Lazy Sunday...

Sunday was the 2010 Scotia Half Marathon, and althought I didn't have the pleasure of officially running it, I did get have the privilege of pacing a friend for the last half of the course. I wasn't a big fan of big crowds, but I was a fan of a really fast course, so hopefully I'll actually sign up next year.

Having never paced anyone (nor ran a half), I was just a tad nervous, especially since I haven't timed my runs since the marathon. Amelia's goal was 1:35, which meant a 4:30 minute per km. I kept that pace (mostly) during the first half of marathon and I am pretty sure I've gotten slightly faster since May, so I should be ok. I just need to make sure I get to the course in time and have my Garmin charged.

Although the prospect of cheering on course with Andrea and a cup of coffee was tempting, the plan was: get to UBC by 6:30am (race starts at 7), take some pictures of the start, dump the camera in the car, and run up East Mall and pick up the runners at Acadia and NW Marine Dr right before the big downhill.

Reality: I got to UBC by 6:45am, struggled to find parking for 15 minutes, and barely got to the start line to see that the front runners has already started. D'oh.

Ok, back up plan (I'm late for almost everything, so backup plans comes naturally): the first 3km is a loop before the runners head out onto NW Marine Dr, so hang around the start line, grab some pictures, get to the car, drive down to Spanish Bank to pick up the runners...

Below is evidence of the first part of the plan in action. I spotted quite a few runners I know...

Dario from the Broadway Running Room

Katherine Moore (by know, I mean I've been in a yoga class she teaches a couple of times at YYoga but before last week, I didn't know she runs a 2:47 marathon!). And she was so fast, I only got her back!

and of course the runners from the marathon clinic.

After the pictures and driving down to Blanca and Chancellor, I got my gear ready. Bottle, check. Course map and pacing band, check. Garmin... oh @#%@#$, I forgot my Garmin. Ha, pacing without a watch, nice. I have my iPhone with me, that'll have to do.

I got there a little ahead of time so I got a chance to slow jog the course backwards to find Amelia and Tom while chatting with the few spectators who were awesome enough to brave the rain at 7:50 on a Sunday morning. A couple of minutes before the 12km marker, I found them! Tom and Amelia were chatting away and both looked freshed as rain after 12km. They are going to kill this race.

Not having done any pacing whatsoever, I decided to employ the "stay slightly ahead and be a rabbit" strategy. Tom and Amelia seemed to be fine with this, and since I'm not a good conversationalist at the best of time, and certainly a couple of notches below that while running, this suited me just fine. Even without the Garmin, I've gotten pretty good at ball-parking my pace. Combine this with periodic checks on my phone and asking Tom and Amelia (who was wearing their Garmin), I can tell we were on pace.

The next 2km was a breeze, but having study the map, the next sections were probably going to be the hardest in the race. There was the climb up to 4th at Jericho, and a series of rolling hills along Pt Grey/Cornwall, and finally the Burrard Bridge.

Both Tom and Amelia handled the Jericho hill really well, especially after a long stretch of downhill for the last 3 km. Sometimes it's hard to switch gears. Tom got out a little ahead because he was a better climber, but Amelia would inevitable close up the gap on the downhill.

After we got through the excitement of seeing Andrea at Cornwall and Yew (apparently just cuz I wasn't running officially, I wasn't worth a picture! :P), I knew what was going through both Tom and Amelia's minds: the Burrard Bridge. I tried to remind them to that their reward lay on the other side of the bridge: straight downhill to the finish. I also tried a joke: "hey, at least we don't have to do kits point". Crickets. Tough crowd.

I also knew were were slightly off pace at the bridge, but I thought the climb was going to be tough enough mentally so I kept my mouth shut. We'll try to pick up the time on the downhill. Tom was ahead of me going across the bridge, while I kept a slight lead on Amelia to give her something to chase. The bridge was also tricky since everyone was slowing down and clumping up. Since I wasn't officially running, I tried to be as unobstrustive as possible. I just picked a line right by the curb and stuck to it.

After the bridge crested, I figure I'll let everyone's legs chill out a bit before making the final push. The plan was to pick up the pace right at the bridge turn off on Pacific, which gives us approximately 2km to the finish. I figured with the downhill combined with the smell of the finish, they would respond if they have anything left in their legs. And boy, did they! Especially Amelia who just bombed down Pacific at a way faster pace than I expected. Her kick got her past Tom and I had to speed up so she won't pass me! She kept that pace up for a full 1.5km, but we slowed down a little after the 20km marker. But then literally a minute later, Amelia ran by her mom and she got her groove back, enough for her push hard til the finish.

I had never planned to cross the finish line because this wasn't my race. But we were bunched in with quite a few runners, and with fences along the finish area, just running through seem like the least disruptive option. I tried to get along the sides to get out of people's way but in the process I think I messed up some people's race photos! Double d'oh!

The clock at the finished said 1:35:45, but I was hoping both Tom and Amelia started late so they'd still make 1:35. No matter what though, they ran a fantastic race. But with the legs feeling pretty good, I decided to double back along the course (on the side walk) to pick up the rest of the crowd if I could.

I spotted Alyson a couple of minutes into my jog, but she was practically at the finish already, so I decided to keep going to pick up Carolyn instead. At approximately the 20km mark, I found Carolyn. She had this serious, in the zone look on her face. Ok, I'm just going to say hi, keep my mouth shut, and run her in :)

She may think she didn't but she actually did pick up the pace near the end. She passed at least 10 runners along the way. And I've learned my lesson from 10 minutes ago! During the doubling back, I spotted a break in the fence around 100 yards before the finish line, so I ducked into that to prevent messing up another set of race photos.

All in all, it was fantastic morning. Top barely missed his 1:35 with a 1:35:04. Amelia finished with a 1:35:34 which is a top 10 in her age group and a NYC qualifying time. Boston and NYC QT in 2 months... wow. Alyson and Carolyn did an awesome 1:40:45 and 1:48:25 respectively, all PB's.

Mental Note: Next time you pace, arrange to have a dry shirt waiting for you at the finish so you don't have to beg for a kids size "Volunteer" shirt that makes you look like one of those guys wearing a shirt 2 sizes smaller than you should to show off the muscles you don't have.

After a bit of breakfast, I had the pleasure running back to pick up my car and getting my miles in for the long run Sunday. I was happy that I still had legs left and kept pretty much the same pace while I was pacing, if not faster. I just all the way to the anchor at Spanish Banks and then tried to double back along NW Marine Dr to find the same trail head that leads me to the car. But of course I got lost looking for the trail head and ended up doing an extra 3km or so around the trails of Pacific Spirit Park. I must say though, what beautiful trails to run. The trails feel like marshmallows after running on pavement for the last 20km. Going to make my way out there next weekend!

At least it fitted into my non-structure training plans of doing more miles but less days. As "Once a Runner" says, there is no secret, just more miles to run...

The rest of the Sunday was catching up on the World Cup games I missed. I was so looking forward to the England - Germany game. This just in: swiss cheese is filing a suit against John Terry, Matt Upson and the rest of the English central defense for trade mark infringement. It wasn't as competitive as one would have expected, but some beautiful counterattacking football by the Germans.

A nice long run, good company, and some world class football, I could think of worst Sundays...

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.

Trial of Miles begins...

Two and a half years since blog entries. Wow, that must be a record. So why the sudden urge to blog again? Call me easily succumbed to peer pressure, but I've just accidentally discovered blogs from my fellow marathon clinic running buddies blogs here, here, and here. Some of the food blog entries I don't really get (I actually get it, plus the pretty pictures... but honestly, I eat anything). However some of the running entries, especially the race recaps, were fantastically inspiring and inspiringly fantastic. It would be great to in some small part reciprocate this inspiration to others, plus to myself during those long slogging days during the "trial of miles" in preparation for the next marathon. And actually verbalizing (or in this case would it be "typer-izing"?) some of the training goals I have may actually help me actually keep on track.

I'll put up my Longest Day 10k race recap and my training goals for the week tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how long I keep this up tho since:

a) I tend to zone out when I run races so I am not sure I will remember much. I literally don't remember large sections of the Vancouver Marathon. I would say it was my mind's way of blocking out the pain, but the parts I lost were between the 10 to 20 km mark, which should be the easiest part of the race. Same with the Sun Run a week after, the only thing I remember about it was that it hurt. Bad. However, I seemed to have kept my wits about me for the Longest Day 10k so I should have something to say ...

b) I've been trying to take my running "less seriously" after the Vancouver Marathon, to get the fun back into it. The last 3 or 4 weeks prepping for the last marathon was not fun. Between the ibuprofen and ice packs on my calves while I wasn't running, and the constantly staring at my Garmin while I was running made it a more labourious task than it should have been. After taking some time to let my legs heal up after the race, I made it a point to not time myself on my runs at least for the first little bit. And it seems to be working, since I've been running longer (not sure if it's faster tho) and having a hell of a good time while doing it. But documenting my training is definitely the opposite of "less seriously", but life is about goals and drawing a line in the sand. Time for the trial of miles to start.

Oh, you must be wondering then why am I not using this newly found motivation to blog the race recap and training goals now? Other than the fact that I am full of contradictions, it's 1am and I need to get some sleep so I can do the 15k run to work like I planned tomorrow morning! Although after reading that Amelia's doing track workouts again, I may do a speed session instead. I swear that girl is going to outrun me someday soon, but it's nice to delay the inevitable for a little while longer :)