Quick weekend recap. The Moose Run was back, our 25km fun run that is now in its 26th year. New race director (fellow Nuun Ambassador Mat Sabinski) but same great community support.
As before, this is a pay by donation race with a few water stops along the way, options for relay teams and tons of tough hills. At 5 weeks out from Boston this is a favorite course for getting a race day prep run in (go Marg!).
But for me this is fun. Every year so far I have taken this event as an opportunity to pace someone to a desired result. So far I have done this for Craig directly twice, for Pat and Craig last year, and this year I started with a few fellow runners with similar goals. We wanted to pace around a 4:30 min/km with a variety of distances. Sarah hoped to go to the 8.5 km mark, Luke was opting for 5km and Craig heading to the halfway mark, to share the run with Gillian.
Thanks to Ron for snapping a quick shot near the start as we headed off on a cool, windy but sun filled day. I was testing out my newish NB 1500's to see how they did over this kind of distance.
The first 5km were chatty and fun before Luke took off to hand off to his team mate for a relay finish and begin doing a #worldlitterrun. Craig also kept a strong pace at this point and pulled ahead a little of myself and Sarah.
For her this was going to be a long run at this pace. 5km was no problem, but 8.5 with huge hills was going to be tough. We ran together (and picked up some friends to chat with like Chad) and she held on with some tough grit until we hit that final big downhill and she could just give a strong final 0.5km effort before handing off to teammate #2, Heather.
At this point the wind blew my hat off and I had to chase it. Then I ran with Heather for a bit before teaming up with Al and pushing toward the halfway mark and a reunion with Craig.
I took this time to stop, have a gel and a drink of water, get my music out and prepare for a little tempo work. The goal was a tough tempo run back to the spot I dropped off Sarah (about 4.5km) before easing back to an easy effort. So off I went.
At the turn around I had averaged about a 4:37 min/km pace. My next two kilometers were a 3:30 pace.
With the wind at my back, the sun in my face and a hard effort I was getting hot. As I ran to the teammate switching spot, I threw my coat to Sarah and headed off feeling really good.
So I decided to just not look at my watch, give a hard but doable effort and see where I finished, knowing that with no goal in mind I could ease back if need be.
The hills were tough, the wind blew my hat off again and I ended up carrying it, and without the tail wind it wasn't quite as hot anymore. But I was enjoying my tunes and loving the journey (oh and some Journey).
With 3 kilometers to go and a downhill finish, I picked up the pace a bit, passing a few runners in the process.
With about a kilometer to go, I saw Craig and Elizabeth drive by and wave and Sarah, Jordan and Heather drive by. Sarah popped out for a shout of encouragement and some nice photos.
I ran hard to the finish with a final kilometer back in the 3:30 mark. I crossed the finish line after 1 hour 45 minutes, dropping that average pace from 4:37 to 4:14.
We had a great post run team gathering with food and drink at the Buffalo Club.
This was the first time I pushed a hard effort on any part of this run and I really liked it. The challenging hills, the every changing scenery and the pretty decent weather (except maybe the wind) were just inspiring to run in. This course is also partially used in some of the Maritime Race Weekend races as well, were I have had some good runs).
Oh and the 1500's were great. Just enough cushioning and support for a longer run, but zippy enough to propel you forward.
Lots of great finishes and good times by fellow BLT Runners as well.
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