Fun stuff, hard and challenging, the competition is insane. My warm up went well, I was feeling about as good as I could for a severe Butt kicking.
I started right behind Steve Boyd, he won of course, such an excellent runner. He is kind of a small guy but he leans over for the start of the race and I get a glimpse of his hamstrings, WOW they are freakishly huge, no wonder he runs so powerfully. I need to start working on some of those. I thought about congratulating him now since I wouldn't see him again.
The course was 5k, started out with one loop (about 500m) through a flat grassy field - I started strong, but so many guys go out very fast, I get lost in the wake, my pace through this loop was about 3:30 and I felt like I was getting chewed up. I try to follow my friend James Earl again but he takes off way fast and I lose him quickly.
Then head out onto a flat dirt trail for the next 1km or so, a guy was running about my pace I looked down and he isn't wearing shoes!! A trail race, sticks, stones, roots, and everyone else in XC spikes and this guy is barefoot, what the heck!! After about 1k I remembered who I was running for and started to push it a bit closer to the red line.
Then into winding hill dirt trails, some pretty steep, this was the strongest part of my race, I passed the leading woman (Beth Primrose) on the first or second steep hill, this is the same lady that chicked me last race, hopefully I can hold her off this time, this is Ontario Championships she is a way fast chick! I passed guys going up almost every hill, I caught up to James around half way through the race and passed him going up one hill, I was feeling very confident through the hills. This part of the course suited me well.
Leave the hills finally and back on the flat trail going back, except for another 500m loop with another good hill, I see that James is about 10-20 meters back. Then back to the same big starting loop again and to the finish. That final loop was tough, it took forever to run, legs were beat and I was trying to pick it up. I knew James can kick but somehow I stayed in front of him, I finally beat him.
I ran 18:46 and finished 9 of 14 in my age group, 43 of about 132, crazy competition !!
Steve Boyd's time was 16:21
It is hard to tell how you really do in these XC races, you run on feel mostly, looking at your pace on the course is of no value, you just try to compete within guys you know are of your own ability, whether they are 30 - 40 or 50. And if you finally beat a couple 50 year olds that have never been within your reach, even if only by 2 seconds then you can same you ran pretty well that day.
full results http://www.trackdatabase.com/viewresults.php?event_no=9¤t_meet=zzzz_db251
age group results http://www.ontariomasters.ca/event_results.php?rid=911&year=0
my pictures http://robbie-t.kicks-ass.org/2009-11-Ontario%20Championships%205k/
all race pictures http://runningdevil.dotphoto.com/CPViewAlbum.asp?AID=6028013
splits
===
3:40
4:02
4:05
3:48
3:41
And pretty darn speedy too.
