The 30th Annual Sandcastle City Classic: PB for the 10k!

A wet kick to the line. Photo credit: Paul Mathias 

The 30th annual 2013 Sandcastle 10k went off under cloudy skies that opened up and let wet loose just before the race began. It is a great due to the free beach parking, and the school bus ride up to Crescent Park Elementary School, and the finish line food. I began my warm-up at 8:30, taking a short 3k run to get the body settled and into the groove. I had a few butterflies before the start of this race, and the lack of preparation going into it became evident moments before the start. My goal for this race was to run the thing in the high 35 minute area. That was my dream goal, even though I have never come close to that before.

Sunny skies, Strava, and supplementing my run

The Vancouver Marathon has long passed. After the race, I decided to take some time away from run training. I did not stop running, but I let myself have a break from the constant pressure of workouts, intervals, hills, and the stress of knowing that what I was doing was all for my next race. The downtime away from the diligence and commitment has been very lovely and very needed. Even with Knee Knacker coming up, one of the 25 toughest runs in North America, I am surprisingly not super stressed out. This lack of obsessive run training has created a void. In it's place, I have become re-acquainted with my bicycle.

It started gently enough with a recovery ride the day after the marathon in the Watershed on my mountain bike. I wanted to spin out my legs and try to prevent painful DOMS from setting in (preventing DOMS from setting is is futile, but I did try my best to mitigate the soreness and stiffness by having two massages in two days, two ice baths, and the bike). One ride turned to two, and sooner rather than later, I was back to doing long rides, intensity and double days of bike in the AM, run in the PM, or vice-verse. A couple of things happened: I fell in love with my bike--with the ride, again. I signed up for the Axel Merckx Gran Fondo in Pentiction on July 7th. And Strava, that ugly, sexy beast came back to life for me.

Searching for the run of my life: The BMO Vancouver Marathon

Finishing up the Marathon. Photo: Doug Francis

It has been a while since I last made a post, and much has happened since the Chuckanut 50. A trip to L.A. with the family the day after the ultra, 10 days in SoCal at staying in Santa Monica with my close friend and adolescent travel partner Andy O., visits to the amusements parks (Disneyland, et al.), and hitting the beach in San Diego made March very memorable. The weeks leading up to the Vancouver Marathon had me plagued with a serious Achilles tendinitis injury. I had to undergo some PT treatment at Physiomoves by Christine for a few sessions to deal with it. It lingered for the whole month, putting my marathon in jeopardy. I was left before the race thinking that I could go out and run right through the pain, and risk being laid up post race, or take it easy and have fun.

I wrote the following the night before the BMO Vancouver Marathon:

The 2013 Chuckanut 50 Race Report: Running as a team, waiting, flying, and failing.

I have been reluctant to post this report. This race fell short of my expectations, and with a vacation immediately following the run, I had no impetus to write it up. Three weeks on, this race report is better late than never.

After the Chuckanut 50 ultra, my first, longest run of 2013, I took some much needed time off with the family over spring break and headed down to San Diego and L.A for a trip to the land of golden sun. Reinvigorating the body and rest was what I needed after the last few months in Portlandia Vancouver, and it was a wonderful time in California.

The Chuckanut 50k ultra was on March 16th. It was a good day.

Chuckanut 50: Pre-race jitters

SATURDAY!! I am hoping to find a bit of redemption on Saturday in my second running of this ultra. I vowed last year to train for more hills, differentiated intensities, and to hopefully to try and be healthy for the next time that I throw down in Fairhaven. One year has passed, and I am on the eve of my second 50k race. So far, all three check out.

Winning the lottery!! Knee Knacker 2013.

Tonight was quite the exciting event: my first foray into entering a lottery. The 2013 Chuckanut 50 lottery did not materialize like I thought it would, but with the Knee Knacker taking only 268 runners out of a possible 360 or so, this meant that the odds of getting in were close to 75% for someone who registered before last Thursday. I had high hopes that both my brother in-law and I would get in. If only one did, then it would either really suck, or be a monumental accomplishment for the one who had to do the race.

Recovery...

Last weekend was amazing. 75kms over three days, not a tonne of distance for 3 days, but all runs were specific workouts. Throw in the 30km race, and it was a taxing 3 days. What more could a person ask for?
Over this week I have come up with an answer-- maybe a day or two between the Saturday hills at SFU and the Sunday race. The weekend was great. The week? Rough. People who do not run think that runners destroy their knees, but the reality is that a runner's quads are what get trashed.

Fort to Fort 30k Trail Race: Building for the bigger events

If a racer targets goal races, A races, and then the lowly B race, then the Fort to Fort 30k Trail Race on February 24, 2013 was a B race on my seasonal plan, and a C race in terms of course marshalling. First off it is a first year event, having changed up from the Houston Footrace 10k of the last number of years presented by Peninsula Runners. Any number of things could go wrong for the organizers, and they did.

Influencing my children: The battle for all parents

My first run after the First Half Half Marathon was less than stellar, so I decided to take a couplle of days off of the run to get healthy. Instead, I rode my bike and ran with my kids.

Running with kids was like pulling teeth to get them out the door, but once we were in the forest, all three of them loved it. We ran for 5k on Saturday and 6k on Sunday. At each km, we take a walk break. For the boys, they love to run over the dirt jumps, bound over logs, and run uphill as fast as they can. I tell them to pace themselves, but when it comes to running downhill, they take off like bullets. They are 5 years old.