Tag: Fall Classic

2019 week forty four

Book Read
42. Jakob von Gunten – Robert Walser

Kilometres Ran
week forty four – 53.3

2019 to date: 2,251 KM

You had me at Kafka was a fan and I’m glad that I picked up this somewhat obscure classic from Swiss writer Robert Walser. The title character is a broke runaway from a well-to-do family who enrols in a school for servants called The Institute. The book is quirky and strange and reads a lot like a diary because it is Jakob’s diary. I liked it but I think that its charm might have worn off if it had gone on for much longer.

Last weekend I did something that I’ve never done before besides run three races one right after the other; for the first time I paced a race. When I decided to attempt the Fall Classic hat trick (before it became the Hat Trick) my plan was to run a pretty easy half marathon to start. Now I know what I’m like, so I thought it might be fun to pace and thereby force myself to stick to an easy pace and actually give myself a chance to finish all three. So I sent an email to RunVan offering to pace 1:45 Fall Classic Half Marathon.

  • Before the start photos by and with Debra Kato

At first I was declined, but then a few days later they asked to have a phone conversation, which I think was an interview of sorts. Once I’d fooled them into believing that I’m not some hack I was in! I was paired up with another first-time pacer. No bunny ears and we would be sharing the pacing sign, but luckily we did each get our t-shirt with PACER emblazoned on the back. We met about an hour before the gun and decided to alternate holding the sign each 5 km and he would start. The gun went and we were off and I did my best to stick to about 4:55 pace but I think I was a bit quick. My partner with the sign, was quicker. I kept him in sight but hung back trying to stick to the pace. I set my watch to read cumulative average and it was saying that I was still a bit quick. Early on someone asked me what time I was pacing and I said 1:45 and not to worry about the guy way up ahead with the sign. We crossed 5 km and then 6 km and then 7 km and I was still a ways back so we didn’t swap sign duties and I really started to second guess myself and the accuracy of my watch and the stress that set in that I was potentially letting a bunch of people down was not very much fun. I had a few hangers-on and they seemed content with what I was doing compared to their watches and we slowly gained on the crowd around my pacing partner. I came up beside him at at 9.5 km and offered to take the sign for the rest of the race.

Um, why is there no one around us? Photo by Kimberly Bennett

I really wanted to be close to pace so I was very curious and a bit anxious to see the clock at the 10 km mat. I called out to the group that the clock was coming up and to be on pace we wanted to be 49:40 – now granted that’s gun time and we were a few second behind the start, but that’s what I was aiming for. I came up to the mat and checked the clock when I crossed and it read 49:30 and I’ll tell you that was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had midway through a race. The second and half was a bit of a blur. A couple times I got a bit ahead of pace and my partner reeled me in.

Oh that’s a better crowd. Photo posted by RunVan

We really started doing math in our heads over the last couple kilometres. We both knew we were going to come in a bit early and had a bit of friendly debate about by just how much. The last kilometre I was shouting at everyone around me to give it everything they had left and not let us pass them. With a couple hundred metres to go I was pretty sure that those still with us were in a good spot, and we slowed up a bit and just kept telling people to RUN! Still it was a bit of a relief to round that last corner with only about 50 metres left to go and see the clock counting up 1:44. I crossed the finish line at 1:44:38 gun time and I’m pretty satisfied with that aim. I really wanted to be 1:44:59 and I might have been able to stretch it out if the finish chute was a bit longer, but 22 seconds is still pretty good and I know there were a few people happy crossing the finish line. Thanks for RunVan for letting me give pacing a try. I look forward to doing it again sometime.

With Stephanie at the finish. Photo by Debra Kato

2019 week forty three

Book Read
41. All This Has Nothing to Do with Me – Monica Sabolo

Kilometres Ran
week forty three – 49.0

2019 to date: 2,198 KM

I started reading a different book on my iPad this week and then forgot to put it onto my iPhone and I don’t get books through iTunes and I haven’t figured out how to sync stuff and frankly haven’t tried all that hard but anyway I opened my phone and then remembered that I a bit ago I was waiting around for something somewhere and started reading this Sabolo book and it was good and interesting but never finished so I started over and soon got more interested in it that the other book that I was reading, which I will probably finish reading this week. Maybe. The book tells the story of MS and her relationship with XX. It goes pretty much how you imagine, except it’s told through SMS, social media post, diary entries and other fragments. It’s dark and funny and sad and maybe not terribly original even in the experimental style that it’s told, but it’s just done so well that I was highly entertained. I liked this book. I also understand why many people do not.

Back in January 2018 I sent an email to RunVan suggesting that if they were to change up the start time of the Fall Classic half marathon to two hours before the 10 KM instead of 90 minutes that I suspected a few people would take a stab at running all three in a row – 21.1 KM then 10 KM then the 5 KM. I received a reply that read “We will take your suggestion under consideration….” Fast forward to the Fall Classic 2018, and it was status quo. But I was pretty lame after racing the Victoria Marathon, and attended the event on my bicycle and yelled a some friends. Fast forward again and low and behold the start times had changed, with two hours between the half marathon gun and the 10 KM, and then 90 minutes until the 5 KM. So I signed up for all three.

Fuzzy video frame at the start of the Fall Classic 10 KM, with fellow Hat Tricker Raymond Cayas.

Somewhere along the way some other people did too, it seems. After I signed up I was cautioned that I would DQ if I wore the wrong bib in the wrong race, or, as I was planning to do, wore all three stacked and shed one after each finish. I’m curious to know what happened because all of a sudden RunVan decided to start promoting a Fall Classic Hat Trick, and changed to registration to a package of all three races with a single bib. I don’t care why, but I’m very happy that they did. My plan going into the day was to run a pretty conservative half marathon around 5:00/km for a 1:45 finish, then a 15 minute refuel and wardrobe change for a 10 KM at marathon goal pace, and finish the day with a 5 KM cool down. The half marathon went exactly according to plan. The 10 KM less so. I went out way too quickly, averaging around 4:13/km over the first three kilometres and then crashed pretty hard. Goal marathon pace is around 4:30 and I finished 4:38 according to Strava. That still meant about a 40 minute wait until the 5 KM start. I put some compression sleeves on my calfs that were starting to cramp and added a t-shirt under my singlet because I was pretty chilled. The 5 KM went much the same as the 10 KM – I had a couple tempo kilometres to start, then finished at a Sunday jog. But this day was about finishing, not the really the clock (I will have more to write about this little factoid next week). I still haven’t checked my official 10 KM and 5 KM finish times. I don’t even care. I just wanted to run all three in a row, and I did it.

Pretty happy that is over. Half marathon, then 10 KM, then 5 KM for the Fall Classic Hat Trick. Photo by Dave Mallari

The other thing that RunVan changed up was the people running the Hat Trick wouldn’t get medals in the finish corral. Instead, they held a special awards after the 5 KM finishers awards at the end of the day, where they recognized the 23 women and men who’d completed the inaugural Hat Trick, and gave us each a really nice New Balance / RunVan hat and our three finishers medals on the awards stage. I am pretty damn proud to be amongst that group, and I especially love that it’s a pretty diverse group and one with a few friends and familiar faces from the running community. Would I do it again? I don’t know. The looped course is pretty but pretty brutal, and the thought of running it three-and-a-half times in a row again is a bit nauseating, but I recall finishing my first marathon – the RunVan BMO in 2017 – and saying, “Well, I never have to do that again.” Then signing up for another a couple weeks later. So never say never.