Tag Archive: race

Jason’s 2011

Categories:

Sat. December 31, 2011

I really should have started writing this post a few days ago, but I didn’t feel like forcing myself to do it. The words weren’t flowing. Well, here I am on the final day of the year and I really need to get these words out. This year, 2011, was a bit of a harder one than the last. I remember declaring somewhere that it would be a year of buckling down and riding out tougher times. I was right. That’s not to say that this was a bad year for me. I’m just likely to label it as a challenging one. Did I rise to the challenges thrown at me? I think I did.

Anyway, enough blabber. In depth text follows…after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave comment

Up in a puff of smoke

Categories:

Mon. November 7, 2011

I haven’t really written much about it, but as a way of celebrating my 30th I decided to sign up for and race a half marathon. Well, maybe that’s misguided because it would imply a bit of cause and effect. Now, I think I was going to sign up for the race anyway, and that it landed on my birthday is just an interesting coincidence. Just like in previous years I chose to run the Angus Glen Half Marathon. It’s still a good race with a good buffet. It’s still a small race meaning that my stats actually put me close to the bottom of the heap. Bah, no matter. I know that I’m happy with the results–especially this year’s results.

Let’s see.

I went into the race expecting very little. I did a great job with my previous race three weeks prior, but I didn’t anticipate that I’d get a new personal best here. I hadn’t really run much in between races, so I was feeling a little bit out of practice. I told myself I’d try to stay with the 2:15 pacer, but only if it made sense. Just so happened that the 2:15 pacer was someone that I knew from the store. Well, I didn’t see him at the starting line so I decided to just relax and do my thing: 10 & 1′s, aiming for somewhere between 2:15 and 2:20. Well, a little bit past the 1K mark I was nudged by the 2:15 pacer and another guy from the store. Hah, what luck to run into them! I asked if they were taking walk breaks and they said no. At that point I was almost ready to just let them go until the pacer told me to just join him. It was at that point where my original race plan just went up in a puff of smoke. Oops. So, I knew that with walk breaks I’d have to run faster than usual to maintain a particular average pace required to hit 2:15. If I was running it straight through I knew that I could afford to ease up a little. I think that’s what convinced me to take on this new challenge.

From about 4K onward we all started commenting on how hot things were getting. Yeah, no kidding. When I left my place it was about freezing, but at that point it felt more like it was 10°C. There was a lot of concern that I’d overheat. I was foolish enough to have pinned my bib to my jacket, so I figured I was in a bad state and that I’d have to put up with it. The other guy with the pacer insisted that I just take off the jacket and that he’d carry it. Well, I mean, odd offer, right? I totally didn’t want to impose, but he insisted. See, this guy has a reputation as being a sherpa for a few other runners. In the past he’s kindly hauled gear while running with other people in need of help. I wouldn’t have imagined that he’d help me out. So, since he insisted I got the jacket off. He got the bib off the jacket then asked for my water belt. I handed that over as well. I felt magically unencumbered. I felt like I could focus once more on running. About a minute later he gave my belt back with the bib attached to it. Nice. From that point, he seemed to take it upon himself to stick with me and watch that I had everything I needed. He made sure my gel intake was timed well, and that I was taking in enough water. There was one time I passed a water station with unhelpful attendants. I ended up empty handed and grunted in frustration. He went back, got me a cup or two of water then raced back to get the cup to me. Nice!

So, at about 12-14K I knew I was struggling. The hilly terrain was wreaking havoc on my legs. I was tempted to slow down and walk, but I didn’t want to disappoint myself. And I didn’t want to let my friend down who was giving up his run to help me out. I kept at it. By about 16K or so I recovered well enough and just kept at it. I yelled: “there is no pain, just movement!” It was true at that time. The pacer was long gone at that point, but that was expected. He had to stay on plan for other people that were following him. Over the last few hills I could feel my legs turning leaden. I told myself I had no choice, so I just kept a rhythm going as best I could. And finally in the last stretch I knew that I didn’t need to hold anything back so I tried to crank out whatever I had left. In the end, my resulting chip time was 2:21:12.5. That’s less than a minute and a half from being a personal best. It didn’t matter that I didn’t set a new personal record for myself because I knew that running the whole damn thing without stopping was a big feat for me. I was giddy.

There you go. That’s my story for this race. This is my 10th half marathon. I know that there will be many more in the future. I will be ready.

Tags: ,

Leave comment

One cold and windy morning

Categories:

Mon. October 17, 2011

Days before the race I wasn’t feeling nerves like I might normally would. It all finally hit me the night before. And it didn’t manifest in the form of an overactive mind. Instead, I barely got any sleep. My body was buzzing with anticipation preventing me from getting into a deep sleep state. By the time I got up, I started piecing all of my gear together.

When I got to the race, I could feel the excitement in the air. After dropping off my bag I hiked over to a hotel lobby which was our designated meeting spot. I started running into a lot of my clinic members. Each one was filled with a personal mix of excitement and nerves. For many of them this was their first half marathon. I was entirely proud of each of them. At one point the whole hotel lobby broke out into cheers. I looked around and there was Fauja Singh and his entourage. Mr. Singh had just turned 100 years old and was planning on running a full marathon. Totally inspirational.

Minutes before gun time we started heading to our corrals. I was in the last corral along with a bunch of other people I knew. We were taking pictures and having a great time. As I looked around I saw some worried faces. I kind of wanted to go up to them and cheer them on but I’m sure some of them would have told me to fuck off. No problem though. I mean, I was there once. I totally get it. And just like that the race started. I think it took me about 11-12 minutes to cross the starting line from where I was. That’s the longest interval between the gun and me crossing the starting line that I’ve encountered so far.

In terms of the race, mine was rather average. I started out slow to get the kinks out. By 5K or so I was feeling good so I started picking up the pace. I was able to maintain things at about 6:00-6:15/km for a good while. I was amazed at just how many more people were around me than when I was running a bit slower farther back. It makes a huge difference. At the rate I was going I was headed to about a 2:17 race. At about 16K, that’s when the fatigue kicked in. I knew it was coming, so instead of panicking I worked things out in my head. I told myself to run slower but pick it up once I’ve worked through it. Somewhere after 16K though there was an aid station that was giving away gels. The ground after that station was entirely sticky. My legs didn’t like that at all. I slowed down by a fair amount through that area, and it took me a while to regain some of my speed. Combined with the fatigue though I don’t think I returned back to where I was. I just couldn’t. I tried, but my body wouldn’t let me. It was at that point that I knew I was facing my usual battle against time slipping away from me.

Every now and then I reminded myself to try pushing again to see if I could get back up to speed. Sometimes I was successful, but slowed back down. By the last kilometre I was doing so many calculations in my head. I was trying to figure out what my likely arrival time would be. I think that’s when I my mind fell briefly into panic mode. The smile went from my face and all I could think was “WTF WTF WTF.” When I saw the sign saying there was 500 metres left. I pushed harder. There’s un underpass in that stretch. In the darkness I felt like I was on drugs. It was a really odd feeling. According to my watch I knew that I could achieve a new personal best if I just kept at it. That was my incentive. Never mind about 2:15, or 2:17: I just wanted to beat my old time of 2:20:19. Just before the finish line I raised my arms in amazement. I did it! I had beaten my old time! I made it in 2:19:46. That’s 33 seconds! It’s not as wide a margin as I wanted, but it’s still a sign of improvement nonetheless. I was so happy.

I was on the verge of tears but I kept it in. My arms and teeth were buzzing. I stuck around the finish chute looking for others from my group. There were some strangers that were in tears or looking worn out. I made it a point to smile at them and congratulate them. They smiled back. I hope I was able to brighten someone’s experience, at least. When I finally ran into someone I knew, the floodgates opened, and I shed a few tears myself. I couldn’t help it. I was just in a weird state at that point. I stuck around longer and saw more and more of the clinic members come in. High fives and hugs were given freely. It was a wonderful time.

Eventually we decided to head over to pick up our bags, which was a terrible experience. The baggage check this year was so poorly organized. It should not take one hour of standing in cold winds to pick up a bag. That was piss poor and must have turned off a lot of people doing this race for the first time, you know? I claimed my prepaid massage and had the guy work on my calves specifically. He was able to find a lot of sore spots. Though…now I kind of wish I got him to focus on my quads and hamstrings. My calves are fine now, but the bigger muscle groups are still sore.

So yeah, that was the STWHM for this year. Generally this race hasn’t been one where I’ve generated personal bests so I’m just amazed I made it out of this one with an improvement. More than anything I’m so happy that so many of my clinic members made it across. They all worked so hard to get that point. It all paid off.

Tags: , , ,

Leave comment

Small sliver of time

Categories:

Sun. October 16, 2011

Hahahah. Oh dear.

Yes, I did manage a new personal record, but it’s not by as wide a margin as I wanted. In fact, I beat my old time by a small sliver of about 33 seconds. Oh, not that I’m complaining–just stating.

Anyway, I do plan on writing all about it, but not tonight. I’m far too sleepy/fatigued/zonked out to get a lot of coherent stuff out. Let’s just put it this way: I can afford to sleep well enough tonight.

Yes!

Tags: , , ,

Leave comment

Whatever the race throws at me

Categories:

Sat. October 15, 2011

Is racing becoming old hat for me? Naw, that’s not the right term. I mean, that would suggest that races are no longer exciting, but they are. The anticipation and the hard work of training for the event is part of the fun. I’m just saying that I’m not as nervous about the details as I used to be. To some extent I have a good idea of what to expect, so I know that I’ll encounter X and I’ll have to do Y to take care of it. I’m a bit better equipped to handle whatever the race throws at me, so I feel like I can focus on enjoying my time out there more. Is that such a bad thing? I’ve put in so much time and effort into helping others achieve their goals such that when it comes to my own goals I can afford to let them be less pressing. This is a good thing. Some races where you’re able to drop all expectations are often the ones that return the best results, know what I mean?

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I feel good about tomorrow’s race. Full plans to enjoy it.

Tags: , ,

Leave comment

Where’s the film crew?

Categories:

Sun. June 19, 2011

Why was I exhausted yesterday? Well, I participated in an Amazing Race-like event that took place in the heart of Toronto. I really didn’t know it existed until a friend told me about it. He found a Groupon for the event and needed a partner to make a team. I agreed. He had two other pairs of friends and they all decided that we should all be an alliance. Fine by me. Given that there were about 250 or so teams, we wanted to do fairly well. At about noon we were all given a clue envelope. It had 12 clues, some of which told us to go directly to a certain location to do a certain challenge. Others had a puzzle involved that gave an address upon completion. Honestly, the clues weren’t so bad. Given that we were allowed to use Smartphones, we were able to get all 12 locations mapped out fairly easily. I was actually able to get some clues that required unscrambling by cross-referencing BlogTO or Torontoist listings. Those two sites are entirely useful resources. We ended up identifying three clumps of clue locations which we decided to attack one after another.

For travelling around we were told that we could only go on foot or by public transportation. Seems like for a lot of the day we were sprinting. You, the reader, should know that I am not a sprinter in the least. I can hold my own, but really I am a long haul type person. And if I waste all of my energy sprinting early on I’ll only end up burning out quickly. For the first few clues we were around a gaggle of women in pink who were obviously allied together. They seemed to follow us around. We finished the clues at about the same rate, so we saw a lot of them. We ran hard with them, and it seemed like we were all having fun being competitive. I remember one of them yelling: “Just follow the Asians!” Yeah. Classy. At a candy store clue they eventually left us behind. We were having a lot of difficulty identifying mystery Jelly Belly flavours. It was way more difficult than necessary. Seriously.

On some legs it was really difficult identifying whether it would be faster taking transit or running the distance. We made a few bad decisions here and there, but overall we made it through well enough. As we covered clumps, we often saw the same teams at the different stops. It was hard to tell whether we were ahead or behind since it was possible that they covered the clues in a different order than we had done. As we ran through the streets, I could hear strangers commenting how The Amazing Race might be going on through the city. Heh. Rookie mistake to think that. Where’s the film crew? By the last few clues the unnecessary sprinting had caught up to me. Along with a lack of food energy to keep me going I was starting to suffer dehydration. I was dry as hell, and all of the fluids I had brought along were done. I didn’t buy water because I figured that would slow me down. While my teammates were still sprinting I was slowing down to walk. It wasn’t pretty. Didn’t matter to me though. I knew that I’d contributed a heck of a lot to the team by clue solving, mapping, and planning. So there.

After our final task, we got on a bus to head back to the finish line. The bus was packed with people who were also heading back. As soon as our stop came up we all piled out and started bolting for the finish line. I swear, we had cut off a few lanes of traffic. I didn’t start it, but since someone already did I just followed along. We did really well. I think we came in at 3 hours and 24 minutes. We heard that the winners came in at 2:08. We also learned that we were in the top 100 of the 250+ teams. Neat! I swear, we had an awesome time. Could we have done better if I was able to run better? Sure. At the same time, taking transit more efficiently would have worked just as well. I’m perfectly content with my Smartphone and Google-Fu. I’m sure there were more legal tricks we could have done along the way, too. In any case, would I want to do this again next year? You bet. Even though I was feeling wrecked and exhausted after the fact, it was all well worth it. Great afternoon out.

Tags: ,

4 comments

Left out of the fuss

Categories:

Sat. May 14, 2011

All over Facebook and Twitter I’m seeing a lot of words of encouragement and excitement over tomorrow’s running events. Both the Goodlife Toronto Marathon and the Mississauga Marathon are happening taking place in the morning. I did the Toronto marathon last year, and I’ve done the half at Mississauga two years in a row.

I must say, I feel left out of all of the fuss. I really wish I was a part of it all. I know. I made the choice to take a running break. I don’t regret it. I needed time away. Still, there’s something about the act of preparation and the camaraderie that goes on in the running groups that’s just so very rewarding.

I know that I’ll be back at it soon enough. That’s a given. For now, the best I can do is cheer on all of the people I know that are participating in tomorrow’s events. May the wind be at all of their backs.

Tags: ,

Leave comment

Slushy half

Categories:

Sun. March 6, 2011

Early on in the week prior to this race I was looking at the forecast on a semi-daily basis just to get a feel for what conditions might be like on race day. I paid more attention to the temperature and not to the weather but it looks like that might have been a good idea. Then again, it’s not like I would have avoided the race due to bad conditions. I knew there would be snow, but I hoped it would be manageable. I figured that the roads would be cleared fairly quickly and that the one hour drive over to Burlington would be simple. Oops. As I drove down the Don Valley Parkway I saw multiple cars in ditches. There was one fresh collision that blocked the two left lanes. By the time I made it down to the Queen Elizabeth Way the roads were still bad, and they got worse once I cleared Toronto. At one point the car ahead of me had to slow down suddenly. The car spun out of control. Luckily I had enough distance to slow down enough, but man, the driver had no idea how to regain control and fishtailed like mad on the snowy roads. She’s lucky there wasn’t anyone in the right lanes; those lanes were covered in snow and no one wanted to use them at all. When I slowed down I don’t think the car behind me expected it and narrowly missed rear-ending me. Yeah, the drive in was a rough one. After all that though, I figured that the run wouldn’t be that bad at all.

How’d I do? Find the race report after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

2 comments

Older posts «

Switch to our mobile site