REVEL Mt. Charleston Race Recap

So the saying about what happen in Vegas....

Late last year I was contemplating what spring race I wanted to do.  The usual standby being either Goodlife or Mississauga, leaning towards Mississauga as I hadn't done that one in a while and I'm still not too convinced that the Goodlife course is or has been properly measured.   While browsing around the Runner's world forums late last year, I got my first hint of this race in Las Vegas as supposedly a fast course. It fit in well with the training schedule and was the week before Goodlife/Mississuga. To summarize the course basically has a 5000 ft (about 1500m) elevation drop from start to finish.

Truth be told I was contemplating making another BQ attempt but was pretty sure I wouldn't be in much better shape at the end of the training cycle as I was last year so ultimately was going to expect the same result of running a BQ time, but probably not making the cutoff.  The way I looked at the 1500m elevation drop basically meant that there would 1500m that I wouldn't have to run as it was essentially given to me free.

The plan was originally to see how I did at Around the Bay and if I couldn't hold a 3:10 marathon pace for the 30k , then I would think about doing Revel Mt. Charleston.  No I didn't quite hold a 3:10 pace (barely) during ATB and it felt a bit harder than I would have liked so I started giving serious thought to the downhill race after ATB.  The problem with that was the race sold out at the end of January. However I continued on with the training targeting Mt. Charleson hoping that I would get in off the wait list. .  On a whim, I also decided to post an ad on Craigslist seeking a bib just before Around the Bay.  The transfer policy for the race is quite generous letting people transfer right up until practically race day.   I figured if someone didn't contact me by the time the taper would start, I would extend my training by one week and do Mississauga.  Luckily a few days before the taper, I was able to secure a bib. As it turns out there were a few people looking to unload their bibs on the race's facebook page the week leading up to the race (as this was after the refund period) so I think if you're quick to act and monitor their facebook page like a hawk, you can probably secure a bib quite easily even if it's sold out.

I decided to travel down on Thursday for the Saturday race.  The weather forecast was looking okay.  Just above freezing at the start (at 7000 feet) and kinda warmish 16-17C at the finish line by the time I was expecting to finish.  This was the best I could hope for because the temperatures in Vegas in the week prior to the marathon had highs in the 30's.  The wind was also co-operating coming from the north west as the race generally run in an north north easternly direction for most of the race and a southernly direction at the end. One thing I hadn't planned on but started to worry me was a collegaue was telling me about the difficult time he had when visiting his brother in Utah and that it took him a week to get acclimated to the thinner air and here I was giving myself one day to adapt. I hoped that the downhill portion would make up for the thinner air and any difficulty I had.

Picked up my bib on Friday at a smallish expo. I did need to buy some gels which I did. I also got to try a neat device called the Rapid Reboot which is compression system. You basically stick some hipwader like air bag things around your legs and it pumps air into the bags which compress your legs.  Felt like a good massage.  Would love to own one but at $1000US for the system, not cheap.

Then decided to drive the course to get an look at the elevation and to see if there were any hills.  The course profile is a bit deceiving since 5000 ft of elevation drop tends to minimize the appearance of any hills. There were a few which I took a mental note of.

Got some take out pasta to eat back at the hotel but had difficulty eating. Forced myself to eat even though I wasn't hungry.

Race started at 6:30 in the morning and buses were leaving the finish line at between 4 and 5am.  This actually was okay for me as I tried to stay on east coast time which means wake-up time was 3:30am or 6:30 east cost time so that wasn't an issue. I stayed on the strip and required about a 20 minute drive  to the bus pickup location which was in NW Vegas.  I was expecting the casino to be empty at 3:30am in the morning, but it was still quite lively.  Got a couple of strange looks dressed up in my oversized throw away clothing strolling through the casino.

Ended up on the first bus to arrive at the start line which meant first dibs at the portapotties.  It also meant an almost 1.5 hour wait until race start.  The start line is actually located at a place with a bunch of little cabins and a chalet that has a restaurant.  Last year, the chalet was closed and people had to wait outside. This year they opened it up so that people could stay warmish which was great as it meant I wouldn't have to wait out in the cold.  There was only a limited capactiy so once it filled up, they prevented people from going in so good to have been one of the first ones there.  Chatted with some people and talked hockey with a couple of people from Boston and Vegas. Kind of odd. I guess the first thing people bring up when they find out you're Canadian is hockey.

So with 30 minutes to go, left the warmth of the chalet and did one last portapotty stop.  Actually had to wait for a bit and didn't get in until with about 10 minutes to go.  Headed to the start line and just barely had enough time to drop off my gear and settle into the start area.

As for the plan, I decided that I was going to run this without a HR monitor nor a pace band.  I thought that 3:15 would be easily doable based on the fact that I did 2:15 (and change) for the 30k distance which predicted a 3:15 marathon, and that anything under that would be due to the downhill portion, alas my 1500m of not having to run.  While I had hoped this might mean 3:10 or better, Anything beyond what I've been able to run these past few years would have been good. 

The race started and I was beside the 3:15 bunny.  The first half mile of this race is actually uphill and is probably the steepest uphill of the race so I decided I would take the first mile easy.  The uphill portion in the first half mile is all but negated by the downhill portion for the remaining .5 miles of the first mile so I wasn't too worried about that.

1 mile: 7:40

Hit the first mile well behind pace, but wasn't too worried since the downhill portion was about to begin.

2 mile: 6:55
3 mile: 7:02

So down the mountain we go picking up speed. Now you really have to appreciate the grade of the course. Mile 2 has about 300 ft of elevation drop and mile 3 has over 200ft.  For comparison, Goodlife Toronto has about 350ft of total elevation drop also over the course of a few miles, but I was about to repeat this elevation drop for over half the course.

4 mile: 7:16

So mile 4 appears to slow down back to my regular marathon pace, cause I think there was a hill on this portion. At this point of a race, you shouldn't be hurting, but my legs were aching a bit and I felt like I was huffing and puffing more than I should.  With the course starting out with an uphill, it's hard to gauge effort and then launching immediately into 7 min/mile pace doesn't leave much time or room to recover.  I had read a lot about trashing one's quads on downhill races so I was trying to mitigate that by running efficienctly, increase cadence, not overstriding and letting gravity pull me down, but that doesn't seem to have worked as I could feel my legs were not fresh.

5 mile: 7:08

As originally laid out mile 5 was supposed to have this little loop that runs into a parking lot, but they had some difficulty with getting a permit so they had to reroute the course by eliminating this loop and then adding an out and back later in the race.  At the time, I thought this would be good because the loop had a bit of a hill to it.


6 mile: 6:57
7 mile: 7:14
8 mile: 6:48
9 mile: 7:08
10 mile: 7:15
11 mile: 7:25
13 mile: 14:47 (Missed 12 mile marker)

So continue down the hill with a couple of fast miles and a couple of slow miles. With no pace band, I had no idea how far ahead of pace I was at.  I knew I was under 3:10 marathon pace, but how much under i wasn't sure.  I was hoping to get an idea at the half mark because that's where the half marathon was supposed to start. However due to the last minute course change and the elimination of the loop in the first half, the half marathon start line did correspond to the half marathon mark of the full.  I passed the 13 mile mark at 1:33:37. add on about 45-60 seconds for the extra 0.1 mile and I was pretty happy about the time.


14 mile: 7:31
15 mile: 7:28
16 mile: 7:30
17 mile: 7:28
18 mile: 7:26
19 mile: 7:22
20 mile: 7:24

After the half marathon, I started to slow down a bit.  I think  this was because of the wind from the north west.   After mile 13, the course heads in a north eastern direction so the wind which had been providing a bit of a tailwind for most of the race became a crosswind.  Still not too much to impede your effort and it was only causing a slight slow down in pace.  It was during this time that I started to think that I was getting dehydrated. As I usually do, I carried a gatorade bottle for the race that I drank from at each mile marker, in addition to drinking at each aid station.  After the half mark, I ran into some bottle issues in that the twisty cap on my gatorade bottle wouldn't twist open.  I ended up having to resort to unscrewing the cap to drink. I was careful not to drink too much before the race which in hindsight was a mistake.  There weren't too many aid stations, only 13 for the full marathon, 6 in the first half and 7 in the back half. I had taken only one cup of fluids at each aid station by this point which was maybe only a quarter to half filled.  Usually by the 30 km mark of a marathon, I will have finished my gatorade bottle.  By the time I had reached 19 miles this time, I still had quite a bit of fluid left in my bottle. My bottle issues and the few aid stations, it was clear that I wasn't drinking enough.  With about an hour to go in the race, I decided to just chug the rest of the bottle and hope to avoid getting even more dehydrated, tossing the bottle just before the 20 mile mark. 


21 mile: 7:33
22 mile: 7:54

Miles 21 and 22 were also a bit slower because I stopped to walk at each aid station to ensure I took in multiple cups of fluids.
 
23 mile 8:16

So mile 23 was where the race kinda fell apart.  Remember that loop that they had taken out earlier on in the race? Well they had to add that distance back in, which they did around the 23 mile mark. the probelm was the back portion of the out and back was directly into a strong wind that had been at my back for most of the race.  It was horrible, probably stronger than the wind that was at Goodlife last year.  Now 8:16 doesn't seem that bad for the mile split but you have to consider that the wind portion comprised only about 150m of mile 23 where I went from running about 7:40 min/mile pace on the out portion to over 9:30 pace on the back portion into the wind. There was still another 500m of this stuff that was going to be in mile 24. Add to this was there was slight incline which slowed me down further.  I made a time check at mile 23 since I didn't have a pace band and I knew that 3.2 miles remaining is a little over 5k.  I passed 23 miles at 2:49:30 and some quick math suggested I had  25 minutes to run 3.2 miles to finish under 3:15 which means I would have to run a little under 8 min/mile and this was still with about 500 m left of running into the headwind with the uphill that I had been struggling with for the past 150m.  And remember this was only to get me to 3:15, which was my BQ time. So I made the decision at this point that though I could possible make a BQ time, getting a time that would make the BQ cutoff which I would think would have had to have been at least 2:30 under was just not going to happen.  I had planned to take a few days in the Grand Canyon and do some hiking and didn't want to beat my legs up anymore then they already were so I walked the rest of the race.

24 mile: 14:14
26 mile:  25:23
26.2 mile: 2:08

I did try to slow jog a couple of times, but shut it down realizing there was no point. I did jog the last 0.2 miles of the race and ended up finishing with a time of 3:31:12.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I went into the race thinking that 3:15 would have been easy and that the downhill would have added to whatever cutoff I needed. I should have drank more at each aid station or at least chugged a bottle of water right before the start.  I definitely felt that I was working harder with the thinner and dryer air.  Maybe I needed more time to acclimatize to the altitude before the race? I can definitely say that it was not as easy as I thought it would be.   Looking at the Strava autosplits which shows Grade Adjusted Pace, it reports paces of 8:30's. It did not feel like I was doing 8:30 min/mile pace.

Polar Race Stats
 

Mile	Split	Time up on 3:15	Time up on 3:10
1	07:39.6	-00:13	-00:24
2	06:54.7	00:19	-00:04
3	07:02.4	00:43	00:09
4	07:16.4	00:53	00:07
5	07:08.2	01:12	00:14
6	06:57.4	01:41	00:32
7	07:13.8	01:53	00:33
8	06:48.3	02:32	01:00
9	07:08.2	02:50	01:07
10	07:14.6	03:02	01:08
11	07:25.6	03:03	00:57
12
13	14:47.3	03:09	00:40
14	07:30.6	03:05	00:25
15	07:27.6	03:04	00:12
16	07:30.3	03:00	-00:03
17	07:27.7	02:59	-00:16
18	07:26.1	02:59	-00:27
19	07:22.0	03:04	-00:34
20	07:24.3	03:06	-00:43
21	07:33.2	03:00	-01:01
22	07:53.5	02:33	-01:39
23	08:16.2	01:43	-02:40
24	14:13.6	-05:04	-09:39
26	25:22.6	-15:34	-20:31
26.2	02:07.8	-16:12	-21:12

.
So judging from the splits, I seemed to be doing all right up until the 22 mile with a 2:33 cutoff bank which then dropped 45 seconds in the next mile due to the wind.

Official Timing Results

On the plus side, the race gives out free hi-res race photos and videos. Mine look terrible.



As for the race, generally well put together. Very efficient, though I would have liked to see a little more fluids in the cup's at each aid station.  Though the downhill is nice, there's no shade at all for practically the whole race so if you have a nice clear sky, the sun is beating down on you as it was on that day. I should have worn sunglasses.  The wind helped cool you down so I never really felt warm, but I was definitely dehydrated after sweating way too much and not getting enough fluids.

Horrible Finish Line pic. Notice the salt stains.

So, I'm not sure where that leaves me for the BQ attempt for this year.  I've been giving some thought to maybe doing Erie again, maybe Hamilton.  This is all complicated by the fact that I got into the Berlin marathon through the lottery, though I'm not sure I want to go this year.  I would have if I had BQ'd at this race, but it's scheduled right between Erie and Hamilton.  Ideally, I would take a shot in Erie which might get me into Boston 2018, and if I don't succeed, I would have about 2 months of preparation to try again in Hamilton with their downhill course for Boston 2019. Doing Berlin in between would complicate that though I suppose I could try again in Berlin but that would be less than a month between Erie and Berlin which would be less than ideal.

So afterwards, spent a couple of nights in the Grand Canyon.  I had tried to do the Vegas/Grand Canyon thing back in 2010 when I did Boston 2 Big Sur, but it was really on a compressed schedule and I didn't really get to spend any quality time in either place, something that I've always regretted. Returned this year and had a much better time, though no hiking as legs were still quite sore from the race, even with the 3 or so miles of walking at the end.

Top of the world.

Goodlife Toronto Marathon Race Report 2016

I ended up doing Goodlife again. Yes, I know I said last year that I wouldn't after the terrible organization, but sometimes the weather throws you a curve which ended up being a forecast of strong winds coming from the northeast.

Forecast on Wednesday before race.

Strong winds from the east favored Goodlife as it's a net west course with only the last 7 km or so running into a headwind. Mississauga on the other hand has about double that running into the wind at the end. I little bit of wind I would have been able to handle, but this was gale force stuff so logic justified Goodlife.

Race morning was pretty much the same as it always was. Woke up at 5am for a 7:30 race start. Downed a bagel with peanut butter with a little bit of gatorade and was out the door by 6:15am on the way to the start line. Took a short detour before parking to figure out if they had correctly placed the 1km marker and yeah they had, so hopefully no F-up like last year. There was little bit of drizzly rain which wasn't too bad and of course the wind, but you could hardly feel it at the start line.  

Goal for this race was to be 3:12:20 which was about 10 seconds faster than last years Boston cutoff which was about 7:20 min/mile or about 4:33 min/km. 

Downed a gel with 30 minutes to start and was going to start warming up with about 15 minutes to go.  Bumped into Kenny who had just done Boston and was ninja running this race to try and re-BQ, which he did.  Goal for warming up was to get the HR to spike to hopefully get it to calm down before the race start, which I was able to get it to do.  

So as the race starts, my goal was to start off at the right pace and to maintain a nice steady cadence and proper breathing to avoid the HR spike. First two km were at exactly 4:33. I was kinda running with the 3:15 pace bunny for a bit at the start, but not for long because the 3:10 bunny and the 3:15 bunny were within 10 seconds of each other for at least the first 10km of the race. I think the 3:15 guy was going out too fast and the 3:10 guy was going out too slow.  I won't go into the km by km split as the tale of the tape is listed below.

Even though I was carrying a pace band, I knew the course profile and the weather were going to wreck havoc with split times so basically my strategy for the race was to be close to where I wanted to be after the Hog's Hollow hill (about 6km in), pick up some time on the downhill portion of the race (12-20km), pick up some additional time heading west (20-35km) with the tailwind and then hang-on for the last 7 km into the easternly headwind. 

Strategy didn't quite play out as planned.  By 10km in, I was only 10 seconds behind where I planned. By the half I was 26 seconds ahead of where I wanted to be (1:35:44). I didn't pick up anytime on the western portion and actually started bleeding back the time. The portion running through downtown wasn't as easy as I thought. Even though the wind was supposed to be at our backs, there was a couple of times there was strong headwinds. Also my HR spiked shortly after the half mark. At least I got through to the half way point without it spiking.  By the time  I hit 26km which was the start of the waterfront portion of the westernly route, I only had 8 seconds banked which I then proceed to give back (and then some) as I was running west.  

Even though there was a tailwind, I started to give back time because of two issues that were beginning to bother me.  Firstly, I could feel the makings of a side stitch starting to form on my right side. I was trying to do the breathing thing where you time your footstrike on the opposite side of the stitch as you exhale, but that was only working a little bit.  The second issue was that I started to feel that I needed to pee.  I had carried a gatorade bottle that I had been drinking from for most of the race, plus a cup of water at each aid station along with three cups of water to down my gel at the race start and then add that it was raining and that I wasn't really sweating because of the cool weather and it all adds up to a bladder filling up.  Now that I think of it, I think the two issues were related. The side stitch could have been caused by the extra weight. While running by the restrooms in Coronation Park, a place that I've stopped at many a time, I started to think how much time would I lose if I stopped. I didn't have nearly the amount of banked time that I would have liked and with the headwind still to come, I wasn't sure if I could afford to stop.  I continued on. Ran through Ontario Place and past the finish line on the way west. This was a route I had run many a time and I started to visualize where I could possibly stop for quick break and not lose too much time.  I thought that Marilyn Bell Park would be a good place, but decided not to when I got there because there were spectators there. I continued on and down the hill near the Legion building and then I see two portapotties up ahead on the trail. Finally! But of course, once I get there, they are both occupied. Damn! I continue on. At this point, I started thinking about just peeing on the run. My shorts were already wet and it was raining so there was going to be a good 10k for any liquid to dilute itself, and I don't think anyone would have noticed but modesty got the better of me and I held it in.  I hit 35 km and I was 50 second behind where I wanted to be.  I was still in BQ range, but only 1:49 under with 7 km of 30km/hr headwinds to come. Not so good. As it would turnout, neither the pee issue or the side stitch would bother me after 35 km, because I now had something else to worry about. The gosh darned F'in wind.

Actual weather measurements. Race was between 7-11am.

So at least the weather forecast was right. I had been mentally psyching myself up for the whole race to conquer this last 7km which I knew was going to be tough. My original pace band goal was out the window. My goal now was to just simply BQ with as much time as I could and to basically just leave it all out on the course. The first two km's of the last seven, I was trying to get a sense for what pace I could sustainably maintain running into the 35km/hr headwind and I figured on 7:40min/mile pace which was 20 seconds slower than my original goal. This was also easy math to do as it meant that if I could maintain that over the last 5km, I would lose about a minute of time. That, I considered acceptable so that's what I tried to maintain. Basically I ran the last 5km as if I was running in a a 5km race. Breathing hard in a panting one-one pattern like in a 5 k race. Trying to run the tangents and basically trying to shut out everything but getting to the finish line. The hill in front of the Legions building didn't even phase me. As I finally approach the finish line and turn south to finally get out of that wind with only about 50m to go, I was pretty much spent. Couldn't even muster up enough energy to sprint these last 15 seconds or so. Crossed the finish line and I was done.


Finish time of 3:14:15.

BQ cushion of 45 seconds.


Timing mat splits are:

2:47 Positive Split which wasn't too bad.
 
Comparing this to last year's race, I ran the first half 48 seconds faster this year, ran the western portion (13.9km) 7 seconds slower this year and ran the last 7.2 km 66 seconds slower this year (and remember that last year also had the extra 20m added on because of the parking lot issue). Overall I was 25 seconds slower this year, despite the fact that last year I had calf, blister and HR issues.

The only accurately placed marker prior to 37km last year was the 27km marker so if I split that up, from the half timing mat to the 27km marker (at Ontario place) which involves running in the downtown core,  I ran that leg 12 seconds slower this year and from 27km mark to the 35km turnaround which is along the waterfront, I ran that 6 seconds faster. 2:47

 Polar Stats and Map

Overall splits are as follows

Km Marker	Split	Pace (min/mi)	Actual Time	Banked Time Relative to 3:12:20
1	04:33	07:19	0:04:33	-00:00
2	04:33	07:19	0:09:06	-00:01
3
4	08:52	07:08	0:17:58	-00:16
5	04:44	07:37	0:22:42	-00:05
6	05:11	08:21	0:27:53	00:32
7	04:01	06:28	0:31:54	-00:00
8
9
10	13:51	07:26	0:45:45	00:10
11	04:35	07:23	0:50:20	00:12
12	04:36	07:24	0:54:56	00:14
13	04:25	07:06	0:59:21	00:06
14	04:19	06:57	1:03:40	-00:08
15	04:29	07:13	1:08:09	-00:13
16	04:40	07:31	1:12:49	-00:06
17	04:31	07:16	1:17:20	-00:09
18	04:18	06:55	1:21:38	-00:24
19
20	09:10	07:23	1:30:48	-00:21
21	04:30	07:15	1:35:18	-00:25
21.1			1:35:44	-00:26
22
23
24	13:57	07:29	1:49:15	-00:08
25
26	09:07	07:20	1:58:22	-00:08
27	04:39	07:29	2:03:01	-00:02
28	04:42	07:34	2:07:43	00:06
29
30	09:16	07:27	2:16:59	00:15
31	04:34	07:21	2:21:33	00:16
32	04:33	07:19	2:26:06	00:15
33	04:38	07:27	2:30:44	00:20
34	04:34	07:21	2:35:18	00:20
35	05:04	08:09	2:40:22	00:51
36	04:44	07:37	2:45:06	01:01
37	04:44	07:37	2:49:50	01:12
38
39	09:16	07:27	2:59:06	01:21
40	04:52	07:50	3:03:58	01:40
41	04:33	07:19	3:08:31	01:39
42.2	05:43	07:40	3:14:14	01:54

I think I was late hitting the lap button for km 6 (which includes part of the hill) and that's why km 7 seems so fast, but I'm not sure.  Wish I had gotten split at the 8km mark.

A couple things about the course. The markers were correctly placed this year (Yeah!!) and the issue I pointed out last year with the parking lot that added about 20m onto the course was also corrected. (Yeah!). The 35km split seemed excessively long.  I measured this in google maps and that split is about 100m longer than 1km. All the other splits around it seemed about right so I'm still thinking something is up with that course. Water stations on the waterfront portion weren't well manned. I can understand that with the miserable weather, volunteers maybe don't want to come out. Those that did come out I give all the credit in the world to so I can't fault them for that. I think not stopping to pee was the right call.  A part of me thinks that if I had unloaded the extra weight, I would have been faster over the western part of the course. I fully expected that portion to be faster than last year, but it wasn't. 

Wore a sleeveless-T, shorts and dollar store gloves which I think was about right given the conditions.  Never really felt cold until after the race was over. .  

Post race was not pleasant. After running in the rain for 3 hours and then having to come to a complete standstill in the chute to get a medal and then having to shiver my way to the other side of the parking lot to pick up my checked gear which was out in the rain for two hours and then having a really small change tent that could not be used because it was packed, it was not a pleasant experience. Also, they had shut down the street car service to the Ex and not told anyone so I ended up having to walk to the streetcar loop across from Coronation Park.

So I got my BQ by 45 seconds. Will that be enough? There are some people in the Runners World Forums who are trying to crunch the numbers to guess at the cutoff and they are predicting a very low cutoff due to the warm weather in Boston this year and the fewer number of people that actually requalified at Boston. So maybe 45 seconds will be enough. I have no desire to make a fall marathon attempt as I don't really want to train hard over the summer. I tried to do just maintenance miles last year, in the hopes that I would be able to qualify just before the window closes, but it wasn't really enough and of course there's also the crapshoot of what the weather is going to be in mid-September. 
 I don't think I want to do marathon training this summer so I'm leaning towards sitting tight and hoping for the best. 

Spring Into Action 10k Race Report

Did a 10k on Sunday to practice marathon pace effort again. I did this last year and found it useful to help remember what marathon pace felt like the week prior to the marathon. Last year, I did the Backs in Motion 10k which ideally I would have liked to do again, but this year, that race is on the same weekend as Goodlife/Mississauga so that obviously wouldn't work.  Last year, the Spring Into Action 10k was on the same weekend as Goodlife, but this year they moved it to being a week early. I guess it all works out in the end.

Like last year, I wanted to do the race on not so fresh legs so I planned to do 6 miles beforehand. I planned to do day of race registration since reading online, it seemed it was actually slower to pick up your stuff if you were pre-registered.  The issue with this is that registration only started at 9am and the race was scheduled for 9:50am, so even if I was the first person registered, I probably wouldn't be able to squeeze in the 6 miles before race start.  I ended up splitting the initial 6 miles into two 5k segments. I did 5k upon arriving, registered and then did another 5k.

The route is the for the most part the same out and back route as the Korean Peace Run 10k which I'd run before.  There was a difference in that the turnaround for this race actually corresponded to the 5k mark whereas the Korean Peace Run makes you run a little further out to a point that has a loop in the path which makes the turnaround a little easier and less jarring, it also makes the route about 300m longer.

The course didn't really have km markers. There was a 1km marker which seemed to be accurately placed, but it was only there because there was also a 2km race so the 1km marker signified the turnaround point.  There was also a marker at the 5km mark to signify the turnaround (obviously). They weren't that many marshals, but the route is fairly simple, so they probably didn't need that many.  There was no one at the 5k mark to tell people to turnaround, but the sign was fairly obvious and they made a specific announcement about the turnaround sign before the race so I doubt there were any issue for that.

As for the actual race, I was hoping to get feedback on HR and marathon pace in a race atmosphere.  Looking through the results last year, it seemed that there were a lot of fast people in the race so I thought there would be a lot of people to run with.  Unfortunately, this was not the case as I basically had to run by myself from the 200m mark on.  Looking back, I think the course last year was very short because some 15 year old kid ran a sub-26min 10k last year(world record!) so apparently there weren't that many fast runners.

As usual, I started the race way too fast.  I hit the first km marker in 4:09 (6:41 min/mile pace) and immediately had to back off on the effort to get back on pace.  My GPS then autosplit at the 1 mile mark at 6:59. Unfortunately, my HR spiked at the 6 min mark so I didn't really get a good gauge on HR vs. pace. I think I'm starting to notice a pattern in that it will spike when I ease off the throttle as I had the same thing happen last year too.  I'm hoping if I can avoid starting out too fast, there won't be a need to ease off the throttle which will give me more of a chance of the HR not spiking.  I didn't hit the lap button at the 5km mark, but the GPS route seems to suggest I turned around at around 22:25. The only other split I have is the last km which I did in 4:25 (7:06 pace).

The GPS autosplits are
1 mile: 6:59
2 mile: 7:17
3 mile:  7:17
4 mile:  7:26
5 mile:  7:13
6 mile:  7:15
0.2 mile  1:15 (7:04 pace)

Polar  Stats and Map Route


As i said, I basically had to run the race by myself. There was one guy who pulled up to me at about the 2km mark, but I noticed that one of his shoelaces was undone and he was breathing pretty hard so I wasn't sure how long he would be around. I passed him on a hill and didn't hear from him again. I ended up catching up to another guy at about the 8km mark, but he started to speed up when he heard me coming. I contemplated racing him over the last 2km, but my goal in this was to maintain marathon pace.  The 4 mile split contained the turnaround so that's why that seems slow, but for the most part, I was aiming for 7:20 pace and was able to hit that okay.   Final finish time was 44:41 (7:11 min/mile pace) with what seems to a be an almost even split.

The results say I finished 4th overall, but I know that there's at least one guy (the 8km guy) who aren't in the results.  I think their times were  listed in the 5k race.  My time was initially in the 5k race results also so I had to get the timer to change that.

Fairly good race. Free BBQ after. I'm not sure if there were awards. I doubt it as the entry fee was cheap at $25.   The race raises money for diabetes research and offer 2k, 5k and 10k races with various team/family entries available.  I would definitely do this again if fit into my schedule. 

Around the Bay Race Report 2016

Well that didn't go according to plan. So after posting how great training was going, I ended up getting food poisoning or something soon after. I was gassy and bloated all day Friday and my abdominals were sore and achy on Saturday. I had tried to do a short recovery run, but called it quits after about 200m. It felt like a side stitch, but at recovery pace. Started to worry how the heck was I going to do 30k on Sunday. I had thoughts about not going, but with the entry paid for and a hotel room already booked and too late to cancel, it was going to seem like a waste. So I made the drive to Hamilton.  At the very least, I figured I'd have to do a long run anyways so I might as well do it in Hamilton.

The weather forecast looked bad, but looking out on the morning of race day, it wasn't so bad. There was no snow, clear skies and it didn't seem too windy judging by the smoke stacks on the tops of buildings. I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to wear shorts or pants. If I were racing, it would have been shorts, but if I was going to treat this as a long run, I wanted to be somewhat comfortable. Still not having recovered from the food poisoning, I was pretty sure this was going to be a long run, so I ended up wearing the pants.

So left the hotel about 20 minutes to race start and jogged to the starting line.  The abs were feeling okay during this short jog so I started to reconsider whether I wanted to  just treat this as a long run. In the end, I decided that I would start with the 2:15 pace bunny and adjust on the run.

I lined up behind the pace bunny and the race starts. For the first little bit, I was running at the right pace. Unfortunately, the old nemesis, the HR spike reared it's head about 4 minutes into the race. I ended up doing 4 miles with the pace bunny, but then decided to shut it down once I got to an aid station where I could try to get the HR to calm down, which it didn't. I then spent the next 3 miles walking and running in the hopes that the HR would reset which it finally did a little after 7 miles.  With the silver medal now out of the equation, I just wanted to put in an honest effort the rest of the way.  Miles 8 to 13 were run at a steady effort at between 7:35 and 8:00 min miles. During mile 14, the HR spiked again which just luckily coincided with another aid station so I took another bathroom break, grabbed some water and started walking. The HR reset pretty quick this time and I was able to run the rest of the race without incident trying to maintain a HR of about 160 which ended up being at about 8 min/mile pace.  Increased the pace for the last km to about 7:15 pace just to get some more HR information.

Finish time of 2:28:13 chip time.  For more detailed tale of the tape, you can get more information from the Polar stats.

Here's the wacky HR. Starts out fine and then about 4 minutes jumps by over 30 beats per minute. Looks to have reset at about the 50 minute mark where it remains steady until the 1:40 mark where it spikes again and then resets pretty quickly after a brief stop and walk where it remains okay for the rest of the race.

I was glad to have worn the pants. There were occasions during the first 4 miles where I felt too warm but this was with a tailwind doing 7:15 pace. Those thoughts quickly went away when we finally hit the wind.

So I guess the silver medal will have to wait for another year. They're bringing the dreaded Valley Inn Road hill back next year so that may not be the best of things for a silver medal attempt, but I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't have been able to hold the required 7:15 pace for the whole way. Occasionally during the race, I got abdominal pains. Not quite as painful as a side stitch, but just enough to bother me and make me think about slowing down.  I've never experienced this gassy and bloated feeling before and am still trying to figure out what caused it. 

Holly Jolly Fun Run 5k Race Report 2015

I decided to do a 5k last weekend. I've tried to go sub-20 in the 5k on numerous occasions, all of which have failed miserably.  At the very least, I was hoping to best my PR which was 20:21 set back in 2008. I haven't been doing much training since the marathon, just doing easy miles.  Two weeks ago, I did a 3 mile LT run around the track at around 6:50 min/pace and that seemed sustainable and then last week I did 5x1k at 4min/km pace to see how the speed might hold up and that went okay so I thought why not?  I was originally planning on doing the Downview 5k which I did last year.  This year they moved it into the airstrip field and the race takes place on the runway so perfectly flat, but that race ended up selling out a week early.  The only other option, so I thought was a 5k in Whitby, 30 minutes away, along their waterfront which is a bit hilly. Then on Friday, I heard on the news about the Santa Claus parade in Toronto which was taking place that Sunday and the Holly Jolly Fun Run. This race takes place along the route right before the parade and while it's advertised as a "Fun Run", it's actually a race that's chip timed on a certified 5k course. Doing a bit more searching around, the course is a definite PR course being net downhill, with the first half being completely flat and the second half having almost a 100 ft elevation drop, with no uphills.  Also since it takes place before the Santa Claus parade, you have lots of kids and their families lining the streets cheering you on providing a big city marathon type atmosphere, but you only have to run 5k!

Online registration had ended, so I headed downtown on Saturday to register.  I was expecting to pay $100 as a last minute entry since that was the last pay tier on the website.  Yikes!. It's not as bad as it sounds since you get a $50 tax receipt for a charitable donation and the race itself would be $50.  When I got down there, I found out it was only $70, still with the $50 tax receipt so the race was only $20. Apparently the $100 also gets you 4 VIP tickets to the parade.  The actual kit consisted of a red toque and red mittens.

 So race was actually at noon which means not having to wake up early. Got down to race site at about 10:45 which was a bit too early. Mulled around for a bit and checked bag at the last second at 11:30. Wore sleevelees T and shorts but it wasn't too cold, about 12C.

Warming up for this was a bit difficult.  While on the side streets where it would have been easy to do strides, I realized the sidewalks were filling up pretty quick with people and that I might have difficulty getting to the startline so I ended up getting onto the course fairly early. I couldn't really do strides on the race course, cause there were little kids crossing back and forth on the street so you really couldn't build up any speed without the risk of running them over, so I ended up just doing some light jogging for about 5-10 minutes and then got into the corrals.

One thing I've learned about 5k's is that I tend to go out too fast.  In fact, I would say most people who do 5k's go out too fast.  I decided I was not going to start anywhere near the front.  They were announcing that people near the startline should be capable of doing a 5k in less than 25 minutes. Okay that's me. Then they announced they had a separate corral for people who would go less than 20 minutes. Okay that could be me, but I wanted no part of that so I started a bit back. Ex-Raptor Dikembe Mutombo was there as part of some promotion and was taking selfies.

That's me in the back.

The way I figured it, if everyone went out too fast, then the people I started wtih would probably be going out at 4min/km pace but would quickly fade, so my plan was to rely on them to make sure I was at the proper pace. 

So the race starts with some confetti cannons and we're off.  I hold back for the first little bit and am slowly passing people so the plan worked. First stretch is a straightaway and I quickly try to settle into a good breathing pattern. Do a quick pace check and it's hovering at around 6:20pace which is exactly what I wanted. My HR monitor strap started to slip down and I had to hike it back up. Was worried that it might come undone. The km markers were marked with people wearing sandwhich boards which when you think about it makes sense since it would be hard to see signs on the sidewalk and having a person wearing it means it's mobile in the case that it needs to move around. 

1km: 3:56

First km is perfectly on pace, continue running a bit and my GPS watch hits the first mile at 6:22 and was feeling quite proud of myself. I kinda thought the crowds would be louder, but I guess the people aren't there to see me runs and that's okay.  I continue running trying to hold a steady pace, constantly checking my watch for lap pace. Pass by the 2km sandwich board person and time checks off at

2km:4:07

So this was a bit slow, even though my watch had said I averaged 6:19 min/mile pace for this. I was still feeling pretty good and not fading as I typically do when I go out too fast. At this point, I had turned south and was running down University where the downhill starts. We go around University circle and then the straight stretch by hospital row with the large buildings. I didn't really rely on GPS pace after the 2nd mile clicked in at 6:14 since I knew the tall buildings were messing with the crappy GPS on my watch.  My goal at this point was to just to gradually catch people. I missed the 3 km marker, but ended up passing the 4km mark at:

4km: 7:56. (3:58 min/km pace)

So crossing the 4km marker, I was still breathing quite hard, but still wasn't experiencing the fade that I normally do. Also my HR hadn't spiked to this point though even if it had, I wouldn't have known since I hid the HR display on my watch.  With just about 4 minutes left of running, was feeling pretty good.  Continue on gradually catching up to and passing some people (and getting passed myself by a few) and head south under the Go train tracks and then turn left with about a 100m to finish in Maple Leaf Square. Could see as I turned the corner, that the clock was well under 20 minutes and knew that the sub-20 was going to be in the bag. Ended up doing the last km in

5km: 3:50

So final chip time of 19:49, gun time of 19:55. Finished 21st overall and 5th in my AG, though there were no prizes so placements don't really matter.  Polar stats and map. HR maxed out at 189 right at the end and there were no sustained HR spikes.  There does appear to have been one at the start, but it looks like it reset pretty quick. It could also just have been my HR strap slipping down and it not getting a good signal. I readjusted just before the 3 minute mark where the signal drops off. 

So yes, I did get my sub 20, but some of that was due to the net downhill course.  I'm still pretty sure, even if the course had been flat, I would have still PR'd. I haven't set a PR in any race distance in more than 6 years so this was a welcome end to the training season. Definitely a fun race and I would definitely do it again!

New Favorite Toque!

Scotiabank Waterfront Half Report 2015

Ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon as the 1:45 pacer again two weekends ago which is the 7th year in a row I've done it.  It's always a fun time and a chance to give back to the running community.  I enjoy doing the pace bunny thing, but a part of me thinks that by doing the pacing gig, I give up a good opportunity to do a race in the fall that is close-by.  I could have signed up do the full marathon which would have given me a month to recover from my mid-September race.  As it is right now, I would have to travel to Niagara Falls or Hamilton in the weeks after Scotiabank to run a full.

I know for a few years, they had backup bunnies for the full at each race time. The backup bunnies would get a free entry to the race, but would only get the pacing gear if the original bunny dropped out and they were called up.  Pacing gear consists of a free pair of shoes, a hat, shorts and the pacing T-shirt.  I'm not sure if they offered the backup positions this year, but it seems that being a backup full marathon pacer might be a good deal if you want to run the full.

In past years, Brooks was the sponsor and they provided the shoes and gear and the distribution to the runners was done very well. It appears this year that the race couldn't find a shoe sponsor who was willing to pay to be the official sponsor.  The race appears to have struck a deal with Asics to provide the official race t-shirts, but there was no other Asics branding anyone else.  I guess no one wanted to pony up the cash.  As a result, the race itself ended up purchasing the gear for the pacers which consisted of Asics shoes and no-name brand shirts and shorts. I'm sure that they were able to get a discount for the shoes.  I don't know if it was a result of the race having to pay for the gear, but the pacing team also appears to have been a tad smaller with 5 fewer than last year.  We didn't actually get the gear until the week before the race and didn't get the shoes until the day of the expo.  The hat was kinda interesting. It wasn't one of those generic running hat, but a limited edition Ciele that retailed for $45.

I headed down to the expo Friday after work to do a one hour PR thing that all the pacers are required to do during race weekend.  It's an opportunity to meet with racers and answer any questions that people might have.  In year's past, we had a spot in the official shoe sponsor retail area, but this year they positioned us at the signing wall where people could sign and send good wishes to others.

Pacer Selfie!

On race morning headed down fairly early.  The race started at 8:45am, but the race was saying that bag check was only open to 8am.  This wasn't quite true as it was open much later.  I think I dropped off my gear at 8:15am. Another pacer from California wanted to take a pacing group shot at 8am, so I ended up doing that but there was only a handful of us who showed up, maybe 8 or so.  Moved into the corrals at 8:30 after downing a gel and drinking about 2/3 a bottle of water.  Wore the Polar M400 on one arm, but still not quite trusting the GPS on it, also wore the Garmin 405 on the other arm which I've used successfully in the past.

I wont go through a km by km breakdown since I've done that last year.

	Cumulative Time		Goal Time	Time Under
Km		Km Spilt
1	0:04:56	04:56	0:04:59	-00:03
2	0:09:53	04:57	0:09:57	-00:04
3	0:14:43	04:50	0:14:56	-00:13
4	0:19:39	04:56	0:19:54	-00:15
5	0:24:32	04:53	0:24:53	-00:21
6	0:29:21	04:49	0:29:51	-00:30
7	0:34:23	05:02	0:34:50	-00:27
8	0:39:23	05:00	0:39:48	-00:25
9	0:44:30	05:07	0:44:47	-00:17
10	0:49:31	05:01	0:49:45	-00:14
11	0:54:26	04:55	0:54:44	-00:18
12	0:59:24	04:58	0:59:42	-00:18
13	1:04:25	05:01	1:04:41	-00:16
14	1:09:21	04:56	1:09:39	-00:18
15	1:14:19	04:58	1:14:38	-00:19
16	1:19:15	04:56	1:19:36	-00:21
17	1:24:12	04:57	1:24:35	-00:23
18	1:29:12	05:00	1:29:34	-00:22
19	1:34:09	04:57	1:34:32	-00:23
20	1:39:10	05:01	1:39:31	-00:21
21.1	1:44:39	05:29	1:44:59	-00:20

A couple of things. Goal pace was about 4:59 min/km and I really had intended on being slow for the first 2 kms and that's what I told people I was going to do since the first two kms are on a bit of an uphill.  It's only about 25m so not a heck of a lot but I should have been slightly slow the first two km even though the actual pace was around where I wanted to be overall.

The third km kinda levels out and this was a little too fast on my part (4:50). I think it's because I was running down the centre of the street running west on Bloor and coming to an aid station, I veered to the north side of the street since everyone was running on the south side and sped up a bit so the running north and then running south again wouldn't lose too much time but it looks like I sped up too much. Plus maintaining the effort level after the uphill portion probably caused me to be a tad quick.

Km 4 through 6 are basically downhill and this is where I picked up a bunch of time which was my intent.  At 6 km, I was 30 seconds ahead of where I needed to be.  Almost half of that was gained in the first 3 km which shouldn't have happened. I'm not sure why km  9 was so slow. It looks to be a fairly flat part of the course.  It could have been a tangent issue as this was on lakeshore with the three lanes of traffic or it could have been my subconscious slowing me down knowing that the 10km timing mat was coming up which I crossed at 49:30 which was 15 seconds ahead of where I wanted to be which I think was okay.  From this point on I think I figured out the pace properly and with no tall buildings around, I could rely on the garmin for accurate pace feed back. From that point on  to 20k, I was hovering between 4:55 and 5:00 min/km.  At 20km I was 21 seconds ahead of where I wanted to be which means I had picked up an extra 6 seconds over 10k which I think was acceptable.

Like last year, my HR monitor strap slipped down and eventually became unhooked again. This happened at the 30 minute mark.  I had actually tightened the strap in the corrals just before race start and it stilled happened.  It never happens during training or during my races.  I think it must have something to do with carrying the sign which requires me to hold my arm up. The jostling and the weird arm position, must cause my chest and ab muscles to flex in a different way that allows the strap to slip down.  I tried to hike it back up, but could only do it on the one side at a time while carrying the sign and that caused it to come undone.  I ended up just carrying the strap the rest of the race.

The last 1.1 km is running up Bay St. which is a slight incline.  At this point, I had 21 s in the bank and was facing a bit of a dilemma.  Sure I could slow down a bit and eat into that 21 seconds and finish closer to my goal, but I still had a bit of a group with me.  This was different then in years past when I would rarely get people that would run with me the whole race.  They would either get dropped or take off in the last few kms. Yes there were those types of people this year, but there was a small group including one girl who literally ran beside me the whole race. She refused to stray more then a few feet. I had noticed she was breathing quite heavily at the start and usually that means they'll drop off, but here she was running beside me during the last km still breathing quite hard.  So these people had earned that extra 21 seconds as a result of my errors and I think it would have been selfish to take that away from them so I maintained the 5 min/km pace going up Bay and did the last 1.1 km in 5:29 which is exactly 4:59 pace. Yeah!    So finished in 1:44:39 which is 21 seconds under my goal, but probably the most satisfying finish as a pacer job as looking through the splits, there were a bunch of people who started with me, crossed the 10k mat with me and then finished just ahead of me.  Yes, I did end up yelling at people to pick it up with 400m to go and off they went. 

I ended up buying the race pics cause I thought there were a couple that might look okay. I've never really had a good one as a pacer.  It's hard to tell with the small thumbnails they give.

Near the finish

Clearly sleeping on the job

A fellow bunny had forwarded me this comment from someone and it's always nice to see that people take notice of good pacing, though my recollection of the start doesn't quite jive with what he said, but hey I'm not going to take issue if he thinks I did a good job.

"I thought I'd chime in with my pacer experience at SWTM Half Marathon. F rancis N g was the 1:45 pacer and his pace was solid. With all the traffic for the first 1.5 km we were a little behind pace, so to make up for the set back he picked it up, slowly and deliberately, and by 3 km we were back on pace and he never wavered. He paced by effort, not by pace so the uphills were a bit slower and the downhills were a bit faster.  I kept him about 10 steps behind me until about the 19 km mark when I picked it up as much as I could.  He brought everyone in at 1:44:39. I will look for a pacer again for my next target Spring race."

Cool!