After the Goldrush

Before the Race about 10 of us decided to warm-up in the Zoo and check out the a bit of the course.  Well a little turned into a lot as we got lost trying to find our way back to the parking lot.  It was pretty funny trying to figure our way out of there and getting turned around a few times.  The 20 minute warm-up turned into a 30 minute warm-up and we got back to our race gear with 13 minutes before the gun.  So a quick change, pit stop and a few strides and we were on the start line.

On the start line, (less than a minute before the gun), Scott looks over to me and says I’m soft for wearing a t-shirt.  So the shirt came off before the gun…

Off the line I was quickly in, about, 10th place and for some reason I stayed there for the first 2.5km.  Bairu, Mosely, Josephat and Loiselle put a gap on the guys who were in front of me and thats when I finally woke up.  At 3km I had worked my way through the chase pack and then quickly caught Josephat and then Loiselle but Mosely and Bairu were still much further ahead.  Gillis was following me the whole time a couple seconds back.  By 6km Bairu had dropped Mosely and I caught up to Mosely at 7.5km.  At 8km I started to make an effort to reel in Bairu but after 1 km of that I had barely made a dent in his lead and pretty much settled for second place while keeping an eye on the Mosely and Gillis who were not far behind me.  I held onto second place, 10 seconds arrear of Bairu and only a few seconds ahead of Gillis who finished in third place. 

I thought I was going to run faster than 29:57 but given the turny course and my effort I’m fine with that time.  It may actually be a 10km road PB even though I’ve split 10km in 29:21 in a 15km race.  Also, my nationals winning streak came to an end after having won my last four (’07 5000m and XC, ’09 ‘thon and 10 000m).

Thanks to Ron O’Hare for the pics.

In reality I think I had settled for second before the gun even went off.  Mainly because Bairu had run 27:50 this past summer and I knew what kind of shape I was in when I ran 27:56 and I know that I’m not there right now.  I feel very fit but the race sharpness and the speedier stuff is not quite there.  Which isn’t a surprise seeing as I’m coming off a summer of marathons and I’m in my base phase.  I’m confident I can PB over 10 000m next spring but it’s been a while since I’ve been in the 5km-10km ‘race zone’.

I had over 160km on the week and I felt pretty good the day after the race and today’s workout also went well.  This Saturday Speed River is hosting the “Big Workout” on the Nats course.  So if you’re keen to do a kick-ass group workout you should come out, everyone is invited.

I should be selected for the Canadian team to compete in the Chiba  Ekiden on November 23rd in Japan.  The Chiba Ekiden is a marathon split into six legs (10km, 5km, 10km, 5km, 5km, 7.2km) and switches male/female each runner.  I’ve heard it’s a fun race, huge crowd and a great experience.  I was initially hoping that Bairu and Gillis would also be running but they have opted not too.  I can’t really blame them since I’ve twice opted not to race as it’s quite a bit of travelling for the week of National XC.