Tag: VFAC

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.

2019 week twenty two

Book Read
22. It’s a Big Deal! – Dina Del Bucchia

Kilometres Ran
week twenty two – 56.9

2019 to date: 1,077

I’m a day late writing this blog post and I can’t even blame it on a long weekend, but I flew home from Paris on Wednesday morning and I’m still trying to finish my travel journal. So no big deal. But what is a big deal is this new collection of poems from Dina Del Bucchia and if you don’t believe me then just read the title of the book. How can you argue? You can’t. I especially liked the Megafauna part of this collection – 19 poems with the following criteria: 1. Must be heavier than 100 pounds, 2. Must be fauna, and 3. Must be extinct. These are great. These belong in a museum. Who needs binomial nomenclature and some dry, stuffy description along side the Smithsonian’s dioramas? Put these there instead. And since we’re on the precipice of a mass-extinction event, Del Bucchia will have lots more to write, and we’re going to need her humour to help get us through. (We’re not getting through.) It’s pretty URGENT! Speaking of which, a couple years ago I was the managing editor of The Capilano Review and we collaborated with Daniel Zomparelli of Poetry is Dead for ti-TCR #11 “Urgency and Response,” which you cannot find online anymore but if you could you’d see that I got to typeset Del Bucchia’s poem “URGENT!” which you’ll also find in It’s a Big Deal. (Actually, since it was meant to be online and it’s not anymore for some reason, here it is.) Nostalgia enough? I still have a soft spot for TCR, which makes me do stuff like, years later, still try to help them out.

The 2018 Scotiabank Half Marathon. This year I’m running in the Charity Challenge in support of The Capilano Review. I hope you will consider lending your support.

The Scotiabank Half Marathon is in three weeks and this year I’m hoping to run fast than last year but I’m also running to raise money for The Capilano Review, which this year is a registered charity, and I hope that you’ll consider giving your support. For over 45 years or something TCR has published the who’s who of Canadian and international literary and visual artists, many of whom were still who? when they first appeared in TCR‘s pages. I was a fan, and then had the privilege of being the managing editor for a couple years. (Hence, I know the state of the books….) In spite of its tenuous financial situation, it continues to publish uncompromising quality, and I’m still a huge fan who looks forward to finding it in my mailbox throughout the year. TCR gives back to the community too, hosting numerous free cultural events throughout the year. I hope that you will consider supporting my race for a new personal best, and to make a donation to The Capilano Review. As TCR is a registered charity, all donations of $25 or more receive a tax receipt. To find out more about The Capilano Review follow this link.

Use this link to Donate

Mile on the track at the Vancouver Distance Track Series hosted by the Vancouver Falcons Athletics Club. Photo by Charles Perrot-Minot

On Friday I got to race a mile on the track up at UBC for the Vancouver Distance Track Series hosted by the Vancouver Falcons Athletics Club. It was over pretty quickly, and was a ton of fun. I went into the day with a bit of jetlag and not really knowing what to expect. I’d never raced a mile. According to Strava, my fastest mile was the first 1,609 metres of the Chilly Chase 5K that I raced in January. Strava said I did that in 6:05. I wanted to run under six minutes. The gun went off and I got a good start and just tried to keep pace with Rochelle Marasa who’d taken the lead. In the second lap Paul Farrow took over the lead, Marasa second and me trying to keep Marasa’s pace in third. Going into the bell lap Marasa picked up her pace and caught and passed Farrow. On the final straight I thought he was within reach and I turned on the sprint, but just before the line he saw me coming and managed to find another gear too and held me off. I finished third just 3/10 second behind him, crossing the line at 5:52 for a pretty satisfying personal best.

Vancouver Distance Track Series Heat 1 – (L-R) me (3rd), Paul Farrow (2nd), Rochelle Marasa (1st) hosted by the Vancouver Falcons Athletics Club. Photo by Jan Heuninck.

I learned a few things too. The biggest one is to stay in lane one. I spent some time pacing the leaders on their right instead of from behind. Which meant my mile was a few metres long – a learning experience that I will carry into next time. There will be a next time.