It's official; my journey has begun! Yesterday, on Saturday, January 6, I ran the 1hr race at the Stride Inside Track Race. This race takes place on a 210m track (I measured it before and after the race with a precise trundle wheel and the track is actually 215m). Full disclosure: I'm the race director of this event and, therefore, am writing from a biased perspective.
My goals changed in the days leading up to the race. I was hoping to run for 6 hours and would step off the track whenever I was needed. However, I decided that my RD duties were too important to me and that I would run for 1hr and the rest of the day would be used to support the other runners to the best of my abilities.
I'm really pleased with the way the event went and I had a fantastic time watching the runners push themselves. They inspired me a great deal. We were also able to raise some money for two great causes: Women's Shelters Canada as well as for a friend who is receiving cancer support in the United States.
In terms of my own running, I was somewhere in between my 'A Goal' (14k) and my 'B Goal' (12k) and ended up running a little over 13k. Having participated in some indoor track races before, I knew that my speed wouldn't be great because, regardless of what people seem to believe going into this type of event, a 215m track is not conducive to fast times over a long race. The corners are pretty sharp and slow you down a little each time. I never felt like I was pushing hard and I did carry on conversations with some of the runners around me for a good portion of the hour, however, I got tired pretty early on. By 30 minutes, I was feeling pretty spent and felt that a number of late nights with very little sleep was catching up to me. Heather and I had been on vacation with our 6 kids and didn't arrive home until the evening before the race. I had been stressed all week that our flight home would be delayed and that we would not be back in time for the race. Today I had the pleasure of joining some friends for a cold and snowy trail run around Short Hills Provincial Park and I have to admit, I was more sore than I expected to be after yesterday's race.
All in all, it was a great day. The 6hr field was stacked with a number of really strong runners and it was exciting to watch. The results can be found by clicking here.
I don't have a race next weekend so I am going to try to get in a final 50k training run before the Rocky Raccoon 100 Miler in early February. My next race is the Frosty Trail 6 Hour Trail Race in 2 weeks. My current goal for this race is to run at least 50k in the 6 hour event, which is has runners completing 2k loops on a rolling course. I really like this event. All of the hills are small and runnable but they wear you down over time. My goal will change based on the predicted weather conditions. Ideally the trail will be packed snow without mud or ice. I try really hard not to stress about things that I cannot control, such as the weather or trail conditions. Happy Trails!
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