Ironboy does the twist in his FiveFingers.

[Ironboy]

I wrote most of this on my blackberry during the car ride back to Ottawa:

The big story at this race for me was meeting 5 maniacs, putting me over the 200 maniacs met mark! Thanks to TheJoggler, RunnigWild, JoggerBarbie, Pat Menzies and Purdy65 I have now met 201 Maniacs.

There was a great Maniac turnout at this wonderfully put together race held at a fabulous venue. On top of the 5 new Maniacs I met, there were plenty of familiar faces: msdesigner1, MiniT, JSmitty, MrJSmitty, Rayman, kc, fe.sweetpea, BJH, Doonst, Robbie-T, anners, MrAnners, tortoise, MrsTortoise, TooBusy, BG1, jgore and of course our hosts dgrant & quickchick.

This was my first race since PEC. It also comes at a time when I've been struggling with my fitness level.

Despite being anxious about how I'd do, I ran a very low tech race. I had no Garmin, or even a watch, but I did bring a water belt, just in case. It was overcast but rather humid and stuffy, so I'm glad I had some water.

I also ran in my Vibrams, which was cool. I had been practicing a lot with them and wanted to try them in a real race situation. I am happy to report that they performed admirably.

Three loop courses are great. You get through the first one getting the lay of the land, the second one flies by as you recognize the mental landmarks. Then the third loop is crossing off those landmarks for the last time, then you're done.

With all the self-imposed pressure, I wanted to go hard. I wanted to be fast. But - I didn't want to blow up. I latched on to the leaders knowing full well I wouldn't hold on very long at all. Before the first km mark I eased off to reasonable if not comfortable pace. Hopefully I'd have enough left in the last lap to turn it on, and catch one or two of the five people ahead of me.

Before the end of the first lap two people passed me (non-maniacs). Which was fine, I was running a solid pace, that I felt I could hold for 2 more laps.

On the second lap, I went off course to run through the kiddy water sprinklers, it was so humid. I may have lost a little time, but it was so worth it. Soon after the rain started which was nice (for me, not so much for Irongirl and Delilah).

The final lap was starting to get hard. It became clear that I wouldn't have enough in the tank to catch anyone ahead of me, so the new game was keep anyone else from passing me. But, with about 500m to go, someone zips by me, richie-rich it turns out, I tried to stick to him, but I didn't have enough left. The gap just kept getting bigger and bigger. And that's fine.

Overall I'm very happy with my race, my pacing and my time.

Final time was 26:18 (4:23/km) I would've been happier if I'd had something for a finishing kick.

This was an awesome event. The food was great, the shwag was fantastic, the people were the best.

We have to host something like this in Ottawa.

[Doonst]

Nice racing James, I think you are supposed to go out hard in those short races. I am truly sorry that I wasn't out there in the mix, would've been fun.

[purdy65]

James.

It was really nice to meet you and Kiza, and of course your beautiful little girl Delilah!

Those shoes are soooo funky! I was showing pictures of them (from their website) to my husband last night. He said "you are supposed to run in those?" I said "yep! and they are supposed to be great!".

Nice run!

Lisa

[दिवंगत]

Overall I'm very happy with my race, my pacing and my time.

Can't ask for much more than that! It's still early in the season, you'll find your finishing kick bring it all together.

[Ironboy]

Doonst: it totally was a shame you couldn't run. Would've made it interesting for sure.

Lisa: I love my Vibrams. Once you get used to them, they are great. It was great to meet you too.

Mark: I hope you are right. I think with some smarter training it might just happen.

[Marg]

Yay James!! Those little rubber booties are working wonders!

[Robbie-T]

Nice to see you out IB, those toes still freak me out a bit.

[scrumhalfgirl]

welcome back to the races!

[VeloCarrie]

Congratulations James! Fantastic time and those shoes are funky (although, like Robbie-T, having toes separated like that freaks me out). I do agree we have to have one of those events in Ottawa!

[cgraham]

Sounds like a solid result for you - good fitness for this point in the year.

Good job!

[JSmitty]

James, it was great to see the three of you again. You always bring such a positive happy attitude.
Nice race and report "toe guy".

[casual-runner]

Congratulations on adding another group of maniacs to your already loooooong list It is difficult to get great result without racing, but a few more races and you might get the final kick.

[flexrun]

Good job on your race IB, you sure do know a lot of maniacs!

[chunkymonkeymelonhed]

Nice result out there IB. Thanks for the report.

[RA.]

Great job, James!

[holymoly]

Sounds like fun! I'm glad your FiveFingers worked out well. I have a pair but haven't run in them yet.

[QuickChick]

Great job James! Your shoes were crazy cool. Your fitness is definitely on its way back, I'd say. That was a really solid result!

[drghfx]

Great job James! I should be so lucky to run that fast while not in shape!

[Jogger Barbie]

Nice race, and I really enjoyed meeting you and IronGirl. Those Vibrams are pretty cool and I'm glad they worked well for you during this "try out" race

[Lightning]

Seriously you (and IG) could write a book detailing your RM adventures and everyone you've met! I love it.

Hey, I think it is good you didn't have a finishing kick. That means you left it all out there!!

[ratherBrunning]

Solid result IB--congrats! Sounds like it was a lot of fun!!

[AndyM]

Sounds like you had a lot of good things to say about this race! Welcome back to racing and congrats on another one.

Andrea

[babysteps]

Sounds like a good, solid race! Nicely done.

[IronGoddess]

Great job.. Maybe it is time to meet some Westcoast Maniacs come on over...