Fast forward one year and many lessons learned, along with many miles under my feet of building a base, strengthening my body and changing my running form. Did I get a better time than last year?
Well I'm barely into my marathon training clinic with City Park Runners, but since the beginning of November when I started to rebuild myself, I put on a lot of base mileage and strength and conditioning to help me prepare to run. I wasn't going into this in full race mode, although I did do the requisite carb loading and got a pretty good night's sleep the night before. I got a message from my buddy Aggie a couple of hours before heading off to bed telling me that she's going out to a staggette...soooo it's going to be a tough run for my buddy. But she said she'd pick me up for 6:00AM to head out to the race site.
Now...the infamous polar vortex that has plagued most of Mid-western Canada...but my only concern is how Winnipeg has been so damn cold since the end of November. On record, it's been one of the coldest winters in Winnipeg for the last 75 years. According to Environment Canada "Winnipeg has had 71 days with a wind chill below -30 since Dec. 1, Environment Canada says. The wind chill value has gone below -40 for 29 of those days. And we’ve even had a day (Jan. 5) where the wind chill dipped to -51. Winnipeg normally has about 40 days with a wind chill below -30."
Wow...so go eff yourself winter...seriously. And this morning it was -35 windchill. I wore a Kodiak thermal baselayer and my hind top with my new North Face Flight Series Windstopper Jacket I got from CPR. I wore my thermal tights and I've put many miles in my Asic's Gore Tex trail running shoes, that have kept my feet warm through this whole winter season. I picked up a Patagonia capilene beanie from the St. Paul MN store and my Tifosi Tempt Fototecs. My friend Kevin from St. Paul told me when you head out for a winter run, if you're already warm as you head out the door, you're dressed too warm. So I didn't layer as much this morning knowing, I'll be building up a lot of heat through the adrenaline of the race and just knowing my goal was to NOT stop at all during the race.
I was up at 4:45, getting in a light breakfast of oatmeal, toast and water in me, then went back down to nap and didn't wake up for another hour (yes I had my alarm clock all set). When I got up for the second time, I stretched out doing my suriya namaskara b yoga poses and foam roll the legs out to get the blood flowing. Drank some coffee and waited for Aggie who happened to come by right on time to pick me up...even though she didn't get home from her party until 3AM in the morning...that is a story all unto itself ;)
We arrived at the race site around 6:50, I did my bag check and defrosted myself as it was a cold and dark morning. I quickly hurried to the bathroom to do my ritual of doing #1 about 10 times, then started to bundle up. I already had my baselayer on me, it was putting on the two other layers and my beanie hat, full leather mitts (as I didn't want to chance having freezing hands) and my sunglasses and I started to do my pre-race bounce and juke stepping. I know it drives Aggie crazy because she takes one look at me and begs to to stop fidgeting.
A couple of minutes before the gun goes off we all head out to the start line. I stayed in the back, Osty was kind of near me and Tyler was way up at the front. I had no idea where Aggie was, but when the gun went off I started my pace nice and even...I found that starting from the back makes pacing very difficult as there is always a glut of people taking up the lanes just shuffling. I'm beyond shuffling but not to the point where I start sprinting out of the gate. I came out of the first KM at a 6:47km pace which I felt was a little too slow, mostly held up by people running 3-4 wide of the trails and I couldn't get past them. I was able to break slowly away from a lot of the shufflers, and start to get into my groove, when I found Osty sneak up from behind me and then start gunning it past me at the first mile. He was about 500-600m's ahead of me and I didn't want to chase him but I upped my pace to ensure that I was in sight of him.
When we broke out of the Fort Whyte forest and into the field of death which was about 2km before we run up a hill then to the railroad tracks. Going through that field was HARD, as there was a very strong North westerly wind that bit into your clothing, I had my hoorag over my face, but the wind was so strong, you couldn't help but wince at the oncoming gusts. I lost Osty as he crested over the hill to the tracks and was gone into the Assiniboine forest. I took water at the first stop but didn't stop to drink. I called out to the volunteers that I wanted water as they offer you water or gatorade, they handed me the right cup, I thanked them, crushed the cup to make a funnel and take a little swig, to rinse my mouth before swallowing. And I just kept on going...
When I broke out of the forest onto Grant Ave. I could see Osty in my sights again...he was roughly 600m ahead of me and I kept him at that distance through most of the race. It was when we got to Assiniboine park I was able to catch up to him at the duck pond and when I was finally running by his side, he makes a break for the duck pond shelter to do an emergency bathroom break. I didn't stop and just kept running. This is where I started talking to myself, giving myself a mantra...I kept repeating two words in my head every kilometre. I kept saying "Bold and Determined" and it was when I reached the Zoo parking lot, I saw Tyler in my sights. He was about 700m ahead of me. I kept him in my sights on the turn around and I was finally able to catch him at the 14km mark and eventually broke away.
Heading back into the wind was tough. I would drop my arms and relax my shoulders and remind myself to activate my glutes to keep that kinetic chain moving. Not using my quads, calves and achilles stressed out but using my glutes and hips as the main driving muscles to help me run better and pain free. This was something I discovered in late October of last year. I read this article about how glutes are mainly responsible for horsepower factor in running. I practiced this and realized through practice I stopped relying on my achilles, calves, knees, quads to keep me moving forward. I was missing a big piece of the kinetic chain and that was the biggest muscle in my body...my ass! I'll write more about this in another entry, but I've found how using my glutes has helped me not only become faster, and stronger, but also run injury free.
When I saw the 10 mile marker, I knew I was doing well. I was actually able to catch a lot of runners and by the time I made it to the last water stop, Wave 2 was already making their way by me so there was a clog on the trail path coming out of the forest to the train tracks. I was calling out for gatorade when one of the wave 2 runners grabbed my drink...I was kind of ticked that I lost my last water break going into the 11th mile, but I didn't want that to deter me from an already great run and pace I was doing.
When I got to the tracks and to the foot of the hill, I just walked it up as I haven't really done any hill training since August of last year and I didn't need to hurt or burn myself out. I noticed a lot of runners decided to walk the hill up too. It was on the way down, I treated the last 2 miles (3.2km) like one of our clinic intervals. More specifically the Week 2 Intervals of 90 secs at my 5km pace followed by a 90 second recovery 'run' as I didn't want to lose too much steam with a slower jog. I'm glad I was wearing my sun glasses as the glare from the sun onto the snow was pretty bright. I was able to pass a couple of more runners in the last kilometre keeping an even pace with a final kick at the last 100m.
I got a 2:03:54 according to my Garmin and according to Running Room:
| 48 | 2:04:16 | 5:54 | Ruben | Cervantes | Winnipeg | M | 34/97 |
Which translates to a top 50 finish, which I'm satisfied considering the really cold conditions and really bad trail conditions for everyone due to the heavy winds which blew a lot of snowdrifts over the trails. My buddies Osty and Red finished 3 and 4 minutes behind me respectively and my buddy Aggie finished the race too despite only surviving on martini's and 3 hours of sleep and really not appropriately dressed for the cold morning run, as Tyler lent her his wind breaker. But I'm proud that she made it through in such tough conditions, probably cursing the whole way.
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| Obligatory or it didn't happen... |
