Hard Course. Nasty wet and I will never do it again.
9:12:55
6th OA, 4th male.
Happy it’s over.
I’ve never felt this relaxed before a race. Usually, I’m totally obsessed and saturated mentally from thinking about out.
For some reason I just feel very calm. (Not sure what to make of it but I’m going with the ‘it’s going to be a hard but great race’ theory). I’ve also done what I could to train, stay healthy, etc up to this point.
It’s time to just get out on the course and run as well as I can.
My good friend Jen Segger is off to the Adventure Racing World Championships starting November 5th.
As I do more races, I am a huge believer in ‘leaving ‘it’ all on the course’. In other words, it’s best when you come out of the race knowing that you did everything you could to finish as high as you could. Leave nothing to doubt, especially your own effort and drive.
No one understands this better than Jen.
Good Luck JS!
Coach (Congrats Jim!) is fond of progressive tempo workouts so on Saturday I found myself at the Oak Bay track running solo into and out of the wind. This workout was last of the real intensity sessions before this weekend.
The workout for me breaks down like this:
10 min at marathon pace (1:36/lap), 10 at 1/2marathon (1:28/lap), 5 at 5km (1:20/lap).
It’s always a tough session. I find it easier to go at a half-marathon pace for 25 minutes, than progressively speeding up over the same time. On Saturday I found the first 20 minutes relatively easy. The last 5 minutes were hard though as every time I rounded the corner heading towards the Rec Centre, the wind would almost stop me in my tracks. My pacing for the 5 minutes was everywhere from 2:56/km with the wind to 3:56/km against it. Crazy.
Sunday was a rest day and I am moving into real taper time which is good and bad. I love the rest (and my IT band can use it!). I hate the waiting.
As far as the race is concerned, a sub-9 hour would be great.
A massive total of 36 folks signed up. I don't know everyone on the list but my bet is that Darin Bentley will win overall and mens. Denise McHale will win the womens title. Al Harman West Vancouver BC CA Andre Kocsis Vancouver BC CA Andy Bachmann Pitt Meadows BC CA Austin Crook Seattle WA US Avery Saunders Edmonton AB CA Barb Owen Maple Ridge BC CA Brett Larner Tokyo TO JPN Cheri Hamelin Maple Ridge BC CA Dan Crockett Kelowna BC CA Darin Bentley Surrey BC CA Dean McMillen Penticton BC CA Denise McHale Whitehorse YT CA Dusty Davis Chehalis WA USA Gary Poliquin Edmonton AB CA Gina Dhaliwal Mississauga ON CA Janice Makarewicz Kelowna BC CA John Hightower Port Moody BC CA John Seed Maple Ridge BC CA Judie Wilson Surrey BC CA Lucy Ryan Coquitlam BC CA Matt Sessions Burnaby BC CA Mel Bos Kelowna BC CA Nik Swain Vancouver BC CA Renee Caesar Port Coquitlam BC CA Rob Adachi Mission BC CA Rob Mackay Victoria BC CA Robert Jones North Vancouver BC CA Ron Mayne Langley BC CA Ron Rillorta coquitlam BC CA Sandy Thompson Chilliwack BC CA Scott Donatelli Vancouver BC CA Shirlee Ross Kelowna BC CA Stephanie Case Freelton ON CA Suzanne Evans New Westminster BC CA Tim Wiens Vancouver BC CA Tracy Niemier Maple Ridge BC CA
I am fascinated by the rise and fall of civilizations and debating the decline of the US (and subsequent decline of Canada) is all the rage right now.
Debt is one of the biggest issues facing the US: China bankrolls the States and if you don’t keep track of the US debt you might be surprised to know that they owe the Chinese over a trillion dollars.
China needs the west, though. They need a market to sell into – and like the passengers on the mother ship in Wall-E (a fantastic movie), we are hungry to consume and make an easy target.
On to pure anecdotal nonsense…here’s what I know based on my travels to China and the interactions with our Chinese student:
1) The West may own capital but the Chinese own the means of production. Once you loose your ability to manufacture (i.e. create your own products) you are at the mercy of those with the hard assets (people, factories, and to some extent raw material). Look at the current (and future) of oil…
2) From the earliest of ages, the Chinese student is drilled, tested, separated and directed. There is no ‘love-in’, no ’soft skills’ taught. Students work, and study and only the elite of the elite get into the best schools. In other words, China is an ultra-competitive society.
3) The lack of individual freedoms (compared to the west) lead to a culture of slow(er) relentless progress – all for the good of the people.
4) Chinese bureaucracy forces foreign companies to share their product design, in exchange for cheap production on the mainland. Consider that also since they produce the vast majority of goods, they can study and copy any western innovation.
Have you learned Mandarin yet?
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Here’s an interesting link. Check out Google Labs ‘Flu Trends’ for Canada. Google tracks search activity and as a result the ‘intensity’ of the flu in all parts of the world.
On this note, apparently the folks at Google were well aware of the financial crisis before the media because of a surge of people searching on ‘Gold’.
Saturday was one of those crazy, appointment filled days.
I was up at 4am and out the door on my way to 4 laps of EB. Nothing too nasty, just good solid running for 4 hours – two of which were with my great friend Matthias who will be crewing at H2H. With 2 weeks until H2H, I am dialing down the workouts and giving my legs a break. My right IT band is still tight but the pain is acute rather than an achey all over quad pain. I am familiar with the sharp pain of a messy IT. My legs respond well to massage so all things considered, I should be fine for Nov. 7th.
Anyway, immediately after the run I had to head down to Beacon Hill for a photo shoot – for a new sponsor I will tell you about later. I rushed home, showered, got prettied up and went down to Beacon Hill. The photo shoot was to take about an hour and we did some of the standard running shots (uphill running, downhill running, etc).
Here’s the funny part. As I was half-way in to the shoot along came the REAL runners in a line of about 10 people hammering through a tempo workout. It was Jon Brown’s running group and I had to laugh. The single file line included, in order, Jon Brown, Jim Finlayson, Adam Campbell, etc. You get the idea. Bringing up the rear was Marilyn and Ased – both who would kick my ass at any distance.
In the ultra world, it would be like Dean Karnazes standing there at a photo shoot whilst Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner, and Anton Krupicka blaze by. (And I aint no Dean Karnazes).
Anyway, I was laughing mostly because the folks I know must have been wondering, “What the hell is he doing at a photo shoot!?”
More later on this.
Someone asked me about the 300km for the kids run.
I took no time in responding that as far as running, it’s been the ‘highlight of the year’ for 2009.
In some ways, I shocked myself with that considering the decent races at the start of the year…
