Race: Eaton Downtown Dash
Distance: 5k & 10k
Date: Thursday evening, July 18 2013
Each race we enter should have a reason behind it, and by that I mean: why have we chosen to race today? On only four days rest since our last races, you would think that we should have very good reasons indeed!
Personally I had a very good reason. This was the Ontario Masters 10k championship. Tired legs aside, there was no way I was settling on the 5k distance which is what I should have taken on such short recovery.
I had the good fortune of meeting Krista Duchene before the race. Krista’s plan was to break 16:00 today, which is no small feat for most mortal runners male or female, but simply impossible with the 34C temps at race time.
Not only did Krista nail her time, and win the 5k outright, she served notice that she is ready for the World Championships Marathon this August 10 in Russia. While it may be too early to be thinking about Olympic qualifiers, we will have to pay attention because the long standing Canadian Record (Sylvia Ruegger 2:28:36) just may fall to her or Lanni Marchant. First the men and now the women: these are again great times for marathoning in Canada!
Now onto the masters race which was rolled into the 10k. I worked the first 5k of my race with master aged RF athlete Scott McDonell. I had been marking another potential master runner and learned it was Patrick Orgar a strong masters competitor. Our names were announced as we crossed into the second loop around 18:30.
Predrag Petrovic had long vanished with the overall lead. We knew no one was catching him today. That left the masters prize to be decided between the three of us. I was still stinging a bit from Boilermaker where I missed prize money by seconds. I resolved to reel in this Orgar fellow or perhaps hope for a late race melt down. Anything was possible in this heat!
At the 8k marker Orgar had sufficient lead that I had to make a move then and there. There is a reason they call it falling on your sword! My 15k race from the weekend was still lingering in my legs. This was mind over body, and I was on a (lactic) acid trip through my max HR zone.
As hard as I dared to press, Orgar would not fade. With 500m to go, nothing further could be sacrificed for a masters win. Nonetheless with a little help from the sidelines I pushed hard right to the finish. Not enough to catch Orgar, but sufficient to get in under 37:00 and to establish a new max HR of 174 BPM.
So it was a first age prize for me, but enough of that! More impressive was APTC althete Nicole Gavin taking a first age and PB with her first sub-21 5k, and APTC’s Victor Antunes with another first age in the 50-54 category in the 10k.
So back to the question why did we race today? I think sometimes it is just to learn something about ourselves, to see just what we are made of.
