Thursday, April 29, 2010

TC 10km

April 25, 2010

This was one of my hardest races this year.  I've had a good year of racing, not only in getting a lot of PBs, but also in the way that I have felt during my races.  I've felt strong and while pushing myself, I didn't feel like I was totally dying.  However, that changed with this race.  It felt hard from the start - and it didn't get any easier throughout the race.

This is the largest 10km race in Victoria, and the second largest race of this distance in Canada.  This year, it attracted over 13,000 registrants.  It's a great community event, but is definitely a different atmosphere than the smaller island series races.  It also attracts a much deeper field, and this year didn't dissappoint - with many fast racers at this year's event, including Simon Whitfield, Steve Osaduik, Scott Simpson, Jim Finlayson, David Jackson, Lucy Smith, Lisa Harvey, Kristina Rodey a number of Kenyan runners [including the winner from last year: Willy Kimosop and his training partner Kip Kangogo (the ultimate winner of the race this year)] and a fast woman from Poland:  Karolina Jarzynska, who ended up being the fastest female on the course.

With the huge number of runners and walkers, the beginning of the race can get quite crowded.  Luckily, I was able to start near the front, and I didn't have to fight the crowds too much. The number of racers didn't slow me down any, as I was able to keep to the side and run my race at my speed. 

My goal for this race was to better my time from the Cobble Hill 10km in January  (41:58), and I was hoping to get close to 41:30 -- this would put me at about 4:09 per km.  I knew that my first km would start off fast - and I hoped that any faster kms I posted in the beginning wouldn't hurt me in the end.  This was the first race of the year where I was under  more pressure - as I had a real time goal in mind that I knew would be challenging to meet, and would require me to really push it.  Due to my desired time, I tried to go as fast as I thought I could handle - but didn't look at my splits.

From the start I knew it wasn't going to be easy - my breathing was laboured pretty much off the start and the run didn't feel as relaxed as previous races had.  The kms went by, people passed me, and I definitely was not feeling fast.  The nice thing about this race, is that there's lots of spectators, so I heard my name called out a number of times -- which is always uplifting.  After the turnaround, and closing in on km-5, there's a small hill that's not that huge, but definitely hurts and slows you down.  The next two kms are quite slow, as there's a gradual uphill - and for me they were definitely slow.  Sandra Mullen, from PIH, passed me around the 5km mark - she's a strong racer, and I tried to stay with her.  She got some time on me, but I was determined not to let her get too far away.  This extra bit of motivation was good to keep me from totally falling apart.

Kilometer 7-8ish is mostly slightly downhill, and I definitely felt it - glad for the little bit of help along the way.  Finally I hit the 8km mark - thankfully, only 2 kms to go.  I could hardly wait for the race to end.   When looking at the profile, these two kms look relatively flat, but there's a slight hill just before km-9. It's not much, but enough to feel it.

The final km!  The last km is very twisty turvey - with several turns before the final stretch to the finish. I've done the race enough times now to know to be patient with the turns and not get too excited until the final stretch.  Ugh -- it felt hard!  Push, push, push, keep the legs going, focus on turnover. -- The final turn -- the finish line is now about 400 meters away. 

Slowly the finish line comes into sight.  I see the clock -- is that 40? -- No, it's already at 41... 41:30 - quick - push, in order to stay under 42 minutes -- with 100 meters to go, I put on the speed, as the clock ticks away. I make it in 41:53.  Ahh -- my body hurt, my stomach was weak, and I crossed the line panting... Thank god that's over. My splits were 4:01; 4:05; 4:07; 4:09; 4:21; 4:21; 4:17; 4:05; 4:16; 4:11.   While, I didn't have the best race of my life - many other Harriers had fantastic races - including Shane, who ran an amazing 33:00 - getting one second away from his goal of breaking 33:00.  Andrew Pape-Salmon also had an amazing race - his track training has paid off. 

So - it ended up being a PB - but not as good as I had wanted.  I took off 5 seconds, but in the scheme of things, it was a pretty flat race compared to my Cobble Hill 10km.  Looking back at my training over the past month-1.5 months, I can see where I think things fell apart.  While I kept up my mileage, for the most part, my speed work really dropped off.  Since September, I had made two major changes to my training: more distance/days of running and more speed work, and especially track workouts.  But due to various factors (not enough sleep, illness, and even racing), I had missed out on too many of my track workouts.  My perception is that this was the key factor -- the key missing link that kept me from reaching my goal. 

Anyway -- nothing like a hard race to get me motivated to get back to training hard and making sure to get in those key workouts.

I'm doing the Sun Run next weekend, we'll have to see if that race turns out any differently...

Monday, April 5, 2010

Merville 15 km

April 4, 2010

So my question is -- where are all the fast female runners?  and especially where are all the fast 30-34 year old females?  I know they are out there.  I've had occasion to race against them in the larger races - but this year in the Island Series races, the very fast 30-34 year olds have not been present.  Now, not to discredit the women in my category -- there are some strong runners out there - but when I think of fast for a woman, I think of a sub-40 minute 10km, a 1:30:XX half-marathon and a 60 minute 15 km.  When I compare the depth of the field between the male and the female racers, the men are much more competitive.  Are the women not as interested in racing, is it something that hits women when they get a bit older (the 35-39 category is usually larger and more competitive than 30-34), do women get caught up in doing other things in their early thirties (again the 25-29 category is also more competitive), or are women simply more interested in pursuing the larger races and training more specifically for key races?

I don't know the answer to my questions - but while it's exciting for me to be placing well in my age category this year, I know that there are many women that could blow me out of the water, and that things could totally change next year, and I could be back to being a ribbon-girl. So, I will enjoy it while it lasts, all the while trying to keep getting faster to try and keep ahead of the herd.

Now to Merville -- I ran this race simply to get a 5th race in this series, so I could place in the series standings.  While the series standings do not really mean that much, as most people don't run 5 races, and many of the faster runners run less than 5, I had a hard time running only 4 races - if I am that close to being ranked, might as well throw in a 5th race.  I picked Merville because I hadn't ran a 15 km in 3 years, so it would be an almost certain PB, and because it gave me a bit more rest before two 10km races I would be doing at the end of April and beginning of May (TC 10km and Sun Run in Vancouver).

I woke up Sunday morning, after a mediocre night of sleep, and dozed most of the drive up to Merville.  Merville is a small community north of Comox, and to get to the start, we had to drive along a short dirt road.  Ahhh - small farming communities.  The race route meanders along country roads and the race runs in a loop that forms a square with a tail (a short section that is repeated at the start and end of the race).  

The drive up wasn't too bad, but just before we hit Merville, it started to rain, and the rain increased in intensity as we neared Merville -- by the time we got to the start of the race, it was pouring down.  Luckily it wasn't windy -- on Friday, the Island had been pelted with a wind storm that had wreaked some major havoc in a few areas.  So, while I would have preferred no rain, rain was definitely preferable to wind.

Due to the outside conditions, and the fact that it was a longer race, my warm-up consisted of a run to the start line with Shane and Craig Payne.  The start line was about a 1km away, so it gave at least a few minutes to get the blood pumping.  As I was running towards the start line, I realized that I had forgotten to take a puff from my inhaler -- I hoped it wouldn't affect my race too badly.  There was a gaggle of people all crowded around where we thought the start would be - but no one was certain where the start actually was.  There was no banner, and we couldn't even spot any kind of line in the dirt.  Just as the minutes ticked towards the 11am start, the race director then came out and lined us all up -then soon enough we were off.

Right from the start, it felt hard.  I started off at a pace that felt somewhat fast, but again, I wanted to try and keep up with those just in front of me.  Julie and Kathy Rung (in the 35-39 category) was just ahead of me, and Charlene Waldner and Kirsten Arensen (also 35-39) were just behind me.  The competitive part of me kicks in, and based on past performances, I don't want to get too far out of where I think I should be.  But, within a km, I was hurting bad, and had to ease off a bit.  Charlene passed me, and for me it was a hanging on battle.  I just wanted to stay close to Julie, Kathy and the man and woman who I didn't recognize, but who were just ahead of me.  My body felt tired, and my breathing felt laboured -- I also struggled to get enough deep breaths in.  'This was going to be a long race,' I thought, and it had only just begun.  I only hoped that I would be able to hold on. 

The first couple of kms are a slight uphill, and there's a few small dips and hills in the next few kms, with a slight rise all the way to about 10km.  From 10-15 km it's largely downhill (slight grade). As we passed the first few km markers, I kept my position - struggling not to fall back.  I was glad this was a longer race - because if it had been a 10km race, I'm not sure I could have pushed that extra bit to keep a faster pace.  I heard footsteps just behind me, which motivated me to keep going - trying to keep ahead of what I thought would inevitably be someone who would pass me. 

Prior to the race, I had once again checked out the race calculator, and based on my 5km time, it stated I should be able to run a 1:04:20.  This would be a 4:17 pace.  Okay -- that would become my A goal - realistically I was gunning for maybe around a 1:05 - which would be a 4:20 pace.  Then, of course there was the ultimate goal of getting a PB, which put me at having to come in under 1:12 - which I didn't think should be a problem. 

Normally, I don't check my watch much during races.  I like to run by feel - I worry that if I check my watch and am off pace, I could get discouraged -and even if I'm running faster than my intended pace, I won't necessarily slow down, because I think 'I'm banking time'.  I know the ultimate strategy is to run races by doing negative splits, but thus far I've never done that -- I might start off a bit too fast - but am usually able to hold it together, and still run respectable times.  I haven't yet ever totally blown up from starting a race too fast. 

At the 5 km marker, I checked my watch - it read 21:21 -- which I thought at the time was right on 4:20 pace, but as my mind was in race mode, my math was a bit off, and I was actually a bit ahead of 4:20, which would have put me at 21:40.  I thought to  myself 'okay I haven't fallen apart yet, now comes the hard part of trying to keep it together for the next 10km.'  Mentally I had broken this race into thirds, and was happy when the first five km were done -- I only had to run two more of 'those', and I would be done. 

The next five kms of the race continued to feel hard.  But, I was managing to keep up with Julie and Kathy.  To keep myself going I was telling myself - 'keep your feet up, kick your bum, keep the turnover'.  At around the 7 km mark, the unknown male and female (who I think actually was Angela Plamondon) put on a bit of a push, and inched past Julie and Kathy.  I continued to hold on.  Close to the 8km marker, the gradual hill started and my legs actually felt pretty strong, as I pushed on the uphill.  My race started to turn around at this point - although I was still struggling somewhat.  I passed Charlene somewhere around kms 8 and 9.  It was also at this point, that I started to feel low on energy -having eaten breakfast more than 4 hours ago.  I'd taken a gel with me, exactly for that reason.  Normally I wouldn't take a gel on a race of this distance, but carried one with me, since I thought I might get low on energy.  I sucked on the gel, and it seemed to help.  I caught up to Julie at the 9km marker and we exchanged grunts of how hard the race was feeling.

The second water stop came just after the 10km marker, and I grabbed a water to help get the gel down.  This is where my race really started to pick up momentum.  I felt like I had more energy, and my legs were finally able to push. It was nice to begin to feel strong.  This was all helped by the fact that there was a lot of downhill in the last 5 kms.  I love downhill -- I get to these sections in the course, and think to myself' 'work the downhill' 'just let the legs fly and do the work'.  I'm usually able to get pretty good momentum on these sections. 

In the last section of the race, I was also able to catch and pass Kathy, and inched my way towards a couple of men who had been running just ahead of us.  I was able to pass two other men as we neared the last two kms.  At this point, I heard a set of footsteps moving fast behind me.  I figured it was a man, from the heaviness of the footsteps, and eased into my rhythm as he passed, commenting on the great downhill.  Then, I decided to try and stay with him for the last 1500 meters.  He was moving at a pretty good pace, and I was actually able to hold onto him.  I think he heard me, as he started to really push the pace in the last km.  As we rounded the last corner towards the finish line, he looked back at me, and I knew he wanted to drop me.  We had about another 600-700 meters or so to go.  I pushed on, got right up next to him, but then started to wane a bit.  However, out of somewhere I got one final blast of energy, and I was able to rush past him and actually made a pretty good kick towards the finish line.  I came in at 1:04:22 -- right on time!  I couldn't believe it.  While I was struggling during the race, I was having visions of finishing around 1:08, and hoping I could at least hold onto a 1:05 finish.  Despite having a rough race for the first two-thirds, I was actually able to hold on to finish with a good time.  Wow -- that felt awesome. 

Julie, Kathy, Charlene and Kirsten Arensen all came in within the next minute - it's interesting how we often seem to cluster together.  Shane had a good race - feeling good throughout and coming in at 51:20, which also was a several minute PB for him.

By the end of my race my shoes and socks were soaked, and I definitely felt the heaviness in my feet.  Maybe there is something to racing flats - I've often wondered if they actually help you go faster- can they actually take time off of your finish?  Maybe, but either way, the wet runners were definitely heavy to run in!

My final splits were: 8:46 (kms 1-2), 4:19; 4:03; 4:14; 4:20; 4:18; 4:22; 4:24; 4:42; 4:18; 4:15; 4:13: 4:12: 3:55 and I came in first in my age category and was the 5th female overall.  Tina Connelly, a masters runner, was the first female overall, in a time of 55:24 -under the elite benchmark for her age. 

The final results are here.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Comox Valley Half-Marathon

March 21, 2010

My race race at Comox was exciting for me mainly because I achieved something for the first time that I wasn't sure I would ever achieve.  When I first started racing, I was excited when I would place in the top 10 in my age category and get a ribbon.  I was usually in the lower half of the top 10, and getting into the top 3 for the medals seemed out of reach.  Prior to this year, I'd never placed higher than 5th at an Island Series race and that was a good achievement for me.  This year, I made it into the medals for the first time and then at Comox I actually placed first in my age category!  I was absolutely elated! It was great to achieve something that I wasn't sure was possible, just 3 short years ago.

Okay - now to the race.  It started with an early rise and a just under 3 hour drive up to Comox.  I was feeling tired on the drive up, and wondered how I would be able to perform.  I had an energy drink just before the start, hoping it would give me some needed energy.

The race got underway, and I started off feeling good.  I had three goals: (C) PR - faster than 1:38:24; (B) 1:35;XX and (A) 1:32:34 (the time the race calculator said I could perform, based on my Bazan Bay 5 km time).  Realistically I was aiming for around 1:35 -- this would still be over a 3 minute PB, and what I thought was possible, given that I hadn't done a lot of specific training for this distance. A finish time of 1:35 would be a 4:30 pace.

My first 5 km went by fast -and I was pushing it faster than my intended pace (splits were: 4:15; 4:18: 4:15; 4:14; 4:20).  I was trying to stay with two other women in my category - Julie Van Veelan and Leanne Blackwood.  I thought I was pushing it a bit fast - but I usually get caught up in the fast starts.  Overall, these first 5 fast kms helped my overall time. I began to slow for kms 5-9. These kms involved a few rolling hills and a larger climb from kms 7-9.  Then there was a downhill down to the turnaround just past the 10km marker.  By this point, I had passed both Leanne and Julie and was still ahead of Angela Plamondon, a very fast masters runner.  However, Angela caught up to me just before the turnaround, and then sped off for the remainder of the course - she had a good strong finish!

I was still feeling pretty good at this point- and the hill hadn't even felt too hard - I had actually expected the peak to be further than it was.  That's always a nice feeling when running uphill.  But, while it was shorter on the way back, it was steeper, and this hill hurt.  My pace dropped to 4:39 for my slowest km (but not slowest split, as the last split was actually just over 1km). At the top of the hill, there was a water stop.  I was starting to feel thirsty, and went to grab a cup of water -- unfortunately, it broke in my hand.  So, then I tried to grab a gatorade, but dropped it -- so I was not to get a drop into my mouth.

The next kms were fun, as we descended downhill for several kms 12-16 kms were fast for me (4:12; 4:06; 4:12; 4:13).  I was able to stride out, and moved fast down the hill, as my  lungs got a bit of a break while my legs kept it rolling.  At around 16 km  we were back to the rolling hills, and my legs were starting to tire at this point - as my body also tired.  I had to keep focused - I felt that I'd run a pretty good race up to this point, and didn't want to lose it in the last 5km. My last kms were all closer to 4:30s, and I had to dig deep to hold on.  I watched as Angela slipped further away in the distance, and I tried simply to not slow too much. After km 18, it's pretty much straight to the finish line - no more turns.  Each km I passed, I told myself - only X more kms, no problem, just keep pushing. This helped me, and I was able to focus on the finish and keep my legs turning over.

Thankfully, I was able to hold on, and the finish line neared closer and closer.  I came up to the bridge that was about 500m from the finish line - there was a slight rise, and then I tried to bring it in.  There was no one right in front of me - so there was no one to push me, but me.  I was able to kick it up a notch, and actually had a nice strong finish -- much different than the year before, when I had struggled across the finish line, and had nothing left.

My final time was 1:32:28 -- actually surpassing my A goal -- so I was very pleased.   It wasn't the easiest race, and I had kms that ranged from fast, to slower - with a range of 33 seconds between my slowest and fastest km splits.  But overall, I was happy with my performance.

In the past, I had found that I had never been able to perform quite up to the calculation of the race calculator for the longer distances - so I wasn't expecting to come in around 1:32:XX - but I guess something in my training has gone right, as all my races this season have gone well. Hopefully it can continue.
My km splits were: 4:15; 4:18: 4:15; 4:14; 4:20; 4:34; 4:29; 4:39; 4:31; 4:25; 4:28; 4:28; 4:12; 4:06; 4:12; 4:13; 4:31; 4:36; 4:34; 4:27; 4:41.

David Jackson was the first male, Care Wakely came in again as the first overall female, and Shane PR'd, despite having a mediocre feeling race.  Overall, I was 7th female, and 77th place overall, while Shane was 7th overall.  Lots of lucky 7s! :-)