A quick stroll through UBC

As promise, a race report for the Longest Run 10k from last Friday. First ever race report, so bear with me...

For a race I had never about or planned to run in until a week before the event, I was certainly happy that my fellow running clinic go'ers Amelia, Carolyn, and Alyson convinced me to run it. I can say for a fact that it was the funnest race that I've ran it before. Ok, ok, so other the the BMO marathon, all my previous races consisted of really only a handful of Sun Runs, but it definitely beats it in every conceivable way. No running on the side walk or the curb to pass people who say they can run 10k in 45 mins. No almost running over people who choose to drop to tie their shoe laces in the middle of the road. And a much better post race atmosphere. ..

The race started at 7pm on Friday June 18th, and I had planned to be there at 6:30 so I don't repeat the start of race debacle at the Vancouver Marathon this year. True to form, I pulled into UBC at precisely 6:45. I had no idea what to expect in terms of the number of runners or pre-race activities, so I hauled ass to get change and follow the rest of the crowd to the start line.

Luckily, the distance from the lots reserved for the race to the start line was mercifully short, and so was the lines to the bathroom. I even got a chance to find the aforementioned ladies before the race. But the biggest surprise of all was finding the Master Jedi (aka marathon clinic instructor Dave Papineau) at the start line with his camera handy. Sweet...a chance to take a non-crappy race photo!

As I said before, I always zone out some when running, especially when running hard, so here are the bits and pieces that I do recollect...

• I think I ran the first 2km wayyyyy too fast. I have no idea how fast I ran it since I purposefully didn't wear my Garmin because I just wanted to treat the run like a fast tempo run. But I kept up with the front runners for the first 0.5 km and was in contact with them after 1.5 km. I was feeling pretty good about myself and then...
• I realized that the first couple of km was mostly downhill. What goes down must come up, especially in a course that is two 5km loops. D'oh! Km 2 started the uphill stretch and was also when I started paying the price for letting the ego take control during the start. Let just say, from the 2 km to the 4.5 km mark, I essentially had my eyes closed, wondering aloud why I was doing this instead of having a beer at the beer garden.
• Saw Dave at the 4.5 km mark with his camera poised! So for the first time in my life I ham'ed it up, gave the camera a pair of thumbs up and a dumb-ass grin, only to hear him say something about "picture...blurry...out of focus". D'oh!
• Back at the start of the loop and the 5km marker, someone was yelling the split time... 20:14. Not bad, but got a bit of work to do if I want to break 40. But wait, the timing strip for the official split was like 200m back, now I'm confused...
• The second loop felt way better (but apparently not faster) than the first. I knew where the downhills were and that let me glide a little, and it allow me to psych myself up some for the uphills. In fact, the uphill sections at around the 7km was where I passed a couple guys (#134 and #83) I've been chasing for the last 20 minutes or so. I remember #134 distinctly (according to the results that would be Darbara Ghuman). He was behind me for the first 2km or so, but he was breathing so loud I thought he was going to fade (and faint) soon. And then he passed me. That's ok, I thought, it'll happen. Wrong. I slowly reeled him in and then passed him for good at around the 7.5 km mark on the uphill stretch.
• Couldn't say the same for #83, who would be Jeremy Cuff and his LGRR racing singlet. I passed him on the same hill at 7km but he quickly took it back. We traded a bit until I decide to just coast in behind him for a bit. Just resting I thought. I'm sure he was doing the same too because right before the 9km marker he put the hammer down. I tried to follow but just didn't have the pace. Right, that's why I have to start doing those track intervals again...
• Master Jedi and his camera again 300 meters from the finish. "Finish strong" was all I heard. No cheezy poses this time. Combined this with the extra energy and the smell of the finish, I started my sprint for the finish. And unlike the Sun Run, there was actually something there in them legs. Hmmm... maybe I could have ran harder?

So the time I ended up with a time of 40:45:41, with an official 5 km split time of 19:50:64. Right after the race I had thought I missed a negative split by 17 seconds (going by the 20:14 the guy yelled out at the 5 km marker), but apparently I positive split by more than a minute. I still think that's off since I didn't think my second half was that slow! Even though I didn't break 40, I still shaved 2 full minutes off my previous 10 km PB. Plugging that number into McMillian's running calculator gives me a 3:11:14 for the marathon. There's hope after all for Boston!

The second funnest part of the race was seeing the other's crossing the finish line. Amelia was 6th in her division and 8th overall for females with a 42:26, missing a negative split by a mere 2 seconds. Alyson crossed the line with her usual smile at 44:53. Carolyn sprinted through the line with a 47:09.

The funnest part was obviously the post race BBQ where I got a chance to chat with Dave and everyone else while enjoying the peek-a-boo Vancouver sun and stuffing whatever freebie hemp bars and coconut water I could fit in the pocket of my hoodie. Only regret, not grabbing a box of that coconut water when I had the chance! I took 3 and downed all of them right after my 23km long run on Sunday. Won't make that mistake next time. I'm bring a garbage bag for next year!

For actual photos, check out Dave's blog entry.