The 30th Annual Gunner Shaw XC: The last race of 2013 on a beautiful day!

The 30th Annual Gunner Shaw XC Start! Photo: Leo Lam

The 30th annual Gunner Shaw XC presented by Lions Gate Road Runners went down under beautiful skies on Saturday December 8th. After a week off of all physical activity, I was not feeling too confident about this race. For one, I have been recovering from a cold that took me out two weeks ago, just in time for nationals, leaving me less than stellar for the race last week. To recover from said cold and the race, I laid low and did absolutely nothing. 7 days off of no workouts. The last time I pulled something like that was in August, while on vacation. Before that, it was during spring break in March when the family was in L.A. 

It has been a while since I took some time off.

The 2012 BC Cross Country Championships Race Report

Saturday October 24th was the BC Cross Country Championships at Clearbrook park, Abbotsford. Being a Master catagory racer in XC running meant that our championship was the first one of the day, before the course was all chewed up and before the rains had a chance to unleash hell, as they did later in the morning.

Since I last checked in, I have done zero workouts on the bike or in my running shoes. That is a first for me, as this week showed a goose egg for any physical activity, and much sleeping and as my kids at school say, "chilling". I think that "chilling" actually translates to being lazy, drinking beer, and losing fitness. At least that is what it is from my experience. I really don't like chilling. I would rather have been "killing" it out there, but life took prescedence this week, and the weather and lack of sunlight has kept me indoors.

Racing back to back Championship weekends, this time fully rested, was something I committed to a few weeks back as part of a grand plan to sadly, not do Pumpkin Cross due to the fact that I will be away from my family for three days this November as Daryl Evans Racing helps organize the National CX Championships. I have to get some credit somewhere, and these autumn days I could do an event on both the Saturday and Sunday. If not in the Canada, then in the States. I wonder what the hell I did when I did not have children, and how come I was not doing races like this when I had all the time in the world.

Clearbrook Park hosted our course today, and Valley Royals Track and Field club, along with BC Athletics hosted the race. The course was a relatively flat 2.08 km loop, with a few key features: The long opening straight into a paved-cracked path slope that was composed of many foot soaking puddles. That lead us along the powerline cut east over the first cut-grass knoll, around a 180 to head west, back to a 15m hill under the poweline stands, into a quick downhill, right turn. The last third of the course was a false flat grass downhill loop that lead us back to the start finish area. Fast, save for the climbs, but also a somewhat tough course to maintain such high pace.

I met up with Dharbara Ghuman and Mike Murphy at the start. Mike informed me that he had been sick all week with a stomach flu, and he was coming off a number of days that he could not eat nor hold down food. He said he was working at an 8th of a tank, and I told him his 8th is me at full gas. I was absolutely correct with that comparison.

Picking up my race bib late, and taking a short 15 minute warmup in my jogging pants and jacket, I returned to my car to drop off my clothes and run back to toe the line. The gun went off, I went off. Right into running in second position, then first in the first 200meters. Waayyy too fast for this race. I decided to back off to mortal/Josh speed, and calm things down. In doing so, the front of the race went by me, 5 people, then 6, then a group of 4. I ran the first two laps at a quick pace then backed off on the third.

I was around 10th place by lap three, trying to catch the group of four which contained the first female, who I assume was the very quick Rachel Ruus. On the back side of the course after the hill climb, I managed to take advantage of the quick grass and increase my speed after a short recovery from the climb each lap. At one point I looked at my HRM and it read 186 bpm. That was a good thing, as it has been tough for me to get the heart rate up really high as of late. The two weeks of rest have helped.

Getting back to normal. I have not hit 195 bpm since 2009. 

My race came down to a late sprint to the line against Gary Duncan, a man in hte 55-59 age cat. whom I only knew from the sound of his feet. In the finishing stretch, I could hear him charging behind me, so I kicked. I thought that was good enough, but no. He kicked again. Then again. This was one long 100m finishing stretch, so it seemed. Crossing the finish line, we were tied, passing over it at exactly the same time as far as I could tell. He is a very, very quick older gentleman.

We could not talk except to shake hands due to the effort, both of us spent from our surge to the line. I told him good job and he did the same. To see the results after I had changed, it turns out I had a finish time of 32:11.39. Not bad for taking two weeks off and running as hard as I can go. My sprint competitor's time was 32:11.40. I pipped him by 1/10th of a second. As far as I was concerned, he got me. The scoring and timing of BC Athletics knows best, I guess....Former Olympian Arthur Boileau took the 55-59 age cat. with a time of 31:32.

Reviewing my move, that finishing sprint had me running at 25 kph, and it jacked my heart rate up to 197 bpm! I have not seen a number that high since 2008, when I first started cyclocross racing. Things are returning to normal with my body, but I am still dealing with the ankle/achilles pains.

2nd in my age cat... only four of us running.

I think my official finish in the race was 14th place. I managed to fend off Darbara, who beat me at Bear Creek by 4 seconds. He was very fast a month ago, but perhaps my rest along with his racing the Whistler Relay last week combines for a bit of fatigue. We chatted and I found out he is going to Boston this coming year, again, as he has done it in the past. He qualified this year with a time just a shade under 3 hours. That is very cool! I want to be in his shoes! That is the goal for the BMO Vancouver. It was great meeting him, as we are evenly matched competitors. I still have more to give, and the two weeks off may not have helped in having the fastest race I could have.

One of the best parts of the race is that the results were ready within a half hour of the finish, something that Cycling BC needs to take a look at. CBC needs to follow the lead of the athletics governing body in BC and computerize everything, and bring timing equipment, software, and cameras to CX events, and have the results posted with a half hour of the race, and posted to the web within a few hours. This would make racers very, very happy.

Bear Creek Park XC Race: 8km XC PB!

Bear Creek XC presented by South Fraser Track and Field went off today, marking my first shorter distance trail run since the Fraser Valley Trail Series, and Nadia's first footrace ever. The race was made up of 3 long loops and 2 short loops around the track, ending with an ambiguous button hooking course back onto the track for the last 100m, culminating in 8kms. The day was a good one for me, as it confirms I have recovered from the MYM 50, and look forward to cranking up the tempo runs through the winter. However, some other health concerns have reared up since the MYM.

So far this month (by the autumnal equinox today) I have managed to get in 38 hours of training and racing. Those hours are nearly evenly split between biking and running. It helps that twelve of those hours are the MYM 50. Although last week's cyclocross race was a bust, this week's cross country race in Bear Creek Park was much better. I don't know if I am getting better at running, and beginning to suck at cycling, but it appears that may be the case based on today and last week's result.

Last year, my CX season was off to a flying start. I was placing well and I could punch through the levels of pain to find new sources of energy to kick again and again--something that I am having difficulty doing this year when training on the bike.

Today at Bear Creek Park, I managed to start fast with the front group, remain steady on the run, keeping my kilometer splits within about 10 seconds of each other, save for the first km. The front two comprise of Drew Nicholson, 28, a beast of a runner, and 19 year old Travis Fraser of Douglas College, leaving us to a group of 5 to follow behind them. Having local fast veteran runner Rob Lang there was a bit of extra incentive to run fast, as I have never beaten him in a race before. Things went well over the course of the 3 long loops, as our group swelled, I dropped back to 7th or 8th, then tried to push ahead to make up some positions. Running with triathlete Mikey Ross, we paced each other trying to pick off those in front. With 1 short loop to go, and the family cheering, I kicked away from him and managed to gain sole position of 5th place, trying to run down a quick Darbara Ghuman, giving up on third place altogether. The last lap was quick, but not my quickest coming into the finish. I sealed up 5th, with a time of 30:46. Only 4 seconds behind Darbara. My fastest 8kms ever, running a 3:51 min/km pace.

Speed data and splits.

A bunch of other data from the race.

After running the Sandcastle in June, a race that I was quicker for, even with all of its climbs and descents, I seem to be coming back into form. But, cross country is different than road running, and although this course was pancake flat with an average of 6m of climbing and descending per kilometer, it is still off road. At times, I felt like backing way off and just resting due to the high exertion. The first km felt easy, the middle 4km  to 6km was a slug, and the last km was a good punch. With an 8k race, it is over so fast. I was running at the limit. I took 1st in my age catagory, in the 30-39, which is pretty cool, even though there was only 3 of us in that catagory today. This placing gives me 30 points for the series so far, and completing 4 more races with top finishes could have me winning the points series. Unfortunately, I am focussing on finishing DFL in every CX race this season, so winning the cross-country catagory for 30-39 is on the back burner.

Post race meal had me succumbing to the boysie's asking politely for golden arches, where we scarfed grease food. I went home spent and passed out from the intensity of the race.

As for those health concerns I mentioned at the top, I have been experiencing night sweats for the month of September. Perhaps a sign that I am overtraining, and not getting enough rest. My sleep at night is less than adequate at about 6 to 7 hours of rest on the nights before my early morning runs, and 7 to 8 hours when I have a morning off of running. Sleep is something that I love, and need more of in order to get quicker, stay healthy and feel better. Something to shoot for.

Gear notes:

I ran in my Sugoi notch short, Sugoi BC tank and NM compression sleeveless, along with my Sole socks and New Balance MT110s. Nutrition took the form of Oatmeal, water, 2 eggs for breakfast, a gel pre-race, sportlegs. Post race was a bottle of Scratch and some gummis before lunch.

Of note, Sean noticed my severe right foot heel pronation. The Asics are my gold-standard go to shoe. The NB 110s have been great, but perhaps not the perfect shoe for my pronation. I have not had any injuries due to the footstrike or pronation, but would like to prevent anything like that from happening. Even my Crossmax do not feel the greatest, with a bump in the arch, but with the right sock, they are pretty good for a high mileage trail shoe.

I am looking forward, oddly enough, to the rain and getting out my Gore Tex lined NB 910 trail shoe, and trying out a set of Gore Tex XT Wings for the winter.

Bring on New Brighton and Vanier!! CX season is underway, everywhere!