STRAVA Summary

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Pick Your Poison 50k


Hot off running the Country Music Marathon and obviously feeling good I have signed up for the Pick Your Poison 50k trail race at Horseshoe Resort on May 9th. This race has taken over what used to be the Ganaraska Trail races. 2 weeks after Nashville and 2 weeks before Ottawa, should be interesting. At least I don't have to do any more long training runs.
Hopefully I can get out for a run on the trails tonight.
This is the last couple of days at Barrie Hydro so I am trying to keep my mind occupied. Also waiting for the new car.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Country Music Marathon

After a long drive to Nashville, via a stay over in Louisville, Kentucky, we arrived and noticed that there are a few hills in Nashville. This would become significant later. First impressions are always important and the expo left a good impression, very well done and organized. It was a large expo, but I didn't find everything I was looking for.
Downtown Nashville (Broadway) was nothing but cheesy souvenir shops and bars with bands playing (not all country). It was not bad.
Race day again was well organized, busses took us from the finish area to the start at Centenial Park. We took our time walking around and taking in the sites. Eventually it was time to get to our corals leaving RIck and wishing him good luck at the 7th coral, Bill and I proceeded to the 2nd coral. Looking behind we got a look at what 32000 people look like, although we couldn't see beyond the 25th coral. Soon the race started, it was done in waves, each coral a couple of minutes apart. We were off about 2 minutes after the gun and right iff my Garmin has an illegible message on it. From this point on I couldn't get the garmin working. So I had no pace, or virtual runner. That would make pacing Bill a bit of an issue. Anyway I could still keep him moving and hoepfully get him in at 3:15 or less. THe start was downhill , but immediately we could see the first up hill ahead, followed by another downhill to downtown and then after turning a few corners we were uphill for a long climb followed by more of the same. It seemed that if we were not climbing we were going down. With Bill having knees issues the weeks before the race it was no surprise that he started to have problems, I could tell because he was getting quiet. Each aid station meant a walk break for Bill, when we left the half marathoners it got easier to move around on the streets. But it was at this time that Bill said he doubted whether he could even continue. I knew that qualifying was not possible now as the heat had become as much of a problem as the hills. At this time I left Bill with hiss blessing and started to get up to a pace that I felt good with and I was passing people by the handfull. At this part of the race I felt good and picked up a lot of ground. It wasn't until I got back into the downtown area that I felt things start to get a little harder. A long climb to the bridge where I had to manouver around the half marathoners again, who had rejoined our part of the course. The last loop around Shelby park was a struggle especially 22 to 25 miles. Once I hit 25 miles I knew I had only to drag myself in. I was still running strong and finished well. 3:27 not bad on a bad day and tough course. Bill finished in 4:19 and Rick in 5:00. Both were slightly disappointed, but after thinking about the conditions were happy to have finished.

Friday, April 17, 2009

One Week till Country Music (Arrgh)

This time next week I'll be in Nashville preparing for the Country Music Marathon. Other than the Country Music part, it will be nice to run in another part of the world I haven't seen before. One problem that is looming on the horizon is the long range forecast. 26C and humid, not good. I don't handle racing in the heat and especially the humidity very well.
I'm going down with Rick and Bill. Bill is trying to qualify for Boston and needs 3:15 so I should be able to pace him in for a qualifying time, if everything goes well. Bill has been struggling with some knee issues and my left foot hurt after last Sunday's long run. So we shall see. Wednesday's run went really well though.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Posting at Last

Yeah I know, I've been slacking big time on the posting scene here. Unfortunately I just haven't had the time with other things taking priority. Keeping the RoadRunners blog up to date has been a challenge lately, as it seems the racing season is starting to heat up. I was sick from last Thursday till Monday, still recovering, but much better. And more importantly the possibility of a change in employment, which has kept me on edge this past week or so. Hopefully that will all come to light tomorrow.
As for running, the past 2 Tuesdays I got in my first speed workouts of the year. Missed last night, due to company visiting. Last Sunday was supposed to be a 36k run, but the cold dragged my ass down and I couldn't get out of bed, probably just as well. The Sunday before the miserable weather cut our long run short, so the long runs just haven't worked out lately. Hopefully this Sunday will be better. Only 2 weeks to Nashville.