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116th Around the Bay – A Golden Moment??

Around the Bay 30km Race

Hamilton, ON

Sunday, March 28th 2010

www.aroundthebayroadrace.com

Well after 6 or 7 times running this race (my favourite, of course) and the last two netting me a silver medal (2:11:00 in 2007 and 2:03:10 in 2009), this year was my time to go for gold (sub-2 hour clock time). I was so determined to achieve this that I actually signed up for this year’s race last year when they first announced that the registration had opened. The next thing I did was inform my coach that this was a main goal of mine for 2010.

Well, the gods were smiling on over 10,000 runners on this day as the weather was perfect for racing, 4-7 degrees, light wind (for this time of the year), clear roads and the rain held off for many of the runners. If I was going to do it this would be the day, besides with all the successful training since last fall, I would actually have to succumb to an injury or break under pressure.

When faced with this type of adversity, I actually remind myself of the Running Free motto, “Believe it, achieve it”. If you don’t believe me ask fellow Team RF’er Anthony Davey as I reminded him of this at the start line of this race. It actually works, especially in the rough patches of longer races.

The gun went off and I was sure to do my best to follow the race plan and not get caught up in the initial surge and over-pacing of all the anxious racers. I went through 10k in 38:28, 15k in 58:14 and 20k in 1:17:12. Actually I really turned it up in the second half (yeah, the hilly part) and did the second half in 57:28. Yup, a 46 second negative split. You see, it pays to listen to and follow your coach’s race plan.

I finished in a clock time of 1:55:42 which was good enough for 38th place overall and 3rd in my age group (6th actually but the first 3 were the top masters). I was pleased with this results as this was comfortably in gold medal territory.

Some of the other Team RF’ers finished as follows: Scott Mcdonell in 1:56:11, Greg McNab in 1:57:29, Dan Mckinnon in 2:00:32 (great effort and welcome to the Ajax team), Anthony Davey in 2:03:44 (not bad considering you were fighting a bad back) and I’d also like to point out the great efforts of the 3 new owners of Running Free Ajax, Steve Ockrant, Garth Boucher and Veronique Boucher. Their results were 2:20:06 (2:18:41 chip), 2:31:42 (2:30:20), and 3:04:31 (3:03:00) respectively. Well done Team. I know I missed a lot of other Team RF’ers but hey forgive me as the Team has grown so much and there were a lot running this race.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this, my favourite race. Come out and experience it. Who knows it just might become your favourite race.

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6 comments

  • Good Job Mike – I had you in my sites at 10k & 15k.

    then you announced your presence with authority!

    Good work, and a great running day!

    Greg

  • Mike, that is an awesome result and amazing improvement over last seasom. You are burning up the roads.

    As you pointed out, the team did a super job in this tough race. Congrats all Team Running Free ATB’ers!

  • Mike, scary training regimen. No mystery to me why you have improved so much. I tailed you up to 5k and it is so obvious you are primed for great results this year. Enjoy the ride and the rewards. I am so glad I am 45.

  • Mike…you are crazy fast! Great job at ATB. I hope we can run together this summer so I can learn more from an experienced runner such as yourself.

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