Category: Read Run Write

2019 week forty one

Book Read
39. The Nature Fix – Florence Williams

Kilometres Ran
week forty one – 68.4

2019 to date: 2,108 KM

I finally got around to reading this Alex Hutchinson recommended book and I thought it was mostly great but that’s the great thing about books put together like this, when they start to focus on kids you can just skip that part and it doesn’t take anything away from the plot. The really basic takeaway from this book is quite similar to the (also Hutchinson recommended) one I heaped acclamation upon earlier Running is my Therapy by Scott Douglas. If you were to distill both down they would say pretty much the same thing, and that is one way to decrease stress and increase happiness is to get outside, preferably with trees, even better near water. Douglas says to run while you do, and Williams for the most part agrees but is fine with some sort of activity.

So I chose for my activity reading, and the afternoon before the Victoria Half Marathon I took a couple hours and sat in a weather-beaten adirondack at Kitty Islet on the edge of McNeill Bay looking south across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and read a book about getting back to nature and watched seals bob and birds dive and got the inch-wide strip of bare skin between my pant cuff and my low cut socks absolutely ravaged by mosquitoes. But was I chill and ready to break my first sub-90 minute half marathon the next morning? Fuca!

I set this up to be my last chance to complete my goal to run a half marathon in under 90 minutes. My last 21.1 KM race was the Seawheeze back in August, which I ran on less than 12 hours notice and still nearly went under 90, finishing 1:31:43 and feeling like maybe it might come back to haunt me as a missed opportunity. But I was ready for Victoria and everything came together. I was a bit worried at the start, after a morning of race nerves in the stomach that lingered for a bit longer than usual. The gun went for the mass start of both the half and full marathon runners. My plan was to run a hair over 4:15/KM pace, which would get me to 10 miles in 1:08 and then run the last five (mostly downhill) with whatever I left. I went out a bit hot, splitting the first couple kilometres in 4:09*** and 4:04. I tried to let off the gas a little bit but I felt great, so I found a rhythm that felt just a bit uncomfortable that I could maintain. My goal pace at 10 km was 42:39, and my game plan was 42:30. I crossed 10 km at 41:30 and was still feeling pretty great. Other plan was to fuel at 6 km, 11 km and 16.1 km. First fuel was a wee bit late, and yet I felt a bit of fade coming on just past 11 km. Normally if you feel the need to fuel that means you’re too late. My experience with the two that I can stomach is Endurance Tap kicks in in 4-5 minutes, and Maurten in about half that time. I train with ET and I like it a lot, but I race with Maurten. I did falter a bit over the next few kilometres, but only compared to my pace to that point. I saw a 4:17 on my watch and thought I’d maybe blown my cushion but was still confident that 1:29:59 was within reach. I passed 16 km and when I didn’t see the 10 mile marker I checked my time. I wanted to be 1:08 but my watch said 1:07:30.

I took my last Maurten just before 17 km and hit the traffic jam. The course meets the mid point of the 8 km race, whose gun goes 50 minutes after the half and full, and everyone runs the last 4 km together to a shared finish. There are a lot of people running the 8 km race, and the ones I’m encountering don’t seem to know to stay to the right. I don’t think I lost any time, but it did get pretty crowded. I was able to pick it up and dodge my way down Dallas Road and still give a hard finish over the last 1,100 metres and finish 1:28:04 chopping 3:29 off of my personal best, and 2019 goal 5/6 achieved. Eight weeks until the California International Marathon and I have all of the confidence.

2019 Goals recap:
run 2,019 km – Oct 5th ✓
sub 6:00 Mile – 5:52 ✓
sub 20:00 5K – 19:40 ✓
sub 40:00 10K – 39:22 ✓
sub 1:30:00 HM – 1:28:04 ✓
marathon BQ – *pending*

***4:09 according to the Garmin app. I remember checking my Garmin watch and it read 4:08. According to Strava (which gets its information from Garmin) I ran either 4:10 (Strava iPhone app) or 4:11 (Strava browser).

2019 week forty

Book Read
Nope

Kilometres Ran
week forty – 85.7

2019 to date: 2,040 KM

It’s not that I didn’t read anything, rather I didn’t finish the book that I’m currently reading (that seems redundant). It’s a good one, though. I’ll finish it in time for next week and then I will be two books behind in my 2019 reading goal. Twelve weeks to go. I can do 14 books in 12 weeks. Talon’s fall launch is on Wednesday, and features new releases by favourites Oana Avasilichioaei and Danielle LaFrance. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it, what with Mile2Marathon track workout Wednesday eve. I need a doppelgänger.

NorthVanRun 10K a little over half way, with Shauna Gersbach out front, and Jordan Hurdal drafting me. Gersbach would finish W3 overall, and Hurdal passed me with about two to go, finishing AG 2nd. I settled for AG 3rd but more importantly to me 39:22 crushing my sub 40 goal. Photo by Dave Mallari.

On the running side of things goals are coming along just fine thank you very much. Earlier this summer I broke six minutes in the mile, which I don’t think was a stated 2019 goal, but became one when the opportunity to run it presented itself. Then after finally crossing an official timing mat to break 20 minutes over 5 kilometres in the Eastside 10K a couple weeks ago, and breaking 40 minutes at the NorthVanRun 10K last weekend, this week crossed another goal off my list, surpassing 2,019 KM (so far…) this year. In 2018 I surpassed 2,018 KM a few weeks earlier, but I was also running hurt (and dumb) at the time. This year started a bit slow dealing with an achilles injury, and the build for the BMO Marathon in May was pretty cautious in retrospect, or to spin it, quality kilometres over quantity.

Finish sprint down to the end of The Shipyards pier, and arguably the coolest race finish line in the Lower Mainland. Photo by Jan Heuninck.

I’m heading over to Victoria for Thanksgiving weekend with my sights set on running a sub 90 minute half marathon and I’m riding pretty damn high on confidence. I’ve never run the half event, though I’ve run every bit of the course, from many weekends escaping to Oak Bay to visit family, and getting chewed up and spit out running the marathon last fall. Weather and wind can both play huge factors, and weather apps indicate next Sunday will be wet. I can thrive in wet. Downpour less so. Headwind could spell disaster. But whatever. I’m ready to give it my all and see what happens. I’ll let you know how it goes.

2019 week thirty nine

Book Read
38. The Body Artist – Don DeLillo

Kilometres Ran
week thirty nine – 69.2

2019 to date: 1,954

Another short novel about death and the human condition. I found this one sort of interesting because I was interested in the artist, and I found the review of her show written by a journalist friend in the latter part of the book to be the most interesting part. I was often tired when I was reading this book and, I don’t know but there’s something about DeLillo that I know I’m supposed to like him because he’s supposed to be this brilliant American novelist but I always find him a bit drab. I remember a review of a Timothy Taylor novel – I don’t recall which novel or by whom – and they compared Taylor to DeLillo as a compliment and I quite like Taylor and just did not take it that way. Anyway, this book was short, which is good because I think there’s a good chance I would not have gotten to the part that I actually liked otherwise. But it took me three tries to finally get through White Noise so what do I know.

Above, a couple frames from the finish video shot by Jeannine Avelino. Thanks Jeannine!

Today was goal race day and I’d been looking forward to this day for the whole year because last year I ran the NorthVanRun 10K as a tune up for the Victoria Marathon, so I ran the first half at marathon pace and then picked it up for the second. And I loved the course and I thought that this course style really suites me and I figured that I could really rip on it. There are some hills but nothing onerous and every one of them has an equal downhill right afterwards, with the start and finish at sea level. I was feeling great right up until Thursday evening when I felt the plague coming on, so I took Friday off and willed it at bay as best I could and it mostly worked. Head was a bit stuffed this morning but otherwise I felt pretty great. This was my last chance on my 2019 calendar to sub 40 minutes a 10 km race, and after missing the mark by 20 seconds at Eastside two weeks ago (without reeelly trying*) I was pretty sure that barring disaster today was going to be the day. And disaster abated! I went out a little bit hot but settled into a great rhythm at 3:55/km right behind Shauna Gersbach and in front of Jordan Hurdal and the three of us paced each other perfectly, right up until about 8 km. Gersbach started to pull away and I felt like I was fading and then Hurdal passed me and I hit a wall where I wanted to quit so badly and then at about 8.5 km I suddenly got really nauseous, but I swallowed hard and just willed it all to go away. The last half kilometre drops 17 metres before a couple tight turns and a sprint to the finish at the end of the North Van Shipyards pier. I had nothing left for the sprint finish, but somehow managed to maintain pace and crossed the finish line 39:22 gun time, for a new personal best by nearly a minute, third in my age group, and 15th overall.

This is my happy-and-also-everything-hurts-and-don’t-forget-coach-wants-another-10-or-12-km-today face.

I really wanted to stick around for the awards, but when I asked I was told they weren’t happening until noon. The race started at 9 a.m. and I had only paid for parking until 11, so rather that wait around another couple hours (plus I was freezing) I went home. And that’s my only regret. I wish that I would have stuck around for the awards, or that they were a bit sooner. This is only my third running award, and I am zero-for-three for the ceremony. But I ran an excellent race. My splits are nearly dead even. My goal was sub 40 but my number in mind was 3:55 pace, and I finished 3:56. My last three kilometres were 3:56 / 3:54 / 3:52 and I had nothing left at the end. I am absolutely satisfied with this race. The only way I am running faster is by getting faster.

*I can admit that now, but oh boy that could have blown up in my face. And I won’t be doing any of that sort of nonsense again.