Tag: VFAC

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.

2019 week thirty five

Book Read
34. Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Max Porter

Kilometres Ran
week thirty five – 61

2019 to date: 1,681

In this pretty great debut novella a father and two sons deal with life and grief at the loss of partner and mother, along with a crow who serves as a sort of asshole grief counsellor who promises to hang around for as long as the family needs. Porter’s experimental style is not easily accessible but I liked it a lot. I am sure most of the Dickinson and (Ted) Hughes references went right over my head but I really enjoyed this book regardless. A relatively short read that you might have to work a bit for, but worth it.

Saturday was the third and final event in the Vancouver Distance Track Series hosted by Nic Browne and the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club. Initially billed to be a 10,000 on the track up at UBC, a couple weeks ago Nic added an 800 and mile to the event so I signed up to see if I could better my mile result from back at the beginning of June. The field was a lot thinner this time out, which I think turned out to be a disadvantage. My goal was to try to run 1:25 laps for the first three and then try to explode my heart on the fourth but without a pacer my timing was merely guesswork.

Photo by Debra Kato

First lap I came through at 1:26 and I was rather pleased with myself and settled into a rhythm that, turns out, was a bit slow. Second lap the clock read 2:58. Third and into the bell lap and I don’t recall the numbers on the clock but I had a feeling it was my slowest. I pushed hard through the 300 metres of lap four and then tried my damndest to cough up a lung on the final straight to the finish.

Photo by Debra Kato

I crossed the finish 5:52 for the same finish time as my first mile attempt back in June, proving, I guess, that it was not a fluke. Hindsight being what it is, I think that I could have given more on lap three. I also think that back in June I benefited a lot from having people close to me throughout the race. This time out I was 14 seconds ahead of the runner behind me, and 38 seconds behind the next person in front of me. But then this morning I checked both times again; my run Saturday was 7/100 faster than June. I’ll take it. Twelve days until Eastside 10K. BONUS: I knew that Rachel Cliff is the current Canadian women’s marathon record holder, which won me an entry into the Gunner Shaw Cross Country race in December. Yay! BUT: I think I’ll be in Sacramento running the California International Marathon. Boo! I need to double check.

2019 week twenty nine

Book Read
27. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

Kilometres Ran
week twenty nine – 29.9

2019 to date: 1,382 KM

On or around the first anniversary of Bourdain’s death I dusted off my copy of his first book. I admired him very much and his death struck me harder than most other celebrity deaths. But his passion for food is lost on me. I understand it, but I don’t get it. My relationship with food is not so great. I eat because I need to stay alive. I read a book earlier this year about eating and obesity and in it was described a study in which the participants consumed a liquid diet that has all the necessary nutrition and I thought that sounded pretty much perfect. I don’t even remember what the study was about. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a good meal. I have also noticed that many of the good meals I used to enjoy were merely a catalyst for the consumption of massive quantities of alcohol (mostly red wine). You see things differently when the food has to stand on its own.

Checking the Take the Bridge checkpoint map that was release an hour before race gun.
Photo by Marlon Soriano

On Thursday was Take the Bridge. Forty men and then 40 women racing to two check points however they choose to get there and back. The registration sold out in, I’m told, one minute. I was lucky enough to secure an entry. Turns out that some of the fastest people in this city are also pretty quick on a computer because when I saw that start roster my hope went from be competitive to don’t be last. We all met at Vancouver Running Co. for check in and at 8 o’clock they released the map. The men went out first at 9 p.m. I’d scouted the first checkpoint with fellow Mile2Marathoner Matt Diederichs and figured I knew my way around well enough to just wing it on the second. Beginner’s naiveté. The mass start was chaos—below the Burrard bridge we ran down a gravel pitch with plenty of divots towards the boat launch at Vanier Park. I hung back and found a decent rhythm and reached the first check point near the back of the pack. The race back to and then over Burrard was my first mistake, taking a trail through the brush next to the bridge that added some extra distance. I got onto the bridge and started to pass a few people, then made my second mistake taking by avoiding the stairs at the north and an opting instead to take Pacific. Making it worse, I took a right on Howe instead of Hornby, meaning that I missed the cut through May & Lorne Brown Park completely on the way to checkpoint two under the Granville Bridge. I was faster than a few of the guys ahead of me, but they made better route decisions. Coming back over Burrard Bridge I managed to catch and pass a few more guys. Then I got to the south end and turned the corner back to the finish line under the bridge and as I did I saw two leap the railing thereby cutting a couple hundred metres and getting them both across the finish before me. I finished 20th out of 40 and I am fine with that especially because I had so much fun. I hope that this is a taste of more to come because I will definitely do it again given the opportunity.

Fun fact: I’ve always hated the RHCP. Under the Burrard waiting for the inaugural Take the Bridge Vancouver to start. Photos of me racing didn’t make the cut so this blurry selfie will have to do. I’m used to it by now.

With Take the Bridge done I had a rest day on Friday and then got up bright and early Saturday morning for the Vancouver Falcons Summerfast 10K around Stanley Park. I’d been sickly for the week and while TTB ended up being only 4 KM I ran hard and it’s taken a lot more out of me than I figured. Excuses be damned, I still wanted to finally get under 40 minutes and this was the course to do it. Flat, fast and familiar. According to Strava I’ve run this loop now over 250 times. I got off to a great start and at 3 KM I was still under pace with a few seconds to spare, but I already knew that I wasn’t going to be able to hold it. I did the best I could and hit 5 KM at Lumberman’s Arch 20:06 and took a Maurten. I felt it kick in at 6 KM (a weird feeling that I have never really, consciously noticed before). It didn’t do any miracles but I believe it curbed the downward spiral that would have come otherwise. I hit 8 KM at 4:16 pace; I knew that sub 40 was not going to happen but I figured I might have enough left to get over the finish in eight minutes. Nine came and went and I emptied the tank on ten, crossing the finish at 40:40 (chip time).

Still from the 2019 Summerfast 10K finish line video posted to YouTube.

It’s not sub 40 and it’s 11 seconds off my personal best. But it’s my personal second best over 10 KM, and I’m absolutely confident I could have gone sub 20 over 5 KM if that was the distance, and my fastest two kilometres were the first and the tenth (3:51/3:56). It wasn’t the goal day I’d wanted, but it was a pretty great day anyway. I have two more chances to run under 40 minutes coming in September: the Eastside 10K and the North Van Run. It feels very doable.

And for the third year Mile2Marathon took home the cake as the fastest team. Check out this story in the Vancouver Sun while the link still works. Photo by Debra Kato

I could write a lot more about running this week, but this post is already a day late and probably too long. See you next in week thirty.