running it won't be a priority. Nonetheless, I will be fired up and ready to compete for the 10 miler as I think it may be my optimal distance. Last year, I finished 4th and it seemed everyone got a prize but me (as top 3 runners and age group winners received prizes), and as you know I'd love to bring home some premium shoe deodorizer or wrist sweat band, I'll be running my best...

Everyone's a winner! Alterna Ultimate run for men's cancer raised over 400,000 dollars :)

Speaking of prizes, I picked up my age-group trophy from the Alterna Ultimate 10k the other day. They couldn't hand them out on race day because, apparently, there had been some kind of mix up with one of the age group winners. Had Ben Johnson competed in the over 50s division, I wondered? So, I went to pick up my 2nd place trophy last week at the cancer institute, but to my surprise they didn't have me on the list! Had I failed the doping test? No, not this time. They were simply looking for me on the wrong list (no, not the women's list, but because of my "unusual" name that's happened before...). I was registered in the 19-29 age category, and as it turned out I finished 1st..yeah! I tried to protest, but to no avail. As a matter of fact, Anais registered me for the race, so obviously she doesn't know how old I am.. best keep it a secret for now..