Westwood Lake half-marathon

May 30, 2010

I ended up coming down with a slight cold a few days before this race.  I was nervous that I might end up having a horrible race -- however, I really wanted to run this race, as it's a different course than I'd ran before and likely the only Gutbuster I would have the chance to do this summer.  The day before Westwood I went out for an easy run around Elk/Beaver Lake and it was pretty slow.  I had to stop and walk a few times, and when I was running I was only doing about 5 min kms.  The rest of the day I was exhausted and ended up having a 2+ hour nap.  This made me really worried for the next day.

Sunday morning was an early rise, as we had a 2 hour drive to Nanaimo, and the race started at 9am.  Race morning, the weather looked pretty good in Victoria, but as we approached Nanaimo the clouds came out, and it ended up getting pretty chilly.  We were all walking around in winter-wear: big jackets and even a few toques were out.

The race started and we were off around the lake.  Luckily, it didn't take too long to warm up.  We soon ended up on some single-track that wound around and took us on a gradual climb up to the highest point.  The climb allowed running all the way to the peak -- however, as I was feeling somewhat tired, I almost would have rathered a steeper climb that would have allowed me to hike some.  I wasn't feeling totally exhausted, nothing like the day before, but I definitely was not at my best either. 

The trail was mostly single-track all the way along the climb.  Under different conditions, I would have loved it -- but as I was feeling somewhat off, I found it somewhat straining, as I had to concentrate hard on each step I took- taxing my mental energy.  There were also a few difficult sections on side-hills, and lots of obstacles and bumps to jump over.  Up the climb, along the single-track I led Antonia Grady and Kathy Rung.  However, as we reached the top of the climb, Antonia clambered past, and that was the last I saw of her.  Antonia is a strong racer, and I was surprised that she didn't pass me earlier.  However, she definitely picked it up from that point and ended up beating me by five minutes.  On a better day, I would have been closer to her, but she likely would have still finished ahead of me.  

The decent continued on mainly single-track and had a few rather steep sections.  The trail then led out into the power-line and through the wonderfully huge mud-puddle - and what a puddle it was this year.  With all the rain we had in May, the puddle was definitely at its best.  Then we had a small creek crossing, and a few small climbs, after crossing the road (including a short stair-master).  The climbs really sapped my energy.  I ended up hiking a lot more than I normally would have - feeling like I had no juice to push it. However, I tried to keep pushing somewhat, to avoid having a disastrous race.  For the remainder of the race, I  was close to Kathy - we exchanged positions a few times, but for the better part of the race, she led.  I tried to hang on - telling myself not to push it too hard, but to save anything I had for the end, and hope for a strong finish. 

We wound our way back into the woods, with a bit more climbing and some random music coming out of the woods, near a waterfall.  It was a nice distraction, although I was somewhat perplexed as I didn't see any volunteers around and never saw the source of the music. After the forest, we came out into a field, and we started to head in the direction towards Westwood Lake.  I figured we were about half-way.  I took a glance at my watch and it read 1:10 or so.  At the start of the race I thought I'd come in somewhere around 2:20 -- so if I was right about where we were in the race, then things seemed to be on track.  Kathy, Chris Hamilton and I were all close together at this point -- the race wove us on to some really fun single-track along a windy trail through some berry bushes.  I was able to close the gap on Kathy on the more technical sections, but she would speed away from me on the climbs.  We came out back onto the Hydro-right of way, which included some relatively flat running on wide trails.  My feet had been waiting for some easy running, but when I got it, my body just wouldn't push as hard as my mind wanted to go. 

As we wound our way back towards Westwood Lake, we intersected with the short-course racers, making our way under the highway and through a tunnel.  A few of the short-course racers hollered out some shouts of joy -- as for me, I was just hoping that this meant that the end was near. 

We finally crossed the final road and made our way into the Westwood Lake Park.  I began to recognize this section from previous years, and knew that home was nearing.  As soon as I saw the lake I tapped into my reserve and put on the speed.  I finally passed Kathy, and hoped that I had enough in me to keep my speed to the finish line - as I still had a few kms to go. 

Unfortunately, I got a bit ahead of myself in terms of my speed, and failed to slow enough and had a nice wipe-out on a super slick bridge. Coming up to it, I knew it would be slippery, but didn't adjust my technique quickly enough to avoid a spill.  However, it was a quick up and down and I was soon running again,   determined to keep my placing.  I obviously had more juice left me than in previous years, as there's a few small climbs on this last stretch around the lake that had really taxed me, but this year, I didn't find running up them overly difficult. 

My legs kept turning over, and the parking lot was in sight.  I didn't look back, as I raced to the finish line, trying to put on my best sprint to the end.  I ended up coming in at 2:15:25 -- which I was pretty pleased with, considering I came into the race a bit under the weather.  I knew that had I been totally healthy, I could have taken a few more minutes off my time, but I was pleased that my race was not a complete disaster and I was happy that I was able to come up with enough energy at the end to beat Kathy -- making me 4th woman overall (okay, so yes I am somewhat competitive...). 

Following the race I had a fantastic post race dip in Westwood Lake.  The water was surprisingly warm, especially given the cold and rainy May we'd had thus far.  I ended up getting 2nd place in my age category - which was a nice surprise for me.  Claire Morgan came in as the first woman overall in a time of 2:05:11. Other notable performances were Garth Campbell -- winning his age category - after coming back from an extended injury, Shane came in 3rd overall and Andrew Pape-Salmon and Louise Proulx also had fantastic races. 

It was definitely nice to get back out on the trails for a race.  Next, my focus will be on marathon training, as I don't have anymore races imminently in the future.  I might throw in some races over the summer, but nothing's set yet.  It will be great to just focus on training for awhile and hopefully get in some solid hours.