K-100 relay: Wile E Coyote

Relay Day!
It all began the night before when we camped at Longview. I was soooo excited to be camping once again after a 5 year hiatus but was told quickly by a team mate, "this isn't camping! We're in a playground!"
He was right. We were camping in a playground area next to the start line. But that doesn't mean it didn't feel a bit like camping, and nothing could dim my excitement/nerves over Saturday's race.
Many of you may remember that the only relay I've done has been the 500k relay for three years in a row, but that is my only relay experience. Having now completed the K-100, I will still call the 500k my favourite (although the K-100 is arguably much prettier)! But a relay is a relay is a relay. And relays are pretty awesome!
While we didn't have a "team theme", we did have a team name. I was super excited when my suggestion - Wile E Coyote - was chosen. I don't know if everyone else got the joke behind it (hint: who does Wile E Coyote chase?), but maybe they did.

 Location schmocation. I'm sleeping in a tent, ergo, it's camping!

I was running Leg 8 out of 10 legs. With the race being 100 miles, each section of the race was about 16k plus or minus a few!
Leg 8 was 15.9k and it said it had an overall elevation loss. Sounds good, right? It is! Except for the uphills at the end of the section...but we'll get to that.
I knew I would have a forced start at 4.15pm if my team mates weren't able to tag me off before that. Based on my team mates' calculations of their estimated finish times, there was a 50% chance this would happen. So selfishly, I was keeping fingers crossed that they would finish faster than their projected time so that I would NOT have a forced start! And of course, bonus to team mates who ran faster than they had predicted as well! We were slotted into the first wave of runners leaving at 6am, due to our projected teams. Wave 2 and 3 left at 7am and 8am respectively, as they would be much faster.

 The bagel and coffee breakfast tent (courtesy of the race organizers) and the registration table for Leg 1. You could only register at the start of your leg, so I had some time to go and bagels to eat before it was my turn.

Since I had time to kill, I volunteered to be the support vehicle for the first and third legs. In 500k relay terms, this is like being the water truck according to Canadian weather.
In Canada, runners ran on the shoulder facing traffic, rather than with traffic, so no follow vehicle was required. We had about 3 cars from Calgary. Generally, one car would be responsible for the runner, pulling over to provide water as requested and take heaps of photos. Most people requested water every 3k, although some went as long as 5k without water. (This IS Canadian weather after all!). The other cars would come along and we'd form a Team 237 convoy, stopping together so we could get out and cheer for the runner as a team. It worked quite smoothly by the end, although the first bit had a few wrinkles and one particular speed bump, which I'll get to shortly!

 Enjoying the views along the Highwood Pass.

 Fellow team mates showing off my sexy decked-out support vehicle.

 Here come the runners!

 Flooded areas off the side of the Highway.

Due to a surprising lack of interest, our team leader had to recruit 4 of our 10 runners from his home town of Edmonton, 3 hours north of Calgary. The runners from Edmonton had planned to drive in to Calgary the night before and would meet us at the start of Leg 4 of the race, when the first Edmontonian was scheduled to run.
So we left our Leg 3 runner chipping along at about 3k out from the finish to meet up with the Edmontonians. But the only problem was...they weren't there! Having been asked to arrive an hour ahead of our projected arrival time, this was a very unexpected speed bump in what had been up until this point a fairly smooth ride.

 A typical transition cone, equipped with water, sports drink, pylons, and... port-o-potties! I love you, race organizers! No "facilitrees" for me today.

The well-organized race had volunteers at the 1-mile out station, who would radio in the team number of the runner who had just crossed the line for 1-mile out. This had the benefit of letting those in the transition area know a) how they were ranked against the 105 teams entered, b) when you had approximately 10minutes to get your butt to the tag line if you were running next.
And as they radioed in our team number with 1-mile out - and no sign of the Edmonton crew - we were all getting a little concerned! And because we had all felt secure in the knowledge that they would be there, we had no contingency plan for If They Didn't Show Up. So the only ones at the transition zone who were in their running clothes were those that had already run legs 1 and 2! Asking someone to run a second time after they've given it their all just a couple hours before seems sort of cruel. So we asked our leg 10 runner to gear up super fast and run leg 4 instead. He did, but not before our poor leg 3 runner finished his race...and then had to stand around and wait for someone to tag!
Mass chaos and frustration ensued, so let me just give you the outline:
-Leg 3 runner finished, but Leg 4 runner had not shown up
-Leg 10 runner was speedily trying to get geared up to run Leg 4
-just as Leg 10 runner jogged off to replace Leg 4, we heard that Leg 1 runner (also our organizer) had gotten tired of waiting and started off, with the plan that he would be replaced ASAP into the run by Leg 10 runner.
-2 minutes after Leg 1 runner started off on Leg 4, our Edmonton contingency (including Leg 4 runner) showed up.
We quickly bundled Leg 4 runner into one of the cars and zipped off to replace him with our Leg 1 runner, about 2k down the road. Phew!
In the end, it hadn't been a case of "something bad happened" to the Edmontonians but rather an unapologetic "oh, we just left later than we planned. No biggie.". I will not speak for my fellow Calgarian team mates, but I know I was super frustrated about the lassez-faire attitude. I love running. I love running in groups. And I LOOOOOVVVVEEEE relay runs.
But sometimes, I don't love all of my fellow relay team mates. Sometimes I remember why it is so nice that running is mostly an individual sport.
Yet despite this small (but frustrating) hiccup in the first part of our relay, everyone was running faster than their projected times and I realized at the end of Leg 5 that I would be tagged off! No forced start for me! I was super stoked...this is what I had been training for! Or rather, this is what I should have been training for...
(To be continued).

All Fun on the Beach

Hot, sunny, humid Florida! What a perfect place for a run on the beach. (And stuffing my face with food, and visiting my grandfather, and shopping...but let's keep to the running side of things, shall we?)
My grandfather lives right on the Gulf of Mexico, with a beautiful 4k board walk out front. But who wants a board walk when you can have BEACH?
So I tied up my laces and out I went onto the beach.
Beach running is tough, but fun. It is always a challenge to push off against the soft sand. I wasn't sure how far I was going to run (other than "not really far, but not really short, either"). But fortunately the beach has two rock borders on it, so I felt it was fair to run from one to the other and back again.
Fortunately, it had rained earlier in the morning which cooled off the temperature quite a bit. And it even drizzled with a welcome rain while I was running. (Warm rain! How I've missed warm rain!!!)
It was fun to run along the wet sand and play chase with the waves. After the first 500m I gave up trying to keep a decent pace and focussed on a decent effort instead.

A round trip between the two rock borders was 7.3km. But that was soooo close to 8k, I just had to push a little more! So I ran a little bit past my grandfather's condo to get a nice round figure of 8k. As I stopped my watch, I noticed I was at around 53min. Much slower than my 8k race time of around 42min, but then, this was all beach!
And it was alllll fun.

PS - I still can't believe I signed up for the relay next week! 16k through the mountains! Yikes!!! I definitely don't feel ready for it.

So Close

The Calgary Marathon Festival was on this past weekend. Or, as I continuously call it the "Brisbane Marathon Festival" (wishful thinking?)
I entered the 10k.
As readers of my past blog entries will know, I originally had a goal time of sub-60, which took into account my minimal training this year. I then proceeded to get a sub-60min in my first 10k training run of the year, without hardly trying and carrying a backpack. So I sat down and re-thought my goals.
My previous PB was held at 54.00 from the 2012 Bridge to Brisbane. Now as far as I'm concerned, that PB has not reached it's expiration date yet, so I'm still good to go! But the question lay...could I get a PB in this race? Should I try?
The second question was easy: YES! I always try for PBs in a race. I'm the eternal optimist about my running abilities.
So with my wonderful Mom as my support crew, I lined up at the start for my first "race" race in Canada. (There was the MEC race of last week, but I didn't treat that one like a race).

Milling about at the start of the "Everyone Else" race (ultra marathon, marathon, half marathon). Exception was the 5k, which got ripped off with a rotten start time of noon.

I am still adjusting to the Calgary weather and opted for pants instead of shorts. At the start line, I'd decided that I sort of would have rather had shorts over pants. Oh well, lesson learned! It wasn't enough of a grievance to blame it for my lack of PB achieved. (Yep. I just spoiled the ending! No PB in this race).
The weather was, for all running purposes, GORGEOUS! I cheered on the marathoners / half marathoners / 50k ultra marathoners as they took off, and lined up.

I was one of the first people out there and hung back a bit. Then as it filled in I realized I'd accidentally seeded myself waaaay to close to the start line. As in, I was in the sub-50min group! I edged my way backward when another runner begged me to stop. I was wearing one of my Gold Coast race shirts which had the big bold letters of "FINISHER" written across the back and she said she wanted to watch it as her inspiration. Who was I to say no?
Out of the 3,053 runners in the race, who did I happen to see along the course but the 5 members of my triathlon group who were participating in the same race? I tell you what, the odds are not in the favour for that to happen!

 All  set to go in my high visibility hat.

I had a strategic plan to stick to that I had worked out ahead of time. If I ran at a pace of around 5.25-5.30 for the first 5k, I would only have to pick it up a little notch on the second half of the course (to around 5.20) to get a PB. Unlike previous races, THIS TIME, I was going to stick with the plan and start off slow!
So I did.

 ...And they're off!

 Shot of the leaders. I am not in this one.

 Random crowd shot. If you think you see me, you are mistaken.

The course wound it's way out of the Stampede grounds and through downtown. Our biggest hill was in climbing over an overpass bridge, but I could handle that. The race event was big enough (a total of ~10,000 people crossed the finish line) to draw a crowd of onlookers and supporters and entertainment, which is always awesome.

 Only in Calgary...do the horses come out to watch the race as well!

The first 5k went really well and I averaged 5.27min/km. And at the 6k mark I even managed to push my time to a 5.15 pace. But by the time that 6k marker hit, I knew I didn't have it in me for a PB.
And while PB is always the "ultimate" goal, I hadn't actually set it as my A-Goal for this race. I'd set an A-Goal as a sub-55min. So when I realized the PB wasn't an option, I re-set my focus to a sub-55min instead. It would have been easy at that time to settle for my B-Goal of sub-58min, but I just couldn't let myself slack off too much.
So I knuckled down, gritted my teeth against the pain and exhaustion, and kept going.

 Don't I just look like the picture of joy?

 Butt view...thanks, Mom!

Once again, my watch came up as saying the track was 200m longer than it should have been.
Once again, I have decided to trust the race directors more than my watch, and count the official time instead of my Garmin time.

Total time: 54.55min

Hooray! A-Goal achieved! It was a hard push at the end. And even though I didn't have my trademark "speedy" finish, I was pretty proud when I crossed the finish line in front of the Stampede Grandstand.

 Look, I'm a Pace Bunny!

 An awesome moment was watching the Maple Leaf gal run across the finish line* with some of the half marathoners. A part of me thought it would be really funny if she fell over, but she managed to avoid that particular embarrassment. 
*Note - she didn't actually run the entire half marathon!

The one thing I will say about the Calgary race; I don't think I've ever had so many race goodies! After I'd caught my breath and met up with my fellow triathletes, I grabbed one of each of the freebies and juggled them out to meet my mom, where we sat down munching the post-race snacks and enjoying watching my fellow racers cross the finish line.

Congrats on reaching 50 years, Calgary Marathon! Here's hoping I can join you for the next 50.

Eventually, we did leave. But with the sun beaming down, the music blaring over speakers, and people screaming and cheering and talking and laughing and the racers pushing hard to finish their own personal races, I could have stayed there all day.

But then, there's no sense messing with the tradition of post-race brunch!

Triple-A Goal

So.
Running has happened. Blogging about it has not.
I had a run in weather so cold (although it didn't feel cold until the end, when sleet came pouring down from the clouds) that upon my return I had what I can only describe as an allergic reaction to the cold: my whole skin turned bright lobster red and puffed out, and I had a rash all over my stomach. I shivered and coughed and thought "what am I getting sick with?" but after 4 hours my colour returned to normal and I was able to de-layer from my t-shirt, two sweaters, winter coat, toque, and two blankets wrapped around me.
I did some hill training with my sister, because nothing says "sisterly love" quite like trying to kick someone's butt going up a hill. Admittedly, I lost the race every time!
And of course, I have had my weekly indoor track training with the tri squad. The other day I even ran consistent 400m distances at a time of 1.43min, which is 4 seconds faster than the previous time I had run that distance! And I noticed I was starting to keep up to people that in January had looked oh-so-unattainably-fast.

But none of that mattered in comparison to today's training race. My goal is centred on the 16k leg of the K-100 relay I'm running June 21st. I am worried about the hills. What better way to practise than to sign up for a 15k race up to the top of Nose Hill and back? I put my name down, but didn't want to go crazy stupid about it. Not a race, then: a training run.
My goal time? Sub-2hours. But really, I told myself, I'll make my A goal sub-105min.
Nose Hill ain't no Mt Coot-tha, but it's still a fair slog. And I've never run it before, so I didn't really know what the hill would be like (steep or gradual incline? Undulating hills at the top or flat?)
The gun went off and so did we! What I didn't realize was that even getting to Nose Hill over 1k away was up a hill. So really, the first 4k was all uphill. I did my best to keep my pace chill and easy - no sense pushing too hard! It was a training race after all!
I tried to keep my effort level at a 7/10. At around 4k we finally hit the top of the hill. After that it flattened out a fair bit, with a few rolling hills (more dips than hills) and a strong wind just to keep things interesting. This sounds crazy, but I was sort of disappointed that there weren't MORE hills!! I joined in this race to get some serious hill training in, and just one big hill at the beginning - even if it was 4k long - felt a bit weak compared to what I used to do for hill training. But at least, I told myself, I could get some hills in along with the distance.
As I kept running I noticed something was wrong with my watch. That is, it was showing me a time that was surely much faster than it should have been. I shook it out a few times, but the darn thing didn't change.

 For $15, this was one of the cheapest and most well organized races I've been to! Sure you don't get the freebies, but when saving around $40-50, who cares? The water stations, km markings, road closures, post-race snack, and volunteer support were all amazing.

(Photo courtesy of MEC)

The long and winding road up Nose Hill. (Photo courtesy of MEC).

Could it be...was it possible...was I really going That Fast? For you see, as the km markings flickered past, I was staying at a very consistent sub-6min pace. After the first 6k I decided to just go with it, and try to keep my focus on same effort during the race rather than same pace. Burn out was likely, but I was interested to see how long it took and what would happen.
There were water stations every 2.5k, and I stopped for three of them. Actually stopped, drank my water, threw out my cup, then continued on. I never show so much courtesy in a "serious" road race (the road is my garbage bin!). But I just couldn't bring myself to throw out my cup in the park. What if it was missed by the fantastic volunteers? What if it just stayed there as garbage on beautiful Nose Hill?
At the turn-around, despite my water breaks, I was my time was well under 45minutes. And I have learned that what goes up, must come down (thank you, kindergarten!). So on the way back I would be going down, baby, down!
Off I went on the back half of the race, fully expecting and waiting for burn out.
And I did get it: my pace dropped from around 5.30min/km to about 6.05min/km. But I still felt I was ahead of the game. And since I still wasn't pushing too hard, it was easy enough to pick up the pace every now and then if I felt myself starting to slag. At 11k I reached the top of the hill, and I knew then for sure I was about to do something I'd never done before: I was going to reach my "Triple A" Goal.
In every race I've done, I've enjoyed the idea of an "A Goal" and "B Goal". And usually the A Goal, at least, has been fairly optimistic and often unattainable. But I can't think of a time when I smashed my A Goal. I mean, sure, at the beginning of the race I thought hitting a sub-90min 15k would be ideal, but I never even thought to try for it, because it seemed unrealistic for a training race.

Total distance: 15.00k
Total time: 1.27.41.

Dang!!! Triple A Goal it is! For once in my life, I am faster in reality than I am in my mind. It's kind of a nice change.

My 10k race (and first "serious" race of the season) is coming up next week. I hope the trend still stands then!

Strange Tidings

On Sunday I decided I needed to button down by buttoning up. That is, I needed to get out and do some training, but to do so I really needed to bundle up because it was cold and snowy!
I popped on my trail shoes to protect me from the ice, and wore my best winter running clothes I had.
When I got to the Running Room store to start the group run, I admit I was having a lot of clothes envy over all the runners bundled up in their sleek official winter running coats and all their special winter gear. But I steadied myself with the reminder that if I was a good girl and did the run, I would reward myself with a Running Room shopping spree afterwards!
My goal was to find a group going around 12-15k. That seemed easy enough.
Ha!
There were 4 groups leaving from the store: a walking group, an 8k group, an 18k group, and a 26k group. After some debate I joined up with the 18k group, because they promised we would be slow.
Slow is something I know I can do, after all.
Off we set into the sleet and wind.
The Running Room groups here do something I've rarely (if ever) done on a long slow run before. They went slow. As in, slow even for me!
They followed the format of doing 10min run : 1min walk. And it was one of those rare groups that - if someone started to pick up the pace - actually encouraged and reminded them the need to slow down! How crazy is that?!
It was refreshing! And not just because of the snow on the ground.
Off we plundered, and I forgot about the speed, the distance, and - yes, even the cold! I forgot simply because I was having fun. I chattered incessantly to anyone who would listen. When one person dropped off the conversation (quite possibly to get away from me) I started chattering to the next person. What a great time!
There were a few sections of slushy snow that we cautiously picked out way through, but for the most part the ground was ice-free, which was fantastic.
Before I knew it, 15k had gone.
After 15k, I felt every single step. I began to really look forward to the 1min walk breaks. Although I admit I was confused as to when exactly we took them, and it took me just over two hours to realize that 10+1 does NOT equal 10. That is, it was going to be a minute later on my watch every time. Oops!
And it turns out that the one thing the group wasn't so good at was planning distances appropriately. That 18k? Turned into a 19.5k instead! Yikes! From wanting to go on a gentle 90minute run to a 140minute run! That's a lot of extra I did.
But afterwards I felt great. Better than expected! As in, I felt the same as I usually do after a 20k run or so - no better, but certainly no worse. And I wasn't even the slowest of them all, which also surprised me! Normally I am back-of-the-pack-struggling-to-keep-the-others-in-sight. This time I was the front of the main group. And I was even reminded on a couple of occasions that I needed to slow down! How...strange.
I did lots and lots of stretching afterwards. Then I snapped out my credit card and did some shopping! No more running gear envy for me...

Relay Addiction

On Monday I saw a group of runners had signed up to be on a team for the K-100 Relay. It looked full, but I thought to myself, "I'll sign up on the waiting-list and maybe I can help out as a volunteer driver for the weekend or something."
Lo and behold! Less than 24 hours later I was told I would be a runner on the relay. Wait, what?!?!
Frantically, I squinted at the relay legs more closely. 16k is the typical distance.
Sixteen Kilometres.
 
  Weather in the Rockies in June can be a bit unpredictable. I just hope the roads look like this:

 Now that may not seem all that bad. But wait, there's more! I remind you that the K-100 relay is named after Kananaskis. As in, it's a relay through the Rocky Mountains.
At this point you're probably asking yourself, "Hmm, won't that make it hilly?" And you would be absolutely right!

Ulp.

 It bears repeating that hills are not my friend. And considering as of Monday I had just upped my distance to a mere 11k, neither was distance. This would not be a problem if the race were months away. But with just under 8 weeks to up my training enough to compete in a 16k hilly race through the mountains, that is putting a bit of time-bake pressure on the whole affair.

...And not like this...

But on the other hand, how cool would it be to run in another relay this year? I've done three in a row in Australia, and now I'll be at #4. I've become a relay junkie.
But before I could fully commit to this endeavour, I needed to sufficiently lower the expectations of our team leader as to my contribution to the team. I may love running, but I sadly have very few illusions about my so-called "speed". So if our fearless leader was hoping for a competitive/fast team, I would have to bow out of the relay with grace and relief. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), he was fast to reassure me that I was still a go for running on the team.

So bring it on, K-100! Operation Train It Up has already begun...but more on that later.

Commuter Runner

Another day, another line to cross! For years I'd looked on commuter runners with half envy, half how on earth do you manage that? You know the people. The ones who strap their backpacks to their back, slip some running shoes on their feet, and off they jog to/from work. Double bonus points for the commuter runners at the end of the day who couldn't be bothered with changing their fancy shirts or ties and just thought "the heck with this! I'm going straight home to shower and throw my clothes in the laundry anyway".

Well, on Monday of this week I joined The Ranks.
Yep. I changed my clothes (really, I don't think I'll EVER run home in my work clothes, but you never know!), strapped my yellow backpack to my back, and off I ran into the semi-unknown. The trip was a lovely jaunt along the river.
And do you know my favourite part? My favourite part was how I was taking it easy, chilling out as I ran. And at the 9k mark I noticed that I was at 54minutes. I thought to myself, hmmm. The hmmm thought came because I was doing some mental calculations. 54min/9km = 6min/km. I have a 10k race coming up the 1st of June and my goal (since I haven't run such a distance in a LONG time) was a sub-60min. So then on top of the hmmm, I thought, I wonder if I still have it? I wonder if - despite not making this a 'race' per-se - I can still run a sub-60min 10k just to prove to myself I can do it.
And so I picked up the pace a touch more, to make sure I didn't get 60.05min, or something along those lines.
Okay, I might have picked up the pace a lot more.
And I finished with a sub-60min! Yep, I still got it.
The total distance was about 10.5k. That's a pretty good distance for running home. And it only took me about 10minutes longer than the bus takes.
You know what? I might frequent the commuting paths in my running shoes more often. Maybe I'll become one of those constant commuter runners.
Oh, how times have changed!