Tag: Copenhagen Half Marathon 2017

2019 week thirty seven

Book Read
36. If You’re Not Yet Like Me – Edan Lepucki

Kilometres Ran
week thirty seven – 66.0

2019 to date: 1,817 KM

This book could have been an episode of Girls. And just like Girls I liked the first bit and then lost interest really quickly once I realized that I really dislike all of the characters. Then, because I get petty when I’m annoyed, there was this line in particular that I hated, “my menstrual cycle is like a German train: always on time.” I always hate it when writers do this. No, not write the word menstrual. I hate it when writers use simile and/or metaphor and then immediately afterwards, (often with a colon but sometimes a dash) feel the need to explain it to writer’s readers because we are clearly too dumb to understand how clever writer is. Anyway, the story was nearly done so I hate-finished it. And then to rinse the bad taste from my mouth a decided to read this article that people were yammering about online by a woman named Natalie Beach all about her relationship with Instafamous influencer (barf) Caroline Calloway in The Cut and now all of a sudden I’m supposed to have a strong opinion about Yale plates. And while I sort of feel for Beach and she sure seems like a pretty good writer and definitely makes me dislike Calloway but it turns out a dislike them both.

Mile2Marathon Eastside 10K takeover. I’m in the middle somewhere.

I blame the weather. The week was pretty wet, which sucks because my mental health of late seems to be tied to my bicycle commute as much as my running, and I am definitely a fair weather cyclist. But you cannot live in Vancouver and hate running in the rain. I raced my first Eastside 10K in 2016, in the pouring rain. It was the last one run with the start and finish at the top of the Dunsmuir Viaduct. I ran 44:56 for 20th in my age group and I was ecstatic. I missed 2017 (for an epic half marathon in Copenhagen, in the pouring rain…I made the right decision…). Last year I ran the new course in the pouring rain and a knee brace and set a PB (at the time) 41:23. I set two goals for this year: run faster than last year, and sub 20 minutes the first 5 KM. (I’ve been chasing an official sub-20 5K all year, and I knew that there is an official timing mat at this course’s midpoint just before its dreaded hill.) I woke up Saturday morning and it was wet but it wasn’t raining, downed downed four shots of espresso and jogged the two-and-a-bit kilometres to the Woodwards building. After a group photo and a few strides I got into the start corral. I don’t know if the PA wasn’t working but all of a sudden there was a 10-9-8- countdown to start and we were off. I lost a bit of time dodging people who’d no business being at the front of the corral and then the crowded, tight turn around from Cordova onto Water Street but you would’t know it from my pace splits. I got into a just slightly uncomfortable groove, with the 40:00 pace about 25 metres ahead of me. I could tell he was building a buffer for the hill that comes just after 5K. My watch buzzed 5K a bit early (as usual) and I checked the time as I crossed the mat – 19:40 – and goal number one was in the bag. Next was to finish the rest of the course in 21:43 or sooner.

I took the hill and lost a bit of time but felt pretty good coming down and just settled back into a groove and held on. The eighth kilometre felt really rough but I took a peek at my watch as I crossed nine and saw I was on pace for well under 41 minutes. I probably could have given more kick at the finish but the only kick I gave is to myself for not checking in on my time more frequently. I crossed the finish line 40:19 for not just a new course best, but fastest 10K yet. I think I could have gone under 40 if I’d known how close I was but I’m still elated with this result. I took a handful of seconds off my personal best, and over a minute off my course best, and achieved an official sub-20 5K along the way. My sub 40 minute 10K is coming soon – NorthVanRun 10 is just two weeks away.

2018 week thirty seven

Book Read:
44. Fear: Trump in the White House — Bob Woodward

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty seven — 69.8

To date: 2,019 KM

For some reason I decided to read this book because trainwreck / caraccident / apartmentfire and for some reason I thought that it being written by Bob Woodward would somehow make it different that the one I read earlier this year by that “hack” Michael Wolff but I think that if Sam Smith owes Tom Petty money then Wolff has a case against Woodward but of course it doesn’t work that way so I read about how Trump if utterly incompetent and insecure and corrupt and blah blah blah and that was a waste of my time. And nothing against Woodward. But I spent entirely too long reading this book while consciously, actively pondering my real time confirmation bias. So, moving on.

Not a bandit I swear. Thanks to Philip Finlayson for the photo. Check him out on Instagram and Strava

At the beginning of the week I faced the dilemma of whether or not to taper for a 10K race what with four weeks to go until the big race — the Victoria Marathon. So I solicited advice and received some really great perspectives and then was out for a 16 KM run on Wednesday and my left knee said just fucking nope around 13 and I hobbled home into a forced taper for a 10K. My goal for the Eastside 10K was to run my first sub-40 minute 10K. On Wednesday I postponed that goal, which means probably postponed until 2019. I’m okay with that. So I took Thursday and Friday off and then got up early Saturday and jogged the two and a half kilometres to the start line at SFU Woodwards. The weather was typical Eastside 10K wet. (Apparently last year it was a beauty day, but I wouldn’t know because I was in Denmark running the Copenhagen Half Marathon, which got all of the Eastside 10K’s share of rainstorm times ten, and I spent much of this week waxing nostalgic about it online and IRL.) After a ten minute delay, the race started. I got a good start and ran 3:57 / 4:04 / 3:54 over the first three kilometres. This was my first run on the new ES10K course, which traded a start/finish on the Dunsmuir Viaduct for a nightmare of a hill at 5KM up Templeton and around Pandora Park. I’d been warned that this was a tough course, so when I hit 5 KM in a new personal best time I didn’t expect much after that. The hill was hell but I survived without giving up too much pace and I still had a bit of kick left for the finish. I crossed in 41:23, which is not only a 1:02 improvement on my personal best, but my watch said 41:25 so my button pressing was on point too.

Stephanie met me at the finish with a change of shirt and shoes so I could take the long way home with a long slow jog around Stanley Park. I stayed up late to watch the Berlin Marathon and made it all the way until Eliud Kipchoge got to 30KM then fell asleep. So I missed him run a new World Record in under 2:02 and I also missed the Canadian women kick serious ass in Berlin with Rachel Cliff running 2:28:53 in her marathon debut, just 53 seconds off Lanni Marchant’s current Canadian marathon record. Lyndsay Tessier ran 2:30.47 for a new W40 marathon record, and Catherine Watkins ran 2:40:11 setting a new W45 record. After catching up on what I’d slept through I went out for an 18 KM loop around Crab Park and Stanley Park taking me past my 2018 goal of running 2,018 KM three and a half months early. Maybe I should go for 2,018 miles after all…. But for now, all focus on getting healthy. Three weeks until Victoria Marathon.

2018 week seventeen

Books Read:
21. Lost in Stockholm — Uwe Hasenfuss (ed.)
22. By Night in Chile — Roberto Bolaño

Kilometres Ran:
week seventeen — 60.5

To date: 764 KM

I going back to visit Stockholm in a couple weeks, and honestly one the the things I’m most looking forward to is running a complete loop of Södermalm. It’s about 10 KM. I normally wouldn’t consider Lost in Stockholm AKA Stockholm: Lost in City Guide AKA Lost In, Issue No. 10 a book insomuch as it counts towards an effort to read a particular number of books; however, (1) it is listed on Goodreads, (2) it has an ISBN, and (3) while only 68 pages, it has many more words than some (most?) of the poetry books I/we/they count as books. So it counts, I guess. It’s a very nice design, as one would expect for a periodical from Germany about Sweden. It gets me excited about going back. Following on the short reads, I picked up By Night in Chile. It reminded me of studying Beckett in undergrad. In a lecture on Molloy, the prof. Dr. Peter Murphy (!) suggest he read the first paragraph to the class and that I read the second. The similarities between Beckett and Bolaño extend beyond style, and I think that I should have liked By Night more than I did, or did not. It is one that I think I need to revisit, and it’s short enough that it wouldn’t feel like a waste my reading time (always a hazard). Plus I want to go to Chile one day.

Old kicks still have kick. Nearing 800 KM on these adidas Bostons.

One week until the BMO Half. Three weeks until Helsinki Half. All is coming together as well as I could have hoped. The weather for BMO Sunday looks ideal–sun with some cloud and morning temperature around 12 degrees (assuming today’s prediction holds). The BMO Half in 2016 was my first half marathon; I finished 1:46:00. I expect to crush that time next weekend. A great race and I could have a new PB, which will be bitter-sweet. I like that my current best is in Copenhagen last fall, and in the adventure that was less than ideal conditions. I have a chance to set personal bests twice in May. I’ve grown confident that it’ll happen next weekend. I think it’ll take an exceptional run in Helsinki on May 19. But anything could happen on race day.