Squamish MOMAR Race Report

May 23, 2009

This report is way overdue, but at least it is finally complete. This was the first of only two MOMAR's this year and the third year at the Squamish venue. For the first time, I decided to try a MOMAR solo. In the past I have raced with Garth Campbell and we have managed to get some respectable finishes, but have never been able to sit atop the podium. Garth is a stronger kayaker than me,we are similar speed on the mountain bike, but I hold the edge when running. Since there is not kayaking in the Squamish MOMAR, I decided to go solo to see if I had enough to make it to the top.

Upon looking at the map handed out 1 hour before start time, I realized that this course was going to be a tough one and had a large amount of mountain biking. This was not good news for me since my biking is not as strong as my running. I also didn't really pay attention to the 3rd trek stage as it didn't look that significant on the map at first glance. Upon further inspection, however, I realized that that little trek was actually a climb up to the first peak of the Squamish Chief! If you have climbed it before, you know that it is more than a little hill with about 600m of elevation gain over a short distance. In all there were six stages in this race: short run, medium mountain bike, short navigation section, long mountain bike, ascent and decent of the Squamish Chief (including a rappel), and a short mountain bike. Originally there was to be a urban navigation stage as well, but it was cut as the course turned out to be taking too long.

Soon enough the race was underway and everyone charged ahead in the first 4km marked running stage. Within a couple of minutes, Gary Robbins and myself had distanced ourselves from the rest of the pack. Since Gary has been doing some intense training for his upcoming Western States Ultra, I knew he would go out hard. I was determined to keep him in sight as I didn't want him to build up a big lead so early in the race. Gary had a good strategy going in though and only carried the required gear and not any liquids while I found myself lugging around over a liter of liquids plus some food. Within a few minutes, I also started to feel my right calf which I had stressed the week before doing too many stair repeats. While I continued to feel it for the remainder of the race, it was not super painful and probably only played a minor role in my performance. While I probably was working harder than I should have been at this point given the this length of race, I did manage to stay in contact with Gary and hit the transition only 17 seconds behind.

With no shoes to change, I was quickly onto the bike with Gary a few seconds ahead. There was a moderate climb up some road and then onto some single track. Being stronger riders, Bart Jamula and John Markez passed me after the half way point in this stage. I was feeling reasonable, but for the first time since I had been using flats on my bike, I wished that I was using clipless pedals...and there was a lot of biking to go.

I hit the navigation stage in 4th place. This is where I hoped to do well and make up some time. The navigation itself turned out to be pretty straightforward, but the controls themselves were all hidden. It was a bit frustrating getting to the correction location, and then having to search for the correct tree or root ball for the control. At the second control John caught up to me (I guess he must have gone elsewhere first) and since we were going at the controls in the same order, we helped each other grab a couple of them. I made no big mistakes, but did take longer to find the controls that I would have liked. Also, the course was small so my advantage in being able to run faster between controls than most people was reduced.

I finished the stage at the same time as John, hopped on my bike and proceed to go the wrong direction down on the road! Luckily, I looked at my map and soon corrected my error. After bit more climbing on the road, we moved onto some single track that didn't look all that significant on the map, but ended up being quite a climb. While all ride-able, it seem to go on and on and definitely made me work. Eventually, the decent started and I had my hands full navigating technical terrain that is on the edge of my ability. There was even a log crossing that I convinced my body to ride before my brain knew what was up. Then back on the road for a bit of flat and then another climb to the start of another section of down hill single track. I wasn't rocketing up the hill, but kept it steady and controlled. I knew there was still a long way to go. The downhill single track was pretty much the same as it was in last years course and consists of a number of sections broken up by road crossings. Much of it is quite fun, but there are sections that test my abilities. Early in the decent, I misjudged a corner and had a bit of a wipe out over the handle bars and into some tree branches. The crash was minor and I got nothing more than couple of scratches. Unfortunately, it ended up bending my read derailleur which caused my gears to shift on their own. I managed to bend it back enough so that most of the time it would behave. Later in the race, however, I would end up paying more for this little crash. It could have been worse, however, as I later found out that John had crashed and had to pull out of the race.

At checkpoint 8, I was told that I was in 2nd place. "Really?" Up to now, I was still expecting to be in 4th. That gave me a bit of a mental boost and I tackled some more uphill and cross country on the bike. I thought I was moving pretty well, but Norm Thibault managed to catch me at the end of the single track. He was just in front of me for a long section of gravel road and wide trails to get us to the base of the Chief. At the time, I figured that as long as I didn't let him get far ahead, I could catch him on the climb. I actually passed him at the transition as he spent some time changing his shoes and refueling. I managed a slow run to the start of the ascent, but my legs were tired after more than 3.5 hours of racing. I knew it was going to be a long painful climb with legs that felt like they had weights attached to them already. I put my head down, grabbed as many railings and trees as I could to help pull myself up, and did my best to power my way up. The one good thing was that my legs were so tired that my heart didn't have to work too hard. There were also a tons of tourist heading both directions that made the climb a bit of an obstacle course into itself.

The view from the top of the Chief. Photo Credit: Amber Thom

Eventually I reached the checkpoint at the top and took a quick look at the spectacular scenery. No time to doddle though and went back down a short ways to the rappel site. I wasted a bit of time getting into my harness which turned out to be a bit twisted up despite my efforts to pack it well. As I was getting into the harness, I saw Norm approaching. I was thinking, "No Way!, he can't have been that close to me."

"Have you been to the top yet?" I asked
"You mean we have to go all the way to the top!!?"

The rappel was long, but this being a race, I whipped down it as quickly as I safely could. My belay device was so hot by the time I finished, I almost burnt myself on it. Soon enough the harness was off and I was on my way back down. I proceed to have a quick, but controlled decent. This was no time to get injured just to save a few seconds. I saw many racers heading up and said hi to those I knew. At this point, I found out that Gary had actually dropped behind me during the navigation section and was not the one leading as I had suspected. During the decent, I suffered my mild cramping, twinges of which I also felt at other stages in the race. I was taking electrolytes, but probably not quite enough given the warm conditions and the challenging course. Luckily, compared to some other racers I talked to later, I fared well.

Tackling the River Crossing. Photo Credit: Mark Teasdale

Back on the bike for a short ride into Squamish. Along the way we got to cross a small river. I almost managed to power through it on my bike, but didn't quite make it. I make a minor navigational mistake after the crossing and as I revered course to correct myself, there was Gary. I did the friendly thing and told him I thought that was the wrong way and soon enough he was on my tail. On what was the last little climb of the race, I tried to shift down and most likely due to my damaged derailleur, my chain slipped off and into my spokes. Damn! I didn't panic as I thought it would be a quick fix and attempted to pull the chain out. It didn't want to come though no matter how hard I tried. Soon enough Gary caught up and as he passed he said "That's not right, that's not fair!" I will note that he never even slowed on his way passed. He was pushing hard and I don't know who would have won had I not had mechanical problems, but it certainly would have been closer. I do give Gary enormous credit for making up over 20min he lost in the orienteering to come in 2nd - that take fitness and well as mental determination. After a couple more minutes, I finally got the chain unstuck and was on my way to what I thought was the final transition to the urban navigation section. Unbeknowst to me, however, as I hadn't been notified, that stage was canceled as racers were taking too long to complete the tough course. I finished in 5:16:02, good for 3rd overall. Gary was 2nd and Bart raced to a well deserved victory with a finishing time of under 5 hours. Sarah Seads won the woman's division with a 6:31 time. Final results are here. While I didn't get the win and was disappointed to lose 2nd place so near the finish, overall I was fairly happy with my solo race. While physically I could have felt stronger, I avoided making any major navigational errors and didn't burn out.

Squamish MOMAR

Just got back from doing the MOMAR over in Squamish on Saturday. Thanks to course designer Jen Segger, it turned out to be the hardest and longest course in the 10 year series history. I raced solo for the first time on a course with tons of mountain biking and massive elevation change. Despite the fact that I am not as strong at mountain biking as I am at running, I managed to pull out a decent 3rd place finish. I'll have a full race report up in a while, but it may not be until the 2nd week of June due to an upcoming vacation.

Mt. Tzouhalem 11 km Gutbuster

May 17, 2009

For the first time (at least since I have been racing them), the gutbuster series commenced with the Mt. Tzouhalem race. Prior to the Mt. Washington ascent race being added in 2008, this race had the toughest climb of the series. Nearly all the climbing is packed into a single painful grind where 500m is gained in 3km or so. I doubt that anyone will ever complain that there isn't enough climbing for them in this race. In 2006, I placed 3rd at this race which really a great performance for me at the time. Since then, my times have gotten a little faster, but I have not placed any higher.

This year I had hoped to run under 1 hour (last year I ran 1:00:56) if I was able to have a good race. Where this would put me in terms of placement was difficult to say since you never know who will show up for these races. Unfortunately, prior to the race I suffered from a few poor nights of sleep and when I woke up on race day, I pretty much knew that I wasn't going to be at 100%.

Sonja and I rode up with Shannon Coutts and Claire Morgan. The day was awesome with temps over 20 degrees and clear skies although this was warmer than ideal for racing. Feeling that I might burn up on the climb, I opted to go shirtless for the first time ever in a race. It was a wise choice as I ended up not noticing the heat to any great extent.

The competition would be stiff in this race as Jason Loutitt, Kelly Guest, and Sean Chester all toed to the line. Jason is a very accomplished trail runner who has been on the Canadian Mountain Running Team and Kelly is a national level triathlete. I have competed against Sean in many local races - he has beat me twice on this course.

The course starts with a brief 1km warm up on a level surface before is starts to steepen on double track. As I expected, it didn't take long for Jason and Kelly to surge ahead. I kept my own pace and decided it would be foolish to try and chase. I can climb well, but I don't have the same level of core fitness as they do. Near the beginning of the climb, Travis Hird briefly passed me, but seemed to be working hard. I didn't know who is was and didn't try to respond as I figured that he didn't know that this was just the start. Sure enough within a minute of passing me, he fell back and ended up placing 11th. I settled into 3rd place and hoped to hold on to it.

This climb always hurts so of course this year was no exception. I was feeling OK, but did feel a like I wasn't able to push as hard as I would like to. In previous years, I remember working so hard that my temples throbbed with blood as I pushed myself to the edge of my ability. This year I just didn't seem to have the energy most likely due the poor sleep. Luckily, I could have felt worse and was still able to run all but the two steepest sections. Jason was actually still in sight at the halfway mark, but quickly disappeared after that.

I finally hit the high point just after the 28min mark. After a bit of downhill road, we were treated to some fantastic single track. Technical single track is what I enjoy the very most and there are a couple of km of that on this course. While the climb felt like a bit of a struggle, I felt as though I was moving well though these sections. I was already a couple of minutes behind the leaders, but there was also no one in sight behind me.

There is a small climb just before the final decent. In 2006 this section nearly stopped me to my tracks as my legs were completely fried at that point. Luckily, my body is better able to take it now. After that, the course heads back down the mountain and races are treated to a punishing decent on double track. While I can't run down paved grades that well, I feel I can hold my own on this steep stuff. Attention must be taken as to make sure that you don't do a header, but otherwise it can be fun to bomb down the hill. Hopefully I didn't take out any of the short course runners who were returning along the same route as I ran by.

I kept the speed up and still thought at this time that I might be able to better my 2008 time despite my mediocre climb. Unfortunately, I underestimated how long the return is. I struggled up the final little hill before the finishing stretch and rolled into the finish in 1:01:21. I held my place at 3rd which I was happy with, but it was a disappointing 25sec off of last years time. I hope it is a consequence of the lack of sleep rather than lack of conditioning. I'll find out soon enough at my upcoming races.

Jason smoked the course in 55:50 with Kelly not too far behind in 56:44. Sarah Peters won the female division, Shannon Coutts won her age category, and Sonja enjoyed a 2 min improvement over last year. Andrew Pape-Salmon also raced well coming in 7th overall. Results can be found here.

Sun Run vs. Times Colonist

I finally got the time to run a comparison between the top competitors in the Sun Run 10k and Times Colonist 10k. Based on my races this year, it seems that the TC was a slightly more difficult course, but I wondered if a little analysis would show the same.

I took the top 100 finishers from the Sun Run and compared them the TC finishers to see who had run both races. Twenty-one had run both races. I then compared their finishing times to see how their times compared between the races.

Findings: 81% (17 out of the 21) of the sample ran faster at Sun Run than at TC with an average difference of 19 seconds. In addition, every finisher in the top 30 at the Sun Run ran slower at the TC.

Limitations: I did not run a proper statistical analysis which would allow us to see if the findings were statistically significant. The sample size is small and therefore the results are less reliable than would be ideal. Also, depending on which finishers you choose to select (e.g. picking the top 200 instead of the top 100 or selecting the top 100 men and 100 woman) the findings would differ. There is also the possible factor of decreased performance during the TC since the Sun Run was only one week prior.

It was still an interesting result and provides some vindication for those of us who ran slower at the TC.

Times Colonist 10K

April 26, 2009

I have been remiss on working on this race report. I just haven't been able to find the time to sit down and do it so a somewhat summarized version will have to suffice.

As stated in my Sun Run post where I had a mediocre run, I was really hoping to run a better race and and get a better time at the TC. Based on my race season so far, it seemed as though I was running a little faster than last year so I thought knocking 30+ seconds off my time was not unreasonable if I ran a solid race.

A few minutes before the race stared we were all treated to a great rendition of the national anthem by fellow Harrier Sandi Heal (unfortunately, I didn't really hear it well as I was still warming up).

To get close to my 33min goal I would need to run somewhere in the 3:20/km pace range. I opened the race up with the first 4km being in that range and I was feeling fairly strong. There was a little bit of movement in terms of placing during the first few km with a couple falling back and one guy pushing ahead of me. While these first splits were good I knew that it was going to be hard to maintain them after the turn around since there was a substantial climb up to Clover Point and another up to Mile Zero. Sure enough, even though I continued to move well and maintain or gain on the other runners, my splits slipped to around 3:30 for 3 km. Those 3 km accounted for the 30 sec I was looking for.

Soon after the turn around I caught up to Neil Holm who typically runs faster than me (he ran a 33:05 at Sun Run) so I was encouraged by that. However, he was probably having a tough day. After Mile Zero we get a small reprieve on a downhill grade to the breakwater and I picked up a bit of time. I definitely felt better at the 7km mark than I had at Sun Run at this point although I was not feeling really powerful as can happen on those rare races. I continued to run side by side with Neil while we made our way through James Bay and pushed towards the finish. I have run this route many times with the TC and all RVM distances following the same roads, but I still tend to underestimate the length of the section between Ogden Point and Erie St where the course starts to jog. I seem to think that it is not a consequential distance enough though it is close a km long.

Mid Race with Neil

At this point I still thought I had a chance to at least set a new PB although I knew that getting really close to 33min was not going to happen. I posted a 3:26 for the 9th km which wasn't too spectacular. With about 1km to go Neil tried to break away from me several times, but I was able to respond each time. With a few hundred meters to go I put a surge on and pulled ahead and nearly reeled in the next place guy, Darcy Bell, who finished mere second ahead. I finished in 33:45, 3 sec slower than the Sun Run and 1 sec slower than last year.

I was disappointed in my time even though the race felt decent. this is the first year since I have trained consistently that I did not post a better time than the previous year. I have come a long way on my low mileage and unstructured training program, but I think I may be nearing a plateau on my current training program. On the plus side I placed 3rd in my age division for my first ever medal at the TC (this was surprise considering I was 28th overall). It seems that the Sun Run is actually a faster course given that I ran nearly identical times even though I felt much worse at Sun Run. Also, based on a non-scientific analysis (I plan to take a closer look soon) it appears that the vast majority of the top finishers also ran slower (generally 15-30 sec).

The race was won by Willy Kimosop in a blistering 29:29 (he also won Sun Run) and the top woman, Kathy Butler, clocked a 34:01. Sonja continued her PB breaking season by running a 43:36 and Harrier Julie Van Veelen also ran a solid PB of 41:10.

My splits were: 3:17, 3:20, 3:15, 3:16, 3:28, 3:34, 3:32, 3:23, 3:26, 3:15

While I had hoped for better, it is now time to look forward to the trail and adventure racing season. This was my 9th road race of the year so ready for the different challenges of the trails. I'm concentrating a hills for the next few months as I think that it still were I can pick up the most time.

Vancouver Sun Run

April 19, 2009

I was on the fence about doing this race simply because it looked like it would be a bit of a pain to spend the better part of the weekend over in Vancouver just for a 10k race. However, when I got the opportunity to travel over with the Victoria Select Team I decided to take it. I would like to thank Maurice Wilson from BC Athletics and Bob Reid from the Prairie Inn Harriers for the organizing and supporting myself and the other athletes from Victoria. We were well taken care of and I really appreciated the opportunity to participate in this race. In line with my race goals this year, my ultimate goal was get under 33 min, but I would be satisfied with a good race were I posted a time in the low to mid 33's.

Eight of us, including Kristopher Swanson, Nick Best, Sean Chester, Kevin Searle, Cheryl Murphy, Paul O'Callaghan, and Ian Hallam headed over together on Saturday afternoon. With the exception of Nick, I had never really had the opportunity to talk much with any of these runners so it was great to meet some new accomplished athletes. I was one of the slower runners in the van so it was good to put my performances in perspective. I have had some minor success as a runner, but there are still many people who would be embarrassed to run as slow as my best times. It is really helps to put things into perspective. We checked into the Hyatt Regency which is very conveniently located right beside the race start. I shared a room with Kevin and Craig Odermatt who would arrive later in the evening. After a lazy evening and dinner with the group at Milestones, I turned in hoping to get a solid sleep. Unfortunately, it was somewhat restless and didn't sleep as soundly as I would have liked.

The start line (my hair is in here somewhere)

The race start was 9am so I was down in front of the growing crowd of runners and walkers around 8:30. I did a quick warm up with Kevin and Sean and I felt a bit sluggish. I hoped this wouldn't be a bad sign. Because the race was so huge (around 50,000 registered) I was very glad to have a seated number and got to line up right near the front. When the run started, things were only congested for the first couple hundred meters which wasn't bad at all. As Nick posted in his blog it was amusing to watch a young guy blast off the line in front of all the elites. He lasted all of 200m before quickly falling back, but I guess he got his 20 seconds of fame. The first km of the course loses over 25m of elevation and is extremely fast. I covered the distance in 3:02 and the leaders were already 20+ sec ahead. Km 2 and 3 also passed quickly and under my goal pace of around 3:21. I felt reasonable, but did think that I was having to work a little harder than I would have liked at this point in the race. I have found that things should feel pretty comfortable for the first few km in a 10k race or else things may not turn out well.

My time dropped down to 3:33 on my 5th km as we climbed up to Burrard Bridge although as usual I fared well compared to the people around me on the climb. Things started to become uncomfortable after the 6km marker and this was not good news. 6km is too early in a 10k race to start loosing form. Unbenost to me at the time, Kevin was running a fantastic race and he caught up to me around 7km. I managed to stay with him for a while, but it was definitely a struggle to keep my pace. Luckily, I felt worse than what my times were indicating and I was still under a 3:30 pace. Kevin pulled away a little with about a km to go and while I attempted to reel him in on the little climb on Cambie Bridge I just didn't have enough left to do it. The finish is thankfully downhill and I finished with a decent 3:19 final km. I didn't have the gas for a sprint finish though and suffered in at 33:42 good for 50th overall and a surprising 4th in my age group. This was a 2sec PB for me compared to my 2008 Times Colonist. While I should perhaps not complain about a PB, I know that I can do better I would have liked to feel stronger. On the plus side, the fact that I didn't feel good, but was still able to squeak out a minor PB should be indicative of a somewhat better fitness level. I'll be able to test this at the Times Colonist this weekend. Results are here. There were an massive 42,563 finishers. Kevin set a PB of 45sec or so finishing 3sec ahead of me. The top finisher in our van was Kristopher finishing in an impressive under 30:53 which was good for 11th.

My splits were: 3:02, 3:15, 3:17, 3:28, 3:33 (16:35 5km split), 3:23, 3:28, 3:27, 3:29, 3:19 (16:39 5km split).

Sabino Canyon Sunset Run

April 4, 2009

I took a week vacation to visit my brother who lives in Tucson, Arizona part time and decided to add this little race in for something different. While it is a road race, it is a bit different in a couple of ways: it is an evening race (starting at 6pm), and it has an unusual distance of 7.4 Miles (11.9km).

Unfortunately, I came down with yet another cold a few days prior to this race. Thankfully, it was rather mild, but still sucked some energy out of my body. I spent the entire day before the race traveling and ended up arriving in Tucson very late due to aircraft delays. I didn't really know what to expect of my body because of the long trip, the end of the cold effects, the evening start time, and a totally different climate. By looking at previous results, I was able to get a rough idea of the level of competition that would likely be there although not knowing the course made prediction more difficult. It looked very likely that I would place in the top 10 barring a complete race meltdown and placing in the top couple of spots might be within reach.

Compared to racing on Vancouver Island where I always know at least a few people who are competing, arriving at a totally new venue where I knew no one except my brother (who doesn't run) was different. It reminded me of when I first started racing and knew very few people at the local races. Being a desert down there, I was a little worried that it would be too hot, especially considering how cold and miserable this year has been here. Luckily, however, it was actually quite cool and standing around with shorts and tank top was a little chilly due to some breeze.

The course was an out and back one on a road used for tourism vehicles and walkers only. The course turns around when the road ends which is why it distance it so unusual. The course description says it is uphill on the way up so I was expecting some mild grades up, but it turned out to be steeper than had thought (with about 250m in elevation gain total).

Within the first mile, I knew that this wasn't going to be a stellar race for me. The legs felt heavy and while I didn't feel horrible overall, nor did it feel easy as it should at the beginning of a race. The dry air was also unusual for me and left me with a parched mouth almost right away. As already mentioned, the course was primarily uphill with a couple of flats and dips here and there. I was in about 6th place for the first couple of miles and was battling it out with a guy on the climbs. Even though I was not feeling great, I was still able to climb reasonably well and would pass this guy on the uphills only to have him catch me and pass me back on the flats and dip. Unfortunately, around the 2.5 mile mark he pulled further ahead and I really started to suffer and was unable to respond. The final mile or so up the the turnaround at 3.7 miles was steep and I was really feeling the strain. Miles 2 and 3 were my slowest with splits of 6:40 and 6:38 respectively. During this portion of the climb, all I hoped to do was hang on and avoid being passed by any more runners.

One of the runners if front of me looked to be suffering even more than me, however, and I gradually gained on him up to the turn-around. At that point he and stopped at the aid station and slowed to a walk and looked like he was suffering from cramps. I passed him at that point and I'm unsure it he finished or not. Luckily, once we headed back down, I started to feel better and it looked like I would be able finish the last half fairly strong. I heard footsteps behind me for quite a while on the decent and with about one mile to go, the guy finally caught up to me. He gave me some encouragement saying something along the lines of "Come on stay with me!" Feeling that I did have something left in me, I took his advise and picked up my pace a bit moving ahead of him and then pushing hard on the small uphill before the final decent. I tried to pull far enough ahead that I hoped he couldn't close the gap. I ran hard to the line, finishing in 5th place in 43:22. It was not a great time for this distance, but was much hillier than the most comparable race I can think here which would be the Cedar 12K. I beat the 4th place guy (who quite coincidentally is a co-worker of my brother's girlfriend) by a small margin. Results are here. The first place finisher won in around 40:45. There were approx 400 finishers. A nice feature of the race was the pre-awards entertainment. They had a cowboy doing rope and gun tricks for a half hour while results were being tabulated. Having entertainment is a good idea that other races should consider emulating. My final splits were:
5:33, 6:01, 6:40, 6:38, 5:05, 5:28. 5:55, 2:02 (0.4 Miles).