Shine a Little Light
At Westdale Secondary School we had a massive cross-country team when I was there, up to 130 kids (basically 1 in 10 kids in the school ran XC). I rocked an afro in grade 10 (very proud of it too). I wasn’t the only one sporting a ‘fro on the course, Jeremy did too. Jeremy still rocks the ‘fro.
The only one I know has come to take me away
My training is starting to ramp up again. Except for a 3 day injury layoff I’ve been running decent mileage for a few weeks now. I’ve done a few small workouts but those are what caused the flare-up in my tarsal tunnel. I will try and do speed work every week but when I feel it coming on again I just run mileage again for a while. Maybe this week will be better…
I went out Saturday night knowing I could sleep in as I was only running once for a long-run on Sunday. Of course this is when the drug testers come at 7:30 in the morning. I really don’t mind them coming at all (small price to pay for clean sport) it’s just funny that just about any other morning at 7:30 would have been fine. The whole process took about 20 minutes and I was back in bed by 8 and slept until 11.
I planned for a 36-38km run and packed a couple of dates into my pocket. Around 34km I started to really think about extending the run a little more. Having a good song in my head and 10C weather on Dec 4th I was really enjoying this run. 38km became 39km and then I figured I might as well knock off a marathon. I ran 42.2 km in 2:48:25 and felt fine, even today as I write this. The idea of heading out my door and running a marathon just seemed cool.
My next race is going to take place as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s. However, I’m not travelling far for one of these famed New Year’s Eve races as there will be one in Toronto this year midniteruntoronto.com. I am not planning on killing this race by any means, it’s more about the atmosphere and party afterwards. I’m really looking forward to this event, should be a good one and hopefully a start to something really big.
I had this song in my head throughout my marathon run
Movember Awards
Unfortunately I didn’t participate in Movember by growing a moustache. What I did do however was donate some money to 5 of my friends who grew some fine specimens under their noses. In no particular oder here are the 2011 Mowards…
Creeper award – Tim looks like a straight up pedophile with his ‘stache. On top of that he is a teacher. It’s bad enough looking like a sex offender around your colleagues but scaring the crap out of your students puts this ‘stache into another level. For the sake of protection we had to omit the rest of his face.
Creative Award– Paul has gone above and beyond the typical push broom moustache and has cultivated his own creation. I have to travel with Paul in the new year so I’m hoping he doesn’t get any ideas about Manuary or there will be questions at the border.
Hulk Hogen Award – This award needs no explanation whatsoever. Derek wins this one hands down. Here’s a picture of the Hulk (692) leading National XC right before he ripped off his singlet.
Drug Dealer Award – Seth looks like he should be in Miami working for some South American drug cartel. I think the hair reminds me of Johnny Depp in Blow.
Raking Leaves on a Windy Day Award – Chris gets an A for effort, especially since he updated a pic everyday on FB. If he would have taken my advice with the ‘Just For Men’ brush-in dye I’m sure it would be more visible.
Oh, we know the culture war
Earlier this week I did a quiz on the back of a cereal box and scored 100%. Something is wrong with me though, I’m more proud of my B average in University, go figure, eh? A score of 100% is obviously better than 74%, hands down. It’s obvious I should take more pride on my kids cereal box quiz score.
What would you rather have, the highest score in a first year Geology course or have a score that ranks you in the top 20% of an MCAT (Medical College Admission Test)? The answer is obvious, right? Who wants to be ranked, say, 1076th when you can be numero uno! Even if there are over 80 000 MCAT’s conducted and only 50 people in your class being first is what matters most. Let’s make sure we do not encourage our kids to pursue difficult coursework, frankly, it’s too hard. There’s a much better chance at reaching the top in a field that is less competitive and demanding.
Say you knew a student who went to Eastern South-West Arkansas Bradford campus and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Would you be disappointed with another student who graduated from Harvard with a 3.8 GPA? You should, it’s a lower score! Throw prestige out the window altogether, we shouldn’t care what institution the grades come from. Expectations.
Why do we encourage kids to go into competitive fields of study when we can have them shy away from the best and excel in easier courses? Isn’t the goal simply to have the best ranking and highest score independent of their field? Leave all the hard subjects for other countries to focus on while we put our energy into being the best at easier endeavours. Nuclear physics, brain surgery, forget about that stuff.
Let’s take this a step further and award scholarships on grades alone. Don’t worry about what institution they’re attending or what program they’re in, highest grades get the scholarships! We’ll end up funding easier coursework but let’s face it, it’s better to have 100% in Basket Weaving than 90% in Computer Engineering. Am I wrong here people?
This logic might seem insane but this is actually the way many Canadians (including media and organizations) evaluate sporting achievements.
I run right back I’m sure
I’m back into solid training now. I had a little hiccup today with my foot/shin/ankle which meant a small run in the morning followed by a pool run. I actually had to cut the pool run after 40 minutes because I could feel a little pain. I will probably need a complete non-impact day or two in order to settle the inflammation. Being healthy is priority number one right now because I want to be fit and fresh heading into the New Year.
On January 1st I’m going back to Kenya and then directly to Luxembourg for a XC race on Feb 12. Thankfully I am a recipient of the Can Fund which will help offset the costs (flights, accommodation, physical therapy) associated with such a trip. Can Fund is a non-profit organization that raises money directly for Canadian athletes (Gillis was a recipient last year). Basically they raise money through donations and as they get enough they distribute it to more athletes. 671 athletes applied already this year and the next application opens up on December 2nd. You’ll notice the Can Fund logo/link on the right hand side of the blog, check out the site and get involved.
This time when I go to Kenya I plan to train more with the Kenyans. This past January, because of injury, I wasn’t able to run with fast Kenyans until the last week of the trip. I would love to get some runs in with guys like Geoffrey Mutai, Moses Mosop, Abel Kirui etc this time around. Running with those guys at 8000 feet would be very interesting to say the least.
In 6 weeks I’ll be back at Kamariny Track
Good showing today by Canadians at NCAA XC. Sheila Reid defended her title, Kate Harrison was 8th and Kendra Shaaf in 15th. In the men’s race Cam Levins was 4th and Mo Ahmed was 5th and led his team to a national title. It would be sweet to see Cam and Mo battle it out at Canadians in Vancouver at the end of the week but I don’t think they’re running. In fact with flights so expensive right now I think a lot of people aren’t making the trip out West, too bad.
That may have been my unhealthiest weekend in memory, and since I didn’t drink too much I can safely use the word memory. In terms of hours slept, quality of food, and some beers (or is the plural form just “beer”?) I was not living like an elite athlete. I did run 28km on Saturday morning so I wasn’t completely wasting space…
The reason for the road trip to Quebec City was to watch the Guelph Gryphons go for their 6th and 7th straight CIS XC team titles. They did not disappoint as the Women won their 7th title in a row and had 7 All-Canadians (top 14)! The men scored 20 points, which is the lowest point total since the 1960’s. Gen Lalonde and Andrew Nixon also won the individual titles for the Gryphs. Needless to say there was good reason to celebrate that night.
We rented a mini-van and started the trip with Taylor Milne, Chris Winter, Rachel Cliff, Rachel Aubry and Kim Richardson. On the drive to Quebec we stopped for gas and I saw Molson Dry cans with the #1 fingers printed on them. For some reason when you’re on a road trip and you see stuff for sale in gas station stores they seem way more awesome. Anyways, I’m glad I bought two because they deservedly went to Nixon and Gen.
#1 finger sign on beer can
It’s a good thing CIS is in London next year because that is one heck of a drive to Quebec City.
Free as a bird now
How about Geoffrey Mutai’s 2:05:06 from NYC! I didn’t tune into Twitter, Facebook etc all day Sunday so I could watch the NBC coverage fresh, and it was well worth it. Mary Keitany going out super fast and trying to hang-on to the lead for dear life was very entertaining. Mutai’s performance should be considered good enough for Kenya’s Olympic team but it’s so tough to compare a World title vs 2:03:38 vs 2:03:42 vs 2:05:06 in NY.
I ran a 10km this weekend at the Road 2 Hope marathon in Hamilton. I ran 43 minutes, it felt too slow but I said I was going to run 43 minutes right before the start so I didn’t want to go any faster in case anyone was keying off of me. It’s awesome when spectators from the side-line yell at me to run faster. They must think that I look too comfortable to be racing and I’m being a pansy. On Sunday I watched the finish of the 1/2 marathon and marathon. A couple of friends asked me for a training schedule 6 weeks ago, they had never run a 1/2 before (I don’t even think a 10km), weren’t going to run more than three days per week and were starting from scratch. So it was cool to see them finish in one piece. Thomas Omwenga ran as slow as possible to get the win (2:28). He’s run 3 marathons in the past 6 weeks plus paced the women at Scotia through 40km, getting paid baby!
Jerry Friesen passed away last Wednesday which is very sad because he was way too young. I’ve known Jerry since 2005 when I ran the Casablanca 5 miler which he organized (it’s an 8km now and takes place this weekend). He always supported our club and the other elites at his Subaru race series. I particularly like the Peachbud 10km in the summer. It’s held on a Tuesday night and runs through the middle of Grimsby, it’a a fun event and great course. I got to know Jerry and Jody last year when he invited me to the Run Barbados Race in early December. In fact I was going to email him the day he passed away to talk about Barbados as I was on the fence about racing on December 3rd. I don’t really want to race that early after the marathon but t going down to Barbados to race is just too damn fun to pass up. Jerry will be missed by many, as was apparent by the large amount of people at the visitation last night. I heard one kid say how the line-up was longer than the rides at Canada’s Wonderland.
Caught in a wave
Want my scalp? Come and get it this Saturday at the Road 2 Hope 10km in Hamilton. It won’t come too easy though, you’ll need to run under 40 minutes for the 10km. The 10km starts at 11am.
Another amazing marathon went down this weekend, this time in Frankfurt, Germany. Wilson Kipsang ran the 2nd fastest marathon ever, recording 2:03:42 and a record 14 guys dipped under the 2:10 mark!
Picking three marathoners from Kenya for the 2012 Olympics is going to be very tough to say the least. It’s probably never easy for Kenya but this year is just ridiculous. Some Kenyan marathoners may skip the Olympics in favour of pay checks from big city marathons but you can be assured Kenya will send a stacked team. The top 20 marathon times run in 2011 are all occupied by Kenyans (including Mutai’s Boston time), and that does not count Abel Kirui who won the Wolrd Championships in hot conditions (hence the slower time). Abel Kirui seems like an obvious choice to me because he won the last two World Championship marathons which are non-paced races, just like the Olympics. And then you have Patrick Makau and Wilson Kipsang who have run the fastest and second fastest marathons ever while winning Berlin and Frankfurt this year. Plus you have a slew of victors from big marathons this year, winners from Boston (Geoffrey Mutai), London (Emmanuel Mutai), Chicago (Moses Mosop), Rotterdam (Wilson Chebet), Paris (Benjamin Kiptoo), Eindoven, Amsterdam, Otsu, Toronto, Dublin, Prague, … yep, you get the point. So a guy like Kenneth Mungara who won the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and ran 2:07:36 earlier this year in Prague has no chance of making the Kenyan Olympic team even though he would be a shoe-in for any other country in the World (with the exception of Ethiopia).
There is still NYC marathon and Fukuoka Marathon to be run this year. Gebre will have his hands full trying to defend his NYC title next weekend against Geoffrey Mutai and Emmanuel Mutai (no relation) plus a sub 59 minute half-marathoner Mathew Kisorio is making his debut.
I’ve run 4 times since the marathon, 5km, 7km, 9km and 11km. Bet you can guess what distance I have lined up for this afternoon. So far so good other than my right foot being a little sore (it was my left last year after the marathon) and my legs just feeling weak. It will be a slow build-up this week and then I’ll get into some real training next week if I feel good.
Happy Hallowe’en
Authentic Zubaz
Some Candy Talking
Thanks everyone for the kind words and support. The feedback has been awesome and encouraging.
I’m going to answer a bunch of questions that I’ve been asked in the last week about last Sunday’s race. If there is something else you want to ask me, Eric Gillis and/or Dylan Wykes you can do so on Wednesday at 12:00 (Eastern Time) at a live chat hosted by Canadian Running Magazine http://runningmagazine.ca/2011/10/sections/news/live-chat-whats-next-for-canadas-best/ I thought last year was great for Canadian marathoners when we had 3 guys under 2:13. This year we had three guys under 2:13 in one race, on a windy day.
People have been asking me how much Dawit cutting in front of me at the 36km bottle station hurt me. It seemed as though that was the nail in the coffin because shortly after the incident I faded from the two leaders. However I don’t think it really made a difference. What hindered me a little bit (very little) was when Dawit threw that bottle at my leg and water spilled all over the toe of my shoe. The incident was missed on the CBC coverage because they replayed the cut-off over top of it.
You can see the 1 hour coverage package HERE, anywhere in the world. The cut-off happens at 33:15 into the video.
How has recovery gone? On Monday and Tuesday I wasn’t walking with any fluidity and stairs were a chore although I never had to walk down backwards. Wednesday my legs still had some soreness but Thursday onwards I was doing pretty well and even today I was thinking I could go running and feel 100%. Well almost 100%, my right foot (at the 2nd toe joint) got a little bruised and may take another week to feel back to normal. I won’t explain what normal means for my feet. Taking care of details after the marathon really help with recovery, getting massage, eating and drinking plenty, Zanagen Xcellerate and plenty of rest.
Who organized my pacemaker? Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon provided the logistics and financial support for all the pacers. Alan Brookes makes sure we are given a good opportunity to run fast on Canadian soil and Ian Ladrookes does the ground work to get us fit pacemakers. My pacer, Stephen Chelimo, did an amazing job and helped me claw back up to the leaders on four occasions during the race before dropping out around 34km. Thanks again to Alan Brookes for all the support and putting on such a great event!
How much did the wind affect the final time? After watching the full coverage and seeing myself running with the leaders 1hr and 53min into the race I asked myself , How did I die so bad with only 17 minutes to go? (Well what should have been 17 minutes but was 18 minutes). And then I saw a comparison that was done on the 35-40km splits for elites from this year to last and it becomes evident how brutal the wind was this year. There’s been a lot of speculation just how much the wind slowed the race down, no one will ever really know, it was what it was and it just makes me hungry to get after another marathon.
What shoes did I wear? New Balance RC 1400. The best racing flats I’ve had to this day. They are light (7oz) and the very simple upper makes them really comfortable.
I guess I broke the Canadian 30km record when I split 1:31:38 beating Art Boileau’s 1:31:45. I don’t know if a chip time will be an official CR or not. Either way I set a PB after the race in the doping test. I produced over 150ml in less than a minute and was out of there in no time at all.
Alex Huchinson shot a bunch of video from the lead vehicle during the race and then the finish line. What I like about this video is that you can see the point where I go from waving to the crowd to realizing I actually have a good one going and I better bust it to make sure I get under 2:11. There’s also the whole finish line celebration, more of a lack of self-celebration when I cross and then Eric’s final sprint.
Tumbling Dice
The plan leading into the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon was to set off at 3:04/km with a pacemaker, get to halfway in 64:40 and keep on givin ‘er in hopes of breaking Jerome Drayton’s long standing Canadian record of 2:10:09.
In the days leading up to the race weather forecasts were calling for winds around 40 km/h. In those kind of conditions it would make sense to go with a pack of runners to block the wind instead of just one pacemaker. There were two packs to choose from, the leaders and the Canadians. Initially I thought the leaders wanted 64 minutes flat at the halfway mark and the Canadians (Eric Gillis, Dylan Wykes and Kip Kangogo) wanted 65:15.
Two days before the race the leaders decided they were going to aim for 63:45 at the halfway mark and the Canadians for 65:00. Now my original plan (64:40) was much closer to the Canadians whereas the leaders were planning to be about 1 minute faster through halfway, a big stretch. Logically it was an easy decision to run with the Canadian pack (and the 3-4 pacers) and then pick up the pace a little after 13km when the course starts running East (with the wind). The course turns back into the wind at 34km but you can’t really plan for any specific help that late into the race.
At 10 PM the night before the race I was thinking about different race scenarios and anytime I thought about going with the leaders it just felt like the right thing to do even though logic was telling me otherwise. I decided to talk to Dave so he could convince me to stick with the safe plan so I could stop my mind from thinking too much. We started talking and I told him all the reasons why I wanted to run with the leaders and we decided it wasn’t “that big” of a risk. Sure it was a risk and we knew that but I was ready to pull back with my pacemaker if the pace seemed too rich. It was on. I was excited and was able to go back to my room and fall asleep confident I made the right decision.
Sure enough on race morning the winds were as blustery as predicted and I told my pacemaker (Stephen Chelimo of Kenya) my new plan, he was game.
Off the start I quickly established myself in the lead pack conveniently behind the tallest Kenyan, who was probably 6’3″, no joke. The pack was lead by three pacemakers and there were about 10 of us in total. The first 5km was run in 15:02 and although it was quick I was comfortable enough. Thankfully the next two 5km splits were 15:11 and 15:09, much more to my liking. At the 13km turn-around I felt I could ease off a bit and run my own race because I now had a tailwind. I fell off the pack a bit but decided I might as well stay with them and caught back up as they weren’t running much faster than myself.
Around 18km
We got to the halfway mark in 63:53 (although it says 63:58 in the results?) and I felt fine even though a gap was forming. The gap quickly opened up and I was a few seconds in arrear pretty quickly. At that point I thought I was falling off pace and told myself to keep it together as best as possible. Even though I got dropped from the pack between 21 and 22km I ran that km in 3:01 and realized I was still moving well, even faster than planned and it was the leaders who surged after the lead pacer dropped out at halfway. The pace settled down and I caught back up to the leaders by 24km however, something else was not going according to plan, I had to take a #2.
I had toilet paper in my shorts pocket in anticipation of a pre-race port-o-potty stop (they often run out of shit tickets before races) that I never made. I pulled out the t.p. and started looking for some sort of cover off the side of the course and found an electrical box to hide from any cameras. I dashed over, took care of business and ran back onto the course where I exited from. Now I was 15 seconds back of the lead pack, which included my pacer. Because Cherry street is an out and back no one saw me stop (I thought) and I figured the coaches were going to think I fell right off pace in the last km and would be worried about my form. I ran by Dave and Moulton and yelled, “I had to shit!” in which they responded “we know.” Apparently it was evident from the live coverage and they got a text from Cal Staples who was watching it from home. Cal has been on the bike crew since marathon numero uno in Ottawa but ran into a car, hard, the day before and wasn’t in any condition to be back out on a bike.
My pacer eventually dropped back and helped me claw my way back up to the lead group by 28km. The 5km split with the pit stop took me 15:35 and then the next 5km was back down to 15:23. By 30km (1:31:38) guys were dropping from the front pack, both pacers and competitors. Then it was just 5 of us and I knew my pacer wasn’t going to be around for much longer so I made a solid effort to make sure I was with the leaders at the 34km turn-around when we would start heading back into the wind.
And then there were three, myself, Kenneth Mungara and Shami Dawit. I took the lead around 35km and feeling good, thinking that the record was still within reach. We switched up leads a bit and I was once again in front around 36km thinking I could actually win this race. A short while later I was not in any form to take any leading duties and trying hard to hold on and knew it was going to be really tough to get the record. By 37km there was a sizeable gap and without the leaders the wind was beating me down both mentally and physically. When I got to 41km my last 5km had been 16:30 and I thought “there goes any chance at a PB.” Even though I tracked my splits I had screwed the watch up earlier so my total time was off by 1km.
With the leaders well ahead by this point and no one in sight behind me I thought I was going to run 2:12 and was thrilled to be in 3rd place. I kept pushing an honest effort but I lost that extra motivation that comes when you’re excited to run a PB. I turned the corner on Bay street and the crowd was really loud and I acknowledged their support with a couple of waves and looked up at the finish clock, 2:10!!! WTF!!! Get to the line!
I could not believe I ran a PB and I was congratulated by Peter Butler who I tied for 2nd Canadian all-time at 2:10:55. Because I had been thinking I was going to run 2:12 it didn’t occur to me that Gillis still had a shot at the Olympic standard (2:11:29) until I heard the crowd erupt and saw him driving for home. At that point I looked at the clock and realized it was gonna be extremely close. I was yelling at Gillis to bring it right through the line and I figured 2:11:28 when he crossed the finish. Check out the finish in this CBC clip
The question I keep getting is if I think my pit stop costed me the record seeing as I missed it by 46 seconds. The simple answer is no but it’s very hard to quantify what happened when I picked up the pace for 3km to catch back up to the leaders. How much better would I have felt had I just been able to run a constant pace? Who knows. Missing the record by 15 seconds would have been a different story.
Once again I’d like to thank my whole support crew, training partners, coaches, family, friends, sponsors, competitors, fans and anyone who made noise out there on Sunday morning. Dave Scott-Thomas once again convinced us we were going to run fast even though we were freaking about the wind forecasts. I’m going to thank my pacer with a present when I see him in Eldoret, Kenya this Winter. Things didn’t go as planned for Rob Watson but it’s awesome having him there for workouts and his hard work is going to pay off. Fun times in the past three months with the Carter/Cooks AM crew, John Mason, Cleve Thorson, Courtney Laurie, Eric, Rob, Moulton and Dave with the occasional Maloney, Staples, Vollmer and, Wild Bill.
CBC had absolutely amazing coverage of the race and a dozen of us watched it in the hotel room afterwards with some pizzas. In fact if you want to watch the whole thing, check out this link
Thanks for tuning in. Now it’s time to put the feet up for 10 days and reload.
FLOAT ON 