Around the Bay Race – 30k – Time 3:00:30 Official Time I drove down with my buddy 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.
