Cross-country race rocks!

Today was the 11.3k cross-country race at Mer Bleu conservation area, about five minutes from my home. The day was glorious; cool to start but by race time I was in shorts and a long sleeve shirt and was overdressed at that. Many were still wearing tights and jackets; they must have roasted in the sun. The course was a double loop, with wide trails and pretty clear footing in most of it, except for the last half kilometre or so, (twice) which was very technical, with lots of roots and other hazards, so blasting through was very dangerous. Several folks were being patched up by the First Aid people.

There were still enough leaves on the trees to obscure the satellites for my Garmin GPS, so I just ran as fast as I could, considering the footing. Finished in 58:11, with an average pace of 5:09 per k, not too bad for me, considering the terrain. While I was technically second in my age group, it was meaningless as there were only two of us. One of my goals is to always place in the top half of my age group, and while that did not happen, I did manage to place in the top 75% of all men, so I was OK with that. The winner in my age group is a phenomenal runner, who was probably about ten minutes ahead of me. Nice soup and bagels after the race, however.

Came home and tackled some more of the gravel pile, to stay loose. I'll do some more tomorrow morning, then do a 5k run over to the massage clinic, where I am treating myself to a half hour massage. Everyone says I will love it.

After last week's race, I noticed a real soreness in the inside of my right knee joint, for no apparent reason. It was very sore until Thursday, but did not cause any problem today and so far there is no sign of it; it just went away.

Getting excited about my upcoming conference in Grand Rapids, with departure from Ottawa on Tuesday and arrival there Wednesday afternoon. Hope to be leading a running/walking group every morning we are there, but based on last year, I think the numbers will be very very small. Like one person, maybe two.

Some real results

Where did all the older runners go? Of the 516 runners in the RMB, there were only five men and five women over 60. Fast course, great cause, good running weather, fine food; strange. On checking the results, I would have easily taken first place in my age group had I run as a racer, instead of a pacer. Oh well, another race...

The winning male was Joesph Nsengiyumva, of Ottawa, in 33:13, in the 20-29 age group, and the winning female was Liz McGuire, of Osgoode, with a speedy 36:22, in the 30-39 age group.

Rattle Me Bones run, by the 50 minute pacer

Sunday dawned cool and rainy, but fortunately by race time, the rain had pretty well stopped. After gorging myself on Tim Hortons coffee and timbits (carbo loading a half hour before the race counts, doesn't it?) , and donning my cute little black skeleton outfit, complete with plastic bones sticking out of my cap, I was off, with several hundred others. I did the first k in 4:23, obviously too fast for a 50 minute 10k, so gradually slowed the pace. I settled into a 5:00 or so, for the next few k, but then noticed that according to the time for each marked k, I was about a minute and a half too fast. My Garmin said the pace was good, however, so I stuck with that, believing the k markers to be misplaced.

I crossed the finish line in 49:52, a bit slower than planned, but I had deliberately slowed in the last k, as I was still a bit too fast. My colleague who did the 45 minute pace was a full minute over target, as the k markers got him confused as well, and he had only a stopwatch to guide him. Not sure how many in my pace group stuck with me, as I might have discouraged some at first. A few did find me afterwards and thanked me.

I then got on my scary green monster mask in addition to the rest of the outfit, and led the 50 or so little kids in some gentle aerobics to warm up, blasted the airhorn, and off we went on the 1k "funnybone" run. This time we did have marshals in place to make sure the kids turned around. All good fun, and the race raised some $55,000 for the Ottawa Hospital. At least a dozen of the Hash House Harrier gang showed up to volunteer, and that was great. The food is prepared by one of our Hashers, who is a professional chef, and it was truly delicious chili, (so good on a cool wet day), fruit, bagels, cookies and so on.

Now some serious training for the 11k Jim Howe cross-country race next Sunday...

Life gets in the way...

Haven't run since Tuesday, in favour of domestic chores, my freelance writing work, business meetings, etc. etc.; all the usual excuses. My newest freelance job is doing the content for a new website for the Yucatan Mexico Beach Realty company, a real estate firm run by a Canadian. How ironic, as Hurricane Wilma threatens the Yucatan, and I am writing stuff about why it's so wonderful to buy vacation/retirement homes there...

There's still a big pile of gravel in the driveway, and today I added a pile of compost. Rented a Silverado and went to the city landfill, where for $20 you can fill a pickup with all the really great compost you can shovel, (assuming you're into compost) and got 1.2 tons. Thank goodness it was a rental truck! Weather here is wonderful for this time of year; sunny and cool, just right for all the millions of chores that need doing in the gardens and yard before you-know-what arrives. Tomorrow will be a repeat of today, and the forecast for Sunday's 10k race, naturally, is rainy and cold, woo hoo! As a pacer, I have to run in a one piece black nylon skeleton suit; should be really fun.

Hope to be back on track with the training plan next week, and getting ready for an 11k cross-country race on Sunday October 30. For details of the Ottawa running scene, go to the website of our National Capital Runner's Association (NCRA) at www.ncra-ottawa.com. Soon after that, I will be off for the annual conference of the Association of Personal Historians, www.personalhistorians.org in Grand Rapids Michigan. I am the self-appointed leader of the APH Running Team, (most likely a team of one or two) and will be out terrorizing the Grand Rapidians early every morning. I hope to keep the blog updated with running stories while there, in early November.

Nine tons of gravel

I'm sure it was a mistake, but on Friday, this huge truck backed into our driveway and deposited some 19,800 pounds (six cubic yards) of "3/8 inch clear granite" stone. Small round pebbles, in other words, destined for the dog runs at the back of our property. Every four or five years we get a "top-up" for the runs, as over time, the dogs either eat the stones, or throw them at groundhogs, or whatever, but they gradually seem to disappear, in favour of mud that magnetically attaches itself to their coats.

It then falls to me to cart all this stone some 150 feet to the runs. On Sunday and Monday, I moved 45 wheelbarrow loads, about half the pile, and completed the top-up of one of two runs. After about 20 loads, my very elderly and poorly maintained wheelbarrow literally broke in half, meaning a trip to Home Depot. I came away with a six cubic foot steel beauty, made in Holland of all places, and guaranteed for life, either its or mine.

Each wheelbarrow load weighs some 200 pounds. I thought it might be lighter in the fancy new wheelbarrow, but no such luck. It seemed to me that this work would equate to at least one free weight workout, so I deferred yesterday's usual routine in favour of the gravel pile. My arms are now about an inch longer, I guess. The dogs think it is all quite wonderful, and promptly demonstrated their enthusiam in ways you can imagine.

I am the 50 minute pacer for this coming Sunday's "Rattle Me Bones" 10k run for the Ottawa Hospital. This is about 2-3 minutes slower than I would normally run it if racing. When I did my 9.8k run this morning, I could sure notice the effect of the stone moving in the upper backs of my legs, and slowed my pace a bit. It took about 7 k before the sensation went away. So the rest of the gravel may sit there for a few days, as I do not want to risk not doing the race pacing as planned. The good news is that no one will steal the gravel.

After an absence of several weeks, or maybe months, I went running last night with my beloved Hash House Harriers. This world wide group of running crazies has the right approach: any such foolish expenditure of heartbeats should be accompanied by liberal quantities of beer, lusty songs, decidedly unhealthy food, and general merriment. Hey, we've earned it. Of course, I was also cleverly using the gathering to solicit more volunteers for the Rattle Me Bones, and caught several who were so busy running and drinking beer that they could not refuse. On on!

Back to running, really

OK, after taking about two weeks off serious running, following the Adirondack half marathon, except for a couple of easy jogs and a couple of 6k runs in Bogota, it's time to get back to it.

I got my Garmin Forerunner 201 back from servicing the other day, and so had no more excuses. Like so much of the northeast US, here in Ottawa it has been rainy for several days, but mercifully nothing like folks in New Jersey and other states have had to endure. Shorts and a Dri-fit shirt were fine this morning, as I headed out on a gloomy yet pleasant day. Followed my Saturday run schedule as published below, and it was great. Didn't really seem to push, yet still did my 9.8 k at a 5:07 pace. Completed the run a couple minutes faster than when I started serious training in August.

I'm doing a10k race next Sunday, the Rattle Me Bones race for the Ottawa Hospital. I have raced it several times; it's great for 10k PBs, because it's usually cool, and virtually dead flat. But in recent years I have been the 50 minute pacer, since the race organizer is a running friend and he was desperate for volunteers. I end up having a whole lot of fun, dressed as a skeleton, and try to do it in about 49:30, maybe a minute or so slower than if I were really racing.

A couple years ago, after finishing in 49:40, a lady in my pace group came up to me, hugged me, and gushed about how great the race was, as she had been trying to break 50 minutes for years. I was pleased, of course. Then 30 seconds later, some jerk came up and gave me crap for being so fast, since he was also trying to break 50 minutes and I was just "way too fast"; I should have been 49:59, I guess. "Have a nice day", I said, and headed for the food tent.

There's also a 1k little kid run, about a half hour after I finish the 10k, and I get to lead them in warm-ups and act like a kid, in my skeleton and mask outfit. They are from about three years old, with parents, up to about 10 or so. When the gun goes off, they are off like jets, having no idea what a K is. I run with them, and it's so much fun. Last year, the marshalls who were supposed to turn them around at the half k mark were not there, and some of the fastest kids just kept going and going. When I realized what had happened, I yelled at a parent to stop and turn the rest of them around, and then went after the leaders. By the time I caught them, and got them turned around, there was no way they could finish first, and they were some pissed. The joys of racing, even as kids!

Doing the speech thing before the Terry Fox Run 

Back from Bogota

I'm back from five amazing days in Bogota Colombia. This sprawling city of some eight million people hosted the 10th annual Terry Fox Run on Sunday October 9, and I was so delighted to be back for it. It's hard to believe it was 1996 when I voluntered to start the TFR, and with a dedicated band of Colombians and Canadians, we pulled it off. It keeps getting bigger and better, and exclusive of this past Run, has raised some $208,000 Cdn for cancer research.

All the money goes to the Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia, and has helped fund some 30 projects in cancer research. The most recent was the production of an atlas of cancer incidence, showing graphically the various types of cancer, for men and women, and the geographical incidence. This can help lead researchers to answer questions of why certain types are more prevalent in certain geographical areas.

I met up with so many friends from my previous 14 months in Bogota. I met Mario Mesa, a new member of the TFR comittee, and a sub-three hour marathoner; way out of my league. We did a 6.6k run on the Saturday, and the effects of 10% less oxygen really showed up. I felt like I had run at least 10k, and was gasping to get enough air.

The day of the Run was great; overcast, and not too warm. I did the 6.3k route in 32:14, not too bad for me in that altitude. The Run has gotten so much bigger and better, under the skilled leadership of Sra. Maria Suescun, who has been the Chair ever since I left in 1997. I met her at a cocktail party and knew she would be perfect to take over when I left, and amazingly, she agreed to do it. Her mother now suffers from cancer.

They were still figuring out just how much money had been raised when I left on Tuesday this week, but felt it had been very successful. Maria even got the Presidential Guard, a 100 member precision marching band, to appear and perform a 40 minute spectacular show. I revisited the INC and was so delighted to hear of the projects the TFR has funded. It was a truly amazing and very emotional experience.

The associated picture shows me just after finishing my speech to the 400+ participants, handing off the mic to Maria.

Going back to Bogota

In 1996 I found myself in Bogota Colombia, doing some work with Nortel Networks. It's a long story, but suffice to say I became the chairman of a committee to organize the first Terry Fox Run for cancer in that city. We faced enormous challenges, not the least of which was that I spoke virtually no Spanish at that time (although I did become quite fluent before I left). Anyway, with a lot of hard work by the Canadians and Colombians, we pulled it off in very short order and had the most successful Run ever held in a Spanish speaking country at the time.

Since then, it has just kept getting bigger and better, raising a lot of money for cancer research in Colombia. It is my great honour to be going back, tomorrow, to help in the 10th anniversary celebration on Sunday October 9. You may not realize this, but Bogota sits at some 8500 feet elevation, and aside from having a virtually perfect year-round climate, it has 10% less oxygen than what I am used to, so there will be no PB set when I do the 10k Run! Just doing it will be enough.

I will be back online next week. If you are not familiar with the Terry Fox Run, and Terry Fox, one of our true Canadian heroes, visit the website at www.terryfoxrun.org

Hasta luego, mis amigos

Back to running again

After taking off all the time I could reasonably justify after my half marathon, I faced the usual dilemma of what to do to keep in shape between races. So I emailed Runner's World with that question, and in less than 24 hours got a long and detailed recipe from Doug Rennie, a contributing editor and the creator of the training program I used. I took his recommendations, added some of my own stuff, and voila, a program.

So here's the deal. Monday and Wednesday I do 45 minutes of free weights for the upper body and some 10 minutes of cardio on a rotation of my elliptical trainer, rowing machine and stationary bike.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I run betweeen 9-10k, as early in the morning as it's daylight to see by, at a comfortable pace, about 20 seconds per k slower than my half marathon pace. During that run, I do four two minute pick-ups in speed, to race pace or better. I end up with 4x100 metre strides, in which you accelerate to 90% of all out, hold for five seconds and then slow down until the next 100 metres.

Sunday is a longer run, about 15k, at a comfortable pace. All the runs are about 95% on great stonedust trails, quite scenic, through some woods near my house. They have some short hills, including a nice down and up a toboggan hill (wince). Friday is a day of rest.

After each run I also do some core strengthening exercises, as described in Runner's World of February 2003. I also bought some push up stands, and they are awesome. So many things you can do with them, and I finish off with a variety of push ups on them.

It all seems to work.

The local Run for the Cure organizers and politicos. I'm the one in the black shorts. 

Run for the Cure 5k

After pretty much taking the week off from running after the half marathon last Sunday, I took part, as an organizer and a runner, in our local Run for the Cure in our community. We had well over 100 people and raised over $10k for breast cancer research. I sort of ran it twice, as I marked the route with pink ribbons and signs earlier in the morning, and then did the Run itself. It was a glorious day, and completed it in 23:34, not too bad for me.