Results are up, and I finished 8 of 115 overall, 1 of 9 in my age group, with a time of 20:27.
Here's the page with links to all the various results:
MEC # 2 Birds Hill Park Race
MEC #2 Birds Hill Park 2017 3rd Overall After A Sprint Finish!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Game of Life 5K
My race for today was the Game of Life 5K Run/Walk, put on by Commonwealth Games Canada. There was also a 10K race, and the proceeds of the event went to CGC's Bowling Out Aids, which is a cricket based development through sport program designed for Caribbean Youth 9-19 years old, to both increase cricket skills, and reduce the incidence and transmission of HIV infections.
The race start and finish was at Lumberman's Arch in Stanley Park, and consisted of a loop along the seawall. The 2 loop 10K took off first at 8 AM, with us 5Kers following them 5 minutes later. I was in 4th place initially, but within the first kilometer about 10 or so people passed me, including one young woman. I kept her in sight for the rest of the race, but in the first half she got at least a hundred meters ahead of me. Not long after we'd passed the midway point I started passing people who'd ran by me in the first part of the race, and then I noticed that I was closing in on the lone woman 5Ker ahead of me. We were passing the slower 10K runners the whole race, but the 5K runners were easy to spot as we were going at a considerably greater speed.
At one point I was only a few feet behind her but she sped up, and when we hit the 4K mark she took off, and I went with her. Now we were consistantly passing more and more 10K runners as we headed in. We jumped up on the upper sidewalk at some points to get around them, and soon we could hear cheering, and spectators were standing along the route urging us on to the final turn before heading into the finish. Just before we hit the corner a young fellow passed me going very fast, and there was no way I was going to catch him, and as it turned out, anyone else. I sprinted in with nobody catching me either, and got my finisher's medal from the volunteer.
To drink they had water, gatorade, and coconut milk, which is low calorie but loaded with nutrients for recovery. To eat they had mandarin oranges, bananas, muffins, and a massive variety of Quaker granola bars. We had to wait around until almost 10 AM before they started the awards ceremony, so I ended up eating more granola bars than I should have. They're addictive and they seemed to have a never ending supply, and thus drew me like a magnet back to the table every ten minutes or so. I saw some of the other runners repeatedly going back for more, and to me this just validated my destructive behaviour.
I waited for Scott Stewart to come in, as I'd seen him up front at the start of the 10K. He ended up finishing 2nd overall, and the young fellow who finished 1st came up and talked to us too. He was completely surprised at how he did, because he'd run his best ever 10K at the Sun Run just 2 weeks ago, 37:30, and today had run it in just over 36 minutes, quite a leap in such a short time!
We stood around and chatted with the other runners until they got to the awards. They also gave away quite a few draw prizes while we waited, and had a cricket clinic where anyone could put on the gear and they taught people how to throw and bat, the rules of the game, etc. They posted results and I found out I'd finished 1st in my age group, and 8th overall in the race, with a time of 20:28.
The awards began with the overalls, and Scott went up and got his certificate for a new pair of Mizuno shoes, which they gave out to the first three finishers in each race. The presenter today was Suzanne Weckend-Dill, who swam for Canada in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, and again competed representing Canada, this time in the triathlon, at the 2006 Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Scott's son, who looks to be 11 or 12, ran the 5K race and finished 3rd in his age group, so he went up and received his first ever podium award and photo op. Instead of medals we got a collapsible Mizuno water bottle, but Scott said that's okay, he told him to put it up on the shelf at home with his finisher's medal. An award is an award, and it's his first podium, so a momentous one. Quite a few people had gone home already, and not a lot had stuck around to accept their awards, so they were pretty happy when myself and Keith, who'd placed 3rd in our Male 50-59 category, went up and accepted our bottles.
Suzanne thanked us profusely for coming out, and then stood between us as we got our picture taken onstage, so it was pretty cool.
We were both ready to head home by this time, so myself and Keith bid each other adieu and off we went.
Nothing on the net yet but I'll post results when they're up. Here's the finisher's medal, plus the nice gear bag that all entrants received.
We also got a cool tech shirt with content similar to what is on the bag adorning it, and with the bottle I carted home quite a load of swag.
In addition, I ran my first Friday Night Mile of the year this weekend, and myself and clubmate Chris recorded personal bests:
My next race is the Sound and Silence 10K in Saanichton on Sunday, May 6 at 9 AM.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
5 Peaks Golden Ears Trail Race
On Saturday, April 21 I ran the Golden Ears Sport (8.8K) race, the first of 5 races this year in the 5 Peaks British Columbia Trail Running Series. The event took place in Golden Ears Provincial Park, starting in the parking lot at a beach on Alouette Lake. There was also an Enduro (14K) race run concurrently, with the Kids (1K) and Toddler (100 meters) races run just before ours.
I arrived there after first getting lost when I turned onto Old Dewdney Trunk Road instead of Dewney Trunk Road like I was supposed to, and then made a wrong turn onto a Harris Road. I was saved when I came upon the just setup starting point of another race that was also starting at 9 AM, and the people running it gave me directions to Golden Ears Park.
Not long before we started, Marcel from work came up to me, as he was running his first ever race today. We were going off in small waves of 25 or 30 racers, a minute apart and all chip timed, to avoid congestion, and since I was 31st overall last year I went off in the first wave. Marcel said he'd go in a later one so we wished each other luck and my group was off!
We ran down to the beach, turned onto a concrete path, and then a couple of hundred meters later hit the woods. Right away there was a creek crossing. They were all very short but this one was especially steep and rocky so caution was needed and this slowed us all up momentarily. Once across we were were again speeding up and jockeying for position along fairly narrow trails. For about a kilometer we were able to run fast as the ground was muddy yet level, and then we hit a couple more creeks in quick succession, followed by a few uphills and downhills. The ground was getting more rocky and my shoes were still wet from the water so it was slower here, but then we again hit level ground and got a little speed up.
We hit the halfway point, and while the Enduro racers were directed to go straight, us Sport racers were sent to the right up a narrrow and steep path. This was the start of seemingly never ending climbs up difficult and steep terrain. Just when I thought I'd climbed one hill, there were only a few feet before there was another one, and I slowed considerably, at one point briefly walking as it was just as fast as running because the grade was so steep. Finally after a couple of kilometers of this it leveled off briefly, and there were 2 more short and rocky creek crossings, followed by a very steep dowhill for a few hundred meters.
The downhill "path" looked like something scraped up by a receding glacier, and probably was, as it was a trough full of rocks, and I didn't even attempt to go fast here, as a fall would have meant certain injury of some sort, there would be no soft landing. I heard someone come up behind me, and he yelled "On your left!", so I went off to the far right, and a young fellow flew past me, saying "Thanks!" as he did so. I said "No problem!", and it truly wasn't. I was going slow anyway, as there was no way I was going to risk wiping out in that nightmare. A few people after the race were in the first aid tent getting some minor patching but there was nothing too serious, so fortunately no bad wipeouts happened.
After getting out of the trough I was again running along single track trails, twisting and turning with more mud than rocks, but at least fairly level so you could actually run and get some speed going again. There were a couple of more minor uphills, and then one more creek crossing where we'd crossed it at the beginning of the race, and I came out into the open on the concrete path at the beach. You could hear the announcer calling out people's names as they came in, and there were plenty of spectators cheering me as I ran towards the final turn. I rounded it and headed up to the parking lot and over the finish line, glad that it was over!
After getting out of the trough I was again running along single track trails, twisting and turning with more mud than rocks, but at least fairly level so you could actually run and get some speed going again. There were a couple of more minor uphills, and then one more creek crossing where we'd crossed it at the beginning of the race, and I came out into the open on the concrete path at the beach. You could hear the announcer calling out people's names as they came in, and there were plenty of spectators cheering me as I ran towards the final turn. I rounded it and headed up to the parking lot and over the finish line, glad that it was over!
There weren't a lot of people who'd finished ahead of me yet, but I hadn't thought I'd ran it that fast, even though it looked like I'd finished below 45 minutes, much faster than the 47:34 I ran the year before. Still, it was chip timed, so I thought that a lot of people from other waves would probably finish with faster times than myself. No matter, I'd done as well as I could, and was feeling great to have finished! I exchanged congratulations with a few of the other finishers and then went and got some water. They also had Gatorade but I passed on it as usual, as it has too much sugar that gives me a stomach ache.
I headed to the food tables and grabbed part of a cut up banana but passed on the oranges. They had cut up bagels with jam, nutella and peanut butter to spread on them, plus Oreo, chocolate chip, oatmeal, and chocolate coated cookies. I had a couple of bagels with nutella & PB, and some cookies, and then a Clif bar. I grabbed a Clif bar for Marcel as I wasn't sure what wave he'd gone out in, and I knew they'd soon be gone, but he came in soon after, having been not far behind me in the third wave.
It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, but pleasant while running along the course with the thick tree canopy to keep you cool. Marcel went to talk to a guy he'd spotted from his gym, and I went down to where the runners were coming up from the beach and cheered them as they ran in to the finish for awhile. Then I went back into the parking lot and found Marcel, and I noticed that they'd posted some results already. I went and looked and I couldn't believe it, I'd finished 17th overall, and won my age group! I'd thought I'd been running slow, but then I realized I'd started out with all the fastest runners, and was just slower than some of them, not most of the rest of the field. Marcel finished 66th overall, very good for his first outing!
At 11 AM they started the awards for our Sport race, going through them fairly efficiently, and as they came up to my age group I gave my camera to Marcel and asked him if he'd take a picture of me when I got my medal, and he said "Of course!" He got a good shot of us up there, and then one of us as we stepped down and were congratulating each other, for just that brief moment in time, in our minds we were the three fastest guys alive!
He also got a good crowd shot, albeit with me in it, and I took one of the female overall winners, and one of my medal at home later on.
They finished the Sport awards and then had a contest to race down to the beach and swim out and get a rubber ducky floating in the lake to win a pair of shoes. 8 guys stripped down and did the men's one, and then a couple of women did theirs, and they were both pretty funny, after which they prepared to do the Enduro awards.
I told Marcel I had to work later that night, and he was tired himself, so we decided to finally head home, as we both had a bit of a drive ahead of us.
Results are up, and I was 17th of 243 overall, with a time of 44:45, and 1st of 13 in my age group, and Marcel was 66th overall, 19th of 30 in his AG, with a time of 51:47.
My next race is the Game of Life 5K, on Sunday, April 29, 8:10 AM, in Stanley Park.
This has been the 3rd edition of Gord's Running News for April, 2012.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Vancouver Sun Run
Today's race was the Vancouver Sun Run 10K, with close to 50,000 participating. I walked the 3 Ks downtown to the start, running into Drew Nicholson when I got there, and he was stoked to run the race. As I was talking to him I saw my clubmates Chris, Antonio and Hanif walking up, and I yelled "Here comes a bunch of rounders!", and they waved as they walked by and said they'd see me later.
We had to be in our yellow corral, just behind the elite blue one, by 8:30 AM so I headed over there with about 7 minutes to spare, and saw Antonio running around in little circles trying to warm up. I tried to join him but soon there was no room to run. Antonio said he was just going to stay farther back in the crowd for the start, as this is mainly a training run for him leading up to the Vancouver Marathon, which he is running in 3 week's time. He said Chris was farther up front so we bid each other adieu until later and I worked my way up through the crowd until I found him. We were way farther up than last year, about 15 rows from the front, so there would still be many people to try and get around once we got going.
The wheelchair athletes started the race at 8:40, and as we chatted the time went by quickly and soon it was 9 AM and we were off! It was a fast first kilometer down Georgia Street to Denman, and then we turned right, went one block, and turned right again off Denman and headed toward Stanley Park. It got crowded here and I ran up onto the sidewalks at some points to get around slower packs of runners. We turned before actually reaching Stanley Park, and headed back in the direction from which we'd come, finally reaching Pacific Boulevard and running on the street beside the beach. I was kind of in a pack here but this is a massive race so people moved in and out as they sped up and slowed. Again myself and others found ourselves running up on the sidewalks to avoid congestion when passing people.
There were many spectators all along the route, and even more here than usual, but they left the runners lots of room. With them cheering, waving signs, clanging cowbells, honking horns, and banging on drums and other things, and the many musical acts along the route performing for us, our energy was kept at a high level. We ran into a few headwinds along the way, but nothing too bad, and we had good running weather, cloudy but dry and cool.
We sailed past the 5K point and up a steep hill, where I found myself slwing down considerably. Soon we crested it and were on level ground again, but not for long! We hit the Burrard Street Bridge for another uphill, about 400 meters, and then a downhill twice as long. As we got off the bridge things leveled out, and then we ran a few blocks before ending up on 6th Avenue, going towards the finish at B.C. Place stadium. We had another not too steep uphill run near the 7K mark and then it was smooth sailing until incline onto the Cambie Street Bridge.
A few hundred meters later we hit the crest of the incline with only one kilometer to go. I sped up as much as I could now, and we rounded the corner and saw the finishing arch a few hundred meters ahead, with former Olympian Lynne Williams crouching on the sidewalk yelling at us about how awesome we were doing. Everyone just gave it everything they had going in now. I'd wanted to finish below 42 minutes if possible, and by looking at my watch after I crossed the finish line I thought I'd just fallen short by a few seconds. Chris thought he was just above 39 minutes himself.
After crossing the finish line we headed into B.C. Place Stadium. On the floor they had many tables set up, with jiuces, water, bagels, bananas, oranges, and energy bars. I ate a half banana and a few bagels and some water, and that was it. The raisin bagels were the best. The first person I ran into was Scott Stewart, who'd finished just above 38 minutes, and thought he might have won his age group, but said you never knew who might show up, so it wasn't a lock by any means.
Then I saw Antonio, who finished in 47 and change, faster than last year, and next Chris, who figured he ran it in just over 39 minutes, and lastly Hanif joined us. We hung around for quite awhile talking to people, but gradually it was getting quite crowded, and we had trouble moving around. We couldn't find Greg from our club, who was running with his family, and I decided to leave. When I finally got out on the street after walking around the stadium outside, I saw Antonio, Chris and Hanif on the other side. They'd decided to head out too, and yelled that they'd see me on Tuesday on our club run.
I walked home and went to the Sun Run website, and results were already up. I found mine first, and lo and behold, found I'd been mistaken, I finished with a time of 41:58! I ran a sub 42 race after all. Whoo hoo! I was 624th overall, a large improvement over my 683rd finish last year, and I was 31 out of 1467 in my age group. Chris had also done better than he thought he did, 260th overall, 15 of 1762 in his AG, with a time of 38:52! Scott was 213th overall with a time of 38:14, and ended up 2nd of 691 in his AG, still quite awesome! I saw that Drew was 36th overall, but right after that I ran into problems as things froze up on the site, with so many people on it right then checking for results. I'll check the site http://www.vancouversun.com/2012sunrun/index.html again later, probably much later, like tomorrow.
So the Sun Run is over for another year, another huge race getting a lot of people out on the streets for some fitness and fun, and hopefully many of them will continue with what they've started!
My next race is the 8.8K Sport race in the Golden Ears trail running event in Maple Ridge, at 9 AM on Saturday, April 21st.
This has been edition 2 of Gord's Running News for April, 2012.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
April Fool's Run Article
Here's the article in the Coast Reporter newspaper about the April Fool's Run:
They also had some pictures:
I went to the Timex BC Road Running Series site and noticed that I'm at the top of the Leaderboard that's on the lefthand side of the page:
It's only because I've run more races than anyone else, but I'll enjoy my lofty position while I can:
Monday, April 2, 2012
April Fool's Run
On Sunday, April 1st I ran the April Fool's Run, a point to point half marathon, from Gibsons to Davis Bay Park near Sechelt, on the beautiful Sunshine Coast. Going over on the ferry I ran into renowned runner, race director, emcee, author and book editor Dan Cumming, who is also in my running club, and his wife Judi, who among other things is also an editor. They were going over to volunteer and help make the race a success.
We started out a little ways up the road from the Gibsons Community & Recreation Centre, precisely at 9 AM. We went up the street for a block, then we zigged and zagged around a few more blocks before ending up on the lower highway, which twisted and turned, but we now stayed on the same road for about 15 kilometers. When we hit the 5K marker I said "Whoo, hoo! Almost a quarter of the way there!", and the guy in front of me said "That's a good way of looking at it!" I asked him if he'd run it before and he said that he'd run it once before 3 years ago, and I told him that it was my first time. We agreed that we were cruising along pretty well and we'd just try and keep it up, and then we proceeded to just run with no more talking. It was a race after all, and we still had a long way to go. I was a bit worried because I'd gone out way too fast for the first few kilometers, at my 5K pace, way faster than my half marathon one. I slowed up but it was difficult because I was running so well and felt so good that I still was going at a faster pace than I'd planned There was one fairly steep hill at about the 6K mark, and that served to slow me down pretty well, and after I crested it I took a little time to get my legs back and start going at a decent pace again.
All along the course at various points there were spectators, mostly families that lived along the road, some dressed up in costumes, waving signs, clanging cowbells, blowing whistles, and just cheering us on in general. This really lifted our spirits as we clicked off the Ks, and at about 14 Ks we came to a junction with lots of spectators at it, and were directed to the left, did a little more zigging, and then we were on a direct road again. Soon after this was the last major hill, quite steep but thankfully short, and I had real trouble running after we crested it. My legs felt like lead, and I wondered if I'd made a really bad mistake going out so fast. The other runners around me were having the same problem though, and after about a kilometer of struggling I got my energy back and proceeded to speed up. We were on a slight downhill which helped a lot, and soon there was only one kilometer to go! I sped up quite a bit now, and I could hear someone behind me doing the same. Then a sign "400 METERS TO GO!", and we both accelerated. I came to a small bridge and blew by a guy who'd passed me about a kilometer back. Suddenly there was the finisher's chute, with the announcer calling my name, and I ran in as fast as I could. The announcer called out the name of my pursuer, Kristine Chew from Vancouver, who I managed to beat by a second. The volunteers put our finisher's medals around our necks, and I congratulated her on a great race and thanked her for pushing me.
I ran into Drew Nicholson, who told me his clubmate Dave Palermo had won the race, smoking everyone. Drew himself was 5th overall and 2nd in his age group, and Mark Bennett, who is the same age as me, came in 4th overall, even though he wasn't at the front at the starting line and had to fight his way up there. Mark's a world class runner, and I find it inspiring that someone my age can perform at that level. It shows I can get a lot better at this myself, and I'll certainly give it a whirl! Dan Cumming took my picture, and then I went to the food tables, where Judi was spreading cream cheese and jam on bagels, which turned out to be a delicious combination! They also had bananas, chocolate chip cookies, soy puddings, coffee, and tomato soup. Then they brought out the best of all, freshly made burritos, beef and cheese, curry, and jalapeno, with plenty of salsa to spoon onto them! Soon I was full, and I ran into Dan again and asked him where the buses were to take us back to the start. I'd seen the preliminary results already and I was nowhere near a medal, 10th in my age group in the fast field. The sun had come out and it was beautiful there in the park by the ocean, and it was a great time cheering all the other runners in and mingling with the rest. I did however have to work that night, so I went down to the beach where Dan had directed me to go, and caught the next bus back towards home.
Results are up, I finished 77th overall out of 475, 10 of 28 in my age group, with a time of 1:36:19, a PB by one second! http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2012/run/FoolsRun2012OA.html Our Semiahmoo Sunrunners team finished 4th out of 6. http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2012/run/FoolsRun2012Teams.html . 3 of our teammates hit the podium though, with Marc Fontaine finishing 3rd in his age group, and Frances O'Grady and Rob Daniel winning theirs, while Charles Steemers finishing 7th in his and Marc's. http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2012/run/FoolsRun2012AgeGroups.html It's not that we didn't have a good team, it's just an older team, that's all. We got a cool finisher's medal, and I'm attaching a picture of it, plus one of my Fool In Training shirt. The first time I wore it was to a club run, and I promptly locked my keys in my car. I'm a real fool, not just a pretend one, and I take it very seriously.
My next race is the Vancouver Sun Run at 9 AM on April 15th.
This has been the April Fool's edition of Gord's Running News.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)