Danny Kassap’s last run
UPDATE: http://www.dannykassapmemorial.com/
This morning I heard the unfortunate news that Danny Kassap had passed away at a hospital in the early morning hours. Truly sad news.
Yesterday at the Sporting Life 10km Danny and I wished each other good luck moments before the gun went off. After the race Danny, Eric Gillis and I headed on a cool-down run through the Exhibition grounds to the Lakeshore path. On the run Danny told us that 800m into the race he felt horrible and had to quit the race. For Danny to have to pull-out that early is odd but he seemed perfectly fine running and chatting with us. In fact he jogged down to the finish area because that’s where his kit was (point to point course). Considering he had to drop out of the race Danny was in good spirits, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knew him because he always had a positive attitude and a big smile. On the run he also told us he had a routine check-up with his doctor coming up where they would do some tests and determine how hard he would be allowed to train. If you don’t know the history, Danny collapsed in the 2008 Berlin Marathon with a near-fatal heart problem and was hospitalized for a few days. Since then he has patiently built up his running in the hopes of being back to where he was pre-Berlin. We all talked about our upcoming races, Danny mentioned his next race was going to be the Acura 10-miler in August. As we ran beside Lakeshore Ave we talked about the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (a race Danny won in 2004) and hoped we wouldn’t encounter a similar wind we we’re presently facing on our cool-down. We ran for 23:30 which I declared 5km right before we got back to the elite tent. Danny introduced me to his girlfriend and then we said our good-byes.
It was a pleasure to know, run and race with Danny over the past 10 years. He will be missed.
We had many races where we pushed each other to our limits. Here is a picture of Danny (aka Boom Boom) and I running 5000m PB’s in 2002.
In the month of May
Early this morning I woke up and mumbled something to Gillis across the hotel room about wanting more sleep. It was race morning so I promptly got up, went to the washroom, gobbled down a bowl of Go Lean and was about to head down to the lobby when Gillis said “hey, it’s only 4am!” I looked at the clock in the room in disbelief, checked my watch in a confused state. How did this happen?.. The night before I set an alarm clock and then right before I turned out the lights I set my cell phone as a back up, by mistake way too early. We then decided to try to get another hour of sleep but after being up for 15 minutes on race morning it just didn’t pan out. So I apologize Gillis, for robbing you of some much-needed sleep at that god forsaken hour.
When I was finishing up my warm-up and looking down (and I mean down!) Yonge st I was really motivated to post a good time and take advantage of the fast course and the ideal weather conditions. When the gun went off I went right to lead and made it obvious to the other racers that I was going to push for a fast time. We went through the first km in 2:43 and 3km in 8:23. Now I don’t want to complain about the wind because the conditions were good but we were running into the wind therefor leading took a little extra toll. At that point there were three guys right on my tail so I decided to tuck in for a couple of minutes and let someone else lead for a bit. Once again I got to the front and pushed the pace and Dagim fell off before we hit 5km in 14:03. When I heard that split I decided that I wanted, at least, a shot at sub 28 minutes so I kept on pushing. By 8km Kip and Gillis were still both there and I was getting nervous that they were feeling fresh behind me so I tucked in behind Kip. For a minute or so it felt very easy having someone else lead and I was able to collect myself and collect some energy for the final push. At 9km I made a strong move which, I hoped, would break me free of the other two guys. I created a little daylight but once we went around a corner we were all right together again. I knew I had a couple more gears and two more times I upped the tempo towards the finish tape… here’s the video
and the interview right afterwards
If you can’t watch the videos it was a tight battle for the win in which I barely came out on top over Eric Gillis (also in 28:08) and Kip Kangogo (28:09). The finishing time of 28:08 is a road PB with a huge asterisk because the course drops about 80m over 10km! RESULTS The foot felt good enough in the race and even now I would say it didn’t really beat it up too bad but I’m not out of the woods yet. I’ll need to keep and eye on it to get back to pain-free. That will mean a couple of non-impact sessions and all of my running will be on soft surfaces in the next little bit.
CRS ARTICLE with pictures.
Please don’t slow me down if I’m going too fast
Today I was in the pool for 90 minutes because my foot flared up again in the same spot (left ball of foot at second toe) as last fall. This happens because my second toe is longer than my first (like many people) and every time I come off my foot the end of my second metatarsal is the last point of contact and takes a beating. Ever since I bruised it, it has not been 100% although it hasn’t slowed me down at all since mid-January. 20km into my long run on Saturday it started to hurt and by the time I got home I knew it was in bad shape. On Sunday morning it was evident running was not a good idea and spent the day on the spin bike. This morning I could see some improvement but figured I would take the safe route and give it, at least, another day of cross-training.
The best case scenario is to be in good 10km shape when I start training for the marathon in July. However, the most important thing is to be healthy going into my marathon preparation. If I need to take a step back and compromise my 10km training then so be it. Training will only be harder on the body when I start piling on 210+km weeks.
Right now I’m not putting pressure on myself to race Sporting Life 10k this Sunday, if I have to miss it to be healthy then that is the way it will be. Hopefully I will get to run because it looks like it will be a very fun race and training has been going well. I recovered really well from the 1/2 marathon (even though racing in flats put some stress on my foot) compared to NYC 1/2. Apparently running 2 minutes faster over 21km beats up your legs more, who knew? haha.
This Saturday I’m going to a running symposium in Kitchener (flyer below) where they will air some of the video footage of me training in Kenya that Francis Coral-Mellon took.
New Balance added some Canadian guys to their team profiles, check em out.
Did I read it all wrong? Have I just not gotten it yet?
There are two reasons why I felt compelled to write another blog only two days after my last post. First off, there was an historic race in Boston yesterday and secondly, IAAF finally released the 2012 Olympic standards.
I always look forward to the Boston marathon each year because there is good TV coverage (TSN) of the whole race, which is unusual for distance running. The 2011 Boston marathon was one for the record books yesterday as Geoffrey Mutai covered 42.2km quicker than anyone else in history by running 2:03:02. Of course his time will not count as a World Record (WR) because the Boston course has a net elevation drop over the allowable limit of 1 meter per kilometre. In fact Boston’s course drops 3.1 meters per kilometre. Also, for a point to point course to count as a WR the finish has to be within 21.1km of the start and Copley Square is more than 35km away from Hopkington.
How come everyone says Boston is a slow course if it’s a net downhill? The uphills on the second half of the course make it slower. How did Mutai and Moses Mosop (2:03:06) run that fast on a tough course? There was a massive tailwind (over 20kph) pushing them along as well as perfect temperatures. It is estimated that the wind helped runners by as much as four minutes!
Ryan Hall ran under 2:05 yesterday which betters the American record, but just like the WR it will not be an official AR. After beating Ryan by over a minute in a half marathon last month I didn’t expect that performance from him so soon. I knew Ryan had an “off-day” in NYC and that he would have a better performance in Boston but I was surprised when he split halfway in under 1:02! Interestingly, Athletics Canada would allow a Canadian record to be set at Boston because the race is an official qualifier for the Olympic Games. I’m not sure how I feel about this because it’s proven that downhill courses aid runners. You have to draw the line somewhere and the experts have drawn it at 1 meter per kilometre and it would be unfair if someone finally took down Drayton’s long-standing record on an aided course.
People typically say Boston is 1-2 minutes slower than a flat, fast course and yesterday’s tailwind helped by 3-4 minutes, so it would seem as though people running Boston yesterday got about a 2 minute boost in performance. In no way do I think I would have beaten, or even been close to Ryan but a 2:09 in those conditions would have been more than possible. I’m sure I would take it to the bank but it wouldn’t be the same as running fast on a “loop” course, not even close.
The other big news is the publication of the 2012 Olympic Standards. These standards have implications for me even though I met the Canadian Olympic Standard of 2:11:29 last fall. It turns out that the IAAF window didn’t open up until January 2011, therefore I have not fulfilled the IAAF standard to enter the Olympics. The Olympic A standard in the marathon is 2:15:00 which means in the next year I need to beat that time in order to qualify for the Olympics. With Gillis, Watson, Wykes and Bairu gunning for Olympic spots it seems the 2:15 is the least of my concerns if more than two of them run faster than 2:11:23. (Technically if no one else breaks 2:11:29 then I would only have to meet the Olympic B standard of 2:18 but I don’t see that situation playing out).
An interview after the 1/2 in Montreal this past weekend.
Here’s an interesting little excerpt about Canadian at Boston from an article published in the Boston Herald last week:
The violent wind blew the wires away
Let me start off with the highlight of the weekend…winning the World Series of Poker on my Blackberry. After amassing over 2 million dollars on the open tables I entered the World Series numerous times (at $10 000 a pop) in the past few weeks. Eventually I was the last avatar standing to claim the $5 million purse and become a world-class geek.
Next up was the Montreal Scotia Bank 1/2 marathon this morning (Sunday April 17) on Jean-Drapeau Island. The two days before the race I was keeping an eye on the weather as it was calling for cold, rainy and windy conditions. When we walked out of the hotel this morning it was raining yet fairly calm, although that soon switched when the wind came and blew the clouds away. During the warm-up we knew it was going to be war against the wind.
Off the gun Matt Loiselle was pushing the pace and we hit 5km in 14:43. I would tuck in behind Matt here and there and then I would take a turn at the lead however Matt would just run beside me until 8km when he started to fade a bit. By 9km I was out alone to battle the wind, which was reported as 54 km/h, I don’t even want to guess what the gusts were!? I hit 10km in 29:51 and proceeded to run a 2:56 km before turning into the wind which produced some awfully slow km splits to get to 15km in 45:29. At that point I was well ahead of 2nd and not at all excited about the time and sick of battling the wind. My winning time was 1:04:55. RESULTS.
Although I didn’t get the PB I was hoping for I got my 8th Canadian title. Cleve was the 6th Canadian in the race today which bodes well for his debut. John Mason was battling sickness and toughed it out to finish alive, barely. Young/Wild/Lumberjack Bill also ran for Speed River although he was still making calculations on his peformance to get an idea of how it went.
photo courtesy of Gary Rush
Gillis won the Sun in Vancouver today in 29:05 while Courtney Laurie had a solid run to break 35min. Derek Snider held it down in Guelph to take the Billy Taylor 15km title as well this morning.
Thankfully there is internet on the train because I’m sick of Blackberry poker and I only have 20 pages left in my book.
Seeing as Kyle Boorsma just finished up a great collegiate career I would like to highlight how he had to one up me in every catregory…
I got 4 team CIS XC titles in a row, Kyle got 5
I ran 8:09, Kyle ran 8:07*
In 5th year I medalled in all three CIS distance events, Kyle got gold in all
In 5th year our team was third at CIS track, Kyle’s team was second
I won two U of G athlete of the year awards, Kyle won 3
I partied the night of CIS champs, Kyle added Madness Monday
Who wants to hear their heartbeat?
Track is back! I had my first big track workout last Friday that, both, set up the 1/2 this weekend and, also will get me ready for more track. The workout started out with a few 2 minute pickups that were done just to warm-up. After we changed into our flats and did some strides we started out with a 3000m in 8:19 that was supposed to be 5 seconds faster each km. Gillis and I ran 2:49, 2:47, 2:42. After that we had 5.6km of intervals starting with 1000m and ending with a couple of 400’s in which I broke 60 seconds for the first time in, what seems like, 2-3 years. I was pretty pumped about the sub 60 and Derek Snider said “you just ran 8:19 and you’re pumped about the 59?” Sub 60 second 400m seem to be more rare than sun 8:20 3000’s for me.
An article about Speed River came out in the National Post last week. The reporter, Ben Kaplan, actually ran the workout (not as much volume as Gillis and I) with the group which was quite impressive. As it turns out Ben has run 3:09 for the marathon so he was able to handle the training. The workout we did in the article was 2 X (3 X 4minutes, 10 minutes / 1 minute rest) //5′ rest between sets.
Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin’
When I got back from NYC a couple of weeks ago I started to run on the trails which were a little muddy but bare of snow. And then we got puked on and I was back on the roads, treadmill and dirt roads. It took about 10 days for the trails to clear up again and now I think it’s safe to say that the snow is done for many months.
My training since the 1/2 marathon has gone very well. It took a few days to recover after the race but then I was hitting my best workouts of the year so far. Typically in the winter we do an easy workout on Wednesday. This past Wednesday I ran 15km in the morning and then found out we had about 10km of hard running in a 20km run that afternoon. We did about half of the quality on the track which was both fun a little shock to the system since it’s been a little while. I surprised myself with a 60.1 400m at the end of the workout chasing Milne around the track. I followed that up on Friday with a long tempo session for some over-distance training for my next 1/2 marathon. I decided after the Montreal 1/2 I will race Sporting Life 10km on May 1st in Toronto. After that I will focus on the track for a little while before transitioning to marathon training in July.
There are a few things I will not miss about the treadmill now that I can run on soft surfaces from my house. One of those things definitely has to be smelling other people’s farts while running. Sometimes you might get a wiff of a fart while running with a group outdoors but it quickly dissapates in the open air. On the treadmill the rankness seems to fester for an agonizing minute. During that time I usually check out the people around me and see who looks guilty, is it the dude on the bike or the girl walking on the treadmill with a 15% incline? Once I guess who the guilty culprit is I give them the “I know it was you” look. If I smell the same brand again I figure they either don’t care or, more likely, I had the wrong suspect in the first place and I’ll give someone else the “you’re disgusting” look.
I want to be a part of it
I was hoping to surprise myself this weekend and I did by running 62:42 in the New York City Half Marathon. Luckily the weather was perfect and we had a nice tailwind for the last 3 miles! It should also be noted that this AWESOME course is net downhill by about 30 meters. The first 10km loop in Central Park is rolling and by no means fast, it’s actually quite tough but once you’ve run the first complete loop you have 2.5km of mostly downhill running to finish off the park. After that you run down 7th Avenue through Times Square, which is absolutely amazing as the runners have the whole street to themselves. Then you take W 42nd St to the West Side Highway and run South towards Ground Zero.
I was near the lead for the first mile and I was getting a little nervous that I was going out too fast but when we passed the first mile in 5:00 I knew why it felt so easy and I couldn’t believe the race was going out that slow. Before the race I pictured myself splitting 5km around 15:00 and having a little pack to run in and being 20 seconds down of the leaders, however I passed the 5km mark in 15:05 and I was pretty much in the lead. And then a bunch of guys picked up the pace dramatically and I settled into a pack with Abdi, Ryan Hall, Jason Lehmkuhle and Patrick Smyth. Dylan Wykes was 5-6 seconds up on us and running alone so I figured we’d catch him in a few miles. Upon exiting the park the tables were turned, I found myself alone whereas Dylan had caught up to Meb, Alejandro Saurez and Girma Tolla. His 6 second lead at 10km grew to 28 seconds by 20km (I split 59:34) where it would stay for the remaining 1.1km of the race. I ended up catching Meb and Girma Tolla in the last 800m and 400m respectively to place 13th overall. Results. You can watch the whole race HERE (the race starts about 15 minutes into the broadcast).
Overall it was a great race and a fun course which really showcases Manhattan. My body felt good through 10 miles although the last 3 miles beat me up a bit and I have sore quads and calfs this morning. My foot and shin felt fine and I’m really hungry for the Montreal 1/2 on April 17th. By then my training will feel more complete and I’ll really be ready to run a good 1/2 marathon.
Early on in the race.
Running through Times Square.
Finish.
NYC 1/2 marathon live webcast
Live Webcast of New York City Half Marathon http://www.nyrr.org/tv/
Race starts at 7:30am EST. 13 guys in the race with PB’s under 62:00.
Larry, Pieter and I came across this flipped SUV in Liege. The guy was alright, he said a boar jumped onto the road and he swerved to miss it and hit a chunk of concrete that flipped him.
I saw a newspaper picture
Jeeze, this week is flying by and I’m leaving for NYC tomorrow morning. I did write an article for the Globe and Mail about my trip to Kenya, it was geared for recreational runners so it’s pretty general. One of their writers read my blog and saw that I was going to Kenya so the editor of the Life section pitched a story for me, what every runner can learn from the Kenyans. GLOBE ARTICLE BTW The print version has better pictures.
And then the Mercury came out with something of their own the next day after a quick interview.
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/article/502113–guelph-s-coolsaet-runs-with-the-best-a-world-away
I feel pretty good about my workouts lately however I don’t feel overly prepared for this 1/2 marathon in NYC. It would have been nice to have some lead-up races but since this is the start of the season it made more sense to train. Maybe I’ll surprise myself… in a good way, haha
FLOAT ON 