I've raced twice since my last blog, my first foray back into competition since CI's back in mid-November. I altered my original plan mentioned in the last post by choosing to race only the 1000 as my indoor season opener at the Louis Riel Dome in Ottawa. This was mainly due to time constraints, as I did not feel like waiting around all day to race the 1500 (since registration for all events had to be completed before noon).
I rather optimistically registered with a 2:38 seed time, which had me third on the start list in the fastest heat. Seeing the heat sheets were cause for some pause; I was worried I would not live up to my seeding place. As it turns out, while the time was well off (I ended up running 2:42), I still finished third overall since most of the speed demons at the meet had entered the 1500 (going through 1k quicker than I completed my race in). I had mixed feelings about the effort; the first lap of ~63 had felt quite good, but the next lap was 66 seconds and I finished the final 200 at the same pace, running only 33 seconds as my legs started to leaden up. Perhaps if I had someone to work off of in the second lap I may have run faster, but I'm not sure. Regardless, this was coming off a 90+ mile week and with my fastest paces in training being done on the treadmill, so I wasn't too disappointed.
The week after the race my training left something to be desired as I finished up things at work, packed up my stuff, and finally made the drive home on the 23rd. This lowered my confidence somewhat headed into the Boxing Day 10 miler in my hometown. I hoped that I could still run a decent time, but my expectations were not incredibly high.
Race morning brought a dusting of snow and ice to the roads, which actually perked me up slightly; I figured the slight changed in conditions would make the race more interesting from a competitive perspective. Once on course, however, the roads and paths were quite clear (ignoring the stretch of gravel/dirt/snow on the Radial trail), but the wind was a different story altogether. Following the gun, I let the lead group of nine go ahead at a pace I could not hold, which meant I was immediately running solo into the wind heading towards the Waterfront trail. The strength of the gusts were obvious when turning onto the bay front and running along the path with the wind at my back produced a 5:14 mile following one close to 6 minutes when the wind was in my face.
Apart from a stretch from miles 2 to 5 where I was sitting on a (now) masters runner named Pedrag who has consistently beaten me every year since I started running competitively, I ran the rest of the race solo, trying to track down the guys in front of me while keeping my distance from those closing in from behind. At the five mile marker I went past Alex Meyer, but could not keep pace with Pedrag as he went chasing off the guys in front up the Longwood Avenue hill. It was not until I was in the final mile that I would catch a flagging Rejean "Chainsaw" Chaisson, giving me an eighth place finish. Rejean explained to me later that he was having training issues and had abandoned his original plan which would have had him running Houston Marathon in January in an attempt to hit the qualifying time for the World Championships this upcoming August. I was admittedly a bit of a fanboy talking to him, even referring to him as Chainsaw when he introduced himself, and complimenting him on his awesome runs previous Toronto Waterfront marathons. I offered him the best of luck in sorting out his issues to get back running some super fast times.
My reaction to the race? I was quite happy. The wind was brutal (though my training log from last year noted windy conditions as well), and I still ran almost a minute faster than last year (55:38 vs. 56:21), . Considering my confidence going in wasn't too high, I can be nothing but satisfied with the outcome- it was a good rebound following the 1k.
And now 2013 is upon us! This is a big, big year for me: in 4 months I will have completed my undergraduate education, and will immediately be thrust into the real world (but not before a big trip overseas!). It'll be interesting to see what I can muster up indoors- aerobically I think I'm there, so it's just a matter of how quickly I can get my legs turning over. I'll try and keep the updates coming.
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