6.5 to 9 K to 9.8 K 5 Peaks Trail Race

[Dstew]

Wrote a little about the race in my journal but thought I would put in a more pure "race" report here.

With a home move and a new yard and work and ... I was not even trained to run a decent 10 K road race, never mind a 12 K trail race so a couple of weeks ago changed from Enduro to Sport. The distance was listed at 6.5 K but it is trail race so that means anywhere between 5.5 and 8.5.

5 Peaks is a good race organization so it was weird that it was only a week before the race they posted the course map. The race was in Fish Creek Park - an urban park in the southern part of Calgary with boundaries of communities on top of an escarpment on either side of Fish Creek. I had done some running in the park and so when I saw the map I had thought most of the course would be on paved bike paths or wide crushed gravel paths. Not that I was complaining as the lack of training meant the flatter the course, the better. There was going to be one nasty hill to the top of the south side of park on the West portion and it was not going to be pretty.

I had one really great track work out - 6 X 400 meter repeats on Tuesday and a zen type run on Thursday with weights on the previous days with a one day taper given I had determined this would be a hard training run if I was even going to show up. There was a screw up and the City that runs the park moved the start area to the East side of the park - more flat bike paths and they estimated another 2.5 k to the route for a total of 9 K. I had just sold my Melissa 10 K bib as I was not going to be ready for that in about a month and so this was not looking promising.

I have never heard this in the pre race announcement: "when you come to the stairs you have about 3 K to go." 9 K with stairs 6 K into the race, this ought to be fun.

Nice sunny day that was warm so at least when hard "training" run would be pleasant. Was also told by the Race Director that there was much more single track than one would think and so I placed myself at the back of the lead group. There was roughly 20 - 25 people ahead of me.

We start off on a paved bike path and a good thing as seems to be the norm, just about run over a little kid who has started at the front of the race. My breathing becomes heavy almost immediately but write that off to a "warm up". It does not get better after about a kilometer and I am still in touch with the lead group and so 8 K at that pace may well result in a body bag.

I slow down and find a young 16 year old or so high school cross country runner and follow her after letting only 2 or 3 people pace once I slowed down my pace. The RD was not kidding: single track, trees, high grass and at times an eroded creek bank with no place to pass so the strategy of getting ahead of the slower runners who might clog up the paths seemed to be the right one. As we start to ascent, nasty roots, rocks and a very technical path where if one forgot where they where might think they were actually at the Canmore Nordic center and the mountains. Pass a couple of guys who passed us at the bottom of the hill.

A young guy [20s] and youngish guy [30s] pass us on the way down. My "pacer" is slowing down so I pass her and catch up to an older looking dude. He has passed me twice and so decide time to pick up the pace and destroy him psychologically. It seems to work.

I am really starting to feel the lack of training, hit the 6 K mark and there are a bloody set of stairs. A couple of guys I had caught run up them, I decide to walk and catch my breath at the top. No one is coming up behind me so I am in no man's land. Too far away to catch up and keep up to those in front and no one pushing me from behind. I decide at either the 2 or 1 K to go, I will really push it. At 2 K, a all by myself and it is not getting any easier as the heat is starting to build. It is 1 K to go when I realize it is not really 1 K to go. If the course had been 9 K, at 8 K on my watch it would have been but I know the Mcleod Trail Bridge is 750 meters away and that is still some distance away.

Finally hit that bridge but I am now at 9.1 K or so. Still no one behind me and a 20 something the only one left to catch, I run hard but no sprint.

I finish 25th overall and I am the fastest 50 - 59 year old but no medal. As it turns out, I was 49 when the race series started earlier this year and therefore I am put into the 40-49 year old category that also happens to be one of the most competitive categories. I finish in 4th and although I could have risk an internal injury and caught the 3rd place finisher who I knew was 40-49, I am glad I did not.

Some runs here and there and many without a reason or purpose plus weights, a spinner bike and some walks seems to have provided me with a very good base fitness level. It has only been about three weeks where I can finally do some consistent workouts and have decided that a very good 30 - 60 minutes every day is much better for me than a 10 K focused training regime. So this race seems to have justified that decision. And although I did well, this sort of race does not suit my personality.

It may sound strange but I love to either run until my lungs burst which is somewhere in the 5 K range or do 20 + K at a pace that would get me a sub 4 hour marathon or there abouts. When I was running what I thought was going to be the last 3 K of the race, the only thought was continue to push as this pain and suffering will end sooner. Then when I had to run another 800 meters or so, I actually picked up the pace slightly because I wanted to end this torture.

One other good thing was confirmed by this race. I had been incorporating three different types of minimalist shoes into my running. I can now easily do around 10 K every other run with such shoes and my form and muscles both seem better as a result. Although my "lungs" were not there, my leg strength was. And the shoes felt so light it was easy to be fast when I needed to. So all and all, a very good day.

[drghfx]

Wrote a little about the race in my journal but thought I would put in a more pure "race" report here.

With a home move and a new yard and work and ... I was not even trained to run a decent 10 K road race, never mind a 12 K trail race so a couple of weeks ago changed from Enduro to Sport. The distance was listed at 6.5 K but it is trail race so that means anywhere between 5.5 and 8.5.

5 Peaks is a good race organization so it was weird that it was only a week before the race they posted the course map. The race was in Fish Creek Park - an urban park in the southern part of Calgary with boundaries of communities on top of an escarpment on either side of Fish Creek. I had done some running in the park and so when I saw the map I had thought most of the course would be on paved bike paths or wide crushed gravel paths. Not that I was complaining as the lack of training meant the flatter the course, the better. There was going to be one nasty hill to the top of the south side of park on the West portion and it was not going to be pretty.

I had one really great track work out - 6 X 400 meter repeats on Tuesday and a zen type run on Thursday with weights on the previous days with a one day taper given I had determined this would be a hard training run if I was even going to show up. There was a screw up and the City that runs the park moved the start area to the East side of the park - more flat bike paths and they estimated another 2.5 k to the route for a total of 9 K. I had just sold my Melissa 10 K bib as I was not going to be ready for that in about a month and so this was not looking promising.

I have never heard this in the pre race announcement: "when you come to the stairs you have about 3 K to go." 9 K with stairs 6 K into the race, this ought to be fun.

Nice sunny day that was warm so at least when hard "training" run would be pleasant. Was also told by the Race Director that there was much more single track than one would think and so I placed myself at the back of the lead group. There was roughly 20 - 25 people ahead of me.

We start off on a paved bike path and a good thing as seems to be the norm, just about run over a little kid who has started at the front of the race. My breathing becomes heavy almost immediately but write that off to a "warm up". It does not get better after about a kilometer and I am still in touch with the lead group and so 8 K at that pace may well result in a body bag.

I slow down and find a young 16 year old or so high school cross country runner and follow her after letting only 2 or 3 people pace once I slowed down my pace. The RD was not kidding: single track, trees, high grass and at times an eroded creek bank with no place to pass so the strategy of getting ahead of the slower runners who might clog up the paths seemed to be the right one. As we start to ascent, nasty roots, rocks and a very technical path where if one forgot where they where might think they were actually at the Canmore Nordic center and the mountains. Pass a couple of guys who passed us at the bottom of the hill.

A young guy [20s] and youngish guy [30s] pass us on the way down. My "pacer" is slowing down so I pass her and catch up to an older looking dude. He has passed me twice and so decide time to pick up the pace and destroy him psychologically. It seems to work.

I am really starting to feel the lack of training, hit the 6 K mark and there are a bloody set of stairs. A couple of guys I had caught run up them, I decide to walk and catch my breath at the top. No one is coming up behind me so I am in no man's land. Too far away to catch up and keep up to those in front and no one pushing me from behind. I decide at either the 2 or 1 K to go, I will really push it. At 2 K, a all by myself and it is not getting any easier as the heat is starting to build. It is 1 K to go when I realize it is not really 1 K to go. If the course had been 9 K, at 8 K on my watch it would have been but I know the Mcleod Trail Bridge is 750 meters away and that is still some distance away.

Finally hit that bridge but I am now at 9.1 K or so. Still no one behind me and a 20 something the only one left to catch, I run hard but no sprint.

I finish 25th overall and I am the fastest 50 - 59 year old but no medal. As it turns out, I was 49 when the race series started earlier this year and therefore I am put into the 40-49 year old category that also happens to be one of the most competitive categories. I finish in 4th and although I could have risk an internal injury and caught the 3rd place finisher who I knew was 40-49, I am glad I did not.

Some runs here and there and many without a reason or purpose plus weights, a spinner bike and some walks seems to have provided me with a very good base fitness level. It has only been about three weeks where I can finally do some consistent workouts and have decided that a very good 30 - 60 minutes every day is much better for me than a 10 K focused training regime. So this race seems to have justified that decision. And although I did well, this sort of race does not suit my personality.

It may sound strange but I love to either run until my lungs burst which is somewhere in the 5 K range or do 20 + K at a pace that would get me a sub 4 hour marathon or there abouts. When I was running what I thought was going to be the last 3 K of the race, the only thought was continue to push as this pain and suffering will end sooner. Then when I had to run another 800 meters or so, I actually picked up the pace slightly because I wanted to end this torture.

One other good thing was confirmed by this race. I had been incorporating three different types of minimalist shoes into my running. I can now easily do around 10 K every other run with such shoes and my form and muscles both seem better as a result. Although my "lungs" were not there, my leg strength was. And the shoes felt so light it was easy to be fast when I needed to. So all and all, a very good day.

Well done! Nice race report!

[Ken B]

Congratulations. Excellent report.

[barebuns1]

I was looking at this race last night online. But I decided not to drive up this morning from Medicine Hat. I found the price at $60.00 a little steep.
Congrats on the race. great race report.There is no logic to the age group conflict. If you are 50 you are 50! Dang, that means you are now in my ag.

[Dstew]

I was looking at this race last night online. But I decided not to drive up this morning from Medicine Hat. I found the price at $60.00 a little steep.
Congrats on the race. great race report.There is no logic to the age group conflict. If you are 50 you are 50! Dang, that means you are now in my ag.

The way to make it more affordable is sign up for all five races - pay for 4 and get the 5th race for free and that works out to be around $36 a race. I was not even going to run the race but saw that I paid $45 and so felt compelled to run.

I agree the price is steep but there were certain races, Sibbald Flats, Nakiska that were cool mountain trails and well worth the price of admission. The problem with those races is that the Parks were only allowing 150 runners. When I was running several years ago, no big deal as they were not losing that many racers but now, they can get double that number or more. So there is the traditional early season COP that is a decent course. They race twice at the Canmore Nordic Center and there are enough trails they can do it on two different courses. Sundre Snake Hills is boring but from what I have been told, is as close to a true cross country course as one can get. And it appears that Fish Creek will be a regular course and much to my surprise and I will admit I was wrong, actually quite an interesting course, a hidden gem as it were.

You do not get much if any swag but they give away trail running shoes, heart rate monitors and some pretty cool stuff in random draws.

My one complaint of the series is that the timing always seems to have some sort of glitch and if you are running the Sport course and finish in the top three in your age group, expect at least one hour before any award presentations and sometimes that long to even find out where you finished. Today I was shocked to see them put up the results as soon as the page was full so obviously others had a similar complaint. All electronic timing so there was no reason for the huge delays.

[Robinandamelia]

Congratulations! Love the 5 Peaks events but had to miss them this year because of scheduling conflicts.