It's been a good couple of weeks of running since my last post. I've been doing some speed work and some hill training and I can see that I am starting to finally get a little bit faster. More accurately, my tempo running is getting easier. After 14 races this year, I can honestly say that I am not at all tired of it; in fact, I'm more excited about racing than I have been in a couple of years. I've done some really exciting events this year and I'm super stoked about some of the races that I have scheduled in the upcoming months.
In the past 2 weeks I have raced the Head for the Hills 10k trail race and, the first event in the OUTRace series, the Pick Your Poison 50k trail race.
I raced the 10k Head for the Hills last year and I had a great day so I added it to my calendar for this year. It is a fun morning for the entire family. There is a raffle afterwards and there is a park at the start/finish, where my kids and Heather could hang out during the race. The course is a 5k loop. Most of it takes place on gravel pedestrian trails with 1 short muddy off-trail section. With the recent weather conditions, I was surprised that the course wasn't more muddy.
After the race started, I pulled in behind the leader and thought that I would stay there until either he picked up the pace or until we reached the 8k point of the race. At approximately 1k into the race, the runner behind me pulled up beside us and then took off. We realized that he was in the 5k event so we let him go without any thought. I chatted with the leader for a couple of kilometres. He was a really nice guy from Kingston and it turns out that a lot of our road race personal bests are similar so I figured the last few kms of the day would be fun.
Just before the 4km point, the guy I was running with had a bit of a stumble and I took over the lead. I kept looking back and making sure he was okay and he insisted that he was fine, so I maintained the pace. The last km of the loop had some muddy sections followed by a short but very steep and slippery hill to climb. I finished the first loop with about a 10 second lead and feeling tired. To my surprise, no 5k runners had finished yet. It turns out that the 5k runner that passed us early on ended up going off-course. I spoke to him after the race and we was a really great sport about the whole thing.
I felt like I should probably try to pick up the pace a little but then decided not to unless the next runner started to close the gap. I stopped worrying about my pace and focused on maintaining my position; this is a strategy that is foreign to me. With 2k to go I was pretty confident that I had a big enough lead to secure my position and I backed off a little. When I finished, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Curtis, my stepson who signed up on race day, ended up winning the 5k race. Since the 5k and 10k runners ran together, he had no idea that he won and it certainly made his day. To make the day even better, my 2 other children that came to the race also each won a raffle prize.
Next up was the Pick Your Poison 50k trail race. I absolutely love this challenging event and have been looking forward to it, even though I knew I was not as prepared as I have been in previous years. I had recently read that the course was going to be extra challenging this year due to some late season snow that accumulated. Either way, I was looking forward to seeing friends and getting my jar of delicious honey that all participants receive. The RD of this event does an amazing job with branding and the shirts and socks are amongst my favourite pieces of swag that are offered at races. The volunteers kicked some serious butt making sure that the trails were runnable and ready for race day.
The race was actually pretty uneventful in terms of my performance. No falls and no issues to report. The trails were rough but better than I anticipated. It was great seeing a lot of my trail friends and I had a fun day. The weather was cool, which is how I like it. I felt like I was running pretty solid all day, however, my times indicated otherwise. Apparently, I started slow and got slower. I didn't let it bother me and just tried to enjoy the day.
Once I realized that I wasn't going to even come close to my goal time, I set some secondary goals, which were as follows:
1) Run hard for the first 3.5k of each 12.5k loop, since this was the easiest section.
2) Don't start walking the ski hill until I pass all of the chair lifts and make it the steep part of the climb.
I was pleased that I was able to do these two things.
Here's where I sucked:
1) I did not eat or drink enough. Only consumed about 750mL of fluid all day.
2) Even though my time indicated I wasn't going too fast, I used up too much energy in the first loop.
These are both pretty stupid mistakes. I often fall into the dangerous thinking of "it's only _______ kilometres. Shouldn't be too hard." In this case it was 50k but the same can happen for any distance. Always respect the distance, stupid.
I had a great chat after the race with the RD, who is a solid guy. I got such a good vibe from him and I could totally feel his love for the trail running community and his desire to give back. Respect.
Well, there you have it. Still feeling healthy and still enjoying the journey. I'm excited to change gears and try to run fast next weekend. I will be starting the weekend by running a kids race with a couple of my monkeys, running the 5k race as hard as I can, jumping in the car, and driving to another race: the Lung Burner. The Lung Burner is a 4k hilly trail race that lives up to its name. It's put on by some great guys and I'm happy that I am able to run it again this year.