BC Cross Country Championships

Today I ran in the BC Cross Country Championships at Clearbrook Park in Abbotsford. I was our club "coach" today as I'd coordinated our registrations. We had a large contingent of 15 Semiahmoo Sunrunners and I got all our bib numbers after I arrived there, and since it was raining heavily we commandeered another club's tent. Dee Makepeace, not running today because she's still nursing an injury, helped me distribute them to Sunrunners already there, and then took charge of the remaining bibs and made sure arriving club members received them.

Ours was the first race of the day, a 4 loop 8K, and we started out at 10:45 on the grass field, and ran about 300 meters along the flagged course before hitting a broken up concrete path. Chris Boulton from my club passed me and Juliette Christie was right up ahead so I realized I'd started a little too fast and eased up a bit. The path turned to gravel and then we hit grass and were directed towards a cut in some trees and up a small hill, not too steep or long but pretty slippery with mud. We ran back down onto the grass again, and now looped around and headed back.

We bounded down another gravel path for a few hundred meters, and then through some hay before hitting a longer, steeper hill. A guy passed me going up the hill, but then on the downhill I sped up, and as we turned onto the grass I repassed him. It turned out to be one of my friends from the 5 Peaks races, Vaclav, and we greeted each other as I went by. We ran around a field and headed past the start area where the spectators braving the miserable weather were waiting to cheer us on, and then headed for a very brief jaunt in the woods. After running along a gravel and mud path for a bit we were directed onto the grass, and then ran past the start area again on the other side, around the field, and it was on to the second lap!

After we'd gone over the first hill again I passed a fellow, and after the second hill I went to pass another guy as we ran along the grass. We ran side by side for a bit, and then I sped up and went by. For the rest of the race the only people I passed were people that I lapped, starting with Rob Daniels near the end of the 3rd lap. The guy I ran by after the second hill on the last lap pulled up when we were heading towards the first hill on the final lap. I managed to stay ahead of him until we went over it and were almost at the field, but finally he went by me.

We ran along, lapping the odd person, and as we came out of the woods for the last time I could see the fellow we'd passed early in the race coming up fast. The guy ahead of me sped up, and so did I, hoping to fend off my pursuer. We were now coming toward the finisher's chute, and the fellow I was chasing kicked it into high gear. I saw him veer hard left and down the chute, and then I hit it and ran in as fast as I could. It was about 150 meters long, but I managed to fend off my challenger. We all congratulated each other and that's when I found out that the guy chasing me was 65 years old!

They had water and suckers at a tent by the finish line, and then we went to get some food. They had huge chocolate rice crispy squares and caramel ones too, plus the biggest cookies I've ever seen, both chocolate and light colored (maybe peanut butter), plus a few types of muffins, bags of chips and coffee. That's when I found out it wasn't for free, but it was dirt cheap, everything was a buck apiece, so I got a giant chocolate rice crispy square, monster chocolate cookie, delicious nutty muffin, and very tasty coffee for 4 bucks! The cookie was so tasty I thought of having another one, but then decided that about 1000 more calories of processed sugar maybe wasn't such a good idea.

Now the deluge started, and everybody left fairly quickly because of the inclement weather. I was going to do the same, but I decided to see if there were any results up yet. I went to the organizers' tent and a woman had results printed out and was checking them, and I looked and discovered I'd finished 3rd in my age group! I told this to the guy standing there, who happened to be president of the Valley Royals Track & Field Club, the event organizers, and he congratulated me. He then told me that only the overall winners got medals, while the top 3 in the age groups received ribbons, and I said "I'll take a ribbon!", and the woman who'd been checking the results laughed. He said that they had all the results posted in the nearby baseball dugout. I went and looked and discovered that several of my teammates had won ribbons!

Then I went back to the tent, and since so many people were gone they didn't have a formal ceremony, but the Valley Royal president shook my hand and presented me with my ribbon. Then we went through the list and he gave me all my teammates' ribbons too. I then thanked the presenter, and off I went. warm up. Results are up already.

http://valleyroyals.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Results_2.htm

Here's what I havefor our club:

Sunrunner           Time      AG       Series Points

Chris Boulton      34:33     9/11         11

Gordon Flett        36:23     3/6          18

Michael O'Grady  39:53     1/4          27

Tom Hastie          40:36     2/3         25

Antonio Cerullo    42:23     11/11        7

Fred Cotton         42:58      3/4         20

John Makepeace  43:47     6/6          15

Lori Cotton           43:49     3/4          20

Roger Roufosse    45:20     1/1          25

Walter Anderson   46:05     4/4          19

Shonna Morgan    49:10     3/3          21

Mary Hinze           52:01    4/4          18

Jimmy Hinze         52:01    6/6          14

Brenda Lightfoot    51:48    4/4          19

Frances O' Grady  55:44    1/1          30  

                                 Points total    187

The Kajaks got 164 points, so a 23 point gain on them. 

I have 1st place ribbons for Frances O'Grady, Michael O'Grady and Roger Roufosse; 2nd place ribbons for Tom Hastie and erstwhile member Paul Wood, and 3rd place ones for Fred Cotton, Lori Cotton, Shonna Morgan, and myself.

Thanks to all the runners, Dee for all her help on the day, and Elsie & Marc Fontaine for coming out in support! Despite the monsoon, it was a great day!

My next race is in the morning, the 9.5K James Cunningham Seawall Race, at 10 AM in Stanley Park.

Rubber Ducky 7 Miler

Today's race was the Rubber Ducky 7 Miler in Burnaby Lake Park. It wasn't raining when I got there but it was cool, only a few degrees above zero. I ran into Tina Louise Harris, who said she had injured both calves running with her baby stroller, and then reinjured them again in her first race back. She had been registered to run the half marathon here but as time passed finally switched to the 5K to see how it went as she's still recovering. I told her if all went well she could very well win the 5K, and wished her luck.

 

All three races started out at 9 AM, and Craig Premack darted out ahead of me with a dozen or so other runners, and by the time we ran the 200 meters down the straightaway and made the turn left towards the woods, he was already 20 meters in front of me and continuing to pull away. We looped around, making another left and headed down a path in the woods for another couple of hundred meters, and Tina Louise pulled up and passed me about halfway to the corner. I managed to stay behind her as we ran down another straight gravel path, fairly level with some minor ups and downs.

 

We came to the 1K marker and turned right, going over a short wooden bridge, and into the woods, where the path began to zigzag constantly now. Before long I saw the 5K turnaround sign about 10 meters ahead, and Tina rounded it in first place, and I yelled "Go Tina!" as she raced by me heading back to the finish line.

 

I continued on, twisting and turning on the gravel trail, until about the 5K point where we came out into an open area and a volunteer directed us up some metal stairs and onto the walkway over a dam. As I bounded down the stairs on the other side, I could hear someone close behind me. I sped up and the steps faded, but after about the 6K mark I saw a fellow who'd run out behind the leaders at the start of the race. He'd slowed up now and I steadily gained on him and went past him a couple of minutes later.

 

Now I saw another guy ahead of me, the young fellow who'd finished just ahead of me in last year's race. We reached a small bridge with wooden stairs and I ran up them behind him and followed him down the other side, and as we entered the maze of trails again I ran by him too, and soon the sound of his footsteps faded behind me until all was quiet again.

 

After the 9K marker I could already hear cheering and the announcer at the finish line, and then I heard footsteps coming up behind me and it was the young fellow I'd passed a couple of kilometers back. He went by me and then I heard someone else coming up fast, and it was a guy in his twenties hightailing it who quickly raced by both of us.

 

I managed to stay behind the one guy as the youngest one bounded farther ahead of us, and before I knew it the cheering was getting quite loud and we were out of the woods and back in the field where we'd started. Now they directed us to run a couple of hundred meters away from the finish line before we hit a turnaround and headed back. 300 meters later we were directed down the finisher's chute, but the youngest runner had thankfully kept going straight, meaning he was doing the half marathon.

 

We still had about 200 meters to go, and the guy in front opened it up, and I tried but was unable to, and ended up crossing far behind him.

 

I got my finisher's medal from a volunteer and congratulations and a handshake from Mitchell the race director, and then headed into the food tent. After rehydrating with some water I grabbed a couple of brownies plus one each of the Clif Builder protein and regular Clif bars for refueling. After those I went to where they were grilling flapjacks for us, put a couple on a plate with some syrup, and sat down to enjoy them.

 

After I finished those Craig Premack, his daughter Lena, and his friend Rob appeared. I was no match for Craig today and he ended up smoking me by over 2 minutes, Rob finished 3rd overall, and Lena was 14th overall in the 5K. We talked for a bit and then as they all lived nearby they left to change and freshen up before the awards. I went to my car and put my jacket on and got my bell, and went back to the finish line to cheer in the finishers.  On the way there I ran into Tina, who told me she'd had to stop a few times in the second half of her race and catch her breath, but she'd still finished in first place. I congratulated her and went to the finish area, but after about 15 minutes my hands were frozen and I was having trouble ringing my bell, so I headed back to the heated tent where they were doing the 5K awards just outside it.

 

After those were finished I went inside the tent where some results were posted, and discovered I had indeed finished 2nd in my age group, as only Craig was ahead of me in the 50-59 category. A fellow from Canmore struck up a conversation with me, and was telling me about how he vacations all over the place, and runs races wherever he happens to go, when they announced that they were starting the awards for the 7 miler. Craig wasn't back in time so Rob grabbed his medal for him, I went up and received mine and then we applauded the remaining winners.

 

With that done my Canmore acquaintance said it was time for him to go, and I said that sounded like a good idea, so we said we hoped to see other again at some other races, and headed out. I met Craig arriving back on the way to my car, and told him Rob had his medal and congratulated him again. Next I ran into Larry Doan from the Kamloops Marathon, who I'd seen just before the start of the race, and we chatted for a bit before I finally got going. It'd had been a great time but it would be nice to get home and inside where it was dry and warm.

 

I was 11th out of 138 overall, with a time of 47:31, and because the online results don't show any categories, I emailed Mitchell and found out I was 2 of 10 in my AG.

http://www.tryevents.ca/images/results/2012rdresults.pdf

There were 2 other Fletts in the 7 miler, Warren finished 120th overall, and Andrea 137th. I'll have to keep an eye out and hopefully meet them in the future. All Rubber Ducky participants got a nice bright yellow race shirt, perfect for running at night now with the short days, plus a cool rubber finisher's medal made out of recycled tires. Photos are also up: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TRY-EVENTS/45416122127?ref=stream#!/media/set/?set=a.10151216308477128.483681.45416122127&type=1

 

 

 

My next race is the 8K Masters race in the B.C. Cross Country Championships, on Saturday, October 27 at 10:45 AM at Clearbrook Park in Abbotsford.

Strachan Hartley Legacy Run 5K

On Sunday, October 14, I ran the 5K race at the 6th annual Strachan Hartley Legacy Run, held to support the event's namesake Foundation http://www.shlf.ca/about-shlf . It was pouring rain when I arrived at Handsworth Secondary School in North Vancouver, and it continued to rain hard the whole time we were there, so everyone ran from their cars to the school and stayed in the gymnasium until their races started.

 

The 10K started off at 9:15 AM on the road in the back of the school, and then we took off at 9:30. About 10 guys took off ahead of me, including eventual winner Dave Cressman (here he is on Urban Rush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU04GfWWGaM ), in a class of his own today. We ran along the streets, zigzagging either on level ground or slightly downhill for the first kilometer. A couple of the runners ahead of me had already slowed up before the 1K mark, so I passed them and then headed over a small footbridge and up a short but steep dirt hill connecting 2 streets. Coming out on the street again, I was at the back of an already spreading out chase pack. We were ably guided along the whole route by a huge contingent of race marshals, consisting mainly of athletes from the school sporting Handsworth jerseys, and UBC Thunderbirds decked out in their football jerseys.

 

Dave was already out of sight, but the rest of us were all spread out in a row, and I was content to stay where I was for the time being. We rounded a corner and hit a fairly steep incline about 300 meters long, and I slowed up considerably, but so did everyone else. We reached the crest and everyone sped up, but a couple more guys were losing steam, both of whom looked to be in their 20s. I caught up to them and then pulled out to go by, and one fellow ran side by side with me for about 50 meters before he too dropped back, and I concentrated on the next guy in front of me.

 

We hit another hill and it wasn't as steep or long as the first one, but still slowed us up again. When we hit level ground again we were running on a road beside the school, but on the opposite side to where we'd started out. The runner directly in front of me had about a 10 meter lead, there was another guy running another 10 meters in front of him, and 2 guys at least a couple of hundred meters ahead of everyone else as we ran up the long straightaway.

 

Finally we were directed right and ran another block before another right turn and a straightaway leading back to the school. The other fellows managed to hold their leads or increase them, but by the time we reached the spot where we turned into the schoolgrounds I was only about 3 meters behind my nemesis. It was now about 300 meters to go around the track to the finish line! A couple of marshals told the guy in front of me to watch out as I was right behind him, and then they yelled at me to go and catch him.

 

I sped up but he found another gear and pulled away, but as I hit the final corner he slowed and I closed on him, but ran out of real estate and finished 4 seconds back. After crossing the line we congratulated each other and grabbed some water. We stood under the tents cheering the incoming runners for a bit, but then the race announcer suggested we should probably go into the gym where it was warm, and we all thought that was a good idea.  

 

They had bananas, oranges, Clif bars and 2 types of bagels, with peanut butter, jam, and cream cheese to spread on them. I grabbed a Clif bar and a couple of bagels that I spread cream cheese and jam on, and that filled me up enough. I went back and grabbed a coffee, and then milled around taking everything in as more and more race finishers poured in.

 

 

 

Rob Daniel had run the 10K, and soon after he came in they did some draw prizes while we waited for results, which were soon posted on the front of the stage. They said I'd finished 4th overall and won my age group, but when I got home and looked on the internet I was in fifth, and I finally ended up being 6th overall out of 160, which seemed about right. I won my age group by almost 10 minutes, just like in the Energizer Night Race the night before, but with the longer (accurate) course, hills, and it being my third race run in a 17 hour period, my time was 1:45 higher at 22:22.

 

http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2012/run/StrachanHartley2012OA5K.html

 

I picked up some more swag for my age group win, consisting of a bamboo water bottle, Beer Pong balls, a running light that fits on the peak of your hat, and a $25 gift certificate for De Dutch Pannekoek House. Rob took my picture with me holding my winnings (albeit turning out a bit blurry), and then it was time to head home, with the rain still pouring down, but a fine event nonetheless.

 

 

 

My next race is the Rubber Ducky 7 Miler at Burnaby Lake on Sunday, October 21 at 9 AM.

Energizer Night Race 5K

My second race of the day on Saturday, October 13 was the Energizer Night Race 5K, starting and finishing in Ceperley field at 2nd Beach in Stanley Park. Parking was even worse than last year, and myself and a lot of others ended up having to park in a lot a mile from the start, but since it was after 6 PM on a weekend night, at least it was free.

I ended up jogging there with a bunch of other people, so at least we didn't have to worry about doing our warmup. There was quite the party atmosphere happening when we reached the starting area, with the field full of tents, and a huge stage set up, music playing, and the announcer keeping a constant prattle going. It was pitch dark and everyone was wearing their Energizer head lamps, which were mandatory for running the race. The racers for the 10K were all lined up in the chute, over a thousand of them, and they were quite a sight as they took off at 6:50.

We were scheduled to begin the 5K at 7:05, so I hung around the chute. I'd finished 11th overall in the race last year, rated being up near the front at the start, and wanted to make sure I didn't get trapped farther back. They had pace bunnies and the announcer was calling out their finishing times and telling people who matched these to go to where they were in the field.

There was only one other fellow lingering in the chute entrance with me, and I asked him what time he was shooting for. In an Italian accent he told me 18 minutes, but that the course wasn't 5Ks, maybe 4.8 at most. I assumed he'd run the course and measured it on his GPS, so that's how he knew this. Soon they called us into the chute and we went to the front of the pack. I stayed right at the front, because there were none of the usual young greyhounds jockeying for position like in other races. There were a couple of small kids with us though, and when the gun went off one of them raced ahead of me and kept going very fast.

The Italian guy and a few others ran up ahead as we exited the field and headed up onto some paths through the park, and the young fellow stayed in front of me as we raced along. I came up and ran alongside him, and he managed to keep pace with me, and I dropped back behind him for about 100 meters, and then when we hit a straightaway I sped up and passed him for good. Still, I couldn't shake him. I started to pass some of the other runners who were slowing up already as we hit the seawall, only about 2 Ks into the race. The odd one would try and keep pace but then would drop back, but this kid was amazing, he just kept on my tail!

We hit the halfway turnaround, which wasn't as far as last year, and headed back with hoards of runners heading towards us on the opposite side of the paths. We ran through a tunnel and I heard someone yell, "Look at the little guy go!" I managed to drop everyone I passed, except this one kid, who I later found out was a nine year old from Perth, Ontario. Soon we heard the announcer and all the noise from what he called the "Circus zone", and knew we were heading in toward the finish. I'd finally put a little distance between myself and my young pursuer, but not much, only beating him by less than 6 seconds in spite of sprinting in as fast as I possibly could!

His mother was waiting for him and told him how proud she was of him, and I commented on how fast he was. She said "He sure is, especially for a nine year old!", and I thought he was fast no matter what age he was, quite amazing! The Italian guy and another guy were wating there when I crossed the finish line, and he told me I'd finished 4th. He then came up and said that they had my time as being faster than him, when he'd finished ahead of me, and I told him not to worry, I'd let them know when the time came.

A volunteer gave me a bottle of water, and I went over to where the food was. You got a large cup of vegetable soup, a choice of fruit, a fibre one bar, and a large bag of Werther's caramels. I ate everything except the caramels, and then went looking to find out if any results were posted yet. Craig Asselstine, who I'd beat to win the Jog For The Bog 5K, came up and shook my hand. I told him I'd finished 4th, and he told me he'd run the 5K with his girlfriend so he'd only jogged it, and they were heading out now, but we'd be seeing each other at a future race.

After giving away a number of draw prizes they finally started the awards, doing the 10K overall ones first. Then they came to our male 5K overalls, and the announcer called out 3 names, including mine. I went up onstage and told him I was Gordon Flett but I'd finished 4th. I looked around for the Italian guy but didn't see him, and the announcer directed me offstage to talk to the woman in charge of timing. There were a couple of guys in their 20s who'd walked up, with dumb grins on their faces, apparently claiming to both be winners. The woman said it was cool, they'd gotten it straightened out, but I was thinking that neither of these guys had finished ahead of me.

I walked over to the tent where a young woman was just posting the 5K results, and I looked and it said that I'd finished 2nd overall in the race. In this race if you win an overall prize you're not eligible for an age group award, which I totally agree with, but that meant I would now get nothing, even though I'd smoked everyone else in my age group by at least 10 minutes. I went back to the stage, and then a woman came up to me, and said "I just wanted to let you know that I was the one who made the mistake.", and I'm thinking "What mistake?", and then she explains that she's Javier's wife, and she was the one who told him that he was 3rd and I was 4th. It turned out that the one guy who came in first was actually the 10K winner, as they'd started 15 minutes before us, and she didn't know who the other guy was, possibly a bystander. Now the Italian fellow, Javier, appeared beside her and told me he'd won the race, and I'd come in second.

I now went up to the announcer to explain what happened, and the woman who I'd spoken to before was standing nearby, so he took me to see her. I explained everything and she asked if I was awarded anything from the stage, and I told her no. She walked up onstage where there were a few winner's baskets, not everybody'd claimed theirs, but mine was still sitting there. She brought it to me and seemed to be totally unfazed by the mishap. She and the announcer were super nice about everything, it was quite a zoo being such a big event. Looking at the posted overall results http://www.winningtime.ca/12/12energizervan/oall5k.txt I realize who the 2 young guys were, and they'd finished 6th and 7th.

After we came in and were conversing on the finish line they had us clear the area and head into the darkness up on the field to be out of the way for incoming runners, so I'm guessing the young guys came in and thought they'd podiumed when they saw nobody else there. They'd apparently told them nicely to get lost, but I'd missed everything having already walked away.

All I'd missed was the photo op, and it was now sinking in that I'd actually finished second in the entire race of 505 participants. My time was 18:37. but unfortunately I can't count that as a 5K personal best as my GPS showed only 4.69 on it after I crossed the finish line. It's a shame as I would have recorded a PB if the course was the proper length, as it was super flat with no hills, but that can wait!

It was getting quite cold out so I headed home, and when I got there discovered I'd gotten quite a haul of Energizer stuff: giant pink bunny slippers complete with sunglasses, another headlamp, a flashlight, a nightlight, and a USB charger, plus tons of batteries, both regular and rechargable, with a battery charger. And a nice medal too! Here's the page with all the result links: http://www.winningtime.ca/energizer/vancouver.html

So it was a great day, with one race to go for the weekend, the Strachan Hartley 5K in North Vancouver at 9:30 in the morning.

Frank Reynolds Memorial Cross Country Meet

On Saturday, October 13, I competed with my clubmates in the Frank Reynolds Memorial Cross Country Meet in Cates Park in North Vancouver. The first event of the day was the 8 year old boys 1.5K race at 10 AM, and it progressed from there, with our 6.3K race being the last event of the day. The men were sent off at 2:30 PM, and they started the women behind us a few minutes later.

 

We started off on our first of 3 laps, running on the grass for only about 50 meters before turning left, running around a group of trees, and then heading back the other way, around the fieldhouse, and then down the grass toward the water. We ran up around the field and a couple of hundred meters later we were sent down a wide trail into the woods. After a couple of hundred meters more we turned left, ran over a small wooden bridge, and hit a double track trail with some nice puddles and tree roots to navigate.

 

Gihan Wickremasuriya passed me after we crossed the bridge, and I thought that there's no reason I should let him beat me. Even if he is 13 years younger than myself, I almost always finish ahead of him in a race, but in the odd one he beats me, and I no longer see any reason why he should. Consequently, as we leave the woods and run around the edge of a field I speed up and pass him. Then we hit a patch of grass that slopes upward for a couple of hundred yards, and I manage to go up it without slowing up too much. At the top of the hill we hit the woods again, going downhill before crossing another small bridge and hitting a single track trail.

 

The trail gets a little wider as we zig and zag along it, hitting some small uphills and downhills, and finally we're out in the open again, running past the fieldhouse on the opposite side and then past the starting line again to begin the second lap. On this lap we're more spread out now, and I just concentrate on keeping my speed up and not wiping out. We hit the open space where I passed Gihan before, and I find myself speeding up again, but then I hit the grass upslope once more, and went up it a little slower than the first time. Enterng the woods I got my legs back and darted along the path, coming out into the open again and speeding up as I hear all the people cheering in the starting area.

 

Last lap to go, and as we pass the fieldhouse and head down the grass I go to pass a guy, and he says "It's yours!", meaning the upcoming hairpin turn at the bottom. I say thanks to him, and realize I just passed Bob Wade, who I've never come close to beating in a race before. In the woods I pass a few guys who've slowed up, and then we hit the field and I hear someone behind me. I'm guessing it's Bob Wade, so I surge again, but then when I hit the grass hill it slows me up pretty well this time. A couple of women from my club are walking up it, and as I go by them I say "Yo Sunrunners!" and they yell "Go Gord!", so that gives me a little boost to get me up the hill a bit quicker.

 

In the woods I speed up as my legs recover, and I know the end will soon come, so I motor as fast as I can, finally coming out of the trees and turning towards the finish chute that is now set up. As I sprint in a couple of the young guys who've already finished yell at me to keep going fast until I cross the line, and I do!

 

After crossing the finish line a volunteer holding a box of small Clif bars tells me to grab a handful, and to grab a pair of running socks that they have hanging there, much more useful than a finisher's medal! That's all they have to eat except some protein Clif Builder bars but that's okay, they aren't stingy with them, and it was only a ten buck entrance fee.

 

We cheer the rest of the runners in, and I notice they're packing things up. It's not really nasty weather, not raining anyway, but the wind's blowing in pretty well off the water. The organizers have been there since early in the morning, so I can see why they want to get going and go home. Usually at this race they have an awards ceremony where they give the winners socks, but this year everyone got socks and they skipped the ceremony and we'd find out the results later online. After talking to many of the other runners, who all professed to have enjoyed the race, I get ready to head out as most of the other competitors start to leave.

 

Rob Daniel told me he might run the Strachan Hartley race with me tomorrow morning, not that far away from where we are now, and I took a picture of him and Mary Hinze from my club, easily the cutest couple there! I'm running the Energizer Night Race 5K in Stanley Park at 7 PM, and it's 3:45 right now, so I headed home to get ready for that race!

 

 

 

Results are up, and I ended up 3 of 9 in my age group, with a time of 26:31. I finished 17 seconds ahead of Bob and only 11 seconds behind Marc Fontaine from my club, the closest by far I've ever finished behind him in a race, so very happy with my effort today.

http://www.norwesterstandf.com/english/documents/nw_xcountry_2012_results.pdf

The Kajaks are now 105 points ahead of us, with 4 races to go in the 8 race series, so we have some work to do if we want to keep our championship trophy from last year.

http://www.bcathletics.org/results/2012/lmxc12_club.pdf

Turkey Trot 10K

On Monday, October 8 I competed in the Granville Island Turkey Trot 10K race. It was the 14th annual edition of this event that raises funds and goods for the Vancouver Food Bank.

 

We started out on the road by Performance Works on Granville Island, with Drew Nicholson and a few other runners taking the early lead. We ran through the cobblestone streets before crossing the short bridge that took us off the Island, and turned onto 1st Avenue. We kept going for a few blocks and then hung a right onto Burrard Street and raced the couple of blocks to the bridge.

 

Since it was early in the race my legs weren't tired and I kept a good pace going up the 650 meter incline on the bridge, and then when we hit the crest I sped up and passed an entire pack of 6 people in front of me.

 

There was nobody in front of me for about 100 meters with about 200 to go before we reached the bottom of the bridge, when a young woman came up from behind and ran as fast as she could to get ahead of me. Then, in spite of us having 2 full car lanes to run in and nobody else around, she cut right in front of me. She had exhausted herself and slowed right down, and I had to brake to keep from running into the back of her. Then I went to go around her and a guy running with her wearing the same gray shirt, who looked like he was probably her dad, cut across my path and I clipped his leg. I said "Sorry." but I wanted to say something else. Why would she do something like that? I figured she thought she was doing some kind of cool race maneuver. People like these two are the ones who cause people to get hurt, but luckily that wasn't the case here. Once I was ahead I just kept going at a good clip and put it out of my mind. There was a lot of the race left to run, and I knew I wouldn't be seeing their sorry asses again anyway. I didn't even think about this again until long after the race when I was at home, you just have to put it out of your mind and carry on.

 

At the bottom of the bridge we went right on to Pacific Boulevard for a block, then right again down to the seawall for the rest of the race. It was a very scenic course, with spectators and volunteers cheering us along the way. Like the day before I just concentrated on keeping my pace up during the middle kilometers of the race when it's toughest to do so. The rest of the way was fairly flat with a lot of zigzagging, but still a pretty fast course, and there was always someone behind me to keep me going strong so as not to get passed. At about the 7K mark one fellow did pass me, and we said hi and both agreed we had to keep our good pace going. He stayed ahead of me for a few hundred meters, but then I got a surge of energy, passed him and that was it for that challenge.

 

When there was less than a kilometer to go you could hear the announcer calling out people's names and times as they finished, and I heard someone close behind me. I sped up but so did he, and he stayed right on my tail to the bitter end. You can actually see him behind me as we head to the finish line in a couple of the race photos:

 

http://siphotography.zoomphoto.ca/v5/event_gallery_search.php?frmIndex=1168&submit=Search&event=17473&photog=siphotography

 

As I came in and crossed Drew Nicholson was waiting for me. He told me I did great and I said I'd just run my second fastest 10K, one day after running my fastest! As it turned out I finished 31st overall out of 966 racers, and was 4 of 57 in my age group, the closest I've ever come to the podium in this race. http://www.turkeytrot.ca/race-day-results/race-results Most important was my 41:26 time, proving to myself that yesterday's race was no fluke, I've really made a breakthrough! Considering we had to run up the bridge and it was only one day after I'd given everything I had in the Okanagan race, I was really pleased with how I did.

 

Drew won the race, a week after winning the Surrey Marathon, but he said a guy from Calgary gave him a run for his money. Inside Performance Works they had three island type food stations, each with plates of salami & cheese, pita bread triangles, banana bread, plates of lox, a huge bowl of delicious hummus, apples and bananas, and a plate of veggies with dip, but I skipped that dip and just used the veggies to scoop hummus. Soon they brought out plates of figs and dates, and then trays of lox & bagels with cream cheese. After awhile it became somewhat like a fancy cocktail party, sans booze, with the band playing lively music on the stage, and volunteers carrying around trays of lox & bagels, and ones with pumpkin pie pieces on them. They weren't big pieces, but they were delicious and they just continually came around with them, so I think I ended up eating almost a whole pie.

 

They started the awards and did the age group ones first, and I didn't feel too bad about not making the podium, as they didn't give out medals but prizes instead. Drew got a bag, second received a hat, and third place got a cookbook, and I just wasn't that disappointed in missing out on these.

 

They called up the overall winners, and gave Drew a huge bouquet of flowers to go with those he won last week at the marathon. He said he'll have to get a new vase for these ones. Heather Christie won the women's race, and I got a good picture of them up onstage. They also brought up 87 year old Norman May, who runs the race every year, and like last year he told us to just keep doing what we're doing, be like him and never quit!

 

 

 

They threw a bunch of prizes into the crowd, and drew names of Food Bank donors for more prizes, including running shoes, and then announced that donations had topped $6,000 with several hundred pounds of food also collected. With that it was time to go, but not before having a last piece of pie. I said goodbye to some of the other runners, congratulated Drew again, and headed out to walk the 2 kilometers home, in sharp contrast to my drive home from Kelowna after yesterday's race.

 

 

 

Congratulations go out to Terry McGeachan for completing the Chicago Marathon on Sunday with a time of 4:27:21 in spite of very limited training due to illness

http://results.chicagomarathon.com/2012/?pid=search

Walter Kwan, who shared the podium with me at the 5 Peaks Golden Ears race, also ran Chicago, stopping the clock at 3:50:03, kudos to him as well!

 

My next race is the 6.8K Frank Reynolds Memorial Cross Country Race on Saturday, October 13 at 2:30 PM, at beautiful Cates Park in North Vancouver. On Saturday I'm also running the Energizer Night Race 5K at 7PM in Stanley Park, so it'll be a busy day!

Okanagan Marathon 10K

On Sunday, October 7, I ran the 10K race in the Okanagan Marathon in Kelowna. The marathon started at 7:15 AM, the half marathon at 7:45, and our race took off at 8:15.

 

As I arrived in City Park they were getting ready to start the half marathon, and I saw Dominic Gerelle, who I ran with in 3 halfs this year, near the front of the pack in the starters chute. I said "Have a great race Dom!" and he thanked me and reached over the fence and shook my hand. About 35 minutes later I was standing in about the same spot as Dom had been earlier, waiting for the 10K to start, when Craig Premack suddenly appeared, and said to the fellow standing beside me, "This guy's my nemesis today!"

 

Craig had finished one spot and 15 seconds ahead of me in the Surrey Marathon 5K on the previous Sunday to win our age group, and I'd never beaten him in a race. I reminded him of this, and he said "Yeah, but you're getting closer all the time! Today could be the day you beat me." I said thanks and that I'd do my best, we wished each other a great race, and after a short countdown we were off!

 

I ran out fast and since I didn't see Craig in front of me I assumed he was behind me. The faster runners were surging away up ahead, and a woman ran past me who turned out to be Deborah Buhlers. She would not only win the woman's race today, but would run down and beat all but 3 of the 30 or so males currently ahead of us as she passed me.

 

By this time we were out of the park and running along the streets of downtown Kelowna. For the first couple of kilometers the odd person would pass me, and I would in turn pass some runners who'd slowed up after discovering they couldn't keep up their initial torrid pace. After this we mostly just ran in much the same order in our loose, somewhat spread out chase pack until there were only a couple of kilometers to go.

 

I was checking my split times at every kilometer marker, and saw I was running them at a few seconds above 4 minutes steadily. I just concentrated now on keeping my pace up, as I was running a much faster 10K than I'd ever run before in my life. It helped that there was always someone behind me pushing me to go faster, and the course was extremely flat.

 

We looped around the streets and then headed back toward the park, on a different route than the one we'd come on. With about 2 Ks to go we were off the streets and running on what would be called the seawall if we were running along the ocean in Vancouver, except we were running along the shore of Okanagan Lake (the lakewall?) There were more and more people lining the route and cheering the closer we got to the finish. Many had signs to encourage a particular runner, or all the runners in general, and people clanged cowbells and called out our names as they were printed on our bibs.

 

With about a kilometer to go I heard someone right behind me gaining, so I sped up to try and shake whoever it was. The sounds of breathing and footsteps receded, but then came closer again, so I sped up again. This time when the sounds receded they stayed that way, but I could still hear them until I crossed the finish line.

 

We reached the park and darted in, and then they turned us into the finisher's chute and with 100 meters to go I saw the clock up ahead and it was hitting 40:30. I couldn't believe my eyes, as I'd never come close to finishing under 41 minutes in a 10K before, and now it was going to happen! I ended up with a chip time of 40:46 (gun time 40:49), and placed 18th overall out of 620. Craig came in a few seconds later, and told me he'd been following me the whole race, finally catching up with a kilometer to go, but then I'd suddenly taken off and he'd been unable to overtake me. I thanked him for pushing me, and he said that was why he made sure I knew he was there today, to inspire me to try and beat him. He envisioned it going differently though, with him leading and myself trying to keep pace, and then I'd try and outkick him at the end, but we'd switched roles and I pulled it off. Last year I was super happy to be third in my age group and capture the bronze, and was just hoping to do the same again, but I ended up winning gold this time, with Craig a close second for the silver http://sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtmlracecode=103311 http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=7341&eventId=22985&vrindex=4 .

 

They gave us a bottle of water and put our finisher's medals around our necks when we crossed the line, and now we headed into the huge Expo tent to get some food. They had various cookies, plain chips, bananas, oranges, bagels, chocolate puddings, plus coffee, hot chocolate, chicken soup, and more water. Expo exhibitors also had plenty of free samples on offer of protein shakes, energy bars, etc. We grabbed some cookies and a bag of chips and went outside, and then Craig said he was going to his sister's place to have a shower, and he'd be back in an hour's time, before our awards ceremony was due to start.

 

They posted results and I went and checked mine and found out that I had indeed won our age group, and ran the fastest race of my life. Dominic had finished the half marathon and was waiting around for their results, and told me he'd run a good enough race, but when they put his up he was ecstatic. He'd finished 2nd in his age group, something he'd never dreamed he could do today, but he'd done it nonetheless!

 

I went and cheered in incoming runners for awhile, and then they announced that the 10K awards were starting. When they got to our age group I asked a woman who was a friend of Deborah Buhlers if she'd take our picture with my camera while we were up onstage and she said sure. They called out our names and the 3 women winners went up, plus myself and 3rd place finisher Duncan Banks, and we were presented with our medals. Craig wasn't there, but about 30 seconds later he appeared, jumped up onto the stage, got his medal, and then we posed for our photo op. Deborah's friend was nice enough to take a few pictures too, including one with just myself and Craig, much appreciated!

 

 

 

Craig said that he and his sister were walking into the park when he heard the announcer call my name, and then his, so he knew they were doing our awards and ran to the stage, getting there in the nick of time! Rick from the Barriere Fun Run, participating as a pace bunny today, came up and congratulated me, and we talked for a bit with Craig and his sister. They then said their goodbyes and left, and since I had to drive back to Vancouver and run another 10K on Monday morning, I headed out too.

 

 

 

My next race was the Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving Day morning at 8:30 AM on Granville Island, in support of the Vancouver Food Bank. 

Surrey International World Music Marathon 5K

On Sunday, September 30, I ran the 5K race in the 1st Inaugural Surrey International World Music Marathon. The full marathon started at 7:30 AM, the half marathon at 8:00, and we took off at 9:30.

I got there early by Skytrain, and talked to many other runners including Dan Cumming from my club who was running with 101 year old Fauja Singh as part of his entourage. He told me I'd have someone my speed to run with, as former Olympian Carey Nelson was also doing the 5K. I told him the only way I'd be keeping up with Carey was if I was allowed to attach a bungie cord to him and he pulled me on a skateboard.

We started off on University Drive on the SFU campus, and Carey and a few other guys took off ahead of everyone else, and then after about 200 yards 2 other fellows who looked to be in their 40s went flying by me trying to catch the lead pack, and I didn't expect to see them again. We were winding along the streets, and I was going great guns, hoping to run a PB, when we hit a hill at about the 2K mark. It wasn't too steep but a few hundred meters long, and myself and the others with me slowed down considerably. It took awhile to get my legs back after cresting it, and finally I did, but then we hit a fairly steep but short hill.

There were only about one and a half kilometers to go when we hit level ground again, and I looked ahead and saw a couple of familiar shirts. It was the 2 guys who'd flown past me at the race beginning, and I was reeling them in. I wondered if they'd speed up after I passed them to try to keep up or repass me, but as I went by them they were both struggling badly attempting to keep up their pace, and I never saw them again.

Next I came up on a young fellow who'd been running ahead of me since the beginning of the race, at one point about 200 meters in the lead, and went by him fairly quickly too. Soon I heard the familiar cheering and race announcer extraordinaire Steve King calling out people's names as they crossed the finish line. I'd been closing a bit on a runner ahead of me, but he had too much of a lead, and I saw him finish before I hit the chute. As I crossed I heard Steve call out Craig Premack's name, so I now knew who I'd been chasing, and then he called out my name and said big things were expected from me as I'd won some other races, which was pretty cool.

The young fellow came in about a minute after me, and it turned out he had just run his first race ever, with no training. He was working the Body By Vi booth at the Expo and had signed up the day before on a whim. Besides not training, he'd gone out for some beers the night before, and I told him all things considered he'd done fantastic, and he might want to think of training and trying some more races, as he certainly had some natural talent.

Next we went and got some refueling done, as they had water, energy drink, coffee, and chocolate milk, plus various energy bars, cookies, bagels, bananas and oranges to replenish us.

Fauja Singh was surrounded by his entourage protecting him from the surging mob of media and supporters, but I managed to get one picture of him when he was briefly out in the open walking. While I was at it I also took the opportunity to get one of Popeye too! The papers said he ran the 5K in 40 minutes, but we heard it was around 36, which would seem to be correct as Dan Cumming's time was 35:55. Fauja wasn't wearing a number in the picture I got after the race, and our timing chip was on it, so I'm sure that's why there's no official time for him in the results.

They got the awards going, Carey had finished 2nd in the 5K, but he told myself and Drew Nicholson that he was leaving when we talked to him after the race, as he'd heard there were no awards for the 5K. He was partly right, as they were really stingy with awards, as only the first place finishers were acknowledged, including the 5K. Drew won the marathon, and here's the article that was in the Vancouver Sun

• 1 Oct 2012
• The Vancouver Sun
• CAM TUCKER ctucker@vancouversun.com Twitter.com/camtuckersun
• VANCOUVER SUN

Surrey resident is first one to cross the line

Drew Nicholson scored himself a hometown victory in the inaugural Surrey International World Music Marathon on Sunday.

Nicholson, a Surrey resident, completed two circuits of the 21.1- kilometre course in a time of 2: 36.20. Jeremy Waters of Coquitlam placed second in a time of 2: 47.27, while Chris Barth of White Rock finished at 2: 50.27.
The top female competitor in the marathon was Kendra Braun of Langley. She crossed the finish line in 3: 04.10.

A total of 236 participants — 150 men and 81 women — took part in the marathon.
It was expected that more than 2,000 people were to participate in the overall event, which also included a half marathon, relay, five- kilometre walk or run and a kid’s fun run. The Surrey marathon was one of 20 Boston Marathon qualifiers in Canada this year.
Sunday’s musical marathon also came with a large international flavour to it.

Each mile of the course was sponsored by a different country from five different continents, and featured an array of international decorations, cultural themes and music for participants and spectators to enjoy.

______________________________________

Jerry, the Body By Vi guy, won his age group, but when he went to the table they told people to go to for their prizes, they told him the prizes were only for kids.

I ended up finishing 10th overall out of 356, and 2 of 15 in my age group, with a time of 20:35.

http://www.sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtml?racecode=103246

My next race was the 10K at the Okanagan Marathon at 8:15 AM on October 7.

Buntzen Lake Sport Race 10K

On Saturday, September 29, I ran the Buntzen Lake Sport Race 10K, part of the 5th and final event of the year in the 5 Peaks Trail Running Series. The Children's Challenge 1K went off at 8:30 AM, with about 30 enthusiastic young tykes taking part, inspirational and cute as always. At 9 AM they started the Enduro Race 15K, sending them out in 2 waves to avoid conjestion, and at 9:30 it was our turn.

 

I took off in the first wave on the lakeshore, just behind the young greyhounds and a few of the older speedsters. We ran along a gravel path and into the woods, and were soon going uphill on a single track mud trail. The trail twisted and turned, going ever upward, and outside of a young woman who passed me, the other pursuing runners appeared to drop back as I didn't hear them behind me anymore.

 

Finally we came to the top and ran over a floating bridge. There were 3 guys in front of me, and about 30 people who appeared to be on a tour of some kind were standing single file on the bridge in a long line. We all slapped hands with them as we ran past, and they hooted and hollered, cheering us on! Once we reached the other side it was off into the woods again, but fairly level for awhile before we did a little more climbing.

 

I had been running by myself for quite some time when I heard someone behind me coming up fast. I managed to stay ahead of whoever it was, speeding up on the downhills but losing ground on the uphills. We came to a point where our course, which had broken off from the Enduro one early in the race, converged with it again, and we were headed back to the lakeshore and the finish line. Going back over the bridge without any people on it now, it sank down every time you landed on it, and really sucked the energy out of your legs. Luckily it was only about 100 meters long, and after I hit the other side it was smooth sailing for awhile again.

 

There was one more hill, short but steep and my legs felt like lead as I reached the top, but after this, since we were retracing our earlier route going back to the beach, the uphills were now downhills. One young fellow passed me, and then I heard someone else on my tail, but I sped up and managed to fly at a pretty good clip, twisting and turning again as we headed in. You could hear cheering up ahead and the announcer calling out people's names as they crossed, and then we hit the open gravel path again. I turned down the finisher's chute and was just able to hold off the fellow chasing me by a couple of seconds.

 

Richard Armstrong came in next, and we talked for a bit. He said he was trying to catch me, but I was going too fast on the downhills, and I told him I just had a lot of experience with trail races, the more you do it the better you get at it. Next we went to get some food and drink. They had water, energy drink and coffee, cookies, ripple chips, bananas, oranges. melons, and bagels with Nutella, peanut butter, jam and cream cheese to spread on them. My favorites were the blueberry bagels with Nutella on them.

 

There were people coming in constantly now and I was cooling off, so I went to my car and got my jacket and my bell to cheer them in. Marcel from work came in, and Willi Ribi, and I ran into Marcus Ribi and his girlfriend, and he said instead of the Sport Race he'd done the Enduro this time, and thought he'd placed 5th overall.

 

They had the barbeques going cooking up burgers and smokies, and I went and got a burger with onions and cheese. The Clif table also had a wide variety of their delicious bars cut up into pieces, and I made a few trips by there. The woman staffing the table insisted I take 2 gel pacs before the race when I'd asked her if I could have one, so I had plenty of energy during the race. They sure weren't stingy, that's for sure!

 

Results were posted http://racedaytiming.ca/raceday-results?display=5peaksbuntzensport2012 and I saw that I'd finished 16th overall and won my age group. Marcus' brother Daniel was 5th overall, Marcel finished 46th, Willi Ribi was 52nd and 5th in our age group, and Richard was 18th and 2nd in our AG. Chris Barth won the Enduro race, and Marcus was right, he'd finished 5th. http://racedaytiming.ca/raceday-results

 

They did the awards for our race and for some reason Richard had left, so there was only myself and Ken McMurray up on the podium. They also gave out the series awards and even though I only ran 3 of the 5 races I squeaked onto the podium in 3rd place in our age group, with Willi taking 2nd. For this we got an "honours club" card. My bronze one gives me $5 off every race entry for next year, Willi's is for $10 off a pop, and Marcus's gold one is good for a $15 discount for each race. http://racedaytiming.ca/raceday-results?display=5peaksbuntzensportdivpoints2012

 

 

 

With that I said my goodbyes and headed out to pick up my race package for the next day's 5K race in the Surrey Marathon.