It Begins

The weekend recap for me looks like this: no running, lots of kids baseball games, and lingering tightness in the knee. I gave myself Sunday off to let this knee settle down. It hasn't, though it is not really that bad. I'm just a little concerned about starting marathon training with ANY pain at all, but I have to start soon. In fact, with tomorrow being June 1st and all, that sounds like the perfect time to get back into running. I will have to put some serious thought into the running plan for the next seventeen weeks and get any sort of time goal out of my head - after all, the main purpose of the marathon for me is to finish and walk away afterwards with a smile.

That being said, here are some pics from the 5K. I look in pain, but at least somewhat happy in the post-race photo:







And just for fun here's a photo of Owen crossing the finish of the Kids Marathon (red hat with yellow bull horns):

MIA

I've been taking a sort-of "forced" week off from all exercise, other than biking to work, and so have not had anything to write about that's remotely running related. Alone with one kid for the week while Monica is out of town with the other means that I can't go out for any runs for that would mean leaving the wee one at home alone. So, this is OK. I've been saying that I would take at least a week off after my last race and that is exactly what I am doing. Starting this Sunday I will begin training for my first marathon, which is both a scary and exciting prospect. I wonder how my body, especially my foot, will hold up in the face of way more mileage? Will I be able to keep my speed in check so that I can increase mileage without incurring further injury? I will have to ramp up conservatively, though time is not on my side. 17 weeks and counting...

Kids Marathon Race Report

On Sunday morning it was Owen's turn to run a race. He'd been looking forward to this for months and we were very excited for him to run his second race. Although we didn't follow the rules for the Kids Marathon since I didn't realize what they were, the idea was that the kids would have already completed a total of 41km in training over the course of the past month or so and come to this race to complete the final 1.2km in order to earn their marathon medal. Well, Owen is planning to keep track and run the rest of the marathon distance, but he still earned that medal as far as I'm concerned. The number of kids that he had to negotiate, the fact that he was one of the youngest, and that he was running it alone without any friends made this a great accomplishment. It looked like most of the other kids were there in groups representing their schools so their support was evident and put them at ease. When Monica and I left him in the start area and went off to find a suitable spot to cheer and take pictures we felt really quite concerned.

Like I said, the number of runners for this event was huge and my little guy was in the middle of it, somewhere:



Then the horn went off and the kids were running! I was not really expecting to see Owen, let alone get a picture of him as he went past with the others, but I managed. It really helped that he was wearing a special hat which his grandparents brought back from Spain a day before we arrived:



If you can't spot him yet that's OK. Once you know what to look for he'll be easy to pick out.

After the start we ran off to the Finish area in hopes that we'd once again see him go by. It was tough, but again I managed to snap a photo of him running past:



Then it was a mad dash to the Athlete's Village to pick him up. After a few tense moments (for me) I finally spotted him while standing on the bench of a picnic table and snapped a picture of him wearing his shiny new medal:



You can see what I mean about the hat. Those little yellow horns helped a lot with spotting him in the sea of other runners!

What was also cool about the event was the free engraving that one could get on the medals and so we went off to get Owen's name and finishing time put on his. While we waited Owen played a game of Scrabble on this huge inflatable thing and ended up winning $20 worth of Subway Sandwiches gift certificates by one point over another couple of kids. He had some help from his grandfather, but he's the one who got to climb up onto the "board":



The stats ended up as such:

• Gun time: 6:36.1
• Chip time: 6:16.0
• Pace: 5:31/km (8:52/mile)
• Place overall: 468/1341
• Gender place: 310/642
• Category place: 42/131

Ottawa 5K Race Report

I've been so tired and busy since the race that I'm having real problems coming up with a proper race report. Rather than delay it any further I am going to take a quick stab at it and apologize in advance for the brevity.

The weekend started with us piling in the car and sitting in traffic for a while as we tried to get out of Toronto on Friday night. After what proved to be a relatively easy drive we arrived in Ottawa a little after 10pm with two very tired kids and their parents not much better. By the time I got to bed it was very late and I had trouble falling asleep having missed that "window of opportunity".

Saturday leading up to race time was a blur. After waking up I ate breakfast and headed off to the Expo to get my, Monica's, and Owen's race packets. The place was way too crowded to enjoy and we got the hell out of there. Upon returning to my in-law's place I crashed and slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon, waking up about an hour and a half before my scheduled 5pm start to the 5K race. A quick coffee, get dressed, and then Monica and I piled in the car while her Dad dropped us off a couple kilometres from the Start.

We walked through the crowds and eventually found a port-a-let where I ended up jumping the line. I didn't realize there even was a line up and simply stumbled into this long corridor of port-a-potties. I felt bad later, but the fact that I jumped the line didn't occur to me until the next day when we arrived for Owen's race and I saw the line up.

Anyway, as Monica took my post-race stuff we settled on a meeting spot and I went off to warm up. I ran up and down the street leading up to the Start Line a few times and was not very pleased with either my energy level or the pain in my left knee. As I attempted to pick up the pace the pain became more severe so I stopped doing that and just stretched a bit then headed off to find the Blue Corral (under 25 minutes). The crowds were massive and it took me a long time to get through to the right spot. The weather was perfect but a bit hot if you hadn't trained in those kind of conditions. On top of that, as I stood there like a sardine, I really began to overheat. Then it was announced that the start would be delayed by 10 minutes to let late arrivals get sorted out (Say WHAT!?!?!?!). I had a nice chat with a lady for the entire time we were waiting, but could not stretch or relax due to the close quarters.

Then the countdown started and the rush to the front squished me and all the rest. It was very uncomfortable. The Start Line was a funnel and this made things even worse. On top of that, within 20 metres of the start the course took a sharp right turn and of course everyone tried to take the shortest route. I had lined up on the right side and pretty much had to get through the first section at a near walking pace. Here's a picture Monica snapped at that sharp right turn directly after the start, with me visible under the arrow:



Then the fun really started as I navigated in and around tonnes of slower people who lined up in the wrong corral. I even saw 5K Walker bibs! What a joke.

I had turned off the auto-lap option on my Garmin and hoped to hit the lap button when I crossed each kilometre marker, but that plan went down the drain since these markers were not in existence. Therefore I had no idea how fast I was running and cannot give you any splits! I really felt lost and it was not a good thing. Also, after about a kilometre I was totally overheating and took off my hat. This proved to be a bit of an issue for Monica's family, the boys, as well as Monica since I suddenly became invisible. They were watching out for my trusty old ratty Cleveland Indians hat, the first baseball hat I ever bought, and it was nowhere to be seen.

The race is a blur for me. It hurt like hell, my heart rate was up near 100% of max for a long time (175bpm average, and crossing into the 180s all over the place) and I had real trouble breathing. Not knowing how fast I was going really disoriented me and I will never turn the autolap off again. I didn't even have the Avg Pace displayed because I thought that this would be too distracting and may have forced me to go out too fast or something. Won't do that again... The Garmin did measure the run to exactly 5k at least, which was totally surprising given how far off it was on my last race.

In the end I am not terribly disappointed in my final time (21:20.8) though I think a lot of things went wrong on this day. If the start wasn't such a clusterf@#$ I think a sub 21 minute finish would not have been a problem. And on a good day, without the lethargy that comes with fighting a sore throat and the knee pain, I think I'd even have a shot at going into the teens (BTW: this may be my next big running goal beyond the marathon). That being said, I could NOT have run any harder so that means this was a true test and an appropriate result on the day. I did exactly one speed workout leading up to this race and paid for it dearly. Next time, when attempting a fast result, I will be better prepared and enter a much smaller race to avoid the crowd navigation that is required of such a big event. The stats are on my last post in case you are interested to know just how many people were involved.

Wish I had more pictures, but I don't. Hopefully there will be something from the race photographers that I can post, but with so many runners who knows. I will endeavor to post a report on Owen's Kids Marathon when I catch my breath. He did awesome!

Garmin don't lie.

5K Race Result

IBlog from IPhone, so this will be IShort while IWait for my IWife to finish her 10K.

It was crowded, I was hot, and my knee was better than expected, but a bit off. So I went slower than I'd hoped.

• Gun time: 21:42.0
• Chip time: 21:20.8
• Pace: 4:16/km (6:51/mile)
• Place overall: 232/7238
• Gender place: 193/2955
• Category place: 9/192

A Little Concerned

Too much stuff going on so this post will have to be short, though not sweet. I skipped my 5k run yesterday since I was still feeling a bit of pain on the outside of the left knee. The run got pushed back to this evening instead. It was a late run since I had baseball practice to coach and then Owen's Spring Concert at his school to go to. By the time I got out it was closing in on 9pm. The weather here has been pretty humid and hot the last couple of days, and although I will never complain about the heat I can tell that my body is not yet acclimatised.

The run was crap. My knee is not better, my pace was slow, and it did nothing for my confidence heading into the race this Saturday. I managed the 5km in 29:36 for an average pace of 5:55/km, or 9:31/mile. I definitely do NOT feel speedy and have no idea what to expect when I line up at the starting line on Saturday evening.

Now it's late, I have not yet packed for our trip to Ottawa, nor do I have the kids' stuff all ready to go. We are driving tomorrow and it's stressing me out a little bit since I really want to miss rush hour traffic if at all possible, especially with a 7 and 4 year-old in the back seat.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I did get to the pool this afternoon and swam 1000m in 14:53.

Garmin don't lie.

Lingering Effects

That twinge I felt on the outside of my left knee is still lingering like a bad smell, though it has dissipated somewhat. After Sunday's run I was really worried since the pain was such that it hurt just to walk. On Monday I woke up and didn't feel as much discomfort, though a few hours of work in the yard and washing the car, etc. didn't do it much good. I had meant to rest, but whatcha gonna do? Today walking feels fine, but biking hurts. I guess the easy answer is don't bike, but that's how I get around so as far as I'm concerned not biking is not an option. I went pretty slow at least.

I did make it to the pool for an easy 1000m at lunch time. That didn't hurt at all, which is nice. I've been thinking about just why this pain has crept up given that things were going pretty well for a while now. At first I thought that it may have been my first set of intervals on Wednesday last week, but I felt fine afterwards and ran again on Friday without any noticeable pain in that area. Could I have slept on it wrong? Don't think so. Then Marci left a comment wondering if perhaps my shoes were shot, and the more I think about it the more I'm convinced that this is the culprit. Luckily I picked up a new pair of shoes on Saturday! Good timing. By all accounts, Mizunos seem to wear out faster than other shoes and I've put on roughly 400km (250 miles) on my current pair. Guess my plan to not wear the new kicks until after this week's race is not going to fly. Tomorrow I have an easy 5k planned, but if I am still feeling pain in the knee I will push that run back to Thursday. Right now I'm just hoping for the best and want to arrive at the starting line as pain-free as possible to run as fast as I possibly can for 5k, then I can crash and take a week or two off if I have to.

10K on a Windy Sunday

Woke up this morning and did not feel like running at all, which is a strange thing for me. Normally I look forward to all of my runs and wish my body would let me run more often. I think that I am fighting something off since my throat hurts a bit, and this could also explain the elevated heart rate that I had on this run. The wind didn't help matters any either as I was forced to run a significant portion of my run straight into it.

The plan was for a relatively slow and easy 10k and that is what I did. It took me 54:32 for an average pace of 5:27/km, or 8:46/mile. The average heart rate was 148bpm and it really was higher than I thought it would be based on perceived effort. The other thing that is kind of annoying is that my left knee hurts a bit right now. The pain is on the outside of the knee and I'm sure it's related to the IT Band, so I will have to rest it and stretch it a lot this week. My 5k race is coming up in less than a week now and I don't want to go into that one being sick or injured. I'll also have to be better about getting more sleep this week as I have not been sleeping well lately at all.

Garmin don't lie.

Gentlemen, I Implore You

When did it all begin to unravel, I ask myself?



In other news, my new pair of running shoes came in and I picked them up. Very exciting! Back to Asics for me, as I found the Mizuno experiment to be less than perfect. The Mizunos were nice and light, provided decent stability, but their cushioning left a lot to be desired. I will continue to use the Nirvanas for a while longer since they have been working OK and my foot continues to slowly improve. The Inspire 4s, however, as light as they are, provide almost zero cushioning in the forefoot. I didn't think I needed any there, but in retrospect my foot seems to relapse every time I wear these on anything but a short slow run. So, here's hoping the Asics GT2140s allow me to train throughout the summer towards my first marathon.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Tonight offered an opportunity for a run that was a regular one for me last Fall. I had 8 kilometres on the schedule, and the weather was pretty well ideal. I ran a route that proved quite challenging for me last year, and I thought that it was about the right distance based solely on memory. This took me through a portion of Taylor Creek Park, where I snapped the picture you see with that trusty IPhone (still loving it!). It is such a nice place to go for a run - feels like you aren't in the middle of a huge city at all. I only came across two cyclists and one other runner, which made me wonder, "where the heck is everyone?"

I wanted to run conservatively, but at the same time I really didn't feel like just jogging so the plan was to average out the pace at under 5:00/km (or just under 8:00/mile). It's amazing how this pace would have completely killed me last Fall, but now it is just right for a decent, if not exceedingly difficult, run. Even with the stairs leading down into the park slowing me down, and the subsequent hill climbing back out, that once seemed so difficult to crest, I was able to meet my pacing goal while keeping the heart rate in an acceptable range. I managed the 8km in 39:27 for an average pace of 4:55/km (or 7:56/mile). My heart rate average was 154bpm and I hit a max of 173bpm, likely at the top of the long climb out of the park. I think that mental barrier created by the 5:00/km pace is a thing of the past. I wonder what will become the substitute for this?

It was simply a fun run, and likely the last time that I go at anything but a slow pace before the 5k race in eight days. I am looking forward to going to Ottawa not only because I will be running, my wife will be running, Owen will be running, but two of my former swimming team mates AND my first ever real swimming coach (their mother) will be running several races as well - 5k, half marathon, and full marathon. I haven't seen my old coach since I was in high school!

Garmin don't lie.

A Good Test of Intervals

Today was a bit of a rushed day, though it seems like most of them are at the moment. After a busy day at work I had to take off a bit early for a dentists appointment. It was not pleasant in any way, shape, or form, but I will spare you all the details. I have to go back next week for another session, though I was promised that it wouldn't be either as lengthy or as painful as today's.

The good news was that I was back home in time to go for a run before the madness that is rounding up the troops for baseball practice (this time Malcolm's). I'd been looking forward to trying out some intervals and since I encouraged Monica to do some 400m repeats last night I figured I should subject myself to a similar workout.

I ran a nice warm up on the way to the track and found it to be almost completely empty save for a lacrosse team that was just finishing practice. I put down my water bottle and started into the 6 sets of 400m intervals, which I was planning to run at between 1:28 and 1:32. I pulled those times out of the McMillan Running Calculator based on my dream 5k finishing time of 20:00. I don't actually think I have a shot at going into the teens for the 5k, but I thought that the intervals looked achievable. Given that I was only planning on six of them, and that I remember doing a set last year where my times were about 1:37 for the 400s, I didn't think that I would hurt myself too badly if I pushed it a bit faster. I was a bit short on time so I didn't do the 400m recovery jog that I remember doing and opted for a simple 1 minute recovery while sipping from the water bottle that I had brought. The intervals ended up looking like this:

1. 1:29 (pace: 3:40/km, 5:54/mile)
2. 1:25 (pace: 3:31/km, 5:40/mile)
3. 1:27 (pace: 3:34/km, 5:45/mile)
4. 1:25 (pace: 3:31/km, 5:40/mile)
5. 1:26 (pace: 3:32/km, 5:42/mile)
6. 1:25 (pace: 3:31/km, 5:40/mile)

Needless to say this was a success! It hurt like hell from the third repetition on, and the headwind I had to run into on the homestretch became more of an obstacle to overcome with each 400. I also found that I ran about 10 - 15 metres past the line where I started each rep in order to get the Garmin to register 400. I guess that means that my intervals, if the track is to be trusted as being an authoritative 400m, likely were a second or two faster than the above times indicate. I must admit that I am suprised with my ability to complete these intervals, and as hard as these workouts are I really do like them. As long as my body doesn't completely disintegrate I would like to do one interval workout per week throughout the summer. There's nothing like the feeling of getting a really good workout, and long runs, as hard as they are in their own way, cannot be compared to a good set of repeats that set your heart racing. Hopefully this is just the start for me and I'd like to do longer and harder interval workouts in the future.

After the sets I jogged easily home. The total for today added up to 6km and took me 28:27 of moving time to complete (not counting the 5 rest intervals, of course). The average pace for the entire run was 4:43/km, though I wonder if that matters at all in this sort of a workout. My heart rate peaked at 180bpm, and at the end of each minute of rest it always went back down into the 130s, which was good.

Garmin don't lie.

A Missed Run, and Swimming Up

Last night I had planned on a nice easy 3k recovery sort of run, but things kind of forced that to not happen. It was Owen's swim-up ceremony from Beavers to Cubs, and the whole process is quite involved and lengthy. The boys had a great time, though, which is the most important thing. Even though Malks is too young to even be a Beaver he got involved in the ceremony and a couple of the games afterwards. It was very cute watching him run around trying to keep up with the big kids, and Owen did a fantastic job of watching out for his little brother the whole time. I'm so proud of both of them! Here's Owen after his swim-up, his Beaver uniform now off, and waiting to get his Cubs woggle for his scarf, awesome hat head and all:


Since I didn't run last night I really didn't want to miss my swim this afternoon. Even though I felt very lethargic I forced myself to go and in the end had a good swim. I managed 1500m in 22:21 and it felt pretty easy. I have to keep up this swimming a couple of times per week since I think this has already paid off in my cardio and in letting my legs rest between runs. On top of that, as long as this plantar fasciitis continues to stay like an unwelcome guest I have to manage my running very conservatively. I'm not sure how much I will swim throughout the summer, but that's still a month or so away when my membership expires and I have to make the decision.

Later in the evening, as I watched Roy Halladay manhandle AJ Burnett and the Yankees like A-Rod manhandles a syringe (not to mention blonde ladies of the night), I also did some chin ups (3X9), sit ups (3X50), and push ups (3X35). I have to get back on the upper body stuff for it looks like that's the thing that falls off first when I get busy. Jays are now 23-12 on the season. The Yankees? NOT! And thanks to the Phillies beating the Dodgers as well this makes Toronto the first team to reach 23 wins on the season. Hope they can keep it up!

15k to the Spit

It's been a few days since my last post, and a few since my last run. I took Friday evening off due to the calf cramp that hit me in the middle of the night on Wednesday since it felt like there was a golf ball stuck in there somewhere up until yesterday evening. This morning I woke up and tried tightening my calf only to find that that near cramp feeling was gone. I didn't push it, mind you, but I sure was glad that today's run would not have to be averted.

On top of that, with the kids hanging out with my Dad for the afternoon, it also meant that I could run with Monica again. This would have two added benefits: it would be much more entertaining, and it would also force me to slow down (sorry Mon!). We decided to run out to Leslie Spit, or Tommy Thomson Park depending on who you talk to. It's a bit of land that juts out into Lake Ontario, and I'd been meaning to check it out for a long time. The above picture I took with my shiny new IPhone, which I received from my lovely wife on my birthday a few days ago. (I friggin' LOVE this thing, BTW!)

We ran at a nice slow pace on the way out, which is downhill. The weather was perfect for running and we chatted the entire way. The kilometres flew by and before we knew it we found ourselves at the entrance to the park. There we got to run right by the water, which is awesome, with only the clouds of black flies and goose poop to distract us from the lovely views. At 7.5k we turned back and headed home. I hit a port-o-let on the way out of the park, and thank goodness it was there. The "like a racehorse" metaphor, whatever it's supposed to mean, was apt.

Monica stopped at 14k and I continued to finish 15k in 1:34:44 for an average pace of 6:18/km, or 10:09/mile. The calf felt fine, and it was good to get a nice long slow run in, that's for sure. A couple of weeks from now I will be running in my first ever 5k and I wanted to just use this as a recovery type run after my 10k of last week, which left me a bit sore in the legs. The average heart rate ended up being 137bpm, with Garmin toying with my mind when showing that the max was 187bpm. Whatever! Guess I didn't lick those contact points on the chest strap enough...

Garmin don't lie.

Going the Distance

Today I did make it to the swimming pool after a two week absence and managed 1000m in 15 minutes. It was a struggle mentally to go, I'll be honest. I very much felt lethargic and didn't really feel like swimming. However, last night I had one of those classic mid-night wake ups that may keep me from running for a couple of days: 2am CALF CRAMP! I haven't had one of those in years, and it wasn't fun to get reacquainted. Now my calf feels like there is still a bit of a lump in there and I don't want a recurrence of what happened back in March when my calf decided to force me to take a couple of weeks off.

In more interesting news, I did receive an email from the race director for the Sporting Life 10k in response to my inquired regarding the length of the course. Since so many of my fellow runners seemed to have measured significantly longer distances on their Garmins, and the MapMyRun method also produced a longer course, I emailed the folks at the race to ask about their measurement specifics. Here's the response, for your reading pleasure:

"After every race we receive a fair share of emails from GPS users stating that they ran a course that was long. You can be assured; the Sporting Life10k course is indeed 10k. There are a couple reasons your Garmin would read long:

1) When we measure our course, we always take the shortest line possible, where as runners tend to run in the middle of the road or weave to avoid slower runners

2) Garmins, while an incredibly handy training tool, aren't the most accurate tool around. When it comes to accurately measuring a course, nothing beats a good old fashioned bicycle and a Jones counter. I wish GPS units were as accurate as the Jones counter method since it would save us most of the 10hours it takes to measure a 10k course (don't ask about how long it takes to measure a marathon).

Our course was measured by Chris Fagel (Course Director) and Bernie Conway (IAAF/AIMS Grade A measurer for all of North America, who's list of measured courses includes the marathon course for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics). Our course certification # is ON-2009-020-BDC.

Also, if the course was 900m long, the 28:13 ran by Moses Macharia would have been closer to a 25:50... a world record for a road race 10k by over a minute. Moses ran a great race, but not that great :)

Hope this helps. Please forward to your Garmin wearing friends."

Not sure where he got the "if the course was 900m long" part, but I'll take this reply as authoritative and now begin to question just how accurate my Garmin is when it says I'm running at a good pace on a training run.

As far as forwarding the information to my Garmin wearing friends? Done, and done.

Back on Track

Well, my intention was to go to the track and do some intervals, but it didn't exactly work out that way. It's been so busy around my parts since the race that I've barely had time to catch my breath. I've now officially moved up into the next age category, meaning that I have the next five years to go 3:15:59 in the marathon for a BQ. (Ha!) Other than that I've had baseball with the boys, Owen got sick and had to be picked up from school yesterday morning, and work has been non-stop, pile more on top. I haven't done any exercise since the race, so today was key for me to get back out and run. Even though I couldn't get to it until dark on account of yet another baseball practice for one of the little guys it was still worth it.

My legs have been a bit sore, and the foot pretty tight, but I ran towards the track and hoped that it would all sort itself out by the time I got there to let me do some speedy 400s. However, my body just didn't feel up to it. I had a decent run in the end, but I think doing any sort of speed work would have set me back. Instead I ran a pretty steady 5km in 24:27 at an average pace of 4:53/km (7:52/mile). My average heart rate was 147bpm. I hope to do at least one interval workout prior to my next race, which is a 5k in just over two weeks.

Garmin don't lie.

Sporting Life 10K - Race Report

Pre-Race

This morning I ran the Toronto Sporting Life 10k straight down Yonge Street with almost 13,000 of my closest friends, and it was a blast! What a sea of humanity at the beginning. This was only my third race ever and by far the largest as far as participation goes. The family was kind enough to wake up early and drive me to the Start area, where I was simply amazed at how many people I'd have to navigate in order to reach the Port-O-Lets and then the appropriate corral for my anticipated finish time. Let's just say that as I waited in line to use the facilities I became more nervous about getting near the start as the PA announcer kept on saying that "all runners should now make their way to the Start. 15 minutes to go!". The line moved slowly enough, but eventually I had my turn and started to jog around the thousands of others making their way to the starting area.

I jumped a barrier to get on the sidewalk when the runners became too thick to pass, and quickly discarded my long pants and sweatshirt. There would be no need for either of these since the weather was absolutely perfect for running. By 8am, the start time, it must have been about +10C, sunny, and absolutely no wind to speak of. I found the red corral and navigated to the farthest right. I didn't know how I would get around all of the people standing so close to me, or how they would get around me, but I figured that most of them would be faster than me. The Red Corral was for those who would likely finish between 40 and 48 minutes, and my PR was closer to the latter. My goal was to try and finish with a pace as close as possible to what would be a BQ if I were to run a full marathon: 4:36/km, or 7:26/mile. With the significant downhill running that this race promised I thought this was reasonable as far a goals go. In the back of my mind, though, I was hoping that the run would go well enough to give me a shot at my 2009 goal of a sub-45 minute finish.

The Race

Interestingly enough my left side was bothering me a little bit this morning, the same left hip area that hit me before the Around the Bay a little over a month ago. This time it wasn't that serious and I just had pretty tight muscles due to all the baseball catching and helping coaching that I was up to over the past two days. I thought I was in decent shape, but I suppose throwing is very different from running. As I stretched and jumped around nervously I made a conscious decision to not let this tightness bother me and just have fun running.

Then, before I could think about this stuff any more, the starter blew the whistle and we were off. I could see the lead runners take off and waited patiently for my turn to move forward. I walked with all the others until I hit the first of two timing mats, pressed start on the Garmin and began running.

I focused on a guy in front of me that seemed to be holding a steady pace similar to mine right from the beginning and followed his lead as we navigated around tonnes of other runners. I had to jump up onto the sidewalk a few times, but overall I think this race worked out pretty well as far as navigation went. I kept following this runner for at least the first 4 kilometres and was feeling pretty good. My watch read pretty decent splits (though I was a bit skeptical as to the accuracy of these readings):

1. 4:19
2. 4:11
3. 4:24
4. 4:15

The bulk of the downhill sections occur in the first half of the race and I figured that's what accounted for my good splits. However, with each passing kilometre marker I could tell that what the Garmin was telling me did not correspond to what the markers were saying. This really became apparent as I entered the downtown core and the Garmin really started to struggle among the tall buildings. By far the toughest section of the race for me was from the 4k to the 7k mark. Mentally I was having trouble convincing myself that I could keep running as hard as I was until the end. Physically I began to struggle as well, with a stitch in my right side pissing me off to no end. I tried my best to change my breathing pattern, but it seemed like forever until that stitch went away.

5. 4:31
6. 4:19
7. 3:28 (this is where I got really suspicious of Garmin)

3:28? Yeah right! As if that was possible. The watch started to give me readings in the 6:00/km range and I began to wonder if I was truly slowing down so much. I mean, I was dying a bit, sure, but by THAT much? In general the people running around me stayed the same, so I figured that the watch was simply having real issues with the tall buildings. I was now entering the last portion of the race, heading west, and it was flat from here on out. Some runners started to blow past me at this point, including a couple of young kids and a guy in cargo pants. Cargo pants? He didn't look like that good a runner, but obviously was pretty fast to be running like that wearing cargo pants and looking as fresh as he did. Nice work Commando!

By now my Garmin was really out of touch with reality and as it beeped off the splits it was falling farther and farther behind the race markers. I couldn't wait for the Finish Line at this point and was hurting pretty good. However, based on my Timex (which I was wearing on the other wrist) I could tell that no matter how far off the Garmin readings were it looked like I had a shot at that 45 minute 10k, and was definitely going to reach my pre-race goal of holding 4:36/km pace overall.

As I turned onto the bridge at Bathurst St. and shortly thereafter onto Fort York Blvd. I could see the Finish Line Banner in the distance and just told myself to hold the pace as best as I could. A little disheartening, given how much pain I was in, was seeing a pair of ladies that passed me at this point, one of which picked up the pace, turned around and asked her partner to "smile" while she snapped a couple of pictures, all the while kicking my weak ass. These were accomplished runners just out for a fun run, and I was very impressed indeed.

The last three (and a half) splits from Garmin read like this:

8. 4:31
9. 4:19
10. 4:34
.5 2:05 (4:07/km pace)

Yup, according to Garmin I ran an extra half-kilometre. Afterwards, another runner stopped me and asked what my reading was - his Garmin, it turned out, read 10.49km. Is this race measured properly, or were our watches that messed up? I'm not so sure what happened here, but the finish was fun.

I spotted Monica and the boys about 50m from the Finish Line and they yelled out to me. I raised my arms and yelled back, "Hey!!!". It's such a boost to see them in a race. Then, I spotted that the clock at the Finish Line was reading "45:35, 45:36, 45:37..." and I pushed for the end. I knew that my clock time would mean a PR and I wondered just how long it took me to get across those mats at the beginning. Would I get well under that 45-minute barrier? Just sneak under? Or miss it by seconds? As I crossed the line and stopped my watch I noticed that my stats were 10.51k completed in 45:01 for an average pace of 4:17/km (6:55/mile). The official results?

Gun Time: 45:40.0
Chip Time: 44:57.2
Pace: 4:29 (7:15/mile)
Place: 1013/10761
Gender Place: 865/4860
Age Category Place: 169/793

Don't know why Garmin was so far off the official results, but hey - I did it! Mission Accomplished (and not in that bogus Dubya meaning of the phrase). I have reached my 10k goal for the year, and feel great. It was close, and I know this was a downhill race, but I'll take it.

Monica had forgotten the camera so I have no picture of crossing the Finish Line, and my Dad was a bit late on account of some other event that messed him up getting to the spot, but he did snap a couple post-race photos:




Garmin was drunk.

Update:

When mapping the race with Google's GMaps Pedometer the distance works out to about 10.3k for this "10k" race. I guess when it's a race for charity the actual distance is not necessarily strictly measured, which is cool I suppose. The race organizers had to scramble to change the original Finish Line location to another spot in the last couple of months, and that must have changed the distance and tied their hands somewhat. On the bright side it does seem to indicate that I probably ran the 10k distance in a little under 44 minutes! Perhaps Garmin was just a little tipsy... (Thanks to Marci for her comment and indication that her Garmin read 10.7k, thus adding to the pile of evidence on the length of this course.)