Muskoka Chase 2009 - 3:38:

Bryan and I drove up to Muskoka together on Saturday afternoon. We picked up our kits, talked to Simon, Jean and Steve for a bit. Wandered around looking at stuff to buy, but refrained! Talked to Lisa and David and then headed over to the water to get a bit of a taste of how cold it was. One arm, up to the elbow was enough to see it was about the same as Lake Wilcox, or so I thought.  We watched Lisa get into the water and head out for a swim. I’m guessing that, because she swims so fast, the friction from her body against eh water keeps her warm. The three swim caps probably helped a bit too. Man oh man she’s quick!

We drove back down to Gravenhurst to Bryans’ cottage. Sandra and the kids were there. We had a nice dinner, played with the kids a bit and headed to bed. I got a great sleep. It’s so nice to walk up and look out over the lake. The moon shining down and not a ripple on the water. It was beautiful.  We got up about 5:00, eat some breakfast and headed back to Huntsville.

We lucked out with a parking spot close to the venue, got set up, talked to everyone and eventually started to make our way (about 800 meters) down to the start. The exit was moved further up the river, so the buoys on the lake were closer in, but I’d never remembered them that far out when I’d done this race a couple of years ago.

Bryan was In wave 3, so he started about 8:10 or so. I think Bernadette went in wave 8. Simon, Sid Steve and I were in the final wave. I really don’t like these wave starts. It’s bad enough that I’m old a slow, but when they make me start at the end, it just adds to disappointment of seeing how many folks are ahead of me!

We warmed up before the swim for about 10 minutes and then headed over to the start line. I picked a spot almost at the front. Getting beat up at the start line was good practice for Placid! I took it easy a bit at the start. I slowed down and did the breast stroke a bit now and then up until I got to about the first buoy, about 200 meters from the start line I think. I settled in and concentrated on long strokes with full finishes. When I watched Lisa swim the day before I noticed her feet came out of the water. I played with shifting my body so that my feet were higher than usual. I felt like I was moving a bit quicker. It was interesting swimming in and out of warm areas and then back into really cold areas as we worked our way around the lake and up the river. I found it odd that people didn’t stick to the right side of the buoys in the river. I was chasing someone with a blue patch on the back of their wet suit. They seemed to be just out of reach. Id’ catch them and then lose them a number of times heading up the river. When I realized we were almost at the exit, I put on a final push and came up beside him and saw it was Steve B. I hollered over, slapped him in the shoulder saying “Great Swim”. I think he tried to do the same and slipped. The net result was that he punched me in the mouth! That took away from the thoughts of a ouch swim!

I got up and into transition, got out of the wet suit and into socks shoes glasses and helmet and got out in 3:43. A bit slow, but I was having some trouble with the wet suit.

I started the bike. I had my gloves and arm warmers in my vest, but I didn’t bother putting them on. About 1 k along though, I went off the road and the bike stopped dead in the sand. I fell over, cut my calf on the chain ring, and felt like an idiot laying on the road. I got going quickly, but had to stop to twist my bike seat back into position. The ride was very hilly. I could feel that my quads were burning within a couple of minutes of starting to ride. Not a good sign! I watched the watt meter a lot. This was my first race using it. I took it easy on the up hills and pushed on the flats and downhills. I was only at about the 7 – 8 k mark when the first rider was heading back the other way!  I told myself he had a 32 minute head start on me, but I could see he was just flying UP the hill we were on.

There were a lot of folks with broken bikes along the way. A lot of flat tires. I called out to just about everyone asking if they needed anything. One guy said he needs tire removal tools. I stopped and lent him mine, and gave him an air cartridge. I wondered later: 1. Who does out on a long race without tools and 2. If he didn’t have tire tools, what were the chances he had a valve to put on the cartridge either. He wasn’t there when I came back, so I guess he got it somehow.

The turnaround was at the bottom of a fairly steep hill. I’m sure the race course planners had a good laugh when they made that one up. I usually have good luck chasing people down at the end of a bike ride, but I just didn’t have the power that day.

Into transition and out for the run and my legs were baked! I kept telling myself it’s only a 15k run. I do that all the time training and it’s not all that big a deal. The start of the run is all uphill though in Huntsville. As I got up to the finish line, I heard them call out Cindy Lewis finishing. I laughed and told myself I’m doing great, when only beat me but, well about 14.5 k!

Adam ran over and talked to me as I made my way up the hill. I was glad when he told me this hill was the toughest one, but laughed to myself when he told me I was looking good. I sure didn’t feel like I was looking good, but I guess you don’t want your coach telling you that you look like crap as you’re heading out of town!

The run took forever. There is very little shade and the sun was beating down hard. I think the temperature was about 22. I haven’t seen 22 degrees yet and I sure haven’t’ run in it this year! I’m going to have to plan a few noon time runs over the next few weeks. The run was an out and back also, split almost in half by the bridge over Hwy 11. The next section past the 11 to the turnaround seemed to take forever, I kept looking for it at every turn, but it was just never there. My left knee started to pop a bit. It felt like it was going to pop out of the joint or something. I’d hobble for a couple of steps, and then it was OK. There were a few kids along the way with water hoses. Getting sprayed down sure helped for a bit, but it was amazing how quickly that coolness disappeared. I finally got to the turn around and headed back. It felt a bit shorter getting to the highway again, and then shorter again coming back into town. I caught myself walking a bit in that last few kilometers.

I had a great surprise at the finish. Simon, Bern Sid, Steve and Steve where there cheering me on as I crossed the line. I’m always so far behind them that they are always gone when I come in. It was the thrill of the day for me that they hung in for me. They are a great, fun, supportive gang to folks. I’m really glad I’ve met them all and had the opportunity to hang and train with them some.

I was hoping to come in between 4:15 and 4:30. I ended up crossing the line at 4:38. I’m chocking this race down to ‘just not a great day’ If I have to have a tougher than usual race, I’d rather it be there than in Lake Placid in about 6 weeks. A couple of late nights and a few drinks late last week I’m sure counted for some of it too.

Sunday - Around the Bay - 2:51:12

What a great day that turned out to be in the end. Nadia, Bryan, Steve, Lynne and I drove down together. Steve had to go somewhere after the race so he and Lynne drove down in Steve's car. We saw John getting ready to start the walk, but we were cold and wet so we chatted for a bit, but didn't wait for the start before heading inside. We met up with Samantha and John at Copps and saw Shannon, Christine and Fred before we headed out.

The weather was crappy and wet, but the big winds they were talking about never really materialized. We saw Bernadette, Sid and Simon at the start line, and then again part way through the race as they passed us.

Samantha, my niece, who was running her third ever race (http://www.sportstats.ca/find-an-athlete-find-a-race-search.php?lang=eng&first=samantha&last=green&city=&month=&year=) a 5k, the Toronto Half and now this) said she wanted to stick with me for as long as she could. We all took off together. It took us two and a half minutes to make it to the start line. Steve and John pulled out ahead of us pretty quickly. Sam and I stuck together bobbing, weaving and dancing around people in front of us for about the first 6 or 7k.

When we got down the left turn that had us heading north to Burlington, I saw John off at the side of the road eating a gel. We yelled over and he said he was fine. It was his 45 minute Gu break. We kept pushing on through the rain that kept coming and going. John passed us again a few minutes after that.

We got to the 10k mark where all the relay folks were waiting and fought our way through the somewhat narrow path between them. I always hate passing the relay spots. For the next couple of k I'm always passed by these folks who are nice and fresh, just starting their leg of the race. By the 10k mark I'm pretty much in a groove, and fell like I'll be running with this group for a while. Having all these fresh starters blow past always sets me back a bit.

We past the 10k mark at 55:18. I was pretty happy with that. Sam and I were still side by side. Conversation had pretty much stopped by that point though! A fire truck pulled onto the road beside us just past that point. It was weird to see this thing go flying up the road and all the runners moving off to one side.

By the time we got to the 15k mark, two things happened. I was eating a gel every 30 minutes, but this was the first of the "Roctane" ones that I tried. It is stalked about as Gu x 2 as far as energy goes. Within 5 minutes I felt all energized (the Advil I too had kicked in too so my legs quit hurting) . I don't know if I was picking up speed or if Sam was slowing down, but we said our goodbyes and good lucks and I started to pull ahead a bit. I was amazed at how well she was doing so far into the race.

I caught up to John a few minutes later. He was dragging it a bit. John is usually much faster than I so I figured maybe he was having problems. I pulled ahead of John, made it up to the turn into Burlington, eat my last Advil and another gel and took off again. John called out to me in Burlington hills so I circled back for a second and talked to him for a minute. I was actually thinking this was a good excuse for me to walk for a minute, but John started to jog. I could see Steve up ahead at that point so it was 'Goodbye" to John and then the long slow stalking of Steve. I almost caught him, but I dropped one of my water bottles. I turned and picked it up and he was off ahead again.

It took me a good 10 minutes to catch him. We were just at about the 21k mark then. We stuck together until just about the 25l mark. He dropped a bottle just as we were heading into the area where the "Queen - We Will Rock You" dwarf was. I didn't wait. A quick high 5 to the dwarf, over the bridge and started to walk at the base of the mountain. I walked quickly, but I was bound and determined that I didn't want to burn up an unnecessary energy getting up the hill.

At the top, 4 minutes later, I had another gel, a sip of water and I was off. I put my head down bit, pulled my cap down to block the wind and just kept looking at the next set of feet in front of me, and ran past them. I thought of running with Val a couple of years earlier and how I knew I was running as quickly as I could, but she picked up the pace a few times and I was able to also. I refused to give in to the tired legs and aching knees. I was really wishing I'd had one more Advil though!

Past the graveyard, high 5 to the Grim Reaper, and his son I guess?? and I was finally into that last stretch. I just kept looking at the next pair of feet and doing whatever to get past them. I saw Bev just before the entrance to the arena and leaned over to the right to give her a high . . . well, a 5 anyway. As soon as I moved my body off center to the right, my right calf went into spasm. I thought I was screwed. It tightened up like crazy, but luckily loosened as son as I got back on center. Down the ramp, down the shoot, I heard my name called and blasted past the finish line. I haven't hooked up my GPS to check the data yet, but I'm sure I picked up speed all along that last 3.5 k. I had absolutely nothing left at the end. I ran straight into the barrier at the far end and hung on for a few minutes trying to get my heart rate down and my breath back. It took a while. One of the volunteers stuck with my for a while to make sure I was OK. I'm sure I'd finished at the very last possible moment that I could hold a zone 5 heart rate.

I got back to the section where we were all meeting. Bryan was there already of course. He'd done a 2:42. I'd forgotten to hit stop on my watch so I didn't know how I'd done until I got home.

Michael Pengally was sitting all rested already after finishing early. Neil came in moments later as did everyone else.

It ends up I got my time and then some. 2:51:12 I'm glad to have finally broken that elusive 3:00:00 mark. It's Monday morning now as I'm writing this. Now I'll be glad when my toes quit hurting, my headache goes away and if these quads ever loosen up again, I'll be one happy guy!

Whitby 10 Miler (16k) Race

Well, there's another new race distance out of the way. 10 miles finished in 1:25:48. 9/16 in my age category. I think that's about as good as I'm going to get until some of these guys die off! I seem to always be around the middle of my age category! I've crawled my way up from the bottom though. I'm pretty happy with that!

The race was fun. Lynne ran her fastest 5k yet. She's done 3 races in 4 years and broke 40 minutes soundly today with a 38 minute 5k time! Doris and Nadia came out with us. Doris placed 3rd in her age category with a 1:26:08 (Humm - If I were a 30 something girl, I would have finished 2nd!) Nadia was amazingly close behind with a 1:29:11 - Amazing for a girl who has just run her 4th race ever!

My split was off by about 4 minutes. I did the first 8k in about 41 minutes and the second half was 44 minutes. Not great, but a lot closer than usual I think. Maybe one of these days I'll get the hang of pacing down properly. Here's hoping it's before Lake Placid this coming summer!

Angus Glen 10k

That was my first 10k race. I was trying to figure out how long it should take me. I figured I'd multiply my best 5k (24:24) times 2 and add 10%. About 54 minutes. The coach (Adam) tells me to suck it it and shoot for 51 minutes. I figure he's out of his mind, and if I can get in under 55, I'd be a pretty happy guy.

The weather was great - a touch cold at warm up time, but perfect during the run. Just a slight breeze from the north.

My buddy Steve, who just started running about 6 moths ago was running with me. From what he's been telling me about his running, I figured we're pretty evenly matched.

We started up near the front, maybe 8 to 10 rows back. I took off just a wee bit too fast, but not the "WAY TO FAST" that I usually do. We Headed south and through the neighborhood. I'd forgotten a couple of the turns, but there were lots of folks in front of me!

When we came back out on Kennedy and headed south again for 100 yards or so, I saw Steve just a tiny bit behind he at the turn around. Just past the entrance to Angus Glen I could see his shadow beside me. We ran together until the water table just south of Elgin Mills. I walked for about 15 seconds sipping on water to wash through the gel I just took. Steve was about 25 meters ahead of me.

We were past the turn around before I caught up to him. I kept thinking that I'm pushing just a bit more than I should be as I was trying to catch him. I was only able to stay with him for a couple of minutes and he started to slowly pull away. My quads were tightening up like crazy by the 8k mark. I slowed just a touch from 8 to 9, hoping I'd have something left to 'turn it on' for the last k, but I was pretty well spent. I got a mild burst of energy for the last 100 meters, but not a lot.

I'd forgotten to hit the start button on my GPS at the start until we were about 250 meters along, then I forgot to hit stop for a minute or so when we crossed the line. I figured we were about the 51 minute mark.

Steve got me by 23 seconds with a 49:08, I finished with 49:31!

It was a great race. There were tons of folks from Timberlanes there. I saw a few folks from NYAC. There were lots of Team Running Free folks all cheering for each other before, after and along the way as well.

Tereza Marcel, one of our swim coaches, was the first women across the line and 3rd overall. Susan Simpson, one of my running buddies at the club, ran an amazing 56:57 with a bad foot and Christine Gardner ran the half in an amazing time of 1:38!

Steve and I sat around feasting on all the food after the race and slowly made out way out.

What a great venue, and what a great job they do putting on a feast after the race. A fabulous race to end the season!

The weather couldn't have been better for our 'marker' 5k race on Sunday. This is the 4th year now that Lynne and I have headed up to Ottawa to spend Thanksgiving with Michelle and Gavin and run the Ottawa Fall Colors 5k race. I use it to see if I've improved each year.

I managed a 24:23 last year. I was hoping I could have broken the 24 minute mark, but, well, another year older perhaps . . . 24:24! Still a good time and a really fun race.

Lynne yelled to me that Michelle was on my heals going into the shoot for the last 50 meters of the race. If I was ever going to have a heart attach in a race, it should have happened in that little stretch. I got a little more energy from somewhere and managed to come across the line 4 seconds in front!

Was a great season ender that race was! That may have been the toughest race I've ever done. I feel more beat up today than I did after Lake Placid Ironman a year ago!

The day started off laying in bed, nervous as heck for the first time about the race. For some reason I felt pretty complacent about it up until I woke up at about 5:00 am. I listened to the rain and had butterflies like crazy! I had a quick bowl of cereal, a protein shake and started digging through clothes, trying to decide what I should wear for the day.  It was great sleeping at the hotel on the race site. Being able to leave my room and walk to transition in 2 minutes was pretty convenient.

I went down with my bike and run stuff and laid it out in the rain, covering everything with plastic bags. I'd put a towel down first. That turned out to be a dumb idea as the water soaked through that and up into everything else! I went back  up to the room to get my bike pump, pumped up my tires and then talked to some of the gang. It seemed like just about everyone was there. I had a blast talking with everyone that I've met over the last few years. Guys from early NTT days, most of the group from the training camp, the NYAC gang, and my kids and everyone I've met from Ottawa (friends and family!)

I saw Simon Steve and Bern. Simon had forgotten his water bottles on the bus so we dashed around mixing up more e-stuff into whatever bottles we could find!

We headed down to the lake at about 7:45. There was no time for a warm up, and I was in the 7th wave anyway so it would have been pointless. I would have been cooled off before I started swimming anyway. Lynne and I watched the men and women pros start and I headed back to where my wave was waiting, working their way in turn down to the water.

I didn't realize that I was at the very back of the 300 or so folks. I was only in the water up to my knees when they announced that we were going in 15 seconds! I jockeyed for a space. I  dove in when the horn went. That's the first time I've started a race without even being wet! I took my time out to the second buoy. I did a quick roll over at one point to see if there was anyone behind me! By the time I got to the second buoy, about 300 meters along the course, I was starting to feel warmed up and thinking about proper form, and having a good comfortable swim. I pulled just a tiny bit harder than usual, and it seemed to pay off. I was 8th out of the water in my age category of 29 guys. My swim time was 41:37, a 2:05 pace, my fastest swim ever!

The peelers were great, they tossed me down, ripped off that suit and stood me back up in just a few seconds. The run to transition was tough, steep and long, but it went by quicker than I had expected. My bike shoes and socks were already soaked. I put them on, kissed Lynne and headed out. My T1 time was 6:52.

The glasses I wore were fogged up with water between the lenses right away. They never did clear up. It rained fairly hard though most of the bike ride.  The roads were in better shape than they had been the couple of times I'd been up to travel the route previously, but the water on some of the freshly paved, greasy roads made traveling treacherous. I couldn't see the road clearly. I could never read my GPS. Someone warned me when I was going in too quickly to a sharp turn. I hit the brakes but with all the water and grit, they did nothing. I had to feather them a bunch several times to get the grit and water out so that they'd grip a bit.

Around the half way point of the rind, someone (Tracy I think) caught me and said that Michelle was about 300 meters behind me and trying to catch me. That gave me a bit more energy to push a bit harder! I figured I'd beat her off the bike, but she's such a strong runner, she'd pass me on the run. It would be like Ironman Lake Placid all over again!

The bike route seemed to go past quickly. I was glad I'd done it a couple of times already. Down the stick of the lollypop, out and down Dwight Beach road. That was freshly paved and slippery a hell! The stretch from Dwight to Dorset seemed to fly by in no time. Over to Baysville also went by in a flash. Playing catch-up  with a few people along the way made it fun. Interesting how some folks are stronger on the climbs, but take it easy on the flats and down hills. From Baysville to South Portage Road went OK, but the first 5k of South Portage Road was terrible. It had been swept, but the road was really rough. Dirt a grit was flying off our tires and everyone was covered in mud. We looked like those motocross guys! I've never seem so many people at the side of the road changing tires! This is a race you only do on new tires in my estimation!

I tossed by chain heading up a hill on the stick of the lollypop heading back up to Deerhurst and had to get off. I had a terrible time trying to get back on and peddling up this damn hill!  I caught up to a guy whose bike shorts were torn half way down his cheek.  His hip to the shorts looked like a roast of beef at the butcher shop. I talked to him and he'd slipped on a corner and slip on his side the rough road. He was heading back to Deerhurst, but dropping out when he got there. Tough course!

I'd expected (and hoped) for my bike time to be 3:30. I missed by 18 seconds!

I changed my shoes, but not my socks. It was still pouring rain in transition. My shoes were waterlogged before I made it out onto the course anyway! I drank a can of Red Bull at the same time. I wanted all the energy I could get my hands on for this run. I almost tossed my cookies within two minutes, but I had energy! My T2 time was 3:18.

I had a blast on the run. I was bound and determined at the beginning that I was not going to walk one step of it! That turned out to be impossible! Simon, Steve and Bern had all started in the wave behind me, so they all past me in short order on the run. Steve went by like a bullet, Simon wasn't' t far behind, and Bern caught me when we were out on Hwy 60.

I had a blast on the out and backs. Michelle, my Iron daughter who introduced me to this crazy sport a while back, was behind me, but catching up quickly. She'd yell "HI Dad" from the other side of the road and I'd yell back "Hi daughter, who is behind me" to her. Everyone around me would start yelling "Yea, you've kicking her ass". I knew it wouldn't' last, but I was loving the moments. I even starting thinking about how cool it would be if I could finally beat her. She hadn't' t been training for this, she hadn't' t slept well for the last 2 nights. There just might be a chance! Out Hwy 60, across the road and into the path through the woods, up some more hills, ( like we hadn't done enough already!) and then, with about 8k left I hear these footsteps quickly catching up to me, and this little voice say, "Not today old man" as she shot past me as if I was standing still! She's an amazing athlete. I was proud to have held her off for so long, and happy for her that, true to form, she never walks a step during a race!

Back towards Deerhurst again. Just along Cookson Court road, (a bit of a side road off of Canal Road) there were a bunch of folks sitting in lawn chairs with umbrellas at the side of the road cheering everyone on. I' d noticed a couple of empty chairs on my way out, and they were still there now. I ran up to one, sat down and cheered on the next runner for 30 seconds and then took off running again. I figure if I can' t be fast, I may as well have fun! The folks in the chairs were in hysterics!

We ran past the entrance to Deerhurst and out onto the golf course. I'm so glad we never ran the golf course before. It looped back and forth, up and down along the golf cart paths, much of which was under 4-5 inches of water. It looped out and back about 3-4 times on the one side, then past the finish line for a 3k loop out the other site. The hills were terrible. The down hills were too steep to run freely. We had to run with the brakes on, so to speak. Rain pouring down still and so tired I was ready to drop. I ran the down hills when they weren't too step and managed to run all the flats, but that golf course was the toughest 5k of any race ever! I met up with Stellious, a friend from NTT days, on that last leg of the run.

It was cool to get a congratulatory hug from Lisa Bentley at the finish! The time read about 7:21. I' started at 8:33 so I knew I' d come in under 7 hours, which was my goal. Michelle came and gave me a big hug and we laughed about her passing me. She' d finished 15 minutes ahead of me. I'd heard them call out Simons finish when I was on about the second loop of the first side of the golf course.  Lynne was there to meet me and hand me some dry clothes. My final overall time was 6:49:07

It was a great race. I talked with a lot of folks later who think that course may be the toughest 70.3 course they' d ever done. I'm glad. I have no plans of ever doing another, but it' s nice to know we finished a tough one!

Now for some R&R. No more races until Angus Glen in November.

Oh - Almost forgot to mention the icing on the cake!

My 'Iron Daughter' Michelle had started the race a few waves ahead of me. She finished 3rd in her age group, and almost 15 minutes ahead of me on the course, but, on corrected time, finished in 6:52:50! I beat her by 3 minutes!

I know it's only because she didn't train properly for this race and didn't sleep well for a couple of nights, but . . . . . . 3 minutes YEA!!!!

My pal Al met me at the house at 5:30. We loaded up my stuff into his van, hit Tim's for bagels and were on the road in no time. We made it to the site at exactly 7:00. They'd changed the course this year because of the water near the dam. The transition area was way further into the park than before.

I was surprised at how many people were out. With Muskoka in two weeks, I expected this race to be a bit empty. There were just under 800 people for the Tri and the Du.

It was fun showing Allen around and getting registered. I love seeing, and being part of a newbies excitement and nervousness. We got our bikes racked, checked in, got our race kits and checked out the transition areas. Two hours went by quickly. In no time I was making my way down to the lake to get warmed up and to check out these new Sable Water Optics swim goggles.

The goggles were great (available at Running Free). Nice to be able to see clearly for a change. They fit really well around my eyes without being squeezed onto my face anywhere as hard as the others did!

The postponed the start for 15 minutes, and I was in the 6th wave. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to stay warmed up being out of the water 5 minutes before the start of the race,, but not staring for another 15 minutes.

I stayed back a bit running into the water. I don't think I'll do that again. I spent a lot of time trying to work my way around other folks. I seemed to get beside folks just when they wanted a break and started to do the breast stoke. They'd kick sideways and kick me in gut! I got some room just before the first turn and made some pretty good time coming back. I felt like thee swim went pretty fast, but my time (18:49) showed that I was off by about 10 - 15 seconds per 100 meters from what I expected to be. I got in and out of transition and out on the bike course reasonably quickly. I don't see the time so I have a feeling the T1 time was added to the swim time.

The 30k bike course was fairly flat. There must have been 5 or 6 speed bumps getting out of the park, but we eventually got around the front gate on on the way. The 30k Guelph bike course was pretty flat. I saw Allan (who started riding a bike about a month ago and was on a borrowed bike) just before the turn around. I slowed a bit when I caught up to him for a minute and then sped up again. I really wanted to finish in under an hour. I just about made it! They were telling us to slow down coming into the bike mount/dismount line a bit early. I didn't realize that so I'd swung my left leg over and was side saddle for what tuned out to be the last 100 meters of so. I finished with a 29.9 kph pace in 1:00:10. Missed by 10 seconds, but I was feeling great anyway! I got out of T2 in 1:37 . . . . (maybe the put both T times together??)

My legs felt heavy but I plodded along. I really didn't worry about who I was catching or who was passing me for the first k. I did pass a few folks, which is unusual for me, so I was feeling great about that. I fell in with another 58 year old guy at about a1.5k into the race and stuck with him until the 6k mark. We talked a wee bit, and both walked for about 10 seconds at the water stations. When we got to the 6k water station, we both said, yup, last one then a dash to the line, but he didn't stop, and I couldn't catch back up to him. He got me at the, line by 7 seconds! It was very weird to pass this guy who had passed out about 20 feet from the finish line. It looked to me like someone was pumping on his chest as I ran past. I couldn't see clearly and there was a big crowd around. We had to dash off course around them to get to the finish line. (The ambulance picked him up a little later. My pal Al said he was up and throwing up when he went by a couple of minutes later.

There were some pretty quick guys in my age category this race. Three guys finished in the 1:30 mark, so my 15/22 place finish still feels OK. 9 of us finished in the 1:50 - 2:00 mark My 1:59:22 feels great.

Now for a bit of R & R, and on to the 70.3 in Muskoka in two weeks!

Allen had a great time! He was some pooped at the end. That was also his first brick run experience. I'd explained how his legs were going to feel weird for the first k of that last run. He didn't think they ever felt right! I think were going out bike shopping for Allen soon though!

This was the best race I've run so far. I felt great.

Lynne and I had spent the day before the race with  my Mom, celebrating her birthday. I can't say my diet, for the day before a race, was what it should have been.

We got to he race site early. I had tons of time to get my stuff set up and then wander around to talk to everyone for an hour before watching the long course group take off and then getting my wetsuit on and my pre swim warm up.

As usual, I started in the last wave. I was ready to run off the beach at the front of our wave, but it ended up that our wave were all lined up beside each other on the beach.

The horn went and we tore off into the water. I started to swim when the water was at my thighs. The weeds were incredible. I expected that the water would get deep enough that they'd disappear quickly, but that wasn't the case. I was still touching weeds about 25% of the way out. They kept getting tangled up in them, getting them stuck around my goggles for what felt like forever.

Finally clear of the weeds and out on the course! My goggles had fogged up so it was hard to see clearly. I could eye the big orange markers, but I had a hard time eyeing whoever was around me. I pretty much just kept my head down and thought about full strokes and rotating my body. I seemed to be in the middle of the pack by the first turn around and kept my position to the second turn.

I had a blast on the way back when I realized I'd caught up to some people in the 3rd wave, and then a couple of folks from the second wave. Lynne was cheering me on when I came out of the water after fighting the weeds again. It's a long run from the beach to the transition area in Peterborough. My swim time was 17:35 which was a 2:23 pace. My transition time was 2:34 to get out on the bike.

My usual plan for the bike has been to hold back a bit so that I have strength in my legs when I start the run, but the coaches plan for this race was to just go for it, so that's what I did. I blasted along the bike course for all I was worth. I passed people like crazy, and not a lot of folks passed me. I had to pull out to get past a small group that were all riding side by side just before the turn around. The OAT marshal was on my quickly to tell me if I crossed the middle of the street again I'd be DQ' d!

I passed "Clair" about 3 - 4 k from the finish line. She passed me about 1 minute after I caught her soon and said something, she did the same. I can't remember how many times we passed each other, but we were laughing at each other and egging each other on. I'm sure the banter knocked us both up a notch and saved us both a couple of minutes for the bike course. We met up after the race and laughed about how much fun that was.

One of my goals for this year was to finish a bike ride with a 30 kph+ average speed. I managed 31.1 for this race!

A 1:42 T2 and I was off and running. Again, the coach said to just go for it, and that's what I did. I wanted to walk a bit but kept telling myself that I can do ANYTHING for 30 minutes, so I kept trying to pass folks or keep up with others. I passed Lynne, who was cheering me on again at just past the 4 k mark of the 5k run. I gave it amy all and finished in 26:43, a 5:21 pace. I was pretty happy with that.

It took me a few minutes to get my breath when I finished. I have no idea what my heart rate was, but it was way higher than it wanted to be! I looked around for Lynne and finally found her, sitting in her chair reading her book back where I'd seen her earlier. She thought I'd just started the run and didn't expect me back for a while!

I finished that racing feeling like it was my best race ever. I had nothing left at the finish line. My best time for that distance before was 1:37, and I'd knocked 10 minutes off of that this time.

Next stop - training in Lake Placid on Ironman weekend!

My goal for the race was just to have fun. So many of us are all hung up on this problem or that, a disappointing time or almost anything that decreased the 'fun factor'. I blew the fun factor at all of the running races I did this year. I didn't want to do that again this time.

I got up to Huntsville at about 12:30. I ran into Stellavos, parked beside me, in the parking lot, and then Vicki pulled in on the other side 3 minutes later. Small world!

I grabbed my race kit and started taking things over to the transition area. I still had 3 hours to kill before race time. I saw Bernadette and Sid, then Simon, Jean, Willem, Steve and Rose. This was Rose's first race! Then I met up with David and his family. This getting to a race early is great! I went to see what the water course was like. All the "Nobel Trade" guys who were racing tomorrow were going for a swim.

David and I made our way down to the water. A quick warm up swim and then hung out as the other three waves got started. This was the first time that my goggles got kicked off. I didn't have three breaths in when it happened. I really have to start putting my goggle on before my swim cap! I go them back on OK though. I had a tough time getting around the other folks in the water.

I was having a great swim. I felt strong. I was paying attention to making full, long strokes and twisting with each stroke. The water in my goggles made it hard to sight a long way. I had to do a brest stroke to be able to see. By the time I finished, I caught some folks from the second wave. I was feeling pretty good about that. When I looked up to where we come out of the water, I could see it was packed with spectators. I'm usually so slow that most of the crowd is gone, so again, I felt great.

David's son had my flip flops for me when I got out of the water. I grabbed them and started to run, but they slipped off after a couple of steps! So much for that great plan!

I could get that damned wet suit off and had to sit to get it. Oh well, I got it. I got my bike stuff on quickly and headed to the start line and mounted. I didn't get more than a kilometer or two when something hit me in my right eyebrow. It only took a couple of seconds to realize it was a bee of some sort and it had stung me. It felt like I'd been hit with a bat. My forehand felt like it was swelling. My eye started to hurt. David caught up to me on the bike and passed me like a bolt of lightning saying, "Oh yea - I forgot about this hill" as we climbed up the steepest hill on the route.

I don't know why the City of Toronto can close the Don Valley and the Gardner Expressway for a Sunday, but Huntsville can't close there country road for a couple of hours. The traffic was unbelievable. I was having a good ride. Slowly making progress catching up to folks, but then the cars were in the way. They would settle themselves between a group of racers in such a way that I couldn't get around them and the racer. Several times I passed the car on the left side, not being sure if they saw me, or if they were going to pull out to pass. The ride was hilly, but the roads were fine. Maybe it was worrying about the cars that made the ride go by so quickly. I'd had to hit the brakes several times getting stuck behind cars. The ambulances screaming past on my way back got me thinking that someone else hadn't been so lucky passing the cars on the left!

I'd paid attention on the bike to not pushing like crazy. Trying to keep my wattage around where it felt like a zone 2 or 3 from my computrainer. I wanted to finish the bike, and have lots of strength left in my legs for the run.

Great plan, but, it didn't really work! I headed out on that run quickly. T2 time was 1:47 - that's a quick change for me! I started running and soon realized my heart rate was through the roof. I walked for a 15 seconds to bring it down, then slowed down my running pace to keep it down.

Our run course was a double loop. Out to the swim start area then back to the start. Around a small in town loop, uphill, and around again. I walked twice for about 45 seconds each time. Pouring water over my head felt good! Crossing the finish line felt even better!

My head was still pounding from that bee sting, but it didn't look anything more than a little tiny red bite! By the time I got home at 8:45, it had all but disappeared.

I drove down with Bryan to the race. It's always fun to travel with another athlete - even if he does run like he wind!

I was hoping to break the 3:00 hour mark. Then I got it in my head that I'd do 2:55 and at the end, I'd talked myself into the fact that I'd maybe run a 2:50! Left over drugs from the 60's I guess!

The weather was great. The wind stayed down pretty well and the sun was out. We ran a 5 minute warm up and then headed to the starting line. I moved back further and further looking for the 2:55 Pace Bunny who I'd met earlier, but I couldn't find him.

I was a fair way back when the gun went. It took us a full 3 minutes to get to the start line. Bryan was much further up towards the front, and I couldn't find any of the rest of the gang. No problem though. I had my race to run, and I knew I'd be behind them all!

I started as per the coaches plan. 2k at a low zone 2 heart rate. For some reason, that worked out to a 5:30 pace. I kept that pace for about the first 5k, but then saw my heart rate was up to 3.9. I backed off a bit. at the 10k mark I was at 1:00:37 mark. The run was flat with just a bit of wind up to that point.

I got to the 15k mark in 1:30:16 and the 20 2:00:31. 20k put us into the Burlington hills. I didn't remember them as being as long from last year. I'd been taking my gels every 30 minutes and drinking lots of E-Load along the way, but the hills were getting tough. I'd been coughing like crazy the day before as this darn cold was settling in. I guess that made some difference to the amount of energy I had. According to My GPS, my pace was slowly dropping from that 5:30 at the start to about 5:45 at the start of the hills. My heart rate was in the low to mid zone 4 range. That's a bit higher than it's supposed to be, but it's always higher on race day! I felt like that was OK as I was storing up some time, knowing that the friggin' mountain climb was coming up at the 26k mark.

I gave the dwarf a "high 5" on my way back with "We will Rock You" by Queen blasting through his speakers and ran over the bridge to the mountain. I'd run part way up with Valerie last year, but she was no where to be found this year! I walked as quickly as I could to the top and took a few more steps to get my heart rate down. My average pace at that point was up to 5:58. My mileage showed about 250 meters more than the signage did. That distance climbed a bit at every marker.

There's 3.5k left at the top of the hill to the finish line inside Copps Coliseum. I remembered how Valerie had pushed me a bit last year, and decided to just do the same. My quads were killing me. I'd take a couple of Advil along the way, but they, and my knees felt like they were exploding. I pushed and pushed, slowly passing folks. I almost ran head on into the "Grim Reaper" near the graveyard. (The dwarf and the Grim Reaper apparently are two regular folks at every running of this race)

I watched my average pace drop from 5:58 to 5:57 as I got closer to the finish. I got a wee bit of a scare right at Copps when I felt my right calf start to cramp, but I got past it. I looked at my watch at the 2:58 mark and then refused to look again. The seconds don't show past the 1 hour mark, so I didn't know if I had just a bit over a minute or close to two.

i turned at the ramp, had to run around someone in my way and headed down the ramp. Every step hurt like hell. I was expecting that any second I would hear a knee pop. Down to the bottom of the ramp and into the Coliseum. I heard the announcer call my name as I pushed with everything I had for that last hundred meters. I was looking at the big Videotron as I crossed the line and didn't even see the time. I shut off my GPS and staggered to the end of the shoot past the line. I was a bit surprised when two medics came running over to catch me and ask if I was OK. I said yes and they backed off. I got to then end and just hung onto one of the railing for a minute while I got my breath back and my heart rate down.

I walked like a zombie to where they cut off your timing chip. My buddy Frank couldn't do the race so I wore his chip on one foot and mine on the other. I remembered to get them to cut them both off. (Frank beat me by .5 seconds!)

I met Brian back at our pre arranged spot. His folks had come out to cheer him on. They were sitting with him there when I got to him. I still felt pretty dazed. I downed a bottle of E-Mend and 5 minute later was ready to go.

I'm curious to know, If I'd run at a 5:55 pace from beginning to end, would I have had more energy at the end and finished quicker. I guess I have to wait for next year to find out.

Sunday Season Opener - Half Marathon

We couldn't have been much more lucky with the weather. 1 degree above zero and sunny. The 22k wind in our face for the first 10k somehow just cooled us off a bit. It was hot running with the wind to our backs for the return.

Allen, Nadia and I drove down for the race together. This was Nadia's first race ever. A bunch of us talked her into doing it as a practice run before her full marathon in Rome in 3 weeks!

I didn't know what to expect for myself. I wanted to get a PB by breaking the 1:57 mark, but I didn't know if that was a reasonable expectation for the first race of the season.

Allen and I headed out with the 1:55 pace bunny. We stuck with him Ok until for about the first 8k, but then slowly fell back. I walked a couple of times for a minute in the first half. Once at the 30 minute mark for some water and some gel. Then again at the turn around. The roads were dry everywhere except for that couple of kilometers of the last leg to the turn.

I walked a bit at the turn. Allen kept pulling ahead, and I chased him down, but always within a few feet, I had to walk again for a few seconds. I saw Nadia just as we came out from the last leg from the turn around. Smiles from ear to ear! She looked great, not tired at all, and ahead of her original pace bunny by a few hundred yards!

Allen and I both struggled for the last 6-7 k. I had just plain run out of steam. The 2:00 pace bunny passed us around the 18k mark.

I don't know if it was because of a fast warm up 5k run the morning before, or working the Running Free both for 5 hours the day before, or my new nutrition plan, but whatever it was, we were pooped coming across that line.

Allen and I crossed the line at 2:05, Nadia got a 2:23.

Our pace ended up at 6:00 - As I look back at our pace over the race, we kept a 5:00 pace for a long time, then slowly dropped off to the 6:00 by the end. I wonder now if we'd stuck to a 5:30 throughout, if we would have sustained that and not dropped off later?

MotionBased view of the race

Sunday Race - The last of the season!

The weekend race was GREAT! The weather was good. Cool, but the rain held off until an hour after the race. The sun was out. It was a beautiful fall day. Half the people I know were at the race. It was really cool to see and know so many folks.

We (Allen, Mike, Christine and I) got to he grounds by about 8:30. It was a bit of a hike along the golf paths. They had us park in a field off Warden. We all gathered inside where we met up with just about everyone else to get our chips and talk for a bit. Mike and I went out for a 5 min ute warm up run along the golf paths and then went to get in line to start the run.

I always go near the middle of the pack, but I thought, just for fun, I'm going to the front. I stayed off to the side so I wasn't blocking anyone. I got about 1k into the run when Phil, Christine and Simon caught me. It was fun trying to keep up with them. I was running for all I was worth. They were calmly chatting away. I don't know how they can do that! I managed to keep up for about 3 minutes, but then lay back a bit. I knew I was starting too fast, but I didn't really care. I wanted to get a jump on pulling ahead.

Through the neighborhood, back out to Kennedy and up to Elgin Mills. I was watching to see if anyone was just behind me that I knew, but I didn't see anyone. I ran with one of the guys from NYAC for a bit heading up to Elgin Mills, but I dropped back at a water station.

Out to McGown and heading north, I heard this little "Is that you Greg" voice again. Valerie, my "Around the Bay" angel was there beside me again. I hadn't seen her all season. We talked for a bit. I was still running hard. I can't manage to talk much when I'm pushing that hard. Valerie pulled ahead and started chatting to the next person she knew.

I looked at a guy about 10 feet in front of me. It looked like Gerard from our lane at NYAC. I thought I should catch up and say hi, but, I didn't have the extra energy to put into catching up! After few minutes though, I hear this "Hey Greg" again. It was Gerard. I'd caught up without noticing. We ran together for the rest of the race. He was explaining that his hamstrings were feeling like they were about to go any second. I was feeling the same thing about my feet. Half way up the hill on 19th Avenue, we both talked about the pace we were doing. We were both just trying to keep up with each other.

Down Warden Avenue, around at Elgin Mills again to another water stop. I was bushed. I walked a bit and let Gerard go ahead, but we were coming up on a down hill that I just flew down, so I'd caught him again.

Around and down Kennedy again. I was either pretty tired or I'm turing into an idiot. I saw the 18k mark, said to myself "I can do anything for 2K" and took off with everything I had. About 1/2 K down the road I realized that it was 3k left, not 2! (I hate it when that happens!)

I slowed a bit. Gerard caught me again. We ran tougher again until the turn at the driveway back into the grounds and the finish line. I gave it all I had, which wasn't much at that point, but managed to get in under that 2:00 mark with a 1:58:09.

The only thing I will say about the race at this point is how cool (even if it was foolish) it was for me to run for a few minutes with Christine, Simon and Phil. I would have had a heart attach if I'd tried to keep up with them, but for that 2 or 3 minutes . . . . . :-)

Vicki, Mike and I drove down together to the race. We got there about 6:00 and waited in the car until 7:00 - A couple of trips to the port-a-potties, a look around for John and Joni, a good 10 minute warm up after dropping our bags at the truck and we were off.

I tossed my jacket at the start line and my gloves within a few hundred meters. I saw Seumas and kept up with him for a little bit, but he moves just a bit too fast for me. I lost him at about the 7k mark.

My heart rate was 1 zone higher that it was supposed to be just about all day long. Too bad I've got one race left this season. It's a rougher course so it's going to take a little longer,

I accidentally turned off my Garmin part way through the race so it's time is all messed up. My legs are killing me. My right foot is on fire! I popped my right knee at the 17k mark and thought I was going tom have to walk the rest of the way. I walked for 30 seconds or so and then took off again. A couple of minutes later my left knee did the same thing. Walk a bit - run some more - a little gingerly, but just pushed through thinking that I'd rather hurt for a couple of days but to have had a great season - Finished Ironman, broke the 25 minute 5 k mark and then run a sub 2:00 1/2 marathon.

I think I'm going to settle down in a hot bath with a Rum and Coke!

Results

Michelle was talking to me when the gun went. I turned and ran in mid sentence. Rude - yes - but I really wanted to brake the 25 minute 5k mark for the first time.

We'd gotten there early so that GAvin could sign up and , well, I ALWAYS get there early. We'd been cold so we'd stayed in the car a lot. A short warm up, tossed our warm clothes to Jordan and off we went.

I started from just about the very front of the line this time. I've always stayed back a bunch so that I'm not slowing other people down, but I figured"to hell with them" this time!

Around the track, our to the street and through the neighborhood. There's a downhill right off the bat. Around the first corner in the neighborhood and the sun was shining. I looked at my watch and saw i was 8 minutes into the race. My heart rate was at the 4.5 zone, about 142, 143. That's pretty high for me, but I'd noticed it was 1.2 before the race started, so I figured it was high anyway.

There was water at the 2 mark, but I didn't want to stop. I figured for 5 k, i'd blast through with nothing but the gel I'd had just before the gun went off.

The course was changed a bit this year. There were two fairly big hills to run up. They had markers at every kilometer mark on this race (for a change) At the 3k mark I realized I was about 30 seconds ahead of where I had to be. That was pretty encouraging and helped me pick up a bit of speed when I felt like I wanted top slow down.

Up the last hill, around the corner into the park again. Around the track and across the line.

Yea - 24:23.

Off to Michelle and Gavin's for a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner with all of their family and friends and then back home again late into the evening.

Results

The course was two loops of a 5k distance that went along the boardwalk, then through the woods, out on the main street to a quick right turn to the turn around. Back along the main street, past the woods to a road that took us back to the road at waters edge, through the sand, back on the boardwalk and around again. The sand was a killer. I could feel the sand in my shoes, and I kept feeling like I was going to trip.

My training buddy Vicki came up to watch the race as did Jose. Vicki helped me out by yelling "Way to go Buddha Belly" as I passed her at one point. I laughed my ass off, but then had to suck in my gut every time I passed her after that!

I felt OK when I finished the 10k. I'd forgotten to start my Garmin right at the start of the race, so I couldn't tell what time I had.

I headed out on the bike course with Kim. We rode close together for a while, but she went on ahead shortly after the start. The ride was very flat. A couple of small hills, but nothing like we'd been doing most of the summer. There was one section of road about 5k long that was very rough. I saw my speed drop from the low 30's to the low 20's along that stretch.

Coming back to town I worked hard at not doing my usual racing to pass as many people as passable, but trying to conserve energy for the run. I didn't realize that it was Kim that was right in front of me for the last few kilometers. I passed her coming into the bridge at the end of the ride.

I couldn't find where I'd racked my bike when I came back in. I probably wasted 30 seconds. It was the strangest feeling to be looking around and not seeing my bag with my shoes and stuff!

The run was one more loop of the two we'd done previously. I was worried that everyone else had finished. I figured Christine would be the first one of us to finish. I was so happy to see her coming in along the boardwalk as I was heading out. She only beat me by about 4.8k :-).

I saw everyone else coming my way as I headed out along that boardwalk. Past the turn around I was feeling pretty tired, but happy that I was running the entire run. All summer long I'd burned myself out on the bike and didn't have the energy to run afterwards. I walked most of the runs. This time, I didn't feel like I was running very fast, but I was running. At one point I moved to the side to let someone pass. I'd heard them catching up to me. She said to me not to worry, I didn't need to move over so fast. She wasn't moving quickly, but she did steadily keep on moving away from me.

I thought about how I'd pushed Mike the weekend before to just keep trying to pick of the person in front of him, and decided I should do the same. She blew past some folks, I kept chasing, passing the same folks she did, and ever so slowly catching back up to her. I kept thinking about pacing, and catching up, and pacing and catching up.

I caught her at the end of the boardwalk where we turn to run to the finished line about 100 meters away. I said something to her about how hard it was for me to catch her after she said she wasn't moving fast. We turned the corner and she took off like a friggin' rabbit! Beat me by 4 seconds!

I ended up having a good race! I did the first 10K in 53:55. I'd only broken the 1 hour 10k mark twice before, and it was only by a few seconds. I averaged 27 kph on the bike. I could have pushed more, but I had the energy to run the last 5k and finish that in 28:40. Not my fastest 5k time, but I'm happy with it.

Mike and I headed over to Guelph and watched the Sprint race before Mikes first Mini Sprint starting at 1:00.

It's amazing watching the elite folks. TIps to learn all along the way.

Mike and I got into the water at about 12:30. The water was shallow, and fairly disgusting. Makes Lake Wilcox look like a spring water! We swam a bit to get warmed up and then hung around the start line until our wave started.

I was along for moral support and to help Mike any way I could. Hind sight is 20/20. I should have had Mike start right at the back. He had an ' experience' with getting bumped and swam over at the start.

I always think that everyone swims all over the place, rather than in a straight line, but this gang made me realize that, as time goes on, we do swim a little straighter! These folks were are 90 degree angles at times! Mike had a hard time with the swim., but we made it. I had him stop and try to relax a couple of times. We made it, and there were still folks behind us!

The transitions went well. We picked off the folks in front of us pretty well on the bike, but we didn't have a lot left for the run. We picked off a few folks early, traded placed back and forth with a 21 year old girl for a while, and the sprinted our faces off at the end!

I had a blast at my first coaching race. Mikes looking for another same distance race for this season so it looks like he's hooked now too.

Click here for Results

This was a big story.

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Click here to watch the finish

1/3 Ironman?
Saturday was an "Off" day for me. Just rest up and get ready for the 1/2 Ironman race in Peterborough on Sunday. I drove up Saturday morning and spent the day with my Mom. We watched movies, eat and talked, then went over to the venue where I picked up my race kit, and then drove the bike course.

I don't know why, but driving the course always makes the course look harder than it turns out to be when we bike it.

I was up early on Sunday morning and over to the park by 6:15. I found a good spot to rack my bike and get all of my gear set up, and then wandered around talking to folks.

About 7:15 I was talking to someone who informed me that I'd racked my bike in the Sprint area, not the 1/2 Ironman area. I quickly moved my stuff over, only to find there was no room. I leaned my bike up against a tree and laid out my stuff there again.

Into the wetsuit and into the water by about 7:40. I went for a good long warm up swim and was talking to someone when the timing guy came over and announced we had 4 minutes to the start and had to get over to the starting area. I'd hoped to find the Wisconsin gang and start a round or singing Happy Birthday to Simon who was celebrating his 51st birthday that day, but I was too late and couldn't find them.

The gun went and 580 people charged into the river! I was supposed to swim wide of the group, but I found myself somewhat in the middle. I was worried for a second and then I though, "What the Hell" let's see what swimming in a washing machine is like!

I got bumped a lot. It was really hard to try to figure out where to go to pass people. Then I realized that I was passing people! That was pretty cool. I practiced eyeing the marker every 7 & 8 stroke and that worked pretty well for me.

I was on the very inside as we turned at the far end marker and I was in a mess of people again. I swam a little past so that I wasn't in the middle of the mess for the next leg and that made it easier to just concentrate on swimming long easy strokes, without trying to find small gaps to pass folks through.

At the end of the first loop, I felt like I was having one of the best swims I've ever had. I'd passed a lot of folks, and was swimming in a fairy straight line. Out of the water, run over to the staring area again, and back into the river to start the next loop.

With all these folks in the water, the weeds got ripped up from the bottom pretty well. I found I was getting long strands of weeds stuck in my beard and wrapped around my legs for a while. Not the most pleasant feeling, but they came off pretty easily. The group was more spread out for the second loop so it wasn't so tough getting kicked around in the water. I found myself off course a bit on the last leg, but ended up finished the 2k swim in 44 minutes. I feel pretty confident about breaking 90 minutes in Lake Placid in a couple of weeks.

I saw Simon's wife Jean when I came out of the water hearing me on and giving me a high 5 on the way back. Lynne was visiting a friend up north this weekend. I missed her not being there!

I took almost 5 minutes in transition. That's about twice as long as I think I should, but I came out somewhat relaxed, so I'm not sure if was a bad thing to catch my breath before biking off. It was a long run from the river to the transition area and them out to the bike start too.

The bike went well. I felt strong and felt good. There was a bit of wind blowing out of the west as we headed east. I kept checking the time at all of the 5k markers. I was on track for getting to the half way mark in 90 minutes, which I ended up getting. The wind slowed me down a bit on the way back and I ended up with 3:18 for the 90k ride. I was racing with Pat Harrison on the way. I was pretty sure I'd beat him in the swim, but he kicks my ass on the bike and the run. I was pushing to see if I could get past the 20 - 25 k mark before he caught me. He got me at just about the 30k mark.

He said hi and pulled ahead, but then slowed down a bit. I put everything I had into passing him. I knew it wouldn't last, but I wanted to experience passing him, at least once! I think it lasted all of a minute or two!

It started to drizzle just as I hit the 85k mark. Great for all the runners. It was going to be a tough long hot run for them.

With my Ironman race two weeks away, the coach told me to go through the transition, run about 3k and then walk back. Logically, it makes tons of sense. I beat myself up badly on the runs. It's the hardest thing we do on our bodies. Someone had kicked most of my stuff around while I was out on the bike so I had to do a little searching to find my shoes, heart rate monitor and hat. I ended up almost 5 minutes in T2 also.

I headed out for the run with a couple of other folks who were heading out at the same time, but I think we headed out in the wrong direction. The run was a couple of loops, but it wasn't marked as to where loop one was headed and where loop two went. We joined some other folks and found ourselves at the 11k mark in about 2 minutes. I didn't care too much because I was only running for 10 minutes, but I'm really curious about the rest of the runners!

It felt terrible to stop. I understood and agreed with the reasoning, but, I don't quit stuff! Walking away was just weird. I felt like a quitter. I hung my head a bit when I handed in my timing chip. I considered just walking the run, but decided that was stupid. After following Adam's plan to the letter for a year and a half, it would be really dumb to screw something up now. He wrote that, in the two weeks of tapering before Ironman, there is nothing I can do to build endurance, but there is tons I can do to hurt my chances of competing well. I kept telling myself that as I walked away and packed my stuff in the car. It was a training experience, not a race. It was a training experience, not a race. I keep telling myself that. I'm sure it will feel OK after I finish Ironman in a couple of weeks.

I looked around for the gang when I finished. Jean was around, so was Willem and PAt, but I wandered for about an hour and couldn't find anyone, so I decided to head home and go to my buddy Kevin and Jennifer's BBQ. About 2/3 of the way home I decided a hot bath and watching TV in bed would feel a lot better. I talked to Vicki on the way home about how her training is going for he big race in a month or so. It's cool how many of us are all getting close to the big race of the season, where ever they are!
Click here for results.

Simon and Jean, Bernadette, Ramona, Steve, Steve, Willem and . . . . I'm missing someone, were already at the motel. They got into town early and went for a swim. We hung for a bit. Lynne and I went over to pick up the race kit, and then met the gang back at the motel to head out to dinner.

We ate on a deck at the side of the river. It was beautiful. The place was full of athletes all chowing down on every carb in site! Then back to the motel. We headed out in our cars to drive the bike course, and then back again and off to bed. (That bike course sure looked like a course from hell. Somewhere, the guy who laid that out is just laughing his ass off!)

I always find it a bit hard to get a good sleep the night before a race. The strange bed in this hot motel didn't help.

Up at 5:30 in the morning and off to the race course. It was so much fun to see just about everyone (You should have been there Vicki!) that I train with now, or have trained with hanging out at waters edge for the pre swim warm up. I was in the 7th start wave. The first wave was done before we even headed out.

I had a good swim. I was a bit winded at the beginning. I don;t think I did enough of a warm up, and I'd done it a bit too early, but I got into the groove about 1/3 of the way into the first leg. I'd lost some ground on the gang that I never caught up. I was hoping for a 45 minute time on the 2k course. I ended up at 47 minutes.

The bike course was a killer. 55k long with an elevation gain of 2184 feet. I We'd driven the course the night before. (Sorry for almost slamming into the back of your car Simon!) Prior to the drive, I was figuring my time would be about 1:50 to 2:00. After driving, I figured I was looking at about 2:15. I managed to pull off a 2:05.

There was one hill where the "Auto Pause" kicked in on my Garmin. I was doing less than 5kph! Auto Pause stops the Garmin from counting. It's used so that your numbers are all messed up when biking and stopping at red lights etc.

I was happy with my bike time, but then quickly realized that it would have been smarter for me to have biked a bit slower, and saved a bit more energy for the run. I must have spent 30 - 40% of the run time walking. I was hoping for a 1:30 run and ended up with a 1:45 run.

The total race time, with the two transitions was 4:43. I wonder if I go back and do some of the races I've done before if I would move up a bit in my age category?

Click here for results

This was my best race yet, both for time, and for fun!

I'd gone to bed early the night before after chowing down on a ton of Hamburger Helper. I'm sure that's not on any nutritionist list of healthy pre race diets, but it works well for me.

I woke up at 5:00 AM, which is about an hour later than a lot of training days, feeling great. Had my bowl of Raisin Bran and a bottle of water, woke up Lynne (my wife) and Emily (our Niece who was spending the weekend with us) and headed out the door by 6:15. A quick stop at Tim Horton's for a coffee for Lynne and a healthy chocolate donut for me, and we were on our way.

We got to Milton at about 7:15, just in time to grab one of the last parking spots in the first parking lot. Unpacked the car and headed over to the transition area to rack the bike and organize all my clothes. Lynne and Emily headed over to a spot near the water where they laid out a blanket, and quickly fell back asleep!

I wandered a bit, made a pit stop at the washroom and slowly met up with all of the gang that I train with now, or trained with at NTT last year, or watched doing Ironman Wisconsin last fall. I love being part of this great group or supportive fun athletes.

The coach told me to do a 15 minute warm up on the bike, but I knew I'd loose my spot on the rack if I moved my bike, so I did a 15 minute warm up running instead. I got into my wetsuit and into the water for a warm up at about 9:15. I swam out to the far tetrahedron, and back for my warm up. It was wonderful for me to look at the swim course and feel like that's a nice looking distance, instead of the "Oh my God, I can't do this distance" feeling I had at every race last year!

I hung with the gang at waters edge for the starting gun. I was sorry Vicki was doing the Du along with Frank instead of being out here with us. Vicki's been my training partner all year, but she didn't really want to do the race this year.

The gun went for our wave (the 6th and last) and we were off. I've always started at the back and way off to the outside or the pack. This time, as per the coaches instructions, I was about 2/3 of the way to the outside, but in about the middle of the pack. I got bumped, kicked a little bit, but I felt great and just thought about making nice long comfortable strokes. I eyed the marker about every two dozens strokes or so. Every time I looked around and saw I was keeping to the middle of the pack I felt great. For once I wasn't looking around in the hope that at least one person was behind me!

We got bunched up at the first buoy. I saw Steve beside me and hollered out a quick "Way to go" to him. This was Steve's first Tri. I got stuck between a couple of guys on the outside leg of the swim. I couldn't pass, and I'm not sure which of us were swimming at odd angels but we kept bumping, kicking and scratching each other along the way. I felt like I was in pretty good shape coming into the last leg towards the beach. I kept to my even pace, but it felt like most of the others wee now sprinting. Lynne and Emily were at waters edge cheering like mad as I came out of the water. They'd dropped by flip flops there for me which was great. My bike was racked a long way from the water and the gravel on the pavement was very sharp. (Nothing like trying to be a great tri athlete, but with tender feet!)

I wasn't as organized as I could have been in the transition area. Id' out my socks with my running shoes, my sunglasses were not where I thought I'd left them, but all in all, I only wasted about an extra minute. I ran off towards the start line and made a bad mistake. Instead of stopping and clipping my foot into the pedal, I thought I'd just stand on the pedal and swim my leg over. I guess I thought I could get some speed up and then clip in. As soon as I swept my leg over, my left leg slipped off the pedal. I almost killed "The Boys" on the crossbar! I eventually gained control again. I didn't fall, and I was off.

Lynne and Emily were about 100 meters down from the line, again cheering like mad for me. It's so great seeing them! I took off quickly, but not racing too much on my way to the BFH (Big Friggin' Hill) about 5k from the start line. I'd biked up the hill a couple of weeks earlier for practice. I didn't want to be tired at all when I got to it. 1500 meters of hill and steep! Just what you don't really want to be looking at early on. Actually, I can't think of any time I want to see that ahead of me! I ground my way up, occasionally looking to see I was speeding away at 8 kph! A few people were walking it. I took some sort of pleasure in knowing that I could bike it, and eventually got to the top. I saw four or five people changing tires. I passed about as many people as passed me on the bike. At one point I was chasing down a couple of folks. I get great pleasure out of catching anyone. I looked at the age markings written on their legs to see the first guy was 66 and the next was 75. So much for feeling like the "hunt them down, super duper tri athlete!"

Heading down the BFH is a totally different story. It looks much steeper and longer going down than it did grinding up. I'd hit 69.4KPH on my training run going gown, but this time there was a fellow just in front of me who was moving from side to side instead of just going straight down. I didn't want to take a chance of hitting him. I had to touch the break twice so my quick time was 67.5KPH. Not as quick as I wanted, but still amazingly invigorating!

Just as I was about to turn into the park again, Vicki went past me. I called out, and caught up to say Hi. The shoot coming off the main road into the park entrance was narrow. Vicki went ahead and we pretty much rode together for the last kilometer into the park and into the transition area together.

Again I spend a few seconds longer than I had to in transition. I took off my bike shirt and swapped it out for my "Running Free" singlett. The weather was extremely humid. I was glad that I'd put on that 'weight nothing, loose fitting' shirt moments after I started the run.

Vicki was heading out at the same time as I. We talked as we walked up that first hill. There was no way that either of us were blowing a gasket trying to run up a hill at that point. I was hopping that we'd run together, but I could see Vicki was not up to her usual speed, and I decided to keep going at whatever speed I could. I was hoping that I could keep a 6 minute pace and finish he 7.5k in 45 minutes.

The course was hard for me. I was feeling a bit tired. I kept looking ahead, and I could see a line of folks running back on one side of the road and our line head out on the other. I kept thinking that the corner ahead was the turn around. Common sense, and my Garmin, told me I was no where near, but every time I hit a corner, and then saw that we had another friggin' hill to go up, I cursed quietly under my breath and headed off again up the hill.

Simon was the first person I ran into. Again I thought the next corner was the turn around and I was amazed to think he was only this short distance ahead. Again the "turn around' turned out to be a corner, and eventually I saw almost everyone that I knew, coming towards me on the other side of the road. I love the feeling of hollering out to one of the gang, getting a big "Good Going" or "Keep going" or a high 5 on the way past. Eventually I got to the finish line. I was 33 seconds longer for the run than I'd hoped to be, but I was happy as hell to be that close.

Most of the gang were in the transition area when I came in. The fact that they'd been in long enough to go for a swim, dry off, gather their stuff before I got in was . . . . OK. At least they weren't all packing tier cars up already!

I met Vicki as she was packing up here bike. She wasn't happy with her run time. Frank wasn't happy with his run time, but I think we were all happy to have done it. I love training with the two of them. I added a lot to my day to be with them both in that cool racing environment.

My final time was 2:08. I was expecting to be 2:20 - 2:30, so again, another happy ending to a race. I looked at my times from the race last year and compared my pace times for each leg. I'm seeing some big differences which is encouraging.

Official Time Click Here

Now that was a fun race!
Mike and Allan met me at the house so that we went over to the start line together at 8:30. The weather was about 2 degrees, the sky's were overcast and it was a bit windy.

We'd picked up our race kits on Friday night and I picked up our chips at 7:15 this morning. Mike and I were trying to figure out is we would run with jackets or not. We ended up running without. I was fine except I wish I had dropped the extra pair of jogging pants and run with just my tights. My legs felt heavy and burdened with the pants flapping around.

We did a slow warm up run around the block at about 8:45, and another faster paced one at 9:00. We were back to the start line to see the 1/2 marathon start. We left 10 minutes later. Adam was a little way down from the start.

We took off a bit too quickly. I wasn't sure about the speed for a bit. I'd biked the 100k the day before, but had done a good warm up. It wasn't long before Mike took the lead and I slowed down a bit. I got nervous when I saw a change in the route, but it was only a minor one that turned ut to be no big deal.

About the 1/3 mark I caught Mike. I ran with him for a bit, but thought I had a bit more energy so I pulled slowly away. Christine was at the turn around point. I gave her a quick hug on the way past and saw that Allan was just a few short steps behind me, and Mike was back a tiny bit from there.

I tried to keep speeding up my pace a bit all along the last half of the run. I was beside someone who pointed out the 4k mark. It was the first one I'd seen. I started to push more from that point, but really didn't have that much more to push with. Adam was at about the 4.5 k mark. I think he was telling me to pick up my cadence. I tried, I'm not sure how much I succeeded, but I tried. I realized that I wasn't going to break the 25 minute mark, but thought it would be close to come in under the 26 minute mark. I'd run 28:07 last year.

I pushed for all I was worth. My breathing was shot, my chest was pounding as I ran along the top of the park. I pushed for all I was worth running toward the finish line. My watch shows 26:06. Allan was about a minute or two behind me, and Mike another minute or two also. I guess we'll see the official times tomorrow.

Sharon was cheering at the finish line and Daniela was there with a camera!

The girls both chickened out on running the race. Both Daniela and Hilda said they were going to run. Mike and Allan carried their timing chips anyway. It would be hysterical if they both started and finished with the leg that held the girls chips. If they did, the girls would have better times, without ever breaking into a sweat!

The big greasy breakfast at Jonathan's was great

Around the Bay - 30K Race - 3:01:51
What an AMAZING day and race this turned out to be.

I picked up Vicki and Mike so that we could all drive down to Hamilton together. For some reason I missed the turnoff to Mikes house and then ended up driving all over Newmarket trying to find him again. A bit anxious I guess.

I'd stayed in bed all day Saturday after spinning so that I could try to get rid of this darned cold I've picked up. I normally would have filled up the gas tank the day before heading out, but I had to fill up with everyone in the car. Not a great organized way to start the day. The weather was foggy and cold. Several times along the way I felt like I'd gotten lost in the fog. By the time we got to Hamilton, and found a place to park that didn't have a 'around the block' lineup of folks trying to pay, I was stressed even more.

We checked our bags with the Girl Guides and wandered out to the start line about 10 minutes before the race start. I was cold. I didn't have on as many layers as I usually do, but the weather forecast said it was going to be warm and sunny. We haven't' seen that sort of weather for months to run in, so, I had a hard time deciding what to wear.

The gun went. We stood there amongst 5000 other folks about 3/4 of a block away from the start line. It took us a full 4 minutes to make our way across it.

The three of us stuck together, keeping our heart rates low (as per Adam, THE coach!) for about the first 6-7 K. We started to separate a bit around that point. I'd pushed a bit to pass some folks three or four times. I turned to see where Vicki and Mike were, but I couldn't see them. I selfishly didn't want to stop completely, so I kept going.

I got to the 10k mark, 1/3 of the way in 1:01. That's a bit fast for me, but I felt good. I was thinking about the Peterborough 1/2 a few short weeks back where I did about the same pace, but blew an ankle at the same time.

I was feeling great. We turned north along the edge of Lake Ontario, and I just kept slowly passing as many folks as I could. It was a bit frustrating when the relay folks started off to be passed by these folks who had just started to run, but I took some sort of sick glee in thinking that, "They may be quick, but they are only running short distances." I've taken, and still do take great pleasure in looking at all my training folks times, most of whom run like rabbits, and telling myself I'm doing my personal best and no one else matters, so my thoughts about these other folks are a bit of a twisted double standard. I'm OK with that though. Whatever keeps me going down the road is OK in my mind!

Around the 18K mark, someone pulled up beside me and asked if I was Greg. My first thought was "What, is my ass that weird?", but maybe it's the hair! It turned out to be Valerie, who turned out to my my "Pace Bunny Angel"

I'd met Valerie at the fund raiser a few weeks earlier at Timberlanes, and I'd picked up race kits for a number of folks, many of who I didn't know, and it turned out I'd picked up hers too.

We ran together and chatted about running. When we got to the first water station, Valerie stopped and I kept going. When she caught up to me in a a couple of short minutes, I realized she could run a lot faster than I could. She said to that if She was holding me back to feel free to take off. I laughed. I was pushing really hard just to keep the pace I was at.

We got to THE HILL. The hill is .5K long and very steep. Everyone told me to walk up the hill. I'd just get my heart rate going too high if I tried to run it. Valerie was running, so I tried also. Running quickly turned into speed walking. We turned the first bend. My heart rate was supposed to be in the low to mid 4's, was 5.6! I couldn't keep up, so I yelled "See you later" expecting her to keep going. She stopped. Explained that she didn't care about the time. She'd run the race several times before, and really just wanted to finish feeling strong, so she'd walk with me. That helped keep me walking faster than had I been by myself!

We go to the top, had a big drink of water and started to run the final 3.5K. I looked at my Garmin and saw that, if we (well, me really) could do the next 3.5 in 18 minutes, we'd crack the 3 hour mark. When I started out, I'd expected to do 3:30, but was hoping to crack 3:15.

Valerie told me to go ahead and set the pace. I couldn't really go much faster. I was tired. I hurt just about everywhere. So we carried on, just a tiny bit faster than we had been doing. I noticed several times that Valerie picked up the pace, just a bit, but I think she did that a half dozen times along the way.

We were beside Copps Coliseum, with the finish line being inside as 3:00:12 passed by. Down the ramp. Around the corner and into the stadium. The place was full. The loudspeaker calling out names. Pictures on the big screen. It was AMAZING. Valerie was ahead of me, but I took off for the last 100 yards with everything I had. I grabbed her by the elbow when I caught up. I think we finished neck and neck!

What an amazing feeling. I'd finished. I'd never run 30K even in training before, and sure as hell never with a pace of 6:02 per K for anywhere near that distance ether. I'm sure if it wasn't for Valerie, I would have been another 5 - 10 minutes longer. It would have been so easy to just drop the pace for those last few k.

We split up inside. I grabbed the free food. Drank a bottle of water in one long gulp. My body was stiffening with every step I took. I ended up holding myself up on the edge of a garbage can while I eat something. I say Phil and Christine a ways down and made it over to them. I hugged Chris, who ran the best time she ever did, (unfortunately, as someone else!) and just hung on for dear life. I could have just fallen to the floor.

We talked for a minute and then I left to got find Vicki and Mike. I worked my way into the stands which was no easy feat. In places I had to step up a 6" step, and almost couldn't! Vicki and I found each other almost immediately. We waited for Mike, but were freezing standing by the ice. We decided to work our way up to our bags so that we could get dry, warm clothes. Mike called us just as we got there.

Dry clothes, a walk to the car, a ride home, and the day was over! We all talked about what a blast that was. We all did better than we'd possible imagined. Vicki knocked 20 minute off her best time. Mike finished earlier that he thought, and (again) he trained probably only half as much as he should have.

These green shirts sure turned from being the ugliest things I'd ever seen to being absolutely beautiful in 3 hours.

Amazing, simply amazing!
Here's a link to the Motion Based GPS data view of the run.

My training plan called for a 3 hour run. The plan with the race was that I run for a bit before the race to get warmed up, run the race and then continue on for whatever time I still needed to make up after the race to fill in the three hours.

I decided to drive over to the venue and do the warm up run. I figured if I did an easy 30 minutes, I'd see exactly how the ankle was. I figured if it hurt, I'd just not do the race. I take my shirt and go home.

I did that run up and down some nearby streets running from the YMCA. The new Y in town was the meeting spot and was only a couple of block from the starting line. I felt fine. If I thought about my sore ankle, I could feel where it was sore. But if I wasn't thinking about it, it didn't bother me at all.

I decided I would run the race. I figured I would lay back and take it easy. Maybe I'd stay a bit behind the 2:15 race bunny guy.

The race started and we walked, then slowly jogged to get past the starting line. The group at the back were really moving slowly so I passed a bunch of them, I passed the 2:15 guy in a couple of minutes and in no time was about 50 feet behind the 2:00 Pace guy. I felt good running along in that spot until about the 8k mark.

I got to the 10k mark in 1:00:32. I was ecstatic. I've not run a 10k, but I was sure that it would be a real strain for me to get under the 1 hour mark if I did. I started to think about all that cold winter outdoor running was paying off!

I dropped back a bit as we closed in on the 1/2 way turn around point. I turned at 1:03:59. The other 1/2 marathon I did was the Toronto Marathon last fall and I'd done that in 2:09:04. I realized I was just a wee bit ahead of my time from that race and felt like I could push just a bit more and maybe break the 2:05 mark!

It was wonderful for me to see how many folks there were behind me. I'm usually just about at the end. I was about 1k past the turn around when the 2:15 guy passed me, going the other way!

I looked at a couple of ladies walking in front of me. I felt good running past them and was pretty happy at how food I felt. I was starting to get tired, but I felt like I would keep up my pace to the end. Just as I passed them, they started running again and shot past me. I figured God was getting back at me for taking so much pleasure in passing them a few seconds earlier!

A couple of minutes later, they stopped and walked again. Again I passed and again they took off and passed me a second time. The third time this happened I told them they were mean tricking me like this time after time. We talked and laughed a bit. I needed to walk for a minute while I got a gel and drank some water. I never did catch them again!

About the 15 - 16k mark my ankle started to really hurt again. I could tell I was running with a bit of a limp. I slowed down some, happily because I was getting pretty tired at this point. The wind picked up as I turned a corner at the 17k mark. That was a really cold breeze blowing straight into my face for the next kilometer of so. I'd run out of water, and the water at the aid stations was way too cold, so I ran with a dry mouth for the rest of the race.

When I turned the last corner I could see the finish line about 3/4 of a kilometer away. I pushed with what I had left. I passed a fellow that I was playing catch up with for the last 10 minutes or so. Several guys turned it on and passed me within the last couple of blocks. There was a convenience store in the last block. It crossed my mind for a second of dropping in for a Coke, but I kept pushing to the end and finished in 2:12:43.

I headed back over to the YMCA. I talked to the fellow that I'd passed on the way back. Inside the "Y" I tried to stretch a bit. The best I could do was slide down a wall and sit with my legs straight out in front of me for a couple of minutes. It was tough to get myself back up on my feet. I walked back out to the car and headed home. I learned quickly that I should have taken the extra time to change into warm dry clothes. It didn't seem to matter how hot I turned up the heat in the car, I just couldn't get warm.

That HOT bath within 2 minutes of getting back home felt great!

Mike Del Guidice (my running buddy from the office) and I did this race together. Mike and I did a number of training runs from the office at lunch over a couple of months prior to the race.

I picked up Mike at 6:30AM. We were down to Mel Lastman's Square by 7:00. The race didn't start until 8:30, but I wanted to get a spot close by to park the car so that we'd have somewhere warm nearby and we'd have a place to drop off extra clothing just prior to the start.

The weather was clear, dark and cold, about 2 degrees. The wind and rain
from the last few days had disappeared. (Thank God!)
We did a quick walk around the perimeter of the square. It was still pretty quiet. I guess we could have shot for being there by 7:30, but I didn't want to chance parking a few blocks away. As we was, we headed back to the car for 20 minutes or so to get warm anyway. We headed for the start line about 8:15.

We ran into Neil and Marg Pengelly, friends of Lynne and I, who were watching Michael, their son, run the full marathon. While I was saying hi to them, Diana, Shannon and Bill caught my eye and said hi. Shannon and Diana are NTT swimming buddies. Bill is Shannon's husband. All three of them had run Wisconsin a few weeks back. Only Bill was running today.
We decided to pick a spot half way back. I didn't want to be in the quick runners way. Unbelievably, I saw Bill Grieves just a couple of feet in front of me. Bill and I talked about running this 1/2 a year ago. I'd thought about him some over the last few days, wondering if he'd stuck to training and if he was going to do this or not. Sure enough, there he was. Pretty amazing to have seen anyone. There were 4200 people running the 1/2.

The gun went and . . . . nothing. We stood there. Looked ahead as best we could and we could see people at the front starting off. It actually took 2 full minutes before we could make it to the line. Our times didn't start until we crossed the line, so it didn't matter, but it sure did feel funny just standing there for so long.

5 minutes before the start I'd wished I'd taken off my extra pair of track pants. I had running tights on, and the extra pair felt a bit heavy and warmer than I really wanted to be. I'd missed the moment when I could have given them to Neil and Marg.

Mike and I stuck together for the first 5k. I heard someone yelling "Go Greg Go". There were Marg and Neil a couple of hundred yards from the start cheering me on. That was cool. Lynne wasn't at this race. It was girls weekend in Picton that weekend for her.

The race runs from the Square, which is just north of Sheppard on Yonge Street under the 401 highway. Under the bridge, lots of folks were yelling and cheering, listening to their echoes. Lots of excitement and extra energy. That disappeared a little bit later when we had to run up the hill on the south side of Hog's Hollow. It was pretty amazing to be on the north side though, looking ahead at the solid sea of runners ahead of us, stretching all the way to the top at the other side of the hill, about 2k in front of us.

Mike and I bobbed a weaved a bit pushing our way up pasted a few of the slower folks. We had our first walking break at the top of the hill. A quick gel and a bit of water and we were off again. I knew I could go a bit faster than mike could. I'd trained a lot more and the time was important to me. I said goodbye and moved on at a slightly quicker pace.

There were a few people at the side of the Yonge as I ran down the middle of the road. It was kind of cool to be running down the middle of this main road that I'd driven along all my life. It was hard to pass folks. Many were running two or three or more side by side. I ended up running at the left side of the road so that if I couldn't get by in the south lanes, I could cross the line to the northbound lane and pass there.

We carried on past Lawrence, Eglington and St. Clair Avenues. Each intersection was a treat. I've sat, frustrated in the car, at one time or another. Now, running down the road while police stopping the traffic while we just all ran down the road was just way too cool!

There was a crowd of folks on both sides of the road around Almer Ave, the 1/2 way point. Watching the people watching and cheering is a nice diversion for me when I'm running. The 1/2 way point seemed to be there earlier than I thought it would. By my watch it was about right, but the couple of times we'd driven the course, it had seemed like it would feel a lot longer.

The run East along Rosedale Valley Road felt long. It was funny to see guys running off the road and into the bushes for a quick pee. It had looked funnier a bit earlier though to see runners standing in lines at the side of the road by the Port a-Potties though!

I took another quick gel and water walk along Bayview. There were a couple of live bands (as opposed to dead bands, which would not have been good) set up along the last 1/3 of the race. It was VERY COOL to be running along in this bit of a daze to hear music and then, a couple of minutes later, to be cheering the band member son while they played, in long warm coats, along the route.

I passed the Running Free tent at the bottom of Bayview at King. I wondered if next year I'd be running in their clothes or not! The turn west along King to Cherry was very cold and windy. I thought of putting my jacket, that I'd tied around my waist earlier, back on. It was a short block and the wind was blocked again when we ran down Cherry Street and onto Lakeshore.

I hit a bit of a wall 1/2 way along Lakeshore on my way to York. I'd had a gel just a few minutes ago, but all of a sudden I was tired. My legs were heavy and my energy was gone. I walked eat and drank again. I realized that I was getting to the last few kilometers of the race and I'd started to think that I might break the 2:10 mark. I was pretty sure I was ahead of the 2:15 pace bunny guys!

Around York and up University. It wasn't long before I could see the Queens Park building. The course took us around Queens Park Circle to Heart House on the west side. I thought about how this slight uphill climb was so hard last year when we'd run the 5k race. This year, this part of the course meant we were almost done. The incline didn't seem so steep this time.
I'd looked down a bit as I was running. It's the wrong thing to do, but I was tired. I looked up again at the Queens Park building. IT WASN'T GETTING ANY CLOSER!! What a huge disappointment that was. I was using the building as my landmark and thought I'd focus my attention to it. I switched that idea quickly to just seeing the first person in front of me, and passing them. I was going through all of those sayings ("Pain is temporary, results are permanent") in my head. I thought about beating the 2:10 mark. I thought about how it will be over in a couple of minutes. I hunted down and passed people relentlessly. Cursing them in my mind as I spotted my next prey!

As I passed College, my ass started to ring! I had my cell phone in my jacket pocket so that Mike and I could find each other after the race. My jacket was wrapped up in a ball in the pocket of my running vest, sitting below my water bottle in the middle of my lower back. There was no way I could reach it. I didn't even try. I knew it was Lynne calling to see how I'd done. It was another nice diversion for me. I laughed thinking "My God women, you could let me finish!" Later I found out that she thought the race had started an hour earlier.

I pushed with everything I had to get around the top of the Circle. As I ran around the top end and started south again I could see the top corner of the finish line banner. I pushed a bit more and ran through a group of 7 people in my way again. The announcer called out my name and time as I was crossing the line. I couldn't really hear the time properly, but the clock showed 2:11. I was so disappointed, but then I remembered that we'd not started for a couple of minutes after the gun had gone off. My official time was 2:09:04!

At the time I finished, there were 75 people a minute crossing the line. There had to be 1000 people stopped ahead of me, getting their timing chips cut off and waiting to get their medals. I moved over to the side of the crowd. I thought I was going to throw up. (I didn't, but I had a couple of moments!) Within a couple of minutes my legs stiffened up so much that I couldn't step down off the curb to the road without a bit of help. It took about 15 or 20 minutes to get through the crowd. I phoned Mike to tell him I wouldn't meet him at the east side and run with him to the finish. I could barely walk.

I found where we could pick up the bags we'd given the race organizers at the beginning of the race. Warm clothes and a protein shake were going to feel great! A girl helped me find my bag. I thanked her for the help, and then had to call her back to pick it up for me. I couldn't even bend over to pick it up!

Mike finished in 2:31. It was an AMAZING time considering how little he'd trained. We met up at the far side of the bag pickup spot. We headed over to find the results and get some food. The lineup was too big to get close enough to see our results. After a couple of Hot Dogs we headed over to the subway to start our trek back home. Neither of us could believe how long it took to subway up to Sheppard to pick up our car. It was even more unbelievable to us that we'd just finished running that far and more!
It took a couple of days before ether of us could walk properly again. A week later though, I've still got my "I did it" smile on.

Click here for Official Results

This raced marked the one year mark of racing for me. This was the first race I'd done last year, and this marked my first opportunity to run a race for the second time.

When I finished Gavin ( my Iron son-in-law) shook my hand and said "Congratulations - looks like training works!"

Last year when I ran this race I'd gone out a bit to fast. I tried to stay with Michelle (my Iron-daughter) right off the line. I (of course) failed miserably at that, and tired myself out early to boot. In hind sight that was fine. These races were all for practice and for education.

I'd ended up last year with a 29:08 time, which I couldn't beat break until this spring.

I was hoping for a less than 27 minute time for this race.

I asked someone about our start and he told me the 10k runners went first and then we went 5 minutes later. I'd done a once around the track warm up and a couple of quick 30 second runs about 10 minutes earlier. I did another couple of hundred yards at a fair clip and went back to talk with Lynne, Michelle, Gavin and Barb. I heard the horn blast and understood that was the beginning of the 10k and figured I had another 5 minutes. Then Gavin or Michelle yelled, "They've all started"

I looked toward the end of the line and saw there were only a dozen or so folks there, slowly jogging their way up to the starting line.

"Holy Crap" - Nice binging" I thought as I took off to catch up.

The race started with a 'once around the track' before heading out through the neighborhood. I ran to catch up as best I could, being conscience of the fact that I didn't want to spend all my energy in the first 1/2 k. I figured I was around the 1/3 to 1/2 way from the front mark when I passed my family again. I could hear someone yell something about how I'd passed a lot of folks. I felt good about that, but was getting worried that I'd run out of steam so I just sort of fell in line with the group at that point.

There was a fellow in front of me running with his young daughter. He was giving her pointers as they were running along. I hung in just behind them until about the 1k mark. I figured I'd listen and see what pointers I could pick up too! The race went out of the farm yard and through the neighborhood. The course took an extra turn that I'd forgotten about, but that was fine. I could remember being at the turn around point last year and feeling like I couldn't make it to the end. I was fine this year. I was tempted to look at my time. I thought I was doing well, but also thought that if I wasn't, I'd be annoyed for the rest of the race, so I didn't look. I grabbed a cup of water and swallowed a gulp. I didn't need it, but I think I need to get used to doing that without feeling like I'm having a heart attack when I swallow.

I passed a few folks along the way. I passed the fellow who told me we had 5 minutes after the 10k folks left. I was too winded to say anything!

I fell in line behind someone at about the 3k mark and stayed within about 6 - 20 feet of her for most of the rest of the way. Up the hill towards the farm again I was feeling winded. I walked for 5 long breaths, but could hear footsteps catching up to me, so I took off again. I caught up to my 'race bunny' (I'm told by my politically correct family and friends that I'm not allowed to say anything about following this cure bum around the course, so I'll just stick with 'race bunny')

Once around the track again and into the shoot to the finish line. I saw everyone cheering as I was coming around to the back side of the shoot. I passed the race bunny. I knew I could keep this pace for a little bit more. I'd glance at my Garmin and say I was running a 4:57 or so pace, which is GREAT for me, particularly at the end of a race. Around the bottom of the track, up to the shoot. My family were all there yelling and cheering. Lynne yelled something like I was going great. About 1/2 way down the chute, the pace bunny just flew past me - smoked me! I turned it on as best I could, but I could only increase my pace just a little bit.

I don't know who Connie MacMullin from Iroquois Falls is. I just know she has a nice bum, and I hate her! She beat me by 1 second!

I finished in 25: 37 which was 3:31 faster than last year. 53/166 overall. 26/77 for men and 2/4 in the 55/60 age group.

Click here for Official Results

Olympic Distance Triathlon day!
It's 3:00 pm now. 12 hours ago, I was laying in bed, cursing my son under my breath for making so much noise that he woke me up. (I'm not positive that it was his fault, but why would I blame myself when there's someone else I can push the blame onto!)

It was raining outside, as it had been all weekend. I was very apprehensive about the race coming up in the morning. The weather report earlier in the week was calling for 16 degrees, 20 kph winds and thunderstorms. I checked again before Lynne and I left the house at 5:30 and it was calling for 17 degrees, 10 kph winds and the rain was to stop and 8:00 am and start again at 1:00 pm. (The Gods were looking after us - it turned out to be true!)

It was pretty cool to see a half dozen or so guys from our swim club getting ready to do this race as well. Nice to have familiar faces, "Buddies in Spandex" all routing each other on, and meaning it!

I did a couple of 10 minute warm up swims. I felt pretty relaxed. The water was a lot warmer than the air. There were two starts, 10 minutes apart. I was (as always) in the last (Old Guy) start.

I don't know what happened between warming up and actually starting the race, but about 150 yards into the race, I got panicky. For the next 200 - 300 meters, I just knew I couldn't make it. I wasn't able to swim in a straight line, and it seemed like no matter how hard I tried, or how relaxed I tried to make myself, it wasn't working. I was way out of breath, and the next marker still looked like it wasn't getting any closer. I looked back and there were only 3-4 people behind me. I had no choice e but to flip over on my back and just relax and get my breath.

Off I went again, and it seemed better. I still couldn't swim a straight line, but at least I was able to swim forward and slowly catch some people. By the time I made it to the first turn, about 600 - 700 meters, I was feeling fairly comfortable. I think I caught about 8 folks from that point until the end. I threw up a bit on the last leg, I'm not sure why. It struck me as odd, and I just carried on. I'm going to have to find out about why that happens. I almost did it again on the run later on.

The end of the swim was amazing. I'd notice how few people there were left on the beach as I was getting closer. I'm pathetically slow at all of this stuff, I'm used to not many folks being around when I finish anything. As I stood up and started to attempt to run towards the shore, I saw Lynne taking pictures. As I hit the beach and pushed the water out of my ear so that I could hear, I realized that there was a group of folks cheering me on. I didn't get it at first, but there were four more of the gang from our swim club who came down to watch the race, screaming for me to "go go go" and congratulating me on the swim. What a group. They're all off to Ironman Wisconsin next weekend. I'd love to go to cheer them on too. Thanks Henri, George, Bernadette and Sid. I loved the fact you guys were there cheering me on.

I thought the swim, 1.5 km, would take me 45 minutes. I finished in 40:48, a 2:44 / 100 meter pace. My transition time was 3:30.

I put on an extra long sleeve cool-max shirt when I went out for the bike ride. It was still cold and my clothes were soaking. (We wear our clothes under our wetsuits to save transition time. Nice to not have to get dressed, but extra cold until those clothes dry out!) The road was wet and my back wheel almost slipped out when I hit the brakes to slow down for a speed bump going out of the park. Someone passed me right away.

I watched her slowly pull ahead. I thought to myself that, I'd catch her when I got my "biking legs" warmed up. It wasn't to be so. I watched her slowly pull away and eventually, out of sight. For about 10 km of the race, I couldn't see anyone ahead. For a while I wondered what would happen if I missed a turn. Would I ride forever and eventually hit Mississauga?

Eventually, I saw some people ahead. I was able eventually to catch a couple. I kept looking at me heart rate zone and think that Adam is going to yell at me for going a bit harder than I was supposed to, but I had to catch up and pass someone!

In the last 3 - 4 km, I passed 4 people. It felt great. I was worried though that I'd have not legs left for the run.

I thought the bike was going to take me at least an hour and 45 minutes. I ended up doing the 42 km in 1:39:37, an average speed of 26.2 kph.

I came into the transition area again being greeted again by Lynne taking pictures and also, loudly and enthusiastically by Henri, Bernadette, George and Sid again. What a gang! What a great boost that gave me!

My transition time was 2:29 as I headed out for the 10k run. Folks passed me quickly in the first kilometer. The run was though the park. The sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds a bit. There were folks in tents and campers along the way, sitting out on lawn chairs cheering everyone on. There seemed to be water stations every 2 - 3k also.

I asked a number of the folks in lawn chairs if they'd like me to sit there for a bit and they could run a few kilometers for me. I asked a number of the folks at the water / Gatorade stations if they'd like to switch places. No takers!

I asked to Rum and Coke, Margaritas and Martinis, at the stations too. Nope, but water and Gatorade! All of these interactions made the race fun, and the time seem to go somewhat quickly too. To say the run was hilly just doesn't seem to tell the story right. It felt like it was all up hill, with a couple of level spots for the longest time.

I felt like I had no chance to catch up to anyone. I was going to be happy with just finishing, in whatever time it took.

At the 1/2 way, turn around point, I was happy to see there were a couple of people behind me. Three to be exact! One passed my almost right away. oh well, I thought, as long as I'm not dead last.

As I ran on, pushing as best I could for the last 5k, I took great pleasure in seeing a couple of other folks even further behind. It's some kind of sadistic pleasure I think. It's not nice, but it sure does make me happy to see that they're be a few minutes between my finish and the last persons time.

As I got closer to the end, I could hear noises around the finish line. I could hear the announcer, I could hear music. It gave me a little boost to go a bit faster for the last little bit.

I don't know who came up with the course, but they are mean folks! The course went past the finish line, close enough to see everyone, and off into the woods again. Not only that, but it went up another friggin' hill!

I'd made it past one girl on the run, and there was a guy about 250 meters ahead of me as I go to the 9k marker. I had to walk up to the turn around, but he was spent so there was about 100 meters distance at that point. Now we're running downhill. I pushed for all I could and finally passed him just a few feet before entering the finish line shoot.

I'd figured I'd be really lucky if I could bang off the 10km run in 1:15. I can't believe I did it in 1:06:47.

I ended the race in 203rd place out of 212 finishers. 3 more folks didn't finish. Total time 3:33:09. I'd figured my best time might have been 3:35 but probably closer to 4:00.

My legs are killing me. I'm almost the slowest person on the course, but I'm unbelievably happy to finish off my first tri season going from a try-a-tri to an Olympic distance with 2 sprints in the middle and finishing them all. The time in this race tells me that I WILL finish Lake Placid Ironman next year. This is the first time that I've finished a race and known that I can do it

Official Time - Click here

1k Swim / 33k Bike / 7k Run

I know I did it. I've got the results and everything. Apparently, I just never wrote about it!

Official Time - Click here

Photos - Click here

What a day! I can't remember ever being so happy about coming in last place in my life. OK 365 out of 391, but 6 out of 6 in my age group.

What is so great is the time. This race was double the Try-A-Try that I did in Milton. That race took me an hour (25 seconds short of) so I figured this race would take me double the time, plus a bit because I didn't think I could keep up the pace for the extra time. I'm not sure why, but I ended up with 1:41:18 as my total time. I even managed to cone 5/6 in the swim!

Lynne and I left Aurora at 5:30, headed to Tim's for a bagel for me and a coffee for Lynne. We sort of bickered in the car. I'm always a bit uptight on my way to the race. This was the first race though that I'd slept through the night without waking up nervously a number of times.

We got to Peterborough about 7:00. I took my stuff and got set up while Lynne went and picked up Mom. I got in a 5 -10 minute practice run while they were on their way. I met my swimming buddy Vicki when she got to the park. I showed Mom and Lynne around a bit and then got my wet suit on for some practice swimming before the race. It felt good. I was calmer than I ever was before. I got in a number of practice swims prior to the start.

My age group was in last wave. I started at the back, but on the inside. I walked a long way out, found a space for myself and stayed as best I could to the edge of the line all the way around. I flipped over 3-4 times near the end. Now I'm not sure that I really needed to, but I felt like I did at the time.

I took my time walking from the swim to T1, but got changed pretty quickly (2:23) and out for the bike. I kept looking at my GPS during the bike and kept thinking "Adam's going to give me hell for this". My heart rate was high, and my cadence was low, but all in all, I kicked ass on the bike course. I did the 20k in 45:23. I was thinking, on the way in that I should maybe conserve a bit more energy for the run, but it felt so good catching the odd person that I could on the course. It's just sooo satisfying passing someone younger!

I got through T2 in 1:49 and out for the run. I had that crazy"God traded my legs with someone else and these don't work" feeling for a bit, but I trudged along. I walked quickly a fair bit at the start, and then again a bit at the 1/2 way mark. A couple of people had water sprinklers out spraying folks as they passed. I took full advantage of those, The felt extremely refreshing! Amazing how being cooled down allowed me to turn it on again for a bit.

I had a gel before starting to practice swim, another in T1 and one 1/2 way though the bike and at the beginning of the run. I killed 3/4 of a big bottle of Gatorade on the bike, but just a couple of sips of water on the run. I've got to figure out how to hydrate during a run properly. I think that my help.

It was cool having Mom at the finished line as well as Lynne. Great to get to Moms 20 minutes after the race for a shower too!

Click here for Official Times

6:00 PM - 3 weeks after my Du, and it's a totally different story. I had a GREAT time! I came in under the 1 hour that I thought it would take me. . . . . OK, I'm only under by 25 seconds (59:53) but it's under!

Lynne and I headed out at 6:00 AM to Milton. We arrived at about 7:10 after a couple of coffee and bagel stops along the way. We called Michelle and Gavin to find out that they were coming, but they were a little . . . 'under the weather' from a wedding they were at the night before and would not be racing. They did come to cheer me on and give me some GREAT advice and tips at the end.

Most of the gang from my swim club were there. I really have to put some effort into figuring out everyone's name. All but Karen were doing the Sprint.

They all gathered at the beginning at the start line to cheer, and then they moved over to near the finish line to cheer again. I guess that's what being part of the team is all about. Supporting your pals. I loved it. It was pretty special to me that these athletes who have watched me holding on to a ladder and bobbing up and down learning to breath in the water a few months ago took the time to see me off and give me that extra push when I needed it!

I did my warm ups. I ran for about 5 minutes, biked for about 10 and swam for about 5. I lost my bike rack spot when I was warming up on my bike. I could have run a little bit more and the swim . . . . . Lots to change there!

The swim was incredible. The water was comfortable, although it was green and dirty and the bottom, when I could touch it was rough and rocky. It felt cold on my feet and face when I got in, but the wet suit is great. I never got that rush of cold water that a diving suit always lets in.

I started back, but sort of in the middle of the width of everyone. I was back from the guy in front of me, but not quite enough. The gang from the club apparently were telling me to move back, but I didn't catch it. There was no one behind me, so I just had to look out for the guys feet in front of me. I had to stop to let him get a head a couple of times. I got almost to the first tetrahedron marker when I realized I was way out of breath. I started to do the breast stroke, but with my head above water. I flipped over on my back for a few seconds and did the back stroke, but I felt like an idiot so I turned over again and switched from breast to crawl. I think I really needed to warm up a lot more for the swim. I think I need a lot more practice in open water also. Lake Wilcox here I come I guess!

I finished the swim and was dead tired. The gang were all yelling for me to run, but I couldn't. I made my way to the transition area and started fighting with my wetsuit to get it off. I need more body glide on my legs I think.

I took a long time in T1. I hadn't laid my stuff out properly. I needed some time to relax. I got all hung up in trying to get my shirt on. (I'm supposed to wear it under the wet suit I learned later). I never got my Garmin on my bike and I couldn't get the wrist Garmin to work properly until almost 1/4 of the way through the bike course. I put my helmet on properly this time, but when I started to put one foot on my bike peddle before making my way to the yellow line, folks went nuts! There was a sea of waving hands and people yelling. I had not even started to swing my leg over so I got the other foot back down on the ground pretty quickly.

The bike felt good. I like biking. I just kept looking at the person in front of me and slowly passing them. I think I passed about 6-8 people. Only 2 passed me, but I caught one of them a little later. I was really aware of the fact that I could have biked faster, but I needed to keep some leg strength for the run.

I think the T2 went pretty well. I still didn't find my glasses and apparently I shouldn't bother with socks, but I got in and out fairly quickly. The run starts with this damn hill. I'd jogged up it a couple of times warming up and there was no way I was running up it this time.

I think I should be able to run a bit quicker than I do. I think I need to talk to Adam about maybe doing some shorter, harder bike runs and then go straight into some distance running right afterwards. I feel like I haven't been running much of late. I'm not sure what my sailing trip (Bermuda to New York, about a week) is going to do to may training. I should be able to get some running and swimming in while I'm in Bermuda, but then I'll be on the ocean for 4-5 days. I think all I'm going to be doing there are pushups!

I ended up coming in 150 out of 176, but for some reason I feel great about it. I figured my non transition time would be 53 minutes and I think that's about what I did. The next swim makes me nervous, but the bike and run after will be OK.

Click here for the official results

It's 7:00 PM Sunday night as I write this. I expect within a couple of days I'll find reason to feel good about the race, but, this race ended up being such a depressing event for me, I can hardly believe it.

The only good thing in my mind at this point is that Michelle and Gavin had come down to run the race with me. I said "Thanks" a bunch", but I don't think they know how much it meant to me. I ran this race because it was both of their first races. The fact that they drove from Ottawa to Waterloo to do my first race with me was GREAT!

There were 6 starts to the race, each 3 minutes apart. I went with the 5th wave 15 minutes after the first start. The winning male had already finished the 4K 3 minutes earlier!

I ran OK for the first 4K. I started a little fast, but not too bad. My best 5k time says that, at the same speed, I'd finish the 4K in about 22:23. I ended up 21:44.

2:28 in the first transition is a bit long, but that was my first shot at it.

I felt good about the bike. I felt strong and never stopped peddling along the way. I expected to average 22.5 KPH, but, even with the 25K wind in our faces for the last 5K I picked up to 23.5 KPH. 1:02:29 was my bike time.

It was depressing coming into T2. So many people had finished. Many had headed out home already. Some guy beside me asked, as I was changing my shoes, how my race went. I told him I was still racing!

The last 4K was a killer. My legs wouldn't move. I walked a bunch of it. I was sure I was in last place, or very close to it. I ended up walk/running that in 25:56.

Overall time for the race was 01:55:49. I had figured it was going to take me around 2 hours. I just didn't realize how poorly that stands against everyone else.

Click here for the official results
Click here for the Motion Based Based results

Lynne and I walked down to the start line at 7:00 AM and picked up the timing chips. Mike made here to the house by 8:40.

We made it to the start line at 8:50, just in time for me to give Christine her Gu.

Our race started at 9:10. I was hoping to beat my best time of 29:08 that I got in the first race in Ottawa last year. I'd run 4 more 5K's after that, and never matched that time. My overall average time was 31:20 - This race . . . . . . 00:28:06!

I screwed something up on the Garmin so my chart etc only shows 4K for the race, and then I never turned it off at the end so it shows time for an hour. I'll fire it up on motion based and see what it shows
Click here for Official Race Results

Lynne came down to cheer me on. I was as prepared as I possibly could have been, other than maybe not training as much as I could, but I haven't missed many runs. I eat pasta like crazy for lunch and dinner on Saturday. I drank water, I eat bananas. I ran a bit to get warmed up and stretched a bit. I was shooting for a 27:30 time, but ended up with another cramp half way through the race and ended at 29:35. The weather was good - It was about 40 degrees, sunny6 and very little wind. I was ahead of schedule by about 170 M at the 1/2 way point. Michelle tells me that I'm starting too quickly. I'm going to start running every two days instead of about every three again, and go back to a bit slower pace and try to work it up again.
Click here for the map and chart.
Click here for Official time.

Our first race - 5k on the outskirts off Ottawa on a cool but sunny fall day.
Michelle, Gavin, Lynne, Jordan and myself all ran. I was setting my goal at 30 minutes. I thought that would be just a bit aggressive for my first race.
Click here for SportStats Results Page.
The official race results are a bit different from my Garmin - I show 5K in 28:58 at a pace of 5:48/km. The difference is because the official time includes the 10 seconds it took me to get to the start line after the race actually started. (Note to self - screw them all, from here on in I'm starting at the front! Click here for map and chart.