MEC Race #2 - Citadel Highlander April 30, 2017

So I'm a little late getting to this blog post, but I was a little busy, so you'll have to excuse me.

This has been a Spring classic race in Halifax for at least 6 years (maybe 7?) and I have been at all of them with a decent bit of success.

Now while it is a fixture race, due to circumstances with using a Historic Fort for a run means that the route has frequently been adapted over the years. Some years a little long, some short. I won last year with a good run that ultimately kicked off a spat with my Achilles. So this year I entered much stronger.

I entered the 5km race and right away knew it would be tough with a couple of strong competitors lined up with me. The sun was strong and warm, but the wind was fierce making things overall quite cool. Still, I opted for shorts.

We all lined up (including the 10km race) and were soon off.

I tucked in behind Drew, as he was doing the 10km race, and while  he is usually a little faster then me, I knew he would be pushing more of a 10km pace, which I hoped would be a good start for the 5km until I saw what others were doing. This proved to be fun as he lead us to a first kilometer in 3:36. Oops. That included a pretty decent hill climb. I was able to hang on though.

I got to around the half way point in second place but then let another 10km racer through and finally had to succumb to the power of Chad as he pushed into 1st in the 5 km race. At this point it was stay with Chad and see what happens. I stayed right on him until we reentered the fort, which required going through tunnels and stairs, eventually jumping a pile of sand bags and running through a wet grass moat. By the end of this Chad had formed a slight gap.

We exited the fort for one final lap around the outside before a kick to the finish. This was about 500m of steep down then steep up. Chad kicked early and I knew that I was just holding on at this point.  He finished ahead and took the win, I followed pretty closely and finished second in a  time of 18:55 and a distance of 5km. Las year's time was much faster but I think it was a couple of hundred meter short. 

I was very happy with my performance. I pushed at the right times, likely went out a bit hard but had to follow the way the race unfolded and ultimately felt god after a quick recovery. A few sore muscles over the following days have been very minor, which I tink shows that my hill sessions hve been doing their job of building my strength.

Here is my heart rate graph. A sharp spike to start, then a gradual climb. I like that it shows I pushed just as hard on the downhills, which are long enough here to recover if you want. And a little kick at the end to beat the clock.

Speed sessions and hill sessions this year have done well to keep me strong, chiro and physio session have kept me healthy. All together this has been a successful training year so far.

Next up is the Bluenose half. So a couple of weeks of specific race training and we will see where we are at.