Island Race Series - Races 7 & 8

[Half-Mary]

Island Race Series - Race #1 - Prairie Inn Pioneer 8K

Today was race 1 of 8 races, which take place every second Sunday until mid-April. I'm going to keep adding to this thread as I complete the other races, so I can keep them all in one place, and make them easier to reference next year, in case I want to re-read any of them. I'll update the title to include the page number of the newest report.

I hadn't raced an officially times 8km race in over a year, so I went into this race knowing that even if I ran easy, I would still PB. My first 8km race was about 3 months after I took up running. I wasn't quite expecting the results I got though.

I asked some friends about the race course and was told that it was pretty flat, but with a little hill near the end, and a hill around the 3km mark. It turns out that the course was undulating and not flat at all. The hills weren't huge and dramatic, but they were still significant.

I warmed up with some friends before the race and we went for a light jog and did a few stretches and warm-up exercises. Because it had been about 3 hours since breakfast (yogurt, granola, banana, 2 cups of coffee), I had 1/2 a bag of Sports Beans before heading out. The warm-up and the snack made all the difference. I don't know whether they actually helped or not, but I was mentally prepared to get out there and run.

I lined up without any guidance to how the others around me would be pacing. Luckily, I lined up in the right place, and headed out. I started passing a few people and then realized I was going too fast. It was also downhill, so it wasn't as detrimental as it could have been. I felt good turning the first corner, and continued to feel good as I dealt with the first hill around the 3k mark.

The course goes out and does a loop to the right, and then comes back near the start line around 4k, and then goes out for another loop, but to the left (kind of an out and back loop). Just after I passed 4k, I could see the elites and leaders finishing. I slowed my pace for a few seconds to watch, and then took off again for a bit more downhill running.

Just after this, there was a water station. I was handed a VERY full cup of water. I had a couple of sips and tossed the rest away, after spilling a lot of it on me. I kept running and headed off on the loop to the left. This loop started with a very gradual downhill. I was starting to feel a little bit tired and I knew the last 1.5km would be mostly uphill, so I pulled back the pace a little bit. This didn't last too long, but it was just enough to let me catch my breath properly.

I kept running, and turned around at about the 6km mark. I waved at, and cheered on a few friends as I was running the last couple of kms. A few friends called out my name, and some people also cheered for some guy named Harry who was running near me. Both of us kept thinking that everybody was calling out to each of us. Harry and Mary sound a lot the same when yelled by tired runners! At this point, the rest of the race was all uphill, except for one tiny little teaser of a downhill that lasted about 10 metres. I knew that I was coming into the end so I could push the pace, even on the hill. I gave it everything I had, thinking a lot of my friend who had given birth to premie twins this morning. The babies are doing well, but have several weeks in the NICU as they grow and gain strength. Thinking of them helped to give me the strength to get myself up at that hill at a decent pace.

About 200 metres from the finish, I caught up with one of my friends who had been ahead of me for the entire race. I called out to her, and we sprinted and raced each other to the finish line. She beat me by one second.

In July 2008, I raced 8km in 53:40. Today, I raced 8km in 44:13 (44:34 Gun time).

km laps are as follows:
1 - 5:15
2 - 5:35
3 - 5:47
4 - 5:33
5 - 5:34
6 - 5:34
7 - 5:31
8 - 5:19

This race went well, and I finished feeling great, and looking forward to more training and to my next race.

An item of note from this race: A Canadian record was broken in the 80-85 (or maybe 80-99) category. Maurice Tarrant, who just moved into the 80+ category this year broke the Canadian 8km record in his age category by around 8 minutes!!!! That guy is fast!!!

[Jo-Jo]

Great report...and nicely run!

I generally look at the Island Race Series results because a friend's team usually has several entrants. Posting the links on this thread will make it easy for me this year...thanks!

[trixiee]

W00t! Way to go Mary!

Congrats on the PB!

Nice first report!

[Tori]

Great job!

[scrumhalfgirl]

congrats - that's a huge PB! sounds like a fun race series!

[Darth Tater]

Nicely done Mary!

[IronGoddess]

Great job Mary. From your splits and mine we must of been close to each other the whole race. i ran it in 45:36. That last 1km was a killer. Next time we need to look for each other. Well done!!!! I will see you at the Royal roads 8k.

[Half-Mary]

Island Race Series - Race #2 - Cobble Hill 10k

Today was race #2 out of the series of 8 races. It was held in Cobble Hill, BC, which is about halfway between Victoria and Nanaimo. Since I had to drive over the Malahat, which can be unpredictable weatherwise, my friends and I left town early, to guarantee lots of time, should we need it. Luckily, the roads were clear. The sprinkles in town were just sprinkles on the Malahat, and not snow. We got to the school early so we had time to take a walk up the old country road. It was good that we did that, because we discovered that the start line was 0.5km up the road at a different school than the registration/food area.

I planned to run in a tshirt, but was worried at the last minute that I might be too cold if I did that, as it was about 5 degrees colder in Cobble Hill than in Victoria. I almost borrowed a long sleeve shirt from a friend who brought extra, but decided at the last minute to stick with my tshirt.

At the start line, there were no announcements and no countdown. My friend and I were chatting, and all of a sudden just heard a man yell go. We all took off and the race was underway. Like always, I started off WAY too fast. I tried to slow myself down, but it was hard. After about 2km, I settled into my pace. At about km 2.5, my right shoe came untied. I tied it up and then sprinted a bit to get caught up with the friend I had started with. We ran together until about 4km when she took off a little bit ahead of me.

At this point, I was starting to feel a heaviness in my stomach. It wasn't gas, it wasn't cramps, and it wasn't hunger. I'm not sure what it was. (Feedback or ideas welcome!) I felt like it was slowing me down a bit, although looking back at the km splits on my watch, it didn't slow me down too much - maybe 5 secs per km, which still put me on target for my goal. I kept moving the waistband of my capris up and down, trying to find a spot where they felt comfortable on my waist. I decided that since I wasn't dying, and was still able to run at a respectable pace, I just had to ignore the situation and keep going.

There were two water stations on the course, and I ignored the first one, but grabbed a drink at the second one, at about 7.3km. I had a couple of small sips of bright blue Gatorade (:sick:) walked for about 20 seconds and then took off running again. I took off a bit too fast, and had to pull back my pace a bit. My stomach started to feel a bit better before I even had the Gatorade, and I was feeling pretty good, although a bit tired at this point. I kept going at the same pace I had been keeping for most of the race, determined to finish strong.

About 200m from the finish line, I had a group of friends cheering for me (one was injured, and 2 did the early start, and had just finished) so I stood up a bit straighter, and ran to the finish with a spring in my step. I finished in 56:21 on my watch, and 56:28 on the clock.

Overall, I would say this was a good race. I'm quite pleased with my time, because this is a PB by 5+ minutes!!! (Last 10km road race - April 2009 - 1:01:53) It was tough for awhile in the middle, but I sucked it up and kept moving. I was told the course was flat, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it that. It wasn't as hilly as the last race (also called 'flat') but there were still a lot of hills in this course. They were just smaller hills. The food after was quite nice, but most of it was on tables down a hallway that wasn't wide enough for all the traffic that was using it. I survived though, and got some chocolate milk, banana bread and veggie sticks, and a quarter of a PB & J sandwich, so I was happy.

Once again, a course record was beaten in the 80-99 age category by Maurice Tarrant who took about 9 minutes off of the previous record. I'm not sure if he broke a Canadian record this time though. Regardless, he is still amazing!

[Jo-Jo]

That's quite the monster PB...well done

A few of the HPR people ran this too. I'll get Mike's report when I talk to him this week. But from his Tweet I don't think he was as happy with his race as you are with yours!

[klc]

Nice job!

[Hammie]

Good job - these sound like a really nice series of runs.

[Half-Mary]

Oh wow... I'm way behind on race reports for the Island Race Series!

Race #3 was a 12km race in Cedar, which is near Nanaimo, BC. I was tired going into this race, and didn't have the mental side of things in place either. I started off too fast, and took it easy at the end. I took a few more walk breaks than planned. The course was rolling hills the entire way, but was very rural and beautiful. About 3 km from the end, I kind of gave up racing, and just finished with a regular run. While I'm a bit disappointed in that attitude, I think I needed the break. I'm pleased with my time, even though I didn't give it my all. I'm also glad that I was able to relax and just run near the end, as there was no reason for me to push to the point of exhaustion or unhappiness. I run and race for me, and not for anybody else. I run for fun. Sometimes, I need to slow down and take time to just run and not think. I finished this race in 1:13:43 which is 6:09min/km and is still a decent pace for me.

Race #4 was the Hatley Castle 8km which I missed because I was at the Olympics. It's a tough race, and extremely hilly, so I wasn't too sad to have missed this one.

Race #5 was the Bazan Bay 5k. I ran this race last year in a time of 32:36. This one took place in Sidney, BC, and is an extremely flat and fast course. I did a 20 minute warm-up with some friends, and then headed back to the start line. We were standing around chatting, waiting for a pre-race announcement when all of a sudden we heard the starting gun. I was a bit further back than I should have been, so I did a bit of people dodging, and found a spot running with people going my pace. Just as I approached the 1km mark, I noticed a runner down on the side of the road, with a group of people helping him out. A few different spectators were calling 911 at that time.

I continued running, and at about 2.2km, my left shoe came untied. I stopped to tie it, and then sprinted back to the spot I had been running in. I didn't want to lose time because of shoelaces. The sprinting winded me, so it was hard to keep my pace for the next couple of minutes, but I did, until about 3.5km, when my other shoe came untied! I tied that shoe up, and again, sprinted forward to the position I had been in.

I didn't look at my watch or the distance until close to the end, when I got curious and looked and noticed that I only had about 400 metres left. I picked up the pace a bit, and ran toward the finish. A friend was running with me at that point, and we sprinted the last few metres to the end, racing each other. There were two chutes, and we each took one. I ended up beating him, and finishing in a time of 26:15! (26:10 on my watch) This was a 6+ minute PB!!!

The post-race food was great (best food of any race I've ever run) and it was fun watching the awards. The top place finisher was Simon Whitfield in a time of 14:36! While I was running my last km, I saw an ambulance go by. I found out the next day that the gentleman who went down near the first km died of cardiac arrest. I found out in a newspaper article the following week that he was an active man, and a phys ed teacher, and loved being outdoors and doing physical activities. There are a lot of emotions that come with watching somebody die doing the same activity you are doing. It's something I will never forget.

Race #6 was the Comox Valley 1/2 Marathon. This was a bit further away, and some friends and I decided to go up the night before and stay at a friend's mother's house, and sleep on air mattresses in her living room. I didn't get much sleep, so I was tired going into the race. I was undecided even up until the last minute if I was going to race this 1/2, or just run it as an LSD, since I'm still training for my spring A race. I ran it with some friends, and went out a bit slower than I would have if I were running it alone.

This race starts in Courtney, BC and runs along some rural roads in the area. It's an out and back with a few hills, including the gradual hill that is the first 10km. The first 10km were pretty easy, given that I was running with my friends, and was going about 10 seconds per km slower than I thought I could do. We hit the 10km mark at 1:10:00ish, which disappointed me a bit, because I figured that would bring me in at 2:20:00ish, which was the same time as my previous 1/2 marathon. I picked up the pace a bit and my friends kept up with me. We were all having a great race and were feeling good and were enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful scenery around us, and the great view of the mountains. One of my friends, who grew up in downtown Toronto, was fascinated by the cows all around us.

We sometimes use walk-breaks in our training (on the longer runs) but decided this time to go by feel, and take walk breaks when we needed to drink or eat. We tried to strategically place them on the uphills, so as not to waste the forward momentum of running downhill. This worked for us, and I think helped us out, as we didn't overdo it trying to race up some of the bigger hills.

At around km 16, I was still feeling quite energetic and was ready for more. We decided at this point to run the rest of the race on our own. I pulled ahead of my friends and ran until about km 17.5 when I took a 30 second walk break. I was running into a bit of a breeze, and up a small hill, and my asthma (mild) decided to act up a bit. The walk break helped and I was able to start running again pretty quickly. At around km 18, I noticed my left IT was a touch sore. This scared me a bit, as that's an old injury spot, and I didn't want it to flare up again. I moved toward the centre of the road, hoping that might help out, as the camber of the road was pretty tilted to help with water run-off. Km 19 was just around a corner, and I took another short walk break at this time. I then picked up the pace a bit for the final 2km. I rounded the last corner and could see the finish line. Instead of focussing on the finish line, which makes it seem farther away, and more painful to get to, I recapped the race in my head, and assessed how I was feeling at that point. I was feeling good, so I picked it up a bit, and ran in for my finish, in a time of 2:13:23. This was a PB by about 7 minutes!!!

I stayed at the finish line for quite some time, cheering people on, stretching, and waiting for my friends to come in. I didn't realize it right away, but I was feeling good and had no problem stepping up and down curbs and just moving around. After my first 1/2 marathon, walking and staying upright was a chore due to the tired legs and the sore muscles. It was nice to see a difference in how far I have come since then.

I'm very pleased with my race time. I didn't race to my fullest potential, but despite that, I think I ran a smart, strong race, seeing as this wasn't my A race. When I race in May, at the BMO Vancouver 1/2, that is when I will give it my all. The Comox Valley 1/2 is known for being a fast course, so I hope I'm still able to PB again in Vancouver, despite it being a bit tougher of a course.

Next up is a 15km race in Merville, on Easter Sunday, and the last race is a 10 km race in Sooke that I have run before. That one takes place two weeks after Easter, and two weeks before the 1/2 in Vancouver.

Race Results for the Island Race Series can be found here.

[ratherBrunning]

Congratulations on the PB's! Lots of fun and great preparation for your A Race. Good luck!

[Half-Mary]

The Island Race Series is over!

Two weeks ago, I ran in the Merville 15km race. I was still recovering from the 1/2 marathon two weeks before, and knew I had another 10k race in two weeks, and another 1/2 marathon two weeks after that, so I took it easy and ran with a friend instead of running my own pace. I finished the race about 20 minutes slower than if I had run my own race. Looking back, I know I made the right decision for myself. I barely slept the night before so I started the race pretty tired. I have no regrets for having just run instead of raced.

Today, I raced the Sooke River 10k. It's a beautiful, rural race on a hilly course out near the Sooke Potholes. I ran the entire race with my friend Sarah, and we kept having to slow ourselves down. We didn't want to push too hard in the beginning and fade out in the end, as we knew we had a big hill climb to make on the way back. Sarah and I are about the same pace, so racing together wasn't a problem for us.

At about the 4km mark, my friend commented that she had never run 10km in less than an hour, and she didn't think she would do it anytime soon. I told her she was capable, if she really wanted to do it, but I didn't say much more than that. I knew that the pace we were running would bring us to the finish in less than an hour, so long as we could maintain it. I didn't want to freak her out by letting her know that though.

We kept running, and had a short water break at about the 4km mark. Shortly after that, I had to stop and re-tie my shoe. We made it to the turn-around (just past the 5km mark) feeling good and happy. We hit the 5km at around 29:40. We were feeling strong, and kept moving at a consistent pace. At about the 7km mark, there was a big hill. About 1/4 of the way up the hill, my shoe came untied again. I told Sarah to keep running and I stopped to tie my shoe. I pushed it up the hill once I started moving again and caught up to Sarah. We kept running and even picked up the pace a bit as we approached the finish line. We ran our own race for about the last 700 metres, and I finished a few seconds ahead of Sarah in 57:39. This was a PB for the course, but not for my 10km time. This course, however, was hillier and more difficult than the course on which I earned my PB. My friend Sarah finished in 57:46, which was a great PB for her, as she had never run 10k in less than 60 minutes before!

I finished in 11th place in my age category - 1 place away from a ribbon! 54 seconds faster, and I would have won a ribbon. Maybe next year...

As this was the last race in the series, awards were presented today for the top racers in each category who had completed at least five races out of 8. I had completed 7 out of the 8, and I earned 8th place overall in my age category, and was presented with a ribbon!

[IronGoddess]

Well done Mary. My dad win his age group today 70-74, in a speedy 47:32 and won for the series in his age group he completed all the races. What is next for you? TC10K or Vancouver?

[Half-Mary]

Well done Mary. My dad win his age group today 70-74, in a speedy 47:32 and won for the series in his age group he completed all the races. What is next for you? TC10K or Vancouver?

I'll be cheering on some friends during the TC 10k, but not running it this year, as I am indeed heading to Vancouver in two weeks for the half. Beyond that, I have no race plans! It feels kind of strange after racing so frequently the last few months.