March through July

Suddenly, it's ENDURrun time! So... I guess a down and dirty quick catch-up post is in order.
I'll just list the races I've run and results/place, etc.

Chilly Half Marathon, March 4, 2018
Finish time: 1:30:58
Place: 47th female

Around the Bay 30K, March 25, 2018
I ran this one as an attempt to run goal marathon pace. It was a windy first half and I was already tired when I hit the hills. I fell off pace a bit, but not too badly.
Finish time: 2:17:00
Place: 31st female

ENDURrace 5K, April 14, 2018 

Cancelled race

ENDURrace 5K + 8K double, April 21, 2018

Since the weather was crazy on the 14th with an ice storm, the 5K was cancelled, but they were lucky enough to be able to reschedule the race to 2 hours before the 8K making a very interesting (and fun!) double race evening. Myself and a couple of teammates took this as a good opportunity to run a long run with the two races as tempos. My plan: run the 5K at 10K pace and the 8K at half marathon pace and get in around 30K for the evening. It went pretty much according to plan and felt good.

5K: 20:36, 5th female
8K: 34:20, 4th female

Mississauga Marathon, May 6, 2018
Here's what I wrote as my Strava description:
3:17:14 
"Fun" with "lovely" blisters. That's not normal for me. Also, recurrence of the vision issues that I haven't had since I got the ol' blood sorted out a couple years ago. I'm happy with the end result, all things considered.

Interesting thing about that marathon. I was so not into it. The week leading up to it, I wasn't excited about it... and training had actually gone well, I just wasn't feeling the race. I don't know why. Even race morning, I just didn't care about it. This was the start of my blah, non-motivated training for the rest of the spring and summer.

Oh, I forgot to mention place. I was 11th female.

Baden 7 Miler - Hill race, May 19, 2018
I had never done this race before, but had been intrigued in the past. The course is an out and back, uphill first half, downhill second half, with the mid-point at the top of a steep climb.

Just about at the turn-around

I finished this one in 49:46, coming in first female. 

Waterloo 10K Classic, June 17, 2018
It was HOT and humid.
This one quickly turned into a half marathon paced run.
Finish time: 43:59
Place: 5th female

Summit700, July 14, 2018
Half marathon on a ski hill. Lots of climbing, lots of single track, lots of fun.
And... 3 falls.
Finish time: 2:38:19
Place: 2nd female

The Start of Spring Racing

So far this spring, I’ve run 2 races: Around the Bay 30K and the 5K race of the ENDURrace series.

March 30th - Around the Bay:

I was strangely nervous before ATB this year. It’s the 4th time I’ve run this race, but this year was different. This year I had a plan for my race and this year I had goals for the rest of the season. I started to wonder how things would pan out and if they didn’t go as planned, how that might affect my race season. I was worrying about silly things, even my wardrobe… I kept checking the weather and putting out options to wear… and well.. it ended up being fantastic weather. I wore capris and a thin long sleeve shirt, but my sleeves were shoved up past my elbows pretty quick.

OK.. I didn’t come in here to write about clothes… although I could… nah… I’ll get back to running.

My plan for this race was to run it at my goal marathon pace and finish in a time of two hours and thirty minutes. Here’s how it went:

I was happy that it was a slow start with so many people in this race. It gave a bit of time while it thinned out and I could settle into pace. I hit the first km right around 5 minutes. Perfect. I just needed to maintain a steady pace. I started chatting with a couple of runners near me and they had the same goal of 2:30, so I stuck with them until the first real incline – an overpass. I ran up and over and I guess I pulled ahead a bit because I noticed that I didn’t see them anywhere… and I never saw them again.

A few minutes later, I spotted a couple of familiar runners up ahead (Joanne B and Jack K), so I picked it up slightly to catch up to them. said hi, and then ran with them for a few km until Joanne went ahead.

Jack and I stuck together until just after 21K where I had a bit of a mini-bonk… I got some sugar in me and got back on pace, but I didn’t catch up to Jack. At this point, the hills start. For some reason, I thought there was one more hill than there actually was, so I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the 27K mark and knew there were no more hills in this race. I felt good and I felt strong, a glance at my watch told me I was still on pace, so I was happy. As I crossed the the finish line, I saw the clock at 2:29:24, which meant I would get a silver medal instead of the bronze that I had received in years past. I thanked the volunteer who handed me my medal, walked around the corner and there was Jack!

My chip time was 2:28:18, which was 2 seconds shy of a 14 minute improvement over last year. I had stuck to my plan, it went well, and I had new confidence for the marathon in May.


April 12 – ENDURrace 5K:

After a good race at ATB and after training with Health and Performance for a bit, I had high hopes for this race… perhaps a little too high. I somehow let race excitement get the better of me and lost any ability to run smart. Here’s the race in a nutshell: I started too fast and then pretty much died.

Now for the full version: run like an idiot to the first corner, notice that I’m running the same pace as people who are way faster than me, drop it back slightly, but still keep running too fast to the first km mark where they were calling out the times… I hear a 3… crap. I should not be running under 4 min Ks… 3:54 was my first km… it went downhill from there… not the elevation… just me. I got slower and slower. It did not feel good. I just wanted to stop. I didn’t, of course, but I wanted to.

I finished the 5K in 22:13, which was a PB for me, so I am happy about that, but I’m disappointed in the way I ran. I know better… and had I run like I know I should have, I most likely would have ended up with a faster time. Lesson learned, I guess. Or at least I hope I’ve learned my lesson!


Up next is a double race weekend, a little mini-ENDURrun if you will… well.. not really. Saturday evening is the 8K portion of the ENDURrace and then Sunday morning is the Waterloo Marathon (the half for me). I WILL run smarter this time.

Long Overdue Update

Since I have not written anything about running since early February, I will take this post as update on the races that I’ve completed since then.

Re-Fridgee-Eighter 8 mile - February 12, 2012
I ran the 8 mile distance again this year and finished in 1:06:57, which was improved from my 1:08:44 time in 2011. I finished 3rd in my age group, but since the first place female was from my age group, I ended up with a 2nd place medal!

Around the Bay 30 K – March 25, 2012
I finished the 30K race in 2:42:44 (I ran it in 2:56:02 in 2011). I’m definitely happy with this improvement.

ENDURrace 5K and 8K – April 21 & 28, 2012
On the 5K day, I came very close to my PB in this distance, which I set back in 2007 (only 4 seconds slower). I finished in 23:22, which was a minute and 22 seconds faster than last year, but it was a new course this year.
For the 8K day, I set a PB! I ran the 8K in 38:50. In 2011, my 8K time (different course) was 42:04. My previous PB for the 8K distance was set at the 2011 REMEMBERrun.

Waterloo Marathon – April 29, 2012
The day after running my 8K PB (see above), I decided to run a marathon. I had been training for a marathon with no particular race planned, so it wasn’t that crazy an idea. I signed up 2 days before the race when I saw that the weather was going to be nice and sunny, with a high of 14. I completed the marathon in 4:03:02, which I was perfectly happy with. I had some issues with my right leg in the last 10 or so km, but backed off a bit and finished feeling alright. I decided that finishing injury-free was way more important than finishing with a faster time. I’m definitely happy that I made that choice, because I’ve gotten out for some good training runs this week and also had another race scheduled for today, which brings us to..

The Downtown MudPuppy Chase – May 6, 2012
Today was the 6th annual Downtown MudPuppy Chase, which was also the race that I chose for 2012 for fundraising (I choose one race per year); I was happy to raise $740 for KidsAbility this year.
The 10K race started at 10am this morning and the weather was fantastic! It was already around 16 C at the start and the sun was shining. In past years, this has been a bit of a rainy race, but the sun was not blocked by any clouds the entire time.
I finished with a PB time of 47:57, beating my previous BP of 48:52, which was set at the 2011 MudPuppy! I placed 2nd in my age group and won a nice pair of Saucony compression socks.

Other than these races, I’ve been doing a lot of training with the Runners’ Choice Marathon Group and a lot of running on my own as well.

It’s been a very good race season so far and it should continue to be a great rest of the year! I’m looking forward to the upcoming events and will be sure to update this blog more often. 

ENDURrun

Yesterday, I ran Stage 1 of the 8 day, 7 stage race. I was part of a relay team for Runner’s Choice. Stage 1 was a half marathon on a nice course starting in Conestogo following roads and trails over rolling hills. The weather was good (except for a nasty headwind for a while near the end of the race) and race organization was fantastic. The group of runners are great as well. I find that at so many races people don’t really talk to one another. This race is an exception. There is a group of 50ish runners who are taking part in all 7 stages, completing 160 km over the week. They become a bit of a tight-knit group.
I’m considering doing the whole ENDURrun next year, but we’ll see. I’m going to watch a stage or two more this week and cheer on the runners. I’ve given myself a deadline of the end of January to decide if I’m going to sign up for the Ultimate Challenge.
Click here to see Ryan’s photos from Stage 1.