Sun Mountain 50km

My summer of racing has started with a bang and I'm having a great time so far! Very excited to see how everything will go for me this year! Sun Mountain 50km last weekend was a blast for sure. In a nutshell this is how the first part of my weekend played out...drove to Vernon in about 6 hours on Friday for a quick visit with my brother and fam...ran an easy 9ish km in Kal Park in Vernon on Friday night with Steve to loosen up...ordered in awesome Thai food for supper...Steve and I leave Vernon Saturday morning around 10am for the 4ish hour drive to Winthrop, WA and what seems like in no time we pull into a town looking nothing like what I expected!



Winthrop - old school Western style

 We started wandering around to check out the town and pass this dog tied up outfront of a bookstore. Both of us are staring at this dog and say at the same time, that kind of looks like Roxy (Gary Robbins' dog). She's ignoring us and I say "Roxy!" and she looks up. We turn around and look in the bookstore and lo and behold - Gary Robbins is in there making friends :) Gary and his girlfriend Linda were also running the race...him the 50km like me and Linda the 50mile like Steve! After a brief catch up and meeting a few other runners including Amy Sproston we parted ways, picked up our race bib and headed back to our hotel to chill. We headed out later again for supper and found this restaurant that served some great pizza. I was pretty happy with my pre-race meal!

After getting all our gear ready for the morning it was time for bed...Steve's race started at 7am so we were going to leave around 6ish to drive off to the Sun Mountain trails. Unfortunately there was some rowdy's next door out on the balcony. I thought for sure it was a bunch of teenagers but when Steve checked it out, turns out it was in fact a bunch of old folk! Who knew old people could be so rowdy? We did take comfort in the fact that because they were old, this hopefully meant they would be calling it a night at an earlier hour :) We had the air conditioner going and some ear plugs to help drown the noise and luckily we weren't kept awake too long!

Fast forward to before the 50 mile race start...for some reason I had the racing stomach nerves and I didn't have to race for another 3 hours! It was fun to hang out at the start line with everyone and not getting ready to race yet myself!



Another great photo of me as per usual!  With Steve and Amy (Photo by Matt Hagen)



Steve (yellow) and 50 mile crew getting a pre-race briefing

After they left, I went back to the truck to chill - I had the back set up with a thermarest and sleeping bag to curl up in and read/snooze until 10am rolled around for the 50km! It actually went by fairly quickly and before I knew it, 9am came round and everyone else started pulling up into the parking lot. My race nerves started all over again and I must have had to pee 3 times in that hour before the race, it was ridiculous!

On how the race played out...I'm not going to write a giant race report about it. It was only my 3rd 50km..I still don't know what i'm doing out there...but it definitely makes for an interesting day each time I tackle one of these races. I went through many highs on Sunday where I was having a great day and stoked to be out there.

Photo by Matt Hagen

Of course I went through a couple of lows too...mostly just in the end when there was only a handful of miles to go but we had to do this beast of a climb at the end that went up 1000ft and just kept going and going. I was not a happy camper at this point. What was cool was that I heard someone yell out at me and it was Steve seeing me on  another part of the course...he was finishing up his race and probably had 2 miles left to go from there. I was stoked to see him after all day out there so it was a little boost to get my ass moving and power hike to the top so i could enjoy a nice fun downhill from there.




Steve - looking strong! (Photo by Matt Hagen)

 The last little part seemed to take forever and I was sure I was going to get caught by another female in the end. I was just tired and wanted it to be over already! I wasn't sure if I was the lead female but the last time I passed any woman was at around the 15km mark and I hadn't seen any others since so I was hoping! Finally I started to see some colour through the trees where the finish was set up and then heard some cheering for other runners finishing up. I was so pumped that I was finally there!

I ended up finishing as I had hoped, 1st female overall in around 4:41. Turns out I was also 6th place overall in the race so it was cool to break into the top 10. Steve killed it also and placed 3rd overall in just over 7 hours for the 50 mile and his first race of the year. He's got some great early season training in so far as he gets ready for UTMB at the end of August!

That's it for now, happy running!
Deb

I'm back!

Well hello there....it's been a while hey?...almost 1 year since I blogged last! Wow, how time flies. I'm determined to not let a whole year go by again without posting. I've got a big ass race season planned and I want to write about it! My 2011 season was quite good and yet not a word outta me...sheesh. I even ran my first 50 miler (finished 1st female) and lived to tell about it :)

I guess  my 2012 race season officially began back on St.Paddy's Day when I ran the St.Paddy's Day 10km. I find 10kms so hard and they never get any easier...so tough to get the legs moving quick when i'm used to the longer stuff! Anyhow, I managed to come 10th female overall and roughly equalled my PB of 41:20ish. I was super pleased with that...a nice early season race to get me pumped for a nice long Spring/Summer/Fall of racing ahead!

This past weekend I raced the Rocky Mountain Soap Women's half marathon in Canmore. It was a fabulously hilly and tough course but i loved it!! It totally suits me and definitely something I excel at when it comes to running up hills! I wasn't sure how this was going to feel during a speedy half marathon and my main goal was to not go out too fast...the first 3 or 4km have you leaving the Canmore Nordic Centre and running down down down. I didn't want to trash my quads so tried to hold back. I was running with a few other other women off the start and it quickly became myself and another girl named Somer that took the lead. We switched back and forth a couple of times in the beginning till around 5km or so when I decided we were running slower than I would like and decided to pick it up a bit. I figured she would go with me but she didn't and I slowly continued to increase the gap for the rest of the race. Something about running in the lead though...running scared...ugh, hate that feeling! I'm always expecting someone to come out of nowhere and blow by me. That's what I was feeling the whole race even though I couldn't see anyone back there.

It was pretty much an out and back course so at the halfway point i figured i'd do a little timing to see how long it was till I saw the 2nd place female...it was about 1:30 which i figured meant i was around 3 mins ahead. Not too bad. I was hurting a little at this point but on the way back I was meeting everyone that was behind me and I was getting cheers from everyone...it was great and was really motivating. I tried to say good job to everyone as much as I could but yeah I was feeling a little rough. I took my second gel at around 16km and it was a huge pick me up. I was ready to roll for the last 5 km and was pumped to get this race overwith and hopefully win! When I got to the 18km point my quads were so beat and I knew I had a lot of uphill left to go as I remembered how fast I ran down this in the beginning. I pushed on and the remaining kms surprisingly went by pretty quick. I finished up at the Nordic Centre in 1:31:06, only 1 min off my half PB on a flat course, and super pumped with my first victory of the season! Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come :)

Up next is the Sun Mountain 50km this weekend in Washington. I'm pretty stoked, should be fun! My brother is running the 50 mile and yeah I really don't think i'm there yet! A 50km is enough for me right now! After that I'm doing the Fast Trax 50 mile in Edmonton in mid June - not much in the way of elevation in that race but I figured it'll be a good training run building up time on my feet. Following that will be Rundles Revenge 50km in Canmore that I ran last year and placed 2nd female in.

In July i'm taking part in a relay in the Sinister 7 (146km) - not sure which leg I'll be running yet but i'm flipping pumped for this race! I may do the whole thing solo next year so we'll see how the relay goes! My other race in July is the Powderface 42 which I haven't raced since 2009 when I placed 3rd female. I like that course, it's pretty dang tough and another good training race.

These races are all leading me to my big one for the summer...the Canadian Death Race baby, in Grand Cache! After following my brother on twitter last year while he raced it and killed it, finishing in 4th, I knew that it was going to be my goal race for 2012. 125km will be my longest race ever so i've got lots of running to do! A month after Death Race, I've signed up to do the Lost Souls Ultra 100km in Lethbridge in early September. I've always wanted to do this race and it's usually sold out by the time I get around to looking into it.

So yeah that's it...kind of sounds like a lot of races once you write them all down. I'm excited. It's gonna be great!

Stay tuned for more blogging...I promise! :)
Deb

Calgary 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Whew...I don't remember half marathons being so hard! It's been 3 years since i've raced one so maybe i've forgotten? Or maybe in the past i've gone out easier and tried to have something left in the tank for the end? That didn't happen yesterday. I pretty much went balls out from the beginning...it's almost like i've forgotten how to race since i missed last season...it's like i don't know what i'm doing...or maybe i'm trying something new to go all out from the start to see what will happen? I dunno, but if i do something stupid like that during the next marathon i run, i'm pretty sure i'll be walking it in across the finish line. Luckily the half marathon is shorter where you can kind of experiment and get away with it to a certain point.

Anyways, here's the break down of yesterday morning. I live very close to the start of the race so I left my house around 6:30am to jog the 10 mins to the start and had a little time to line up for the porta-potty. After that it was time to line up and pretty much get ready to go for the 7am start. It was a beautiful morning...sunny, chilly though at 1 degree C but definitely my favorite temperature for racing!

The gun went off and everyone went nuts as per usual and I spent a bit of time dodging around people. Even though I started close to the front I still had a lot of dodging to do. My first couple of km went by quick and I felt great...then I got to 3 or 4km in and thought, I feel like crap already...i had a terrible sleep of maybe 4 hours total (but not consecutive) and I was tired...and i wasn't sure if i even wanted to do this anymore. All of these doubts started entering my head. I don't know what my problem was but it wouldn't stop! I remember thinking, wow, i would really love to step off to the side right now and stop altogether. I almost feel like the only reason i kept going then was because I'd have to walk or jog back the same distance to get to the start which would suck! Also, i thought, it's going to be so lame if I stop during a half for no real reason other than i feel like crap and i don't feel like racing at this pace...if anything, just slow down and keep running!

Yeah, i had serious negativity going on for at least the first half of the race. I forced myself to keep at it and to try and focus on smaller goals like just getting to the next km marker instead of thinking about the finish and the pain i've still got to go through to get there.

Once the race got off 14th street and turned west onto Memorial I knew we'd start seeing the leaders of the half on their way back. I started counting the women that were infront of me...there were 9 that passed and then 2 just right infront of me so that meant i was sitting in 12th. I was catching the 2 infront and I really wanted to make the top 10. The girl right infront of me was relatively easy to pass once i did, and i never saw her again. The next girl was tougher...i'd pass her, she'd pass me, then we'd run next to each other for a while.

Finally I think the last gel i consumed started working and my legs picked it up and took off. I didn't see her again but i did look over my shoulders quite a few times to see if she was sneaking up on me. Funny, i realized that it's the exact same girl i caught up to and passed towards the end of my 10km a few weeks ago. I wonder if she knew it was me?

I was good then till about 1km to go when the 10km racers that started a half hour after us and had been running in a different lane on the road than us, all joined in with us for the last km as we rolled through the streets of Bridgeland till the finish. It was not fun. Trying to dodge this insane crowd of 10km'ers in my last km when I literally had nothing left sucked and definitely took more out of me than i wanted. There was a tiny "hill" on the way in that i felt like i could barely make up after that. I turned my last corner and finally saw the finish. The clock had just rolled over the 1:30 mark and I hoped that my chip time would get me under but no such luck. I was still pumped with my finish at 1:30:07...a huge PB of 7 mins...and good enough for 10th female overall. Not too shabby.

I've definitely started off this season with a bang and i'm pretty pumped for what's left to come. I have a lot of work to do to get faster...and definitely need to do real speedwork training for these road races. It's been virtually nil so far. Aside from the K-100 relay coming up at the end of this month, i'll be on the trail for the rest of the summer which i'm happy for. It's much easier on the body, there's great scenery, and it's just a lot more fun! I'm still thinking about doing the Victoria Marathon in the fall but will make that decision later on.

Hopefully it won't take me too long to recover...the 50km is just 4 weeks away!!

May Long Running

Team Pine Line was back together again this past long weekend for some fun trail running. I left Calgary after work on Friday and made the long drive out to Vernon. I didn't get there till about 11pm BC time and had to be up at 6am to get ready for a big morning of running with Steve. I'm not a morning runner anyway so having to get up early plus a long night of driving before didn't help!

It was not pretty. I haven't been on any trails yet this year (quite a bit of snow out there in the mountains) and haven't been doing a ton of hills or anything either. The only advantage I have was living at a higher altitude than my brother so it was nice to have something going for me. He still kicked my butt though. I was impressed with my skills going uphill...but downhill pretty much shredded my quads and i've been sore ever since!! That day we ended up doing around 26km with 3800 ft of climbing. I didn't go home and crash on the couch like i fully expected...managed to go out for a bit and take Logan to the dog park.

Sunday I woke up pretty much unable to move easily...i couldn't get down the stairs without holding on to the rail...same goes with trying to sit on the toilet...needed a wall or something to help me down. I don't remember the last time i was that sore!!! But, we had a 2 hour run to do and it was pretty much all uphill from the time we left the house till we got to the top of "Vernon Mountain" (actually it has no name apparently but a few people call it this). I have no idea how much climbing we did but i was thrilled with this run...i didn't walk anything...just kept on trotting up to the top. Felt great. Next came the downhills which i could barely get down in anything faster than a snails pace...Steve would take off and would have to stop and wait for me. It was sooo painful....and probably equally as painful for him having to wait for me! Clearly my uphill skills aren't too shabby but i've got to do some work running downhills so I can get some Iron Legs for that 50 miler in August!!

After Sundays run my legs toast...I took 2 days off and then ran the past 2 days on the treadmill to try and loosen them up. Today is the first day i could sit on the toilet without help so i think that's a good sign lol :) Hopefully this means i'll be ok for Sunday's half marathon? Yikes. I have a goal of breaking 1:30 but i'm not sure i'm there yet...i'll definitely be happy with anything under 1:33 though. Wish me luck!

10 km Gone Right!

After my first 10km of the season being a bit of a gong show...I started to become less thrilled about the upcoming Mothers Day 10km as last week progressed. 10 kms hurt...and now I have to endure another one! I'm not a speedster...i don't know how to race these things! Regardless, I really wanted to do well and start off my 2011 racing season on a good note and prove to myself that while I missed all of 2010 due to injury, I can come back and be better than I was in 2009! It's a lot of work to get back to where you were...and I'm still not there in terms of endurance...but my speed is definitely coming back...

Even though I had the 10km race on Sunday of this past weekend, I didn't want it to cause me to miss out on a longer run. So I met my friend Charlie on saturday morning for a 22km run on the very rolling pathways of Bowmont. It was a beautiful morning for it and was happy to get out as I knew it was supposed to rain in the afternoon and most/all of Sunday. By the end, my legs were feeling heavy and sore...i don't think they were completely recovered from the previous weekends "race". After some good stretching, I put on my compression socks and wore them for the rest of the day. They definitely helped!

Sunday morning came and I woke up as I do on most race mornings...cranky (wait, that's every morning) and thinking how much I don't want to race today. I'm not a morning person people...my body might wake me up early everyday, but it doesn't mean i have to like it! Breakfast always makes me feel better and helps to wake me up so I started to feel better after that and finally start to get pumped up for the race. Andrew got out of bed and told me he was coming to the race (even though it was cold and rainy out) which made me happy. I didn't expect him to come on such a gross day! He proved to be the ultimate boyfriend supporter :)

The race starts out in front of the Chinook mall and they had opened it early so we could all wait inside. That was sweet and the mall was packed with runners. I did some stretching, said good-bye to Andrew around 15 mins before the start and went outside to warm up in the rain. I just ran around trying to look like I know what i'm doing to warm up...but I don't. When I try to mimic what some people are doing in warm ups I end up looking like an idiot so i've learned in the past to just do my own thing.

Anyways...the race got underway and of course I went out fast...it's hard to hang back and try and do your 1st km slower than you'd like and of course i didn't...i went out guns a blazin and just tried to stay relaxed yet fast. It worked...for about 4 km i was thinking, yeah i could keep this up..i might come really close to 40 mins for this sucker! Then I got to about 5km and I thought...oh no, i think i'm running out of steam. Shit. It started to rain harder which I didn't notice too much until I realized my feet were completely soaked...they were actually sloshing around in my shoes. It didn't really bother me...just an observation.

There were a few hills in there that I didn't expect (but that's what happens when you don't check to see what the route is beforehand! lol). And while the hills sucked and I felt like i was starting to suck...i realized that is where i kept passing people...on the hills. Damn skippy! I got through them...enjoyed the downhills when they came...focused on speedy quick leg turnover and concentrated on getting to each kilometre mark. Finally there was 1km to go so I tried to pick it up as best I could. I knew I wouldn't come close to 40 mins but I wanted to get as close to 41 mins as possible...I crossed the line in 41:20...a new PB by 1 min and 17 seconds. Woop Woop! Andrew was there at the end to cheer me in and had a yummy hot Starbucks beverage waiting for me...what a guy :)

So yeah, great race...it hurt a lot...and while I'm going to continue to work on my speedwork this season...i think i'm done racing any more 10kms until maybe the fall. Maybe then i'll be ready to break 40 mins? Next up...the Calgary half marathon in 2.5 weeks. I'm a little worried...not sure if I can go fast for that distance yet but I guess i'll quickly find out!

10 km gone wrong

While chatting at the end of Saturday's "10 km" race, one guy put it best when he said "well that was a 10 km gone wrong!"

I won't go into long annoying details but the gist of it is this...after about 200m or something from the start...one of the volunteers was standing in the wrong spot and therefore pointed us in the wrong direction. She was in fact supposed to be a little further down the route before pointing us where to go.

Now before you start thinking...well, you should know the route and where to go anyways...yes, yes this is true. THere are 2 points regarding this... 1.She was standing in the middle of the road we were supposed to go straight on and pointed for us to go left. 2.My friend Garrath who was running it with me knew we were going the wrong way right off the bat. But what are we to do when the leaders are just up ahead and i looked behind and the entire race was following us. Where do we go?

Eventually we did turn around and ended up back at the start after completing 4km. Then we started again. Blah. By this point i had lost all steam and just wanted to stop. 10kms are hard...and while i could have been half way through by now...i was starting again. I had no desire to run the whole route but Garrath ended up convincing me to just go with it and have a good training run.

So that's what we did...14km later I was finished. I don't know how they have decided how to determine who came first and all that or if they will. I'm definitely happy that in the end i forced myself to do the 14km and go with it. But boy did i hurt. Why the heck was i so silly to register for a 10km anyway...and two in a row in fact? Now i've got to do this all over again on Sunday! Lucky for me this should be a relatively flat and easier course. So we'll see what happens!

First race of 2011...plus lots more to come!

I don't know if anyone still follows this blog as i'm kind of lame with how often I post...but the blog still lives...and with the amount of races I continue to sign up for this summer, I guess i'll have lots more blogging to do!

For some reason, in the last couple of weeks, I went bananas and signed up for a bunch more races. It's definitely helping with my motivation and i'm getting quite excited. My race schedule is a bit ridiculous with a couple of races back to back on saturday/sunday...but a lot of them are training runs or just out for the fun of it runs...and i'm not really worried about trying to kill it out there! I did miss my entire season last year due to injury afterall and i want to really enjoy this season. I can't wait! Plus if i'm actually going to do my first 50 miler in August then i've got to get some distance in. Today i registered for my first 50km in 2 years....and it's only 2 short months away. Yikes. I've got lots of work to do!

I joined my brother and his family in Canmore for the weekend. After the Easter egg hunting was finished with the kiddies, Steve and I went on an awesome 23km run all around town on Sunday. It was great and much faster than I usually do long runs...but I was able to keep up without dying. Totally surprised myself! I think that was just what i needed to get my head back in the game. It was fun to do a longer run together again...reminding me of our Transrockies days...and potentially our TransAlpine days to come (2012). We're thinking about it!

This saturday is my first 10km race in a few years...should be interesting. I have no idea what i can do for that distance and i haven't exactly been doing specific speedwork to get ready....just been running fast when i feel like it! These 10km races will be my speedwork for the longer stuff! This is going to be a rolling race with a giant hill involved known as "Blood N Guts"...so i definitely don't expect a PB but who knows.

That's it for now...will be back with a race report on Sunday! :)