Tag: Moustache Miler

2018 week fifty two

My year in running

My goal for 2017 was to run 2,600 KM. In the autumn I hurt my knee a couple hours before flying to Denmark to race the Copenhagen Half Marathon. An aggravated injury meant I didn’t meet my 2017 goal. I was still recovering at the beginning of 2018, so I set a more reasonable goal to run 2,018 KM. Then in August I hurt my other knee. Then in September, on a crap knee, I passed 2,018 KM. And then, in October, with a crap knee, I raced the Victoria Marathon and barely walked let alone ran again for a few weeks. In mid-December I was easing back into decent weekly milage and noticed that 2,600 KM for the year was within reach. So I went for it, and on December 29 I ran 11.8 KM around Oak Bay for 2,601 KM for the year.

Running races

I ran ten races in 2018, set a bunch of personal best (PB) times, and earned my first age-group podium finish.
First Half 21.1 KM – 1:43:04
West Van 10 KM – 44:06 (PB!)
BMO Half 21.1 KM – 1:34:52 (PB!)
Helsinki 21.1 KM – 1:39:09
Scotiabank 21.1 KM – 1:32:37 (PB!)
Kamloops 21.1 KM – 1:32:20 (PB! & Age group 1st!)
Eastside 10 KM – 41:23 (PB! + PB!)
North Van 10 KM – 43:46
Victoria 42.2 KM – 3:25:59 (PB!)
Moustache Miler 5 KM – 20:28 (PB?)
The Moustache Miler was two firsts for me: it was my first 5 KM race, and the first time I’ve raised money for charity. I expect more of both of those In spite of the Moustache Miler being my only 5 KM race to date, my fastest 5 KM time is 20:21 over the first 5 KM of this year’s Eastside 10 according to Sportstats.

Going places

I’ve drawn a circle around Stanley Park over 200 times and I still love that loop but this year I got to do a few new loops that were a lot of fun. These four are my favourite.

Final run in Helsinki. I thought this city was okay when I arrived and by the end of the week I didn’t want to leave. Some amazing running history there, too.
And then I fell in love with Tallinn. Didn’t hurt that the weather was unusually amazing the whole time we were there.
Stockholm is the first city I took my running stuff along on holiday, and I’ll never holiday without my running stuff again. I didn’t get a Sodermalm loop on that 2016 visit but I did this year.
Surrey?!? I KNOW! But this run was so much fun — down the hill then over a free ferry to Barnston Island. Plus I (currently) have the 3rd overall time looping Barnston Island (and it’s nowhere near my 10 KM PB). If I find myself marooned at the Surrey Sheraton again I’m definitely going for the crown.

Missing in action: the Helsinki City Half Marathon and the Victoria Marathon. I loved idea of racing Helsinki but the route just wasn’t my favourite. Victoria, in spite of setting a pretty huge personal best of over eight minutes, the race was a disappointment and I’m still bitter.

The numbers according to Strava:

Total Distance: 2,601.3 KM
Number of Runs: 226
Average KM/Run: 11.5 KM
Total Time Running: 212 Hours, 50 Minutes
Average Time Every Damn Day in 2018: 35 Minutes
At the beginning of the year I joined a group challenge to run the elevation of Mount Everest — 8,848 metres — and then forgot about it until I was crunching numbers the other night. I ran 38,419 metres of elevation in 2018, or the Everest summit 4.3 times.

Running’s free right?

When I first started running I bought a pair of adidas shoes at Costco for $40 or something, and Joe Fresh shorts and a top from the Superstore. I still wear adidas. JF not so much. I spend a lot more on running now. This year I decided to see how much.
Shoes: $1,434
Clothes: $970
Health: $619
Nutrition: $230
Race Entry: $724
Other: $665
TOTAL: $4,642
These dollars have caveats, of course. My shoe budget includes orthotics that I was not expecting, and I probably have shoes covered for 2019. I exhausted my extended health coverage and kept going to physiotherapy anyway. Race entry includes fees paid this year for races in 2019, but then excludes a few 2018 races paid for in 2017. Other includes a new Garmin watch, which had better not be an annual expense. The bloated Clothes expenditure is just embarrassing. I expect my 2019 total to be a lot less, but I’m a very recent convert to technical running socks.

Next week: New year — reading & running goals for 2019.

2018 week forty seven

Book Read:
50. The Tiger Flu — Larissa Lai

Kilometres Ran:
week forty seven: 32.9

To date: 2,290 KM

I remember one of my instructors in journalism school who use to write book reviews who said that she wouldn’t write a review of a book she didn’t like and I thought “that’s a cop out.” And then this morning on CBC Radio One Michael Enright was talking to Margaret Atwood during a fundraiser for the Literary Review of Canada and the subject of book reviews came up and Atwood said she never writes reviews for books that she doesn’t like and there was something else about bloggers being hacks because they were essentially anonymous and couldn’t be sued but I’d zoned out by then. I really wanted to like this book and I really should have liked this book and I really, really tried really hard to like this book but I just didn’t. I really did not like Kirilow. But I did like Kora and the pandemic-induced post-apocalyptic theme and the sprinkling of Vancouver landmarks and locales. I don’t think I’ve ever felt bad about not liking a book before.

At the halfway point turn-around getting a beat down from Meredith MacGregor, who was the top woman in the 1 Mile race just 45 minutes earlier. Also, just like Meredith’s, that thing on my face came off very soon after the race.

Yesterday was the Moustache Miler and I raced the 5K and managed to raise a little over $614 for the Movember Foundation. It was a great event and I had a lot of fun with it. Facebook did not like it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself…it’s the algorithms, stupid! I still think that my “Movember Foundation: Men are dying young; Most of my social media feed: GOOD!” joke was pretty funny, but crickets on that post. I did get one person ask when I’m doing the Merkin Miler — which is a great question, btw. Anyway, I wanted to raise over $500 mostly just to see if I could, and as well to run faster than 20:09. I’ve never raced a 5KM before. My 20:09 PB is from what my watch says I ran the first 5KM of the Eastside 10K back in September of this year, where I set a personal best in the 10K (officially) and apparently the 5K (unofficially). I did not run a personal best time. I went out pretty quickly and then faded and finished in 20:28, which I still think is really great considering what these past two months have been like trying to get past this knee injury. Later when I checked my splits I was really surprised to see how consistent my times were for 2-3-4-5 kilometres. By 3KM I thought I was going to die but the clock seems to say it was all in my head. I finished third in my age group and 19th overall.