Hatley Castle 8K

February 22. 2009

The Hately Castle 8K takes place at Royal Roads University located in Colwood. For those who have never been to the university it is worth the trip both for the good assortment of trails as well as the castle and gardens. This race is the oddball of the Island Race Series as it is the only race which has trails and gravel roads (half the course is off pavement). This fact, combined with some decent elevation gain (for a this type of race) creates a course that is more difficult than a standard 8K. Setting a PB here is not an easy task. Since hills tend to be one of my strengths, I have typically done well compared to other racers in previous years even if my times have unspectacular. I kind of like this course as it offers something a little different.

My training has been going well up to this race and I had been putting about 6 hours of quality running in on my non racing weeks and about half that on alternate weeks. This is low for many people, but a little more than I have averaged in the past. I had also been sleeping well so felt that I was capable of putting in a good effort. My goal was to get under 28min which would be a modest improvement over last year.

This course has a downhill start and consequently the field moves out very quickly. Even though I have seen it numerous times, I am still surprised how often I see a bunch of guys go out at a pace way harder than they can sustain. In this case, I was about 10th at 200m and by 1.5km I had moved into 4th. Psychologically I think it would be tough to race like that and lose so many positions right away. I don't believe that it leads to the best race performance either. I can't say that I have run all my races properly either, but I am getting a lot better at it. It seems that woman tend to be much more conservative in their racing which probably ends of being less painful for them.

Just like at Cedar, Scott Simpson, Eric Findlay, and Sean Chester were all in attendance at this race and they soon sorted themselves out in that order. From previous experience I knew that the first km was very fast followed by a slower km up a grade to a turnaround. The first three quarters of the third km gives everyone a bit of a respite before heading into the steepest climb of any Island Series Race. The first km passed in the expected brisk 3:12. As mentioned previously, I had reeled in the 4th place position held by Chris Barth 1.5km. Hugh Trenchard was on my shoulder so I knew that I was running at an appropriate pace. Chris joined our little group and I led the way out to the turnaround and back to the base of the big climb. I've heard lots of complaining about this hill and how tough it is, but I really don't find it that bad. In fact, because it is proceeded by some downhill grade, it was only my 4th slowest split on the race. The best trick is to just get onto your toes and lean into it - its almost over before you know it.

Nearing the top of the 'big' hill with Hugh and Chris. Photo credit: Garth Campbell

After the hill there is a km of fairly flat paved road. Here I was hoping to get a split around my goal pace of 3:30. I took the split and looked a my time: 3:38! "What the hell was that?" I was feeling good and it had seemed like I was moving well so I couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. Fortunately, at this point I was only 4 sec off my goal time due to the fast first km. I figured that as long as I could stay near 3:30 for the next couple of km I could make up some lost time on the downhill section after 6km. The course turned to a gravel road and headed out to another turnaround, came back towards oncoming racers and then quickly turned onto a wide trail in the forest.

Despite continuing to feel strong I was dismayed to see the next two km pass in 3:34 and 3:40 respectively. "Sh*t!" Nearly 20 sec behind my goal at this point, it felt like my goal was slipping away and I would be lucky to tie my time from last year. Had I actually written my splits down from last year however, I probably would not have worried quite so much. If I race here again next year I will have it documented exactly! Km 6-7 is nearly all downhill and includes a significantly steep downhill pitch. This section can be hammered hard and is not too punishing on the body because it is gravel. The km flew by in 3:08 gaining me back what I had lost over the last few km. The last km is not easy with a mild, but challengingly placed hill a few hundred meters from the finish. Luckily, the very last section is downhill and everyone can put on a nice sprint to the line.

I finished in 27:56 and fortunately I had managed to put some time between myself and Hugh and Chris over that last half of the course held on to my 4th place position. This was 21 sec better than my 2008 time and I finished feeling pretty strong. Unsurprisingly, Scott smoked the course in 25:19 and Cheryl Murphy picked up another win in the woman's division. Results are here. My complete splits were 3:12, 3:38, 3:35, 3:38, 3:34, 3:40, 3:08, and 3:33. The Bazan Bay 5K is on March 8 and I'm hoping to break the 16min barrier on a nearly pancake flat course there. Happy running!

Cedar 12k

February 12, 2009

Cedar is a small community located just south of Nanaimo. It has hosted this Island Race Series race since 1982 (the course used to be 15k up to 1999). While the course is one that includes a couple of significant hills reasonable times are still possible here and I've never run a bad race here.

To save fuel and make the trip more interesting, Sonja and I car-pooled up with fellow Harriers Brent Chan, Gary Duncan and Claire Morgan. It is always fun to ride with a bunch of runners who never get tired of constant running talk. How many normal people could stand hours of talk about PB's, negative splits, and 3:45km pacing without their eye's rolling back in their head? We made good time in light Sunday morning traffic and arrived with plenty of time to do all the pre-race preparation.

My legs had been feeling pretty tired on the week leading up to this race (probably a result of a relatively high mileage the previous week), but since I had taken the time to recover I was hoping that fatigue would not play a role in this race. My goal was to beat my time of 41:49 from 2008 which would mean running a under 3:29 pace.

I spotted a few fast runners as we lined up for the start. Scott Simpson, Eric Findley, Sean Chester, and Stefan Jakobsen were all likely to run fast races. The course is basically a out and back one with the exception of the first kilometer which follows a U shape and is not repeated on the return. Upon the race start, Scott, Sean, and Eric went out fast as expected along with Mark Cryderman and Neil Holm. Right away I found myself running in a good sized pack of about 10 racers. I find it good to run with one or two other racers who can help push/pull you along, but I really do not like running in a pack, particularly not when I am in the middle of it. I feel boxed in and often get my heels stepped on. In retrospect I think I should have tried to push a little harder to get out of the pack sooner than I did because not only did I not really like it, but I think it also limited my speed for the first 1.5km or so. The pace felt positively pedestrian at first even though it wasn't slow (3:24 for the first km) and had I been on my own I would have probably gone out 5-10 seconds faster. I'll never know if that faster pace would have hurt me later in the race or not.

Running with the pack at the 1km marker. Photo Credit: Erin Burrett

In any case, by the second km the pack had started to break up a bit and I found myself out front of it running with Mark Nelson and Stefan. I figured that this was a good place to be as Mark is having a great season so far and edged me out at Cobble while I have yet to beat Stefan who is an accomplished triathlete. Kilometers 2-5 went by in relative comfort and speed which was aided by a couple of downhill downhill sections. The sixth kilometer had slight uphill grade which slowed my split to 3:35, but did not worry me much as I was still right in with Mark and Stefan so I knew that my relative effort had not changed. I saw the 5 runners in front of us as we neared the turn around at 6.5km. Scott probably had 1.5 minutes on us at this point and would add a couple more before then end of the race.

I continued to feel strong and managed to keep on or under my goal pace until hitting the hills. The steepest hill is at 9km and definitely makes you work to get to the the top while trying not to totally leave yourself breathless. I like to push hard on hills, but this can sometime backfire if I end up having nothing upon reaching the top and then can't recover. Luckily this was not the case this time. Stefan and I pulled a little away from Mark on the hill and I kept the pressure up. I knew that while there was no guarantee that I would beat either of them I was going to make them work for it. The final hill at 10.5km actually looks worse than it is following by a slight down slope which allows you to get the legs moving pretty good. Stefan was just behind me when we hit the 11km marker and I decided to see if I could pick the pace up for the final km. I would have to say that the last few hundred meters of this course is probably the hardest because it moves onto a grass field which saps energy at a time when it is in very short supply. It also includes a tiny hill that would normally not be noteworthy, but with 150m to go everyone feels it. Even though I put a decent surge on for the entire final km, I thought that Stefan and/or Mark might try to put on a charge to try and overtake me, but luckily they did not. I hit the line at 41:31, good for 6th place and a 18 sec improvement on my 2008 time. This race felt better than any I have had for a while and was certainly better than Pioneer or Cobble so I actually thought my time would have been faster than it was. I would have preferred to see a 30-45 sec improvement over last year as that would have positioned me well to get close to 33min at the Sun Run or Times Colonist. Overall though, I am happy to run a smart race and feel good doing it. Results are here. My final splits were: 3:24, 3:25, 3:24, 3:28, 3:21, 3:35, 3:28, 3:25, 7:07 (missed the 9km marker), 3:32, 3:22. Sonja had a very good day, shaving more than 4 minutes off her 2007 time and fellow Harrier Mike Janes also ran a excellent race and took over 4 minutes off his 2008 time. Now if only I could see such improvements!

Cobble Hill 10K

January 25, 2009

Cobble is the 2nd of the Island Race Series. This is the second year at this particular location, previously, the race was held in Mill Bay on what I believe was a slightly more difficult course. I was hoping race conditions would be a bit better than last year when there was frost on a portion of the course.

This was my first 10k of the year and I was hoping to produce a good race that would help motivate me to work hard to achieve my 33min 10 goal. Unfortunately, I have been unlucky in my battle with viruses this winter and came down with a bit of a bug the day before the race. I basically lazed around all Saturday feeling crappy and thinking that would not race on Sunday. I see little point in racing while sick because in addition to feeling worse than normal during the race, my performance is almost sure to be less than stellar. Luckily for me, I had a good sleep Saturday and woke up feeling decent. I wasn't quite 100%, but felt good enough to put on a decent effort.

Cobble Hill attracts a much less competitive field than Pioneer, but there still ended up being 15 runners dipping under 35min which is not bad at all. The National Triathlon Centre seems to use this race for training as 10 of their members also came out to race (4 of them placing in the top 10). There was going to be plenty of competition for me.

There was a huge line up at the day of race registrations I was was happy that I was already signed up. I think there was something like 150 day of registrations. Are there that many people who just can't make of their mind ahead of time?

I did a warm up with Sonja which felt pretty mediocre. My legs felt heavy and I just was not really into the racing mentally at that point. Still, I have felt bad before a race before and still ended up having a good race so I have learned from experience to not worry about it too much. The weather was cool, but freezing and although there had been a dusting of snow the night before it was fully melted on the road surface.

The start and finish line was moved up a hundred meters or so up the road from where it was last year. I suspect that this was to help alleviate the congestion that occurred last year because the side road was fairly narrow. The change should have made little difference to the course since the extra distance was made up in the out and back section of the course.

The race started promptly at 11am and as seems usual these days I got jostled a bit from racers eager to push to the front despite the fact that I was in the front row. Perhaps I should be more aggressive although I see little point in wasting my energy off the line since the first km is always fast anyway. One guy who looked to be in his 50's positively sprinted off the line and shared the lead with Todd Howard for the first hundred meters or so. His strategy was a bit baffling to me as within a couple hundred meters, he had fallen back behind me. His moment of glory perhaps?

Once I began the race, I realized that I felt reasonable and that that it was at least not going to be a disaster. From Cobble Hill Rd, the course heads south on a side road for a quick out and back of under 2km. The first two km passed rather quickly in 3:16 and 3:15, but this was primarily because there was more downhill than uphill. During the climb back up to Cobble Hill Rd I lost some of that time again dropping to below my goal pace of 3:24 (34min finish time) and posting a 3:29. I soon found myself running in a pack with three others: Mark Nelson, Hugh Trenchard, and Nicholas Bocherens. This was a good thing because over the next several km we traded places in the lead helping us pull each other along.

The course has a slight grade uphill until 5km or so and recorded my slowest time on the 5th km despite the fact that I was pulling the group along at this point and pushing fairly hard. My 5km split was 17:04 just shy of the 34 min goal. Unfortunately, after the halfway point I started to struggle a bit and km 6-9 where each off my pace goal by a few seconds. It doesn't help that there a small rolling hills on this part of the course. The race brochure says this is a flat course, but that is misleading and I would describe it as undulating as there are definitely a number of small hills. Around 7km our little pack started to splinter and I was left falling off the back, never the place you want to be. Mark was having a great race and was pulling significantly ahead. I struggled to stay in touch as it can be mentally very difficult to bridge any significant gap on the later stages or the race. At 9km I forced myself to kick it into a higher gear and aided by some slight downhill I managed to make up some time and pass Nicholas and then Hugh with a few hundred meters to go. Unfortunately, Mark was too far ahead to run down in the time that I had, but I was happy to at least have a better final km than at Pioneer. I finished in 34:20, a little off the 34min I was gunning for and less than what I know I am capable of. However, considering I almost didn't run at all, it wasn't bad and I did manage to take 8 seconds off of my time from last year. My final list of splits were 3:16, 3:15, 3:29, 3:26, 3:38, 3:31. 3:26, 3:30, 3:31, and 3:17. I've now made my C Standard Goal, but feel that I am farther from my A and B goals than I would like. I've decided to add another hour or two of quality running to my weekly schedule in the hopes that it will produce results.

Todd Howard won in 31:53, while the woman's title was picked up by Cheryl Murphy in 35:37, quite impressive considering she is also a master. Sonja set a new PB, running in under 45min and fellow Harriers Brent Chan and Chris Callendar also ran their best times at this distance. Another Harrier, Gary Duncan, conducted an interesting analysis comparing times for the top 150 male and female performances from this year compared to last (57 ran both races) and came to the conclusion that the average time this year was 9 seconds slower than last year. This is a bit surprising since conditions where definitely worse last year, but maybe most people are just not training enough!

Pioneer 8K

January 11, 2009

The Pioneer 8K road race (hosted by the Prairie Inn Harriers) is the first competitive race of the year locally (and considering the time of the year, probably the first in Canada). This year was a special one as well as it was the 30th anniversary with the first race starting in 1980. I don't think I would have given the race much thought back then considering I was only 3, but it is great to see such longevity in a race. Hopefully it will be around in another 30 years so I can run it when I am in my 60's.

This race is typically one of the most competitive Island Race Series races with only the Bazan Bay 5K having a deeper field. This year, however, the competition would reach a to a new level since to help celebrate the anniversary, high level athletes from all over Vancouver Island, the mainland, and beyond had been invited to compete for $7,000 in prize money. Running is not one of the better paid sports unless you are of truly international caliber so 7 grand represents a pretty significant purse for a local race.

Given the high level of completion, I expected that no matter how my race went, my placing would be low compared to last year (where I was 12th) so I completely focused on setting my own goals for the race. I find that this race is always a fairly tough one, considering how early it is in the year and factoring in that I am just coming off holidays where I might have ate a little more than normal and not trained as consistently. This year, there was and additional element called winter in the weeks leading up to the race. Usually, we don't really get a winter here, but this time Victoria got blasted with cold weather and many snow falls. Running outside was very difficult for several weeks which made training a bit more challenging. I had also not been feeling quite as good as I would have liked on my training runs in the month leading up to the race so needless to say I wasn't feeling that I was going to be able run a personal best, but hoped that I could still better my 2008 time of 27:16 and hopefully dip under 27min.

For the first time at this race, timing chips where supplied. The design was new disposable type which unlike standard timing chips don't need to be returned to the race organizers. While I do see the probable cost and administrative savings to the timing organizers it does seem a bit wasteful to only use the chips once (facilities were supplied to recycle the chips, but I'll bet many of them ended up in the landfill). Once very nice feature of the using the timing chips was that a midpoint mat was set up to capture our 4k splits.

Fish eye view of the start line. Photo credit: Adam Lawrence

Conditions on race day were excellent with overcast skies and cool temperatures. I did a brief 10min warm up with Sonja before heading to the start line. Pretty much the entire first km of the course is downhills so I fully expected to have a fast time for the first km despite the fact that I went out pretty conservatively. Just as I had thought the first km passed in 3:08 well ahead of my 3:23 goal pace, but as long as I didn't continue at such an unsustainable pace I would be fine. As the course flattened out between 1-2km I slowed to closer to my goal pace and started to get into the rhythm of the race. I ended up running in a bit of a gap with the closest of the about 25 runners ahead of me 20 meters in front of me. We headed through a portion of Brentwood Bay and up the steepest hill of the course. At around 3km I could hear someone close behind and when he pulled close, it turned out to be Hugh Trenchard. Hugh is an accomplished cyclist and runner. While I was able to nip him at many races last year, he would certainly not make it easy. We hit the 4km mat at 13:16, about 15s ahead of my 27min goal time. It was not a time to get excited, however, as I knew the final half of the course was somewhat more difficult than the first half and the final km is actually the same section as the first km only in reverse. Running a negative split on this race is not easy.

Hitting the 4km mat with Hugh: Photo Credit: Lara Wear

I was feeling decent at the halfway point, so with Hugh pushing me along continued to maintain a good pace. There is a bit of downhill to 5km marker then a slight uphill grade through to 6km. At about this point, I saw the leaders coming back after they had turned around at 6.5km. Jon Brown and Richard Mosley were close to 3min ahead of me at that point and were moving fast. It is impressive to see such high caliber athletes when they are really trying. I was able to keep up a decent pace through to the turnaround point, but I definitely started to feel the pain after that. Hugh and I did catch up with Ian Druce, who appeared to be struggling someone, just before the 7km marker. However, he managed to find some reserves and started to pull away again with Hugh giving chase. Generally, I am a good climber and can overtake most runners of my speed on the hills and I had hoped that I could dig deep to over take Hugh and Ian on the gradual incline of the last km. Unfortunately, I just didn't have enough left to put on much of a surge and Hugh end up beating me by 6sec. I managed a farily weak sprint to the finish, hitting the mat in 26:57 for 25th overall, good enough to beat my 2008 time by 19sec, but 12sec off my PB of 26:45 set at the RVM 8K in October last year. I'm pretty sure that RVM is a slightly easier course, however, so was not disappointed with my result. In past years I have gradually improved during the Island Race Series so I hope this year is no exception. I've got a bit of work to do if I am going to realize my 33min 10k goal for this year. For those interested, my splits were 3:08, 3:18, 3:28, 3:21, 3:21, 3:24, 3:29, and 3:29. Final results are here.

Feeling the pain near the finish line. Photo Credit: Tony Austin

It was nice to see a large group of Harriers out racing (nearly 100) many of whom had great performances. Nick Best's increased training is paying off as he beat me by a minute (last year I nipped him at the line). Sonja had a great race setting a PB by taking 43sec off her RVM time. Richard Mosley out sprinted Jon Brown at the finish to win in 23:35. It was great to see that every single person in this race had some real competition!

Thanks to those that follow my blog, I'll try had to always produce a race report no later than 1 week after a race (and hopefully sooner in most cases).

2009 Race Season Goals

Happy New Years to Everyone!

With the Pioneer 8k happening tomorrow, I thought I'd just a quick post to state my 2009 racing goals. This year I am concentrating on races under half marathon distance and would like to be able to get my 10k time down as much as possible. This does not mean that I will not race any longer races, but I am not planning to do much specific training for them. In much the same way that I have seen others state their goals, I have four levels of goals:

'A' Standard Goal: Run a sub 33 min 10k

'B' Standard Goal: Set a PB at 10k (under 33:44)

'C' Standard Goal: Run a sub 34:30 10k

Base Goal: Stay injury free and healthy so I can continue to run and race

Happy running to everyone!

Stewart Mountain 10 Miler

December 13, 2008

Stewart Mountain is the smallest of the 3 Thetis races (Thetis relay and Gunner Victoria are the other races), but it still boasts close to over 180 finishers. It is my favorite of the three races largely because it includes a significant climb and a decent amount of single track both of which favour my running style. Probably in no small part because of these factors, I have had pretty good races on my previous 3 tries. This was my final race of the year and I hoped to end the year on with a solid race. I definitely feel that I have been under performing in my races since the RVM 8k so this was my chance to redeem myself.

Conditions were hovering just a few degrees above freezing and there had been some snow at high elevations the night before. Racing in the winter can make it a bit tricky to figure out how to dress properly. There are a few choices to make: shorts or tights; singlet, tank top, short sleeve, or long sleeve; gloves or no gloves, toque or no toque. My experience has been to nearly always wear less than you think you need as at least for me personally I am more likely to feel too hot than too cold even in winter conditions. It was cold though, so I choose a medium weight long sleeve and gloves to go along with shorts. It turned out to be a smart call.

Now if you are still reading after that exciting clothing detour, I will get to the race. This year had a more competitive field than in 2007 with many of the same runners as I have talked about in recent races. The elite men's field included Jason Terauchi-Loutitt, Eric Findlay, and Sean Chester; all of whom are usually faster than me. Sean went out hard off the start line and I wondered if that was the last I would see of him. Within the first km or so, however, his pace decreased and Jason and Eric caught up to him with me trailing in 4th place. Soon, Jason was out of sight and that was the last I would see of him. I was was perhaps 10 seconds behind Sean when we turned away from Upper Thetis onto a single track trail (the map is found here for your reference). A couple of hundred meters in, I saw Sean slip around a corner and go down. Fortunately, he was uninjured and was back on his feet in no time. You can bet that I was careful around that corner!

Sean must have been feeling off since I was able to keep right on his tail which is unusual since he has definitely been a stronger runner than me recently. Seeing that he was so close, my strategy was going to be hang on his tail until the climb at the halfway point. Form my experience, I have generally been the stronger climber so I hoped to put some time into him there and then hold on for the return trip. To Sean's disadvantage, it turns out I would not have to follow this strategy. After wading through a knee deep swampy area (which completely numbed the legs and feet) followed by a creek, we hit an intersection where the course went left. At this point, I was just out of visual range, but expected to see him once I turned the corner. Upon doing so, however, I found the trail in front me empty. I was taken back a bit because I thought for a second that he had somehow put some serious time on me, but I soon realized that this was not possible and he must of taken a wrong turn. This was a bit of a break for me and I didn't see him again. I've taken a few wrong turns in past races and it is a frustrating experience that not only loses you time, but also hampers your motivation to push hard for the remainder of the race.

After that, I found myself alone, but fortunately I was feeling pretty good and was able to cruise along at a good pace. The course moved off the single track and onto a double track which soon had a mild climb up to the the loop section of the course. The course was basically flat until we arrived at the start of the climb. For those who have done this race or ran in this area, you know that while it is not that long (about 180m elevation gain) this climb is a tough one. The first part is a a double track and has a very steep pitch that brought me to a slow jog. I hate to hike if I can help as it seems like a bit if a defeat so I will try my darnedest to run everything even if it might not be an advantage. There is a bit of a break in the middle of the climb, but the last bit of single track up the the summit is punishing. The race director to played a bit of a joke on newbies to this race by placing a "Stewart Mountain, 3 Miles Ahead" sign just a few hundred meters from the summit. Just as I started final ascent, I got my final glace of Eric who was just summiting.

Nearing the Summit of Stewart Mountain Photo credit: Garth Campbell

At that point I thought that I had a chance to catch Eric if I could have a strong second half and he let up a bit. With this in mind, I pushed as hard as I safely could on the decent and tried to make good time. Unfortunately, after a few km, he was nowhere in sight and it was becoming unlikely that I would reel him in. Still, for the first time in several races, I felt like I had energy to push during the last quarter of the race which felt great. The remainder of the race was uneventful and I sprinted into the finish line for 3rd place in 1:06:53. This was 1:13 faster than my 2007 time although they may not be exactly comparable since the final route to the summit was different (and probably a little shorter time wise). However, we did not have to run the swamp last year so that would have taken a little longer. In any case, I was pleased with my race overall. Jason ended up smoking the course in 1:02:21 while Eric must have had a great race taking second in 1:04:07. Kirk McNally and Kevin Searle ran well to finish out the top 5. On the woman's side, Nicole Akeroyd took top spot in 1:18:30. Many other Harriers also performed well with 11 of the top 20 spots going to club members. While Sonja didn't have as good of race as she would have liked, she did take 5 minutes off her 2007 time. Results are here.

My next race is the Pioneer 8k on Jan 11 so I get a bit of a break from racing. Happy holidays to everyone! I'll be back blogging in the new year.

Gunner Shaw 10K, Vancouver

December 6, 2008

The Stewart Mountain race is tomorrow so I decided that I better get this race report completed before then. I do most of my races on Vancouver Island for practical reasons, but there are a ton of great races over in the Vancouver area which are great to do for a change of pace. Getting to this particular race was actually quite easy as Bob Reid kindly organized two vehicles to head over specifically for this race.

For those who don't know, both this race and the race I participated in last weekend in Victoria are named in honour of Bruce 'Gunner' Shaw who died in car accident in1984. I of course never knew the man, but he was quite a running legend in Victoria back in the 70's and 80's. It sounds like he was great competitor and a pleasure to know.

We met up with the other Harriers at 6am and headed north to catch the ferry to Vancouver. A number of people that I often see on Tue night training where there along with some new faces. The contingent consisted of a large range of ages and running abilities. That is the great thing about running, we may all come from different generations and backgrounds, but we all share the same passion.

Some of my fellow Harriers

The race is held at Jericho Beach in West Vancouver. I'd never actually been there so it was a nice to see a new local. We arrived over 1.5 hours early so we had plenty of time to prepare. It was a wet day, but temperatures were good for racing. A few of the Harriers who had come over on previous years showed us some of the course during a 15 min warm up. I have not raced too many true Cross Country races as this one is billed as. They generally don't appeal to me since they usually consist of non-technical grass and trail surfaces and two or more laps of the same course. If I'm not going to be running on the road, I prefer some hills and single track as this better suits my strengths and is more interesting. However, Gunner Vancouver is a definitely more of a 'real' cross country race. The course is still a two lap race with little elevation change (only two very small hills), but it did contain a large number of surfaces including grass, sand, mud, water, dirt, and gravel.

Most of the Harriers where wearing red club singlets so we definitely looks like a team while standing at the start line. As usual I assessed my competition although this was a more difficult task since I don't know most of the runners from the mainland. Nick Best had come over with us and I knew that we would likely run very well, especially now since he has been training with Jon Brown, a two time Olympian in the marathon (and a 4th place finisher in both). Also in attendance was Brad Cunningham who had just edged me out last week that the Victoria Gunner. There were also a couple of other racers who looked liked they could be fast runners, but appearance can often be deceiving. My race strategy was to try to run close to Brad and I know that he generally paces himself well and has run this course before. I was hoping to have a solid race as I felt the that any lingering effects from my cold should be gone and my training recently has generally been pretty consistent. I have even set a few best times in the last couple of months on some routes that I train on so I knew that my fitness level was at least good as earlier in the year.

The first km of the race was on grass, then course turned onto the beach where we had to run a few hundred meters on lose sand. This was very tough as so much energy is wasted with each step that it is worse than running up a pretty steep incline. After that, we were back on the grass, then some mud and a little hill, some trail, down a slope, some gravel trail, then shallow water, and some more trail. Near the end of the first lap, I was in the front pack with Nick, Brad, and two other guys name of Patrick Goeres and Kevin O'Connor and I thought things were going pretty well. Soon though Patrick and Nick began to pull away a bit and that left Brad, Kevin and I to battle it out. I was feeling fairly good until the beach which hurt at least twice as much the second time around. I fell back a few strides, but did make it back up once we hit the grass again. I was right behind both of them when we hit the downhill slope, it was pretty slick and I slipped a bit near the top, but managed to recover. I thought I was home free, but on the last stride of the hill, my foot sank into a boggy area and before I knew it I was down. It was a very minor fall, but as I mentioned in my relay report, it was an interruption which threw my rhythm off a little. It also allow Brad and Kevin to get a few strides I me which in the end I was unable to get back. I normally try to finish the last km of a race at a least the same pace as my average, but on this day I just didn't have it. I lost about 40 sec on the second lap compared to the first and while not a total disaster, this just wasn't a great race for me. I finished in 5th place in 36:12. Part of the reason for my lack of energy might have been my lack of sleep the night before (less than 5 hours) and earlier in the week, but that is only speculation.

Patrick ended out edging Nick by a few seconds for the win just over a minute ahead of me. Of note is that the in the competition between the Harriers and Lions Gate Road Runners we picked up the open woman's and master's trophies thanks to some strong performances from our members. Unfortunately, We were narrowly edged out of the open men's title. Results are here. Even though I didn't perform as well as I would have liked, it was still a fun day and it was nice to try a new race in a new venue. I would definitely recommend it and they even had pizza after the race!