First up was Rum Runners. The BLT Runners had 4 teams running this year with some great people on board. As is usual, we had to work out some last minute changes due to injuries, but the teams were filled.
I arrived at the start of Leg 2 with Craig. We got some team pictures done with most of the squad and then began the process of wrangling team members to make sure they got to their start lines on time. All went really well, the weather was great (though it could always be cooler). Then after watching 7 Legs start and finish, it was my turn.
We took off on time and I knew I had to stay near the front. It is hard to pass in Rum Runners since you have to stay off the road, and Leg 8 had a really tough bit of washout to start on the road side. I was quickly into 4th place and tucked in neatly running a good pace.
Leg 8 is really hilly for the first half or so and I knew I needed to take advantage of that. I do like the hills. First place was long gone, but I needed to keep myself up front as much as possible, and by kilometer 4, I surged on a hill and took second place. I held that for quite awhile, only finally relinquishing it around kilometer 8 or 9 to Judson from the Maine-iacs. He quickly put a gap on me, but then settled back into a similar pace. I thought about surging up, but truthfully, I knew where I was effort wise and that was too early to make that kind of move.
The rest of the race was really pretty even. I held my position, my pace was relatively even and I entered the final 2.5 kilometers of flat even road in my pace zone. I finally looked back and had a sizable gap on fourth, so I knew I just needed a strong finish to hold onto a great position and time.
The heat was certainly taking its tole but there had been a decent cool breeze blowing. This was a now a head wind, but it didn't matter much. I felt good overall and was happy to see the finish, even getting cheered on by fellow BLTers and their taunts of how good their ice cream was.
I crossed the line with an average pace of 3:45 min/km for 12.8 km and was totally happy with my performance against some tough runners.
The next morning I awoke and headed off to run the MEC 10km trail race. This race was dead moderately flat with some mild turns, for an out and back. I wasn't expecting a lot, but hoped to hold a 3:45 pace again for the day. There was a few fast runners in the crew and soon we were off.
I immediately fell to third and again, there isn't much to say as I stayed in my position for the whole event. It was hard, I looked at my watch way too much, which is a good sign that I was tired. It was overcast and cool to start, but soon was raining and the humidity was rising. I watched at First and second pulled away and I was really feeling done.
Soon though, the finish line was in sight. I didn't have a true kick to push through but did find a little extra pace in these old legs, dropping to a low 3 min pace as I crossed the line in 36:59 officially. I think this may be a PB for a stand alone 10k, though I did run 10k faster to start the Bluenose 15k earlier this year (it was net downhill though). Nice to see a time that starts with 36 though. I was happy finishing third and grabbed a quick Nuun to celebrate and get those precious electrolytes back.
I am pretty happy that while sore, I'm not that sore. That may be the bigger victory. Oh and I tried the Brooks Pure Cadence in the 10km race. They seemed like a fine shoe, though maybe not as fun as my New Balance 1500's.
Great work on the BLT Runners in all things this weekend, with our teams doing wonderfully at Rum Runners, and then following up by taking the Participation award for most team members showing up to the MEC race. This is an award we tried to get in years past, and then we managed to grab it just by being excited about going to these events. Great work everyone, keep racing strong.
Oh and a shout out to Avery Deacon and her sister Anna for conquering the Berlin Marathon today.
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