Race: Thanksgiving Day Races
Where: Exhibition Park, Guelph
Date: October 8, 2012
Races: 1 mile, 5k, 3k (Also 10k and 1k). All distances certified.
Exhibition Park is just over a mile one time around, and a perfect venue for lap style road races. This is the same park where Eric Gillis and Reid Coolsaet did some of their final mile repeats prior to leaving for their Olympic marathons in London (see Eric’s Blog here). To race in the foot steps of these men, on their home training turf, is quite an honour.
Lapped races with chip times are a horror. Inevitably somebody runs one lap short or misses the mat. While the timers are pulling their hair out making the necessary corrections, the next race starts! Five races in all. The venerable Sportstats calls it a nightmare and refuses to do it. So the Guelph Victors started their own timing company called Speed River Timing and do it themselves.
Yet with timing disasters threatening (but successfully avoided) the race day was magical. Race organizer John Marsden has a hidden jewel here. If you like racing for the sake of racing, in an informal atmosphere where you can still be as competitive as you wish, then here is a great day of racing waiting for you. The shorter races were originally started for kids. However there is a 3 in 1 combo pack where you can do the mile, 5k and finish with a 3k. So as well as lining up with hoards of kids, you are still challenged with some solid quality runners. I think the experience is priceless: seven year olds and 48 year olds and 60 year olds racing hard together. These were moments of running purity; a perfectly distilled Born to Run experience.
And when is the last time you were sent off with the crack of a real starters pistol? There is nothing that compares. This is the true and formal racing etiquette. All the other air-horned races I have started have now become second rate.
The 1 Miler
If you have done any track work, you have likely done mile repeats. But these training days are never full out and if you are like me, you are left wondering: just how fast could I run a mile if just one? Sometimes we pass the first mile of a race and a bloke is reading off the time. So I know 5:30 to 5:40 for me is no problem. But could I break 5:00? Nothing says you have reached “fast” status than having an official four-something mile to your name. Exceptional marathoners can do 26 of them in a row. But please, sir, can I do just one? I finally had my chance to race like a Kenyan.
By the time I turned the first corner, I was completely tangled up in kids. I felt silly. It seemed there were maybe ten of us older than 15 in this race, yet I couldn’t let these little nippers beat me. By corner number two I was exhaling so fully that my heart monitor fell around my waist. Now came a long straight stretch and I picked off kid after kid. By corner number three only one kid remained, a high school cross country lad, and I was gaining. The fourth and final corner put the finish line in view and I sprinted with everything I had left. Not that any of the previous 1200 m had been running, THIS WAS ALL A SPRINT! I ran out of road and settled for second overall. My official mile is now 5:18. Hmmm. Perhaps not so good?
The 5k
My pals were entered in the 5k and I wanted to get them with a surprise appearance. And surprised they were when I met them not long before the mile race started. Smiles all around. But now I was curious. Just what did I have left after that mile? I barely had enough time to change into shorts and make my way over to the starting line. Because the finish line was in the same place, the starting line for each race distance was in random positions around the park. Easy enough to find, as a good crowd was gathering. It seemed kids, parents, grandparents – all were racing this one.
After another sharp crack from the starter’s pistol, I found myself again tangled up in kids, bless their souls. I spent the better part of the first lap catching up to my pal John. I decided to stay with John and pace him through to 4k. John’s main competition for the 5k Ontario title (aka Roadracerankings) was also in this race, and we were not going to let Mr. Clarke get a sniff.
At about 4k I said my goodbye to John and opened up the pace. I soon cleared third place. The final little hill before the last corner took some starch out of my knickers. The remnants of the 1 mile race were taking their toll. Not much left in the kick to the finish line and I let a fellow my age and a kid pass unchallenged, leaving me to finish in 18 minutes on the dot with John just a few strides behind. Hmmm again. This felt so much faster, and I was almost beaten by a 60 year old. Not any 60 year old mind you, but I do have my pride. (PS. Johnny will be laughing when he reads this!)
The 3K
There was a bit of time between the 5k and start of the 3k, so we hung around and waited for the results to be posted. The miler results went up, but my name was not there. Then same thing with the 5k. It seemed the combo entrants were being recorded separately.
At the required time, we found the start for the 3k, did our warm ups and waited for the starter to come over. Legs were stiffening up, and many of the combo runners were in the same boat judging by all the limbering up going on. By this time I had figured out that the kid who won the miler had also won the 5k so he had a lock on the combo title. I had also figured out that the fellow (my age group) who nipped me at the line in the 5k had finished just behind me in miler, leaving us in a dead heat for 2nd overall. The 3k would decide it for us!
With a crack of the starter’s pistol we were off! I used the first km to reintroduce my stiff legs to running, then upped the pace to reel in my competition. Well past the 2k marker, I was holding onto second with just that small hill, a corner and a kick down to the finish. My competition was bringing it and I needed to respond. But my legs said enough. It was still a decent finish and a good time of 10:30. But really, I have run 3k tempos faster than that. So hmmm again.
I hung around to receive the combo results. Once posted I was second overall, but that was short-lived. The results were pulled down, and more waiting around for corrections. Finally, we just went over to the truck to find out I had come in third overall, sorry for the corrections, and sorry no prizes. Doesn’t matter. It was just a great day of racing. The experience alone was the prize.
In terms of equivalent 5k performances, each of my races today came in around 18:00. So regardless of actual distance, I performed about the same in each. Makes sense. What amazes me is just how much I peaked for my A-race just four weeks later: an equivalent of 16:58 for the Road2Hope Half. So my lesson, in hindsight, is not to be disappointed by these mid-training cycle race results. They just are what they are and not worth getting too excited about.
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Some of my previous reports:
