Notes
This morning was my first race since my comeback to running. It was quite a steady shower here in Vancouver, not overly hard, but enough to lose your body temperature once the race is over.
I ran in the inaugural Harry's Spring Run-Off in scenic Stanley Park in Vancouver. If you've ever been to Vancouver, you probably visited Stanley Park while you were here. Due to the damage to the park during the winter storms, it didn't go all the way around the seawall, but it was instead 2 shorth 4 km laps around the park. The run is sponsored by Harry Rosen, a fine men's clothing store in Canada. The purpose of the event was to raise money to fight prostate cancer.
The normal race was preceded by the elite racers. The fasted male finished in just under 24 minutes and the fastest female finished in just over 27 minutes. Man, were they ever flying!
Being my first race, I wanted to run at my training pace (5:15 to 5:30 / km) for my regular long runs but I knew that would never happen in the heat of the battle. I started out way too fast! For the first 5 km, every time I looked down at my Polar, my pace was somewhere between 4:30 and 4:45/km! I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain that pace for the entire 8, but I still prodded along full steam ahead, one step at a time.
The first 4 km felt pretty good so I kept going at my current pace at that time. I started the feel it a little bit during the 5th km, but I was determined to maintain my pace until I crossed the finish. By the time I finished the 6th km, I was starting to feel the pain. It wouldn't stop my though, the little voices in my head made me dig deep for every last ounce (or gram for my fellow Canadians) energy I had in my. It was tough though, especially with all the rain going in my face and my soaking wet muddy shoes. I heard (and saw) a float plane taking off and it kind of took my mind off the pain for a little while. Once the plane was in the sky though, the pain had returned. No problem, I could see the final corner in the distance. I don't know what's it's called, but whatever it is, it kicked in at that moment and I was off. After a little while, I realized that I took off a little too soon, but that was fine, I didn't go all out so I was able to maintain that pace the rest of the way, until I was about 100 m from the finish then I really kicked it into high gear right behind the guy in front of me. They couldn't have chosen a worse place for the start/finish. It was on a bit of a hill. It was demoralizing going over it after the first lap but it didn't really slow us down at the end.
I'm going to list my splits below but they are kind of off because instead of manually pressing the lap button I used the auto-lap feature and the distances were a little off. I either need to go out and calibrate my watch/footpod or the race wasn't a certified course. The total distance as determined by my Polar was 8.52 km.
1 - 5:11
2 - 4:37
3 - 4:46
4 - 4:42
5 - 4:45
6 - 4:47
7 - 5:15
8 - 5:11
9 - 2:24 (last .52 km)
The official results aren't out yet, but my total time according to my watch was 41:42 which is a little slower than I was aiming for, but I think it's still pretty decent with this being my first race and all.
I'm grateful to all the volunteers who woke up an hour earlier due to daylight savings time and for standing in the pissing rain to make the event possible and for cheering us on.
Next up: 10 km trail race on March 25, 2007