Race to the Sea – Leg 8

12 August 2006, Race to the Sea, Port Aux Basques, Nfld.

Leg 8: 8.5km? – 51:30?: xx

qmp, RA, bruyere, jacob42.2, Mike from Creemore, Fonse (local addition to the Screechin Orangutans), Sanders, Hermes (hiding), Martin (family addition to the team)

As a small pre-emptor, let’s remember that we were racing in Newfoundland. And being the hearty Maritimer that I am, I made sure to participate in ALL the festivities, including a night much too late with fellow teammates at the bar! We all had an early morning ahead of us, given Mike had the first leg, Brendan was coming with me to transport Mike and support his leg, and Jacob was bringing in the second support crew to leg 2. Some of us had a little more time to recuperate than others, but Mike pulled it off, and went on to support two other team-mates by running with us to keep his training mileage up for the week. Having run twice the distance, alone in the middle of the night in my last relay race, I welcomed the company when Mike suggested he wanted to run with some of team later in the day.

This was a really interesting event to take part in. Given that it is much smaller than most it was more like your old race days with the officials: “timer” and the “recorder” and the horn to signal the start.

My leg got a little confused, as there was a change to it (cutting it from 9.9km to approximately 8.5), due to some construction that we had to steer clear of. Checking in for our leg was mixed up, as was the fact that no officials even arrived at the “start” until after the leg was intended to begin! (they were still at the finish for the previous leg) All of this added a little to a nervous stomach before the start.

Waiting for the start…

I was thankful that we’d arrived in Nfld. plenty early, having traveled on the night-crossing of the ferry and had taken some time to wander around, and actually drove the end of the course my leg was on. However, I either underestimated a hill or two, or went out too hard at the beginning. Of course I hadn’t done much hill training, in fact avoiding hills as much as possible due to my knee having been acting up. Compared to the others, my hills were babies, but they still got me. My first 5k, was the fasted 5k I have ever run – 28 minutes and change. I felt good, had conquered the first hill(s) and was ahead of my goal pace, of approximately 6min K’s. Then the “big” hill, and I walked a good portion of it. I kept my pace as quick as I could, with long strides, and was very thankful for Mike’s company along the way. I expect I would have lost a lot more time in those last 3 km’s if it weren’t for Mike, keeping slightly ahead of me, encouraging me to stay with my current pace a little bit longer. Mike tells me I averaged about 6:04/k, so not far off my goal at all!

“Mike from Creemore” and COTR – beginning of leg 8

Thankfully I had seen the course, because Mike was being very supportive, telling me I “had less than a K left, and were almost at the top of the hill, it’d be downhill from there”. I knew better, and reminded myself, that it had looked like I’d have an uphill finish when we drove the course the day previously. Sure enough after a slight break in the hill, we were climbing again. I wanted to kick it in to the finish, but I was barely keeping myself from walking a third hill! I kept “running”, and made it across the finish line.

I pushed myself hard and felt good about my pace. I don’t know what my official finish time was, will find the results later and update.

The best news is I ran hard and without problem. My knee is feeling good, so I’m aiming for another race this weekend. The NAVY 10K, and perhaps I can even do this one under a 6min/km pace! (that would make my first actual 10K race under 1 hr!!!)

End of road trip.

Extras:

COTR feeling at home in Nfld: