– Date – 6/8/08
– Description – 5k Road Race
– Location – Streetsville, Ontario
– Race Name – Bread and Honey Races
– Sport – Road Racing
– Race web site – http://www.breadandhoneyrace.com
The “Village in the City”, Streetsville, was the site of the 30th Annual Bread and Honey road race this past weekend (June 8, 2008). The 2k, 5k and 15k races are hosted by the Credit Valley Marathon Club in conjunction with the village’s popular Bread and Honey Festival and draws a very strong field thanks to the cash prizes offered to the top finishers in the 5k and 15k.
I did not originally plan on running this event back when I was setting up my running schedule with my coach, but one of my training partners recently made mention of his intentions to run the 5k and I thought it would make a nice addition to my calendar. With the venue very close to home, it was a convenient excuse to race on my off weekend from duathlon competition and the festival provided a fun atmosphere for the family after the run.
As I prepared for the Sunday morning event, I gathered all my gear and arranged most of my required equipment by the front door, ready for a quick exit at around 6 am for the 8 am starting time. Everything was in order except for my racing flats that I lazily omitted as I didn’t feel like leaving the comforts of the couch after a long day in the summer heat. I figured I would grab them before I packed up the car in the morning since I had to load up the MyNextRace.com display and they were sitting fairly close to those items in the garage. Although, I didn’t have any problem remembering to grab all the promotional pieces for the MyNextRace set up, I totally forgot to look around the garage for any final items I may need to race and left the shoes behind. Damn!
With Streetsville being approximately 6 kilometres from my house, it was a quiet, short drive to the site which gave me plenty of time to meet the race director and take a look around the venue. She graciously found me a prime location to set up the promotional tent, right beside the start/finish line. I had everything up and ready before the registration call time at 6:45 am so I took the opportunity to change clothes (into my flashy, new MyNextRace cycling jersey to work the booth) and then got myself signed up for the race. At that point they mentioned the total combined event was closing in on 1400 participants and drawing near capacity (mainly due to the school occupancy limitations).
The staging areas within the school provided a spacious gymnasium for the registration and awards and the cafeteria conveniently served as the post race nutrition pick up zone. Thanks to the recent arrival of warm, sunny weather, many people took advantage of the beautiful morning and hovered outside around the starting line. The gathering around the tent was a welcome distraction and kept me from getting too serious about a race that I dropped in right at the tail end of a heavy training week.
With many interested athletes taking the time to drop by the tent, time quickly passed and it was getting near race time. The masses were now assembling behind the line in the chute so I hit the street for some quick warm up drills and waited for the time to run down before entering the gate, securing a spot comfortably near the front to avoid getting boxed in during the start.
Once the horn sounded, I carefully picked my way through the tight crowd of runners, trying to make it out to the daylight and find my own pace. I knew some of the top speedsters would be much too fast for me on this day, especially with my legs feeling awfully tired. During the first few hundred metres I even wondered if I had the gas to make it through the entire race. I tuned it back a notch from the leaders blistering pace and made the commitment to push on, just hoping to break the 19 minute barrier and get a solid training run in for the upcoming Muskoka long course duathlon.
As I was slowly getting into my rhythm, I noticed my breathing a little more laboured than usual and I was starting to feel the humidity only a kilometer into the competition. I have waited for the warm weather for so long that I was not going to complain about the temperature today, just make sure to hit the water stations and keep hydrated.
The course took the runners north to Britannia, where I am very familiar with the road from my longer practice route. It was just a brief run across this stretch and then another right turn onto the flats of Queen Street (Streetsville’s main artery) where a large crowd of fans had assembled to cheer on many of the local runners. It seemed like they knew many of them and I tried to figure out the positioning of my opponents by the way they cheered on the different names.
Shortly after the second kilometer marker, we were directed to the left onto Main Street (aka Bistol Street), a short little connector that would lead us to Church Street and back towards the north. The angle on Church would soon veer to the left and link us up once again with Queen Street and the loud, awaiting supporters. Their cheering once again got my strength back up to more energetic levels and I was starting to make some gains on other athletes that may have headed out a little too fast.
I continued up the smooth, paved street towards Britannia with approximately 1.5k left to run. It was at this point the course made a split and some of the very talented 15k racers were directed to the right while the short trackers made a left for the home stretch. Making the left turn, I was holding my position but I could see I was not alone. I could tell a few were far to fresh to be caught, but for the first time since the Sporting Life 10k, there were many placing combinations for the final sprint to the line. In every other race I have entered this season the field has been spread too far to make many moves approaching the end. I just had to make sure that I picked up more spots than giving back to the field, and that was not going to be an easy task.
With a final burst down the back stretch on Joymar Drive, I was able to make a few gains (lost one as well) and now realized I should be comfortably in the top 20. Finally, making eye contact with the finish line, I started my kick and also noticed that I was somehow close to breaking my 2008 goal of a sub 18 minute 5k. My legs put out a decent effort to get up to top speed but it just wasn’t to be on this day. I ended up hitting the line in 18:11, a new PB to add some extra confidence for the busy upcoming duathlon schedule.
Post Race Note:
Running the 5k, I had some time to put in at the tent before the 15k would wrap up. The awards were set to begin at 10am so I mingled with the curious runners hanging around the area and meet some fellow athletes I had meet online over the last few years (thanks Doonst and Ro for stopping by!).
I also had time to enjoy some post race nutrition that was provided by the race organizers for the drained athletes. They had plenty of the race staples and some tasty yogurt and chocolate milk, so I was happy athlete.
For those who enjoy a little reward for their running efforts, the finishing medal was very well designed and the top overall and age group awards were also of great quality and worthy of display in your showcase at home.
All in all, this race was a great find close to home and one that I will be re-visiting in the coming years. I may even take it up another level next year and test my legs in the 15k.
