Pick Your Poison 50k Race Results ... Sporting Life 10K Report ... April Training Recap

Here are the results from the Pick Your Poison 50k trail race held on Saturday May 1st. I had a really great time at this race and will post a more in-depth race report later in the week. I ran well and it was an awesome adventure.

Distance: 50k

Place: 14 / 58

Time: 5:26:37

Special thanks to JD for giving Kim and I a ride out to the race.

I followed that the next day running the Sporting Life 10k in Toronto. I didn't race this (I like to think I learned something from the back to back 5k fiasco in March). I ran it easy and paced Kim to a 10k PB. She ran great considering she did 25k at PYP the day before finishing in 58:31 which was a 5:30 PB.

On a negative note we passed a guy who was down in the middle of the road right in front of the Eaton Center. A number of emergency people were working frantically on him. As we passed by I could see that they were giving him CPR. That is a very bad sign as it tends to mean that there in no pulse. Didn't hear anything about it after the race so hopefully the guy is okay.

During the run I also saw fellow blogger Mel (okay she saw me to be honest) at around the 5k mark. She looked like she was running pretty well. Sorry that I was not able to chat more but I had to keep cracking the whip on Kim . I also ran into blogger Boris in the food area after the race. We have crossed each others paths a number of times recently. Its always kind of cool to see people you only know via the blogosphere. Its also weird to realize that people actually read this crap. When my psychiatrist first told me to start writing this blog I didn't think anyone would read it. Okay I just made that up I don't have a psychiatrist although I am not sure if that's because I am not crazy or so crazy that I don't know that I am crazy.

Along those lines I also want to give a mini apology here to a girl I saw on the trail during PYP. I was passing her on my last loop and she asked me if I was Chris and said she read my blog. Sorry I didn't get your name I was a little loopy and in full pain management mode at that point. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog.

April Training Recap.

After a tough month of March where I really struggled with my mental focus and tired legs things went excellent in April. I ran the most miles I have ever run in a week and a month. I got my mileage built up to a good level and now feel like I am about as ready as I could be for my first 100 miler coming at the end of May. Although I enjoy road running I am very happy to be back on the trails 3 times a week. Here are the numbers.

Total Monthly Mileage: 295 miles

Most Miles in a week: 78 miles

Number of races: 3 (8k, 53k and a Marathon)

Days run in April: 29

Longest run: 53k

Egg Nog Jog Blog .... race report

Sunday December 13th was the Egg Nog Jog. This is an 10.8 KM hilly race held just outside of Georgetown ON. Did I mention that this course is hilly, really really hilly including one very large soul sucking monster hill right in the middle of the course.

Now when people tell me that a race course has "a big hill" as well as some "rolling hills" I usually figure okay, I shrug and accept that my time will be a little slower than usual but whatever. I mean really every trail and cross country race I have ever run has had lots of hills so hills on the road should be no problem. When will I ever learn.

Weather for race morning was rainy and cold but luckily just above zero so at least it wasn't freezing rain. Kim and I drove out to the race with fellow Longboater Gregoire B. We got there well before race time, picked up our race kits which included a giant beach towel and milled around with a few other club members. The rain and dampness made it seem much colder then it actually was.

As the start time got closer we all headed out for a quick warm up. This was definitely another when will I ever learn moment. My warm up was too short and too ... well lazy to be honest. I was cold and should have worked a bit (a lot) harder. Now some people can get away with the sort of warm up or no warm up but I am not one of those people. After more then 40 races I still occasionally forget this... what a dufus.

We all lined up for the start of the race which ended up being delayed for about 5 minutes and then we were off. I actually got off to a pretty good start as the early part of this race has a good portion of downhill. I ran it fairly fast but tried to stayed contained, in retrospect I should have run harder here but I was mistakenly trying to run this thing like a normal course. My first two KMs clocked in right at a 4 minute pace. The road was a little slick, well used so not too bad.

After a long downhill and then a mostly flat run we made a sharp right hand turn and headed up and into the early rolling hills. It was all downhill (which was actually uphill) for me. As I began to run up and down the early small rolling hills my ankles on both feet began to really bother me, not the side of my ankles but the top area around my feet. This is really not anything I have encountered on a run before and it really tightened up. I began to do some quiet cursing and was already wondering about my lack of warm up.

The next few KM were up and down, up and down with my legs still not getting loose. I also noticed that my pace time was right out the window... grrrrr. Oh ya and did I mention the hills? I did. Well did I mention the lovely thin coating of snow and ice that now covered the road? No, I didn't, well we wouldn't want to leave that out. Once we turned off the main road a good part of the course had a light slippery coating of winter crap on it. Now this isn't the big trudge through the snow kind of thing or even the watch out or you will fall on your butt kind of thing, this was more of the can't dig in and push off kind of thing.

Up the hill, down the hill and on it went. Okay now here is the really funny part of the race. I had for some reason believed that the big hill was in the first 5km and as I passed the marker I had two very distinct thoughts at once. The first was that the big hill wasn't so bad so what's the big deal and the second was when the heck are my legs going to loosen up and stop hurting. Unfortunately both these questions were answered almost immediately.

It couldn't have been more then a minute later that I turned a small corner saw the actual "big hill". Oh Crap, that is actually a really big hill. Well what can you do so I just put the head down and started powering my way up it. It was steep and long and I was running kind of slow yet was still passing people so I guess I have to give the hill a reluctant thumbs up. It also completely loosened up the front part of ankles no more pain there at all. Of course that pain was replaced with a burning in my calves that was searing. I definitely need to hit the road hill training hard before Around the Bay in the spring.

Once I got clear of the hill the rollers that followed didn't seem like much of a big deal at all. I was more concerned with my lack of traction which I felt like I was really struggling with. I still managed to pick it up a little and wasn't being passed by people so I think most were having the same kind of struggles. As we came into the last KM we were back out on a main road with a better grip. The last big hill on the course was a very steep downhill and then a quick flat section to the finish.

Here is the official finish stats.
Official Time: 51:16
Overall: 76/490
Age Group: 22/77

Okay so if you have read this blog this far you might think that I didn't like this race. Well nothing could be farther from the truth. I loved the course just not the footing conditions. This race is an extremely well run and organized race and the people that put this race on do it well. I would definitely run this race again in a second. I on the other hand just didn't have a good race. Not really sure why, sometimes you just don't have it on the day. I was actually fairly happy with my time given the course and conditions but man was this one painful but also strangely enjoyable race. How odd.

Sporting Life 10k race report

Sunday Morning got up early ... AGAIN! and headed into the downtown core in Toronto to run the SportingLife 10k. This is the second time I have run this race and to be honest I had not originally planned on running this race with Mississauga coming up next weekend. Last year I found all the down hills really pounded my quads and left them a bit tired when I ran the Missy HM the next week. However Kim got us free team entries through her work so how could I pass that up. Once again FREE being one of my favorite words.

TTC ride was a pain with the subway not running yet. It appeared that there were no extra buses on Bloor but some extras on Younge. You would think that with an event with a start and finish line 10k apart and therefore a good number of the 12,ooo people running this race forced to use transit or cab it that the city might think about starting subway service early. Oh yeah its Toronto what was I thinking ... but I digress.

Kim and I got start line in lots of time, checked the bag, hit the washroom and did a warm up and was still in the corral with 5 minutes to spare. Great morning for a run, sunny, cool but not cold maybe around 8-10 degrees and no wind.

Race started right on time and with the new corral system this year was running a good pace right from the starting line. From there it was all downhill ..... literally.

The course for the first 6.5k was the same as last year, mostly downhill with a couple of uphills mixed in just for fun. This year the last part of the course was changed and in my opinion for the better. Instead of going west then down to Lakeshore and running under the Gardner the course went east on Richmond down Peter and across Front finishing at Fort York. This was so much better and a great deal more pleasant then being trapped under the Gardner so a big thumbs up to the change.

Finishing area was a bit of a cluster F......K. I had to wait in line for almost 15 minutes at the bag check. Once you got your bag to get to the food and post race area you had to go into Fort York which is a real bottleneck. I don’t want to be to hard on the race however as it was the first time with the new finishing line / area. I expect they will work out these kinks for next years race.

Overall had a decent race, ran a little bit slower then I wanted (shouldn’t have done a track workout on Friday night) but had a good time. Finished in 46:14. Kim ran a PB of 1:03:57 which was 2o minutes faster then her Sportinglife race last year... way to go Kim!!