A couple of things contributed to my not being unable to accomplish this. The first was the cold. When I awoke at home this morning, it was -33C wind chill. During the race is was in the -20 C to -16 C wind chill. Thus, I was bundled up in 2-3 layers of clothing. This is not conducive to running quickly. The other factor was the footing. From km 9 through km 11 , we ran on a back road/ farmer's wagon trail that provided very slick and bumpy footing. I slipped a couple of times and I found that this took a lot of energy as well. I definitely slowed down. Then the last half of the course had quite a few sections on side streets where the traction, although not nearly as bad as the previous section, it was a bit slick and care had to be taken, especially on the corners. Other than that, this is an excellent fairly flat course with just enough slight undulations to help the legs. I was able to keep my pace up for the first nine km , but after that, it was a struggle. I had noticed one of the 70 plus runners at the start and he was in front of me for the first couple of km. Then I passed him with a little surge. After that I never saw him. I didn't notice the others in my age group at all. I did struggle a bit on the last few km but ended up with a 2:02:45 chip time. First in my age group ( out of 4 ). This garnered me another medal ( this one gold coloured ) and a box of goodies from Tim Horton's and Coldstone Creamery. My friend Jodie ( from Cruise To Run ) presented me with my age group award, which was great. Another friend Cathy , also from Cruise To Run, finished second in her age group!!This was, overall, an excellent experience and I would run this event again!!
Stats:
21.31 km on my Garmin - 2:02:45 chip time - AP: 5:45 min/km - AHR: 153 bpm
5 km segments:
#1: 27:04 AP: 5:24 AHR: 148
#2: 28:35 AP: 5:42 AHR: 153
#3: 29:17 AP: 5:51 AHR: 155
#4: 30:05 AP: 6:01 AHR: 156
#5: 1.31 km 7:50 AP: 5:59 AHR: 159
