Tag: Mexico City

2020 week ten

Books Read
5. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club – Megan Gail Coles
6. The Houseguest – Amparo Dávila

Kilometres Ran
week ten – 69.7

2020 to date: 591 KM

“February in Newfoundland is the longest month of the year.” So opens Small Game Hunting‘s synopsis on its House of Anansi page. Thank gawd February is over. I wanted to like this book and it was such a slog and I spent so much time wondering just WTF was going on that I just could not. It reminded me of reading Faulkner in undergrad, the echo of people much smarter than me lamenting greatness like tinnitus all the while just wondering what the hell is happening. Sometimes I get the urge to pick him up again. This reminded me maybe nah. Moving on, below the flat we let in Mexico City was an English language bookstore that -of course- I stopped in to browse. Inside was a wide selection of children’s books, high school and university textbooks, and various exam prep, as well as a small selection of local authors in translation. I picked up a few but this Dávila collection of short stories had a blurb that included comparisons to Hitchcock and Kafka. I like Hitchcock and Kafka. This collections didn’t disappoint, and Dávila’s comparison to Kafka is apt. I liked it quite a bit and it was fun to recognize references I would have never understood before visiting Mexico City. In a city with so much to discover, this was a pleasant surprise.

WestVanRun race weekend, about a mile into the Sunday 10K. The smiling did not last much longer. Photo by Debra Kato.

Race weekend in West Vancouver for the WestVanRun 5K on Saturday and 10K Sunday (today). I set a goal to run a new personal best and aimed for an under 19:00 finish. I had a pretty good morning. I got into a slightly uncomfortable pace that I thought I could hold onto. The course starts at the top of a pretty steep hill and then runs pretty much flat out through the Park Royal mall parking lot and then back along the West Van Centennial Seawalk to the finish. My middle splits were pretty even and I managed a bit of a kick to the finish and crossed the finish line 19:03 with not a lot left to give. When I checked my finish online it said I placed fourth in my age group. A couple hours later friends messaged to say I missed claiming my third-place age group award. The runner who finished second overall was first in my age group and instead of double-dip, the organizers bumped everyone up a spot. So I was third in my age group even though I was fourth. It seems so strange to claim an award that I got but didn’t actually earn. I guess now I know how people who wear those fancy Nike shoes must feel all the time…. Anyway! I am now 3/3 not being on hand to accept my age group award.

WestVanRun Saturday 5K PB times three for John Hamilton (L), Walter Downey (R) and me. Photo by Lindsay Maciver.

This morning was the WestVanRun 10K and after a 9/10 effort to get to 19:03 in the 5K 23 hours earlier (thanks, Daylight Savings Time) I dialed back my expectations. I’d wanted to try to go under 38:00 but that was a pretty lofty goal at the best of time let alone the day after a hard race. I decided instead to go out at 3:55/km pace for the first 5K and then hang on for dear life and at least beat the 40 min pacer. I hit half way in 19:36 – one second behind pace – and the hang on began. I dipped a bit through 7 and 8 KM then traded lead back and forth with Michael Prince. I thought I had him beat but he had a better kick to the line; I crossed the finish a few seconds behind him for 39:30 chip time and my second fastest 10K and second time running sub 40:00.

Mike Prince out kicking me at the WestVanRun 10K finish this morning. Photo by Maddie Wiseman.

Later today over-analyzing the weekend (as I tend to do) I’m sure that I have it in my to run a sub 38:00 10K but I have a bit more work to do to get there. I was really happy with how well I recovered between races, all things considered, and I wonder how I could have done in the 10K today if I hadn’t raced the 5K yesterday. I felt like my Saturday was a better day, but when I looked at the stats I found that today’s 10K was actually a better performance, which I still find really (pleasantly) surprising. I certainly do not regret racing both. I’ve decided to pass on the St. Pat’s 5K next weekend, and the Vancouver Sun Run in April and just focus on the half marathons I have lined up between now and summer. Summertime will bring the Mile2Marathon Chase the Pace 5K on the track followed by the VFAC Summerfast 10K around Stanley Park so I won’t have to wait too long to take another shot at going faster than I have ever before. Next up though, is the gruelingly hilly April Fool’s half marathon on the Sunshine Coast. If I can set a new PB there I’ll be ecstatic.

2020 week seven + eight

Stuff Read
The Believer #129 – Feb/Mar 2020

Kilometres Ran
week seven – 27.9
week eight – 68.4

2020 to date: 439 KM

I tend to impulsively buy myself Christmas presents around the holidays much to the chagrin of anyone and everyone who is trying to buy me a Christmas present or fill a stocking. This year was no exception when all of a sudden I decided to renew my subscription to The Believer, lapsed since 2007. Six issues delivered through my mail slot is $48 US dollars. But it’s worth it, I tell myself. Besides, although it’s now based in Las Vegas, they proudly announce that they’re printed right here in Canada. And then charge an additional $30 for shipping to Canada. US dollars. But I still tell myself that it’s worth it and then the first issue of my renewed subscription arrives through my mail slot and for the first time since, oh, probably, 2007, I read a periodical from cover to cover. And it’s great. I like the interviews with Rem Koolhaas and Jenny Slate, and especially love the article about palindromes titled “Palindromes, Palindromes, Motherfucker, What!” all which you can read online for free if you’re not willing to drop $78 USD for the in-real-life (or $18 +GST for this particular issue).

This photo from First Half by Taylor Maxwell is one of my favourites.

A couple days after racing First Half we flew away for a bit of a vacation to Mexico City. Eight days at 2,200 metres and my infantile stomach’s worst nightmare. So I got sick nearly immediately, then got better almost as quickly, then got sick again but exponentially worse. It was frustrating, not just because it was supposed to be a vacation but also because I was really interested in running at altitude and finding out what all the fuss was about. We arrived 7 a.m. on Wedesday and I ran Thursday morning and then Friday evening and then got violently ill and didn’t run again until Monday. Thursday’s run I got up bright an early to beat the heat and the absolutely insane traffic. I ran along Reforma, which is a major street in CDMX, to a large park that has quite the glow on Strava Heat Maps. A wrong turn from my planned route, I ended up following a couple other runners and found myself on a climb up to a castle at the top of a hill in the park that the locals like to run repeats up and down. The circuit up and down is about 1 km, with about 40 metres of elevation. It sucked. I really wanted to do it again.

Couple CDMX landmarks, the Angel of Independence (getting a facelift) and the Neo-Classical on the outside Art Deco on the inside Palacio de Bellas Artes.

On the Friday evening I set out in the dark and pouring rain to try to find what appeared to be a track about 2.5 KM to the east of where we were staying, and it was a disaster. I reached the edge of where I thought it should be, but found myself looking across six lanes of highway in the dark in the rain with no way across. Along the way I slipped and fell in a flooded street, covered on one side in muck, skinned knee, bashed elbow, absolutely miserable. I would spend the rest of the night back at our rented flat sitting on a toilet cradling a bucket in my lap. (I am currently 2.5 KG below peak marathon training weight. I do not endorse this diet plan.) It was the worst run of my running, and cannot imagine how it will ever be beaten. But it got better. Monday wasn’t great but I managed 7 KM before my stomach said, “No more.” Then Tuesday was better and I managed 11 KM and a few strides along Reforma that really gave me a taste for the elevation. Breathing is hard (and the air quality is atrocious) and I found myself out of breath pretty easily. I don’t have the best circulation anyway, but my hands were so cold and my arms went numb. It was an odd experience.

We flew home Wednesday afternoon, which mean one last run that morning, and I went for it pretty hard, repeating the route from day one but this time hitting the hill up to Chapultepec Castle five times for a 16 KM workout. Hill repeats at altitude; it was effing hard and a lot of fun. I had a great time in Mexico City and I really want to go back there again soon. I do feel a bit ripped off that I managed to get so sick and I wish that I could have done a lot more running while I was there. I got a wee taste of altitude training and I’m still curious about it. And then the day we flew home Alex Hutchinson publishes “The Skeptic’s Take on Altitude Training” in Outside and I take a deep breath and shrug.