Five and I'm Alive - Long Report

[Ken B]

Below find the reports for the five races that I competed in from September 01 through September 20, 2014

September 01, 2014 - Island Lake Classic 5K - Orangeville, Ontario

I decided to run this event at the last moment for two reasons. The first was so that my friend Jaime from Waterloo wouldn't be the only area runner registered. The other reason was that I have a half marathon next weekend in Pennsylvania. When I want to do well in a longer race, I usually run a 5 or 6 km tempo run early in the week preceding the race. Thus this event worked out well.
Bonnie and I were up early and had an hour drive in the fog to Orangeville. It was very warm and humid and on the brink of a drizzle all the time we were there. I collected my race bib and connected with Jamie. The race is very small and there was no expo. The technical race shirt was green so I gave mine to Jamie. She liked the men's shade of green better than the women's.
The weather, as mentioned was hot and humid and on the brink of drizzling which was a bit of a bother but not a real problem. The course is very twisty and the running surface varied from pavement, to improved sandy trail, along a couple short segments of boardwalk ( very slick with it being so wet ), and finally a couple areas of grass meadow.
The first 500 metres were downhill and then the terrain was rolling for the remainder of the run. This did allow me to start off quite quickly. I had lined up behind a gentleman who appeared to be in my age group ( 60 plus ). He took off like a rocket but I soon passed him. It turned out that he was 54 and I didn't need to worry. After that, the remainder of the race consisted of me trying to maintain a pace somewhere near 5 minutes. The twisty turns, numerous inclines, and the slick boardwalk areas slowed me a bit but I was able run the last km in just under five minutes to get a better result than I had expected. There were free burgers, hot dogs and drinks after for the participants and the awards and door prizes were given out promptly. This was their second year and I will likely return in the future.
Chip time: 26:22 1/4 in the 60 Plus age group, 25/48 in male category, and 38/114 overall.
It was great to visit with Jaime who was running her first race in over a year and looked strong afterward.

September 05 and 06, 2014 - Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania

I registered for two races in Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania. The 5K at 6:30 PM of the Friday and the Half-Marathon on the Saturday at 7:30 AM. I read about these races in Runner's World last year and when a couple of friends mentioned that they were registering I did as well. This is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and is in the middle of Amish country. There were a lot interesting things to see and we will return to spend more time there in the future. The weather was hot and humid and was a minor factor for the 5K on Friday evening, but a major problem for me in the half-marathon on Saturday. Friday's run was in low 80's temperature and a bit of humidity. Saturday's run was in the 80's F with a humidex reading even higher at 7:30 for the start of the race. At the finish, it was reported that temperature was 93 F and the humidex reading was 102 F. This accounts for my different results in the two events. A neat thing about both races is that we were led out, not by a bicycle, but by a horse and buggy!!! The entire weekend was very well organized and is held in conjunction with a hot air balloon fest. There were several balloons taking off before each race. In both races there were Amish young men and boys as well as some Amish young ladies and girls participating. No technical clothing!! Ladies and girls in skirts that fell below the knees.

Friday, September 05, 2014 - Bird in Hand Pennsylvania
5K Race:
The course was made up of rolling terrain with only a few small hills to navigate. The only difficult part was about one kilometre of the course was on a rough farmer's lane. I started strong and just kept pushing myself to the finish. I did have one short walk break when my heart rate topped 170 bpm.
Result: Time: 24:30 AP: 7:54 min/mile AHR: 162 bpm Age Group: 1/4
Total Runners: 117/762

Saturday, September 06, 2014 - Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania
Half-Marathon:
Whew - it was hot. We were perspiring while lining up for the start. I had forgotten my fuel belt back at the hotel. This turned out to not be a problem as I need much more hydration than I usually carry. I made liberal use of the water/gatorade stations. I start out relatively easy with about a 5:30 min/km average pace for the first 5 km. However, things deteriorated rapidly after that. Each of the following 5 km segments were slower and I walked progressively more. I noticed a few calls for the ambulances and first aid people in the latter parts of the race. However, the organizers were very organized and the local people very supportive. There were several farms where the Amish people had hoses out and were spraying water on any runners who wanted that. In the last few km there were chests of ice placed beside the road so that any of the runners could help themselves. Very good practice for sure. Also , just after the ten mile mark a group of aid station volunteers ( who were mostly Amish children ) , were handing out cups with orange slush in them. I took two and walked until I finished them both. What a great idea!! Cold and stayed with me for quite a while!! Also at the finish the volunteers were handing out lots of post race food and ice cold chocolate milk!! Yeah!!
So despite the weather conditions which simply re-affirmed my knowledge that I have difficulty handling heat and humidity, this was a very positive experience for Mrs. Tortoise and myself. I will go back another year.
Time: 2:17:06 Age Group: 4/12 Total Runners: 622/1449
5 Km Segment Data:
#1: Time - 27:27 AP: 5:29 min/km AHR: 145 bpm
#2: Time - 30:14 AP: 6:02 min/km AHR: 147 bpm
#3: Time - 34:32 AP: 6:54 min/km AHR: 153 bpm
#4: Time - 37:19 AP: 7:27 min/km AHR: 157 bpm
#5: Time - 7:37 AP: 6:31 min/km AHR: 162 bpm






Saturday, September 13, 2014 - St. Clements, Ontario
Half-Marathon
I decided to run this event a few weeks ago. It is the first annual Harvest race and has been started to aid local charities and a charity in Kenya. This event was organized to honour Wesley Korir, a world class marathoner who is married to a local woman and lives part of the year near St. Clements. I also wanted to pace my friend Mike in his first long race since his concussion last winter.
The course is an excellent one. It consists of a rolling terrain but not particularly difficult hills and overall uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back. It is out and back with a large loop at the far end. Most of the race is on a dirt road. I found this to be an excellent course!
Race Day:
I picked up Mike and we drove to St. Clements and parked by the Recreation Centre. It was raining a bit, which settled into a steady light drizzle. After having a softball from the nearby ball diamond bounce over my new car, I moved it to another nearby park. That was fortunate as the car that parked in that spot had his rear window smashed by a softball later. They have an excellent set up here as participants and friends can wait inside out of the rain.
At 8:40 , we went out in the drizzle for my usual warm up walk/jog. As there was no starting mat, our chip time would also be the gun time. Mike and I lined up about 2/3 back in the crowd. Mike wanted to try for a 2:15 time. At the horn, we were off on a short loop around town before heading out to the countryside. We settled into a pace just under 6 minutes/km and maintained that for the first 10 km. Mike had a short pit stop in the third 5 km segment and we also took a couple extra walk breaks ( other than our regular 10 and 1 pattern ). This slowed our average pace a bit. We did pick up the pace a bit near the end. Also, Mike dug deep and sprinted the last 200 - 200 metres and actually had to wait a bit for me right before the finish mat so we could cross it together. His chip time was one second ahead of me.
Chip time for me was 2:11:42 Placing was 2/4 in age group - 133/146 men - 222.286 overall
5 Km Segments:
#1: 28:59 AP: 5:47 min/km - AHR: 133 bpm
#2: 30:49 AP: 6:09 min/km - AHR: 132 bpm
#3: 32:46 AP: 6:33 min/km - AHR: 129 bpm
#4: 31:15 AP: 6:14 min/km - AHR: 133 bpm
#5: 7:42 AP: 6:11 min/km - AHR: 135 bpm

I will run this event often!!


Saturday, September 20, 2014
This is the final event in my three week adventure. The Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, Utah was my very first marathon in 2014. It is a great event in a superb location. I told the organizers then that, if I was still running, I would return and run it again when I was 70 years young. That was last year. I was dully registered and all travel plans were in place. Then a little hiccup. My surgery for prostate cancer was that weekend last year. The organizers were kind enough to defer my entry until this year - my ten year anniversary. Thus we planed a trip this year. Then my dear friend Laura decided to fly up from Texas to run the marathon as well. That was the icing on the cake.
Pre-Race:
We flew to Las Vegas on Thursday and rented a SUV and drove the nine hours to Logan, Utah. That made for a very long day. On Friday morning, I went out for a short run/walk to loosen up the legs and then Bonnie and drove down to Salt Lake City to pick up Laura ( and the Altra shoes she had ordered for me!). We went to the small expo and picked up our packets. Altra is a sponsor and so I bought a pair of racing Altras at a very good price. Then we drove the course. Bonnie and Laura kept insisting that we were driving up hill when we were ascended the mountain part. Wrong!! They realized their error when we drove back. The course is downhill pretty much until mile 17 and then slightly rolling with a lot of turns for the past 9 miles. We all had an early night.

Race Day:
Laura and I were up and caught the shuttle bus from our hotel at 5 AM. This drove us to the finish area in Merlin Olsen Park ( NFL Football star and Hollywood actor ). There we transferred to the busses taking us to the start. After a 40 minute bus ride we arrived at the start. This area was well organized with a heated tent available to wait in. Temperature was about 38 F and elevation is around 5,700 feet. With about 20 minutes to the start, we loaded our clothes bag into the bus and I did a short walk/jog to warm up.

Race:
My goal was to qualify for the 2016 Boston Marathon as the window had just opened for that race. My qualifying time is 4:25 and I wanted a nice cushion and so was aiming for 4:15. I had considered a couple different approaches to attaining this time and ended up deciding the do the downhill quickly and hold on as best I could. I was nervous about the forecast of high 70's and low 80's by the time we finished. ( The forecast was spot on. ) I knew that the heat would have a debilitating effect on my running near the end. When the horn sounded I settled into a comfortable but relatively fast pace. The crowd soon thinned out and I was pretty much able to run without interference. The 17 miles down the mountain were basically a fun run. I tried to not wear my legs out too much but there were a couple fairly steep declines that I could feel in my quads. Everything pretty much went as planned. It is a very scenic course. There aren't many spectators, especially in the mountains, but those who were there were very supportive. There were lots of aid stations and the people there were great. Also there were police on motorcycles and first aid cyclists patrolling back and forth. The had part is definitely the last 9 miles. It was getting hot and I was definitely feeling it. I took a couple of extra walk breaks and kept checking my Garmin to determine average pace and total time. I realized with a few km to go that I could realize my goal time and so eased up a bit. All the while making sure anyone who passed me wasn't another old codger!! Actually all of us seemed to be suffering by then and there was little passing and lots of sympathetic chatter. I walked a bit extra after the 25 mile marker.
My finishing chip time was 4:10:18 - well under my 4:15 goal time and good for first place in my age group of Men - 70 Plus Also: Men - 172/369 and Overall - 276/657
I won a huge trophy of a moose standing in a marsh and $50 - thus eliminating my amateur status!! We ended up not bring the trophy home for a number of reasons. It was too heavy to carry on the plane, it was too fragile to ship home, and we have no place to put it in our apartment. The money I spent. Overall this ia super event, well organized and in a great part of North America. Having Laura there to share this weekend with Bonnie and I was so very, very nice!!
5 km Segment Stats:
#1 26:59 AP: 5:23 AHR: 140 - pretty much all gentle downhill
#2 27:36 AP: 5:31 AHR: 142 - mostly downhill with a couple very short inclines
#3 27:53 AP: 5:34 AHR: 142 - mostly downhill - one long slight incline
#4 28:39 AP: 5:43 AHR: 142 - same as segment #3
#5 28:03 AP: 5:36 AHR: 146 - gentle downhill - starting to get hot
#6: 29:11 AP: 5:50 AHR: 149 - last of the downhill and now rolling terrain
#7: 30:26 AP: 6:06 AHR: 153 - starting to feel the effects of the heat
#8: 33:30 AP: 6:41 AHR: 151 - one short pit stop
#9: 18:04 AP: 7:12 AHR: 148 - distance on Garmin 2.52 km - extra walk breaks

Thus ended my 5 races in three weeks period of insanity!!

Ken

[Jwolf]

Wow Ken- you are a machine.
Awesome racing

[erinmcd]

Wow- that was a busy few weeks with some great racing!

[Habs4ever]

What a great read and fabulous results, Ken. You are amazing and an inspiration to all, especially to those of us who are in the 50+ category. You prove that even as we age we can still keep going and achieving. Well done, friend!

[purdy65]

So awesome!! I wanna be just like you when I grow up!

[HCcD]

Congratulations on another awesome race, err, races, Ken .....

[Spirit Unleashed]

Great report.
Utah was fun. Thanks for a nice time.

[5km]

That's a killer schedule! Well done, Ken.

Congratulations.

[Spirit Unleashed]

[Ken B]

Thanks for posting the pics, Laura. I still haven't figured out how to do that.

[Nicholas]

Nice moose!! Congrats on a successful and busy month of racing.

For posting photos or avatars, go heere for instructions:

http://www.runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3748

[Ken B]

Nice moose!! Congrats on a successful and busy month of racing.

For posting photos or avatars, go heere for instructions:

http://www.runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3748

Thanks. I will print those instructions out!!

[Robinandamelia]

That's some great racing my friend! Congrats to you.

[Stampie]

Wow impressive Ken, congrats!

[West Grey Runner]

Inspiring Ken, simply inspiring. When I retire I wanna be just like you!

[Dstew]

Wow!

Inspiring indeed.

[Doonst]

Great stuff Ken!