OTTAWA 10KM 2017

This was the first time that I have raced the Ottawa 10km. Usually, I watch the 10km race and then race the ½ marathon the next day.

I am normally not nervous when it comes to racing but this event gave me the butterflies! I felt like I was lining up on the start line of a track race! It was by far the most competitive race that I have been in. 

The start of the race was FAST. It was like when the Hunger Games start and everyone runs to grab their weapon. When the gun went off everyone bolted to clear corner that was about a hundred meters from the start. From there it was hard to back off the pace.

I was aiming to run 32 min flat, So was looking to split 5km in 16:00  min and then have a faster 2nd half.  Even though I came through the 5km split in 15:58, the first 2km of that were run at a 3:05/km. Those first 2km cost me a lot of energy. Had I just held an even 3:12/km pace I could've split through 5km in the same time without burning so much energy.  Although I kept catching people over the second half of the race my pace was slowing. In my mind, there is a little bit of a disconnect between the result, my effort and how I felt during the race. Even tho my pace was slowing I felt strong and in control the whole race. My finishing time was 32:29. That is considerably off of my goal time as well as my PB.  

Normally when a race doesn’t go to plan I am disappointed and frustrated and spend the next week asking myself what went wrong? Why didn’t my training add up to the result that I was aiming for?  This time around there is no disappointment because I know what went wrong. I allowed myself to get swept away in the race. I let others dictate my pace, therefore, didn’t really run my own race. Knowing what went wrong means that I don't need to question my fitness or training and that gives me a lot of peace of mind. 

Next up is the Toronto Waterfront 10km where I am looking to take dead aim at 32… none of this running on adrenaline and exhausting myself nonsense.

I’ll end this by congratulating everyone else that raced this past weekend. Watching the full and the ½ on Sunday morning was so much fun!  Congratulations to Brittany Moran for placing 2nd overall in the ½ marathon,

and to Kerri Andreas for killing her BQ and getting a PB. Kerri was well under her BQ at 40km and was still pushing hard and running aggressively over the last 2km!

and to Ellen Mitchell on completing her first Marathon - This moment was awesome!!!!  Big props to Michelle & Inge for pacing. 

Congratulations to everyone. Enjoy your recovery and hopefully, we will cross paths out on the MGT soon. 

Philadelphia 2015

More than anything, I am relieved. Relieved to have achieved this milestone and finally end this cycle. 

I started this cycle back in June with STWM being my goal race. Unfortunately for me Black Lungs Toronto, whom I had done all my long runs with over the winter, were planning on doing Philadelphia which meant that our long runs wouldn't line up. Over the summer, I ran 32-36km every Sunday alone in the sweltering heat it was awful… But I won’t lie a part of me loved the suffering. 

Unfortunately STWM didn’t workout for me. I was devastated. I felt so ready to break 2:30:00. The conditions were perfect and I knew the course. I had dreamt of how amazing it would be to achieve a goal that I had been working so hard for in my hometown with the support of the Toronto running community. I cannot express how grateful I am to have had my parents there for me at my lowest point. I literally reverted back to a 5 year old and absolutely needed them.

They told me I could do Philadelphia in November. At the time I couldn’t bear the thought of extending my training another 5 weeks.  I was SO TIRED. What if I showed up to Philadelphia burnt out.  Even worse, what if I showed up and just came up short of my goal, I didn’t want to have to deal with that disappointment. They told me that I had worked so hard and that I had to give myself a chance.

So, despite how much I didn’t want to on October 19th I woke up early and ran. Although 5 weeks seemed so far away, I knew that it didn’t leave a lot of time to get back into the swing of things. 

In the weeks leading up to Philly I  joined Black Lungs Toronto in their workouts. I really couldn’t have continued to push myself alone any longer, so thank you for having me out BLT! 

THE RACE

Going to the start line of this marathon was different because unlike all my previous marathons I had an actual goal time. Having a goal time meant that I couldn't just be happy with improving on my previous PB. It also meant that I had to work really hard the whole cycle and not become complacent.

My last Marathon I ran 37km out of 42.2km alone.  Thankfully, this time around, that was not the case. A few weeks before Philly my friend Cam reached out to me to ask what my goal was for the race. Cam had just ran a 1:12:xx half marathon at STWM and said that he was thinking of aiming for a 2:30:00 at Philly. We planned to meet up at the start line and work together for as long as we could.  We did a good job at that! We made sure to stay on pace and worked together in taking turns blocking the wind.

On Friday night I wrote down the 5km splits that I would have to run to hit 2:29:45 and what I would have to run to hit 2:30:00 flat. Cam and I were hitting our splits almost perfectly. 

Around the 30km mark Cam started to pull ahead of me as we ran into a strong wind on some rolling hills.  My gluteus were killing on the hills and I couldn’t keep up. Thankfully, once I hit the turn around and started to head back down I lengthen my stride and the pain in my gluteus subsided. I caught up with Cam who, by then, was feeling some pain in his hamstrings and had to fall back. I pushed forward and hit my 35km dead on 2:04:12!  At this point I told myself to stay strong and steady.

There is a workout I like to do during my long runs: Within my 36km log run, I do 5km at marathon pace x 3 with 3 minutes rest. When I looked down at my watch at 37km and saw my clock at 2:11:07, I told myself that this is what I had trained for. I had done this exact workout almost every other Sunday in the stinking heat at the end of 140km week.  

My parents said they were getting anxious watching the clock. The clock read 2:29:00 when they saw me at the top of the hill. I told myself on fresh legs I can cover 400m in 60 seconds and this had to be less than 400m I kicked as hard as I could. I crossed the line and a huge wave of relief came over me. I didn’t feel crazy endorphins, I didn’t feel overwhelmed or emotional. I just felt calm and relieved that I could move on from this. Part of me is surprised to have broken 2:30:00, but there is also another part that isn’t surprised at all. It’s exactly what I had trained for and I ran the exact race I had planned.

Splits:

Thank you

Dave Clark & David Hiddleston: I remember watching the Scotiabank Marathon last year and seeing you dip under 2:40:00 / Just off 2:40:00 It was very impressive and it inspired me.  I told myself that if you can do that, I could do better. I wrote down a list of goals for 2015, one of them was to bring my 2:42:32 marathon time down to 2:34:00 by STWM2015. Seeing how well you guys did really is where this all started for me. 

Writing down goals is a practice that I have taken after Krista DuChene . 

Black Lungs Toronto: This time last year my highest mileage week ever was 80km. In January I started doing my long runs with Black Lungs Toronto and ran my first 100km week.  Thank you BLT for introducing me to long runs, for toughing it out through the winter and for being a great example of the hard work it takes to train for a marathon. 

Cam:  Running with you made all the difference. You have so much experience, you warned me not to try and bank to much time on the first 1/2. Running with you kept me calm and made me run smart.

Mom, Dad and Jessy:  You are perfect.  

I have grown so much over this last year as a person and a runner. I have become so much more focused and have surrounded myself with great people that strive for excellence and motivate and support one another. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of this journey! 

I look forward to taking a short break while I figure out what my next goals will be. 

- ebang. 

Toronto Zoo Run 10km

TORONTO ZOO RUN

Over the last several months I have improved my PB's significantly in every distance except the 10km.

As the Toronto Zoo Run approached, I thought about switching to a different 10km race that would have a less challenging course, so that I would have a better chance at  running a faster time. But in the end, I decided to stick with the Zoo Run because I knew that it would have a strong field of runners and I believe that tough competition with people to pushing you is what brings out your best on race day.

I normally try to negative split 10km races, running the first 5km more relaxed than the second. However, I was drawn into a fast pace at the start and ended up running a 16:05 for the first 5km.  I paid for that over the next 2km and finally started to get myself into a more reasonable pace over the last 3km. I am glad that I was reminded of the consequences of not pacing yourself during this race, so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake during STWM this October.

The course had a lot of ups, downs and winding turns. It reminded me a little bit of cross country. Had my goal for the day not been time orientate, I would've actually really enjoyed the course.

I finished in 6th overall in a time of 33:36. It's not anywhere close to the time that I wanted, but given the challenging course I think that the time reflects some good fitness.

I started this cycle off by running a 33:33 at the Toronto Ekiden, it’s a little disappointing to not have been able to improve on that time after 3 months of training. As frustrating and disappointing this is, I have to remind myself that improving my 10km PB isn't what I have been training for and is not my goal this cycle.

This was my last race before STWM.  This cycle has been much more training and less racing than last cycle. Not having raced much this cycle I haven't gotten to really demonstrate / prove my fitness to myself.   I am trying to trust the process and have faith in my training. I have a few more weeks of work left before STWM and I don’t plan on wasting them.

- ebang

P.S

Congratulations to everyone that raced over the weekend. Several members of the Toronto Running Community raced their fall marathon, Others did some tune up races at MEC's road races and several runners toed the line at the Canadian 5km Championships. The results are motivation and inspiring!  Good job #RunTO!

Toronto Goodlife Marathon

I have had huge gains this training cycle as I have actually been... training.

In January I ran my first 100km week and from there progressed to running between 115-130km weeks. This is a huge increase in mileage considering I was only running between 60-75km a week before this.

Unfortunately about 2.5 weeks ago I started getting  really bad pain in my left knee and had to shut the training down and switch over to cross training. I immediately made a backup plan to switch to the Ottawa marathon incase my knee didn't get sorted out in time for Goodlife.

It wasn't until the Monday before Goodlife that I finally went and got my knee treated. Let me tell you treatment works and it is worth every penny! I won't get into the details but I pretty much have the weakest glutes ever and every other muscle in my leg is over compensating and since everything is connected to either the knee or the hip ( right?) the stress was finally taking it's toll.

Luckily we were able to loosen some muscles up and I was taught some great exercises to added into my routine to help prevent this issue from happening in the future.

On race day I had a good warmup and my knee didn't give me any trouble. I know that Goodlife isn't a super competitive race but I was hoping to have someone to run with for at least the first half. Unfortunately I only had someone to run with for the first 2km and the other 40.2 I was only own. I kept pushing myself to race pace but would drift off and then push myself back to race pace and drift off.  The race felt like the longest tempo run of my life.  During ATB I ran most of it alone but there was always someone in sight to chase down and  I knew that there were people that would reel me in if I ever let up on my pace.

When I crossed the line I didn't feel particularly exhausted, my legs didn't feel shredded or overly beat. I felt like I wasn't able to push myself to my full potential and that I didn't squeeze out 100%  of my effort.  I know I had a faster time in me I just didn't have anyone to help me chase it down. In that sense I felt like this was a waste of a marathon. I regret not signing up for a more competitive marathon so that I could've actually raced 42.2km vs just run 42.2km as fast as I can only own.

The loneliest 42.2km = 2:33:38

Satisfied no... Happy yes. I am happy with the gains I have made this season. I chopped off time in every distance from 3000m to the Marathon. I was hoping to be a little faster than 2:33:00 and I find a little peace in mind knowing that I can do better.  

It was great to see so many familiar faces cheering throughout the course and to see people support their teammates.

This season has been exciting and fun and a little bit stressful. My choose your own adventure training plan has  worked for me but making all of your own decisions is hard. I must admit there were times this season I wish I had a coach who was familiar with my training and my fitness. It was hard to guess what times and paces I should be aiming for as I have never had this level of fitness before.  Moving forward I am definitely going to look into getting a proper training program and a coach to make the most out of my efforts.  

Thank you to everyone that has pushed me this season to be better and thank you #RunTO for your enthusiasm and support.  

Congratulations to everyone that raced this weekend!

- ebang

Harry's Spring Run Off

As much as I dread this race I love racing in Toronto because we have such an awesome running community!

After struggling on the hills last week at ATB I was a little anxious about how this race would go.  I didn't have a goal time that I wanted to run as I figured it would be considerably slower than Robbie Burns due the difficulty of the course. For this race I just wanted to put in a good strong effort without feeling like I am dying. The start of the race was FAST. There were two lead groups and then myself and a few others trailing behind.  I slowly managed to reel in the second lead pack by the time we got to our first up hill climb. I powered up the hill and by the time we got to the top the pack had thinned out. 

I ran the rest of the race with Garrett De Jong . We were sitting in 7th & 8th  and it wasn't until the final hill that 6th place, Victor Gatundu came into our sights. I was trailing behind Garrett and had a moment where I thought whether I catch him or not I have run a good race and that's enough for me ... Not the thoughts I should be having 150m from the fnish.  Someone on the sideline shouted out  " He's 2ft in front of you go after it!" and snapped me back into competitive mode. Garrett kicked and flew by  Victor and I kicked and came up beside Victor. It was another exciting finish with 1 second between each of us.  I finished in a time of 26:28. only 9 seconds slower than Robbie Burns  and almost 2 minutes faster than my time on this course last year. 

I am happy with my result and the fitness I demonstrated  however I am a little disapointed in myself for not mentally pushing myself harder. I don't want to be an athlete that settles and tells themselves I've done good enough ... before the race is even over. This video will will serve as a remind of that.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=422823107879883

Jumping back to St. Patricks Day I raced the Achilles 5km in Toronto and finally nipped under 16 minutes ands set a new PB of 15:59. Based off the 3k's I had raced on the track I was sure I could break 16 minutes in the 5km. I was actually expecting a faster time than what I ran but strong head winds made it a challenging race.  It wasn't until the slight up hill on Spadina that I was able to move into 3rd  and start kicking home. Seeing the clock count the seconds away and having Adam Cole right on my heels I had to drive hard all the way through the finish line. 

It's been a great spring racing season so far and I look forward to keeping up the momentum. 

-ebang