Category: Read Run Write

2019 week twenty

Book Read
None

Kilometres Ran
44.8

2019 to date: 976 KM

We flew to Paris then took a train to Basel and in that 13 hours of travel plus the waiting around time — and there was a lot of waiting around time — I read virtually nothing. But I’m a bit ahead on the book count so I feel like that’s okay. A bit of a lost opportunity. I started a new novel but as is prone to happen I was not inspired to do much reading at all. But I ran. Our first full day in Basel was Friday and I did an 8 KM loop along the Rhine and over a couple bridges and only got lost a little bit within the last couple blocks near our rented flat.

The Dreiländereck spire at the corner of France, Germany and Switzerland.

Saturday I waffled back and forth over whether to run or rest but decided to run so that I could check out a monument called Dreiländereck that is situated a bit north along the Rhine at the end of a pier in an otherwise industrial area. The spire marks the intersection of France, Germany and Switzerland. (The actual point is in the middle of the river.) My plan was to go to bed a bit early and get a good sleep before the race but our neighbours upstairs had a plan of their own, which included a sing-along dance party to go with the Eurovision song contest finale. Apparently Switzerland placed fourth. I remember at one point Like a Prayer started and I thought it was the worst Madonna cover I’d ever heard (it was Madonna). The party finally finished at about 1:30 a.m.

Race package pick up at the Rathaus (Basel Old Town Hall).

The 3Laenderlauf half marathon started at 9:45 on Sunday morning from the Rathaus in Basel’s Market Square. I left the flat at 9:00 for a 1 KM jog to the start. It was a bit hectic there and the queue to check gear was a bit disorganized and spilled out onto the start area for the 10 KM event that started at 9:30 but the atmosphere was pretty great. The field wasn’t very large, and the two 1:44 pacers had positioned themselves close to the front of the corral, so I seeded myself a bit closer to the line. (It didn’t matter much — once the gun went off I both ran over and was run over by people who’d seeded themselves poorly.) I went into the race hoping for a decent run, but also knowing that just two weeks out from a new marathon PB and still pretty tired from all the travel not to mention the neighbour’s late night dance party, I probably wasn’t going to have a great performance. A 4:20 pace would give me a new half marathon PB but wouldn’t quite reach my sub-90 goal for 2019. I thought 4:20 was pretty lofty, but decided to aim for it and just see how long I could hold it for. Turns out, barely 5 KM.

Coming up to Dreirosenbrücke.

I sent Stephanie the Strava and Garmin beacons so that could track me but neither one worked. She was there anyway at the Dreirosenbrücke crossing the Rhine (race bridge number two) at 3.5 KM. I was running around 4:15 but knew that I was not going to hold that pace much longer. Crossed the river and went north into Saint-Louis, France, then a couple hundred metres before the 6 KM marker my Garmin vibrated 7 KM and I stopped paying attention. At 10 KM I checked the time: 45 minutes — I started thinking about my other two races in Europe and decided to try to chase a Europe PB. By 15 KM I was running on fumes; I needed to be under 1:10 and my watch said 1:08:16 but I was fading pretty hard.

Passerelle des Trois Pays – ramp or stairs?

This race course had a bit of everything, including a couple odd route choices. At the Passerelle des Trois Pays footbridge from France into Germany (race bridge number four) there was a switchback ramp but the route instead took us up the stairs. A couple kilometres later the route took us up a steep worn dirt path from the lower road up to Friedensbrücke (race bridge number five) over the Weil am Rhein train station lines. (A spot, I’ve discovered, that Google Street View has never filmed.) Next a couple kilometres through an open field in Platz der drei Länder park and then a few more along the gravel path beside the Wiese river, crossing back into Switzerland, and crossing the Wiese as it met the Rhine (race bridge number six). By now I was just focusing on being mindful of the experience and not worry about the time but when I crossed the Wiese I realized I was in the industrial area that I had run the day before and that familiarity gave me a bit of a lift with 4 KM left to go. The last leg followed the Rhine south then climbed up over Wettsteinbrücke (race bridge number seven) before a right turn and a nice decline for the sprint to the finish line back in the old Basel Market Square.

High fiving kids on the streets of Basel, CH.

Last year I ran 1:39:09 in Helsinki, and in 2017 I ran 1:38:27 in Copenhagen (a PB at the time). I figured it was pretty close but didn’t see the finish clock and didn’t trust my watch. I found Stephanie and collected my gear, finishers medal and shirt, and took a few photos. I didn’t see a place to check times so we hopped a LRT back to our flat. After a shower and something to eat I went online and found that I’d finished 1:37:43 which is over five minutes off my current PB, but a new fastest in Europe. Plus I had a ton of fun.

2019 week nineteen

Book Read
21. Dear Current Occupant – Chelene Knight

Kilometres Ran
week nineteen – 26.4

2019 to date: 931 KM

Dear Current Occupant is an award-winning creative non-fiction memoir that I had in my poetry pile to read during National Poetry Month and then found that it’s not actually poetry, but it has some poems sprinkled here and there. Knight traces her childhood growing in Vancouver by retracing the places she lived and writing to people currently living there. I don’t know if she ever actually gave any of the writing to the current occupant. It doesn’t matter. I liked this book. It’s a bit weird to me that such a Vancouver-centric book has a Toronto publisher. It does make me wonder if it was turned down by any local publishers. And then it goes on to win the 2018 City of Vancouver Book Award. I liked this book very much. If you follow the link above you can see a video of Knight reading from it. And then you can roam around the Book*hug website because don’t let Toronto fool you, they’re pretty great.

BMO Vancouver Marathon 2019, at about 37.5 KM just before Lumberman’s Arch. Other than the salty shoulders I look way better than I felt. Photo by Taylor Maxwell

A week ago was the BMO Vancouver Marathon and I’ve spent most of the week riding a rather high runner’s high expecting a crash that still hasn’t come. One reason for the continued high is the number of people that sent photos from the race. The BMO Vancouver Marathon uses the running photography cartel Marathon-Photo but I often get suckered. There’s usually one or two that are just okay but on the whole the photos are terrible. I don’t know how they manage to be so terrible so often. So I am so extremely grateful to the people who saw and recognized me on the course and snapped a photo and then sent them to me or posted them online. I’ve reposted a bunch on my Instagram but included my three most vanity stroking selections above and below.

In the finish area, post-race-drunk-talking to Debra Kato and Walter Downey. When I first saw these photos I couldn’t remember this moment at all. Bits are coming back now. Photos by Debra Kato.

I didn’t run much this week but I managed to put around 115 KM on my bicycle. I ran Wednesday and today (Sunday) and both days the legs were lead but the runs were really enjoyable, especially considering the last time I ran a marathon I could barely walk afterwards, and couldn’t run for nearly a month. In three days I’m getting on a jet plane and flying to Paris and then getting on a train ride to Basel, Switzerland where in seven days I’m running the Dreiländerlauf half marathon, which starts and ends in Basel and passes through France and Germany. How cool does that sound? It doesn’t look like a very big race but that suits me just fine. It does look pretty flat, though it’s a couple hundred metres above sea level. Maybe those factors will even out? Maybe there’s a new HM PB? Maybe I’ll just go have fun? Definitely I’ll let you know how it went next week.

2019 week eighteen

Book Read
20. Running is my Therapy – Scott Douglas

Kilometres Ran
week eighteen – 69.7

2019 to date: 904 KM

I am a day late with this post and it isn’t even a long weekend. But after bit of a jog yesterday morning, I took the rest of Sunday off. More on that in a bit. This is another book that came recommended by Alex Hutchinson’s Sweat Science column, had I heard of this book otherwise I probably would have read it anyway. I really enjoyed this book, not least because it gave validation to a lot of what I felt about running and why I started running in the first place. I didn’t connect with the section combining running with medication but I don’t judge those that need that to stay level either. While I have my struggles, and I grant that medication would certainly help, I’ve managed to manage without. I found the studies this book chronicle about the benefits drawn from running in nature very interesting, as over just the past year or so I’ve started to venture off the Stanley Park Seawall and into the park’s trails, as well as climbing the Grouse Grind a few times last summer. I’ve been vehemently anti- camping and hiking, but recently begin feeling drawn to getting away into nature. I especially like the short bit about flow, something I’ve experienced quite a few times running and actively seek, but never knew it was a thing. I liked this book a lot.

Special guest at the Mile2Marathon Wednesday workout: marathon legend (and soon-to-be BMO Marathon 2019 champ) Yuki Kawauchi.
Photo by Taylor Maxwell

Sunday was the culmination of three months of hard work all for a little over (the littler the better) three hours of running in the BMO Vancouver Marathon. I came into taper week feeling pretty good about where things were at, in that I felt confident that a new personal best was within reach and beyond that content to just see what would happen. I had an A and B goal but I wasn’t overly confident about either one. My plan was to go out and run 4:30s until half way and then see what I had left. It seemed like a good plan. When I started thinking about running a marathon a couple years ago I thought that running under 200 minutes would be a good goal. Before heading to the race expo on Friday I checked my bib number online. It was 199.

Smile! This is going to hurt.

I had a perfect race morning and arrived at the start in great headspace. Everything started out great. I found my rhythm right away and just rolled along dead on goal pace until we hit Camosun Hill at 9 KM, took my time making the climb and then got back in rhythm through UBC and let a bit loose coming down Marine Drive, hitting half way at 1:35:53 –just a hair under 4:33 pace. I knew when I hit the hill up to West 4th at 23KM that I wasn’t going to hold onto 4:30s any longer, but feeling confident that I’d set myself up. I managed two more splits under 4:30 –carried by the crowd along Cornwall by Kits Beach, and at 31KM coming down around the corner off Burrard Bridge and seeing Stephanie with her cheer sign that gave me a huge lift and carried me into the deafening Mile2Marathon crew lined up at the merge of Pacific and Beach Ave. Alan Yu, the 3:15 pacer had passed me a ways back, but I’d somehow managed to keep the gaggle in sight and I timed how far behind them I was by when we each reached the Second Beach pool. I was expecting to have fallen back quite a bit but got a mental lift when my watch said their lead was only just over a minute.

Finish line in sight. Photo by Stephanie C.

The next three kilometres were a blur. I remember Elvis at Third Beach but not much else before the 36KM marker and coming under the Lions Gate Bridge where I was passed by M2M teammate Matt Diederichs. We’d trade duties pushing each other over the final six kilometres (and ultimately finished three seconds apart). I was still managing a decent rhythm but my pace had slowed to over 5:00 and I was trying to save something for a strong finish. Then at the Stanley Park Totem Poles, David Papineau, the 3:20 pacer passed me, and that was a punch to the gut. I tried to match his pace but only managed maybe half a kilometre. I’d stopped looking at my watch a few kilometres back but peeked as I passed the 40KM marker. It read 3:08 and something, and I thought that if I had anything left I had ten minutes to give it everything. I could see the clock with a few hundred metres to go counting up and I emptied the tank crossing the line at 3:19:48.

At the finish with the cheer sign Stephanie made for me.

Fueling for this race, I ate pasta and baked fish Thursday and Friday, then snacked throughout Saturday and had a sandwich for early dinner. Sunday morning was coffee, a banana and greek yogurt with salted almonds. I sipped a bottle of Maurten 160 on the Skytrain ride to the start. I took water or Nuun at most of the aid stations –more often than I ever have before. And after this my 28th race, I finally figured out –dare I say mastered– the cup squeeze-and-sip. Maurten gels at 7KM, 13KM, 19KM, 26KM, 31.5KM and 37KM with zero gut issues. I feel like my fueling was dialed in.

I didn’t reach my A or B goals, but I am very happy with the result. I set a new personal best by over six minutes, and ended up top 8% in my category and top 6% overall. Between 35KM and the finish I passed (net) 19 people, (including Henrik Sedin). The other unspoken goal was to complete a marathon build and race healthy. Goal achieved. I think my plan to go out at A goal pace and see how long I could hold it was the right move. I’m not convinced that being conservative at the start would have given me more at the finish (I tried that in Victoria and, even with other factors considered, it didn’t turn out so well). For the record, A goal was a BQ. It would have been nice, but I’m not upset about it because Boston 2020 was never in my sights. The race I want is Boston 125. That’s in 2021. I will be 45. 3:19:46 is a 45-49 BQ. I’m still getting faster.