Pioneer 8km

January 9, 2011

This is the first race in the Island Race Series, the first race of the year, and always a good test to see where the fitness is at.  I hadn't raced a road race since the Marathon in October, and the last time I ran anything shorter than a 1/2 marathon on the road was in May.  So, going into this race, I didn't really know what I was capable of.  I was nervous, yet hopeful.

Last year, I'd ran this race in 33:39, and so I was hoping to get around 33 min, or just under.  The race started in cool, cloudy weather.  I ran off the start line fast, as I usually do, and tried to get the most of the downhill start.  I knew the first km would be fast, so I didn't worry about it too much.  Although I was surprised to see myself running next to Karen Laberee, who has always been significantly faster than me.  It had been quite cool in the days leading up to Pioneer, and there was still some ice on the roads.  Leading up the 1 km marker, there were a number of volunteers pointing out the slippery sections and how to avoid the ice.

Once we got past the 1 km marker, I made the decision to just try and stay with Karen, and see how the race evolves.  I was feeling good, and not like I was overtaxing myself.  The next kilometre continued on a relatively flat section, and then we made the turn into 'downtown Brentwood'.  It's essentiallly just one block of shops lining the street on both sides.  Ahh... it's nice to run outside of the big cities sometimes.  Once we turned the corner, the road changed to a slightly uphill grade. I wanted to stay strong here, and focused on keeping the leg turnover going, while pumping the arms for momentum.  I stayed just behind Karen along the entire climb up to Stelly's X-Road.  Just as we turned the corner, I passed her, as she encouraged me along.

We were now headed towards the mid-way point, as we climbed and descended a few rolling hills back towards Wallace Drive.  I had expected to reach the mid-way point at 17 minutes (I'd slightly miscalculated), but heard a local PIH-er yell out 'Good Job Sonja, 15:43'.  I couldn't believe what I'd heard.  Both myself and the guy who was running beside me exclaimed 'Really? No way...'.  This was way faster than I'd thought.  It felt great, and gave me a great boost as I continued along the race.  I was also surprised to notice how good I was feeling.  I knew that I was pushing myself, but my breathing, legs and body felt strong and fluid.

After passing the school where I attended high-school (Stelly's Secondary), we descended back to Wallace Drive, and turned left this time, towards Centennial Park.  This is where I started to feel the race.  My breathing became more laboured, and I had to push to stay at the same pace.  Then, just as the race started to feel hard, I got a spurt of energy, and passed a couple of people, including a woman running a bright pink hat.  A few of us were running together, and we stayed pretty close to each other, as we ran towards the final turnaround.  As we made our way back along Wallace Drive, past the park, the woman in the pink hat passed me back. I was determined to try and stay with her, and knew that I only had about 1.5 kms left until the finish. This was a great motivator, as it kept me pushing and concentrating on my leg turnover and trying to work through the pain.

The last kilometre of the race is uphill, and always a bit of a battle.  But, this time at least I had pink hat lady to motivate me to not give up before the race ended.  So, I just kept telling myself, keep pushing, keep pushing, don't think about the pain, but just focus on putting all that you can into this last kilometer.  I was able to keep up with Ms. Pink hat all the way up the hill and into the last turn that would bring us to the finish line.  Then, I gave it one final push, just edging out another gentleman, Don Costello, and finishing just one second behind Ms. Pink Hat, Rhonda Callendar. My final time as 32:02.  About 1 minute faster than I had expected.  I'd ran a 4 minute pace for the entire race, which to me was amazing.  I hadn't expected to come in at that time and was ecstatic.  Karen had kept up with me throughout the entire race, and finished just 7 seconds back.  She had been a great push for me for the first half of the race, and I had provided motivation to her for the last half.

Overall it was a great race, and I was happy that the racing year started off as well as it did.  If things continued on like this, it would be a great racing year indeed! My splits were: 3:42; 3:56; 4:08; 3:56; 4:00; 4:10; 4:01; 4:07.

Shane also had a good race, and achieved a PB, despite not expecting to achieve one, coming in at 26:19 and 6th overall. The win went to Jim Finlayson (24:45), and the top female was Natasha Wodak (27:57).