The Days of May 2023

Well May has come and gone and I finally had the chance to throw down some racing. In fact, the month was full. So let's go picture heavy and word light as we catch up with things. 

First up was the Club Dog Runnin' Spring Rust Buster Canicross race. There were two races on the day for me as I got to run with two incredible dogs that I borrowed from club members. The first race was the 3 km Standard race. 

Canicross races are run on trails ranging from crusher dust to single track, with canitrail being a little rougher trails.  The Oakfield Park trails are a little mix of some crusher dust and some more gnarly trails with lots of elevation change, sharp turns and lose footing. Now attach a dog to you, run way faster than you can on your own and have fun! 

Phoebe and I got to start first in race the 3 km standard. Phoebe is perfectly fine not chasing another dog (some dogs really like that to give them a boost). She's on the smaller side compared to some dogs I run with, but dang is she strong. She took off and we quickly settled into a fast but manageable 3:15ish min/km pace. My legs were feeling it by the end of kilometer 1, but we kept it up. A quick slow down to visit another dog that was just out for a walk, a few trips to the ditch to check out a puddle, were the only issue. All of those were dealt with so quickly though. 

The final kilometer is definitely the toughest on this course and we held our pace finishing strong with a tight bungee lead. As the races are usually time trial efforts, we had to wait until the end to see our placing and we won. I broke 10 minutes on a super tough course and I was super happy.

This year I opted to also race the 1 km sprint race. I had the chance to race with Kona, who I have run before. Brother to Phoebe!  Kona is a little bigger with an extra bit of strength. While we had run some training races before, I hadn't unleashed Kona's full potential before, so this was going to be crazy fun. The scary part was going to be a little section of the course where we had to traverse a small detour due to the trail being blocked. 

Kona wasted no time when given the chance. We started this race in third and he does not like to be behind another dog.  Now I didn't know what our chances of catching the other runners ahead of us were since it was such a short race.  The detour was probably the only time we slowed on course, and only because I made sure we did.

We did catch second place about 600m into the race and Kona made sure we passed quickly. While we didn't manage to catch first place, we did end up making up enough time to win this race as well, though only by a few seconds. Our 2:56 finishing time didn't tell the whole story as we spent a lot of time in the 2:30 min/km range to make up for our slow down. 

Lexie and I picked up our prizes since she is easier to carry than the Kona and Phoebe. Huge thanks to Club DogRunnin and MAHDS. If you want to run with your dog, check out https://www.maritimehdsport.com/

The next weekend I had no time to rest! This was Fredericton race weekend, but before we went headed to the race I managed to get a parkrun in!

Then off to Fredericton for the 10 km. Craig was racing the Half Marathon so I travelled up with him. The weather was less than perfect, being really cold and with a strong wind.  I didn't get a lot of pictures of the event, but it is a mass start race with the 10, half and full marathon runners starting by race pace.  The race itself is pretty simple. You run though the city, cross a bridge, do a little tour of the other side of the river, then head on back. At a certain point the half and full runners split off. The conditions were tougher than I hoped for and while I could see the runners ahead of me, I mostly ran solo. 

The wind was really noticeable in the last few kilometers, especially crossing the second bridge. It was also at this point I noticed that 10km had come and gone and the end of the race was not yet here. I did my best to keep the top 3 runners in sight and finally came across the finish line.

The race ended up being 600m long due to a misplaced turn around cone. That and the high winds pretty much threw away my time goal. I did finish strong, but ultimately I don't know how close to my time goal I could have been, as I usually save a little extra effort, but to be honest, when the finish was no where and the 10km mark was coming up, I slowed a bit and just lost the mental oomph. Alas, it is what it is.

Another weekend and another race. Weekend 3 saw the Bluenose Marathon Weekend come to Halifax. I had not planned on running but ended up entering the 10km. I knew that my legs were pretty tired by this point with little recovery, but it was going to be nice to at least run through Halifax with some of the fast guys.  

First up though, a 5km parkrun! 

I didn't go into this parkrun with any sort of goal, I just wanted a nice run with some fun people. I chose to run with the leaders and just let them dictate the pace. I stuck with one runner until close to the end and the big 2.5km hill finally took its toll on him. Excellent effort though as I tried to pace him up the hill for as long as possible. 

I finished the parkrun with a 18:30 in what I hoped would be close to my goal pace for the Bluenose 10km.

The Bluenose this year was going to be extra tough. A slight down hill through town and across the bridge (sounds like Freddy). The big difference to Fredericton is that the bridge in Halifax is incredibly steep to allow huge ships to pass under it. Add to the this that each side of the bridge has a super steep hill to take you up to city level. 

I made it to the bridge in 8th place and on pace, even holding pace up over Nantucket on the Dartmouth side.  By this point, I had moved into 7th place overall and held that for the rest of the race. Coming back to the bridge, we were all hit with a huge head wind, which made the climb over to the Halifax side that much harder.

 

The On CloudBoom Echo were really fun shoes to take on this journey. 

The cheers from people I knew on the side lines was really appreciated. I was certainly feeling that kilometer worth of super steep climb. I came through the finish in 37 minutes. Slower than I hoped, but hey, this was not a flat easy race, so add in tired legs and I am okay with that.

Lots of friends from my run club were present to race or pace different events. And hey, we beat the rain! 

10km runners. 

A little bling shot, including the Age Group award I won, which was  great hand made wine mug from Peter Eastwood. I use it for espressos. 

The final weekend came and while there was no official race, I had one more parkrun to do and this time I wanted to try and achieve my goal of a sub 18 min 5km run each month. So off I went, running pretty hard down and while not killing it on the up hill, I help on for a decent 17:37 finish. 

So I needed some down time following this month. The old man legs were feeling it. The lungs on the other hand were perfectly fine.