FLOAT ON

On Saturday I ran my second Run for the Toad 25km trail race in Pinehurst Park (between Cambridge and Paris).  Once again George and Peggy put on a great event that saw about 1300 people out on the course.  Some were doing the 50km including Taylor Murphy who crushed the course record and ran 3:23.  I won again and ran about 1 minute and 30 seconds faster than last year.  My legs were more tired this year which was probably due to running more mileage and doing workouts.  I don’t think I had to dig as deep this year as last year.  In ’08 I ran the last 5km fairly hard in my attempt to break 1 hour 30, in which I hit dead on.  This year I was 44:30 at halfway and decided to push a little more to run sub 1:29, I ended up being 30 seconds faster on the second half.  Taylor Milne finished second in the 25km as he used the first 6km to warm-up and then did an hour of tempo and then cooled-down for the remainder of the race. RESULTS

Great trails for running, most of the race was in the forest and fairly hilly and turny.

Finish line, 1:28:31.  The 25km race is 2 times a 12.5km loop.

This afternoon I have a VO2MAX workout in Guelph that should prove to be pretty tough for me as anything remotely fast has been quite challenging.  I need these type of workouts to get back my 5km-10km speed for next spring and luckily I have a fit group to kick my ass into gear.  Last week I put in over 180km and other than a slight foot soreness (soft tissue stuff, bone is strong) I feel pretty good.

Workouts have come back faster than I thought so I’ve decided to race the Canadian 10km Championships on October 17th.  Doing workouts again with the guys in Guelph is great and I’m looking forward to getting back into 10km and XC mode this fall.  I’m not going to drop the mileage much, if at all, from my marathon training this past summer.  I guess that’s part of my normal training progression and then when it comes time to train for my next marathon I’ll be able to run some real marathon mileage, such as 200km+ per week.

One of the reasons I am running the Canadian 10km Championships is that AC will be selecting the Chiba Ekiden team from the race.  In 2003 and 2004 I declined the Chiba team to concentrate on Canadian XC champs with the thought that I would do it in later years.  But then Japan didn’t invite Canada back for four years and since I was injured last year I didn’t run it again.  Chiba has been one of those races that I’ve always wanted to do so hopefully this will be the year to do it.

This weekend I have the Toad and it seems like Josephat will not race anymore because he’s tired from pacing 32km of the Scotiabank marathon this past weekend.  Taylor Milne and myself will most likely be running together.  Looking forward to another great event and probably the biggest single trail race in Canada.

After two of four laps of the Berlin WC Marathon I showed Dylan that I had the course memorized and I could do it without looking.

 Or, popping M&M’s into my mouth.

From Patrick on September Seventeen # 
Hey Reid, any chance of a race recap regarding all the fun you had yesterday? That was something else haha.

(Edited on 9/23 with links to pics from Vic Matthews XC race)

On Saturday the University of Guelph hosted the Vic Matthews XC race on the Nat XC course.  For the last few years the U of G alumni have put in a team but have never defeated the current Uni team.  This year Taylor Murphy spearheaded a reunion of sorts with a bunch of alumni running the race.  It looked like we had a good battle on our hands and the good-natured trash talking ensued.  It had been one month to the day since I raced the Berlin marathon so I wasn’t really committed to racing hard but I was ready to put in a solid effort.

I started fooling around before the gun went off by tickling the guys ears with a stem of grass so they would think it was a bug.  When the gun went off I still had the stalk of grass so I put it in my mouth and whenever I got around Brunsting, Boorsma or Kozi I would keep ‘bugging‘ them.  I got it down so I could run with it coming out of the side of my mouth and it would be touching their ears as I was beside them.  Brunsting started to pick up the pace and a couple of times I went with him but then I told him if he picked it up any more I was done because then it would be beyond tempo for me.  Of course he picked it up a little more and I never caught up to him again.  Towards the end Boorsma started making ground on me and I knew he was trying to get my number.  I had fun with this by turning around and taunting him for the last 100m.  The funny thing is that I almost fell for real about 10 feet before the finish line when I stepped on uneven grass.  The Alumni finally beat the Varsity guys 32 to 36.  I ended up running 24:12 for the 7.5km course, and I’m pleased with my effort for my third workout back.

The next workout done in a race will be the Run for the Toad trail race on October 3rd.  Run for the Toad is a 25km and 50km trail race in Cambridge that has over 1200 participants.  I’ll be running with Taylor Milne and Josephat this year as T-Bone Murphy has opted for the 50km this time around.  The race always sells out fast because it’s a ton of fun and has the best post-race meal going.  If you like trail running you gotta try it some time.

In the next few days I should have an idea about my first race this season.

On Sunday Rob Watson and I recounted our experiences from Berlin at the Guelph Runner’s brunch at Shakepeare Arms (come out every third Sunday of each month, 10am).  Afterwards the Speed River group had 2:1 meetings with our strength coordinator and our phyiotherapist for evaluations.  This entailed doing exercises in front of a camera with dartfish and seeing where our weaknesses were.  After that it was off to the Kinetico Running Festival in Caledon East where over 1000 kids took part in a one mile race.  It was pretty cool to see so many little runners participate, especially since there were 8 kids’ races after the Vic Matthews Open the day earlier in Guelph.  It’s great to so many kids being active and having fun.  Hopefully that translates into some future record breakers (and less fattys).

After the marathon I took two weeks off, no running.  And then I had one week of easy running.  Now I am easing into workouts this week.  This is the first time in almost two years in which I’ve been able to get right back into training form one season to the next.  The last two times (fall of ’08 and Winter ’09) I’ve had to ease my way into training after injuries.  Both of those times it took me almost two months of easy running before I could do a running workout and this time I’m doing workouts after 10 days of running.  Needless to say I’m pretty excited to be putting in back to back healthy seasons.  I know my strength lies in consistency and if all goes well I can build upon my marathon training of the past five months.

After finishing 25th at Worlds in the Marathon the Hamilton Spectator and CHCH (tv) ran zero stories about me.  It’s as if Hamilton has a plethora of athletes in the top 10 or 20 in the world so there is no need to write about some slacker coming in 25th.  CHCH did do a story on Caster Semenya and phoned the local running store, Runner’s Den, to get a quote.  Dan, the manager, told the reporter she should talk to me, seeing as I was just at Worlds.  So I had a little interview on the evening news.  I spoke about how it was very unfortunate that checks weren’t put into place earlier but she came out of nowhere so quickly at the last minute to improve from 2:04 (not even qualifying) to 1:56 (number 1 in the world) that it caught people off-guard.   She wasn’t on the radar and then all of a sudden is under the microscope.  I think that her case was not taken care of properly although I believe if the timing had been different that the same governing bodies would of been able to handle it much better.

Josephat has a Kenyan friend, Peter, staying with him until the Hamilton Marathon on Nov. 1st.   Peter is hilarious and I’m sure I’m going to get some good material out of him in the coming months.  Peter is in Peru right now to race a marathon on Sunday so I only got one run in with him so far.  At the end of the run I asked them if they wanted to do some two minuters tomorrow…
Peter: “Sure, I need to test the Turbos”
Me: “The what?”
Peter: “The turbos!” pointing to his quads.

He then told me he runs 7-8 marathons a year.  I told him I hope to never do more than two in a year.  He then lets me know that rule only applies if you’re running marathons under 2:10.  “If you’re not under 2:10 then you can run up to 13.”  13 in ONE year?  Yes.

It’s been a couple of days since the race and my legs are coming around. I walked quite a bit the last couple of days as I did some cheering for Tara in the marathon on Sunday and then some sightseeing yesterday in Dresden. Walking and recreational biking will be my only exercise for the next two weeks. It’s nice being able to take a proper rest after this marathon.

The race lined up right by the Brandenburg gate, I didn’t bother trying to get up front of the three deep starting line as I knew I was going to pace myself conservatively. The atmosphere was quite amazing as there were big grandstands, a ton of spectators and big screens. The gun went off and the race got going pretty quickly right off the bat. I felt I was running quicker than my planned 3:10-3:11/km (under cooler conditions I would have attempted 3:09/km).

In the first couple of minutes I wanted to slow up a bit but when I looked behind me there were only a few stragglers so I kept up enough to stay with some bodies. I hit the first km in 3:04 and felt good but knew I had to get into my pace soon. I felt that others would now realize they were running too fast and slow down a bit. I hit 3:10/km for the 2nd km. Soon after that Dylan, Andrew, Giitah and myself were now in a fairly big pack. The pack consisted of three Aussies, three Russians, one American, three Germans, one Kiwi and a few more.

We passed 5km in 15:46 and I was in 75th (not much further ahead than my 85th ranking). We finished the first 10km loop in 31:34. At 15km we were 47:32 and then at the end of the second loop (20km) we hit 1:03:30. Throughout that whole time the pack stayed intact with two Russians doing the majority of the leading. Other than not getting my first bottle at 5km I got all my other bottles, picked up other aid station drinks and used wet sponges to cool myself off.

Towards the halfway mark Dylan started to push the pace a little and started to gap the pack of 15 men. I hit halfway in 1:07:03 and stayed in the pack as Dylan moved ahead. I wasn’t planning on making any move until 30km. I timed the next km in 3:12 and decided to forge ahead to Dylan and try to stay on 3:10-3:11’s for as long as possible. I used a little downhill to start my move and ran the next km in 3:07 to catch up to Dylan. It was just the two of us now and we hit 25km in 1:19:23, 20 seconds up on the pack we had been running with.

Dylan did more leading than myself for the next 5km and he even had a little gap on me for a bit. We hit 30km in 1:35:29 and by 32km I was doing more of the leading and I was also starting to hurt. The hot weather and strong sun was taking its toll and my legs were also starting to feel the pain. By 35km Dylan was a few seconds back when I split 1:52:03. Dylan and I had passed quite a few runners, some just standing on the side of the course. Right before the 40km mark I went to pick up my bottle and noticed that all four Canadian bottles were touching each other. I knew if I went to grab mine from the side I’d knock down other bottles. So I tried to pick it up from the top and it slipped to the ground (bottle drop!). I stopped, retracted a couple steps, bent down and picked it up. Not surprisingly it took me a little while to get back up to speed at that point in the race.

I hit 40km in 2:09:10 sitting in 27th place and knew the last 2.2km was going to be a challenge to keep an honest pace. I passed three guys but Dan Browne from the US eneded up passing me in the last 150m and beat me by 5 seconds (bottle drop!) and I finished up in 25th. Three guys from our pack (Dent, Pollmacher and a Russian) ended up passing me in the last 10km of the race.

I’m happy with my 25th place although my time of 2:16:53 doesn’t really do anything for me. I wondered afterwards what would of happened if I stayed put in the pack for a few more km’s and paced myself with Dent or Pollmacher. I don’t think my move was too detrimental, except for the one km to catch up to Dylan I didn’t run anything under 3:11/km, so nothing crazy. Running with that pack and not injecting the 3:07 would of been smarter. Seeing as this was my second marathon and my first championship marathon I’m still learning.  The overall experience was awesome as the crowds were very supportive and I got to line up against the best marathoners in the world.  Now I have to close that gap between me and top guys.

My 5km splits:
15:45
15:48 (31:33)
15:58 (47:32)
15:58 (1:03:30)
15:53 (1:19:23)
16:05 (1:35:29)
16:34 (1:52:03)
17:06 (2:09:10) (bottle drop!)
7:43 for 2.195km

We beat the Americans and Mexicans in the World Cup competition and finished 11th overall. We were only 5 seconds off of France (bottle drop!). If you’re asking why on earth did I bother picking up that bottle, it’s because I was afraid of my muscles cramping by dehydration and not having any electrolytes in the system. It’s never happened to me but I’ve heard from others that it can be deadly…

I don’t plan on ever running two marathons in 90 days again. I know with a longer build-up and more time on my legs I will be able to run a good marathon one day. That day will probably not happen for at least another 12 months. The plan for the fall is to get back into 10km XC shape and then next year I will focus on the 10 000m during the track season. I see 2011 and 2012 being marathon focus years.

The marathon coverage can be viewed here http://mzungofire.blogspot.com/2009/08/marathon-men-final-berlin-iaaf-2009.html  Once I get home I’ll probably watch the whole thing…