My Goals:
1) Be at 5K within 27min – Check, though a little too fast at just under 26min.
2) Have completed 11K within an hour – Check, pretty much bang on!
3) Have 16K done within an hour 30min – Check, was about 1:28:xxK
4) Run a sub 2 – Missed, well just missed it by 1:25min
5) Finish with a smile on my face – Check, check & CHECK!
The Stats (condense version):
Gun: 2:01:58
Chip: 2:01:24
Garmin: 2:01:25
Overall: 1295/2084
Gender: 729/949
Age: 104/130 *a more than competitive group this year than in the past.
The Details (full version):
I had a relatively good night’s sleep and woke up ready to go. I set my alarm the night before, but unfortunately it was set for Saturday morning. Thankfully I have a persistent cat that was hungry and woke me up, so I only slept in about 10min. I had my breakfast and got ready and headed out the door. What a beautiful morning. I went and grabbed a coffee and waited for my bus. The trip to the race was uneventful and I arrived about 45min before the race. I meet up with some of the RM gang and to my surprise, my co-worker K showed up. This surprised me as he’s nursing a nagging foot and gave no indication he had picked up a bib at the last minute.
With about 10min to spare, I worked my way to the start. I headed outside and offered my best wishes to Dylan Wykes as he was prepared for his race. I did my pre-race routine and eventually found jwolf in the pack, who also happened to be right by a participant in my run clinic. The national anthem was played and the next thing you know the gun went off and 33sec later I was crossing the line. I’ll admit I got caught in the emotion and buzz of the start; even with my conservative efforts to keep within a desired pace. I hit the 5k mark at about 26min and realized I was far too fast and needed to re-group. What better opportunity than to take a quick biffy break at the 5K station at English Bay. At this point Jwolf was still within my sights; though she passed me shortly after the 3K mark.
I entered Stanley Park and felt I was at a more conservative pace, so I though. More on this later. I happen to notice CMMH pass me at about 8K or so; as we approaching the entrance to the aquarium. Cheryl looked great and was determined. I knew that if I stuck with her it would be certain death for me, so I wished her luck and fell back. Coming into Brockton Point was spectacular; the combination of the mountains, fog and sun was stunning. Back to focusing on the race, I saw L from the Bonsor crew and wished her luck. At which point we hit the 10K mark and my Garmin shows something like 55min or so. I felt that was better and more within pace, my fear was my fast start my catch me. I hit 11k within an hour, which was one of my mental goals.
We hit the aid station at the half way point and I took a gel and water. We were entering the part of the race I’m not hugely fond of; the portion of Stanley Park from Lumberman’s Arch and 3rd Beach. I’ve always found this part slow and boring. This is likely due to the fact that this part of Stanley Park has no short cuts. Once you hit this area, you are committed and to this day continues to be a mental barrier for me. It went relatively fast for me and I felt great coming into the aid station at 3rd Beach. I hit 16K at about 1:28:xx and I felt good with that. I thought, I had 31min to finish the last 5K. It was at about 17-18K where the wheels started to fall off. I just finished my loop around Lost Lagoon and we hit the slight incline out of 2nd Beach. I was doing good going up, but it took a lot of steam out of me. I needed a quick recovery break. This was the first walk break aside from any of the aid stations.
We came back into English Bay and the final aid station. At this point I knew I had just over 2.5K left. However, my paced had slowed down greatly and my hope for a sub 2 was dwindling, ok I gave up on that.
At 19k the Burrard Street Bridge was within sight and I knew the end was near! I spotted Jwolf, who was walking at this time, as I was coming into the aquatic centre. I checked to see that she was ok and pushed on. I had to walk up the slight incline up to Beach Ave and started to pick up the pace as I hit the 20K mark. I pushed up Granville St as we approached Pacific. Once I was on Pacific I knew the end was near and I had the luxury of a downhill finish. As I approached Homer St I could see & hear the finish. One final dig as I approached the finish chute, where I saw Rob & Cheryl and my buddy Joe from TnT. I saw the clock and I was hell bent and determined to cross the finish before the gun time hit 2:02:00; mission accomplished!I stuck around in the finish chute to catch Jennifer come in. I felt for her, as I knew she was hurting and did not have the best of race. I caught up with Cheryl and my buddy Joe and then headed to the food. Like I said in my journal earlier, “I got what I put into this race and at the end of the day, I'm happy with the result.”. I was really lacking the speed training heading into this race and because of that I knew this was going to be a factor in the end. Lesson’s learned right? In the end I’m happy with the result and I managed to hit 4/5 of my pre-race goals. My pace was good once I reeled myself back in, but in the end I truly believe the lack of speed training did me in. It’s funny, on Friday at packet pick-up I had a conversation with Dylan Wykes and I said I was concerned for the lack of speed/hill training. We talked about its importance and role in a good training cycle and the only word of advice he gave me was go out and have fun and not dwell on your training shortfalls. And so that is what I did!
CMMH & I got this photo-op for Jo-Jo of Canadian Olympian and all around great guy Dylan Wykes.
Too funny Andy, I totally missed that. 
