Sheldon and I decided to honour the summer solstice by turning the longest day of the year into our longest day of the year. We planned to run the half marathon that's part of the Niagara Ultra race event in the morning, then the Summer Solstice trail run near Orangeville in the evening.
Niagara Half Marathon
I elected to go out aggressively in this one, and by about 8K found myself in third place overall. The second place guy looked much more athletic than me, so I sort of resigned myself to trying to hang on to third spot and get my first ever top-3 result. But these old legs were feeling quite good and I was pacing myself very consistently, and by 16K or so I overtook that guy and assumed second spot.
Because there were virtually no mile markers on the course I frankly had no idea what my pace or projected time was. All I cared about was that a new challenger had emerged and was (at times) less than 20m behind me. I've never, ever been in a position to actually race for a placement that mattered so I focussed really well and outkicked him to the finish.
Chip time was 1:31:40, a PB by 6 minutes and 32 seconds. I ended up in second place overall (out of 155 finishers) and won my age group (of 24 males under 40).
My hardware, or "soft"ware as it were. The age group awards were commemorative plush bunnies.
Sheldon got one too for his age group placement.
It was obviously neat to finish second in a half marathon. I fully realize that a 1:31 would place me 200th in large races, so I'm not going bonkers over it. However, trying to hold another runner off for a particular spot definitely helped push me to the fastest time I could have possibly run, so that's neat. Easily the best half marathon I've ever done.
Summer Solstice Trail Race
The race was delayed 30 minutes to let a vicious storm cell work its way through. Just as well, 'cause I think Sheldon and I were both running on fumes.
Nothing is photoshopped. He actually wore that.
This was a brutal up and down course, starting with a killer switchback climb. At one point there's a 60-80ft climb up slick wooden stairs. Just sadistic stuff for two tired guys. I hung in pretty well with the eventual 4th and 5th place finishers until roughly 9K, when my legs just could not respond to their last push. I nearly caught one guy in the final 100m, but wound up 7th overall (of 54 finishers). Just missed another age group award (4th out of 15 men under 40).
Two kind of creepy looking guys.
Another little highlight was meeting Chuck Engle at the Niagara event. (For those who may not know, Chuck Engle is the guy who won 35 marathons in 2006/2007. That's not a typo, he won 35 marathons.) I introduced myself to him after his second place marathon finish (he clearly slowed to let the winner take the cake, telling me afterward he just doesn't see the honour in outkicking somebody in the final seconds of a tiny marathon). Pretty neat stuff for me, especially since hours later he remembered my name.
Overall it was a really fun and novel day. I think we both ran pretty decently. As always Sheldon is a great racing buddy. Thanks to Lisa for coming along and being a great supporter and photographer.
