June 12 DoggPound in Brampton
July 6 Summer's Night Wed evening in Guelph
July 24 Running from Cancer in Tecumseh/Windsor
Race #1
DoggPound was my first short race since last fall. It was a smaller race, cool day, a bit windy and the course was a slightly rolling. The race was hosted by a MMA gym, it was their first race and they did an exception job, very friendly atmosphere and a lot of fun.
We took off and the eventual winner had a 100m lead on me before I knew it and probably had more like 200m before too long. 3:25 through first km so I knew that I had to let him go catch him later. 3rd k was up a slight incline and against the wind, at the turn with about 2k to go I stated to pick it up and made some groiund on the leader. The final k was rough I pushed hard as I could but didn't have enough to catch him, probably 50m back at the finish.
Final time 18:14 2nd place overall
Race #2
Showed up early to Guelph and jogged some of the course, got nervous as I watched more and more serious runners show up to perform. I tried to take off a bit quicker but again I had to make up a bunch of positions in the first km. It was a hot and muggy night, my mouth was very gummy to start, got a sip of water about 1.5k in and felt a bit better then. After 1.5k we start to run about 1.5k up a slight incline, I held position during this part. At about 3k the eventual master's winner passed me I tried to stick with him and he started slipping away, I caught a couple other guys though. With about 500m to go I started to pick it up and caught one last master and made up some ground on what was lost to the master winner.
After the race Coach Scott-Thomas held a talk on Marathon training with Rob Watson, Reid Coolsaet, Taylor Milne and a few others. Basically to summarize his approach to training, as much mileage as possible, don't worry too much about the speed work (no big secrets, I wasn't surprised). Rob is running about 250km a week preparing for Scotia Bank with only a few speed workouts a week. It was a great night, I really enjoyed the race (a really nice course) and the talk.
Final time 18:37 12th overall 2nd in age group
top 4 where all 15:xx
Race #3
This one was in Windsor, I was down visiting family and this race was close by so what the heck. I knew it would be a flat course and that it was, but man was it HOT. Spent the night before sleeping on a couch with my baby, so no not a very good sleep at all.
The race started at 8am and standing at the starting line I was already dripping with sweat, I knew this would be a tough one. OK I really need to take off faster for the first KM, my competition runs the first km faster then me and I have to run the next 4 faster then them to beat them. After the first KM I was in 8th and gradually made my way up. One guy tried to stay on my shoulder for a long while, I'm not even sure who it was I didn't look back I just stay in the hurt box and tried to brush him off on parked cars
Eventually he fell off and I was still trying to make head way on a young guy <19 and really couldn't get him until the end, he stopped right before the timing mat, I guess he didn't realize where it was and I passed him. I did feel bad for a bit but that's racing. Took me a long time to stop sweating, man it was hot and humid out there.
Final time 18:39 3rd overall 1st in age group
So overall 3 pretty consistent times and good results, I learned some new 5k race strategies to work on. None of these races I really felt great, I felt I needed to push the race out of me. I want to go into a race feeling fresh with that spring and jump in my step, I'll be running a couple more this year so maybe after some more training and some cooler weather I can get back into the 17's again.
