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Official results have not been posted yet, but when they are I expect we can find them up here: http://www.tryevents.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=85 (you need to scroll down on that page to below the Chilly Chase Results.. bad page design)

UPDATE: I found that you can access the results currently at this url: http://www.tryevents.ca/images/2010hh.pdf

Well, that was fun. And, according to my Garmin, I had a PB of 54 seconds! Woo hoo.

(map and details here)

Up early after a reasonable sleep which saw me only getting up once in the morning to let the dog into the house at 5am (usually it’s 3:30). A bit of granola with yogurt, double and triple checking the gear, and then out the door to next door to grab Sheryl and Curtis.

The drive out to Fort Langley was very quick, parking, not so much. A couple of times around the block, dithering about the legality of certain spots, and finally saying screw this and parking near a ditch. All and all, a success.

In to the Visitor’s building to hit the loo where there was a nazi like hallway monitor who was content to let the women’s line go around the building, but wasn’t thrilled that the men’s line stuck out a few feet. She was funnier than disruptive though and provided a bit of a laugh to the folks around me in line.

Over into the Fort and we ran into Mark, Bob, Jackie, Rina, Asylin (who’s name I’m sure I just butchered), Ray, Frank and pretty well everyone else I knew who was running. The mood was good and the air was chilly, just about perfect really.

After the gun it took a bit more than 1 minute to get to the start line, given the number of people and the size of the start chute this isn’t surprising. I hit the button on the Garmin as I crossed over (not something I always remember, duh) and boom, I was off.

Curtis I had pegged to beat me by 5 minutes, and given that he’d missed some training runs I had revised my estimate of his time from sub 1:45 to sub 1:50. Turns out I was off by a bit on my latter assessment.

I had a decision to make for myself though, treat this as a training run and aim for an easily paced sub 2:00. Kick it a bit and aim for a sub 1:55. Or go hard and aim for sub 1:50. 1:45 I figured was out of my grasp right now as I just haven’t done the right type of training.

I decided to aim for 1:55 and that meant not running with Jackie who was going for a sub 2:00 with some folks from the Running Room.

Of course Jackie went out at sub 5s (sub 5:00/km pace) and I was holding back to keep from staying up with her. I didn’t think I’d be able to hold it if I pushed through and just followed.

The first hill hit somewhere after 4km and was immediately followed by a nice drop. Unfortunately I’d seen the leaders come back along the top so I knew that we were just losing elevation only to have to find it again. And we did, almost right away. The first significant hill crested at just before 6km and my pace wasn’t slackening off much at all.

Down the hill and steady pace until just after 8km when Ray backed off the pace a bit. I still had Jackie and group in sight, but I’d lost Curtis about 6km in as he’d pulled away from them. At 8km the average speed was at 5:15s. Fast for my goal for the day, but my pride didn’t want me to lose site of Jackie. Body and brain were saying to slow down a bit, pride wouldn’t let me lose sight of them.

8.5km in or so and we started a hella climb, gaining 70m in elevation by 11km. Conveniently this was followed by losing all of the elevation in just over 3km and the pace was smoking. At 14km my pace was reading at 5:14s average. In spite of the hill I’d gained a bit of overall speed. I guess that hill training is paying off, eh?

14 – 15km was relatively flat and I caught up to Jackie and the group. A bit of mental math showed that the average speed was down to 5:12s at the end of that stretch, we’d done that km rather quickly

And then the big hill. Which wasn’t that bad really. I backed off the pace into the 5:30s and just trucked on up. Since I was doing 10:1s I hit a walk break just before 17km that to be honest I didn’t really need. I took it anyway though wanting to finish solid and not kill myself. Cresting the hill you turn a right and… go up the rest of the hill It was only a few blocks more, but it wasn’t a pretty sight after doing the bulk of the climb. On the climb I passed Jackie who was keeping pace with a couple of guys from the run group. I expected them to catch me at the top but it wasn’t to be and I just kept motoring along.

The downhill here was only about 1km long and went by very, very fast. Top speed in this area was 4:13/km and it felt great to have the high leg turnover that requires for me.

The markers were off at 18km where they had it too far, about 250m at a guess. That sucked at the time, but it made the next couple of km pretty damned quick and I crested 20km feeling like they had gone by wonderfully. Somewhere in there I’d taken a walk break and Ray went running by me while I was relaxing. He’d found his wind again and wound up beating me by 32 seconds. Ray, kick ass and nicely done!

At 21km I knew I was coming into the finish and I was feeling like there was still gas in the tank. My legs were burning a bit but nothing like the lactate burn I get when I do hill repeats or speed work. My heart was pumping, but in control and I wasn’t out of steam. I ignored my last walk break and picked up the speed another notch finishing at a 4:24/km pace.

Time across the line: 1:50:32

My PB was 1:51:26 in my first half marathon back in 2006 out at UBC for the Fall Classic.

And son Curtis? According to his watch he kicked in a rather respectable 1:43:40! He did hit a sub 1:45 and the speedster beat my by just under 7 minutes! I could not be more proud. That is a 6 minute PB for him over his 2008 Vancouver Half time. AWESOME!

So, that’s the report. I had a good time and I hit my goal for the day. Could I drop it down to 1:45? Well, I couldn’t have today, but I see that as being easily doable if I want to train a bit of speed. Even 1:40 doesn’t seem out of reach right now and that makes me feel good.

Curtis I expect has a future at this sorta thing if he wants to put in the time. A serious future

S