Tag: Maurten

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 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.