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.